Sermons from the Barr

God's Message to our Nation (Prov. 14:34)

2011-07-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

God's Message to our Nation

(Prov. 14:34 - “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.”)

This statement here in the book of Proverbs is not just made to the nation of Israel, it was made to all nations. I believe that this statement is what God would say to the USA, if He spoke audibly to us on this Forth of July holiday. We celebrate this holiday that in 1776 the USA declared independence as a nation from Great Britain. That we became a sovereign and independent nation and established our own laws, freedoms, privileges, and these rights were fought for and won by our forefathers. One thing our forefathers did was to acknowledge and seek God's divine hand in founding this nation. Although our nation began seeking independence from a oppressive nation and government to self-rule, our forefathers made sure we did not have independence from the mighty hand of God that allowed them to found our nation. Those men who were instrumental in the foundation of this nation saw from history the nations have fallen and failed and recognized unless God blessed the establishment of this nation that it would fail also. Today, we will see if we still heed to the word of God or if we have declared independence from God also.

I. The Righteousness of a Nation (“Righteousness”).

Let's look at the first word of this verse, “righteousness”. This is a word that we don't often hear outside of a Bible-believing church. You won't hear it from the news media or uttered by one of our politicians on Capitol Hill and certainly not from the White House. This word makes this world uncomfortable because it brings up ideas of right and wrong and that there are consequences for our unrighteousness. There are three implications of the word righteousness that our sinful nation does not want to consider.

A. 1^st implication: Sovereignty – to say there is such a thing as righteousness means that there is a Sovereign God that has determined what righteousness is and means. If righteousness was only a human idea and concept then we would still be fighting over what is righteous and unrighteous. God has declared what is righteous and He alone is the authority on righteousness. Ps. 71:19 says, “Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?” and Ps. 98:2 says, “The LORD has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations”. If righteousness is considered by our world then it must acknowledge God is the One who has determined what is righteousness.

B. 2^nd Implication: A Standard – to say that there is a right and wrong, good and evil, or righteous and unrighteous is to say that there is a higher standard or a higher law that determines this. It says that there is a God who has given a standard of righteousness. We have that standard and you can hold it in your hands and read it whenever you want to, it God's written Word, the Bible. Today's society doesn't want to have a standard because if reveals their sins and unrighteousness. It declares their condemnation in the eyes of God. That's why our nation rejects God and His Word. Our founding fathers held the Bible and Christianity in high esteem. Sadly, today this nation despises the Bible, God's righteous standard and wants to attack Christianity and silence it's voice.

C. 3^rd Implication: A Straightness – even if our nation admits there is a standard of righteousness, unless they make it their own standard that admission is useless. The word for righteousness in Hebrew in this verse indicates a personal righteousness, a personal morality. Our forefathers chose to believe and follow the righteousness of the Bible in the founding of our nation.

II. The Reward of a Nation (“...exalts a nation”).

Here God is saying that if a nation regards and follows His righteousness then he would exalt that nation. To look at our history, we can see the hand of God blessing on us. That we were once exalted as a nation. We once were blessed with greatness because we were good (in the moral sense). Our churches grew and shined the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, at home and abroad. We used to acknowledge that God was the reason for our greatness but now our nation glories in the ingenuity and determination of the people and it's government. We as a nation must again turn to God and acknowledge that the birth and growth of this nation rests on His divine goodness and mercy for it was by the power of His hands and providence that this nation came into being. Because of God we have been blessed, prosperous, and mighty. His presence has kept us safe and strong during war and disasters, (Ps. 20:7 - “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God”), some believe “In Government we trust” instead of “In God We Trust”. But now, for our so-called governmental leaders to ignore and even try to outlaw God's words from being placed or spoken in the places of government buildings is to ignore the humble and righteous beginning of our nation and in the hearts of our nation's founding fathers. The height of blessings for this nation was when they sought to live out the righteousness of God. “Righteousness exalts a nation.”

III. The Revolt and Reproach of a Nation: (“But sin is a reproach to any people.”).

We now come to the worst part of what a nation chooses over God. If righteousness exalts a nation then sin destroys it. Where America once denounced sin and evil in it's society has turned around 180º. Today, people seek out false religions and false gods, they want a religion and a god of their own choosing. One that will fit their definition of a lifestyle and accommodate their particular pet sin. They view God, if they believe in one, as a loving merciful Being that doesn't condemn anyone or their lifestyle. They honestly believe that God grades on a curve and surely would not send anyone to Hell for a sin. Some really want a God that is loving, merciful, and kind and the God of Christianity fulfills that desire. But, the true God of the Bible is merciful and loving but He is also a holy God of wrath, judgment and condemnation. Our society today wants the first part but not the second part. The true God of the Bible is a holy God that must judge sin and the sinner. God does not look over someone's sins, He judges and punishes sin and this world wants nothing to do with that. So now they worship false gods and goddesses and find a tailor-made religion that condones their sins. To admit we are sinful is to admit we have done wrong and cannot live up to the standards of God's holy moral law. His standard for righteousness and holiness is His own. The Bible says in Rom. 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, there is no one who has or will live up to that standard (except Christ). Our nation has decided to not pursue moral greatness anymore. In fact like I just previously said, our society does not honor what is good and right but has turned 180º and now glorifies the sinful and the perverted. We now honor and reward evil. What was good and moral is now considered evil and what is sinful and perverted is now the good. Look at our culture, our music glorifies sex outside of marriage, it glorifies murder and rape and drug/alcohol abuse as a mark of greatness and criminals as being heroic. Our churches once frowned upon and denounced women having children out of wedlock are now just glad that if they don't listen to society and murder their unborn child through abortion. Homosexuality was once seen as the perverted sin as it is but now our country has gay pride parades and the worst thing about it now women are the ones leading those perverted parades forsaking the God given role of being moms to act like men and men acting like women. Don't take God's mercy as God being weak, it says this in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance”, that promise that Peter mentions is God's judgment on a sinful, evil world; it says that He is “longsuffering” which means that He is mercifully extending the time until His judgment so that more sinners have the opportunity to repent and turn in faith to salvation in Christ. God will judge sinners and those who refuse His Son will eternally burn in the Lake of Fire. America is committing the act of murder of the unborn and has established a law that gives sinful, silly women that godless right to do so; there are approx. 4,000 abortions a day in America (that's a lot of innocent blood crying out for God's justice). America glorifies in it's sins and justifies it by calling it “tolerance”. In God's eyes it is still sin and America will have to answer for it. Sin brings reproach that means that one becomes disgraced, dishonored, and defeated. We can say that about America today. The disgrace of our supposed leaders both politically and spiritually caught in adulterous affairs, homosexual perversions, embezzling, and taking bribes. We are a disgrace to other nations and we are lost honor and status to other nations. If it continues, I fear that the course we are on will cause our fall as a nation and defeat at the hands of other nations. From all that has happened in just the last 10 years to our nation testifies of a coming defeat. Because this nation and it's leadership openly defies God and seeks to go on without His help, God will abandon this nation to it's sins. The church in America can also be blamed for not making a moral stand against the evil that is taking over this nation. Instead of the church changing the world, the world is changing the church. Now, I know that not all churches have compromised and I thank God for that but we must stand in the gap for this nation, praying like we never have before, that America will turn back to the one, true God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Looking at the news about our economy, disasters (oil spill in Gulf, Katrina, 9/11, wild weather, etc.), and the no-win war in the Middle-East; I believe God is giving us a taste of what it can be like without His presence and blessing on our nation.

Can we be blessed again by God as a nation. Yes, we can, but we have to turn our hearts again to God in repentance and seek Him to heal our land. I'll end with this verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 - “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”. I believe it's time to pray!

Cleaning House: Jesus Cleanses the Temple (John 2:13-25)

2011-06-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Cleaning House:

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (First Time)

(John 2:13-25)

Today, we look at where Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. Christ did this twice. In this passage in John is the first time and in Matthew 21 is the second time. Jesus drives out the corrupt merchandisers here at the beginning of His earthly ministry and the second time was at the end of His ministry right after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As always there is a reason Jesus did this. He was angry and He had reason to be angry. We are going to see why Jesus did what He did there and the reason for His anger, to see and understand why Jesus cleansed the Temple. Today's sermon is 'Cleaning House'.

I. Bad Business As Usual (v. 13-14 - Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business).

Passover had begun in Jerusalem and Jesus like so many other Jews went there to worship at the Temple. One commentator I read said that there were an overwhelming 2 million Jews that were there. The Jews came from all over the known world at that time making the pilgrimage to the Temple to carry out Passover. It was standard custom that every male Jew that were 12 years and over to go there every year at Passover time. On the tenth day of Passover a male lamb was taken. On the fourteenth day between three and six o'clock the male lamb was slaughtered and that night they had a feast. The feast was called the Passover Feast and it was to commemorate the passing over of the angel of death in Egypt in the ancient history of Israel. This was the scene when Jesus and His disciples came to Jerusalem. On the Temple grounds there were different areas like the Court of the Women, Court of the Priests, and the Court of the Gentiles and the real Temple was a little area there and was divided into two parts, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Where they sold the sacrificial animals and had the money changers was an 14 acre area called the Court of the Gentiles. It was the outer most area of the Temple grounds and here is where the problem that Jesus had a problem with. As we know the Jewish pilgrims had to present a sacrifice according to there means. Those who were well off offered the bulls or sheep and those that were poor offered a dove. To have a place to purchase an animal was easier for those traveling a great distance not to have to bring an animal along. Another thing was that every male Jew had to pay a temple tax of half a shekel every year and if one could not come it was sent through those who did come. The problem wasn't the selling of animals and other things needed for sacrifice, it was in the fact that the temple leaders were corrupt and greedy. The animals sold were either owned and sold by the High Priest and his family or people who were endorsed by them. Remember the sacrificial animals had to be defect free and if you bought it from one of them it was guaranteed to be used. If you brought your own they found any defect they could. Not only that they charged an exorbitant amount for them, an ancient historian of the time basically wrote that they were, in our money terms, selling nickel priced doves for $4.00. And the temple offering of a half shekel had to be exchanged for temple money. Most people carried and used the coin of the Roman empire that had Caesar's image on it and therefore could not be accepted into the temple treasury so it was exchanged here in the court of the Gentiles for a fee of course. These false family of High Priests were ripping off everyone who was coming to worship. They made it into a circus of loud bickering, pushing crowds of pilgrims, and the cha-ching of money being exchanged instead of a solemn time of worship. This is the greed and irreverence that Jesus encounters at the Temple at Jerusalem. This is the background we find when Jesus walks in.

II. Christ Cleanses the Temple (v. 15-17 - When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!" Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.").

In the mess of this greedy sin and irreverence, Jesus becomes angry. It is holy indignation and Jesus looks around sees the cords of ropes lying strewn on the ground from the animals and makes it into a nice whip. He finishes making it and immediately begins to clean house. He beats the oxen and sheep out of the temple court, whips the people selling the animals out, turns over the money exchange tables and pours out the money, and it simply says Jesus drove them all out. And shouts to them all, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!”. This is not the portrait most churches paint of Jesus today, to them it's all about the love of Jesus and none of Jesus' hatred of sin. There must be a balance between the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” and the “wrath of the Lamb” against sin. Jesus could not tolerate this blasphemy of His “Father's House”; He could tolerate how they made light of this place of worship. Jesus took that whip and went left and right and drove all of those people out. And notice that no one stopped Jesus, not the temple guard, not the priests, not the sellers, not the buyers, not anyone. I believe they saw in the Lamb of God that day a small glimpse of Jesus the judge, in Rev. 6:16-17 it says, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”. The wrath of Christ was felt on a few backs that day and none dared stopped Him. Jesus is our savior from sin but for those who ignore that message there is laid up for them the full measure of the wrath of the Lamb (John 5:22 - For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son). Jesus hates sin and we as the children of God must hate the things that Jesus hates and love the things that He loves, we must be sickened and infuriated by the perversions of this world that the world loves and condones and to only love the righteous things of God. Those corrupt priests who changed the focus of worshiping, giving glory to God, and leading the people to worship God in repentance, changed it over to religious works and greed. The temple was about worship and the revealing of the truth of God in the future sacrifice of the Son but the corrupt priesthood made it all about them. We have churches today that have sacrificed the truth of God for lies that draw a lot of people and money without anyone feeling guilty about sin. People need to know Jesus hates sin and that's why Jesus died for us.

III. Christ's Authority Because He is Deity (v. 18-22 - So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said).

The rulers of the temple asked Jesus something here in v. 18. They didn't want to know why He drove out the sellers in the temple but by what authority He did it. They didn't ask why Jesus cleansed the temple because they knew they were guilty because it was wrong, they blasphemed the worship of God and committed the sin of usury against their own people. So knowing that they were called on their wrong by Jesus, they had an idea that Jesus was the Messiah but they asked for a sign to prove He was the Son of God, that He had the authority to call them on their sin. What Jesus had just did was proof enough for it fulfilled a prophecy in Malachi 3:1-2, “And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts. "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap”. It is a prophecy of Christ cleansing the temple. But Jesus told them of the sign He would give them and it was His resurrection. That He could lay down His life and take it back up again because only God in the flesh could do that.

In the cleansing of the temple Christ shows us His condemnation of sin (hatred and judgment of sin) and also He showed us His cure of sin in the death and resurrection of Jesus. When I heard the gospel message, I found out about how sinful I was and how it condemns me and I felt the guilt of my sin and the fear of facing the wrath of God; then I was told how Jesus loved me enough that He died for me and rose from the dead to justify me before God the Father. We as the children of God need to hate sin and evil just as much as Jesus did. We need to be sickened and put off by the perversions of this world and learn to love the holiness and purity of Christ our Savior. And we need to tell the world that only Jesus can save from sin and they don't have to face the wrath of the Lamb. There is salvation and hope found in the finished work of salvation in Christ. The greatest sign of who He was, His power, and His authority is found in His resurrection. All that Christ did and said has meaning in the power of His resurrection. We as Christians need to know that our salvation and hope for resurrection is found in Christ's resurrection.

A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation (John 4:1-29)

2011-05-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation

(John 4:1-29)

This passage is well known to many who have read the Gospels; Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus has a divine appointment with this woman who was an outcast even to her own people, the Samaritans. Jesus uses thirst and the well of Jacob as an example and opportunity to lovingly reveal Himself as her Savior from sin. Today the sermon is called: A Woman, A Well, and the Way of Salvation.

I. Divine Appointment (v. 1-7a - Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water).

Jesus was always about His Father's business. And this time was no different. Jesus did everything according to the will of His Father; every miracle or healing, every word He spoke, and every place that Jesus went was for the glory of the Father and by the leading of the Spirit. We see by verses 3 & 4, that Jesus left Judea to go to Galilee and it says “ He needed to go through Samaria”. Jesus and His disciples left Judea traveling through Samaria to eventually get to Galilee. But Jesus made a stop at Jacob's well in Samaria, He had this divine appointment to meet a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, the Heavenly Father set the time and date and place, and Jesus was there. Jesus sat down by the well being tired from walking in the heat. We know that Jesus is God but this also reminds us that God the Son added humanity to Himself and Christ's human body was tired and thirsty. Here is an example from Jesus that we need to also emulate. Jesus is at the well to meet this Samaritan woman. Jesus was there at the place God the Father wanted Him to be, He was there at the time God wanted Him to be there, and Jesus was there willingly, His only desire to do the Father's will. Now, do we do the same? To be honest, we usually go where we desire to go, when we want to, and do things according to our will and desire. But we need to be like our Lord, to be in God's place, at God's time, with a desire to do God's will. Jesus said in Matt. 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”; let's start by first seeking to do the will of the Kingdom of God instead of seeking the kingdom of self. We can do that by viewing our lives as opportunities to glorify God. Look for divine appointments to tell someone about Jesus, that what this appointment was about, Jesus graciously and lovingly revealing Himself as Lord and Savior. Now let's look at this divine appointment this woman had with Jesus.

II. Divine Encounter (v. 7-26 - A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly." The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He.").

We now see this is who Christ was waiting for, He is watching the approach of the Samaritan woman to this well. And Jesus asks her for a drink. The woman is startled at Him talking to her because cultural standards of the time was that men did not address women in public, because it was beneath a man to acknowledge women in public. Secondly, her reply of “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” showed a embarrassing fact that Jews despised Samaritans. Jews did not even walk through Samaria, except Jesus. A “good” Jew would not set foot into Samaria, in fact, to get to Galilee from Judea, a Jew would cross the Jordan from Judea into Galilee, up the eastern side of the Jordan until the they got to Galilee, very much out of the way instead of the shortest route straight through Samaria.

There was bad blood from the time of the divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians and the people of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, that was left were taken into captivity never to return (lost 10 tribes). Judah years later, was defeated by Babylon and those not killed were taken into captivity to Babylon. After 70 years, Judah (tribes of Judah and Benjamin) returned under Nehemiah to Jerusalem. Under Nehemiah and Ezra, the city walls and temple were rebuilt but of course not to the full glory as once before. Any remaining Jews that were in Israel (Ephraim) intermarried with what pagan peoples settled in that land. After Judah rebuilt in Jerusalem a temple to worship God, the half-breed Samaritans wanted to worship in the temple but were forbidden by the full-blooded Jews. So the half-breed Samaritans set a false temple in Samaria on Mt. Gerezim. So there was bad blood, wars fought, and the Jews destroying the Samaritan temple completely. Bad blood between the two and the Jews despised them and vice versa. To the Jew, Samaritans were unredeemable, worse than a Gentile. And Jesus asks her for a drink, Jesus didn't have any thing to draw from the well and He did not have a cup to drink from. Jesus was asking to drink from her own pitcher or pot, unthinkable to any Jew because that broke down that cultural and social barrier formed out of hate, to drink from or use a utensil of a gentile and especially a Samaritan was considered to defile a Jew (traditional view, not biblical). She recognized Jesus as a Jew, His facial features, noticed His clothing, maybe the blue hem that a rabbi wore. But not only was she a Samaritan but also she was an outcast from her community. She came at a place to draw water that was over a ½ mile away from town. Towns built around a water source and those particular hills had an abundant amount of springs, Dr John MacArthur comments that, “What in the world is she doing a half a mile away from the village? Well, she had to come a long ways. Why? No water? Plenty of water. Water coming out of the springs in the Judean hillsides all over the place. Why did she go a half mile away? Because she was an outcast. Very likely because of the background that she had, the other women didn't want her around”. We see in verse 18 that she was most likely a prostitute for she had had 5 husbands and now just living with a man, in those days and even among the Samaritans, it was taboo behavior and it made her an outcast. In spite of all this, as He crushes these barriers to present His salvation to her, Christ begins to reveal Himself to her. Jesus answers her by saying, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water”. Jesus is offering her salvation, the gift of God is salvation in the Son of God. In chapter 3, we saw that Jesus offers salvation to Nicodemus (a guy that supposed to have it right and supposedly very moral) and now He offers His grace and mercy to this Samaritan outcast (the polar opposite of Nicodemus). It seems that the love of Jesus Christ is not based on our merit or capability of being lovable or our capability of loving God back, salvation is based on the love of God towards us through Christ (1 John 4:19 - “We love Him because He first loved us”). We are saved and cleansed from sin because He chose to love us just like he chose to love this woman, Jesus' love is truly unconditional. We see Jesus is using a natural or physical example to convey a spiritual truth. But we also see she misunderstands Him. Jesus is speaking to her need, a need for a Savior, and she really not understanding her need and Jesus' answer to her spiritual need to be saved. She tells Jesus that you don't have anything to draw up the water with, so how do you plan to get water, is there some easier way to get water from this deep well. Do you know someway to get the water from Jacob's well that even he didn't know? Jesus then clarifies it even more for her by telling her that He has water that can satisfy her parched, dead, dry, spiritually lifeless soul; like real water satisfies her physical thirst, His living life-giving water can give life to her spirit and she will never thirst again. He told her, drink of this well of Jacob and you'll thirst again but if you drink of His salvation, His life giving water, a gushing and living water that will be inside of you, springing up into eternal life. She barely understanding that He is speaking in spiritual terms, she kind of gets it and says, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw”, let me drink from your well! She understands more than she lets on. But Jesus not only tells her she has a spiritual need of salvation but also shows her why she needs salvation, He reveals her sinfulness, “Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly”. We can tell people how they need Jesus, we can tell them how much that Jesus loves them and gave His life on the cross for them but they will never understand unless we tell them how lost in their sins they are. We can just like this woman she wants to drink but Jesus shows her that sin is keeping her from the living water. She desires the gift of salvation, she sees her sins keeping her from eternal life, and now she desires to make it right with God, so she makes this statement and asks this question, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship”; what is she talking about? She tells Jesus, “I know your from God because you, a total stranger, told me of the living water and told me everything wrong in my life, I just want to know where I got to go worship and what I have to perform ritually and religiously to earn this living water, this salvation”. Jesus breaks it down by telling her, that the real temple worship was in Jerusalem but this doesn't matter because “the time will come and now is, when true worshipers of God will worship Him in Spirit and in truth”. So we see the way to come to God, the truth and the Spirit, the truth is Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”, no way into the presence of God or in relationship unless we know the Truth, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the truth of God, the truth of life, the truth of salvation, the truth of forgiveness, the truth of reconciliation, the truth of redemption. The whole of spiritual truth is revealed in the one person of Jesus Christ. The Spirit brings to life the truth about Jesus, the Spirit convicts us, the Spirit of God produces repentance, and the faith to receive the person of salvation, Jesus Christ. Jesus brought her full face with who she needed to know personally to receive salvation and it will never be found in performing or joining a religion but only found in personally knowing Him as Lord and Savior. She goes on to say, and I think this is where she finally puts it all together and Jesus simply confirms it, “I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He"”. Jesus said in this statement, “I'm Him, your Messiah, your salvation, your God”. What does she do, v.28 tells us she immediately turns around leaves her water pot and goes back to the city.

III. Divinely Proclaimed (v. 28-30, 39-42 - The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Then they went out of the city and came to Him.; And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.").

This woman did what the disciples failed to do. She went into Sychar and told everyone she could about Jesus, that He was the Messiah and Savior of the world. The disciples let their prejudice rob them of the blessing of leading them to Christ. By this no good outcast of a woman, salvation came to the Samaritans. And they received Him better than Jews did. And when they met Jesus, they believed who He said He was because they heard Him for themselves and believed His truth of salvation that He was the Savior of the world. We see the change in this woman; we can see the gradual realization of her growing in the knowledge of who Jesus was.

In verse 6, just meeting Jesus she called Him, “Jew”; then in verse 11, “sir” as her respect grows while talking to her; in verse 19 she then calls Him “prophet”; and in verse 25 she is finally figuring out He is Messiah, lastly she goes back and finally realizing in her heart that Jesus is the Christ and begins to proclaim it in her town (v.29). After she has her divine encounter and is saved, she shares Jesus with everyone in town and they receive Him as Lord also (v. 42 - “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world”). Jesus and the disciples stayed two days more with the Samaritans revealing who He was. Proclaiming the Kingdom of God and showing the disciples that He came to “seek and to save that which was lost”. We need to recognize our need for Jesus, we must proclaim to others their need for Jesus, and never let race, class, or social differences keep us from showing the love of God through Christ.

A Mother's Faith (Matt. 15:21-28)

2011-05-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

A Mother's Faith

(Matt. 15:21-28)

Since it is Mother’s Day, we are going to look at this mom who has come to seek out Jesus. The Bible says her child was demon possessed and after hearing about Jesus she comes to where He is and asks Him for His divine help. Today, we are going to look at this mom and her short conversation with Jesus and how her encounter with Jesus changed her world. We will see today this mother’s faith.

I. This Mother’s Trouble (v.22)

The verse says that this woman’s daughter was demon-possessed and I imagine she was at her wit’s end; she was in great desperation and in need of the power of God. This lady was not a Jew and we see that she was a gentile (v. 22 says ‘a woman of Canaan’). She was not a woman of the Jewish faith but she had heard of Jesus. Someone around her cared enough to tell her about Jesus. She heard about how Jesus was the Messiah and could heal the sick and cast out devils. In fact it says in Mark 7:25, ‘For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet’; In trouble, this mother turned to Jesus. Our need, like the prodigal son (starving and broke, at the lowest point, the only way to look is up), that kind of need is often the means of bringing us to the Father’s house, to the feet of Jesus, to seek His presence. This mother turned to Jesus. It is always wise to turn to the Savior in the hour of trouble. In v. 22, we can almost hear her desperate cry, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David’, it seems unusual that a Canaanite woman would call out to the Messiah of the Jews. But I believe she had a greater understanding of who Jesus was than the disciples or the nation of Israel. Here she cries out to Him in faith; from her desperation running to Him, falling before Him, and asking, begging for her daughter’s deliverance. This truly is a good mom who loves her daughter and would do anything to help her. This mom did the greatest and wisest thing she could do, she came to Jesus. This mother was interceding on behalf of her child; it is no telling how many godly mother’s have prayed great prayers of faith on behalf of their children. I’ve heard testimonies of people who would say how when everyone else had gave up on someone there was still a Christian mom who never gave up praying for them; never stopped praying for the salvation of their souls. I have personally seen hardened criminals that have no one but Mom faithfully coming to see them on visitation days at the prison. A good mom stills love their child regardless and never gives up; this mom did the best thing she could ever do for her daughter, she came to the Lord of All on her behalf. She had heard about this Messiah Jesus and she came believing He could change her hopeless situation. She was doing the best possible thing in her trouble.

II. This Mother’s Test (vv.23-26)

Prayer isn’t always immediately answered. Troubles and trials sometimes last a little longer than we think they should. Sometimes we are tested in our faith. But we are to be as persistent in our prayers, in seeking out an answer from God. This mother had a great faith, but she faced great testing. She made her cry to Jesus, but the answer did not come at once. There were many things to test her faith.

A. The Lord’s silence (v.23a)- she cried, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil’ and it says v.23, ‘But he answered her not a word’. How many times have you prayed and it seems that no one has heard you and there is no answer from God. His silence was not unconcern. He was testing her faith, as the Lord sometimes does. Remember how He put clay on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Jesus could have healed with a word, but He believed in giving a test to their faith. The Lord sometimes delays His answers to our prayers in order to test, then to establish our faith. It was so with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus died. Jesus delayed, and they wondered at His absence and silence. But finally He appeared, even though Lazarus was dead, He called him out of the grave to life again, and brought a great blessing.

B. The disciples discourteousness (v.23b)- "And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us."

Between the silence of Jesus and the bad attitude of His followers, her faith was severely tested. The conduct of many of the Lord’s disciples is more likely to drive away than to attract. Most of us are sad representatives of the gracious Savior. The disciples did not understand the Lord's silence, and they thought that He did not care. Though they had been with Him for three years, they still did not know much about Jesus. It seems the ‘Gentile’ had a better grasp of who He was.

C. The Lord's apparent refusal was a testing of this mother’s faith (v.24)- Jesus answered and said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." She did not belong to the house of Israel; therefore, as a heathen Gentile she had no claim on Him as the Son of David. Jesus answered her in the same manner as she had addressed Him. It seemed that His words formed a positive refusal. What does that mean? Jesus was not there outside of Israel on a whim, He was there for a purpose and this lady and her trouble was to show that purpose. Jesus was talking to her, which He didn’t have to do but did so anyway because of just who He is. Still, she persists in seeking His help and doesn’t give up. This mom is a woman of faith and knows that her faith has reality in Jesus alone.

D. His rebuke (v.26)- As she continued to cry unto Him, He said, "It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it to dogs." This seemed a very sharp thing to say, but this mother understood and accepted the place in which Jesus put her. The ‘children’ here means Jews (Israel) and ‘dogs’ means Gentiles. The word used for dogs does not mean scavengers or wild beasts but “little dogs or pets”. His refusal and rebuke were even better than His silence. As He talked with her, she knew she was in touch with Him; and there was a possibility of receiving a positive answer. Though her faith was tested, she did not give up. This brings us to our third part of the story.

III. This Mother’s Triumph (vv.27-28) - 1 John 5:4, ‘For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.’

Faith gives victory. Nothing stopped this mother. She had faith in Christ and persistence to keep knocking at the door. She was not stopped by the silence of Christ, the discourtesy of the disciples, the refusal of the Lord or His rebuke.

When Christ said, "It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs," she snared Him with His own words: "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters table." She knew her place before Jesus and she did arrogantly demand anything from God but graciously and humbly in faith ask and believed in her Savior was right there before her and could answer her prayer. She simply understood who He was and who she was before Him; her answer simply said that the Master's pet dog (Gentiles) ate only what the children (the Jews) refused to eat. His own people rejected Him and this encounter bought it to light even more, the Jews rejected Him and thus would begin the ministry to the Gentiles. Jesus had to answer her because of her knowledge of truly who He was but mostly because of her great faith in Him. It says there in verse 28, ‘Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour’. This great mother of faith received her answer from Jesus because Jesus is in the habit of rewarding faith. This woman possessed two wonderful characteristics: humility and faith. She was willing to take a humble place, and her faith was unwavering. "A broken and a contrite heart" He will not despise, and faith is the victory that overcomes the world. In the end she received more than she asked for. She was commended by the Lord for her faith: "0 woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. . . ." Her story of faith is written down for the whole world to read. Jesus did not commend her for her arguments, her patience nor her love, but for her faith. Finally, she was rewarded by the healing of her daughter: "And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." Her prayer was answered, her faith in Christ rewarded. We need more mothers who will bring Him their troubles and needs, then there would be more sons and daughters saved. Here is real encouragement for mothers who have prayed long and earnestly for their children. Though the years have gone by, be not dismayed—silence is not unconcern. Jesus kept this mother waiting, but His answer was above her expectations. Faith in Christ was the key that unlocked the store of blessing which she needed.

The Humanity of Jesus (John 1:10-18)

2011-04-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Humanity of Jesus

(John 1:10-18)

I want us to focus on v. 14, “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”. Our last study on who Jesus is dealt with the fact that Jesus is God. Now we are going to look at the other nature of Christ, His incarnation, His humanity. At Christmas, I preached on His birth and we saw that through the scriptures that in Jesus' incarnation that He added humanity to His Deity, that in the one person of Jesus is two natures (God and human). We are going to see Jesus' humanity, that God the Son was incarnated. We are going to look at why Jesus became man.

Let look at some reasons why Jesus became a man:

I.1^st Reason: To Become One of Us. (Heb. 2:14a, 17-18 - Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same...Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted).

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ knows intimately of our pain, suffering, loss, loneliness, and sorrow because He became one of us. Jesus is ever interceding in the behalf of His children before the Father because He knows our fears and weakness. He is not uncaring or unreachable with our hurts and heartaches because he has felt it also because He became one of us. Heb. 4:15 says this about Jesus, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”; Jesus knows and feels our hurts and sorrows because God the Son came in “flesh and dwelt among us”. The late W.A. Criswell gave a narrative that is fitting to why Jesus became one of us; let me share it with you:

“On a great and extensive plain, the millions and the millions of the earth were gathered before the throne of God. And there sat the mighty Judge of all the earth. And the crowd on that vast plain before the almighty Judge was belligerent and vicious and critical. One of the women, a dark brunette, jerked back her sleeve and exhibited a number of a tattoo incised in her flesh in a Nazi concentration camp. And doubling her fist, she said, “What does God know about this, living up there in heaven and all of the beauties of paradise? What would He know about this?”And a black man jerked down his collar and exhibited an ugly burning scar, where he had been lynched for no other reason than that he was black. And shaking his fist, said, “What would God know about this?”And all through that vast throng there were those who were illegitimate, and there were those who were slaves, and there were those who in indescribable hurt and poverty lived all the days of their lives. And shaking their fists at the Almighty God they said, “What would you know about us, living up there in heaven, where no sorrow ever comes and no death ever appears?” That vast throng appointed a committee, taken from each one of the suffering sections of humanity. And they presented a list of things that God had to do, and God had to experience, if He was going to be the Judge of us. And that list numbered ten.

Number one: If God is to be a judge of earth, first, let Him be born a despised Jew as those in the Nazi concentration camps. And all the throng shouted approval.

Number two: Let the legitimacy of His birth be doubted, so that none will know who His father is. And again they shouted approval.

Number three: Let Him champion a cause so just, but so radical, that it brings down upon him the hate, condemnation, and eliminating efforts of the establishment and every major tradition and every authority. And they shouted approval.

Four: Let Him be the object of put-downs and ridicule, be spat upon, called demonic and mad. And they shouted affirmation.

Number five: Let Him try to describe what no man has ever seen, touched, or heard. Let Him try to communicate the Almighty God. And they shouted approval.

Number six: Let Him be betrayed by His dearest friends.

Number seven: Let Him be indicted on false charges, tried before a prejudiced jury, and convicted by a cowardly judge.

Number eight: Let Him experience what it is to be terribly alone and completely abandoned by every living being.

Number nine: Let Him be tortured and let Him die. Let Him die the most humiliating of deaths. Let Him die with common thieves and the agony of a cross.

Last: Let His name live on, so that for centuries it will be used as a common curse word in moments of rage.

And suddenly, over that vast throng was a silence that could be felt. No one uttered another word, for they suddenly realized that God had already done just that: God, in human flesh, suffering all of the sorrows and agonies that we know in human life. That God is our Lord, and one day our Judge.”

Is. 53: 2-4 puts it best, “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted”. When read of Jesus weeping over the lost Israel, who would reject Him as Lord or when He is with Mary and Martha when Lazarus lay dead in the tomb, even though He has come to raise him from the dead, He weeps for the loss of their brother, lovingly mourns with them. What love, compassion seen in so many places in the Gospels like when He picked up and blessed the little children. Jesus became one of us to know our every hurt, pain, agonies, and sorrow.

II. 2^nd Reason: To Reveal the Heart of the Father. (John 1:18 - No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him).

Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, to reveal the heart of the Father. It clearly says in v. 18 that “no one has seen God at any time”, but the Father has revealed the Son who is the physical revelation of God in flesh. Jesus reveals the Godhead, Jesus reveals the Father, makes Him known. The Old Testament revelations of God are partial, glimpses of His glory. But when Jesus walked on the soil of Judea, here was God in the flesh, all of the tender mercy, grace, and compassion in human person of Jesus Christ. John 14:8-9 shows us that Jesus reveals the Father, “Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”. Jesus came in human flesh in order to reveal the full revelation of what God is really like.

III. 3^rd Reason: To Take Away the Sin of the World. (John 1:29 - John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!; 1 John 3:8 - For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil).

The glorious knowledge of this one, greatest reason of why Jesus came in flesh, it was to save us from sin. We were unable and unwilling to be saved from the destructive power of sin, we were not even able to reach up or reach out to God, but God reached out to us with great mercy and grace through Jesus, the eternal and preexistent Son of God. The Apostle Paul tells us in Phil. 2:5-8 this, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. Jesus came and added humanity to His deity in order to be able to die for us on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins by offering Himself as a sinless sacrifice, by His suffering, shed blood, and death on the cross. He came to the cry of anguished human souls trapped in the prison of sin. Jesus didn't come just to minister to the results of sin but He came to destroy the root and cause of our condemnation. To save us and deliver us from the judgment of sin and the sorrow and heartache that follows sin. Jesus did not come to treat the symptoms of sin but to destroy the very cause and root of sin and the power it holds over humanity. But not only save from sin but also to destroy the works of the devil. Satan is the father of sin, the father of lies; Jesus said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). The world is under Satan's control and he sows disaster, destruction and death but we don't have to fear sin, death or the devil if we know that man named Jesus, that suffered, bled, and died in our place.

Christ came to deliver us from the domain of darkness and transfer us into His kingdom by faith in His name. What's the reason why Jesus came onto this world and became as one of us? To give us the final and ultimate victory from sin, self, and Satan. To bring to us salvation.

I hope that now you have a better understanding of your God and Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that you see His humanity made Him the Savior that He is. After Jesus resurrected, He still kept that sinless humanity with His full Deity. When you pray to Jesus, pouring out your heart to Him remember this, because of His humanity he knows and feels your heartaches, sorrows, pain, joys, or happiness. When you repent of your sins, He understands your weaknesses. But the greatest part of His humanity was that it allowed Him to become a sacrifice for our sins to save us. Thank you Jesus, that you became a man.

Resurrection Of Christ (1 Cor. 15:3,4;12-20)

2011-04-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Resurrection Of Christ

(1 Cor. 15:3,4;12-20)

Verses 3 and 4 are the foundation of Christianity. The death and resurrection of Jesus, it is our hope and the reason and ground of all we believe. We looked at the crucifixion and death of Jesus last week. We saw that our salvation and cleansing from sin was because of the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. But what about the resurrection, what does it mean to us. Well, we know that it means everything for the Christian. Because He lives we have salvation and assurance of eternal life.

I. It Ensures Salvation From Sin - (1 Cor 15:17 - And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins).

If Jesus had not rose again bodily from the grave we wouldn't have had salvation from sin. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then sin prevailed over Him and continues to be victorious over you too. If Jesus remained in the grave, then, when you die you would also stay dead. Furthermore, since "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), were you to remain dead in your sins, death and eternal punishment would be your future. The purpose of trusting in Christ is for the forgiveness of sins, because it is from sin that we need to be saved. "Christ died for our sins" and "was buried, and ... raised on the third day" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). If Christ was not raised, His death was in vain, your faith in Him would be pointless, and your sins would still be counted against you with no hope of spiritual life. It is Jesus who gives us spiritual life to us who are spiritually dead.

It says in Col.1:13,14 - “For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. By the power of our resurrected Lord and Savior we have been delivered from sin and our sinful nature. Because He rose from the dead, we know that Jesus is victorious over sin and we who by faith receive Jesus as Savior, knows that He gives us that victory over sin also.

Eph. 2:1-5 shows us exactly what Jesus has done for us and our sinful condition, “2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”; we see in the first 3 verses that Paul describes just how Jesus has made us alive spiritually from our condemned state of our soul. He says Jesus has made us alive from our trespasses and sins, from our spiritual bondage to worldliness, to the devil, and to our own sinful fallen state (spiritually dead). Jesus defeated and destroyed the powerful affect of sin, destroyed the works of the devil, and has given us life for our death sentence.

Verse 4 & 5 shows us through God’s mercy and love He has made us, who are dead in our sins, alive in Christ. If Jesus is to be called the Lord of Life, then He cannot be held down and defeated by death. Jesus himself told Mary and Martha that He was the ‘resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live’; Jesus came not to make bad people into good people but to bring us out of our spiritual death into spiritual life. That’s why Jesus said that He was ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life…’, we were blind and could not see the way, we were living in our life of lies and didn’t know the truth, and we were spiritually dead and lifeless and incapable of having life till Jesus came, died, and resurrected to give us the Way to the Father, the Truth that only He could cleanse us from sin, and Eternal Life is found only by putting our faith into Jesus who is the Lord of Life, victorious over sin, Satan, death, Hell, and the grave. If He was not victorious over death then our faith, our hope, our salvation would have been in vain. If He had not risen from the dead we would have been trapped forever in the bondage of our sins and forever condemned to eternal death.

II. It Ensures Our Eternal Life and Resurrection. (1 Co. 15:18-19 - Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable).

If Jesus had not victorious over death then death would be victorious over us all. Every Old and New Testament saint, and all the faithful and prayerful saints you've known--every other believer in every age also would be in hell. Their faith would have been in vain, their sins would not have been forgiven, and their destiny would be damnation. But because He is our Living and Risen Lord, we can rest assured in the peace of knowing that we have a ‘blessed hope’ and a resurrection from the dead. Death is not the end for the child of God because Jesus has rose victoriously from the dead. The grave, the power of death could not hold Him. Jesus the creator of life is the Lord of Life and death could not hold Him bound up in the grave.

Without Christ's resurrection, and the salvation and blessings it brings, Christianity would be pointless and pitiable. Without the resurrection we would have no Savior, no forgiveness, no gospel, no meaningful faith, no eternal life, and we could never have hope for any of those things. How could we ever believe His promise that He “would never leave us or forsake us even until the end of the world”, if He never rose from the dead.

To have hoped in Christ alone in this life would be to teach, preach, suffer, sacrifice, and work entirely for nothing. If Christ is still dead, then He not only has no ability to save you in the future, but He can't help you now either. If He were not alive, where would be your source of peace, joy, or satisfaction now? The Christian life would be a mockery, a charade, a tragic and cruel joke. Christians who suffer and even die for the faith would be just as blind and pathetic as those "believers" who followed Jim Jones and the People's Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and Marshall Applewhite and the Heaven's Gate cult. How could we believe that there is a Heaven, a place prepared by Christ, or the hope of His promise that our soon returning King would return to take us Home, if He never rose from the grave.

Since a Christian has no Savior but Christ, no Redeemer but Christ, and no Lord but Christ, if Christ is not raised, He is not alive, and our Christian life is lifeless. We would have nothing to justify our faith, our Bible study, our preaching or witnessing, our service for Him or our worship of Him, and nothing to justify our hope in this life or the next. We would deserve nothing but the compassion reserved for fools.

BUT, God did raise "Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4:24-25). “Because Christ lives, we too shall live” (John 14:19). "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:30-31).

We are NOT to be pitied, for Paul immediately ends the dreadful "what if" section by saying, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Paul said at the end of his life, "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him [i.e. his life] until that day" (2 Timothy 1:12).

Those who do not hope in Christ alone for salvation are the real fools; they are the ones who need to hear your compassionate testimony about the triumph of Christ's resurrection. So don't forget the resurrection; rejoice in it and glory in it, for He is risen indeed.

III. It Ensures that He is the Son of God

In all the miracles and healings and mighty works that Christ did to declare His Deity; the greatest sign that absolutely, positively proved that He was the Son of God was His resurrection from the dead. If Christ had stayed in the grave He would not have been God; He would not have been Savior (because the only One who could forgive sins is God); and if He stayed dead He would been an imposter and a liar. But He was God, He was our Savior and He cleansed our sins by His sinless blood sacrifice on the cross and conquered sin by His resurrection from the dead. You see the wages of sin is death but by His victory over death He destroyed the power and penalty of sin because God the Son conquered death for His children. All of His teachings and promises and words of our Lord are validated by His resurrection. It proves that He is God.

I want to end with this verse; (1 Cor 15:57 KJV) “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Crucifixion Of Christ (Matt. 27:26b-37)

2011-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

The Crucifixion Of Christ

(Matt. 27:26b-37)

When reading the passages of scripture on the crucifixion, I kept seeing the suffering of Jesus in my mind as I had saw it in the movie ‘The Passion’. Thinking of the scourging, the beating, and how He was nailed on that cross and saying to myself why it had to be that way. There had been others crucified and scourged and who had suffered, but the difference that day was who was being crucified. Today, let’s look at the crucifixion closer and try to see it better and come away from it with a fresher understanding and a more thankful heart.

I. Before the Crucifixion

A. The Garden (Matt. 26:36-46) - We see here in passage in Mt. 26 that Jesus has come to the Garden of Gethsemane (means ‘Olive Press’) with the disciples. He has come to pray and enters further in the garden with Peter, James, and John. This passage mentions in verse 37 that Jesus is ‘sorrowful and very heavy’, this means that he is grieved and distressed and even verbalizes that fact to these three. He is feeling the immense stress and when He prays, He asks the Father, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” and later prays in v. 42, “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done”. Jesus is not fearing death, the cup is not the cup of death but it represents the wrath of God against sin. In that moment, the sin of the world was being ‘poured’ on Jesus. He was going to bear our sins on that cross and die for our sins in our place; He took the punishment and penalty for our sin for us. 2 Co. 5:21 says that, ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us’, Jesus took our place and took the wrath of God for us. The taking on of the overwhelming weight of the sin of the world was a great stress on our Lord because we see that in Luke 22:34 it tells us that, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”, now this is actually a known medical condition called hematidrosis. It is caused by great psychological stress which causes a release of chemicals that breaks down the capillaries in sweat glands which results in a small amount of bleeding in the glands and when sweat is released it is tinged with blood. We see our sinless Lamb taking our sins on Himself and the great weight causes our Lord great stress. He was the only One who could do it.

B. The betrayal and arrest (vv.47-68) we all know the Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and they came and arrested Jesus and took to the High Priest Caiaphas. The disciples had fled away into the night and Jesus was before the Sanhedrin council and they charged Him with blasphemy for they rejected Jesus as the Messiah. They also pronounced a death sentence, beat, and mocked Him.

C. Before Pilate, the crowd, and the scourging (Mt. 27:11-31)- in chapter 27:11, we see Jesus has now been brought to Pilate. He is questioned by Pilate and Pilate says in the passage from John that he could find no fault in Him. When the crowd was given a choice to release a prisoner by Pilate, he gave them a choice between Jesus and a criminal named Barabbas. The crowd there cried out they wanted Barabbas and when Pilate asked what they wanted to do with Jesus and the crowd cried out ‘crucify him!’. This was probably a lot of the same crowd that had cried out only days before ‘Hosanna’ and ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord’ when Christ rode in on that donkey when He entered Jerusalem. When Pilate expressed that he felt Jesus was innocent it says in v. 23 that the crowd cried out even more, “Let Him be crucified”. Pilate washes his hands before them and says that he is innocent of this man’s blood and the crowd answers and says, “His blood be on us, and on our children”; the fact of the matter is that we are all guilty of the death of Jesus Christ and none of us are innocent of His shed blood, it is because of our sins that He came, suffered, and died on that cross. Barabbas is released and Jesus is then scourged and delivered over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. Scourging was a practice used by the Romans that involved a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls and sharp pieces of bone woven into them. It was usually consisted of 39 lashes but depending upon the mood of the soldier chosen to give the lashes it most likely was more. Needless to say the flogging would be from the shoulders down the back and buttocks to the back of the legs. It would rip and tear skin and muscle down to even exposure of the spine and bowel. It was a horrible thing to be scourged and many would die just from being scourged and the loss of blood. Then the soldiers mocked him, spit on him, and drove a crown of thorns upon His head.

II. Crucifixion (vv.32-44)

We now come to the place of the crucifixion; as horrible as the scourging was crucifixion was even more horrible. When one was crucified, they had to carry the cross beam part of the cross called the patibulum to the place where the execution was to be carried out. When they would arrive the vertical part of the cross would already be placed in the ground. They would take the condemned and nail him to part he carried. The 5-7 inch spikes and nailed him to through the wrists. Note that the wrist was considered part of the hand in the language of the day. If it was through the palms, the skin would have torn and would have fallen off the cross; the spike thru the wrists lock the hands in place and was a solid place to secure the condemned. Part of the torture involved in nailing thru the wrists is that the nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs to the hand. It would crush the nerve and cause intense pain; it like the feeling of hitting your funny bone but this pain is constant and it would be like taking a pair of pliers and squeezing and crushing that nerve. The pain would be unbearable and Jesus was feeling that pain. The pain was literally beyond words to describe; in fact they invented a new word for it and that word: excruciating. Excruciating means ‘out of the cross’. They had to make a new word for that intense anguish and suffering felt on the cross. The cross beam was raised and attached to the vertical beam and then a spike was driven thru the feet also hitting a nerve with a similar intense pain as the others. Upon being raised on the cross the arms would be stretched at least 6 inches and the shoulders would become dislocated. Once hanging in that vertical position, crucifixion was a slow painful death caused by asphyxiation. Because of the position of crucifixion, Christ had to push Himself up by His feet to exhale and relax back down to inhale. Eventually a person would die do to being to exhausted to push themselves up to keep breathing. This is the great physical pain and agony endured by Christ out of His love for lost and sinful mankind. And we see in the Garden and at the cross the great psychological and physical suffering Jesus faced for our sins.

III. His Death (vv.45-53)

It talks in v.45 that there was a great darkness over all the land. This was not an eclipse, because they knew what an eclipse was and there is no record of any eclipse at this time period. This was a supernatural occurrence performed by God the Father. But what was the reason? At His death there is darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. The Jews begin to measure their day from 6 A.M., the sixth hour is noon. From noon to three it was dark. Mark 15:25 says, “He was crucified at the third hour”, that’s 9 A.M. So the first three hours He was hanging there visible, naked before the watching people in the light. Those three hours passed. Soldiers had nailed Him there. They had placed the sign over His head. He is suspended there in the horrific indignity as the passers-by, the soldiers, the curious, the religious leaders watched and mocked and insulted Him. During that three hours He only broke the silence three times. Once He said to the soldiers, of the soldiers to the Father, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. The second time He spoke to a penitent thief at His side and said, “Verily, this day you will be with Me in paradise”. Once more He broke the three-hour silence looking down at Mary and John, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son” pointing to John. And to John, “Behold your mother” thus giving her into the care of John. In the light He said three things. All three of them were demonstrations of mercy, mercy toward the soldiers, mercy toward the thief, mercy toward Mary. Each was a revelation of the light of His grace, the shining beauty of His compassion. Darkness in the Scripture is a symbol of judgment; God’s salvation is always seen as light. God’s judgment is always seen as darkness and God was saying by the darkness that the cross was a place of judgment. This is not an indication of a judgment to come in the future, this is a judgment in itself right then and there. And God only judges one thing, what is it? Sin. God turned out the lights because this was a judgment on sin. And yet, the One receiving the judgment was sinless, a Lamb without blemish and without spot, holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, Hebrews 7:26 says. “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. Second Corinthians 5, “Him who knew no sin.” What is happening there then is a judgment on sin being borne by an innocent sacrifice. Isaiah 53 verse 4, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well being fell on Him and by His scourging we are healed. The Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him”. It further says, “The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, rendering Him a guilt offering He will bear their iniquities and justify many”. Paul put it this way. Romans 4:25, “He was delivered for our offenses”; First Corinthians 15:3, “He died for our sins”; First Peter 2:24, “Who in His own self bore our sins in His body on the tree”; First Peter 3:18, “He died the just for the unjust”; First John 4:10, “God sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins”; Galatians 3:13, He became a “curse for us”; and in Matthew 20:28 it says, “He came to give His life a ransom for many”. Mt. 25:46, “And about the ninth hour, three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’” As the darkness came to an end, as the darkness reached three o’clock from noon, the life of Jesus is almost at an end. The fury of God is almost spent. Judgment is almost over. But Jesus can contain the pain no longer and it’s not the pain of nails and it’s not the pain of a crown, and it’s not the pain of wounds of scourges rubbing against a ragged wooden beam, it is the pain of separation from the Father. And with great strength, He cries out where the real agony comes from, and it doesn’t come from the physical pain, the real agony comes from His soul, the realization, the reality, the agony that He is separated from His Father. I don’t think Jesus in the garden was agonizing over the physical pain that He was about to suffer, He was agonizing over the reality of the sin-bearing and feeling the wrath of God because He knew exactly why He came...He came to be a ransom for many which means He had to come and die in their place, and He knew He would feel the fury of God’s wrath. This is a reverse miracle. This is a supernatural separation, impossible and yet it happened. And while Jesus was not separated from the Father by nature, He was separated from the Father by fellowship. As a sinful child does not cease to be the essence of his father, but by his sin loses the intimate fellowship with his father, so Christ did not cease to be God but lost the intimacy of fellowship with His Father which He had eternally known. He had never been anything but loved by His Father. In fact, it was His Father’s perfect love for Him that caused the Father to put the whole redemptive plan in motion and to redeem lost humanity. It was the Father’s perfect love for the Son that made it all happen. And now, having been loved by His Father perfectly for all eternity, He is treated as if His Father hates Him and His Father turns His back on Him. Why does He do that? “Because He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity“, Hab. 1:12, 13. 2 Co. 5:21 says it in a nutshell, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him“. He took upon Himself the penalty for my sins and your sins and suffered and died in our place. What great love and mercy that He has shown to us the undeserving. As we read that He cried out, like it says in John 19:30, “it is finished“, He said that not because He was dying but because the work of salvation was finished and complete. Heb 10:10, “…we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. The salvation of our souls that we receive through faith in Christ is an eternal salvation because Jesus gives us a complete work of salvation that was accomplished by the suffering and death on the cross for those who are the sons and daughters of God, once for all. There is nothing else to do, no good works, no religious effort on our part because it is only through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus on the cross.

Because of the suffering and death on the cross by our sinless Lord Jesus, we are now partakers of His salvation. It is only through Jesus we have salvation, the forgiveness of all our sins. Let us, this week especially remember and give God thanks for the awesome work of redemption by King Jesus.

Coronation of Christ (Triumphal Entry) (John 12:12-19)

2011-04-14T04:57:00.000-07:00

Coronation of Christ (Triumphal Entry)

(John 12:12-19)

We have read probably many times about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. But have you ever wondered why Jesus rode on a colt of a donkey into Jerusalem. Jesus had a purpose for everything He did and we must look for the reason and purpose for His entry into Jerusalem the way He did it. Why a donkey and not a horse, why did the people shout “Hosanna”, why on that particular day. As we will see today, Jesus had a reason, He had a purpose, and He had a reason for the timing of the event.

I. Jesus enters Jerusalem (v.12 - The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem).

A. Background: Jesus was entering Jerusalem on the week of the Passover, in fact it would be five days later He would be crucified. Jesus the day before was in Bethany in the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. We see this in the beginning of chapter 12 and it also records at a feast given in honor of Jesus and Lazarus, where Mary anoints Jesus’ feet (the gospel of Matthew and Mark records that she also anointed (poured) it on His head) and Jesus remarks to the disciples that she is anointing Jesus for his burial. There would be no time for preparation of the body, because Jesus was crucified on Friday and Sabbath began sundown Friday and went to sundown Saturday. Jesus knows the day is quickly nearing for His death on the cross and He is preparing His disciples for that time. At this feast many are there to see Jesus but it says many are there to see Lazarus also, John 12:9- ‘Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead’. Many came to see the one come back from the dead and the raiser of the dead, it reminds you of those who come to see the freak show at the fair. The Sanhedrin are still plotting His death because many were believing He was the Messiah (v.11- ‘Because that by reason of him (Lazarus) many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.’).

B. Coming to Jerusalem- one thing about this passage is that it doesn’t record Jesus telling the disciples to get His transportation into Jerusalem. In Matt. 21:1-3 it says, ‘And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. 3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them’ and the passage says that the disciples went and found the donkey at the place Jesus said it was and the scene unfolded just as Jesus said it would. There at Bethphage, there was probably a follower of Christ because when they said the Lord has need of them, he freely gave them. Jesus supernaturally knew they were there and because He is God, He was in charge of the unfolding events. Here now is Jesus sitting on the foal of this donkey riding into Jerusalem with a crowd behind Him from Bethany and there was a great crowd of pilgrims in Jerusalem for the time of Passover. Jesus is entering the city and He is officially offering Himself as the long-awaited Messiah, presenting Himself as King Jesus. How do you know this to be true. Because of the symbolic things He did and the fulfillment of prophecy.

II. Symbolic meanings and prophetic fulfillments (vv. 13-15 – [they] took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!" 14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey's colt.").

A. The donkey (Matt 21:4-7 gives us a clearer picture on the use of a donkey, ‘4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.’) Jesus rode on the colt of the donkey, Mark and Luke wrote that the animal had never been ridden. Because according to Deuteronomy 21:3, and 1 Samuel 6:7, "To ride an animal young and never before ridden was a sign of special honor". It wasn't just a common animal that everybody rode...this was one set apart that had never been ridden by anybody else, just a matter of distinction. This was a fulfillment of prophecy concerning the Messiah, in Zechariah 9:9, ‘9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass’, this proclaimed to all that He was their King and Messiah. But why a donkey and not a horse. When a king rides a donkey, it symbolizes peace. When a king rode a horse, particularly a white horse, it shows that He has come as a King of war, it stands for triumph and war. Jesus was declaring to them that His Kingdom was not like any other Kingdom of this world. In fact, when Pilate asked Jesus was He a King, He said He was a king but His kingdom was not of this world. The statement Jesus was making and how He defined that meaning should have been clear. It was what He had been telling them all along. His Kingdom was not military, it’s not economic, it’s not political, it’s not about human power, it’s not about intimidation, it not about military power and weapons. It comes in meekness and humility. He was saying I’m not the military or political Messiah. He was declaring that He was the meek and lowly sacrifice for sin. Jesus came to Jerusalem to die for them, not to set up an earthly Kingdom. The animal He rode on stood for peace. Jesus was going to bring about peace between God and mankind. The Bible says that we are separated from God because of our sins and are basically enemies of God. James 4:4 says that clearly, ‘…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God’. Jesus came to give us peace with God through His suffering and death on the cross. Rom. 5:10, ‘when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son’. By riding on that colt of a donkey He was proclaiming peace with God through His soon coming death.

B. Hosannas and palm branches (John 12:13)- verse 13 states that the crowds yelled ‘Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord’. The crowd was proclaiming that he was Messiah particularly because of the use of Psalm 118:26. It was about the Messiah and they shouted Hosanna and made a road or a ‘red carpet’ for Jesus to ride on with palm branches and their own garments while they shouted praises to God. You got to understand that this was a huge crowd; they were pilgrims to Jerusalem for Passover. One Roman general was ordered to take a census of how many lambs were slain during one Passover and it was 250,000. Passover regulations stated that there was to be one lamb slain for a minimum of 10 Jews. It was possible that there were at least 2.5 million people in and about Jerusalem. So, now imagine tens of thousands of people there shouting Hosanna. Hosanna means ‘save now’; it’s a cry for deliverance from bondage. They begin to throw their garments to make a path and according to 2 kings 9:13 it is an act of submission. The palm branches cut down and laid in the path before the Messiah on a donkey. The palm branches and trees are a symbol of strength, beauty, joy, deliverance, and salvation. What wonderful acts of adoration and how fit it is of our King Jesus. But in it all Jesus knew they all still did not understand who He was and what was to be done. He came on this day and at this time to offer Himself as the Passover Lamb. You see that it was on this day that the Passover Lambs were picked. This was not a coincidence, God was in complete control of the situation and timing. Of all there ‘Hosannas’ and adoration they cry for deliverance was not for their souls. They were not looking for eternal things and that’s the sad part. They were crying for immediate release from the bondage of Rome and not freedom from sin. They wanted deliverance from disease and the battle for bread. They wanted everything to be done right then and right now; an earthly Jewish Kingdom. They wanted Him to conquer Rome; He did conquer on that cross and by His resurrection; over sin, death, Satan, and the grave. You see Jesus went out the next day and began to confront sin in the Temple and cleansed it (whipped the money changers, drove them out), He pronounced the Pharisees and the Sadducees as hypocrites. He condemned their sinfulness and pronounced Himself as the only answer and sacrifice for sin. He confronted their sins instead of their political problems, their big problem was their sin problem. When He confronted them about their sin problem and unmasked their sins, then they wanted to execute them. When Jesus entered Jerusalem that day, He knew 5 days later He would be crucified. He knew when the immense crowd began shouting ‘Hosanna!’ they would be the same ones yelling ‘Crucify Him!’. Jesus was crowned with thorns while here on earth, but when establishes His reign and rule in the New Heaven and Earth, He will be crowned with many crowns. One day, He will come back on a white horse instead of a lowly donkey, as the conquering King Rev. 19:11-16 says it best, ‘11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’

On that day in Jerusalem He came as the Lamb to be slain to take away our sins. He came that day to began the last few days and steps to Golgotha’s Hill. He came fully aware on the ‘cup’ that was sat before Him. He endured the shame, suffering, humiliation, and death because He loved us. They were looking for a Savior of their own imagination rather than the One God sent. Jesus told them that He came into this world to save sinners, to seek and save that which is lost. Jesus cares about all the issues and pain and heartaches in your life. But the primary issue is that He’s not interested in fixing you temporal life but He is in the business of changing your eternal destiny. He came to die, to be the sacrifice for our sin. He doesn’t have a political or economic or social agenda; He has a spiritual agenda. It’s not about this world, it’s about the world to come. It’s not about the kingdom of men, it’s about the Kingdom of God. It’s not about making our lives more comfortable, it’s about forgiving our sins. So we see today that the Triumphal Entry was more than Jesus riding on a donkey. It is full of meaning. It shows us that Jesus was in full control of the great events before Him. It shows what great love and care He has for the sons and daughters of God. (Heb 12:2 - “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.) He chose to walk this road of suffering and death out of His love for you and me. Let us be thankful to Him.

Truth of the Proof that Jesus is God (John 20:24-31)

2011-04-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Truth of the Proof that Jesus is God

(John 20:24-31 -Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.)

We know that Jesus is God but what proofs can we turn to when we are asked why we believe that. Today, we are going to look at the evidence why we know that Jesus is God. The Bible tells us that “on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed” (Deut. 19:15). So today, we are looking at three witness that tell us that Jesus is God; through the Scriptures, the confession of Christ Himself, and thirdly, the witness of Christ's disciples. Today's sermon is the truth of the proof of Christ's Deity.

I. Proof 1: Proclaimed by Scripture (John 1:1,14).

The message of this biblical fact that Jesus is God is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. To deny that He was God would be a travesty to truth. The great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis wrote that to think that Christ was anything but God would make Jesus either a liar or a lunatic; He cannot be a just a good man or just a great spiritual teacher and claim to be God. There is no middle ground, "He is either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic". The heart of the Christian faith is built upon this foundational truth, Jesus is God. Salvation is not possible if Jesus is not God. The suffering and death on the cross would be a tragedy if Jesus was not God, and the resurrection would be a fanciful fantasy if Jesus was not God.

From the scriptures we will get our witnesses about the truth of Christ's deity. In John 1:1, 14 we read this truth from the Apostle John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. From our previous study of the titles of Christ, we learned that He was called the Word. We see it here in John chapter 1 that the Word was God and we find out that the word was Jesus in v. 14 because it says that, “the Word became flesh”, we know that Jesus is God the Son come in flesh (incarnated) and the Gospel of John is solely about our Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures boldly proclaim the Deity of Jesus. We see not only in scripture that the Apostle John proclaims the Deity of Christ but also the Apostle Paul wrote as scripture in Titus 2:13 this, “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”. Do you see what Christ is called, God and Savior. Also, we see from what Thomas himself proclaimed in John 20:28 after he touches the nail scarred hands and the scar of the wound in Christ's side, he says, “My Lord and my God!”. But look at what Jesus tells Thomas, “Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Thomas said to the disciples who had seen Christ resurrected that he would not believe unless he touched the wounds of Christ for himself. Thomas refused to believe the eyewitnesses, we cannot be like Thomas, we must believe the witness of the Holy Scriptures. John 20:31 tells us that scripture was “written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” and Romans 10:17 says that, “ faith (saving faith) comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. The truth of the Gospel is the “power of God unto salvation”, because it proclaims the powerful truth that Jesus, our Lord God, has saved us by His death and resurrection. The witness of scripture tells us that Jesus is God.

II. Proof 2: Revealed by Jesus Himself (John 8:58).

Not only is there the witness of scripture that Jesus is God but we also have the direct revelation from Jesus Himself. Jesus not only told us but He also reveled it by how He lived and what He did before He ascended. Let's first look at what Jesus told us in the Gospels about Himself that proved He was God. Did you know there is a group called the Christadelphians, who believe that Jesus is not God and says that Jesus never claimed to be God. I always wondered why they had church and chose to follow Christ as they believed. But regardless of their belief, Jesus did tell us that He was God in many ways. Maybe the best verbal revelation is found in latter part of John 8. Jesus was having another confrontation with the Pharisees, and as always they were trying to find fault in Him. They slurred Him by saying that He was illegitimate child in v. 41 and in v. 48 they accused of being demon possessed and a Samaritan (mixed blood, ½ Jew & ½ Gentile, illegitimacy). Jesus clearly and correctly tells them that they are of their father the devil and not of God as they claimed. They kept asking Him who are you really claiming to be but all Jesus would say that He came to honor His Father and not to seek His own glory. The Pharisees keep boasting that they are the children of Abraham and that's when Jesus tells them in verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad”, then the Pharisees to Jesus, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”. Then comes the bombshell that Jesus drops on them to let them know exactly who He is in vs. 58, “Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM”. Do you get the picture, do you get who Jesus is saying that He is? Let me give you a clue from Ex. 3:13-14, Moses is speaking to God and Moses asks God this, “Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'”. Jesus revealed to the Pharisees in the passage in John 8 that He is God. In fact you can see they get exactly who He says He is in John 8:59, because they “took up stones to throw at Him”; they were going to stone Him for blasphemy for saying that He was God. There are many more times that Jesus makes statements that only God can make, like in John 14:9, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” or John 10:30, “I and My Father are one”. There are many more statements that Christ made of His Deity but not only did Christ claim Deity but He proved that He was God by His life and His miracles. If we look at Jesus' life in the Gospels, we see that He lived a holy, blameless, and sinless life on earth. In John 8:46, Jesus asks, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?”. There were none that could do so, the Pharisees could not trap Him in word or deed because there was no fault in Christ because He is God. He is holy, pure, and undefiled because He is God. Comparing Him to the greatest men in the Bible or the greatest men in humanity and none can measure up. If we could ask Moses was he without sin in his life, he would answer that he could not for he murdered a man. If we could ask King David, a man after God's own heart if he was sinless in life and he would shamefully confess that he was an adulterer and in that adulterous affair had her husband killed. Or ask King Solomon and he would say read his account of sin in the book of Ecclesiastes. Look at George Washington or Abraham Lincoln and they would confess they were like any other mortal, human being, a sinner. If you would ask the men wrote the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John they would tell you they were never sinless but they would point you to the One who is the grand theme and subject of the Scriptures, Jesus Christ, and they would proclaim His sinlessness. Not only in how He lived but also see it in the signs, wonders, and miracles that made the blind to see, the crippled to walk, the deaf and dumb to hear and speak, deliver the possessed from demons, and raise the dead to life. But the greatest miracle of all to save a wretched sinner from the doom of sin. This all speaks of Jesus as God, proof positive that Jesus is God.

III. Proof 3: Lives Changed (2 Cor. 5:17 - if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new).

Look at the lives changed by Jesus, because when you do that, there is no doubt that Jesus is God. I have heard many different testimonies of men and women of all ages and backgrounds tell how Jesus saved them and changed their wretched lives. You know, I have never heard an atheist tell how atheism saved them from drugs or alcohol. Anyway, look at the lives of the disciples. Look at their background of the Twelve, they were fishermen, tax collectors, zealots (terrorists); simple men and sinners that forsook all they had to follow Christ and proclaim His name to the world. Of the 12 Disciples, only one was not martyred and that was the Apostle John. Jesus through these twelve men, changed the world. Not because their was anything special about these men, only that Jesus saved and changed them. Peter denied Christ three times the night Christ was taken to be falsely charged and yet after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, Peter on the day of Pentecost preached Christ to thousands and 3,000 were saved. A man named Stephen, the first martyr proclaimed Christ to his killers and as he was being stoned He saw His God and Savior Jesus at the right hand of the Father and as he forgave his killers and in full hope and assurance said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. How did this happen to common men to be so bold and so abandoned to the hope that was within them, that hope being Jesus Christ. Jesus saved them all and changed them. Men like the Apostle Paul, Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham, Adrian Rodgers. People like you here in this church changed by the power of God the Son, Jesus Christ. The lives of many Christians and many martyrs of Christ proclaim the proof positive, the truth that Jesus is God.

You know, your life can be a proof and a witness to the truth that Jesus is God. Are you willing to submit to our Savior's Lordship like these faithful witnesses and let your life boldly prove that Jesus is God?

These proofs of the truth that Jesus is God show us that our faith, hope, and dedication to Jesus has real meaning. We are not worshiping, serving, and loving a mere man, our Jesus is God. Because He is God, we serve a risen, living Savior that destroyed the power of sin and death. Thank you Jesus that you are God!

The Tragedy of Unbelief (Rom. 10:1-5)

2011-03-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

The Tragedy of Unbelief

(Rom. 10:1-5)

In the book of Romans, Paul addresses a sincere desire, a great passion to see salvation come to his fellow Jews. Now, there were many Jews who had become Christians (but the majority of Israel was lost) but Paul had a heartfelt desire to see those lost Jews to receive Jesus as Messiah. The nation of Israel rejected Jesus and it was this rejection of God's love that grieved the heart of Paul. Paul even makes the statement that if he could become accursed and separated from Christ that he would if he could bring the lost of Israel to Christ. Israel's unbelief is a great tragedy, it has cost them much and for now Israel has been set aside for the Church but God has not forgotten Israel and His promises to Israel is still in effect and will come to pass. Through Israel's unbelief salvation has come to the Gentiles, now that's us (Rom. 11:11 - “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.”). Today will look at the tragedy of unbelief.

I. Paul's Concern for their Unbelief (v. 1-3 - “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh”).

Look at how the Apostle Paul grieved for his lost countrymen. He had a great desire to see the lost saved especially those of the lost house of Israel. Paul was greatly moved about their unbelief desiring that they would believe the Gospel and receive Jesus as Lord. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles but his hearts desire was to see the lost of Israel come to Christ. If you study the book of Acts you will see that when Paul went into a Gentile city that he would find a Jewish synagogue to begin teaching and preaching about Christ and when as usual most of the synagogues would kick him out (literally and figuratively), it is then he would gain an audience with the Gentile population and churches would be started with Gentile and, hopefully, Jewish believers. Paul saw and understood the great blessings and wonders of Christ being made known to all nation, tribes, tongues, and peoples but he had a burden for his lost countrymen, the Jews. Paul went to many foreign lands and cities and has lead so many to Christ but he is still so greatly concerned for the lost of his people. It is an awesome thing to be concerned for the lost Filipino or the lost Chinaman or lost African but what about our own nation? Look at the state of America, look at our leadership, look at our entertainment, look at our cities, look at our neighborhoods, and look at our fellow citizens and see how far from God our nation is from God. We have a president and leadership in the House and Congress and in the Supreme Court that ignore and despise God and God's word. America's entertainment industry despises the name of Christ and our society has rejected the holy law of God and has called evil good and good evil. So, how about our nation? Are the churches of America concerned about the unbelief and sinfulness of America? Do we grieve for our fellow countrymen like the Apostle Paul did for his own people? It is a great thing to send missionaries to foreign lands and it's a great thing for our church to build churches in the Philippines but what about the people that live up and down our streets, those who are lost in our families, those who speak our language, who live in our neighborhoods and towns and cities, and who live in this great land who still don't know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, as part of the Christian church in America who might send out missionaries to the heathen in foreign lands what a great tragedy that we have forgotten the heathen, the lost that live among us and work around us everyday. We are to be interested in the foreign mission field but we should not be blind and indifferent to the lost that's around us. We have a modern society that knows a little about everything and a whole lot about nothing. And when it comes about spiritual matters, today's American would rather trust Oprah rather than Jesus. There is a famine of spiritual truth today and America is ignorant of Jesus and the Bible. Most of America is lost will we grieve and will intercede to God on behalf of our nation for Him to save the lost. America is now in a post-Christian era. America believes in the religion of self-help and their god is their own self. Paul when he is grieving over the lost nation of Israel states that the problem of Israel was like the problem of America and that they trusted in their own selves and their power and works and false religion to save them instead of trusting solely in God through Christ (Rom. 10:1-4 - “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”). We must see the example of Paul to be concerned, to be burdened for our lost neighbors and families for our nation that's fallen into unbelief.

II. Paul's Recollection of God Revealing Himself to that Nation (v. 4-5 - “who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”)

Paul tells us of all that God did to reveal Himself to Israel. That God called out a specific people that came through the lineage of Abraham. The privilege to be Israelites, the descendants of Abraham because Israel was separated out to be God's special and unique people (Ex. 19:6 - “you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”).

Secondly, God is called the Father of Israel. He has a special plan still for lost Israel. God has not altogether forsaken that nation. That nation had a special calling and blessing that God had bestowed on it but Israel as a whole had forsaken that calling. The Old Testament showed God as the Father of the nation Israel unlike the New Testament which refers to God being the Father of individual Christians. Still, it was a great honor to be chosen by God but Israel wasted that privilege through rebellion and unbelief.

Third, God revealed to Israel His glory. God's shekinah glory was seen by Israel as it lead them through the wilderness, as it was seen on Mt. Sinai, in and on the Tabernacle and later on the Temple in Jerusalem in the Holy of Holies residing between the cherubim wings on the mercy seat of the Ark.

Fourth, Israel had been given the covenants of Abraham, Moses, and David. But the greatest covenant of them all came through Israel and that of course is the covenant of redemption through Jesus, His Son.

Fifth, they had the privilege of being given the Law of God through his servant Moses. In it the 10 Commandments, the principles and precepts and standards that God demanded of those who were truly His own. Not only were they given that blessed Law but also the privilege of being custodians of the books of Moses, of King David and Solomon, and of the holy prophets of God which became what we know to be Old Testament.

Sixth, Israel was given the privilege to worship in service of the tabernacle and Temple.

Seventh they were given the promises of God concerning the promised Messiah and His everlasting kingdom and even eternal life.

Eighth, the fathers or patriarchs of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through these men God chose to use, came the blessings to Israel and the whole world. Finally ninth, and the greatest blessing of all that came from Israel was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is through the person and work of Jesus Christ that salvation has come to this world.

But in all those blessings and revelations of God, Israel rejected the Gospel and Jesus Christ their long-awaited Messiah. Having the great and awesome revelations and oracles of God given to them, they rejected Him for a false system of works-righteousness. They chose darkness rather than light (John 3:19-20 - “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed”). The reason that Jesus so viciously attacked the Pharisees every time they came around was because they were false teachers and they were responsible for keeping the people in darkness by teaching works-righteousness. Israel's unbelief in Jesus was because they chose the false over the true. Now, what about our nation? I know that America is not Israel but what America was founded upon was very important to the birth and greatness of our nation. When the founding fathers of America laid the foundation of Christian principles and God blessed them to let this nation be born and the people of this nation regarded God and His holy Word with reverence and fear. The people of this nation looked with disdain and distaste at sin and immorality. If God judged Israel sins and disobedience by giving up them up to their sins and the consequences of their sins by bringing them into captivity and destruction (remember that was God's chosen nation), what will He do to America. How will He judge us? I believe America is seeing the wrath of God abandoning this nation to our vile sins. Church are we willing to warn our nation? Are you willing to tell your neighbor that only Jesus can save their souls? I believe that we as God's people must individually and corporately pray and intercede for our country and our lost countrymen. We must become just as concerned to turn around the heart of this nation back to God. We must pray and we must be concerned enough to tell this lost nation that Jesus still saves and there is no other way.

Today, as we see Paul's concern for the lost of his fellow countrymen and how even lost Israel knew the truth once but forsook it for false religion. We must again as the church in America be burdened enough to witness to our family and friends and burdened enough to pray for the heart of this nation to turn back to God in fear and reverence.

More Than Conquerors (Rom. 8:31-39)

2011-03-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

More Than Conquerors

(Rom. 8:31-39)

In this passage we have read how that nothing and that no one is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Of all the things that Paul lists, he states that nothing can overcome or defeat the loving and gracious salvation of our Lord. No person or circumstance is able to cause a believer in Christ to lose our salvation in Christ. We read that in all those things that are named and that we might face, the fact is as it says in verse 37 is that we are “more than conquerors” over those things through Christ. Today, we will look at the reasons why we are “more than conquerors” through Christ.

I. 1^st reason - “God is for us” (v.31-32, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?)

The main reason that we should know that our salvation with Christ is secure is that God is for us. Who can overcome God? We know that answer is no one. So if we are God's own then who can take us out of the hand of God? No one (John 10:28-29 - “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand”. If God is for us then who can be against us? The answer is still the same, no one. Ps. 27:1 declares, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”. God knew before we came into existence that humanity would fall; but in His wondrous love and grace determined that He would save us from our sins. God the Father reached out to us in grace through His Son Jesus Christ, by His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, to bring salvation to every person who would receive Christ by faith. What a glorious and miraculous power that God performed in order to just save us. The love, the pain, the suffering, the death and resurrection Christ went through on our behalf (Rom. 5:8 - “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”). Christian doesn't that show, doesn't that reveal this fact that God is for us? When we can get our minds and our hearts wrapped around this glorious truth, it is then we can have that peaceful assurance that we are eternally secure in our saving relationship with Christ. To grasp that we cannot save ourselves, that it is the sole work of Christ in the heart of a man or woman and nothing that we do can save us. It is God that's got us and it's God that keeps us and it's God that will present us on that final and ultimate day (Jude 1:24-25 - “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen”). God's got us; God is for us. In Christ we are forgiven, accepted, kept, and sealed until we are one day glorified. No one and nothing can undo the fact of our salvation in Christ. Only the One who has given us salvation can possibly take that away but that is a foolish thought because it says right here in v. 32 that “He ...did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all”, God will never throw out or turn away any of His children that have been purchased by the blood of Christ. For God to cast away any of His children after He has delivered up His Son as a sacrifice for our sins; He would never turn His back on us after He has cleansed us from sin by Christ's blood and made us righteous and acceptable in His sight. By the death and resurrection of Christ we know and understand that God is for us.

II. 2^nd reason – Christ Intercedes for Us (v. 33-34 - “Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”)

There are many accusers of the faith. Our greatest accuser is Satan and that's what the name Satan means. We can see in the book of Job where Satan accuses Job worshiping God out of selfishness rather than out of reverence and love (Job1:8-12). But we can see for the rest of the book of Job that the testing of Job could not destroy Job's persevering faith in God. There are other passages that show the accusations of the enemy against God's children. The world and Satan will always accuse believers in God. In the book of Zechariah 3:1-5, Satan tries accusing the high priest Joshua of wearing dirty garments while attending in the Tabernacle, it says, “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?" Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you." Then I said, "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by”. Although Joshua wore “filthy garments”, that is still living in this sinful body of flesh, he was one of God's redeemed and Satan can bring no accusation against him, Satan was powerless to destroy and discredit God's servant. Now every accusation of this world or by Satan are not always false because we are still not sinless. But even though the accusation is true, the charge made is powerless. If we are Christ's then every sin past, present, and future are forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ. The eternal salvation of Christ destroys all accusations of damnation by the accusers. Our salvation is not determined on our ability or us trying to be perfect (which is impossible) but it is based upon our God who has justified us through the person and work of Jesus Christ (His suffering, death, & resurrection). The accusations against us to condemnation are powerless in the light that Jesus saved us and keeps us because His sacrifice gave us the finished work of salvation. Because Christ provided for our salvation and when He finished that work the Bible says the He “sat down at the right hand of God – (Heb. 10:12)”. Although the work of atonement was finished, Jesus is still at the right hand of the Father ministering intercession for all of us who are redeemed until we have made it to our Heavenly Home (Heb. 7:25 - “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”). When we gain a pure understanding of the work Christ did on the cross to save our wretched souls then we can understand what it means to be secure in that salvation. All of us who were vile, sinful, wretched, and ungodly have been shown the love of God through the Father sending His Son to die for us, so how can we who have been saved by that love knowing that God's love is powerful to save, lack the power to keep us saved. If Jesus had the power to deliver us from the bondage of sin, then how can He lack the power to keep us saved? To believe that a Christian can lose his salvation and to deny the security of the believer is to misunderstand the wonderful gift of Christ and misunderstand the wonderful heart of God. It all comes down to ignorance of the biblical meaning of salvation. Be sure of this Christian, Jesus is ever interceding for His children and we are eternally secure in Him.

III. 3^rd Reason – Nothing and No One Can Separate Us (v. 35-39 - “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”).

Let us look at first set of things that cannot separate us from the “love of God”: tribulation – severe hardship(hard times), distress – extreme stress, persecution – suffering for the sake of Christ, famine – lack of food and hunger, nakedness - destitution, peril – exposed to danger, or sword – assassination. Paul says that will not separate us from the love of God. How does Paul know this? Because he faced all of these things (2 Cor. 11:23-27 - “Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if insane) I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure”), but he still served God because it could not separate him from the love of God. Paul faced persecution and eventually martyrdom, why did Paul face all these things? It was because God loved him first (1 John 4:19 - “We love, because He first loved us”). Any Christian's love for God is the direct result of God so wonderfully loving us first, in the heart of every child of God is the seed of God's love that must grow and blossom into a love for His Lord that will want to sow the seeds of God's love in other people lives. Paul finishes this chapter with the truth that we are “more than conquerors” in Christ in spite of any attempt that this world or Satan tries to throw at us. Let me finish with the last two verses of this passage: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. There is nothing in heaven nor earth, no angel nor demon, no king nor president, no high mountain range nor ocean depths, and no human nor beast that can ever steal my salvation or destroy the love that Christ has for me.

It's All Good in God. (Romans 8:28)

2011-03-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

It's All Good in God.

(Rom. 8:28)

The NASB gives us a better translation of Romans 8:28; “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”. The world has a saying, “it's all good”, but that statement is false because it most certainly not all good. The gist of that worldly statement means if it works for you whether it is done by good or bad means, moral or immoral behavior, just as long as you get what you want then the end justifies the means. This is not so for the child of God, as we serve God, as we live for God then God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him. This verse is a beautiful and wondrous promise from our Father God. Now it doesn't mean we will never have problems, trials, temptations, or persecution. Just like the country song says, He never “promised you a rose garden”. God does promise for those that are His own that we have a blessed assurance of being eternally secure in His salvation and in our lives He will work out the situations in our lives to His glory and our best. Today's sermon is “ It's all good in God”.

I. The Assurance (“And we know...”).

In those first three words of this promise, we see that we have an assurance, a certainty, and a sureness that we can know the wonderful security found in our Savior. Our salvation in Christ is sure and secure. Christian, our lives are in the hands of Almighty God and it will be divinely used by God to bring God glory and if it brings about God's glory then it will work out to our ultimate blessing. But the greater meaning of that we can know is that when we have been saved by faith in Christ, is that He has completely and eternally saved us. The Bible teaches us that our eternal, sovereign God alone saves us, that He alone is responsible for our salvation and it has nothing to do with any effort of our own. We cannot save ourselves. If our salvation had to do with our effort to save us then we would fail. But because eternal God alone is responsible for saving us through Christ, then God's salvation can never fail and we are eternally secure in His salvation. We cannot save ourselves and therefore we couldn't keep ourselves saved only God can do that. I remember that at one time, I believed that I was in a cooperative effort to keep myself saved and it brought about a great burden and grief to my Christian walk. I was always consumed by the effort to try and not sin enough to make me lost again, always consumed with fear that every bad thought or every little sin would condemn me once again to Hell. But when I began reading verse and passages that reminded me that salvation is solely the work of God through Christ then I was given that blessed assurance and that deep fear left my life. When I read in scripture that Jesus promised me in John 10:27-29, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand”, nothing can take me out of the hand of my Savior and my God. And then I read in Rom. 8:1 that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” and in Rom. 8:35-39 that there is absolutely no one and nothing in this world that can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, that there is no fear of ever being separated from salvation in Christ and the Holy Spirit through the holy Word of God illuminated that truth to me and set me free from the bondage of religion. To “know” this certainty reveals that whatever I face in my life here on earth, I will face it in His hands. So today friends, whatever is going on in your life, be it heartache or stress or sickness or death or disappointment or trials or temptations or the devil or just life in general, I want you to grab a hold of this truth that whatever may be coming at you must not only face you but it must also face the God that is holding you in His hand. That's the truth that we must know and this is what brings you assurance to face the day and the day after that. You may not be able to face the problem but God is not intimidated. Just rest in that assurance and rely upon Him.

II. The Scope (“...that God causes all things to work together for good”...).

Now that we know let's look at the scope or extent of this promise. It says that because we are absolutely assured of an eternal relationship in Christ, we can see that there is a limitless work of God in our lives. The scope of God's blessing is unlimited (Eph. 1:3 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”) and if we are living in His blessings of His eternal salvation in Christ we see that God will be at work in our lives. It says in this verse that God causes all things to work together for good. God doesn't work the good out in some things but in all things. The extent is unlimited, there is nothing in our lives or that we face in our lives that God does not work His good in. It is God Himself that works out the good that comes to all that are His children. So when we see “all things” it is utterly complete, no limits, it's all-encompassing, and there is no restrictions or conditions in whatever experiences that we have in this life that God does not work in. what we read here is simply saying that whatever things we experience in our live that God allows to happen in our lives, be they good or evil, it says that God will ultimately turns those things into blessings. I know that there are those on TV, the false teachers that say if you are truly blessed by God then no bad will come into your life and if it does then you must have sinned or lost faith but they have ignored the saints of God on the Bible that have faced bad times and God had allowed it. Take for instance Job, God allowed Satan to tempt and try him but after Job had lost all that he had, his wealth and his children, Job still has faith in his God, that he still trusts God and we see this by his powerful affirmation of the goodness of God to him by him saying in Job 1:21, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD”. The book of Job gave no reason as to why God allowed Job to face what he faced other than to bring glory to God. Sometimes our suffering and hardships might have a reason like there was with Joseph. Joseph was thrown into a pit and sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, was falsely accused by Pothiphar's wife because he would not sin against God by sleeping with her so he was thrown in prison. Joseph became the chief trusty in prison and through God interpreted the dreams of two men who had been close to Pharaoh. One was his cupbearer and the other his baker, Joseph told them through the revelation of God that the cupbearer would be restored and the other would be hanged in three days and that came to pass, but the cupbearer promised to Joseph to mention his name before Pharaoh to help get him out of prison. Well, the scriptures say that the cupbearer forgot for two years before the Pharaoh had a dream and then the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. Joseph through God revealed the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream of a great harvest of 7 years followed by a great famine of 7 years across the whole land. Joseph was promoted to 2^nd in command of Egypt and stored up enough grain to save Egypt and the surrounding countries and even the promised people of God, Joseph's family. In all the evil that seemingly befallen Joseph, he served God and God used his life and his circumstances to bring about God's will and God's glory. Joseph realized this after he had been elevated and placed to where he was in Egypt. Joseph could have sought revenge against his brothers for the hardships he faced but just like he always had in his hard life journey, he saw God's hand in it all for he says to his brothers in Gen. 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive”. Joseph realized that God is in control and that God causes all things to work together for good. Through this we see God's will is good, that His faithfulness is good even if we are unfaithful. If we as His children sin against Him, the Bible says that He will discipline us for our good because He loves us (Heb. 12:6,11 - “For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives”. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”). Sometimes God allows sickness or death to come on us for our sins to warn us or others. Sometimes God may have to put us in the hospital to see the goodness of God and restore us to rightful fellowship with Him or death may come to some like Ananias ans Sapphira who as Christians lied to the Holy Spirit and God killed them but for what reason? The reason is found in Acts 5:11, “So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things”. Whatever we face we have to face it with God and we need to be obedient to His will for us whatever we face, we are His. We need to be like Job and realize the work God is doing in us for our good and His glory. Job says in Job 23:10, “When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold”. Trials of fire refine the gold of our walk with Christ.

III. The Recipients (“...to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”).

To have the good of God in your lives, the blessings of God in every circumstance, and His ever present Spirit every where you walk and in everything you face; you have to be a child of God. You have to be a recipient of His love through Christ. You can face life alone and then face an eternity alone in eternal torment or you can know His love here in this life and into the eternity to come but you have to believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father (John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”). No other way to face the hardships and trials of life except with Christ. He will never leave or forsake you and you can face everything in your life in His hands.

No Condemnation (Rom. 8:1-4)

2011-03-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

No Condemnation

(Rom. 8:1-4)

Last sermon from Romans 7 dealt with our conflict with ourselves, that as Christians we will always be at war with sin in our lives. Here in the beginning of chapter 8, we will see a provision has been made in the promise of salvation for the believer. It is summed up in Rom. 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”, there is no judgment for those in Christ. We are going to look at the reality of that promise, the way it has been provided, and the result of walking in the path of salvation. Today's sermon is “No Condemnation”.

I. The Reality of Salvation's Promise (v. 8:1a - “There is therefore now no condemnation...”).

The word “therefore” is there to show us a some sort of result or it sums up to a conclusion. The conclusion here is a single, simple statement of the result of one being saved from their sins by their faith in Christ. The concluding statement is that for a Christian there is no condemnation (or judgment). The entire previous seven chapters dealing with our sin, our sin nature, our judgment, our savior, and our salvation received through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. All that said and taught by the Apostle Paul and he sums it all up with this statement “there is no condemnation”. We know and understand from the previous study of the earlier chapters of Romans, that our condition before we knew Christ Jesus as Lord was that we were under the judgment of God. All of mankind was born sinful and separated from God by our sinful nature (Romans 3:23 -“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”), and it describes us in our sins in Eph. 2:3 as being “by nature children of wrath”. In our study of Romans in chapter 1 that we talked about the wrath of God. The wrath of of our holy God is His righteous anger and hatred of sin and evil and it is the basis of His condemnation of sin. In our sinfulness, without Christ, we were under the condemnation for our sins and for breaking God's holy Law which is death (Rom. 6:23 - “the wages of sin is death” and Ezek. 18:4 - “the soul that sins shall die”), that is our verdict. Just like the man on death row, judged and sentenced to death, the day of judgment set and justice not satisfied until the penalty for guilt is met. That is all of us without Christ. But here in Rom. 8:1, Paul declares that there is “no condemnation”, what wondrous and amazing good news for the Christian, “no condemnation”. Jesus has completely and permanently paid the debt of sin and the penalty for breaking God's Law. Our sins and our penalty for trespassing God's Law was not overlooked by God. It was not passed over or forgotten, it was paid, once for all, by the perfect, sinless sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Death was the price and only Jesus' death could set us free from the death sentence that was pronounced on us. Jesus Christ died for us, in our place, and it was the only sacrifice accepted by the Father in our behalf. For those who have or will place their faith and trust in Christ and what He did on our behalf “there is therefore now no condemnation”. The freedom from condemnation and judgment is realized only in Christ and we must recognize that we will never face condemnation for our sins be they past, present, or future. Jesus' death on the cross dealt with our sins once and for all, that is the glorious power of salvation in Christ. In Heb 10:14, it says, “For by one offering [Christ's death on the cross] He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified”, those being sanctified are all who have separated unto God by salvation in Christ, their sins are forgiven and their condemnation, their judgment removed because of Jesus Christ taking their judgment on Himself. The penalties for our failures in this life was paid for by Christ.

We are not perfect, we are not sinless and we understand from last week's sermon that we will always have to deal with sin as long as we are on this earth and in this body. But just because we are free from divine judgment (condemnation), it does not mean our heavenly Father will not give us divine discipline for our moral failures as Christians (Heb. 12:6 - “For whom the LORD loves He disciplines, And scourges every son whom He receives”). We are still accountable for our actions to our Father even though we will not be condemned for our sins that Christ has forgiven and cleansed us from.

II. The Reason for Salvation's Reality (v. 1b-3 - “for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.”)

As we have already discussed, the no condemnation is the direct result of “those who are in Christ Jesus”. In chapter 7, all Christians, even the Apostle Paul, are not exempt from conflicts and struggles with sin. But we have read right here in this chapter (chap. 8) that all Christians are eternally free of the condemnation of sin. Even if we stumble and fall, all Christians from the strongest to the weakest will not experience condemnation for there sins but will experience ultimate victory over sin in the life to come. We are not merely identified outwardly with Christ, but also we are identified as being part of Christ. It says right here we are in Christ and being in Christ is what makes us acceptable to our Father God; 1 Cor. 12:13 declares that we “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body; whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit”. The Spirit of God places us into Christ, we become part of the body of Christ. Christ's life now flows into our lives and we must began to understand is that we live because He lives in us (Gal. 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”). The freedom in Christ gives us total and permanent deliverance from sin's power and penalty and when we are glorified one day, then will freed from it's presence. Let's look further in v. 2, it says that, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death”. In Titus 3:4-6, it says, “when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior”, the Holy Spirit of God is the one who gives spiritual life to the one who places His trust in Jesus Christ. Only the Spirit of God can give spiritual life to a spiritually dead heart. He is the One that frees us from sin and death, gives spiritual life for our sinful, spiritually dead spirit, we are free from the power of sin and it's dominion because of the powerful work of salvation made possible through Christ. In verse 3, it says that “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh”, it is reason why the eternal Son of God came and added humanity to His Deity and was born of a virgin. Flesh could not fulfill the righteous demands of God's Law, flesh was inferior and weak and sinful, it was incapable of not sinning and relished in breaking all of the holy commands of God's Law. Because God was holy and just, He can never pass over sin but must punish it. But because was loving, merciful, and full of grace, He extended His hand of forgiveness and grace through the incarnated Son of God, through His perfect sacrifice on the cross. It was through this holy and righteous Son of God, Jesus Christ, that His death condemned sin in the flesh of those who were condemned by sin. Those who by faith place their trust in the work that Christ has done on the cross have been justified and forgiven, their condemnation removed. Christ was sinless even though he lived in a body like ours, Jesus never sinned. The Law only exposed man's unrighteousness and no man or woman ever lived up to it's righteous requirement but Christ alone. In His sinlessness, He died as the perfect sacrifice to perfectly save us all. Is. 53:4-5 - “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed”. Because of Christ we are free from sin and condemnation of sin.

III. The Result of Walking in Salvation (v. 4 - “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”)

Because of Christ's death and resurrection, it has not only freed us from the power and penalty of sin, it has also freed Christians to live righteously. Christ set us free from sin and filled us with His Spirit not to live as we please but as our Lord pleases. The Spirit produces in us a desire to live for our Lord, to grow and mature as believers in Christ because our new spiritual nature is alive to Christ and we walk not according to the flesh(spiritually dead sinners do that) but according to the Spirit. When we become “sons (and daughters) of God”, it is then our lives will change for God's glory. We become enabled by the power of God to began living out righteously in our daily lives. This is the direct result of coming to faith in Christ. Christ's salvation will bring about an eternal change in each of our lives.

The glorious results of the amazing power of the Father's salvation through Christ of no condemnation of every believer's life and the powerful change and desire to know God and desire His will. Nothing in our flesh or by our power can affect this change; it is only the power of God through Christ.

Dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6)

2011-02-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

Dead to the Law

(Rom. 7:1-6)

In our study of Romans, we have found that we are dead to sin and free from the slavery and bondage of sin in Romans 6. Here in Romans 7, we begin with how we are dead to and freed from the Law and the consequences of breaking the moral law of God that was revealed to us through Moses. Today, we will study about the power of the Law, dying to the Law, and the use of the Law.

I. Jurisdiction of the Law (v. 1 - “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?”)

Paul begins here in chapter 7 by making a statement that every living person is under the authority or jurisdiction of law. The law he mentions here is any kind of law be it civil or religious. At that time Rome ruled the world, so everyone one living in the Roman Empire was subject to Roman law. The Jews were so supposed to be bound by the Mosaic law. But Paul was saying that the law has authority over all people. We all live under law, for us it is the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this land and it's states. If we break the law then we will suffer the consequences of the law; we will be prosecuted and punished by the law. But if a law-breaker dies then he no longer be subject to prosecution and punishment under the law. Take for instance, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was supposedly the assassin of President Kennedy. Before Oswald went to trial, he was shot to death by another man. Therefore, because he died, he was not prosecuted and punished under the law of the land. Although the crime he committed was a horrible crime, because he died, he did not suffer the penalty of the law of the land. The jurisdiction of the law is only limited to the living. What Paul is saying is that the law is binding only on the living. So where is Paul going with this? Paul is alluding to the Mosaic Law, that supreme moral Law of God that none of us can keep from breaking. But Paul doesn't stop there, he goes on in the next verses to reveal what he means.

II. Dying to the Law (v. 2-3 - “For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ”)

So it is becoming more clear, Paul states that we as Christians have died to the Law. Paul uses a illustration of the marriage law as an analogy between that and the point that he made in verse 1, the law has no authority over a person when they're dead. He uses an illustration of when a woman is married and her husband is living and she marries another man then she is guilty of being an adulteress; she is an offender against the law of marriage. She is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies then she is free from the bonds of matrimony and can freely marry again, she is no longer bound to her former husband by marriage. Marriage laws are binding only when both spouses are living (“till death do you part”). So, in verses 2&3, the woman is absolutely free from the law that bound her to her late husband. In verse 4, Paul begins to apply this truth to us as Christians. He explains that just like the death of the husband has freed the woman from being bound together in marriage, that we as Christians were made to die to the Mosaic Law (moral law of God). We have died to the Law that has condemned us to our sins through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The law was never a means of salvation to us (Rom. 3:20a - “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight”); the law was to show us how sinful we are and to teach us that we need a Savior from sin (3:20b - “for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin). In chapter 6, we found out that we have died to and freed from sin, but here we see that we have died to the law and free from it's consequences of the penalty of the law. The law declares that if we break the moral law of God (sin) then we must suffer the penalty of the law which is death (1 Cor. 15:56 - “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”). Under the law of God, we are found sinful and condemned because we cannot keep the holy and moral law of God. If we but only break one commandment, we are guilty of breaking all of of the law (James 2:10 - “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all”). Christ's death has freed all believers from the law. Christ's life was sinless, He kept all of the law, in fact He fulfilled the law by His sinless life (Matt. 5:17 - “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill”). He fulfilled the law on our behalf and bore our penalty for not being able to keep the law. But by His death he has freed us from our former relationship to the law (condemnation), just like the widow was freed from her relationship to her former husband. Just like the widow she was free to be united to another husband, we are free to be joined to another, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are free now to live a new life in our new relationship.

III. Living to Serve (v. 4-6 - “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”)

Salvation in Christ has brought about a totally new spiritual relationship just as the remarried woman had a totally new marital relationship after her husband died. The image of a dead husband and a new husband in a new committed relationship even can apply to us as Christians. We could say that we are no longer “married” to the law but are now “married” to Christ. We are in a new spiritual relationship. 2 Cor. 11:2 says, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”. Paul is showing us that we are placed into a new way of life, a new way of living, because we are now in a new relationship. And that new way of life is evident as we live out the new life. It says here in verse 4, that because we have been saved, we now have a life that has been transformed and because we are joined to Christ, that we should produce or “bear fruit” for God. In Galatians 5, it contrasts the fruit of a sinful life with that of the fruit of the Spirit in our new relationship with Christ. The fruit of the sinful condemned man is seen in 5:19-21, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”. It goes on to describe in the life of the believer, we will began to produce the fruit of the Spirit which is seen in Gal. 5:22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit”). In verse 5, that when we were sinners we produced the fruit of death which comes through living a life of sin under the law. The purpose for us being joined with Christ is to produce fruit for God for it says in Eph. 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works...”). We were delivered from the law and united to Christ to bear fruit for God. Our lives have been delivered from the penalty of sin whose fruit is death so that we will live out holy lives which is the fruit of repentance. The old life under the law was evident in the sinful life we lived, it was evident that we were under the condemnation of the law because of sin. But if we are truly His, in a new relationship with Christ then our lives will bear fruit for God, it will be evident as we live out our lives to Christ's glory. In this study of Romans 6 and 7, we see that we are delivered from our old sinful life condemned by the law. We have been released, set free, and made dead to the law and sin which only brings condemnation and death. We were held by it and bound to it. There was no way out. But God who was rich in mercy and grace has provided deliverance from it through the death and resurrection of Christ. Through Christ's death we have died to sin and the law and by His resurrection we now live eternally in Christ; it says in verse 6, that since we are delivered in Christ from the death of the law that we should serve God in the newness of the Spirit not in the oldness of the law. It could be best summed up by Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.

The Law did what it was supposed to do and that it showed me how sinful I truly was and convicted me of my evil. But it also pointed me to the one who saved me from the condemnation of the Law. Ask yourselves today, have you let God deal with your sin and the condemnation of you as a sinner seen through the holy law of God? Only Christ can cleanse you of your sins and deliver you from the penalty of sin, which is eternity in Hell. Put your faith in Christ today.

Saved to Sin? No, Saved to Serve! (3 Common Misconceptions of Eternal Security) (Rom. 6:1-2)

2011-02-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

Saved to Sin? No, Saved to Serve! (3 Common Misconceptions of Eternal Security)

(Rom. 6:1-2)

Today, we are going to find out what eternal security is not. We are going to look at three common misconceptions of eternal security. Sometimes you have to see what something isn’t to truly understand what it really is.

I. It Isn’t “Fire Insurance” (Rom. 6:1-2 - What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?).

I’ve heard so many people say this about eternal security, “I got fire insurance!”; now when that is usually mentioned it is dealing with sin in their life of someone who is a Christian. This idea that it’s ok to sin since I’m a believer and nothing can separate me from salvation in God, it is a dangerous and destructive frame of mind. Eternal security does not give the Christian a license to go out and sin. Paul’s reply to such an idea is “God forbid (may it never be so). How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”, the result of receiving this gracious gift of salvation is a changed life. The Bible says about those who are saved are no longer slaves to sin, Rom. 6:18 says that, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness”; we have changed masters and our spiritual condition has changed. We are no longer in spiritual darkness, we are now in His glorious light. We have been set free from the bondage and slavery of sin and are now free to live and serve and glorify Christ in all that we do. Eternal security gives us blessed assurance and not blessed insurance. The assurance I received when I found out that my salvation is eternally secure and eternally kept in the precious hand of Jesus and the Heavenly Father. When I finally found that out, I then began to understand that all the time I wasted to try and keep myself “saved” can now be used to live more productively for the Kingdom of God by serving Him without fear. Let me give you an example; In 1937, the Golden Gate bridge was built in San Francisco, spanning that great bay. It was a dangerous thing to work on because it rose hundreds of feet above those icy, swirling waters of the San Francisco bay. The workman were afraid for their lives. Some of them fell and drowned; in all 23 people lost their lives in accidental deaths. Management said they had to something about this, so they built a safety net underneath the workers. They spent $100,000 to build this net, and when they built the safety net, they found out it really wasn’t an expense. It was a great saving, because work went 25% faster, and far fewer lives were lost. As a matter of fact, only ten fell and they fell into the net, and of course their lives were saved. Why could these people work with more productivity? Because of their security! They knew the net was there. And that’s the way it is a Christian’s life. I’m not struggling to keep myself safe. I know that I am saved. I’m saved by the grace of God; so I can be productive with grateful service. When we are confident of the future, we can concentrate on the present. So the bottom line is that eternal security gives us blessed assurance and not ‘fire insurance’. We are saved not to sin freely but to serve freely. The life of the believer will show the fruits of salvation. Although we will never be sinless in this body, we can live a life of holiness, a life that desires to live for God, to serve and please Him. (Rom. 6:19,22- I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.; But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life). We are given the ability through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to live lives that are holy. It simply means that we are set apart from the practice of sin and set apart to the practice of righteousness. We have freed from sin to become servants of God because of the person and work of Christ we have new life and eternal life.

II. It Isn’t Cheap Grace (Rom. 5:8-10 - But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.)

Just because we believe in eternal security it doesn’t mean we make light of the glorious salvation that was attained by the suffering and death of Christ on that old rugged cross. Belief in eternal security in fact, makes us more aware of the wonderful work of salvation that Jesus has provided for us through His death and resurrection. It keeps us remembering that the work of salvation is only the wonderful work of grace and mercy that it is because He is the only one that can effect the work of grace in our lives. The familiar verse of the work of salvation by faith is found in Eph. 2:8-10 - ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’; we are taught by this verse that this gift of salvation is in no way something that we can attain by our works or power. God chose to love us and provide the way of salvation through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. By faith we receive the salvation of our souls and the remedy for our sins and eternal life that is only found in God the Son. By the work that Jesus did by suffering and dying on the cross, by having my faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone, there I become a child of God. I was then put into an eternal relationship with God and He is my Father. I am in a relationship that cannot be denied or revoked. For example, I have a daughter and I am her father, that is the truth about our relationship and no matter how much she might want to deny it, the truth is that our relationship cannot be broken irregardless. Now the fellowship between us can be affected in our relationship. But it does change the fact of our relationship. Sin in the life of the believer can affect the fellowship we have with God but not our eternal relationship. Just like the verse we’ve read in Eph. 2:8-10, we see that we are saved by faith in Christ and we are the workmanship of Christ (we are saved and kept saved and completely saved) and we are saved for good works in Christ. If we are busy for the Kingdom of God then a Christian won’t have time for sin in their life.

III. It Isn’t Just Profession, It’s Possession (Luke 6:43-44 - For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. - James 1:22 - But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.)

I am not preaching perfection or trying to get people to question their salvation. I am just looking at the facts of scripture that say my life is supposed to have evidences that I am in Christ. For we are ‘known by his own fruit’ and our lives are changed when we are saved. 2 Co. 5:17- “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. We sometimes need to ask the hard questions about our Christian walk. Are we doing all we need to do for our Lord Jesus Christ? Do we reflect the glory of God in our lives? Is there evidence in our lives that can convict us of being a Christian? 2 Co. 13:5 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Security of the believer brings assurance of your salvation and the test is simply was your faith put in Christ for your salvation and if it was you will see evidences of that salvation. Our lives that are saved and changed by Jesus will reflect that change. A life that seeks to live and desire the things of God is a life that is saved from sin. It is not profession only it is also possession of salvation in Christ.

I hoped this has helped you see what eternal security isn’t so that you can understand better what it really is. And if anyone asks you can explain the wonderfully complete and secure salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

Death in Adam; Life in Christ (Rom. 5:12-21)

2011-02-07T12:48:00.001-08:00

Death in Adam; Life in Christ

(Rom. 5:12-21)

We are continuing our study of Romans. We are going to look at this passage in Rom. 5:12-21 and gain an understanding of the beginning of sin and the only cure of sin. Paul used an analogy of Adam and Christ to help us gain an understanding of sin and God's plan of redemption for man through Christ. Through today's study of this passage we are going to gain an understanding of where sin began, when sin entered this world, the consequences of sin to humanity, and God's plan to save men from sin. Today's sermon is “Death in Adam, Life in Christ”.

I. Adam (v. 12-14) “...just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned – v.12)

In the case of Adam, scripture says that “sin entered into the world”. But it does not say that sin originated with Adam. Where does sin originate? Let's look at scripture.

A. Through Adam – v.12a “sin entered the world”

1. Origin of Sin – The originator of sin is Satan. In 1 John 3:8 it says, “the devil has sinned from the beginning”. It doesn't say when the beginning was but it was before Adam and Eve sinned. In Ezekiel. 28, it talks of Lucifer's sin in the beginning (28:15 - “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you”), Lucifer's sin of pride and rebellion prompted him being cast out of Heaven; Jesus said of this in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. Universally, sin was introduced by Satan, but sin in this world was introduced into the human realm by Adam; it began with him. In Genesis 2:15-17, Adam was given one simple restriction or prohibition and that was to not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But he disobeys God's one command and sins against God. Although Eve disobeyed first, Adam was held responsible because God had directly given His command not to eat of the tree and he was given headship over Eve and should have used his given position of authority to insist that they mutually obeyed God rather than allow her to lead him in disobedience. This act of sin changed his nature from innocence to sinfulness and that sinful nature was then passed on to all of his descendants (all humanity). The question that I have heard time and again is this, “why should Adam's sin cause me to be born sinful?” That's a good question and to answer that let's look at v. 12, it says sin entered this world through one man, Adam. Notice that it doesn't say sins but sin. That is singular because it is taking about man's sin nature and that nature was passed generationally and individually. Mankind is a single entity that are the descendants of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Adam represents the entire race of humanity and we possess the same sin nature and capacity to sin. Adam was representative of the whole human race; so when Adam sinned and his spiritual nature fell and became depraved then all of posterity received the same fallen nature. When Adam sinned in the Garden, he sinned not only as a man but as man. 1 Cor. 15 :22 says that “in Adam all die”, this speaks of the shared guilt of all mankind just like everyone was present with Adam and sharing in the very sin he did. If we didn't fall with the first Adam then we could not have been saved by the last Adam, Jesus (1 Cor, 15:21-22 - “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive”).

2. What is the meaning of sin? - There are a couple of words in N.T. Greek that are used to describe sin. The first is harmartia that shows sin to be pictured as “any attitude or act of man that does not hit the bulls-eye of God's glory target”¹(Romans 3:23 - “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”). The other word is parabasis which means “to overstep a forbidden line”. Sin thus describes man's inability to do right and his inclination to do wrong.² It shows our sin nature and our desire to willfully sin. Our sin or sinful nature is the root of our problem that was caused by Adam and our sins are the fruit of our problem caused by us. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. That is our nature.

B. Through Sin – v.12b “death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” - Not only did sin enter into this world through Adam but also the consequences of sin: death (Rom. 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death”; Ezek. 18:4 - “The soul who sins shall die”). God warned Adam in the Garden that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that Adam would die. If Adam had not have ate of that forbidden fruit then he and his descendants would have never experienced death. But Adam did sin and brought death to himself and all his descendants, mankind. Sin has brought three different kinds of death to humanity. Death is separation. The first death Adam experienced is spiritual. The moment he sinned he became spiritually separated from God. The apostle Paul reminds us of our lost condition in Eph. 2:1-2, we he describes us before Christ as “dead in our trespasses and sins”. The second death that has resulted from sin is physical death. It is separation from human beings. At the moment Adam sinned, the process of physical death began. Although he did not immediately die, he did become subject to death. We are all subject to death, we all will die and we have seen all have that others have died before us.

The third kind of death from sin is the worst kind kind of death and it is eternal death. This death is the eventuality of all who die without Christ. It is eternal separation from God. Not only eternal separation from God but also eternal torment in hell. Through the disobedience of Adam all have been born sinners and condemned. Through Adam, all are under judgment, condemnation, and subject to death reigning over all their lives because Adam sinned. And we are no better than Adam, it even seems that mankind has slid further into depravity than ever. But it is not hopeless. Our omniscient (all-knowing) God knew even before He made the world that when he made us that we would sin. Because of that, our Triune God purposed to provide salvation to us.

II. Jesus Christ, the second Adam. (v. 15-21)

This brings us to our Lord Jesus Christ. The promised salvation of mankind. In Rev. 13:8, it gives Jesus a certain title and it is this, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. The purpose and plan of God to bring glory to Himself by providing salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God had so lovingly and graciously purposed to save us through the death of His Son Jesus Christ. God chose to save us and to reveal His love even before the beginning of the world. God gave hope to Adam and Eve in Gen. 3:15 by promising the Seed that would crush the head of the Serpent. To Moses and Abraham and David and all the O.T. Saints the promise of the Messiah who would save them from their sins. To the time when He did come and die at the appointed time for the salvation of our sins (Rom. 5:6 - “when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”). Where Adam had brought sin, death, judgment, and condemnation; Jesus brought righteousness and life (vv. 15-19, “But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense (Adam) many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned (Adam). For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act (Jesus) the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous”). Adam brought sin and death into this world and Jesus Christ brought righteousness and life into the world (1 Cor. 15:21-22 - “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive”). Jesus brought to us the free and abundant gift of grace into this world. We can see the abundance of grace that Jesus has provided in verse 15, “much more the grace of God” and verse 17, “much more... abundance of grace” and in verse 20, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”. Whatever had been lost in Adam, God had provided even more grace. We, as repenting sinners, have received much more in Christ tan we ever lost in Adam. Christ not only has reversed the curse of death by forgiving and cleansing from sin, but He has also provided the way for saved men to share in the righteousness and glory of God. Even though in Adam sin increased but through Christ grace abounded even more.

We can see in this analogy of Adam and Christ, that in Christ is the answer and remedy for sin. There is no other way of salvation but in the person and work of Christ. Our sin left unresolved, will bring death to us in our body, soul, and spirit. If we are born again in Christ by putting our faith and trust in Christ then we will receive abundant grace and eternal life. But if we reject the free and abundant grace of God through Jesus Christ then we will not only die physically but eternally, we will be eternally separated from God in the fiery torment of hell. When we face eternity, we will face it as a child of Adam or we will face it as a child of God. In Adam is death, in Christ is life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” - John 14:6.

1Willmington's Guide to the Bible

2Willmington's Guide to the Bible

Whose Slave are You? (Rom. 6:15-23)

2011-02-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

Whose Slave are You?

(Rom. 6:15-23)

The other day, I read an article on the Civil War. I was surprised and bewildered by what I read. It said that there were slaves who fought on the Confederate side during the war. I could not fathom how slaves willingly fought with their masters against the Union Army. They fought against the very people who were trying to emancipate them (to set them free from their slavery). I then began to think about how sinners in the world today fight against Christ, the One who can set them free from their sins. This sinful world is at war against God and against His Gospel that can set them free and emancipate them from their slavery to sin and their master Satan. Today, we are going to study this passage in Romans 6:15-23 and see that Paul is going to use the image of slavery to determine who your Master is and just who is Lord of your life. Today's sermon is “Whose slave are you?”.

I. Freed from sin not free to sin (v. 15 - “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!”).

We have earlier studied about the devastating and destructive power of sin. Sin is the reason for our human condition today of sickness, evil, and death; the fallen condition of this world. Sin is rebellious and hateful towards God and anything that is of God. Sin cannot be cured or overcome by any of man's effort or power. Mankind is enslaved by sin and that brings about satanic control. Sin serves the purpose of Satan and makes a sinner a spiritual child of the devil. It sends unredeemed men to Hell. It controls the sinner's mind, thoughts, and actions. Sin is humanly inescapable. Mankind cannot by ourselves escape from sin or the guilt of sin (even if we genuinely desire to do so). Sin stains and mars everything that we are and do. It is like the growth of an incurable cancer that grows blackly in our hearts till it finally destroys us. That is the hopelessness of sin and without the intervention of God we cannot overcome sin and its deadly effects. Because of sin we cannot have a relationship with God because sin cannot come into the presence of our holy God (Hab. 1:13 - “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity”). It is from this wretched state of slavery to sin that God has provided freedom through the greatest gift God could ever give mankind. That very gift of freedom from sin is the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we are saved through faith in Christ, Jesus frees us from the power of sin. This is because we have died in Christ to sin and risen with Him in righteousness (Rom. 6:11 - “also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”); that was our last study in Romans. If we through Christ have died to sin then we are no longer under the lordship of sin (Rom. 6:6 - “our old man (sinful nature) was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin”). The relationship of the believer has changed towards God and our relationship to sin has changed also. This means we have a new Lord and we are under the lordship of righteousness (but more on that later). Because of this new relationship to God and towards sin, Paul asks a question and answers it in verse 15, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”. Paul is dealing with those who thinks “if I'm free from the power and penalty of sin then I can sin and do as perfectly as I please”. Paul is showing them that Jesus has freed them from their sins and not given them a license to sin. It's the wrong idea about eternal security from those who think they have “fire insurance”; those who see God's amazing grace as cheap grace, believing that since they have prayed the sinner's prayer that they can go out and live how they want to and not reap the consequences. From this verse we can understand that this is not the intention of God's grace at all. God's purpose of His grace is to free man of sin. God's grace through Christ justifies a life and also transforms that life (2 Cor. 5:17 - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”). If there is no evidence of a life that is changed morally and spiritually, transformed through salvation in Christ, then that person is most likely not saved. Christ has freed us from sin, not freed us to sin. Sin can never glorify God, it can never be a product of grace. The grace of God has freed us to give us the ability to not live sinfully and the ability to began to live life righteously for Him. That is the work of sanctification in the believers life, less like the sinner we once were and more like Christ, who we need to be. Salvation in Christ transforms your life and if there is no evidence of transformation then there is no salvation.

II. Who's your Master (v. 16-18 - “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness”).

Paul uses the picture of slavery to see who our allegiance is to. Paul's picture is of someone who is a slave that has willingly given their life in total obedience to their master. He says that we can be slaves of sin which leads to death or become obedient to God which leads to righteousness. If our pattern of living is sinful then we are sin's slaves but if we live our lives for God's glory then we are being obedient to His will and we are God's slaves. Our lives will reflect who is lord of our lives. Slavery to sin brings about physical and spiritual death while slavery to God brings about righteousness, the earmark of eternal life. There is a lie that we can be master of our own life and destiny, but that is just a delusion. We need to understand we are never really free. Either we are mastered by sin under the lordship of Satan or we are mastered by righteousness under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Those are the only two influences that determine our lives. Our habitually sinful life needs to be in the past and buried while the new life in Christ needs to be our present and future, alive and maturing. I think it needs to be reiterated that we will never be without sin in this body but we are as Christians need to be growing and maturing spiritually. We will never be sinless till we are glorified but as we walk in sanctification we sin less, we allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. But how is it that we have come to the place of being under the Lordship of Christ and slaves of righteousness? Evidently it has nothing to do with human determination or knowledge or wisdom or effort but only because of the gospel message of Jesus Christ that has saved us from the slavery of sin. Through Christ we have become the children of God, we are God's very own. When we saved, we are positionally placed in Christ's righteousness because that's what makes us acceptable to God and in a right relationship with Him. It is solely through the person and work of Christ that we are saved us and it sets us free from sin. But when we are saved God's grace changes us and we are enabled to begin to live out a righteous life. Let's look at verses 19-22 to see how we are enabled to live.

III. Living for the Master (v. 19-22 - “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life”).

When we are saved, we are eternally saved. Our spirit (inner man) has been eternally redeemed and it is no longer subject to the power of sin. But our outer man, our flesh, is subject to defilement by sin. It will always be a struggle and a place of battle as long as we are living in this temporary body of flesh. As I have just stated that we are positionally placed in Christ's righteousness but because of our position in Christ we know are enabled to live out a practical righteousness. We are to first dedicate ourselves daily to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Paul said in Romans 12:1 that we are to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”; so now let us present (give willingly and obediently) our bodies (or like it says here in verse 19) presents the members of your body in obedience of God's word to His work and will. It simply means to daily give yourself and your life over to the righteousness of God, to live out practical righteousness. Don't allow yourself to give place to sin (don't... give place to the devil – Eph. 4:27) but keep your heart and mind on Christ and His Word then by the power of the Holy Spirit you can live righteously. When we were sinners, we could not help but to sin (when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness), that means we were nowhere near righteousness. We were on that slippery slope of destruction but thanks to God, He chose to reveal His love to us through Jesus Christ. Through the enabling power of Christ, it is now possible for us live righteously and we should present our members as slaves of righteousness. When we were sinners, our sinful lives lead to more sin, but when we became saints, our lives as slaves to righteousness should lead to even further righteousness. The practice of righteousness (that's a good way to say it), will lead us into deeper walks of righteousness and holiness. A child of God, if he is growing in this grace walk, will be maturing more and more into righteousness. But if a believer, is not growing or progressing, although they will fall back altogether out of righteousness, will slip back further into sin. We need to keep the eyes of our heart fixed on Christ so that we will not lessen in our commitment to our Lord and Master. Let's commit to being His slave, obedient to His will which is His Word.

I want to finish this sermon with this verse, verse 23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”, an unrepentant heart that is still enslaved to sin will find that the end of that sinful life is a judgment of condemnation. The result of sin, the payment (wages) for the life of sin is death, both physically and spiritually. Hell's down payment is the knee that will never bow in faith and repentance to Jesus Christ. God's gift of salvation through Christ is freely offered today. Come to know Christ as your savior and Lord today.

Excuses of the Guilty (Rom. 1:18-21)

2011-01-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

Excuses of the Guilty

(Rom. 1:18-21)

Last week, we dealt with what the wrath of God is and what that means in relation to mankind; that our holy God hates sin and because he is holy and just He must punish sinners. God has revealed to the entire world through the scriptures His wrath and His salvation from the condemnation of sin. Because of this knowledge God has pronounced judgment against sinful man. This verdict of His wrathful judgment against lost mankind has indicted all those who reject God and His remedy of mercy and grace found in His Son, Jesus Christ. The high, holy court of Heaven has called three defendants, representative of mankind, to stand and receive their day in court to answer for their sins. These 3 defendants are here in chapters 1&2 and they are the heathen man, the moral man, and the religious man.

Introduction: God’s indictment (v.18)

God’s fierce wrath is revealed against all ungodliness (sins against his Person) and unrighteousness (sins against his will). The first category is vertical (faulty relationship towards God) while the second is horizontal in nature (faulty living & faulty relationships with fellow man due to our faulty relationship with God). Because of our sinful nature we are unable to have a right relationship towards God and if we are unable to have a right relationship we certainly cannot live according to the righteous standards that God has set forth in His divine, moral Law. Because of our sins we are indicted under the wrath of God. The indictment against mankind is specifically listed in verses 18, it begins by saying they, mankind, “hold (or suppress, smother) the truth in unrighteousness”; in other words, men suppress the truth of God by steadfastly clinging to their sins. Man’s sinful nature desires to naturally oppose God and his truth. The truth that they are sinful and unable to not sin and need God to save them from themselves and the end results of their unrepentant hearts. All of humanity is under God’s condemnation and they are found guilty by two things: 1. God’s Law (2:12 – “For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law”; 2. their own deeds (2:6 – God “will render to each one according to his deeds”). You could say that ‘God’s Law’ and ‘their deeds’ are their jury. So let’s begin with our defendants.

I. Defendant #1: The Heathen or Pagan Man (vv. 19-32)

The heathen or pagan man is representative of those who claim ignorance of the knowledge of God. They are in different religions or they could be atheists or they just reject the Christian concept of God. The generation coming up today could be counted among these. They have decided to call this generation the “Y” generation. They are called this because they always say “why should we believe in God, especially the Christian God”. They have been brought up in homes that don’t go to church or read the Bible and have been brain washed in our public schools to believe only in themselves and whatever propaganda the TV and internet says is true. They are thought to question and be skeptical of whatever Christianity says is true. This “Y” generation is truly the ‘pagan’ generation that has forsaken the only true God of the Bible. This generation has chosen to serve a ‘god’ of their own choosing or even not to believe in anything at all. There has never been a time in our nation that we have had such a large percentage of people not in church of some kind. The percentage of people in the USA today are ignorant of what the Bible says and the real gospel message of salvation in Christ. In Amos 8:11-12, the Bible spoke of a famine of God’s word in the land. Here in our nation there seems to be a “famine of God’s word in the land”. There is a generation that does not know the Lord. A generation that wants to be ignorant of God’s truth and a desire to only smother their guilty conscious with false religion and in vile sins. They have chosen false religions and vain philosophies absent of the truth of God’s word. They have exchanged the holy glory of the one true God with the spiritual darkness of false gods and the giving of themselves over to evil desires and gross sexual sins. Verses 21-32 show their regression to viler and viler sins. The verses in 1:21-23 says, "although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man; and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things”. We see through history and even today people have chosen to serve a ‘god’ of their own making. Today, the New Age religions and atheists have chosen to worship themselves and the efforts of mankind. The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped a pantheon of gods that were just as depraved as or worse than men. Ancient peoples like the Egyptians, had gods and goddesses that had features of animals and even considered certain animals sacred. Hindus even today worship animals. Our generation today considers themselves ‘spiritual’ but not specifically believing in any one religion. Modern man finds whatever spirituality that condones their sins and relieves them of the fear of consequences. They deceive themselves to believe that because of their supposed ignorance of God and His truth that He will acquit them of His judgment. Verses 1:19-20 refute their excuses. God’s twin witnesses of 1. Conscience (v. 19 – “what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them”) and 2. Nature (v. 20 – “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead”; they witness of the existence and God’s law, “so that they are without excuse”. No matter how much they deceive themselves or numb their conscience with gross sin, it won’t stop His judgment.

II. Defendant #2 – Moral Man (vv. 2:1-16)

I like to call this 2nd defendant the ‘good ole’ boy’. The reason that this 2nd representative of judged man thinks he is not deserving of God’s judgment is because he’s not as bad as other men. Most of the time, he is a decent, moral person and not too sinful in his eyes and mostly law-abiding, hard-working, relatively moral person in comparison to the thief, murderer, crack head, or low-life of society. His excuse is that in comparison of his life to others that he is not as bad as society’s criminals (ex. - kid’s grade on a test-not as bad as Billy). I’m not as bad as others so I’ll be alright with God because God grades on a curve. But God refutes their excuse by they do the same things but in a refined way (hide their sins, etc.). God does not judge them according to man’s best but according to His own standard of righteousness and holiness. But they will not escape God’s wrathful judgment (2:1-4, “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”).

III. Defendant #3 – The Religious Man (2:17-3:8)

The religious man Paul used as an example were the Jews. The Jews claimed to be the “people of God” solely on the fact that they knew the law of God and taught it, in other words they were righteous because they were religious (2:17-20 – “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law”). They were outwardly religious but inwardly in the same condition as every other lost man. They did belong to those who had head knowledge about God but no heart knowledge (no personal saving relationship with God). But God refuted their feeble excuse by plainly telling them, “You don’t practice what you preach” (2:21-23 – “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?”). Instead of trusting God to save them from their sins they trusted in their own good works of their religion (ex. RCC, baptismal regeneration, etc.).

What is seen through all these defendants is this simply this that all people regardless of race, creed, color, or social status, that all are under sin and in need of a Savior. God has graciously extended His hand of grace through His Son, Jesus Christ and He is not willing that any should perish in their sins but come to repentance.

The Grace in Which We Stand (Rom. 5:1-11)

2011-01-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

The Grace in Which We Stand

(Rom. 5:1-11)

The work of salvation has been accomplished only by Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection. It is our faith in Christ, what we know and believe about Jesus from the scriptures, that has changed us from sinner to saint. That salvation that God chose to reveal to us, has changed our condition from the condemned nature of a sinner to that of an accepted child of God. It is Jesus Christ alone that has made this possible. It is nothing we have done, it is awesome power of God through Jesus Christ that has saved us. It is God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that has saved us. Today, we will explore “the grace in which we stand”.

I. Justified (declared righteous) v. 1a - “Therefore, having been justified by faith”.

The term “justification” means to be declared righteous. How is it that we who are unrighteous (sinful) can be declared righteous? Well, a good clue to this is that it says here that we are declared righteous by faith. We are declared righteous by our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior. The reason I know this is that the word “therefore” here in verse 1 is referring to something that Paul has already mentioned previously. And if we look at chapter 4, in the final verses we can understand how we are justified by faith. The whole chapter talks about how Abraham was justified (declared righteous) by his faith in the promises of God (Rom. 4:3 - “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” and 4:9 - “For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness”). Abraham put his faith into the revealed plan of salvation God showed him in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:8 - “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand”). We just like Abraham are justified when we put our faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we look at the final verses of chap. 4 we can understand that better, 4:20,22-25 - “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification”. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Is 53:4-5 says this about Christ, “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed”; this shows the work of justification by Christ's death. Dr. John MacArthur wrote in his commentary on Romans, that through the work of justification by Christ: “God credits the believer's sin to Christ's account, He can credit Christ's righteousness to the believer's account. God could not have justly credited righteousness to Abraham had not Abraham's sin, like every believer's sin, been paid for by the sacrifice of Christ's own blood. Before the cross, the believer's sin was paid in anticipation of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and since the cross the believer's sin has been paid in advance”. This is how we are justified (declared righteous), by faith in Jesus' finished work of salvation. “Faith is never the basis or the reason for justification, but only the channel through which God works His redeeming grace. Faith is simply a convicted heart reaching out to receive God's free and unmerited gift of salvation”. ---John MacArthur.

II. Peace with God. v.1b - “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Because we are justified by faith, we can now have peace with God through Jesus Christ. This peace is something we possess at the very moment we put our faith in Christ. This peace comes from the fact that we are saved and justified in Christ. The fact of the matter is that when we were lost sinners, we were hostile and against God; we were enemies (Rom 8:7 - “the carnal (sinful, fleshly) mind is enmity (hostile) against God”. Because we have been justified by Christ, we now have peace with God. We are now reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, v.10 - “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”. Jesus took upon Himself the full force of God's fury on the cross, that we as sinful humanity should have deserved. Because of our sinfulness we were against God, we were His enemies and undeserving of His grace and mercy he showed us through His Son. All of us who trust in Christ as Lord are no longer enemies of God and under His wrath, we are now at peace with Him through Christ (Col. 1:19-22 - “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight”). Being reconciled to God will bring peace with God. Because we are justified by faith, the immediate consequence of that justification is peace (reconciliation) with God. This peace or reconciliation has been made forever between the believer and God. We are eternally at peace with God. We cannot fall out of favor with God because we're saved, justified, and reconciled because of what Christ has done in our behalf, by His death and resurrection.

Christ not only brings peace to the believer but “He Himself is our peace (Eph. 2;14)”. The knowledge that we have peace with God should strengthen our assurance that we are eternally secure in Christ.

III. This grace in which we stand. v.2 - “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

from what we have looked at, we can understand that because we have been reconciled to the Father through trusting the Son we have access into that grace in which we stand. Before we put our faith in Christ, sin denied us access to God. Sin would prevent us from ever enjoying the presence of God, from ever hoping to have salvation, and from ever having a true relationship with Him. The believer can now approach God because of what Christ has done for us. Our standing (our position) with God has changed through Christ. Once unrighteous but now righteous in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21 - “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”). This standing in the grace of God never changes even though our circumstances on this world change daily our position of salvation in Christ does not change. Nothing can change it, nothing can take us out of God's hand of salvation (John 10:28-29 - “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand”). The grace in which we stand shows us the completeness and fulfillment of Christ's salvation (Phil. 1:6 - “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”). The act of saving us, of keeping us saved, and completion of salvation is solely in the hands of the One who has provided that salvation. We are incapable by our strength or our will power or by our good works to save ourselves; we do not have the strength or power to do so. It says in 5:6, “when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”. We are utterly and totally and completely dependent on Christ to save us and to keep us saved. Once we are standing in the grace we can never leave that place. What we can do is begin to live and operate in grace. Another thing we can do is to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. The hope that we receive from being in God's grace is not a wishful hope of this world but that know so assurance of hope in God. Knowing that once we are in His grace through faith in Christ, we are eternally in His hand of grace. It says in Col. 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed (transferred, translated) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”. By awesome power of God through the saving power of Christ we are now declared righteous in Christ, reconciled to the Father, and permanently standing in God's grace. Now that should be grounds for us to glorify and rejoice in our God. But the question I want to leave you with today is this, are you standing in grace today? Do you have the joy of knowing the God of this universe through a saving relationship with His Son Jesus Christ? If not, today you can enter into His grace through faith in Christ.

Man’s Sinfulness: Doctrine of Total Depravity (Romans 3:10-17; 23)

2011-01-27T04:18:00.000-08:00

Man’s Sinfulness: Doctrine of Total Depravity

(Romans 3:10-17; 23)

As we continue in our study of Romans, we see that we have looked at the wrath of God. We have seen that God’s judgment will be against all of those who do not receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, who are still bound in their sins. The question we want answered today is: how sinful is man; How does it affect us? Today we will look at man’s sinfulness and how it affects his character, conversation, and conduct.

I. Sinful Character (vv. 10-12 – “As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."”)

Paul begins by seemingly answering the question “who is righteous” and the answer is very clear, Paul says, “There is none righteous”. No is sinless or righteous in the eyes of our holy God. Paul then goes on to answer another question that will naturally be brought up in relation to his previous answer, “well, what about Mary or Sister Theresa or Buddha or Gandhi or the Pope or Billy Graham, was she or he sinless or righteous” and his answer is an emphatic “no, not one”. There is not even one person there are no human exceptions. The only One ever born without sin was the God-man, the incarnate Son of God, our sinless Lord Jesus Christ. But other than Christ, mankind is universally evil and there are no exceptions. Paul is stating our absolute lack of righteous before God. Because of our sin nature our whole being is corrupt. The Biblical belief that our sin has tainted and corrupted our all that man is physically, mentally, and spiritually is call the total depravity of man. It doesn’t mean that we are as bad as we can be but that sin has infected every aspect of humanity. Sin has tainted and corrupted every thing we are and has made given us an inability to please God. There is no part of our being free from the stain of sin. The first thing it affects is our character. It has made us evil and separates us from acceptance with God. It affects in such a way that even the good that we humanly do is not even acceptable before God. The word ‘righteous’ that Paul uses is being understood as being right before God. Our evil, depraved nature robs us of pleasing God even in the best that we as humanity does. We have unsaved people that live pretty moral lives and that give help to the needy (like those helping in Haiti or Chile right now) but even in the best that humanity has to offer is still corrupted by our sin nature. There are great differences among people as to their love, kindness, generosity, honesty, etc. But even among the best there are none that come close to Christ’s righteous perfection. That is the standard that God demands, the righteous that God possesses, a righteous that was found only in Christ. Jesus Himself said in Matt. 5:48 – “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. For man this is an impossible task. Our depraved, sinful nature prevents us from being perfect. Our inability to save ourselves from sin, to be able to be in a relationship with God is best seen in Rom. 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. It’s like trying to jump from the Hawaiian islands to the coast of California. There are some athletes that can jump 25-30 feet; there are more people that can jump 10-15 feet, or someone like me that are out of shape that can barely jump 3 feet. Although many can do better than me it remains that we are all incapable to jump thousands of miles to the coast of California. Even though there are those who might be morally better people than others, good hearted sinners that have done great things from humanity, the sad fact is that there is none righteous, not even one; all people fall short of the glory of God. It evens says that we are spiritually ignorant (v. 11a), we don’t even have the ability on our own to know the way without God’s guidance (“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” – 1 Co. 2:14). It also makes our character rebellious, spiritually useless (“dead in trespasses and sins” – Eph. 2:1), and morally corrupt. We are totally lost, blind, and spiritually dead in our sins. We are doomed and there is nothing humanly possible that can change that fact, apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

II. Sinful Conversation (vv. 13-14 – “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit; The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”.)

There is so much more we could say of man’s character but what reveals it best, is his conversation. Jesus said in Mt. 12:34, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”; and in Prov. 10:31-32, “The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverse”. There are so many, many more verses just on conversation that we don’t have time to quote them all but it suffices to say this that a person’s real character will certainly be revealed in their conversation. We can see the result of this in the filthy conversations and slanderous gossip on TV and radio. We can also see the results of depraved conversation in the deception of false teachers of cults and false religions. No other time in history has deception been more prevalent than in our times. Jer. 9:3-5 bests describes the deception on our land in these verses, “And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the LORD. Everyone take heed to his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; For every brother will utterly supplant, And every neighbor will walk with slanderers. Everyone will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies”. Today, even politicians are noted for their lying and commercials lie about the products they sell. People openly talk of their sins and immorality and talk of the need of people to accept their perverse lifestyles. Corrupt hearts always will produce corrupt conversation.

III. Sinful Conduct (vv. 15-17 – “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known”)

If sinful mankind’s character and conversation are corrupt then most certainly their conduct will be the same. The conduct of this lost and sinful and godless world is seen the daily news of the evils man has done against man and God. In the United States 3.2% of our population is incarcerated in our prison and jail systems, 1 out of 31 people, that equals roughly 22 million people in jails, prisons, or on parole/probation. That’s just against the laws of the land, the percentage of those sinful before the laws of God are 100%. We have seen great evil committed in wars (ex. Hitler), oppressive governments (Communist China, Muslim countries), and in the daily news (murders, rapes, robberies, etc.). Our own country has made killing unborn children legal, they say that woman have the right to murder their own unborn child. Three states have made it legal to have physician assisted suicide and some have made same-sex marriage legal. Our president on his inauguration day had a homosexual clergy pray for him and also had openly homosexual choir to sing in it. He has overturned by presidential powers the ban against gays in the military. The conduct of the people of this nation shows sins corrupt influence from the top down. The conduct of our nation and other nations are against the God of heaven whose Word condemns them all. God’s judgment is against all who profane and violate His holy Law. God will warn nations and people to repent before it is too late. I just hope that people’s hearts will turn to God in repentance. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

The picture of mankind’s sinful heart is reveled in three ways: their character, their conversation, and their conduct. It’s true that the entire world is born into total depravity and a total inability to reach God in our own strength and righteousness. But through the work of salvation by Christ, we have the remedy for a sinful heart. The blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from all sin and deliver us from the eternal judgment of sin.

The Wrath of God (Rom. 1:18-19)

2010-07-03T02:35:00.000-07:00

The Wrath of God

(Rom. 1:18-19)

Today, we are going to see how the wrath of God is revealed to all mankind. We have heard many sermons on the love of God, the mercy of God, or the grace of God, but we will see another attribute of God today; it is God’s wrath. Today’s sermon is called “The Wrath of God”.

I. What is the wrath of God? (v. 18a)

It seems that no one wants to hear about this particular divine attribute of God. It is just as much an attribute of God as His love or His omnipotentance or His unchangeable nature. God’s wrath is not the idea of a mere man losing his temper; it is God’s hatred of sin and immorality. Because God is so holy, he cannot but hate sin and bring judgment against those who practice sin. We have a church world today where many of those who say they preach the Gospel seem to leave out the fact that God must punish sin, that there is an eternal penalty measured out against all who have not received Jesus as Lord and Savior. Remember that wrath is not the idea of uncontrolled anger or a temper tantrum of a mere man; God’s wrath is a settled, determined righteous anger against the offensiveness of sin. It seems that Paul’s sharing of the gospel message began with an introduction to that all mankind is under the wrath of God. If you remember in our witnessing training we went through that there is the bad news/good news approach to the Gospel. Paul made sure that this church understood that the reality that all men are lost and under the wrath of God then he would show them the way of escaping the wrath through Christ. We cannot truly understand and appreciate the love, mercy, and grace of God until we see the righteousness demands of God against sin or the fury of His anger against evil. We cannot appreciate His forgiveness or the great love of the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ if we cannot see how detestable sin, evil, and immorality is in the eyes of God. We cannot have the understanding of God’s gracious love through Christ if we do not know His hateful wrath against sinful men. God perfectly hates evil just as much as He perfectly loves righteousness. The fullness of the gospel message is most clearly seen when we show what scripture reveals about the spiritual nature of man (spiritually dead) is condemned by the righteous wrath of God; the Good News of the Gospel is more fully appreciated when we all understand that God wants to save us from our sinful nature (which incurs God’s judgment against us) through His Son, Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty of our judgment. Jesus met the righteous demands of God’s Law through his sinless sacrifice of His shed blood and life on the cross. When we just simply show that God’s wrath is against sin but God’s salvation from sin and judgment can be found through faith in Christ. The scripture reveals in John 3 both the salvation and the wrath of God. It says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” and it says in v. 36 of that same chapter, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”. The revelation of God’s wrath helps lost man see more clearly see the need of God’s salvation and forgiveness. A sinner will not seek out Jesus as Savior if he does not know that he is sinful and his sin is what condemns him. The wrath of God is basically defined as God’s hatred of sin and the fact God must punish sin. Sinful mankind is condemned and under God’s wrath but God has made a way of escape through Christ.

II. Where and How is it Revealed? (v. 18b)

God’s wrath is revealed from heaven. Our holy God has revealed it from His holy Heaven. The word ‘revealed’ here in the Greek gives us an idea that it means it is being constantly revealed. We can see in the Holy Scriptures that God has revealed His wrath time and time again. From Genesis, we see that when Adam and Eve sinned, that immediately after their sinful disobedience of God’s command, God pronounced on them the sentence of death. It was not just on Adam and Eve, but on all their descendants (that’s us, all mankind) and the earth was cursed right along with them. We can also see God’s judgment upon the whole world in the Great Flood; God’s wrath was seen as judgment fell upon all humanity in a world-wide deluge that drowned all humanity except for eight people (Noah’s family) God saved in an ark. We can also witness God’s judgment against the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, upon the first born of Egypt and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. If we look at the ‘curse of the Law’ and how we see in the sacrificial system in the Mosaic Law, that the untold millions of innocent animals killed and blood shed. That in all of those animals killed and bled it all revealed man’s sinfulness and unrighteousness but it pointed to the only One whose blood and death would save us from our sin and condemnation. In the death of Christ, we can see God’s wrath was also revealed. Jesus, God’s Son, while on the cross took upon Himself, God’s wrath for us. Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the world and bore the full effect of God’s wrath on the cross (2 Cor 5:21 –“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”). That penalty that God demanded for our sins, Jesus met on our behalf. God hates sin so much and His wrath demanded that its penalty be met that He chose to allow His only Son to be crucified and killed on our behalf. This was the only way fallen humanity could be redeemed from the curse of sin.

So, we see that God’s wrath has been revealed and it is still being revealed, and will be revealed especially in the End Times. Sometimes it seems that the wicked still prosper and prevail but it just seems that way. We must remember that the wicked will not escape God’s wrath. Here on this earth they may bribe, escape, or fool the justice system of this world, but God’s wrath and judgment will have no loop holes for the wicked to escape (Rev 20:12-13,15 – “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire”). God’s wrath has, is, and will be revealed.

III. What is the verdict of God’s wrath against? (v. 18c)

It is against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Ungodliness are sins against the very Person of God and unrighteousness are sins against God’s will. That just shows that we are simply sinful in all that we are and do. Sin taints and corrupts anything we do. So that any human attempt to span the divides that sin separates us from God always fails. Nothing worthy that we do as humans on this earth can accomplish salvation and acceptance by God. Rom. 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one” and 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”; our sinfulness means that we lack the means to truly reverence God, it means that we have a faulty personal relationship with God. If we have a wrong relationship with God then our actions will reflect that in unrighteous living towards God and our fellow man. Sin attacks the Person of God and His righteous Law. God only hates sin. He does not hate people but only the sin that they do. Sin will always bring about the wrath of God for our holy God must punish sin. Unrighteousness is so much a part of man’s nature that every person has a built in, natural desire to suppress and oppose God’s truth that we can’t save ourselves and that only God can save.

Today, we have seen that God’s wrath is against unsaved, godless mankind. We understand that God is so holy that sin and sinners are not allowed in His presence. We know through scripture that God is holy and just and because of that He hates sin and must therefore punish the sinner. But this brings us to the truth of scripture that God is love and because he loves mankind, He has provided a way of salvation through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross of Calvary. The Bible wonderfully puts it this way, God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

The Grace in Which We Stand (Rom. 5:1-11)

2010-04-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

The Grace in Which We Stand

(Rom. 5:1-11)

I. Justified (declared righteous) v. 1a - “Therefore, having been justified by faith”.

The term “justification” means to be declared righteous. How is it that we who are unrighteous (sinful) can be declared righteous? Well, a good clue to this is that it says here that we are declared righteous by faith. We are declared righteous by our faith in Christ as our Lord and Savior. The reason I know this is that the word “therefore” here in verse 1 is referring to something that Paul has already mentioned previously. And if we look at chapter 4, in the final verses we can understand how we are justified by faith. The whole chapter talks about how Abraham was justified (declared righteous) by his faith in the promises of God (Rom. 4:3 - “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” and 4:9 - “For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness”). Abraham put his faith into the revealed plan of salvation God showed him in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:8 - “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand”). We just like Abraham are justified when we put our faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we look at the final verses of chap. 4 we can understand that better, 4:20,22-25 - “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God; And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification”. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Is 53:4-5 says this about Christ, “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed”; this shows the work of justification by Christ's death. Dr. John MacArthur wrote in his commentary on Romans, that through the work of justification by Christ: “God credits the believer's sin to Christ's account, He can credit Christ's righteousness to the believer's account. God could not have justly credited righteousness to Abraham had not Abraham's sin, like every believer's sin, been paid for by the sacrifice of Christ's own blood. Before the cross, the believer's sin was paid in anticipation of Christ's atoning sacrifice, and since the cross the believer's sin has been paid in advance”. This is how we are justified (declared righteous), by faith in Jesus' finished work of salvation. “Faith is never the basis or the reason for justification, but only the channel through which God works His redeeming grace. Faith is simply a convicted heart reaching out to receive God's free and unmerited gift of salvation”. ---John MacArthur.

II. Peace with God. v.1b - “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.

Because we are justified by faith, we can now have peace with God through Jesus Christ. This peace is something we possess at the very moment we put our faith in Christ. This peace comes from the fact that we are saved and justified in Christ. The fact of the matter is that when we were lost sinners, we were hostile and against God; we were enemies (Rom 8:7 - “the carnal (sinful, fleshly) mind is enmity (hostile) against God”. Because we have been justified by Christ, we now have peace with God. We are now reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, v.10 - “when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life”. Jesus took upon Himself the full force of God's fury on the cross, that we as sinful humanity should have deserved. Because of our sinfulness we were against God, we were His enemies and undeserving of His grace and mercy he showed us through His Son. All of us who trust in Christ as Lord are no longer enemies of God and under His wrath, we are now at peace with Him through Christ (Col. 1:19-22 - “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight”). Being reconciled to God will bring peace with God. Because we are justified by faith, the immediate consequence of that justification is peace (reconciliation) with God. This peace or reconciliation has been made forever between the believer and God. We are eternally at peace with God. We cannot fall out of favor with God because we saved, justified, and reconciled because of what Christ has done in our behalf, by His death and resurrection.

Christ not only brings peace to the believer but “He Himself is our peace (Eph. 2;14)”. The knowledge that we have peace with God should strengthen our assurance that we are eternally secure in Christ.

III. This grace in which we stand. v.2 - “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

from what we have looked at, we can understand that because we have been reconciled to the Father through trusting the Son we have access into that grace in which we stand. Before we put our faith in Christ, sin denied us access to God. Sin would prevent us from ever enjoying the presence of God, from ever hoping to have salvation, and from ever having a true relationship with Him. The believer can now approach God because of what Christ has done for us. Our standing (our position) with God has changed through Christ. Once unrighteous but now righteous in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21 - “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”). This standing in the grace of God never changes even though our circumstances on this world change daily our position of salvation in Christ does not change. Nothing can change it, nothing can take us out of God's hand of salvation (John 10:28-29 - “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand”). The grace in which we stand shows us the completeness and fulfillment of Christ's salvation (Phil. 1:6 - “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”). The act of saving us, of keeping us saved, and completion of salvation is solely in the hands of the One who has provided that salvation. We are incapable by our strength or our will power or by our good works to save ourselves; we do not have the strength or power to do so. It says in 5:6, “when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly”. We are utterly and totally and completely dependent on Christ to save us and to keep us saved. Once we are standing in the grace we can never leave that place. What we can do is begin to live and operate in grace. Another thing we can do is to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”. The hope that we receive from being in God's grace is not a wishful hope of this world but that know so assurance of hope in God. Knowing that once we are in His grace through faith in Christ, we are eternally in His hand of grace. It says in Col. 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed (transferred, translated) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”. By awesome power of God through the saving power of Christ we are now declared righteous in Christ, reconciled to the Father, and permanently standing in God's grace. Now that should be grounds for us to glorify and rejoice in our God. But the question I want to leave you with today is this, are you standing in grace today? Do you have the joy of knowing the God of this universe through a saving relationship with His Son Jesus Christ? If not, today you can enter into His grace through faith in Christ.

The Unpardonable Sin (Matt. 12:31-32)

2009-11-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

The Unpardonable Sin

(Matt. 12:31-32)

Maybe you have read this verse and wondered what sin is it that God won’t forgive? It seems that should be no sin that God would not graciously forgive. But yet, here it is in scripture from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that there is an unforgivable sin that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit. That God will not forgive in this world and in the world to come. Today, we will see what the unpardonable sin is not, what it is, and how the lost can keep from committing it. Today’s sermon is the unpardonable sin.

I. What the Unpardonable Sin is not.

There are many vile and atrocious sins committed by mankind today. And there are some things I can think of that would be very hard for me to forgive. But in looking at sins I wondered what could be the worst sin that God could not forgive.

A. What about murder? – I think about murder and it is probably the worst possible sin one could commit. To deprive a person of their life and opportunities for someone to repentance towards God and plunge that person into eternity without a chance, could that be the unpardonable sin? Then I read in scripture of when Moses murdered the Egyptian taskmaster and hid the body in the sand to cover it up and I see that although it is a heinous act to commit and a great sin, it is not an unforgivable sin because we see that God forgave Moses of the sin of murder and used him in the deliverance and leading of God’s people. Also, scripture calls Moses in James 2:23, “the Friend of God”. So the unpardonable sin couldn’t be murder.

B. What about adultery? – There is no sin that affects humanity like adultery. Adultery not only affects those involved in a marriage but the children of marriage also. It is a ultimate act of betrayal and it tears out the heart of a family and causes a domino effect of sin that leads to even worse sins even murder. Take for example King David and his sin of adultery with Bathsheba. It went from adultery with her, her becoming pregnant with David’s child, and finally to where David has her husband killed. This grievous and terrible sin that of this man and how far it went to despair and death. Surely maybe this might be the unpardonable sin but in 2 Samuel 12 when confronted by the prophet Nathan David repents unto God and Nathan tells David in verse 13, “The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die”. Even though the sadness and despair involved in this sin it is not unforgivable by God.

C. What about denial of Christ? – Where there is persecution, trials, and fear of martyrdom in the history of the church there have been those who have denied Christ. Surely to deny Jesus would be severe enough to face rejection by God. But looking at Simon Peter who told Jesus in Matthew 12:35 that he would never deny Jesus, in fact he said, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You” but in vv. 69-75 he denied Christ three times. But we see Peter in Acts after seeing the resurrected Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit stand up and proclaim Christ to thousands and 5,000 where saved that day and later on Peter was martyred for proclaiming Christ. So we see also that denial of Jesus is not unpardonable.

D. What about violence against God’s people, the church? – Surely to kill and beat, and imprison, and torture God’s people is the unforgivable act that God does not forgive. But in the book of Acts we see the great persecutor of the early church, a man named Saul, who imprisoned and killed Christians (God’s children). But we also see in Acts 9 that Jesus reveals Himself to this man and Saul is saved and becomes the great apostle Paul. So, we see that even this great violent sin of persecution against the church is forgivable by God. So what is the unpardonable sin?

II. The Unpardonable Sin (Matt. 12:22-32)

The clue to understanding what the unpardonable sin is to read the passage in Matthew 12:22-32. Let’s began by reading vv. 22-28, “Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? "And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you”. We need to remember that every sign, wonder, healing, and miracle that Christ did was to bring glory to the Father and revelation that He was God in the flesh. He was revealing Himself as the Messiah the glory of God incarnate. Every time someone was healed or delivered from demons and every time He taught or preached, He revealed that He was the salvation of God. And for the Pharisees to have seen this revelation of God’s power in their midst and still reject Jesus Christ. The unpardonable sin is this, their rejection of Jesus after so many times seeing the evidence and hearing Him tell them who He was and still hardening their heart and ultimately rejecting Jesus as Savior. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, to have first hand seen and heard Jesus Christ Himself over and over again at time after time rejecting the Holy Spirit of God revealing Christ to them. Jesus Himself pronounced that it would be better for Sodom and Gomorrah at the judgment than unbelieving Israel, in fact let me quote Jesus from Matt. 11:23, “if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day”. God had mercifully dealt with Israel for many centuries and when the promised Messiah came, He was rejected and killed by them. The Pharisees crossed the line that day; they went from the mercy of God to the side of reprobation of blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God by their final rejection of Christ. Today, here in America there are people who have heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ and the preaching of God’s Word and they still are rejecting Christ. They have hardened their hearts over and over again against the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit so lovingly wooing them to come to Christ and again they reject Him. They have become desensitized to the merciful grace of God. One day they will find that God will no longer woo them. When Noah built the ark and preached for 120 years to those people they rejected the grace of God over and over again. But when the day of judgment came and Noah, his family, and animals entered into the ark the Bible says that God closed the door and sealed it shut (Gen.7:16). When the rain began to fall and water started to rise then the people began to beat on the side of the ark to open. But what had been opened to all had been shut that day once for all. It was too late; the day of salvation is today. When God calls it is then salvation is offered, that moment and that time. There is a time and a line that is crossed when the lost who have heard the Gospel, time and time again they have rejected Christ and rejected the calling and conviction of the Holy Spirit, a time when God will say, “It is enough!” (Heb. 10:26-27,31 – “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation; It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”). What is lost man to do to not sin the unpardonable sin?

III. Turn to Christ

There was a story about a tall apartment building that caught on fire and was engulfed in flames. The fire department arrived and got everyone out except one person. That person stood at the window of their apartment yelling, “Help, Save me!” to the fireman below. The fire department didn’t have a ladder tall enough to get to them but had stretched out a net that was able to catch that person and save them. They called up to that trapped person and told them, “Jump from the window we will catch you, we’ll save you” but the person wouldn’t jump but would go inside their smoke filled apartment then reappear to yell for help again and the firefighters would tell to just jump to safety. But the person never jumped but died in the flames of that fire. The only thing they had to do to be saved was to jump, to respond to the word of instruction from the fireman. Mankind is like that today, especially in America, they have heard the Word, warning, and instruction from God’s Word from God’s servants to repent and turn to towards Christ to be saved from the judgment to come but they perish in the fire. When Christ is preached today people want to question, to argue, to get some kind of explanation but all they need to do is respond. Rom. 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. To have Christ as Lord and Savior you must respond, you must confess Him as Lord. It doesn’t matter where you are or what condition you’re in turn to Christ. When the thief was dying on the cross beside Jesus, he couldn’t move or walk towards Him but he turned his eyes to Christ and said “Lord, remember me.” And Jesus’ said so graciously, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:4243). What must the lost man or woman do not to be forever lost? Do whatever they have to do to turn to Jesus in faith for Him to be their Lord and Savior.

The Unpardonable Sin is rejecting Jesus. What a sad statement today that here in America there are so many who have rejected Him. But there are those who have not heard also. Let us keep proclaiming Christ for those who will hear and believe.

Little Sins (2 Sam. 11:1-5)

2009-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Little Sins

(2 Sam. 11:1-5)

In this passage we see the story of David and Bathsheba. It is not a happy story but a tragic series of events. It all starts with David’s “little sin”. The problem with “little sins” is just with one word, “little”. There is no such thing as a little sin, that’s just what we call it to justify ourselves when we do something wrong. When our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, suffered and died on that cross for our sins, there was no mention of big or little sins. It was for our sins he shed His blood. Our sins, whether they’re big or little, are what separated us from God and condemned us to judgment. Sins are destructive and deadly, whether they are in a sinner’s or a saint’s life. Primarily today, we are going to look at the result of sin in a Christian’s life. We must look at and understand in this sermon the danger of “little sins”. Let’s look at this story of David and Bathsheba and see the results of little sins.

I. Little Sin of David (2 Sam. 11:1-5, “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child.”)

A. He Was in the Wrong Place (v.1) - As we look at our first victim of a “little sin”, we must understand that sometimes it begins with being in the wrong place. Here in the beginning of this chapter (2 Sam. 11) it says that David was in Jerusalem but his army was out to war against Ammon. Verse 1 tells us that it was the time of the year when the kings go out to do battle. So we get the idea that King David should have been there in battle with the army of Israel down in the trenches with his men but he was home just taking it easy instead of what he was suppose to be doing. Because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time there came along some problems. There are places in our lives that we should never wander into because it leads to dangerous things. And with King David we can see that all started with being in the wrong place and an accidental look.

B. He Just Had a Little Look (vv. 2-5) - David couldn’t sleep one night and went out on the palace roof. While looking around at the sky and the surrounding houses and building he sees something. Just a little distance away he accidently sees into a little house and there is a women bathing. It was just a little look and I’m sure that he could have turned away and went back into the palace but he had to take another little look. That second little look turned into a little longer look that turned into a little gazing but it was just a little sin on David’s part. That little sin grew into full blown lust and we can see from the rest of the verses that it leads on to greater sin. There are some men that say “there’s nothing wrong with looking!” but the Word of God begs to differ. In Mt. 5:28 Jesus said this about just looking, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. Entertaining a little sin leads on to more and more sin and there are destructive consequences to them (James 1:15, “when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death”). David finds out who she is (the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers) and he invites her to the palace and seduces her. From this Bathsheba becomes pregnant with David’s child.

C. He Tries to Cover His Sin (vv.6-17) – This little sin of David seems to have grown into a mess. So like any good Christian he tries to hide his sin (that’s sarcasm). David thinks he can cover it up and come out smelling like rose but it seems like sin has a life of its own. In verses 6-13, we see that King David sent for Uriah (Bathsheba’s husband) from out of the battle. David’s reasoning was that if he brought Uriah home that he could cover up getting Bathsheba pregnant by making it look like Uriah was the father. Things are never as simple as they seem. Uriah was a faithful soldier and would not go home because to him it would be a dishonor to do so while every other soldier was putting their lives on the line. Because Uriah would not go to his house and wife, David sent him back to battle with a message to his General Joab. The message was to Uriah in the forefront of a battle and then retreat back from him so he would be killed and Joab did as David commanded him. Uriah is killed and then in vv.26-27 Bathsheba mourns and after the time of mourning was over David brings her to the palace marries her and she gives birth to their son. David thinks that it’s all covered up nice and neat but any sin that given time to root and grow in a heart of a believer will dealt with by God. God has no intention of letting this sin not be dealt with in David’s life and we see this in 11:27b, “But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD”. It’s not over by a long shot.

D. God deals with David’s Sin (2 Sam.12:1-15) – God deals with David and his sin. God used the prophet Nathan to confront and rebuke King David. Nathan comes to David and tells him a story of a rich man and a poor man. That the rich man had many flocks and herds and the poor man had one little lamb that he loved like a child. The rich man had a visitor and instead of him killing a lamb from his great many flocks, he stole and killed the poor man’s little lamb that he loved. King David was incensed at the great injustice and evil of the rich man and declared that this man must die. It is then that Nathan tells David this, “You are the man!” and then begins revealing from God the great sin of David. You see there is nothing hidden from God even if your hiding a multitude of sins from everyone else, God sees it! And God will deal with it if you’re his child. How do I know this, one from experience (nothing like King David) and the best reason I know this is true is because God’s word says so, Heb. 12:5-11, “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens (disciplines), And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” God will deal with sin in the life of a believer in a way that is best for us. Because of what was told to David, he repented in 12:13, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die”. God was going to deal with David very harshly by taking his life but David truly repented and was graciously shown mercy. David should have went to God and let Him deal with his sin but David foolishly tried to deal with it on his own. If sin is not dealt with it will not just affect you but it affects those around you, especially those who you love the most in your life. David was forgiven by God but paid the price of a believer dabbling in sin.

II. The Solution for Little Sins

It only takes entertaining on “little” sin to open the flood gates of sins destructive abilities (“…for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” – Gal. 6:7b). If you ever talk to an addict you can plainly hear how all it took was that first drink, that first toke, or that first pill. Just one little decision to sin can destroy lives and your witness for Christ. My friends before it gets that far we most go humbly and repentantly to our Lord God. 1 John 2:1 says, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” Confess and repent of your sin to God so it will not gain a foothold in your heart and life. 1 John 1:9 says that if we will “confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.

The only way to deal with little sins before they mature and grow into a great destructive power is to nip them in the bud. Let Christ, our sin killer, get them when there young and fresh. Rom 6:12 – “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts” but bring them all under the subjection of Christ. Let Christ deal with your “little sins”.

A Convenient Season

2009-10-27T04:09:00.001-07:00

A Convenient Season
(Acts 24:22-27; 26:27-29)

Today, we will see two of the most terrible statements ever made in the Bible. One is from a man named Felix and another is from a man named Agrippa. The one thing that both have in common is a man named Paul who preached to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will read in these passages the most tragic words any man could ever utter. We will see today, two men who refused the Gospel call and the Spirit of God’s convicting power.

I. Foolish Felix (Acts 24:25- And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.)
Here in Acts 24, we see Paul is a prisoner in the Praetorium of Caesarea, the Roman capitol of the Judean province, and Paul has been called before the appointed Roman governor Felix. The Apostle Paul is called to the audience of Felix and his wife Drusilla (Bible refers to her as a Jewess). Paul had earlier in this chapter defended himself against false accusations of the Jews earlier but now is given audience to Felix and Drusilla to hear him explain his ‘new‘ religion “concerning the faith in Christ”. They were interested in hearing about the miracle worker Jesus Christ, I’m sure they had heard the stories and what attracted people to this new religion. But Apostle Paul always recognized an open door of opportunity from God and he begins to preach the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I imagined it was not as they expected, they were expecting a nice little presentation of a new philosophy but what they got was the uncompromised preaching of the Word of God. The Bible says as Paul preached that Felix trembled. Paul is the one on trial and in chains and imprisoned. Paul is the accused and prisoner standing at the bar and Felix is the judge. But Paul is not the one who is trembling, it’s Felix. Felix is the one who is in the position of power and influence whose subjects lives are in his hands but he is the one trembling that day. He is trembling before Paul because of the message about the condition of his soul as seen before the God of heaven and earth. Felix and Drusilla were expecting Paul to recount some kind of new mystical religion. Some kind of new age experience or philosophy that would tickle there ears and stroke their sinful egos. They wanted to be entertained by some fantastic story of this prophet and troublemaker named Jesus that Paul worshipped. But Paul simply and powerfully preached the holy Word of God. It says that as he preached that “he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come”. The Apostle Paul although he was before the one who was an earthly judge over him became the one who brought Felix before the One who stood as Judge over all. Paul revealed through the scriptures just how Felix stood spiritually before God and that was like anyone else, he stood before God as a sinner. A sinner that was in need of a Savior because we all will stand before God when we die and we will be judged (Heb. 9:27 - “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment ”). Paul preached the Gospel to this man and showed him the One that could save him from his sins and the judgment to come and it says that Felix trembled at the preaching of God’s Word. The Spirit of God was convicting Felix of his sins, the Holy Spirit was drawing this man to a place of an eternal decision, and He was telling Felix that this was his day and hour to come to Christ. Felix trembled under the mighty call of the mighty God. It came to the time of decision and what was Felix’s answer? It would have been glorious if he said, “Paul, I give my heart to Jesus!”, but those words never came from his lips. Felix’s answer was one of the most terrible words that can be spoken by anyone, it was his answer, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee, some other time Paul, some other day. When the time is right for me but not right now”. Felix simply refused the hand of God’s mercy and grace that was extended to him through the convicting power of God’s word and God the Holy Spirit. Paul presented Christ the Savior for his soul and Felix refused the Son of God. The opportunity of grace and mercy with God’s arms open wide to receive him through Christ and he refused the his appointment with destiny. There is no record of Felix ever coming to a saving knowledge of Christ but the Bible says that two years later he was replaced by Festus. Other historical sources record that Felix was recalled back to Rome in disgrace by Emperor Nero where he was never again given any title or position and that he ended his life by suicide. Felix’s convenient season never came. God’s call to repentance came that day, God’s day of salvation was offered to this man, and the conviction of that man’s heart was that day and he refused the Spirit of God. What a dangerous thing to do and how easy the words came, “No, some other day God”. He preferred to be lost and without God, willfully and foolishly rejected the call of the Spirit of God, and went into eternity to his judgment in Hell. Hebrews 10:26-27 says this, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” This was the result of Felix missing God’s convenient season.
II. Almost There Agrippa (Acts 26:28 - Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian.")
Paul was imprisoned at Caesarea right around 3 years and Paul used every opportunity to preach Christ to the lost. When given another opportunity to testify on his own behalf before governor Festus and King Agrippa II, Paul used it to give his personal testimony of how Jesus saved him. Paul boldly preached Christ to these two powerful leaders. Paul told of his training as a Pharisee, how he persecuted the church, about how he met and talked with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and how he was saved through faith in Christ. Festus openly mocked Paul and did not believe Paul’s testimony of Christ. But Agrippa’s remark to Paul was interesting. Paul directly asked Agrippa this question, “do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe”. Paul appealed to Agrippa’s raising in Judaism to bring him to a place of decision spiritually. Paul had preached to him the Gospel of Christ and now directing him to a place to believe in Jesus as Savior. Agrippa’s answer was this, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian”, so close yet so far away from the One who could save his soul. Agrippa is like so many who are in churches today hearing the gospel message of Christ. They know and believe God’s word but never came to the place of decision to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. They’ve been raised in church, still go to church, and probably like the preacher but they are as lost as a goose. They have been so hardened to the gospel that they hardly even hear it anymore, their almost persuaded.
III. God’s Convenient Season (2 Co. 6:2b - Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation”. I think he wrote that in remembering all the times those who so foolishly rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When Jesus is preached that He suffered and died on that old rugged cross to shed His blood to cleanse us from our sins and three days later physically arose from the tomb alive forever more to save us from our sins and give us eternal life in Him that’s the Gospel message. Romans 1:16 says that the gospel of Jesus Christ “is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes”, and in Rom. 10:17 tells us that, “…faith (saving faith) comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. The Holy Spirit moves upon the hearts of men by convicting us through the preaching of God’s word. That’s why when we Christians heard the gospel of Jesus Christ that we were drawn by the Spirit of God to saving faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit brought us to the cross of Christ and produced in us the faith to receive salvation in Christ. When people refuse the word of God and the Spirit of God they are putting themselves into dangerous place. When God calls you and draws you to Christ that just might be the last time. We don’t know our appointment with death. When God calls you that is the day of salvation. Salvation is not on your terms or in your time, it’s when God calls your name because your not promised another call. Today if God is calling you to salvation in His Son Jesus Christ don’t refuse Him, don’t harden your hearts (Heb. 3:15 - Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts). Listen to these words from the hymn “Almost Persuaded”:
“Almost persuaded” now to believe;
“Almost persuaded” Christ to receive;
Seems now some soul to say,
“Go, Spirit, go Thy way,
Some more convenient day
On Thee I’ll call.”

“Almost persuaded,” harvest is past!
“Almost persuaded,” doom comes at last!
“Almost” cannot avail;
“Almost” is but to fail!
Sad, sad, that bitter wail—
“Almost,” but lost!

Friends, today is the day of salvation in Christ. Today is the day that He can change your life. Don’t be a Foolish Felix or an Almost There Agrippa. Come if Christ is calling you today.

Because He Lives (What Happens When We Die)

2009-08-21T18:43:00.001-07:00

Because He Lives
(What Happens When We Die)
(Job 19:25-27)

We as Christians sometimes may not fully understand what happens to us when we die. We know that because we are saved by Christ we will go to Heaven and forever be with Jesus. But sometimes we get confused by things like the resurrection, the rapture, and what part of us goes to Heaven when we die. In this sermon, we will get a better understanding of what happens when we die.

I. What happens to our soul when we die? (2 Cor 5:8 - “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
When we read this verse we understand it simply for what it says. Paul says simply he is confident of this fact that to be absent from the body (death for a Christian) is to be present with the Lord. It is a without question according to the scripture that at our death, our soul, our spirit leaves this body and goes into eternity with our Lord. We see Jesus’ words to the thief that was crucified beside Him, “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 KJV). When we die, our soul goes to Heaven immediately. There is no waiting period, there is no soul sleep (7th Day Adventist believes this and some cults), the Christian is immediately in the presence of God in his eternal reward of Heaven. You see death for the child of God should not be feared, it will come if we are not raptured. We should a great confidence in knowing that because our Lord has saved us he has also guaranteed that we will live in our eternal home with Him in Heaven. Paul said this about facing death, Phil. 1:21-24, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you”. Paul was about to soon face a martyr’s death and he knew it was soon but he expressed it so wonderfully, to live is Christ and to die is gain. His desire to see his Lord and enjoy the wonders of Heaven was what he would encounter when faced his death but he also knew that he had to stay a little longer to finish God’s work and God’s will to the church at Philippi. For the Christian, death is the doorway we step through to our eternal destiny with our Jesus in Heaven. Our promise of Heaven is secured by death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We understand this and find great joy at knowing that Jesus has not only saved our souls but He has also guaranteed our eternal life and our eternal home. What great love and great gifts of God’s grace that we have received because we have by faith received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
II. What happens to our body after we die? 1 Thess. 4:13-17, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
At death, our bodies go into the grave and remain until it is rejoined with the spirit. As these verses declare, we understand that this will happen at the rapture of the church. This is the redemption of our bodies and it is the finalized work of salvation and the perfection of our bodies. When we trusted Christ for our salvation here on this earth, He gave us a new, redeemed spirit, He cleanses our soul from sin and makes it new; we read 2 Cor. 5:17 - “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” But we still live in this feeble body of flesh and as a Christian we should eagerly await the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:22-23 - “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”) The redemption of our body is also called the glorification of our body and again repeating myself it is the finished and complete work of salvation that was begun when we became recipients of God’s salvation. When we receive our glorification then we will forever be free from sin, sickness, and death. This new redeemed body will not be like our old, sin cursed body. To understand this better we need to read 1 Cor. 15:35-38,42-49 “But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain; perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. …The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
Paul is comparing us to seed. He is saying that our bodies are only a mere glimpse of what we shall be. We know what the seed of a watermelon looks like and what a watermelon looks like, and yet it no ways resembles each other but we know that the fruit came from the seed. The fruit is absolutely identified with the seed. We will know each other in Heaven but it will not be the old me, it will be the new and glorified me. When we receive our glorified body it will not resemble our old one, there will be no sin, no defect, no sickness, no pain, or discomfort at all in it. We will have a body like our Jesus (1 John 3:2 - “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”). We know from the verses we read in Thessalonians that we will be raptured, the dead in Christ will rise first and then we which are alive and remain but here in 1 Cor. 15 we read these verses, 51-57 - “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There is great victory of salvation though our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by His finished work of salvation by His suffering and death on the cross. And by His resurrection from the grave three days later it guarantees that our Lord is the Lord over sin, death, and the grave. 1 John 5:4 - “…this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”. Our faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world, our sins, our death and the grave. It is because of Jesus that I can find hope in life eternal with Him. John 11:25-26 - …I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
Twenty-eight years ago, I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Because I believed He was the resurrection and the life and I believed He was the only way to the Father and eternal life. By faith in the person and work of Jesus’ Christ.
III. Review - Today as we have looked at death in view of God’s Word, we now know that death is only the doorway into the next life, eternally at home with our Lord God to praise and serve Him forever. That one day we will face death and immediately our soul will be in the presence of God and our body will be in the grave until the time appointed (the Rapture) where we will receive the glorification of our body (the redemption of our body) where the redeemed, sinless body will reunite with our redeemed soul to live in a redeemed Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21:1-4 - “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
You see it be a glorious place in our new home where we can totally and completely enjoy it in our new glorified body. Death is sometimes fearful to us because it is unknown to us because we have not experienced it yet. But when we do, we know that Jesus will be with us every step of the way (Heb. 13:5 - “for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”). He is with us every step of the way in our walk of salvation (Phil. 1:6 - “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”) and He will keep us secure in His salvation until the day of completion in our Heavenly Home.

Today, if you don’t have this assurance of your salvation you can make it sure today. If you think ‘I don’t know where I will go when I die?’, today is the day of salvation. Christ is very present here today and He welcomes all to the cross for forgiveness.

Hell: Warning to the Wicked (Rich Man and Lazarus: Luke 16:19-31)

2009-08-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hell: Warning to the Wicked

(Rich Man and Lazarus: Luke 16:19-31)

Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. We all have an appointment with our eternal destiny and it’s determined where we will go on this side of the grave. Last week we looked at Heaven and the great wonders and reward of that place for the redeemed of God. Today, we will talk about the eternal punishment for those who have rejected the salvation of our Lord. The place of eternal punishment is Hell and Jesus taught more on Hell than any other teacher or preacher or prophet in the Bible. Jesus taught about Hell more than He did on love. Today we look at this passage with a solemn heart and read this warning to the wicked.

I. Two men (vv. 19-21 - “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores".)

A. The rich man - a nameless rich man clothed in the finest garments and lived in the most luxurious surroundings. He had all that he could desire and lacked nothing.

B. Lazarus, the poor beggar - homeless, hungry, diseased, friendless. He was laid at the rich man’s gate so that he might receive the scraps that were left from the rich man’s table. His only friends were the dogs that came and licked his sores.

C. The differences - The beliefs of that day, particularly of the Pharisees, was that those of earthly blessings were those who had the favor of God and the poor and sick were those who were receiving the punishment of God and were sinful. So Lazarus was seen as a sinful man suffering for his sins and the rich man was being blessed by God. Being rich doesn’t mean your righteous and being poor doesn’t mean your pious. Rich or poor has nothing to do with the condition of your soul. Being rich or being poor has nothing to do really with this passage but how the choices on this side of the grave will affect our eternal destiny. That’s the real principle of this passage.

The rich man passed by Lazarus every time that he left his house and did nothing to relieve this man’s suffering (Deut. 15:7 - "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother"), what he did was a direct violation of scripture and it showed the true condition of his heart; he had no regard for the law of God or the condition of his fellow man.

II. Two Destinations (vv. 22-23 - “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”)

A. Death finds both (v.22) - We all will face death (Heb. 9:27 - …it is appointed unto men once to die…), no one is exempt when it comes to death. However rich or powerful you are on this earth, no matter your social status, we all face an appointment with death. Death doesn’t discriminate or care how much or how little you have. We see that both of these men experience death, but the difference we see is their destination after death.

B. Beggar finds the Bosom of Abraham(Heaven) (v.22) - the beggar finds himself in the comfort and reward of Heaven. He wasn’t rich in the things of this world but was rich in God (James 2:5 - Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?). The poor beggar was rich in the things of God and found his reward in Heaven. We find the treasure of eternal life in the Father through faith in the Son.

C. Rich man finds himself in Hell (v.23) - the rich man received the just reward for a life without God. This is the reward for those who reject the Gospel of Christ and the salvation of God. The rich man had all that he desired on this earth and neglected the condition of his soul. He laid up treasure on earth and was not rich towards God. He was spiritually bankrupt and found himself suffering in Hell.

III. The Reality of Hell (vv.23-26 - “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”)

A. Why did Jesus teach so much about Hell?- The answer is found in this verse, 2 Peter 3:9b - ‘[God is] not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’; Jesus taught about Hell to warn mankind about the reality of eternal punishment in Hell. Jesus warns men because He loves them. We are all called to tell men about the good news of the Gospel and also called to warn man about the bad news of Hell. This is our responsibility and it should even more motivate us to tell a sinful world about the salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ. We would not even believe in such a place if Jesus had not repeatedly taught and warned about it. He spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible, and for a good reason. People probably wouldn't listen if anybody else tried to teach about hell. Christ had to be the one who taught about hell. We cannot conceive of eternal damnation. Christ emphasized hell in His preaching. If you don't think that is true, then you haven't paid attention to His ministry. Let me give you some examples from scripture where He teaches about hell.

1. MATTHEW 5:22, 29-30

Read what Jesus said about hell in Matthew 5: In verse 22, He said, "...whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." He then said in verses 29-30, "...if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

2. MATTHEW 8:12

Here, He said that "the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

3. MATTHEW 11:20-24

"Then began He to upbraid the cities in which most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not." Jesus condemned people who did not repent of their sin and said they would go to hell (vv. 21-24). Those were serious words from our Lord.

4. MATTHEW 12:36-37

Jesus said, "But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

The Lord constantly taught about hell. He talked about it in Matthew 23:14-15, 33; 25:29-30, 41, 46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 6:24- 26; and 12:5. Also, here in Luke 16, where he gives us a little description from the condemned’s point of view. Preachers and teachers today must not ever forget to teach about Hell. It cannot be ignored or forgotten or denied. But people don't do that today. It is convicting that we say so little about hell. The truth about hell is so terrifying and awesome that if the Lord had not taught about hell, we would not believe it existed.

B. Description of Hell

1. Place of unending torment and misery - in verse 23a it says that he was conscious and in torment. He was alive and aware of his misery for what he had done to be there. We suffer here on this earth but we know that suffering and pain will cease either by healing or death. But in hell the torment and misery will never cease. If we knew we had a million years to suffer for sins we would have a comfort of knowing that one day it would end, but in hell it is an eternal punishment without hope of ever ending.

A. It is a place of darkness (Matt. 8:12 - But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; Matt. 22:13- Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.) Darkness that is utterly total and complete. It emphasizes the eternal separation of the unsaved from God’s presence of mercy and grace. It gives the understanding of their torment of their hopelessness and helplessness. The closest example I could give is when I went on a tour of a cave and at the end of the trail there was a place where we sat down and the lights were turned off. There was a total absence of light and I could see absolutely nothing. But this is only a small degree of the darkness of Hell.

B. It is a place of fire and flames (v.24) - Not only was he tormented in the misery and torment of eternal punishment for his sins, he was also tormented in flames of fire. I always wondered how hell could be so utterly dark and yet have flames. There is such a thing as invisible flames and they are invisible due to pure gases igniting it and there are special fire detection equipment made to warn and find it. God uses both darkness and fire to describe the torment of the damned.

The Bible gives us two insights into how people will respond in hell. One is in this passage in Luke 16, where the rich man who went to hell cried, "...Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (v. 24). The other is a statement Jesus frequently made, saying that in hell "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mt. 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk. 13:28). Hell is not going to be a place of fun; it is going to be a place of weeping, screaming, grinding of teeth, and unrelieved torment.

2. There are no second chances after death (vv.24 -26) - we see the rich man asking for any minor comfort or relief but we see Abraham answering him telling him that he was receiving his just punishment for his sins and even if it were allowed they could not come to him and he could not go to them because of a great gulf fixed between the two. We see in scripture that God is a merciful and loving God who wants to save sinful and condemned mankind, but God is also holy and just so he must punish sin. God gives mankind all the opportunities to receive Christ as Lord and savior through the hearing of the Gospel and putting their faith in Christ on this side of the grave and after death there are no second chances (it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment), when we die we all go to an eternity--will it be eternal life or eternal death.

3. Degrees of punishment - there are different degrees of punishment for the evil that unsaved man does in his life. The unrelieved torment in hell will be experienced by different people in varying degrees. Hell will be horrible for everyone there, but some people will suffer more than others. Hebrews 10:29 says, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant...an unholy thing...." In other words, those who received full knowledge of what Christ did for them but still rejected Him will receive more severe punishment in hell. In Matthew 11, when Jesus condemned the people in the cities that rejected Him, He said, "...it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee" (v. 24). Hell won't be tolerable for anyone, but Jesus was saying that it will appear to be more tolerable for the people of Sodom (who hadn't seen Christ's miracles and heard His words) than for those who had witnessed His miracles and heard His words.

IV. Place to Warn Others About (vv. 27-31 - “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”)

A. Warn Them (vv.27-28)- The rich man asked that Lazarus be sent back to warn his five brothers. The horror of that place was of such enormity that he wanted to warn his brothers so that they would never know this place personally. We as Christians should desire to tell others about Jesus so none of our loved ones or friends would ever go there. The unimaginable horror of that place should sway our hearts to tell everyone about Jesus Christ and his salvation. Never should we ever think or say that anyone should “go to hell!”. We see the urgency and desperation of the rich man that no one should go to hell. We need to be that compelled to tell.

B. Abraham’s reply (vv. 29-31 - “Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”) This reply seems to be harsh but we must see the reality of his statement. God sent his Son to die for our sins on the cross and rose again from the dead so we might have eternal life. When we tell others about this Gospel it is enough given for this world. Romans 1:16-For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. God has given us salvation through the Son and given the world the message of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. God works His powerful conviction by the proclamation of the Gospel. He deals with the heart of unsaved man through it. ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God’. No other way but through hearing the Gospel and putting your faith in Christ.

We must be motivated and compelled to tell someone about Jesus just by understanding there is an eternal punishment in Hell for the lost. We have the answer and the remedy for their sin and their condemnation that is found only in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

How We Become Children Of God.

2009-07-12T20:24:00.001-07:00

How To Become A Child Of God
(Gal. 4:4-7)

Today we will look at an aspect of salvation maybe we don’t give much thought to at all and that is adoption. There are many different aspects to our salvation in Christ but let us consider our “adoption as sons”. This word adoption gives us a wonderful understanding of our position we now have in Christ. It should make us aware of our relationship we now have with Father God. Let’s explore our relationship with God by understanding what “adoption” means and how it applies to us.
I. Adoption in Paul’s time (Eph. 1:5 – “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will”).
First thing we want to do is have a good understanding of what adoption was in Paul’s day and age. Adoption in the time of Paul was known by the standards of Roman law and as we look at adoption in the natural we will see some analogies in the supernatural. Adoption was the legal action by which a person takes into his family a child not his own with the purpose of treating him as and giving him all the privileges of his own natural child. An adopted child was legally entitled to all rights and privileges of a natural-born child. An adopted child could not be disinherited by the adopting parents. According to the Roman legal system the person who was adopted into a family gained all the legal rights of a legitimate son in the new family, but he lost all the rights, privileges and responsibilities in his old family. By becoming a member of the new family he gained all the rights of his new father’s estate. He was now an equal with the other sons and daughters in his new family. He was a co-heir with them according to the law. He was regarded as a new person who had a new life in a new family. Another wonderful thing about the Roman law was that the old life of the adopted son was completely wiped out. All of his debts were cancelled. His past now had nothing to do with him. He was in a new relationship with a new family. I don’t know about you but reading about the adopted child gave me some fresh insight onto the truth of our relationship with God and it blessed my soul. Adoption is a beautiful analogy of God’s amazing sacrifice to save a lost and dying, sinful people and save them and by the process of salvation make them His own children with the rights and privileges that belong to those who are His children. We need to see what great lengths He did to make us, who have been saved through faith in Christ, into children of God.
II. Christ is our means of adoption (Gal.4:4-5 – “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”)
The Bible is very blunt about the relationship of mankind to God. According to Scripture we are mere creations of God and because of our sinful depravity of our souls we are seen as enemies of God. It says in Rom. 8:7, “…the carnal (sinful) mind is enmity (hostile enemy) against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” and Col. 1:21, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…”, our sinful nature was at war against the holiness of God. So then we can see we were the sinful, hostile enemies of God not desiring to seek the things of God but our minds set on sinful living and pleasures of the flesh (Rom. 3:10-12, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”). But in spite of our First Parents fall and the sinful condition of our souls, God provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ. Verses 4 and 5 tells us that in God’s perfect timing and perfect will sent His Son to redeem us from the curse of sin and bring us into right relationship through Christ. God foreordained the plan of salvation in Jesus knowing full well that mankind would become sinful and fallen even before the world was created but Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, willingly purposed to become our one and only sacrifice for sin by His suffering and death on the cross. We can even see that in Rev. 13:8 where it calls Jesus the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. We have now in Christ have become the sons and daughters of God. We are now in a special relationship as the family of God through adoption. But we are only recognized as being His children through Christ and by nothing else (Gal. 3:26 – “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus”).
III. Privileges and responsibilities of adoption (Gal. 4:6-7, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”)
Our new relationship of being a child of God allows us to cry out to God as Father, the particular term Paul uses here is Abba, and this is a term of endearment. I never called my father, ‘father’, I called him dad. Abba is like saying daddy, it shows a close personal relationship with your Father. What a privilege it is to call out to God and call Him “Daddy”. Because of our position in Christ, we are accepted, we are heard and we are recognized as His children. We have become heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus (Rom. 8:17). The rights and privileges in being a son and daughter of God are awesome. As I mentioned before, an adopted child did not have to worry about being disinherited they would always be that persons son or daughter. For the Christian once we are saved, adopted into the family of God, we are always saved, forever a child of God. If we are adopted, we are adopted for ever. If we are saved, we are saved for ever. If you are really saved, you are saved eternally. Our salvation and our adoption as the children of God is eternal and no one can break the bonds of adoption. So we belong to the family of God, and we are raised to the status of an heir of a son. No longer fearful of being lost in sin ever again and forever assured of our eternal salvation in Christ because we are forever accepted as a son or daughter of God. Another blessing of adoption was that upon being accepted into the new family that the adoptee was considered a new person with a new life and all that was in the old family was forgotten and gone. Any debt was forgiven and any part of their old life erased because of their acceptance into the new adoptive family, the adoptee’s identity was now with their new family and the old family ties were completely cut off. We when receive Jesus by faith as Lord and Savior, we become a new creation in Christ Jesus and our old life is forgiven and forgotten by the power of God (2 Co. 5:17 -Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.) I am also glad that all my sin debt was forgiven, the penalty that I had incurred was what I deserved, but Jesus Christ took the penalty for me and by His sacrifice paid the price (Col. 2:13-14 - And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross .). The great love and grace God has shown us through our Lord Jesus, our adoption made possible only through the Son. Because we are accepted as children by that heavenly adoption in Christ we have these great privileges and rights because they are ours by our Father’s will. But we must be led by the Spirit of God because we are the sons of God. We have a responsibility to show the world around us we are his children. Being led by the Spirit means we are obedient and willing children. We are to be obedient to His Word and living out the Word and His Will in our lives.
If we are thankful for our salvation and grateful for the acceptance as sons and daughters of God then we will represent our Father and show that we are truly His Children.

Sermons from Galatians: God's Purpose for the Law (Galatians 3:15-29

2009-07-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

God’s Purpose of the Law

(Galatians 3:15-29)

6/28/09

The study of Galatians has brought us to the understanding that salvation is God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That no works of man (religious or morally good actions) can save us, it is only by the Person and work of Christ. With all of this truth given to us here in Galatians we come to the question, “What was and is the purpose of the Law (commandments of God) given to Moses, if the Law does not save then what is it’s intent?” Today we will see the purpose of the Law in view of the grace of God.

I. The Law is Inferior (vv. 15-18)

A. It is inferior to the Covenant made to Abraham (v.15)- The Law is inferior to the Promise of Abraham because even though the law was given it did not change or do away with the promise of salvation in Christ made to Abraham (“in your Seed shall all nations be blessed”, see v. 16). This promise to Abraham was unconditionally initiated and established by God alone. That means it was done not on the basis of what Abraham could do or was, it was solely based on the unconditional grace of God. God’s basis for this covenant with Abraham was that God wanted to do it. There were no conditions to the promise made to Abraham. God called out Abraham and made the covenant promise to him and Abraham responded to God’s Promise by faith. In Genesis 15, we see that in verses 1-7 that Abraham asked God in light of the promise made to him “who shall be my seed come through since I am childless, my only heir is Eliezer, who was born in my household but he is not my offspring [my paraphrase]?” and God told Abraham to look at the stars in the night sky and told him “just as innumerable as the stars, so will be your descendants”. And Abraham believed God (put his faith in God). But Abraham then asked God, “And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Gen. 15:8) and God sealed the covenant with Abraham by performing a ceremony that was common at that time in that Far East culture. Abraham received instructions from God to take a heifer, a she goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon, to cut them in half and lay the halves opposite of each other having a path in between the halves. Gen. 15:12-17 then tells us that God caused a great sleep to fall upon Abraham and then it describes that God symbolically walked between the pieces as a “smoking furnace and a flaming torch”. The practice ordinarily required both parties to walk between the pieces to signify a covenant between them but only God sealed this covenant. Only God walked through there which meant although Abram and his descendants would receive the promise made by God, that the obligation to fulfill the promise was upon God Himself. The blessing of the Promise would be unconditional upon the recipients. So the eternal promise of that promised Seed is Christ and the salvation of Christ (the New Covenant) is an unconditional, free gift of God’s grace that is in no way dependent upon us (Eph 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”). God initiated and instituted that promised New Covenant of Christ and it is unchangeable and permanent. The Law in no way set aside or amended that promise (Abrahamic), and the obligation to fulfilling that covenant was on God alone so that means it could not fail and would be fulfilled. The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant was the New Covenant in Christ.

B. It is inferior because the Abrahamic Covenant was based on the fulfillment of that promise, Jesus Christ (vv.16-17)- because it is based on the supreme New Covenant of Jesus Christ, the law cannot modify it or change that fact that all are forgiven only through the offering of Jesus Christ on the cross. The covenant with Abraham looked to it’s fulfillment in the New Covenant in Christ. Salvation comes from the finished work of Christ on the cross and not of any religious rituals or good works. The eternal work of Christ for salvation is a timeless act and it saves regardless of those before Christ or after Christ

C. It is inferior because the Abrahamic Covenant depends on the power of God and not man’s performance (v. 18) - if we compare the Law with the Promise we see that it is all dependent on God. The inheritance of the Promise is not based on our performance or keeping the Law but it is based on the powerful grace of God. We are saved and eternally secure in our salvation because it is based on God’s power and not our inability to keep the moral law of God. Christ fulfilled the Law on our behalf (Matt. 5:17-18, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."). It was all fulfilled in the sinless life of Christ.

II. The Purpose and Accomplishment of the Law (vv.19-25)

If we have over and over again been told here in Galatians that salvation has always been about faith and not of works and the covenant with Abraham was fulfilled in Christ, then why do we have the Law, just what purpose does it serve? Paul says here in verse 19 that the Law was added because of “transgressions”. The Law was given to show mankind their sinfulness. It was given to show us our inability to keep the moral demands of God. It was given to show that we are in desperate need of God’s mercy and grace. It was given to show us we are unable to please God by our own works and in desperate need of a Savior. In v.24, which we will discuss more here in a minute, it tells us that the law was our “…schoolmaster (tutor) to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith”. The Law helped to us to realize that it is impossible for us to meet the moral demands of God. The standards that God demands to be in His presence or to enter His Heaven cannot be possible for us because we are utterly sinful. The impossibility of keeping the Law shows us that we are under God’s divine judgment because He holds us accountable for our sinful acts. The law convicts us of our sinfulness and drives us toward the mercy and forgiveness of God. The Law was not wrong but it is inferior (Rom. 7:12- “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good”), it cannot save but it leads us to God’s grace. It was not possible for the Law to save, v.21 says, “if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law”. The Bible says that we are unrighteous (Rom. 3:10- “there is none righteous”) and “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and the only thing the law does is to condemn our actions. How can we not know our need for salvation in we don’t know we’re sinful. The law was not to do away with the promise but to only reinforce just how desperately we need Jesus. If the Law could save us then the death of Jesus Christ would have been needless (Gal. 2:21- “…if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”). The ultimate purpose of the law is summed up perfectly in v.22, “the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” And in verse 23, it says that we “we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.” These terms ‘confined’ and ‘guard’ are used for those who are in prison. The Law revealed that our sins condemned us in the eyes of God and basically that we are on death row awaiting our day of execution. The high, unattainable moral standards of God condemned me and showed me I needed Christ as my Savior and that word of God’s law convicted me with guilt of my sin. It caused me great discomfort and sorrow and pain but it brought me to a place of surrendering my life to Christ. God has made our bodies to let us know when something is wrong with us, a pain, a fever, or other discomfort let’s us know when something is wrong and in need of medical attention. If we ignore the symptoms, then we will pay the consequences such as permanent damage or even death. The pain is to warn and protect, so is the moral law of the Word of God, it shows us our spiritual infirmities and warns us of danger, but if ignored it will result in serious eternal consequences. The consequence of ignoring the warning of our spiritual condition is spiritual death (Ezek. 18:20- “The soul that sins, it shall die"; Rom. 6:23- “For the wages of sin is death”). But to let the Law be our schoolmaster or tutor to teach us our condition without Christ and guide us to Christ. In the ceremonial laws (specifically the sacrifices), was the picture and symbol of that perfect sacrifice and sinless offering of Christ. The Law always showed us our sins but graciously pointed to our only Savior, Jesus Christ. We cannot know the depths of the mercy and love of God if we are not shown the depth of our sinful depravity.

III. Freedom and Salvation in Christ (vv. 25-29)

Romans 6:14- “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” The ceremonial system of the law only symbolized what Christ has done for us on the cross. When we by faith received Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were no longer under the bondage and judgment of the law because of sin. We are free from sin and the judgment of sin because of the finished work of Christ. Because Christ has fulfilled the requirements of the Law on our behalf, we can by Christ now become the sons and daughters of God, baptized into His Body, and then we are the true, spiritual seed of Abraham.

Sermons from Galatians - Justified by Faith: The Faith of Abraham (Galatians. 3:6-9)

2009-06-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Justified by Faith: The Faith of Abraham

(Galatians. 3:6-9)

6/7/09

The theme of Galatians might be summed up this way: we are justified by faith in Christ. Because Paul over and over again tells us in Galatians it is by faith we are saved and not by works. We are saved, justified, reconciled and redeemed by faith in Christ alone. There is no religious works, good deeds, or any human effort that can save us. In this passage today we will see from the scriptures how that we are saved through faith in Christ and not through any external works of the flesh. We will see that the Old Testament saints were saved and justified through faith just as the New Testament saints were. Today we will see that we are only justified by faith.

I. Spiritual Children of Abraham (Gal. 3:6-7 – “just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.”) – Paul uses Abraham as an example of a relationship with God through faith. The Judaizers were trying to use Abraham as an example that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised, to take this outward sign, to share in the blessings of Abraham. They were in effect saying that unless they were participating in the religious rituals of the Jews then they were not of the “sons of Abraham”, that they did not have a relationship with God and not truly saved. Just what was the promised blessing God made to Abraham? Genesis 12:2-3 – “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” and Gen. 22:18 – “"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”, through the promised seed, Christ, will all peoples, all tribes, all tongues, and nationalities can be blessed. The Bible says in Gen. 15:6 that Abraham “believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness”, this verse is what Paul is quoting to the Galatians 3:6 to refute the false teaching of the Judaizers. Paul was saying that Abraham wasn’t seen as right standing with God because he was circumcised, but that Abraham was justified by his faith in God. It was 14 years after Gen. 15:6 that Abraham was circumcised and that just shows that the external sign of circumcision was not what justified Abraham in the sight of God. Paul in Romans 4:3, 7-10 says this about Abraham being found righteous, 3- “What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness."; 7-10- "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him." Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!” From the O.T. scriptures Paul shows us that Abraham was found righteous before God because of his faith in God. The Judaizers, like many of the Jews, confused the outward mark of circumcision as a means of salvation. Circumcision was only a sign established by God to identify His chosen people with Him and show their separation from the pagan and idolatrous world around them. Circumcision was only an outward sign and had nothing to do with the spiritual work of salvation and justification. It is almost the same with water baptism is only an outward sign of identification of believers with Christ and not a means of salvation. It only has meaning if you have a salvation relationship with God. The Jews were very proud of that they were the racial offspring of Abraham and because of their physical descent it made them acceptable to God. When the Pharisees made claim that they were the offspring of Abraham to Christ in John 8, He told them that they were of their father the Devil. They had put their trust in the racial heritage and the religious works of Judaism and did not put their faith in God. Jesus put it into perspective just like Paul did, it’s not the result of your physical lineage (family or race or nationality you’re born to) or your religious works, if your faith is not in God then you’re not in the spiritual family of Abraham. Abraham is the spiritual father to anyone who by faith receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior that’s what Paul is saying here in Galatians 3:7. Just as Abraham was the example for justification by faith (Rom. 4:3 – "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”), so we must be like Abraham and believe God by faith to be justified (Rom. 4:5 - But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness).

II. Gospel to Abraham (Galatian 3:8-9, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”) Let’s look at verse 8, it says that the Gospel was preached by God unto Abraham. That’s an unusual statement that Abraham heard the gospel. You see when God revealed Himself to Abraham, He revealed to Abraham the complete fulfillment of that promised blessing, Jesus Christ. For we see that in Gal. 3:16 it says, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” God revealed Christ, the crucified Savior, to Abraham and he believed God. If that is hard to believe then let’s look at the very words of Christ in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad”. You see the O.T. saints and the N.T. saints all had to put their faith in Christ. The promise God made in His covenant to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus Christ and one can only be a partaker of those promised blessings by putting their faith in the One who fulfilled the covenant. If you look at Heb. 11 you will see that all the O.T. saints put their faith in Christ, 11:4- By faith Abel, 11: 5- By faith Enoch, 11: 7- By faith Noah, 11: 8- By faith Abraham, 11: 20- By faith Isaac, 11: 21- By faith Jacob, 11:22- By faith Joseph, 11: 23- By faith Moses, etc., we see all these O.T. saints were justified by faith, Heb. 11: 6 sums it up nicely- “But without faith it is impossible to please him (God)”. It doesn’t matter which side of the cross we are on even if it’s before or after Christ came to earth, salvation is found only in the Cross of Calvary. Even though the O.T. saints might not have known the specifics about Jesus, there was enough revealed to them to put their faith in the future sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The O.T. covenant looked forward to the cross while the N.T. covenant proceeds from the cross. Their faith pointed to the cross while ours points back to the cross. It was said of the O.T. saints in Heb. 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises (fulfillment in their lifetime), but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them (believed what God revealed and promised in Christ), and embraced them(faith in Christ produced salvation)”, this verse speaks of their faith in the promise of Christ’s work of salvation and because of this they were justified. We who are under the New Covenant it is said of us in Eph. 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast”. We are saved, justified, reconciled, and redeemed only through faith in Christ alone. Whether it is from the perspective of looking forward to the cross or whether looking back to the cross, the only thing that matters is that there is the finished work of Christ on the cross. The shed blood of Jesus Christ covers both sides of the Cross. That is what saves us and nothing else.

By looking at the accomplished work of Christ on the cross we that no matter if it was Abraham by faith looking forward in anticipation of Christ or all of us looking back in faith to the Cross, it doesn’t matter where we are at but that we by faith believed in the only One who can save us. Because of Christ being the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and Abraham believing and putting his faith in God for the future fulfillment by his obedience to the command and word of God we can share in the same spiritual blessing with Abraham. That blessing is a personal relationship with God through Christ. And just like Abraham, we are justified by faith.

Sermons from Galatians - Truth Positive (Galatians 3:1-5)

2009-06-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Truth Positive

(Gal. 3:1-5)

May 31, 2009

Paul continues the defensive argument of the gospel message to the Galatians. Here in Chapter 3, Paul’s reaction is still of bewilderment why they would leave the truth of the Gospel for the Judaizers’ false teachings of religious works. Today we’ll look at how Paul deals with their abandonment of the truth by him asking key rhetorical questions to make them remember the truths he had taught them.

I. Crystal Clear Picture of Christ (Gal 3:1 - “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?")

A. “O foolish Galatians”- Paul begins speaking to the Galatians with a strong statement, “ You foolish Galatians”, it sounds as if he is claiming these believers have a mental deficit of some sort, but that is not the case. The problem was not a mental deficiency but a mental laziness, they had been careless with the truth of the Word of God. They failed to test these teachers with God’s Word. Paul wasn’t calling them stupid, he was letting them know that they were not applying the true Gospel teaching they had received from him, that they had stopped even believing it, that’s why they had fallen for the Judaizers’ lies. So, the problem was not just mental, it was spiritual. It created in them a lack of faith and severely hindered their judgment in regards to God’s truth. A good example of this is the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, when the resurrected Christ walked with them, they did not know who He was, and because of their lack of faith and knowledge about Him in the scriptures and He began to explain the scriptures about him- Lk. 24:25-27- “Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Although they had spent three years with Him, they failed to understand that Christ had to die for their sins and rise from the dead. Jesus used the same word for foolish in Greek that Paul used for mental carelessness and laziness. If they had sufficiently studied and believed the prophecies in scripture they would known that Christ’s death was not the end, that He would rise again from the dead. They believed the modern and popular teachings of some rabbis and not the truths of the word of God. It seems that the popular false teachings of the Judaizers were also taken for face value instead of believing God’s word. They had so foolishly fallen for the false teachings of the Judaizers’ legalism that they quit believing and utilizing the Gospel truths that Paul had faithfully taught them. These were Christians that had failed in staying faithful to and applying in their lives God’s Word of Truth. They willfully and sinfully neglected these God-given resources found in God’s Word and were foolishly caught into their web of lies.

B. “Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”- Paul continues with the questioning by asking, “who has lured you away from the foundational truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?”. Bewitch here gives the idea of being lead away by flattery or emotional persuasion. What it means is that they were enticed by the feeling of fleshly pleasing religious works righteousness. They ‘felt’ there was something else besides faith alone in Christ. They ‘felt’ that something was missing and they had to add to their salvation to make it complete, that faith alone was not enough. False religious works always appeal directly to the flesh and want you to forsake using your mind to accurately handle the Word of Truth, “2 Tim. 2:15 - “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. What was the truth they were “bewitched” from? The truth was of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, which means that faith alone in the fact that only Jesus Christ can save us and that He saved us through the death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. That’s the truth of the gospel and Paul is saying to them, “remember, Christ was clearly and truthfully preached and taught to you and salvation was clearly seen as being accomplished for us by Christ alone”. This tells us they were faithfully taught the word of God by Paul and the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ was believed, received, and by faith salvation was wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. Instead of residing and abiding and staying in that glorious truth they chose to believe a lie. One thing I learned from my instructor in the study of Cults is that it is always easier to believe a lie than the truth. This lie caused them to deny the absolute saving power of Jesus Christ and it dishonored His atoning death on the cross. It is always the truth of the Cross that “sets us free”.

II. Faith Alone (Gal. 3:2-4 - “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain; if indeed it was in vain?") - Here Paul asks some more rhetorical questions. These were questions they should have asked of themselves from the beginning these false teachers began to assert themselves into this body of believers. To answer the first question, to receive the Spirit of God you must be saved by faith in Christ (Acts 2:38 - “Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”). We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ by faith. There are many so-called Christian groups who claim that salvation is earned by religious works and faith like those who believe in baptismal regeneration. That means they falsely believe that one is saved or “regenerated” only when one is baptized (hard-line Churches of Christ, Catholics, Oneness cults [UPC, Apostolic] etc.). But the false teachers ignore more than 60 times in the New Testament where it explicitly states that our eternal salvation in Christ is through faith and/or repentance alone with no mention of water baptism or any other religious works associated. Well, Paul goes on to say, you have begun by the truth of Gospel, you were saved because of the truth of the Gospel, are you now believing that it is by your legalistic works, by your own effort, you are now trying to keep yourselves saved? They had begun in the truth and the joy of grace but now are grudgingly trying to maintain their salvation. They went from freedom to bondage. If we cannot save ourselves then we cannot keep ourselves saved.

III. Power Encounter (Gal. 3:5- “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”) - Paul was appealing not only from a standpoint of the scriptural revelation of Gospel truth but he was also appealing to the genuine experience of the gospel of grace. The greatest miracle, the greatest demonstration of the power of God ever seen is salvation of a sinful man. Paul was saying to them, if you remember the day your were saved by putting your faith in Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you’ll remember it was not done by you being baptized, or you joining a church, or receiving communion, or any kind of good deeds or religious works. It was done by the power of God alone, through the Person and work of Jesus Christ alone, and through faith alone in Christ alone. It was because you heard the powerful Gospel message, the Spirit of God convicted your heart, and your were given the saving faith needed to receive Christ as Lord (Rom. 10:17- So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God) and not the human works righteousness that was powerless to save you from sin (2 Tim. 3:5 - “…having a form of godliness but denying its power").

The power of the Gospel is found in the powerful work of salvation in our powerful Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” and it is found only through faith in Christ alone.