Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Scripture reading is from 1 Corinthians 12.

1 Corinthians 12:12 through 27.

I'll be reading from the New American Standard Bible.

And it reads For even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free.

And we were all made to drink of one spirit, for the body is not one member, but many.

If the foot says because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body, it is not for this reason.

Any the less a part of the body.

And if the ear says because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body.

It is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

Verse 17.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the hole we're hearing.

Where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as He desired.

If they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now there are many members but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, It is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we deem less honorable.

On these we bestow more abundant honor.

And our less presentable members become much more presentable.

Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.

But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked.

So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it.

I will not be using slides this evening in case you're wondering.

Uh, it's not that they just didn't show up.

I'm not going to use slides.

You may wish to, if you care.

Uh turn to 1 Corinthians 12th chapter, uh, will not have a single text this evening, but that will certainly be one of the texts that we'll use more than some others.

43 Corinthians 12, the scripture reading just a moment ago, appreciate Jake reading that lengthy reading.

I want to begin this evening with a question.

Who are the people outside of your physical family that you are the closest to?

Outside of your family, your immediate family, who are the people that you are the closest to?

Is it a co-worker maybe?

Or perhaps some community friends, somebody that you know through some uh social organization, maybe athletics, uh, of something of that nature?

Or is it another member of the Kelly Spring Road congregation?

Is it perhaps the members of the congregation that sit the closest to you?

Those are the ones that you're the closest to.

I mean, of all people, who are you the closest to?

I'm gonna say something that may startle you and I suspect is not probably true in absolutely every case, but I'm gonna try to defend this statement and that is, if your closest friends are not Christians, you may have a spiritual problem.

If your closest friends, the people that you feel the closest to, are not Christians.

You may have a spiritual problem.

Someone says, well, but I have more in common with my non-Christian friend than I do most of the Christians.

Now I want you to think about that statement for just a moment.

What do you have in common with other Christians?

Well, I would think that we could make a whole laundry list of spiritual blessings and hopes and, and Those are the things that we have in common with other Christians.

When someone says, well, I have more in common with my non-Christian friends than I do my fellow Christians, say in a, in the local congregation, that may say more about what's important to me than it does actually, what I have in common with the people I'm closest to.

In my outline, it says, our auditorium is filling up.

But tonight, uh, it's not filled like it was even this morning and certainly last Sunday when we had over 200 here, got a lot of people out because of the holiday and, and uh some sickness.

But Debbie and I have been pew shopping weekly recently.

We're moving from uh the place where we had uh had paperwork where we were allowed to sit and we've kind of been looking around and, and so we'll say, well, we could sit, oh, no, can't sit there.

That's where this family sits or these people sit.

Well, how about, no, no, can't sit there because that's where somebody else sits and we don't.

We're not Pe Steelers, OK?

And so it's been a little bit of a challenge to find some place where we can sit where we're not going to displace somebody from where they normally sit.

You may have come in perhaps on a Sunday morning or even on a Sunday evening and, and because you're getting very close to the time of the beginning of services, you find that there's somebody who actually has the gall to sit in your view.

Because you weren't there when they showed up and so they thought, well, this is an empty place.

Somebody's already sitting in your place.

I think it's interesting that we tend to find places to sit and that's where we want to sit all the time.

Uh, I noticed there are a few people this evening who are sitting in different places.

Shame on you.

I can't preach when you're in the wrong place.

No, I'm just kidding.

But we do tend to pick out a place in the auditorium, and that's usually where we sit.

And some may have been thinking as they're seeking for a place to sit.

Why didn't we build a bigger auditorium when we added this auditorium to the original building?

The original building was only 5000 square feet.

It's now classrooms, and then later this auditorium was added when we outgrew the auditorium side of that original building.

Why then, why oh why didn't the elders Plan for a bigger auditorium so that we would have plenty of seating, even if the congregation grew.

Was that a lack of wisdom on the part of the elders?

I'm not gonna comment on elder wisdom this evening.

Um, I don't want to get beaten up in the parking lot by 5 other elders, but I will tell you that wasn't it.

Um, some might think, well, you know, you're, you're constrained by finances, you can't, you know, you can only borrow, that wasn't it either.

The fact of the matter is, the size of this auditorium was purposefully kept to its current size as it was designed for a different reason, not because of a lack of foresight on the part of the elders or perhaps finances.

The irony is that the larger the congregation gets in number, of course, the closer we have to sit together.

But as I said, ironically, sometimes the less connected we tend to be with each other.

We're closer together in our seating.

But we know many of the other members, much less intimately as the congregation size increases.

This evening, what I'd like to do is talk about intimacy among members of the congregation, which I believe is intended by God.

I believe he intends for us to be close, to be connected to one another, and we'll show some things from the scriptures I think that will sustain that point.

And then I want to talk about some benefits that you and I will reap as we have close connections with other members.

One of the problems that growing churches face is a loss of intimacy among their members.

Someone says, growing churches don't have any problems.

No, that's not true.

The fact of the matter is sometimes churches as they grow, they begin to be less and less connected, that is the members, one with another.

As an illustration of that, I would cite for your consideration what happened at Gooch Lane.

Many of us here, not, well, I say many of us, some of us now, uh, back in 2006, were faced with a congregation of 300 at Gooch Lane, and they were, there was no place to sit.

Visitors would come in and they couldn't find a spot to sit and so the elders gave the members there at Guchtch Lane the option of either building a bigger building or forming a new congregation.

And of course, you know what happened.

Actually, in the polling of the congregation, it was kind of half and half, but there were individuals who lived out toward this area, closer to this area.

And so the decision was made for a group to swarm and about 60 of the members at Guoch Lane swarmed from that congregation uh to their everlasting repentance invited me to come with them.

And so we have been the Church of Christ on Jeff Road for at first.

We never met on Jeff Roe, not one time.

We met at Tumble Bee's over on Wal Triana in the dance studio, no dancing allowed in the worship services.

We met for a little while down in South Madison at Dublin Park in the recreation building there, I think for about 6 months.

We rented a couple of rooms and used those for classes and as an auditorium.

And then we finished up as the church building was being completed here by meeting at Athens Bible School in their old auditorium.

This is back before uh the building of this new uh building that they have now.

And so we started with about 60, 93 people, something like that.

And, and the congregation has been blessed with numerical growth.

And I would say to you that probably all of us know some members of this congregation much better than others.

One of the problems at Gooch Lane was, and this is a, in a sense a good problem to have, it, it's a matter of growth, it's logistical, but their their building like ours was kind of a fan shape even more uh in its depth and the size, the, the shape of the fan.

And they were in the back of the lobby, similar to what we have here, door on one side, double door on the other side, I should say double doors on both sides.

And there was a congregation on this side of the auditorium that often used that one door and there was a congregation on this side that would use the other door and sometimes never the twain would meet.

There would be people over here who would never find the opportunity to talk to people over here because they went out different doors, they sat on opposite sides of the auditorium.

And so what happened is there was less and less of an interconnected connectivity between members.

We knew the members, the other members, less and less.

But I will tell you that congregations can get large enough that one only really knows a small subset of the total membership long before you hit 300.

One of the reasons for the the size of this auditorium is that the elders deliberately do not want to grow to the point where we have that same kind of situation where people don't know the other members.

But I'll tell you, it happens long before 300 in attendance.

A congregation doesn't have to get very large for members to become disconnected from one another, especially when we sit in the same place at each worship service.

Debbie and I have sat in this area for quite a while, and that makes it hard for us to talk with or to visit with people on this side.

We weren't shunning you, OK. But that's the young people section, so we were pretty sure we didn't belong over there.

But we didn't see those people.

They would sometimes go out the back of the auditorium and we're over here visiting with the old folks like Jim Milstead and and Kevin Gilstrap and No, no, I'm not gonna say Tim Smith's name, OK?

Um, so we would, we would talk with some of the folks over here and what's happening is we're again experiencing some of that disconnectedness that I want to talk about.

We have to recognize there are logistical realities.

We're not going to be, uh, we're not gonna know every member of the congregation at the same intimacy level.

But we do need to work around those logistical realities as much as possible.

Now I'm not suggesting that we don't want to grow in number, but there's something evil or bad about having a large congregation.

But congregations.

Either grow or they die.

Congregations either grow or they die.

And you are probably familiar with examples of congregations that just slowly grade.

What happened was, they weren't growing in number.

They weren't converting people.

People weren't moving in sometimes because of the economy or other things, people were moving away, and the membership gradually became older and older.

That's why I agree with Tim Smith when he says the sound of young people, even if it's a little distracting sometimes and services, is a wonderful thing.

What it suggests is at least for the time being, we're not graying.

There are new younger people who are growing up and uh that's a good thing.

In order to talk a little bit about our relationship to one another, I want to take a look at some of the terms that are used in the New Tes in the New Testament to describe scripture, uh uh scriptures, to describe Christians uh in the scriptures.

And every descriptor that I'm going to talk about uh this evening emphasizes something about those who are connected to Christ.

For example, Just the word Christian.

emphasizes the connection that we have to Christ, that we belong to Christ.

And that's in line with Acts 20 and 28, where Paul said that we were purchased by the blood of Christ.

So we belong to Christ. Disciple.

The word disciple is a word that literally means a learner.

But by implication in the days of the New Testament and even prior to that time, often those who were learners of teachers or philosophers also were followers.

Literally and metaphorically.

Sometimes a philosopher would have students or disciples who followed him from place to place to hear his wisdom.

They were those who were following the philosophy of that teacher.

We, as Christians are learners, and we are followers of Jesus Christ.

In light of the things that we have learned, we follow the doctrine of Christ.

Christians are called saints.

In the New Testament, the word saint is literally the translation of an adjective.

It's literally holy ones or sanctified ones.

And that term, that descriptor talks about our character, the fact that we've been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, that there needs to be a purity of holiness in our lives.

We're called sheep.

In John 10, Jesus is the, the good shepherd, and he has a flock.

We're part of that flock if we're Christians.

We're those who need guidance.

Often, the picture of sheep is that without a shepherd, they tend to wander and be scattered.

In fact, Jesus at one point, talks about the people of Israel, saying that they were scattered like sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep need shepherds.

And so sometimes we're described as sheep.

And the Lord provides that guidance, that leadership, both from the Chief shepherd, as we discussed this morning and elders who are shepherds under the chief shepherd.

But the two that I really want to focus on this evening.

Talk more about our relationship to one another.

And the first one is brother or sister, as the case may be.

And the other one is member.

When we use the term brother, the, the figure that comes to mind obviously is family.

Sisters and brothers in the same spiritual family.

When we talk about members, we're talking about the parts of some larger whole and as 1 Corinthians 12 suggests, we are members of the body of Christ.

There's one body, but many members.

And so I want to talk a little bit about those.

Last two descriptors, brother or sister, emphasizes the closeness of family.

Now, I understand, uh, because I've uh seen people and talked with people whose families were extremely dysfunctional.

And for them, family was not really a term that brought a warm fuzzy feeling.

Their family members didn't behave the way that God intends for parents and siblings and children to behave.

But typically, We value family.

There's a connection there.

As we grow up among our siblings, as our parents take care of us and guide us and discipline us when we need it, as they show us love.

There's a bomb that's built there in the physical family.

You've all heard this expression.

Blood is thicker than water.

And I think the meaning of that is that often Christians, excuse me.

Often, Christians will prefer their physical family relationships over their spiritual family relationships.

If you're a Christian and a member of this congregation, we have a relationship based on the fact that you and I were baptized into Christ.

We belong to the same family.

I appreciated Ed's comment about we have the blessing of being adopted into God's family.

Two different figures to talk about the fact that we belong to the same spiritual family.

Blood refers to the fact that we often have the same uh genetic background, our physical or biological parents.

Blood is thicker than water.

It shouldn't be.

And the reason I say that is that on several occasions, Jesus would make the observation that the more important relationship was the spiritual relationship, not the physical relationship.

Now I love my family.

Well, most of my family, uh, just these.

I was trying to decide whether I was gonna throw Vicky or Cheryl under the bus.

I couldn't decide, so I'll just say I love them both, OK. So I love my family, but the truth of the matter is, Jesus says, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

That's Matthew chapter 10 verse 37.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

I love my son, David, and love the other boy, uh, a lot.

But the relationship that I have with Christ is superior to those physical relationships.

John in his first general epistle in 123 John 4.

says in verses 19 through 21, we love because he first loved us.

If anyone says, excuse me.

I love God and hates his brother.

He's a liar.

For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from him.

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Speaking of our uh our spiritual brothers.

If you say you love God and you don't love your brother, John says, you're a liar.

How can you love God whom you haven't seen and you don't love your brother whom you can see?

If we are going to love God, then we need to also love our brethren.

Brother, sister, those terms emphasize the kind of bond that we are familiar with in our physical families.

Only that bond should be even stronger.

than the physical relationship of family.

If you're in 1 Corinthians 12, you're probably wondering if we're ever going to get there.

We're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the uh reading that was done for the scripture reading.

And in that reading, the other descriptor, member of a body is used uh a good deal.

The context of chapter 12.

In the larger context is the Corinthians were divided on a lot of things, and Paul deals with some of those issues of division in this first letter.

But chapter 12 and 13 and 14 for that matter, are are all concerned with Miraculous spiritual gifts.

And it becomes obvious from some of the things that Paul says early in chapter 12, all the gifts come from the same spirit.

And then what he says in the scripture reading that those gifts, all of them are necessary.

God gave them as he chose.

And the idea is that the Corinthians didn't need to look down on any other member who had a different gift, nor did anyone who had this gift.

Feel excluded because they didn't have that gift.

And so There are different functions of these gifts, but unity was to prevail.

I would like to read again, beginning in verse 12.

And I'm reading from the ESV.

For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews and Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body.

That would not make it any less a part of the body.

Now, we understand that Paul is talking about Corinthian Christians who were given and were exercising various spiritual gifts.

And some were apparently suggesting that because they didn't have that gift, maybe the gift of tongues, kind of really exciting and interesting.

Maybe they only had the gift of prophecy, speaking in the same language as they would normally speak.

By inspiration, of course, that somehow they felt like their gift was less.

And Paul says, listen, the, the hand, uh, rather the foot doesn't say, uh, because I don't, I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body.

No, no, no.

He says, and if the ears should say, this is verse 28, because I'm not my and I, I do not belong to the body.

That would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye.

Where would the sense of hearing?

Where would be the sense of hearing if the whole body were in ear?

Where would be the sense of smell?

And as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

So Paul's talking about the different functions of the various gifts, but he's emphasizing the unity of the body in its many parts.

In verses 29 and 26 of the same chapter, he says, which are more presentable parts do not require, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

You see a theme here?

Different functions of the various parts of the body, but they work together.

There's unity in this body.

In Romans the 24th chapter, the apostle Paul will use a similar figure, although not extensively developed as in 29 Corinthians 212.

Look at Romans 103:210.

I'm gonna read verses 210 and 228.

He wrote, for as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.

So we, though many are one body in Christ, and individually members, one of another.

Gary emphasized that concept in the previous month during announcements.

We are members, one of another.

That is a very intimate type of relationship that God intends for the parts of the body.

And there ought to be the same care, verse 25 of 1 Corinthians 12 says, for one another.

Let that sink in.

The same care for one another.

The same care that you feel for that member, you ought to feel for that member.

That's a challenge, isn't it?

Because we tend to feel closer to some members than others.

But Paul says The members need to have the same care for one another.

In verse 26, he says, if one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

I want to talk a little bit about the benefits of intimacy among members, and I, I hasten to point out that while we often in our culture use the term intimacy in a sexual context, that's not necessarily true.

Intimacy just means a closeness.

And there ought to be a closeness between us as members of the same local body.

How many of you are on the app next door?

Next door, a few of you are.

That's a, that's a time stealer.

I, I admit it.

But one of the things I find interesting about that, and, and it's, it's people on the app are from all over, uh, not just our area, but in other places, but all over this area.

And people will post things about all kinds of lost animals and I need to buy something or I'm trying to sell something.

But one of the things I've noticed is how often there are cries for some sort of Physical contact.

The fact of the matter is we are reminded about how isolated and alone, even lonely, sometimes people who do not belong to a local congregation of Christians, how lonely they feel.

I just moved into this area, the post will write.

I moved in 6 months ago.

I'm looking for friends.

Isn't that pathetic?

And the fact of the matter is, I never feel that way.

You probably don't feel that way because we have this group of spiritual family members and we get together and we worship together, we talk with one another, we study together, and we do things outside of the assembly as well.

And sometimes I'm not sure we really appreciate what a blessing that is.

Until, of course, we read something like what I just suggested, where somebody clearly feels like they're just alone in the ocean of humanity, no connections, no strength, no help.

Our culture.

Has pulled us apart in some ways.

I'm gonna suggest two things about changes in our culture that affect this business of being close.

One of them is that we have moved from an agricultural society to an industrial society.

And what that means is that there was a time in the early history of this country where most people were working farms.

The vast majority of people were doing that kind of work.

And so uh the father would stay at home and his children, if he had children with his wife, they would work on the farm together and he would teach them as they worked.

They would learn skills that had to do with farming, learn how to take care of themselves.

And the family unit tended to spend a lot of time together.

And then the industrial revolution took place.

And now the majority of people are not farmers.

In fact, a very small percentage of our population are farmers.

Most people get in their cars in the morning and they go drive someplace to work at a job that's outside of the home.

And it's not unusual for the parents, both of them often to go their separate ways while the children go to school or sometimes daycare or whatever.

And there's not a lot of time being spent together until maybe in the evening when they grab a little bit of time together before they start the same process the next day.

And so families are kind of being pulled apart.

But there's another thing that has happened.

And it is that our society has become technologically advanced.

And the consequence of that is that it has opened many doors of opportunity.

For recreation, for work.

For activities of all kinds.

And so what's happened is we don't stay at home.

And sit on the front porch and tell stories with our family.

We don't spend a lot of time sometimes with our family members, and we don't spend a lot of time often with other Christians.

We can go places and we can do things.

In fact, we can fill our lives to the brim.

With stuff to do.

And what that's done is it has stolen a lot of the time that people used to spend.

Talking to one another, spending time getting to know one another.

Now, please don't misunderstand me.

I'm not saying that I'm against technology.

You can see me reading my sermon outline off of a computer.

An Apple computer, I would point out.

But what has happened is this, this move toward technology has taken away time spent with family, time spent with neighbors, time spent with other Christians, and I'm particularly concerned about the last category.

Some time ago it's been.

Uh, maybe a couple of years already.

I don't recall exactly how long.

The elders here decided that we would try to divide the congregation up into small groups with the idea that these small groups would rotate, the membership of the groups would rotate, and, and each group would try to get together in some capacity outside of the assemblies of the building.

And do something together.

Whether they have a potluck in somebody's home or they go to a ball game or they have a singing or something else, a Bible study, whatever, but you're gonna get people who might not normally spend a lot of time together, get them together so that they can learn about each other.

Because unfortunately a lot of the communication that we have here.

It's rather superficial.

Hey, how are you?

As we pass in a hallway.

How you doing?

We don't wait for the answer.

That's just a greeting.

I spoke to you, so there you go.

I've, I've checked the box.

And I have no idea.

What's going on in your life?

How much time Do we spend With other members of this congregation.

Outside of physical family, I mean.

In an average week.

I would guess That for some of us, maybe many of us, The time that we spend with other Christians is primarily the time that we're here.

Where we are actually worshiping God and we're not necessarily interacting with one another on a social level, certainly.

And we don't see each other during the rest of the week.

In a series of lessons that the elders have taught on marriage.

The first lesson is on communication.

And in that lesson, We affirm that communication is the lifeblood of any human relationship.

In fact, that's how you get to know people.

That's how you become intimate with people is that you communicate with them, you interact with them.

And so you can understand that the less we interact with one another, the less we know about each other.

And that has some consequences.

Because I want to talk to you about the result or results of intimacy.

When people know each other well, several things happen.

One of them is that we have a better understanding of the challenges that others are facing.

Has this ever happened to you?

You find out that something is happening in the life of one of the other members.

And it's a serious thing.

Maybe it's a serious illness, or there's some sort of problem at work or some sort of family problem, and you had no idea that they were struggling with this.

Maybe they've been struggling with it for some time.

Didn't really know them that well.

I know who they are.

I know something about them.

I may even know where they live, but I really don't know them because we just don't spend any time together.

Our communication is, how are you?

Good to see you.

Have a good week.

And it never gets any deeper than that.

When members know each other, really know each other.

They'll begin to understand some of the challenges that others face.

We become secondly more knowledgeable about what others need and, and these are interrelated, I understand.

In Galatians chapter 6, verse 103, Paul said, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you also be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

I can't help you bear your burden if I don't know what your burden is.

Or even that you have a burden.

In Romans the 12th chapter in verse 13, Paul said, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Now, it may be that Paul had in mind primarily Material needs.

In other words, people who were not able to provide for themselves.

I admit that possibility, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes we have a lot of other needs.

We have emotional needs.

That need to be met But if we don't know each other very well, then it's very difficult for us to identify those needs.

Now, in all fairness, some brethren hide their needs.

They're very concerned that nobody finds out what they are struggling with.

And frankly, That's like having a treasure box in your home, filled with money.

But you won't open it.

And use what's inside.

When Christians will not avail themselves of the help, the support that other Christians can offer, that's what they're doing.

They've got this huge gift.

That they won't unwrap, won't use.

Third thing that happens as a result of greater intimacy among members.

is that we tend to become more sympathetic to one another.

We tend to become less judgmental toward others.

If I don't know what your circumstances are, if I don't know what you're struggling with, then sometimes my judgment about why you did something or the way that you are behaving may not be very accurate.

I may be very judgmental.

That seems to be sometimes our tendency.

The less connected we are.

Have you ever noticed that the people that you're really close to, you have a tendency to give them a pass?

When they're cranky on a day, cause you know what they're dealing with.

Because you know them, you're close to them, you're intimate.

And I think that's what happens with us.

But the opposite is true also.

If I know nothing about your life and all I see is you struggling, maybe I'm critical of that.

I'll give you an illustration.

Here's a woman who brings small children to worship.

Her husband doesn't come.

He's not a member of the church, but she is.

And so she brings her children to worship.

And they're loud, and sometimes they misbehave, sometimes they're distracting.

And so here's old folks like me who are saying, oh, you know, I wish, wish she'd take care of her children.

I wish she discipline her children.

Well, she's pretty much maxed out.

On what she's able to do.

She's doing well just to get them ready and come here.

So the third thing I would say that is a result of knowing about the circumstances of others is that we tend to become more sympathetic.

And so instead of saying, you know, well, I wish her children were better behaved.

I wish they weren't making so much noise.

I wish they weren't a distraction.

Somebody Needs to go and help.

Fourth thing And that is that when we uh no other brethren, when they know us, this is a two-way street, this particular one.

Then we have a support system when we struggle with greater challenges.

I think everybody's life is like that, don't you think that sometimes things kind of go along well.

And we really don't need any extra help necessarily.

And then things happen.

Illness, natural calamity.

Deaf in the family.

Sickness of a protracted nature.

And we are facing greater challenges than we normally do.

And that's, that's what I was talking about with the next door thing, where people find themselves suddenly needing some help and they have nobody to turn to.

They're, they're, they're posting on an app to complete strangers, please come and help me.

But when Christians in a local congregation, when they know each other.

And they're familiar with some of the things that are going on in other people's lives, then they can be a support system.

One of the things that the elders talk about with all of the members, new members, when they come and say, we want to be a member of this congregation, we say, we're gonna meet with you in 6 months.

Occasionally, it turns into 8 months or 9 months, but we want to meet with you in about 6 months because we want to know, are you forming relationships in this congregation?

Are you are you forming a support system with the other Christians?

One of my favorite verses in Ecclesiastes versus plural.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 through 12.

Some of you recognize the reference.

Two are better than 1 because they have a good reward for their toil.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, Two will withstand him, a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.

And in those verses, Is the wisdom of God's plan in having us meet together as a local spiritual family.

That we can support one another in our numbers.

The Amish are known for their oddities.

You know, driving around those little buddy buggies and no electricity, at least limited and, and some of the things that they do, I, I really just don't make any sense to me.

But I'll tell you one thing about the Amish, they know how to define community.

In Amish country.

If a barn burns down, Everybody comes together.

And they put up another barn, not 10 years later, sometimes within a few days.

Because they are community focused.

And maybe we need to learn something from them, although I think the New Testament teaches us that we ought to be community-focused, but the community Is this family.

This spiritual family that constitutes a local congregation.

Here's a revelation It takes time and effort to get to know others.

You have to be willing to be patient and talk to people, spend time with people.

Otherwise, it's difficult to know each other.

The expression you've all heard before, Nature hates a vacuum.

And I'm gonna substitute a word.

I'm gonna say that culture hates a vacuum.

Have you ever noticed that in your life?

You've got a schedule and all of a sudden some activity that you were involved in is no longer going to happen.

And so you've got an empty place in your schedule, daily, weekly, whatever, monthly.

How long does it take to fill that up?

Because there's stuff waiting in the wings, things that we want to do, other activities.

And so what happens is we just keep filling our lives with more and more things, and there's just not time.

For the importance of getting to know, becoming intimate with the other members of our spiritual family.

What are you allowing our culture?

To fill your life with.

That's a good question to answer.

Well, I appreciate your patience this evening.

We have been talking, emphasizing horizontal relationships, our relationships with one another, but the gospel message is that we can have a relationship with the Creator of heaven and earth.

With a God who is all powerful, whose wisdom and power are beyond our imagination, we, and I appreciate the prayers that I've heard recently, Ed mentioned it this evening.

We look at the design and the wisdom of this, the beauty of this world, and it's hard to comprehend a God who could do all those things, and he wants to have a relationship with you.

In Mark the 10th chapter, there was a rich young ruler who came running to Jesus.

He asked the question, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

Of course, Jesus, knowing the heart of this man, told him that what he needed to do was sell all of his belongings, give to the poor, come and follow me.

And the text says that he went away sorrowful.

He had a lot of stuff, and he didn't want to give it up.

That same chapter, just a little bit later on in verse 28, records that Peter began to say to Jesus, see, we have left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, truly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions.

And in the age to come, eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last first.

Jesus wants to be our elder brother.

God wants to be our father.

He invites us to be a part of his spiritual family, and if you're not a Christian, if you're not a brother in Christ, if you're not a member of the Lord's body, the spiritual body, then tonight why not obey the gospel?

Why not let your faith cause you to follow the Lord's command and be baptized in the Christ for the remission of your sins.

If we can assist you this evening and becoming a Christian, please come to the front as we stand to sing and encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Well, good morning.

I have an announcement to make on behalf of uh the elders here at this congregation.

We want to inform you that there are going to be some changes in the way that we do some things.

The elders recently received a letter from the governing board of the Southeastern Regional Association of Churches of Christ based in Montgomery, not Atlanta, as many people believe.

Indicating that our benevolence to evangelism ratio was too high, and they mentioned some other concerns as well that the elders intend to address uh here shortly.

So that we don't fall out of favor with the governing board and risk some sort of congregational censure, the elders have decided to make these uh suggested changes and uh would appreciate your compliance.

Now, I may have lost a few of you at the point that I suggested that the Southeastern Regional Association of Churches of Christ.

We're based, was based in Montgomery.

You were thinking Atlanta, but most of you are thinking, what?

KSR belongs to some regional association?

We've been expecting that Alan would go off the rails.

We just thought it would take more time.

There is no Southeastern Regional Association of Churches of Christ, as far as I know, I didn't Google it.

But I know for a fact that if there is one, we're not part of it.

Because the New Testament talks about churches being Uh, autonomous in their self-government.

But you should be aware that there are in some foreign countries.

Uh, attempts have been made by some of even our own brethren to set up organizations that would control who could come in and preach among churches of Christ in that country.

And you should also be aware that in religious groups that employ some sort of hierarchical organization above the local congregation.

Individual congregations are expected to follow the doctrinal decisions and organizational decisions that are made by authoritative bodies in that, those organizations.

For instance, sometimes the local congregation is told what they should believe, the church's position on this or that by one of these superintending groups.

In some religious organizations, you may be aware of this, but the decision of who will lead the congregation, whether they call them a pastor or a priest or reverend, that that decision is made by the hierarchy of the organization, not the local congregation.

And I think those practices highlight the wisdom of the organization of the Lord's church.

Each congregation being autonomous.

When I say that the New Testament reveals that congregations should be autonomous, it would be so useful.

If we could just point to some passage that says, uh, for instance, in 2 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 23, I am compelled to remind you, Timothy, my son in the faith, that every congregation must be autonomous.

Now, I noticed a couple of you, you're shaking your digital Bibles, trying to figure out why your Bible won't go to 2 Timothy chapter 5, because there isn't a chapter 5.

That's a made up verse, but it would be handy if the Bible just directly said that, right, and make for a shorter sermon.

But instead, what we're going to do this morning is develop the argument that the New Testament gives us that indicates that congregations are supposed to be self-governing.

When we talk about the word autonomy, and that's a word that's frequently used in discussions of church government, one of the things we realized right away is that it's not in the scriptures.

You can't find that word autonomous there and And yet we use it over and over again.

What does it mean?

And is it a scriptural principle, are we inventing something in the Church of Christ creed that sometimes we're accused of having?

Well, the word autonomy actually comes from a couple of Greek words.

It's a compound word.

Those two Greek words are auto, which is a reference to self, and nomos, which is the word for law.

So you can guess pretty quickly and pretty easily that autonomous refers to some group or person who is self-governing.

And so when we talk about congregations being autonomous, what we mean is that they are governing themselves without interference from others.

An autonomous congregation is one that answers only to Christ, the head of the universal Church, and not to any one individual or group of persons outside of the congregation.

Well, then the question becomes, are congregations of God's people intended to be autonomous in this sense?

And the answer is absolutely yes.

Elders, we are told in the New Testament, are appointed by the Holy Spirit to take the oversight of the flock.

We're familiar with some of these passages, and so I won't spend a lot of time on them except to highlight some phrases that I think are important for our discussion this morning.

In Acts the 20th chapter verse 28, as the apostle Paul was speaking with the Ephesian elders at Miles, he says, pay careful attention to yourselves and All the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

I understand Paul to be saying that the Holy Spirit makes overseers or appoints overseers in the sense that it is the Holy Spirit that has revealed the qualifications for elders and 1 Timothy 3 through the pen of Paul and also in Titus chapter 1.

Congregations will select men that meet those qualifications, but the plan for government of a local congregation, leadership is from the Holy Spirit, and that's Paul's point here in Acts 2028.

In 83 Timothy 5:17, in the, in the midst of a discussion of some things regarding elders, Paul says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

The word rule there is a word that literally means to stand before.

It's the idea of presiding over or leading that is with authority.

In 1 Timothy 3:5, the apostle Paul in the midst of those qualifications for elders, says this, For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, that ought to be true of an individual who would be qualified to serve as an elder.

How will he care for God's church if he can't care for his own family, for his own household?

And so elders are those who care for the, the church of God.

And then finally, on this Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17 says, obey your leaders.

This is the English Standard version.

The new King James Version says, obey those who rule over you.

And we know from a previous passage here in First Timothy, that those are the elders of the congregation, and submit to them, for they're keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account, let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I hope that the perception that you have of the eldership here is not that of disciplinarians or those who are looking to try to correct or try to, to, to get after people who are not doing what they should.

I like to think that the perception is that of shepherds.

Shepherds care for flocks.

They do what's necessary to keep that flock safe and to provide for the sheep of the flock.

Just like a father sometimes has to exercise discipline of the children, but good fathers are seen by their children as those who are protectors and providers.

And so, hopefully, the congregation here sees the role of the elders here in that sense as shepherds who are leading and providing.

Every church we understand is to have its own elders, and this is an important concept.

I'm talking about providing the fact that there are men qualified.

Not all congregations have men that are qualified to serve as elders.

But we look at the passage in Acts 14:23 where Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey and they appoint elders in every church, not city elders, but in every church or congregation.

In Acts chapter 93 and verse 28, we already looked at that passage, but now I want to emphasize a different part of the passage.

Paul says, pay attention, careful attention to yourselves, and all the flock in which, in the flock, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

The elders are part of the flock that they are overseeing.

That's important because the concept of overseeing a flock that is distant from the elder's location is a pretty common thing, even among some of our brethren.

In 1 Peter 5:211, In the passage that was read, appreciate the comments, uh, that John made.

Peter writes, shepherd, the flock of God that is among you.

Elders are to be among the people that they are shepherding, that they are exercising oversight over.

Well, what is included in the oversight of elders?

When we talk about oversight, what do we mean?

Well, the word oversight just means watchful care or supervision.

In fact, supervision is essentially a synonym of oversight, sight that is over, and we sometimes will talk about being a superintendent or supervising, and Webster says that that means to have or exercise the charge and oversight.

of something or someone to oversee with the power of direction to supervisor, to supervise.

Elders are described as those who have oversight.

They're described as bishops or overseers, as is the translation there in the ESV in Acts 211:227.

And the Greek word that is translated overseer is a word that literally means To look over.

It's composed of a verb that means to look and elders are those who are watching over the local flock.

The elders we remember from uh passages already spoken of, the elders are to watch for the souls of the members.

Hebrews chapter 230 verse 22, they watch for your souls.

Then that would involve the.

In the work of evangelism and edification and benevolence in the worship, in discipline, corrective discipline of the church as well as instruction and the resources of the local church of which these elders or shepherds are members.

Much of their shepherding has to do with teaching.

And so you see that in the qualifications of elders.

Over the years, I have known a number of elders who I believe not to be qualified because either they could not teach or they were not teaching, which would be a fault on their part, even if they were qualified.

And yet Paul says of elders in 28 Timothy 153:215, that they need to be able to teach.

I think it's the King James version says that they need to be apt to teach, and I've known some elders that were apt to teach anything.

You just never know what they're gonna say.

They weren't grounded in the scriptures, but in Titus 21:216, Paul says that elders may need to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict that doctrine.

And so elders are shepherds, and a lot of their role in terms of instruction and correction and guidance and healing as shepherds involves teaching.

And I'm proud of the fact that in this congregation, the elders, all of the elders teach regularly so that you have the opportunity to know what they understand about the scriptures and to be encouraged to follow those scriptures.

We know also that In the case of Acts 11, when money was sent from the church at Antioch down to the Church of Jerusalem to help needy saints since the Jerusalem church was unable to help all of those, that the money that was sent was sent to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

And I'm assuming then that the elders would have taken the oversight of the distribution of those funds.

Now, I'll tell you what you won't find in the scriptures, and that is any indication of any organization beyond that of the local congregation.

There is a very conspicuous absence of any kind of organization that then interferes in the affairs in the work and worship uh of a local congregation.

No evidence of any city-wide elders or officers over a number of churches.

The elders of this congregation don't have any business in another congregation.

We're overseers of this congregation, and that's the limit of our oversight.

Christ is head of the church in the universal sense.

And as Peter describes in 1 Peter 5, the shepherds here are shepherds under the chief shepherd, who is Jesus Christ.

Well, if each congregation is to be autonomous, Can there be any cooperation between churches or local churches or congregations, or do we just have to kind of isolate ourselves from other congregations?

And the answer is, absolutely, we ought to be cooperating with others.

And we have examples in the New Testament of churches that did that very thing.

Churches, for instance, work together to support a preacher by each congregation sending directly to the preacher in question.

Paul notes in his writings, both to the Philippians and to the Corinthians, that he had received wages from other congregations that is from other congregations than the Corinthian congregation.

He talks about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

He talks about the support that the Philippians sent to Paul, both in chapter 1 and chapter 13, as they supported him directly as, as he was preaching.

In various places.

And so that's a way in which congregations, perhaps multiple congregations cooperate in the preaching of the gospel, but they send their funds directly to the evangelist.

I've told this story before, but I'll repeat it again because I think it's germane to this point.

When Debbie and I lived along with our sons in Brazil, there was some controversy among institutional brethren and conservative brethren, and the institutional brethren sent out a letter.

Apparently to every Church of Christ in the country of Brazil that they had addresses for, labeling, labeling us as wolves and indicating that the way that we were teaching creatures should be supported was impossible.

The irony of that is it was working.

All of us were being supported that way, that is Dennis and Joe Works and Gary Fisher and myself.

We were receiving funds directly from various churches.

There wasn't any kind of sponsoring church that said, oh, we're gonna take care of Allen's salary.

All of you churches send money to this church and we'll take care of that work.

Nobody took charge of those funds.

The funds came straight from the churches to the individuals who were being supported.

I guess it is possible.

Secondly, a church sent a preacher to another church.

Acts the 11th chapter verses 21 to 23, chapter 11 talks about the establishment of the church in Antioch, and of course, Barnabas is sent by the church at Jerusalem to go up and to encourage the saints there.

Now that's cooperation without interfering with self-government.

Church has sent funds to a church that could not care for its own needy members.

We have a couple of instances of that in the scriptures that we're aware of.

The first one we've already mentioned in Acts chapter 11 verses 27 to 30.

The other is described in three different passages.

You can look at 2 Corinthians 8:9, Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians 16.

In both cases, in both uh incidents, and they are separate events, in both cases, churches sent funds directly to the need and not through some other uh sponsoring church as sometimes uh brethren do today.

And then finally, another way that churches cooperated in the first century is they shared educational or edification opportunities.

Paul would write to the Corinthians that this letter ought to be read by the church at Thess uh Laodicea and the Colossians should read the letter from the Laodiceans, that is the one that had been sent to them.

And that's no different than this church holding a gospel meeting inviting other brethren to enjoy that edification in the gospel.

But in none of these examples that you see on the screen, in none of those examples did any church surrender the oversight of its work to any other church or organization.

They cooperated, but they were all autonomous in terms of their government.

We could talk about some violations of autonomy.

But I'm gonna suggest to you that any effort to interfere in the government or in the activities, the work of the worship of another congregation.

is a violation of congregational autonomy.

And so at the same time that we have interest in other Christians in this area, the elders of this congregation do not try to make decisions for other congregations.

We don't interfere in their decisions.

Because all of us that is congregation should be autonomous, self-governing.

Well, let me conclude this morning by just simply saying we need to understand that pattern.

We need to follow that pattern for local church government.

And unfortunately, among churches of Christ, there are a lot of them that have decided to leave that pattern.

And so they've invented this organization or that organization and that didn't just start in our lifetimes.

That started way back uh during the end of the restoration movement in America with missionary societies, state and national, that sort of thing.

We need to stay with the pattern.

We need to know what the pattern is, and the pattern is identified, at least in an indirect sense, by understanding the role of elders.

If you understand what elders are supposed to do, and the limit of their oversight, and you don't have any problem understanding that congregations need to be self-governing.

They need to be led by their own elders and not by elders of another congregation.

I've seen this over and over again, where some congregation here in the states has taken the oversight of a congregation, a new congregation sometimes in some foreign country on a different continent, different time zone, different hemisphere.

And those shepherds of the congregation that's taking the oversight can't possibly shepherd people who live on a different continent.

You can't know the sheep.

You can't provide for the sheep.

You can't protect the sheep.

What they do is they basically control the finances of other congregations.

Sometimes even the building that they have.

The oversight of elders is limited to a single congregation of God's people, and every activity of a local congregation should not violate that pattern.

When we stray from that pattern, there's no real stopping place.

As soon as we begin to build additional organization.

Where logically must you stop?

We've been studying in the Roman Catholicism Church actually class.

Actually, we've uh did this early on when we talked about the origin of the Roman Catholic Church, how the, the first thing that began to change was organization where among the presbyters or the elders of a local congregation, one presbyter was elevated and he was addressed specifically as a bishop.

There's a distinction made between the bishop and the presbyters.

But it didn't stop there, did it?

Then some bishops began to have authority over a number of congregations and then city, big city bishops started to have influence over congregations, other bishops, the country bishops kind of faded out of existence, so that you began to have these dioceses.

And so it goes.

There's no logical stopping place.

If you're gonna throw away the pattern, then make it up as you go.

And I think all of us are committed to following that pattern, the pattern that we see in the New Testament.

That's what God asks for us to do.

And we need to stay with that pattern not just in the matter of church government, but in the teaching of the plan of salvation, there is a definitive pattern that's revealed in the New Testament.

It's found in the epistles.

We see examples of it in the book of Acts.

Paul would end his book to the Romans by noting that the mystery of the gospel had been revealed for the obedience of faith, so that people would believe that message, and then they would act on it.

They would obey.

The responsibilities of those, the obligations of those who need grace, and it may very.

They may very well be this morning that you are ready to follow that pattern that you need to avail yourself of the grace that's found in Christ Jesus.

If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that he's the risen Savior, then you need to repent of your sins.

He's the only means of salvation.

And he's given his gift.

I appreciated the comments that Ethan made this morning.

The great sacrifice that was made for us, so that you and I could be free from the bondage of sin.

And if you want to be free, really free.

Jesus is the way.

The truth and the lie.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning by being baptized in the Christ for the remission of your sins, we want to encourage you to avail yourself of the opportunity while you have that opportunity, and we stand to sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

For if it is the adherent of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void, for the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith in order that they prompt that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all as it is written.

I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence to the things that do not exist.

In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old.

For when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb, no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith, and he gave glory to God.

Fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised, that is why His faith was counted to him as righteousness.

But the words it was counted to him were not written for His sake alone, but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in Him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

I suspect that many of you have noticed some changes this morning.

I noticed that the schedule of services this morning was formatted differently.

And some of you have noticed to your chagrin that Debbie and I have moved from that side of the auditorium to that side of the auditorium.

I can hear the young people.

What's Alan doing over here?

This is the young people section.

Although in my defense, I would note that Gary and Vicky sit over there too.

But I want everyone who's concerned about that to know that we filed the necessary paperwork with the elders so that we could move to a different pew.

And on that form when it asked, why are you moving, I simply observed that we had sat behind Tyler and Alicia for I don't know how long, and it didn't seem to do Tyler any good.

And I also noted that this would put us closer to Jennifer Perkins where maybe we could be some influence of good on her.

I'm teasing, of course.

I appreciated the good words that Tyler uh shared with us this morning as he prepared our minds for the Lord's supper.

And I reluctantly treasured the humor of Jennifer Perkins.

If you don't know anything about her humor, I'll talk to you later.

This morning I want to talk to you about one of the patriarchs.

In Genesis 6.

God told Noah, righteous Noah, to build an ark.

And in chapter 193 and verse 22, following all the instructions that God had given to Noah, Noah did exactly that.

Verse 22 says, Noah did this, he did all that God commanded him.

Have you ever thought about what others must have thought about Noah's Work on this ark.

Depending on how you understand the beginning of chapter 6, some have reasoned, and I think justifiably so, that the ark may have taken close to 120 years to build.

And during that time, you know that there were people who probably laughed about what Noah was doing.

Hey, Noah, how are you gonna get that big boat to the water?

Where are you gonna find a trailer large enough to carry it?

Come and see what crazy Noah is building.

How's he gonna steer that thing?

It just looks like a big box.

What a nutcase.

And then when Noah and his family were had gone into the ark and the Lord had shut the door before the rains began.

I wonder if there weren't some people using sticks to tap on the outside of the door and say, hey, Noah, you in there?

You know you can't stay in there forever.

And he didn't Because the rain soon began.

And then the torrents of water, not just from the sky, but from the seas, the springs of the seas, the fountains of the deep, began to cause the seas to rise, and very soon people understood that Noah's boat wasn't folly at all.

Hebrews the 11th chapter verse 7 says, by faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen.

In reverent fear constructed an art for the saving of his household.

By this, he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Now, I mentioned Noah for two reasons.

One, I wanted Hans to think that he had missed the whole topic of the sermon.

Well, not really.

I just wanted you to see the faith of Noah because Noah's faith, very similar to the faith of another patriarch by the name of Abraham, and it is Abraham that I would like to talk about this morning.

Abraham was given a promise by God that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky.

And that promise was given to Abraham when he didn't have a single heir, didn't have any children at all.

And so Paul describes in his monumental work, the epistle to the Romans, the faith of Abraham.

And we need to understand the strength of Abraham's faith because God expects us to mimic that faith, to follow in the footsteps of Abraham's faith.

I want to begin this morning by kind of setting the table, so to speak, for chapter 4 in Romans, which is where we'll be spending most of our time this morning.

When Paul begins his uh work on justification by faith, he begins by talking about uh the theme of his book, verse 16 and 17 of chapter one, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the Power of God or salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Paul in Romans is talking about justification by faith.

And so he begins.

In the 223st 3 chapters by demonstrating that that's really the only option that man has.

And he does that by rehearsing or summarizing.

The condition of Jew and Gentile in the past.

In chapter one, he talks about the fact that the Gentiles had not been able to be justified by their works.

In fact, the chapter 1 verses 18 through the end of the chapter 32 reads Like a laundry list of some of the most uh horrible sins.

Gentile society had descended into idolatry and crass sexual immorality.

Three times in that passage, Paul says God gave them up.

He allowed them to do what they wished to do because they had rejected knowledge of God.

But then in chapter 2, He notes that the Jews really had not been any more successful.

That in fact, Jewish society had likewise failed to be justified by their works.

The Jewish people hadn't done any better, as Paul talks about in chapter 2, the entire chapter.

In verse 13, he says, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

It appears from Romans 2 and other passages as well, that the Jews seem to think that just possession of the law, just the fact that they were Jews, God's chosen people, that that was all that was necessary and Paul dispels that misapprehension.

It's the doers of the law, not just the hearers of the law.

Verse 23, he says, you who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.

The Jews likewise.

had not been able to justify themselves by their obedience to law, by their works.

Neither group, Jew or Gentile, had managed to be righteous by their own merit, by their own works.

And what Paul is doing is he's basically hurting all of mankind toward the only option that they have, and that's justification by grace through faith.

And that's what he begins to talk about in chapter 73.

Although the Jews had had some advantage, greater light over the Gentiles.

They had been given the oracles of God.

They were in the same spiritual boat as the Gentiles.

And Paul concludes in Romans 3:9, what then?

Are the Jews any better off?

Have they done any better because they had the oracles of God?

And he says, no, not at all.

For we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin.

And down in verse 19, After having cited numerous phrases and passages from the Old Testament, stringing them together, he basically observed that the law condemned the Jews.

Now, we know, he says in verse 19, that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped.

He's already said the Gentiles failed, and now he says the law says you Jews have failed as well, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

And then in chapter 3, in the end of the chapter, Paul reveals God's plan.

Man hasn't been able to do it by his own works or merit.

He must seek justification through God's grace.

And so in chapter 3 and verses 21 through 26, the end of that chapter or near the end, Paul describes in some of the most comprehensive ways, God's plan for justification.

The law and the prophets, he says, bore witness to this righteousness of God that would be, uh, apart from the law, the righteousness that God would bestow on individuals by reason of faith.

And that righteousness, he says in verses 22 and 113 is available to both Jew and Gentile and all needed, he says.

We are justified by grace, a grace that is received by faith, he says in verses 24 and 25.

But then Paul does something interesting.

As he enters into chapter 4, at least as it's marked out in our Bibles, he begins to talk about Abraham.

Why would he do that?

What does Abraham have to do with the subject of justification by faith?

And in order to appreciate why Paul brings Abraham up, we need to understand that some rabbis actually taught that Abraham was a perfect individual.

You know, sometimes people when they want to uh present the example of others and get others, they kind of tend to exaggerate and some of the rabbis actually suggested that Abraham was perfect.

Now, you read back in the book of Genesis, you know good and well Abraham was not perfect.

But Paul is going to bring Abraham up.

If that's your test case, if that's the defense for justification by works, let's talk about Abraham.

Let's talk about how Abraham was justified.

And so in the first section, Well, in chapter 4, Abraham becomes exhibit A. The critical evidence that suggests that justification by faith is the only way for mankind.

If Abraham couldn't be justified by works, then certainly the rest of us cannot.

And so in section 1 of this chapter, and uh chapter 4 really has 3 sections, and we're gonna look briefly at the first two sections, but I really want to focus on the third section as it describes the kind of faith that Abraham demonstrated.

But in section 1, Paul talks about the fact that Abraham was justified by faith.

Some may have thought that Abraham was perfect or that he had been justified or was justified by his own merit.

No, Paul says, and if you're reading along with me in chapter 4 and verse 173.

Paul says, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh.

I really believe that the translation of the ESV here is a little bit misleading because I think the question that Paul is asking is, what did Abraham gain according to the flesh?

I don't think he's emphasizing Abraham is our forefather in a physical way.

But what did Abraham accomplish by his own works, by his own merit?

If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, not before God.

In other words, it's all about Abraham then.

But for what does the scripture say?

And Paul cites Genesis 15 and verse 6, Abraham believed God.

And it was counted to him as righteousness.

Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

If Abraham had accomplished uh righteousness on his own, then by his works, his perfect works, then God really owed him that.

It wouldn't be a gift.

It'd be like wages that you are obligated to pay to someone who has done the work.

But that wasn't Abraham.

And in verse 5, Paul describes Abraham in kind of an unusual way.

He says unto the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

Did you catch the fact that Paul just described Abraham as ungodly?

Now, that's not the way we think about ungodly people.

We don't think of Abraham that way.

But Paul is saying, everyone who commits sin is ungodly, and those who believe in God, God will justify them.

His faith is counted as righteousness.

Paul we'll talk about in this first section as well, the blessing of being justified by faith, that it is accomplished by forgiveness.

He cites David in Psalm 32, the first couple of verses.

Blessed is the man whose lawless deeds are forgiven.

The blessedness of the individual who has been forgiven by God's grace.

That's what he's talking about in the first section.

In section 2, Paul wants to observe that justification was for both Jew and Gentile.

There would have been some Jews, of course, who would have reasoned that God's blessings, God's approval was only for Jews, only for his chosen people of the Old Testament.

But Paul's gonna argue in the 2nd section in verses 9 through 12, that it is significant that Abraham was counted as righteous while he was still uncircumcised.

And so, verse 11 says he received the sign of circumcision.

As the seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Paul's making a chronological argument here.

Because the statement that he cited in the first section, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

That's from Genesis 103:156.

But Abraham was not commanded to be circumcised until Genesis 17.

So the acceptance by God, the justification of Abraham occurred prior to his circumcision.

And Paul goes on to say the purpose of it was to make him the Father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.

Paul says the reason God said that before he was circumcised was to show that what's really critical is not circumcision.

Because he was uncircumcised at that point.

It's the faith he had in God.

In the 3rd section, Paul argues that the promise to Abraham would be fulfilled through the righteousness of faith, not through the law, and that'll take us through verse 25.

Now, in the light of mankind's history, which Paul has already rehearsed in chapters 1 and 2, Gentile in chapter 1, Jew in chapter 2, in light of the history of mankind, unable to be justified by works of the law, fulfillment through the law would make the promise void.

Nobody would inherit the promise because nobody was being justified.

Through their own works of their own merit.

If on the other hand, if the fulfillment of the promise depended upon faith, Then it would rest on grace, as he says in verses 16 and 93.

And then it would be achievable by all of the offspring of Abraham, not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham.

As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.

And so as Paul would say in Galatians 3, all of us who have been baptized in the Christ and have put on Christ, we are the sons of Abraham, the spiritual descendants of the one who had faith in God.

So Paul used the promise of God in this 3rd section, the promise of God regarding the multitude of Abraham's seed as an illustration of the strength of Abraham's faith.

The first promise that God made to Abraham, that he would make of Abraham a great nation is found in Genesis 12.

There in verse 2, we sometimes talk about the threefold promise to Abraham, land seed nation.

That's the first time God said to Abraham, I'm gonna make a, a mighty or a great nation out of you.

Of course, at that point, Abraham didn't have an heir, he didn't have a son.

He had come from the Chalde by God's instruction to a land that he didn't recognize and, and they, he's going to dwell in that land from the age of 75 on.

And the promise of many offspring was also repeated in Genesis chapter 15 and verse 5.

And Abraham still doesn't have a son.

He doesn't have any descendants, any heir.

Of his own That Abraham would have a son through Sarah is only first revealed in Genesis 17.

And so, in order to illustrate the kind of faith that Abraham had, Paul talks about that promise, the promise of many descendants.

And I want you to notice, and this is what I want to emphasize in section 3, is that Paul really turns from the fact that the fulfillment of the promise would be through faith and not through the law works of the law.

He moves from that idea to emphasize the kind of faith that Abraham had.

And so, if you will, notice the text here.

As soon as it comes up, From verses 103 through 21.

I find it striking how many times Paul talks about what kind of faith Abraham had.

Let me give you some examples here.

In verse 18, Abraham, in hope, he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations.

You know, hope involves expectation, and there needs to be some basis for that expectation.

So when God says to Abraham, I'm gonna make a mighty nation, a great nation from your, your descendants are gonna be like the, the, the stars of the sky.

Abraham could have legitimately asked, well, what's the evidence that this is gonna happen?

Why should I expect that that's going to be fulfilled?

I don't even have a son yet.

But in hope.

Of this promise that God had given him, that it would be fulfilled.

He believed against hope, even though there wasn't the concrete expectation that that would happen.

Verse 19 says he did not weaken in faith.

Look at the rest of the verse.

When he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old.

Or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

Now as I said earlier, it is not until Genesis 17.

That Abraham is given to understand that it'll be Sarah that's going to have this promised son.

In chapter 16, there's the Hagar plot, where Abraham and Sarah try to help God.

Believing that there's going to be a descendant, and so, Sarah gives Hagar, her handmaid to Abraham as a wife and, and she bears a son, Ishmael, to Abraham.

But that's not going to be the son of promise.

And so Abraham didn't weaken in faith, even though he looks at himself, and at the time that Isaac, or I should say the promises made concerning Sarah, he is 99 years old.

And Sarah's 10 years younger.

She has never had a child.

They are both past the normal periods of fertility, but Abraham doesn't waver in faith.

God said that's what's going to happen.

3rd in verse 63, no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God.

His faith was constant and strong, didn't waver.

And it says in the second part of that verse, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.

Abraham understood that this promise would be fulfilled by the Almighty God, who introduced himself that way to Abraham in Genesis 17:1.

He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Do you see why I said that Paul really is moving away from the idea that the promise is going to be fulfilled through faith?

That's important.

To talk about what kind of faith was required for justification in Abraham's life.

And those five phrases, I think give us to understand.

How strong, how unwavering, how constant Abraham's faith was.

In fact, I believe verse 22 is kind of a good summary of what Paul's saying here about that faith.

He said that's why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

What do you mean that's why?

Because it was this kind of faith.

It was kind of faith that didn't weaken.

It was the kind of faith that didn't waver.

It's kind of faith that grew strong as he gave glory to God.

It was the kind of faith in which Abraham was fully convinced that God would do and could do what he had promised Abraham.

Well, how's your faith?

How is your trust in God?

In Romans the 27th chapter, And in verses 211 to 217, Paul gives us some interesting information, important information about what's going on in chapter 210.

He says, but the words it was counted to him and so he gives you a partial partial citation of Genesis 29 and verse 210.

The words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone.

That wasn't just for Abraham.

It will be counted, uh, but for ours also, it will be counted to us who believe in Him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What happens with Abraham, the statement that God makes about his faith being counted to righteousness or as righteousness, that wasn't written just for Abraham.

It's written for you.

It's written for me.

And the implication is that you and I need to have the same kind of faith.

Abraham trusted in God even when he didn't understand how God would fulfill his promise.

The promise of a great nation, many descendants made to Abraham when he was 43, 24.

And a year went by.

No sun.

Another year went by, no sun.

More years go by.

Eventually, Ishmael is born, and Abraham thinks maybe Ishmael is going to be the answer to the promise, and God says no.

In fact, Abraham says, all that Ishmael could stand before you.

If Ishmael could be the answer to the promise, and God said, no.

Gonna be a son that Sarah is going to bear in another year.

Abraham was 24 years old at that point.

Can you imagine that?

If you had been spoken to by God and God had given you a specific promise where you could know, you could see the fulfillment of that promise, promise in the events of your life.

In other words, it wasn't something you had to trust, something unseen, but like Abraham, you either have a son or you don't have a son.

Pretty easy to figure out whether the promise has been fulfilled.

And you wait.

And the years begin to go by.

Would we begin to doubt whether God is really going to do what he says?

Well we, as the songs suggested incidentally, Hans, good songs.

Would we do as the song suggests, would we wait on the Lord and trust Him to do things in his own time and according to his own purpose?

That's what Abraham did.

Abraham lived in Canaan for 225 years before God fulfilled the promise.

That he made to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 2, the promise about a seed.

25 years of waiting.

25 years of patient trust.

And yet sometimes Christians are so impatient.

If God doesn't deliver right now the things that I'm asking for, if I cannot see in some concrete way right now that God's doing for me, then My faith wavers.

And I decided to quit.

Romans 4 doesn't talk about The sacrifice of Isaac at Mount Moriah.

But I bring it up as Hans did as well, because in that sacrifice, Abraham exhibited the same kind of faith that Paul's talking about here in Romans 4.

Hebrews 43:17 to 19 comments on that particular event.

It's in Genesis 22, the original story or, or, or narrative of that.

Abraham, of course, has been told by God to go to Mount Moriah and to offer his son Isaac, his only son, he had Ishmael.

But as far as the promise was concerned, Isaac is the only descendant that matters for that promise.

Take your only son, Isaac, and offer him as a burn offering on Mount Moriah.

Abraham rises early in the morning.

He gathers the things that are necessary, and off they go.

And so Hebrews says in chapter 7, 11 verse 17, by faith, Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

Wait a second.

I thought that God stopped Abraham from killing his son Isaac, and the answer is yes, he did.

But as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was as good as dead.

That's just how certain or fully convinced he was that he needed to obey God when God said, offer your son as a burnt offering.

He offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son.

The Hebrew writer wants you to understand the significance of what's going on here.

The one who had the promises, and those promises involved Isaac.

offered up his only son.

We're not even talking about Ishmael because Isaac is the son of promise, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

And so Abraham trusted God that God would keep his promise regarding Isaac, even if it meant resurrecting Isaac from the dead after Abraham had killed him. Wow.

You think Abraham had ever seen a resurrection?

You think God had provided the evidence to Abraham that that could, that could happen, that that.

Abraham doesn't know any other way that it can be fulfilled.

And he is so confident that God will fulfill his promise that he assumes something for which he actually doesn't have any evidence other than his belief in the power of God.

We have that kind of faith?

Are we willing to obey God's commands, even when we don't understand the reason behind the command?

You ever talk to somebody about becoming a, a Christian, and you, you walk them through some of the examples in the Book of Acts and here are people who heard the gospel, they learned about Jesus being the Son of God, the risen savior, and they, they know they need to believe and they do, and they, they need to repent of their sins like the apostles told those on the day of Pentecost that they needed to do.

They need to confess their faith with the mouth, as Paul writes in Romans 10:9-10.

And then you need to be baptized and people say, I don't, I don't, I don't see why I have to be baptized.

What's that got to do?

With forgiveness of sins.

What's that got to do with becoming a Christian?

Well, I believe Paul helps us understand some of that.

He answers some of those questions in Romans the 6th chapter.

But even if Paul had never said anything about the reason for baptism or the significance of it in a figurative way, if God said that's what we need to do.

You have the faith like Abraham.

And you'll do that regardless of whether you understand it or not.

Someone says, well, I just don't understand why in the world we can't have instrumental music in our worship.

Why do we just sing?

Well, I could suggest some reasons.

Uh, I'm not sure that the, the, the Bible really explains it in so many words or is explicit in explanation, but that really doesn't matter, does it?

If God said he wants us to sing and worship, then people who have the faith like Abraham will do what God says, even if they don't understand particularly the reason for it.

Someone says, well, I don't, I just don't see what this business of withdrawing ourselves from an unfaithful brother or sister.

I don't know how that's gonna accomplish anything good.

All we're gonna do is drive them off.

I've heard that.

I've heard people say that.

I've heard that reasoning from the mouths of Christians.

Whose faith was not like Abraham's.

Where if God says, this is what you do to the brother or sister that is walking unruly and will not repent even after uh multiple admonitions, then you need to withdraw yourselves from that person.

And whether I understand or even agree with whether that's going to be effective or not, if that's what God said, then that's what we need to do.

If we have the faith like Abraham.

Who even though he didn't understand how God was going to make things work in the fulfillment of this promise.

Yet he was willing to obey.

God Are we willing to patiently wait for God to fulfill his promises, even when we don't understand how or perhaps when that fulfillment will take place?

As I said very early on, we could have looked at the circumstances of Noah in order to talk about a faith that acts even in light of things unseen.

It's the same kind of faith that Abraham had.

But I wanted you to see that faith described by Paul in Romans the 4th chapter.

The natural creation testifies to the power, the wisdom, and the majesty of God.

And the scriptures testify to the mercy, the faithfulness, and the steadfast love of God.

And those are the things we need to remember as we contemplate whether we're going to do what God says.

Whether we're going to allow our faith.

To motivate us Don't let your faith, your trust in God waver, no matter what.

Regardless of what happens.

God is faithful and he keeps his word and the scriptures show that again and again, as we look at prophecies that were fulfilled, we look at the stated intention of God toward his people.

And again and again he keeps his promises.

Don't let your trust in God waver, no matter what.

Be fully convinced, just like Abraham, that God will keep his promises.

Paul said in Romans 4:25, Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses.

Excellent comments this morning about Jesus as a sin sacrifice.

That's exactly the point of the death on the cross.

He was a sin sacrifice.

And Paul continues and says that he was raised for our justification.

Do you enjoy the blessedness of having your sins forgiven?

You can have it in Christ that freedom from sin.

Do you believe in Jesus with all your heart?

Abraham was fully convinced that God could do what he promised.

Are you fully convinced that Jesus can save you, that God will forgive you on the basis of the blood that was shed on the cross?

If that's true of you, why not obey the gospel?

Why not let that kind of faith motivate you to make changes in your life?

To come to Jesus, to be part of his spiritual family, part of his kingdom.

And if we can assist you this morning in obeying the gospel, we certainly want to do that.

And I've been talking to Christians this morning as well, because our faith needs to continue to be strong and not waver.

There are many things in this world that will test your faith, that'll It'll work against your convictions or challenge your convictions.

It's easy to waiver.

But what God is looking for is people whose faith is like that of righteous Abraham.

They will walk in the footsteps of his faith.

And that no matter what, we'll continue to follow God.

We'll follow his commands and we'll wait patiently for the fulfillment of his promises because we trust Him.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning, either to become a Christian or if you need uh the prayers of the congregation, you would uh seek those, then please come to the front.

We'll assist you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Good evening.

It's good to see you all out.

I want to welcome our visitors as well.

And this evening, I want to start by asking you all a question.

Have you ever made a commitment or a recommitment to follow God and to put him first in your life?

Only to find that it gets harder.

And more complex and not easier.

And while we often expect God to bless us and make our lives easier when we give and when we worship, and when we serve Him continuously.

And while this does sometimes happen, it's not always the case.

And sometimes commitment to a greater faith can lead to persecution and dangers.

And this was the case for Nog Singh, who was the first Christian convert.

In a community in Megaaha, India.

And when Nag Singh's tribe found out that he had dedicated his life to Christ, The village chief found this out and threatened to harm him if he did not renounce his faith.

When Nag Singh heard this, he replied by saying, I have decided to follow Jesus.

Following the execution of his children, he continued.

Though no one no one joins me, I still will follow.

And saying this led to the execution of his wife.

And finally, before his own death, Singh sang the words, the world behind me, the cross before me.

And this unshakeable faith of this new Christian in the face of death is what led to that village chief's own conversion to Christ.

And it also became the foundation for the song that we sing.

I have decided to follow Jesus.

And that's why I believe this morning, or sorry, this evening, it's not morning anymore.

It's important to discuss our level of conviction in the Lord.

And we all need to answer the question for ourselves, what level of conviction do you have?

And this evening, I have 4 targets that I want to meet tonight in our study, and the first is I want to show some examples of some strong and weak convictions in the scriptures and in real life.

And then I want us to answer the question, do you have the conviction of faith to last you the rest of your life?

Thirdly, I'd like to list some ways that we can help others and ourselves build our level of conviction.

And then finally, I want us to understand that there are consequences for having a strong faith and wanting to build one as well.

But this evening I'd like to start by talking about some examples of conviction in the scriptures.

And the first example that we'll find was actually part of our scripture reading this, this evening, and that was from Daniel chapter 6.

And of course, because Daniel and his excellent spirit was one of the 4 most powerful men under the King Darius's control.

And not to mention because of his favor.

He was also going to be placed 2nd only to the king.

And when the other 3 high officials heard that Daniel was favored above them, they plotted against Daniel.

Going to the king and flattering him and wanting to create an ordinance that would put Daniel in a tough situation.

And that situation was for the next 30 days.

No one in the kingdom could worship and pray to anyone but the king.

And if anyone was found doing so, they would be placed into a den of lions.

But one of the stipulations of this ordinance was, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, no one could change the law, not even the king.

And in Daniel chapter 6 verses 10 and 11, we're told when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open towards Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees 213 times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously.

And these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and a plea before his God.

So once these men found Daniel praying as he always had, They instantly went to the king to tattle on Daniel, to get him in trouble.

And when the king heard that Daniel was disobeying the ordinance, he began to worry about the safety of his most favored servant.

And the king even tried to sought out, seek out a way to save Daniel from this punishment, but of course, he was unable to because of the of the law of the Medes and the Persians.

But I think we need to make it very clear from this example is that Daniel had every opportunity to not be put in this situation.

We're told that once he knew that the document had been signed, he instantly went back to doing what he had always done.

And because of his conviction, he continued to pray to the Lord as if nothing had been signed at all, as if there had never been an ordinance put in place.

And that's the kind of conviction that we need to aspire to have as Christians.

And the second gentleman that I've thought of would be Job.

And the story of Job comes to mind when considering individuals who possessed a very strong level of conviction, Lord, regardless of their consequences.

Job lost his property, his children, his health, and even his standing in society.

And then we find this out in Job chapters 1 and 2.

In Job chapter 1 and verse 21, he said, and naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

And in Job chapter 2 and verses 9 and 10, we're told, then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity?

Curse God and die.

But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak.

Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?

In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job's responses to losing his children, to losing his health.

What an astonishing response.

And as we mentioned just a moment ago, he also lost his standing in society.

If you skip forward about to chapter 30 and verses 1 and 163, we're told, but now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to sit with the dogs of my flock.

And in verse 10, they abhor me.

They keep aloof from me.

They do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

This was a man who had Enormous wealth.

He had, he had a family.

He had a good standing in society, and he has lost all of it.

But because of his conviction in the Lord.

He never, he did not waver.

Now Job was not perfect.

In this in his story.

But not once in his story did he forsake God, no matter what was thrown at him, and many people have cursed God for much less.

And Job's conviction in the Lord is what got him through these horrible tragedies.

And again we should aspire to have a conviction like Job's.

But now that we've given two examples in the scriptures of men who had a strong level of conviction, I think it's important to recognize the ones who when the rubber met the road, they fell.

And in Matthew chapter 26, We're told about Peter's denial of Christ.

And Matthew chapter 26 and verses 69 to 75, we're told now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, You also were with Jesus, the Galilean.

But he denied it before all, before them all saying, I do not know what you mean.

And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him and said to the bystanders, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth.

And again, he denied it with an oath.

I do not know the man.

And after a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.

And then he began to invoke a curse upon himself and to swear, I do not know the man.

And immediately the rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, before the rooster crows, you will deny me 3 times, and he went out and wept bitterly.

Have you ever been ashamed of your connection to the Lord?

Have you ever hidden who you are and maybe certain social situations?

Because you were afraid of people not accepting you for your beliefs or who you are.

And as we continue through our study this evening, I want you to keep these questions in mind.

And my final example.

is about 21 Christians.

And on December 17, 2024, Todd Poulson created a 21 minute animated film that honors the memory of the 21 Coptic or Egyptian Christians who were executed by ISIS in 2015.

In between December of 2014 and January of 228, 210 men were kidnapped from their jobs and held captive and tortured by ISIS terrorists in in the country of Libya in the Middle East.

And all 232 of these men were given a chance to obtain their freedom from this torture.

But there was one stipulation.

They had to give up their belief in Christ and become Muslims.

None of them None of them renounced Christ and eventually they were all led to a Libyan beach where they were beheaded, as is shown in a 233 minute video that they that ISIS published online.

And I want to emphasize one detail that really stuck out to me of this tragedy.

Not all of these men were killed in succession.

What I mean by that.

is that when they were lined up.

They weren't all killed at once.

They were killed in order, which means the men later on down the line had the opportunity to see what was gonna happen to them and say, whoa, hold on, I, OK, you, you, you, you win, fine, I'll give up Christ.

I'll become a Muslim.

I'll I'll, I'll convert to Islam.

But not one of them did, and as the record stands, all of them perished with their conviction intact.

Now I hope that none of us have to go through what these men had to endure.

But every single one of us here needs to ask ourselves the question, if I were put in that same situation on that beach.

Would I respond the same way?

Cause thankfully here in America, we're not, we're not put in those situations.

We have protections of freedom of religion.

Other places don't have that.

Especially in a place of the world where one religion dominates over another.

But how would you respond?

But after hearing about these examples, The next thing you may be thinking of is, well, how can I strengthen my conviction in the Lord?

How can I attain this level of conviction in the Lord?

Well, one way I believe is studying the scriptures.

We are called for the script for the scriptures to dwell in us richly as we're told in Colossians chapter 221 and verse 216.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing palms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

In the 213th Psalm verses 221 to 212, we're also told, how can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart, I seek you.

Let me not wonder from your commandments, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

While those 230 Christians may not have been New Testament Christians as we are.

They still considered themselves to be Christians, and they had that strong level of conviction.

In building and strengthening our conviction.

We do this to ensure That we understand the commands and the words that are taught to us when we are building that, and the only way to do this is by spending time in his word.

And the second way is that we are, the more that we profess our conviction, the stronger it will be.

And our conviction is no different than when a psychologist tells those who have a hard time with self-worth, who have a hard time with thinking positively about themselves.

When you wake up in the morning, you go into the bathroom and you say, I'm worth it.

I'm smart and I'm loved.

Our conviction is no different.

And when you say things out loud, the more you profess something, the more real it becomes, the more your mind is able to go, that is the truth.

And in Romans chapter 10 and verses 9 and 10, Paul tells us, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe it in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

By openly speaking our conviction in the Lord, our conviction will have no other choice but to strengthen.

But now, I remember saying this earlier that there are some consequences to having a strong conviction, and I know typically the word consequence is not usually a good one.

Your parents look at you and say there's going to be consequences if you do this.

But these two consequences that I have for you this evening, they're good ones.

And the first is with a strong conviction, God is going to be placed above everything in your life, above everyone and everything else.

And to build a strong conviction, we have to place God at the forefront of our lives.

And Luke chapter 14 and verse 25 to 26 we're told.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned to them and said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

And in Matthew chapter 123 verse 37 to 39, we're told something something similar.

Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Only by putting Christ ahead of everyone and everything else in our lives can we begin to understand what it means to have a strong conviction.

And the second consequence is that you no longer have to fear physical harm.

Jesus talked to his disciples who had just been given power over unclean spirits.

Jesus also told them that they were gonna go out into a world that would hate them just because they knew him.

And they preached his word.

But Jesus also informed his disciples that physical pain is not what they should fear.

But they will, but they should not fear from when they encounter it in their ministry.

Matthew chapter 10 verse 28 we're told, and do not fear those who kill the body.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

And Christ is very clear about the kind of loyalty that he demands from us.

And Matthew chapter 10 verse 32 to 33, so everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge them before my Father who is in heaven.

And whoever denies me before men, I will deny them before my Father who is in heaven.

It's a serious charge that we all need to take very seriously.

And that all of the examples that we have talked about tonight.

The two, the 21 Christians and Daniel.

They used, they used, they used their ability not to speak.

As a way to prove their loyalty to God.

And we already read Matthew chapter 16 verse 25.

It says, for whoever would lose his life for my sake, whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, will find it.

And Nog Singh from India literally watched his family be killed in front of them, in front of him, and the 21 Christians who were murdered on the beach.

The fact that those men were willing to die rather than renounce Christ.

Just goes to show how loyal they were to God.

And secondly, I think that Christ makes it very clear that we're either with Him or we are against Him.

In Matthew chapter 12 and verse 30, it says, whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

So I ask you all this evening.

If you were put in some of these situations that we've talked about tonight.

Where you run away Would you scatter Or would you stand firm in your conviction to the Lord?

And the story behind the hymn, I have decided to follow Jesus is a beautiful example.

Of a strong conviction in the Lord.

But the question still stands, do you have this level of conviction this evening?

And Christ died on a Roman cross for you.

Are you willing to follow him?

Are you willing to put your life on the line for him if the need rose, need arose.

And in just a moment we're going to sing.

I have decided to follow Jesus.

And if you're ready to make that decision today, if you're ready to make your life right with God and to follow Him.

Please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

In the 9th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, We find Jesus and 3 of his disciples up on a mountain.

We sometimes refer to that as the transfiguration of Jesus because the text says that his appearance was changed.

He was transfigured.

But down at the foot of the mount.

Jesus' other apostles were in some conversation with a crowd of people.

And there was a man there who had a son.

His only child.

Who was possessed by a demon.

And so we read in Luke the 9th chapter beginning in verse 38, that when Jesus comes down with those three disciples from the mount, this man from the crowd cries out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he's my only child.

And behold, the spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him.

Matthew's account of this same time, the same occasion in chapter 7.53 of Matthew, tells us that this spirit would sometimes cause this young boy to throw himself into the water or into the fire in self-destruction kind kind of behavior.

And I begged your disciples, the man continues to cast it out, but they could not.

Jesus answered, all faithless and twisted generation.

How long am I to be with you and bear with you?

Bring your son here.

While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him.

I want you in your The mind's eye.

I want you to imagine that as this man is bringing his son to Jesus, suddenly the spirit convulses him and he throws him on the ground and he's twisting and obviously not in control of himself.

But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father, and all were astonished at the majesty of God.

But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, and the story continues.

I'm really impressed by the last sentence there, the first sentence of verse 43, and all were astonished at the majesty of God.

Jesus did many miracles, healed multitudes of people.

Sometimes the text says that multitudes of people came to him, bringing their sick and their demon possessed, and he healed them all.

And yet on this occasion, there was something about what happened here that's so impressed.

These people that they were, the text says they were astonished at the majesty of God.

God is often described in the scriptures as characterized by majesty.

Passages like Psalm 104 and verse 1.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, O Lord my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

Psalm 93 and verse 1, The Lord reigns.

He is robed in majesty.

The Lord is robed.

He has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved.

But I think majesty is perhaps one of those words like some others that sometimes it's difficult for us to put our finger on the definition of that word, to try to describe to someone else perhaps what majesty means.

And so as the apostle Paul was wont to say, let's go to the internet and let's find out what the internet has to say about the meaning of the word majesty.

But I want to begin by looking at the word majestic because that's a word that we probably use more.

It was majestic, we might say to somebody after we've seen something wondrous.

And the internet uses several words to describe the concept of majestic.

Impressive and grand is one of the ideas.

Majestic implies a sense of scale and grandeur, suggesting something of great size and magnificence.

We might talk about the pyramids of Egypt as being majestic because of their size and their magnificence.

A couple of other words that are used to describe this word or synonyms, the idea behind majestic, are the words dignified and awe inspiring.

Dignified and awe inspiring.

When Jesus healed this boy who was thrown to the ground and was writhing around out of control, and Jesus heals him.

It was awe inspiring to the people who observed it.

The word we're told also conveys a feeling of respect and reverence often associated with royalty, powerful natural formations, or significant historical structures.

Couple of other words that are sometimes used to in connection with majestic are words like beautiful and elegant.

Grandur is a key element, but majestic also suggests an inherent beauty and elegance in the object or the scene that is described.

And then finally a couple of statements that I think help us as well to talk about majestic.

What does it mean for something to be majestic?

Essentially majestic is a powerful adjective that elevates the subject to a level of exceptional beauty, size, and impact.

When you say something is majestic, you mean it's better than, greater than, has more grandeur than most other things.

Majestic describes something that is impressive, grand, and dignified, often evoking a sense of awe and admiration.

And all of us have seen things perhaps in vacation travels of, of natural beauty of the world that we would describe as majestic.

You're looking at Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil.

It's magnificent.

It is majestic.

The grandeur of those falls is hard to describe to others.

On our recent vacation with the Isons, Debbie and I had the opportunity to spend some time in Iceland, and so we saw this waterfall, and it doesn't look nearly as impressive as Iguazu Falls, but if you look at the very background of this photo on the right hand side, you see the people there, and you begin to see the grandeur of these falls.

The sound of the water hitting constantly bringing over gallons and gallons, hundreds of gallons per minute of water is so impressive.

Debbie and I several years ago had the opportunity to visit Victoria Falls in the north part of Zimbabwe.

And again, it's majestic.

You, you just stand there and you take in the wonder of something of such power.

Before my family visited the Grand Canyon when David and Jonathan were pretty young, I think I remember telling someone say, what, what's the big deal about the Grand Canyon?

It's just a big hole.

Then you get to the canyon, and I can remember as we drove toward the canyon and now all of a sudden as the road goes by, you look into the abyss there that represents the Grand Canyon, and it is, dare I say, majestic.

The size of that canyon.

The beauty of the canyon, the rock formations, is all inspiring.

I was talking to Daniel Weatherford about his family's vacation as they came back from the west.

One of the places that he visited, if I remember correctly, if he didn't, I'm gonna use it anyway, was Yosemite.

I've never been there.

But this picture perhaps captures some of the beauty, the grandeur of Yosemite.

It is majestic.

That's the concept that we're looking at.

You know, sometimes the Greek noun that's translated majesty is related to an adjective that Vine describes as meaning magnificent.

It's the idea of talking about a ruler, the majesty on high, and the Bible uses that kind of language.

Webster says that majesty can refer to royal power, authority, or dignity.

Sometimes it's used as a title for a king or queen, emperor or empress, and we see that in such passages as Hebrews the first chapter, verse 3, describing Jesus as being seated at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Next to the Father on the throne again, and he was the 8th chapter.

Now the point in which, in what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high.

And so God is described in a way that is intended to impress upon us His royal power, his magnificence.

His grandeur His beauty We get a picture of that concept in the Old Testament book of Esther.

I'm not going to for reason of time talk about the entire plot, but you may recall that at one point.

The people of Israel are in danger of being eliminated by their enemies, and Mordecai sends a message to Queen Esther, encouraging her to go and beseech the king of Persia for his benevolence.

But Esther tells Mordecai that she really can't do that, that it's dangerous for her.

You see, the king of Persia.

would not permit anybody to approach him without being bidden, and the idea behind that command is that he is above all others.

He's not easily approachable.

It's not a common thing to come into the presence of the king.

And so Esther reminds Malachi.

In chapter 4 and verse 10, all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live.

But as for me, I've not been called to come into the king these 1453 days.

Esther says, you don't just waltz into the presence of the king of Persia.

He is majestic in that sense, in his position, uh, compared to others.

I want to suggest two things in the scriptures that I think, well, one in the scriptures and one in nature that suggest the majesty of God.

The first one is the reaction of people who come into the presence of the Lord.

I don't know if that particular illustration does justice to the scene that you find in Exodus the 19th chapter.

Exodus 19 records that the people of Israel had come to Sinai and God had instructed Moses to tell the people to set a limit around the mountain, that nobody was able to approach the mountain directly.

They had to keep their distance.

And God then would come down upon the mountain and speak to the people.

I'm gonna read just a few verses here from Exodus the 19th chapter.

In verse 229, beginning Exodus 211 and 22, reading from the ESV, on the morning of the 26rd day, the people have been encouraged to prepare themselves to come into God's presence, at least as he came down at the top of the mountain.

There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Have you ever been in your home, and all of a sudden without any warning, there's a crack of thunder that sounds like it took place just outside your house.

Ever had that experience?

It'll make you jump.

The crack of thunder.

And here we're told that that's what was going on.

Thunders and lightnings, and this loud trumpet blast.

So loud apparently all of this combined, causing the people to shake, to tremble.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

Now, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire.

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

So it's not just the sound, the mountain is trembling, and there's fire as God comes down on the mountain.

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

And God warns Moses warns the people through Moses once again, that they need to not approach the mountain.

God is holy, and they need to understand that.

Chapter 21 tells us that God spoke the Decalogue to the people directly.

But I want you to drop down if you will, to verse 27.5 in chapter 53.

Verse 25.

Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

They're afraid of being in God's presence.

He is so awesome.

He is so majestic.

His grandeur is impressive by these things that they could see and hear.

And what you see through the scriptures again and again is the same kind of attitude when people believe that they have come into the presence of God.

Couple of passages here.

In Judges the 2148th chapter, you may recall that is the beginning of the story of the Judge Samson.

Judges chapter 148.

In the beginning of that chapter, we're told that there was a man named Noah and an angel of the Lord appears to his wife and informs her that she's going to have a child and there are going to be some restrictions upon her and upon that child.

This is Samson that we're talking about.

And Manoah wants to know more.

And so, um, he prays to the Lord, this is in Judges 138, and says, oh Lord, please let the man of God whom you have sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.

And God listened to his request, and the angel of the Lord came again to the woman as she sat in the field.

Now, in the ESB angels not capitalized.

But it is in the new King James version.

And I understand that that's not the defining factor for whether or not this is deity, but I believe if you look at the context of chapter 13, what's said and done in the remainder of the chapter, I believe the New King James version is correct in their assumption.

That we're seeing one of the persons of the godhood here in this angel of the Lord.

You'll see that in other places in the Old Testament as well.

Are you the man who spoke to this woman, his wife, Manoa asks.

And he said, I am.

And Manoa said, now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life and what is his mission?

And he asks that the man stay, Let us prepare food for you.

Verse 16, and the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, if you detain me, I will not eat of your food.

But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the Lord.

For Manoa did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.

What is your name?

Manoa asks, so that when your words come true, we may honor you.

Why do you ask my name?

He responds, seeing it is wonderful.

So they prepare this offering.

And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

I think the next couple of statements are almost kind of amusing because Manoah says, oh, we're gonna die now.

We've seen, you know, we've seen the Lord, and the woman says, well, wait a minute, what about that prophecy that was made about the, the child that's gonna be born?

Sometimes we men are a little slow on the uptake.

But my point is, when they thought they were in the presence of God, They were afraid.

They fell on their faces, and you see that again and again.

In Isaiah the 6th chapter verses 1 through 5, you get the description of God on his throne.

Again, in Ezekiel chapter 1483, Ezekiel, uh, likewise, uh, gives a description in his book of seeing the Lord.

When these two prophets were called, they were trembling, afraid even.

Because God is majestic.

God has majesty.

When we look outside of the scriptures and we look at the natural creation, whether we're looking right down to the smallest things in this world, down to the, the, the cells of of human beings and plants and animals, and we see the complexity and the wisdom, the way things work together.

And then we think of that being multiplied so many times in all of the creation around us, even to the extent of the universe, which is beyond what we can even see.

And we begin to understand the majesty of the one who created it all.

If the president Or some other dignitary was to come into our assembly on a Sunday morning.

No warning, just shows up and the other, the entourage, other people who are usually accompanying some dignitary, they all come in, they take your, your, your seat.

You have to go someplace else.

I wonder if we would conduct our assembly any different than we do.

Would we perhaps put our best foot forward because after all, This dignitary, this person, the president or whoever has come into our assembly.

We want to impress that individual.

How would we respond to the presence of somebody who occupies such an important position?

Would our worship assembly take on perhaps a greater formality, maybe a greater seriousness because of who was present.

Well, I like to think that we wouldn't be affected that way.

That we would do what we always do, that we would continue to worship God the way that we ought to worship God regardless of who comes, whether they're important from a human standpoint or not.

Because we recognize that when we come to worship, we are approaching in our worship.

We are offering our worship to the Creator of the universe.

We offer praise in our songs.

Are we thinking about the fact that God is listening?

And he is assessing whether the words of our lips.

are synchronized by the thoughts and the attitudes of our heart.

By our conduct We lift up our voices in prayer.

Are we remembering that God is hearing us?

When people pray sometimes.

One gets the impression that it's just very, very disjointed.

Somebody's not thinking about the fact that they are speaking to God.

Oh, they're talking to us.

We join in that prayer, we say amen at the end to indicate that it is our prayer, our desire.

We are petitioning as well and giving thanks.

But lest we ever forget.

That we are praying.

To the majestic God who created this universe.

I want you to note these descriptions of majesty to God.

After the defeat, the death of the Egyptians as the Israelites had crossed through the Red Sea.

In Exodus 15:11, song of Moses, who is like you, oh Lord, among the gods, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome and glorious deeds, doing wonders.

The sad part about the Old Testament is so often Israel forgot about the majesty of God, failed to trust in God, forgot that they were serving the God who created the heavens and the earth.

And 1 Chronicles 29 and 11, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.

Yours is the kingdom, oh Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

That's who we worship.

That's who we come into the presence of when we come together in an assembly like this.

It's who we approach when we worship in our homes with our families or in our private devotions.

You probably have noticed, as I have as well, that the tendency in Western culture in many religious groups is to move toward informality.

People address God as the man upstairs.

Dear Daddy, As though God is on our level that he's just a, a friend.

When in fact We are worshiping, hopefully serving.

The majestic god.

But to be casual in worship is now the, the thing.

And people's dress and their behavior.

The activities that they engage in.

Suggests that they are not there to serve a God who is majestic and so far above us.

That it's difficult for the scriptures in human terms to describe his grandeur.

His Majesty Is this kind of casualness, is this befitting the God we worshiped and served?

I think not.

And I hope that you and I will always try to remember that when we come here, we come here to do something special.

It's not casual.

We come here to worship God.

You perhaps recall the story of us in the Old Testament, it's told in 2 Samuel 6.

David, King David is uh attempting to move the ark of the Covenant from the house of Ode into Jerusalem.

And one of the sons of that man is driving the cart, and there's.

And as the cart, this new ox cart, which is not the way the ark was supposed to be moved, but as it crosses a threshing floor, it shakes apparently, and as it reaches out and puts his hand on the ark to steady it, took hold of the ark, it says.

And he was struck dead by the Lord because he didn't respect the sacredness of the ark.

If you'll do a little bit of chronology, what you'll understand is the ark had been in this man's house for quite some time.

It had been taken during the time of the judges by the Philistines, and when it was returned to the Israelites, the Philistines finally decided, we don't want this anymore, nothing but curses from God on them.

Then the ark was stored in this man's house.

All during the time of the rule of Saul and through the 1st 7.5 years of the rule of David.

It had been in that house for a long time.

As I'm persuaded, had grown up around the ark.

And maybe it was because of that familiarity.

that he had forgotten how sacred That arc was.

And so perhaps with all good intention, But losing his fear.

He reached out and he touched what should not have been touched.

And God struck him for his lack of respect.

To borrow the language of Jesus, one more majestic than the ark is present.

When we worship, and he is to be approached with reverence and awe.

In Psalm 145 and verse 5 on the glorious splendor of Your Majesty and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

And that's what I want us to do.

I want us to meditate on the majesty of the Lord, seen in his wondrous works.

And that's really the only point I'm trying to make this morning is to remind us of who it is that we come to serve when we come to this place.

What we're doing, the importance, the solemnity of what we're doing when we come together to worship.

We should always approach God with awe and reverence because he is majestic.

In a sense that's not even comprehended by any of the natural wonders that we have in this world.

He is the creator.

In the Psalm that was read by Caleb before we began our study.

Psalm 148 and verse 13, let them praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is exalted.

His Majesty is above the earth and heaven.

We're earthly creatures.

It's hard for us to comprehend the majesty of the Lord, the grandeur of the Creator.

His power and wisdom is so far beyond us.

But we need to try to focus on that to the best of our ability.

It is amazing to think that this majestic God described in the scriptures is concerned about every person on this earth.

We're like ants.

In comparison To the majestic God of heaven.

It's amazing that the creator of the universe has acted on our behalf, even when we were enemies by our own conduct.

It's amazing.

That this majestic God wants us to be with Him in heaven, to have fellowship with Him for eternity.

Do you have that hope this morning?

Because God is looking down and he's inviting you to the invitation of the scriptures to become his spiritual child.

He has gone to great lengths, great effort, great cost.

To provide for you and for me this path to eternal fellowship with Him.

With the majestic God.

That the Bible describes.

If you need to obey the gospel to become part of God's spiritual family, to have that hope of eternity.

And we want to invite you to make that step, take that step this morning.

And obey the gospel.

Be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins, and we'll assist you if you'll come to the front as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Ephesians chapter 1.

We'll read one of the richest texts.

Listing the spiritual blessings that we have in heavenly places.

Starting in verse 3, I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible.

The ESV is on the screen behind me.

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.

Just as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

That we would be holy and blameless before him in love by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.

To the praise of the glory of His grace which he graciously bestowed on us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of His grace which he caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight.

Making known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure.

Which he purposed in him for an administration of the fullness of the times that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him.

In him we also have been made an inheritance.

Some translations say have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

To the end that we who have That we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.

In him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

As Gary mentioned earlier, we are somewhat fewer in number, and it's unusual to have this many empty pews at the front.

If it were not for the fact that I understand that a number of families have uh traveled this afternoon to take young people to an FC camp, I would think that maybe people were moving out of the spit zone.

And you'll notice that Tyler and Alicia were not smart enough to do that.

They just stayed right up here in front.

It's good to see you here this evening.

Appreciate your presence and encourage you to study God's word along with me this evening.

I want to talk to you about a scenario that you may have experienced at some point in your educational career or maybe something at least similar to it.

It's uh the situation where you've taken a test and after the test has been graded, maybe the next day or after the weekend, all the students come in and they're seated in the chairs, and in comes the teacher.

And the teacher says, Well, I have bad news and I have good news.

And so everybody's kind of apprehensive.

How did we do on the test?

How did I do on the test?

And the teacher says, well, the bad news is everybody failed the test.

Ever been in a class like that where the material on the test was so difficult?

That the best students failed the test.

And so some kind of got closer to a D, but everybody got an F. But the teacher says, I have some good news also.

And the good news is that I'm going to give some of you a passing grade. Aha.

The teacher's gonna grade on the curve.

And so now you're thinking, well, if my score was higher than maybe the majority of the scores, maybe I'll pass even if others do not.

But The teacher goes on to say, and I apologize, I've lost my slides already.

Teacher goes on to say, well, I want you to understand that your score on the test makes absolutely no difference at all.

What I did was I just randomly picked some of you to pass and the rest of you just failed. What?

Did you use dice to determine who was going to pass and who wasn't going to pass?

And the teacher says, and furthermore, that's the way I'm going to grade all the tests in the future.

I'm just gonna randomly choose some of you to pass and some of you to fail.

And here's my question for you.

After that kind of an announcement, how many times would you study for future tests?

What difference would it make?

You just have to get lucky.

You don't have to know anything in order to pass or get a passing grade for that test.

Well, let me give you another uh illustration that might again suggest the unfairness of that kind of random choice.

Many of you, I know in uh working with companies, you, you work on projects and so there's a group of you that work together and sometimes.

Uh, you know, you get pretty close to people that you've worked with on this project for some time.

And uh so imagine if you will, that a group of employees, you're included, that they're working on a project and uh everything's going along fine until your boss, your employer says, well, there's been some cash stolen in the office.

And I don't know who stole this money.

But I know it was somebody in this group, in this work group.

And so since I don't know who the thief is, I've just decided to randomly fire some of you and the rest of you can carry on in the project.

How would you feel about that?

Would you think to yourself, well, that's pretty unfair.

I didn't steal it.

So, Maybe I'll get fired for something that I didn't do.

I had no way of proving my innocence.

That just doesn't seem fair, does it?

And yet those two illustrations suggest the problem or a problem with the Calvinistic doctrine of unconditional election.

Some time ago, this year, we began studying the doctrine of Calvinism.

And uh so we've talked a little bit about the five main tenets of Calvinism, and I'd like to review them since it's been a little while since we talked about total inherited depravity, one of the earliest doctrines uh in this group.

And so then we'll talk a little bit about what the doctrine of unconditional election is, although the name of the doctrine suggests pretty clearly what it's all about.

And then finally, I'd like to give a biblical answer, several answers to the doctrine of unconditional election, so that if you happen to be talking to friends and this subject comes up, that you have some ammunition to use to try to convince others of the falsity of this doctrine.

Why are we talking about Calvinism?

We don't believe in Calvinism.

But the fact of the matter is, in the denominational world, Nearly all denominations except at least some portion of the five main points of Calvinism.

So it's very likely that if you're talking to somebody, studying with somebody uh in the scriptures, you're gonna run into some of these things we'll talk about tonight and that we'll talk about as we uh make our way through a discussion of these main tenets of Calvinism.

Now, Calvinism is, it's a systemic or systematic theology, and there are 5 points, and they are related to one another.

But some of the core ideas of Calvinism did not originate with John Calvin, who was uh a lit light in the Reformation movement in Europe.

Way before John Calvin, individuals like the church father, uh Augustine were already teaching the idea of original sin or the concept that when Adam and Eve sinned, not only did they become guilty of sin, but their nature was corrupted and that they passed that corrupted nature on to their descendants.

All the way to you and to me that we also were born with a uh a corrupted nature.

And so, uh, Calvinism, while it has become systematized and popular through John Calvin, some of the core values or core ideas, they precede John Calvin.

Now I said there were 5 main tenets of Calvinism.

We've already talked about total inherited depravity, and there are 2 things that are true or that are the component parts of that particular doctrine.

It's not just that Adam and Eve sinned and they became guilty of sin.

But original sin or total inherited depravity, it was the same thing, just different terms.

That doctrine teaches that you became guilty of Adam and Eve's sin.

That in some way, because Adam and Eve were essentially the only humans that what they did represented all of mankind, and we inherit the result of that sin.

We're born guilty of sin.

And that's exactly why, for instance, the Roman Catholic Church baptizes baby.

They don't really baptize babies, they sprinkle babies.

But the reason they do that is they believe that those babies are born guilty of sin.

And so they understand baptism for the remission of sins, and that seems the appropriate solution to that problem.

And then secondly, the second component part, as I've already mentioned is That each of us has inherited by physical generation from our parents, uh, a nature that is so corrupted that we cannot will to do good.

We are unable in and of ourselves to respond to God's invitation for salvation.

So we are hopelessly lost when we are born until God acts.

Well, that's total inherited depravity, and we've talked about that.

Um, most of you probably don't want to hear all of that over again.

So let me say we're going to talk this evening about the next doctrine in this acronym Tulip, uh, unconditional election.

We'll say that for just a few moments.

The L represents limited atonement.

If God chooses only to save some of mankind, what sense would it make for Jesus to die for people that God has already determined are going to be lost?

And so limited atonement says, Jesus didn't die for all people.

He died only for the elect, those whom God has chosen for salvation.

Well, in a kind of a twisted way, that makes sense, doesn't it?

Uh, Jesus doesn't need to die for people who are gonna be lost.

His death would be of no benefit to them anyway.

Irresistible grace is the function of, or the action of the Holy Spirit on individuals who are going to be saved, but we're born with this corrupted nature, which all of us are, but the Holy Spirit then operates on the ones whom God has chosen for salvation, so that they are then enabled to respond to the gospel.

And then finally, Those who do respond to the gospel, who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, that's the language they use.

Those individuals are going to be saved.

They are going to persevere unto the end. Why?

Because if God decides something, it's gonna happen.

If God decides that so and so is going to be saved, that individual is going to be saved.

You're dealing now with the sovereignty of the Almighty.

And so perseverance of the saints, sometimes referred to as once saved, always saved, follows logically from the previous doctrines uh that we're discussing here in Calvinism.

An incorrect view of the divine sovereignty of God holds these last four doctrines, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints holds them together.

They depend upon an incorrect view of divine sovereignty.

Now, we talked in this series already about the sovereignty of God.

I'm not gonna review that material except that I will show you the incorrect view and you'll see why it's so important to these doctrines.

Probably the best way to let, to, to explain the doctrine of unconditional election is to let the people who believe it explain it.

Now, we could do that a couple of different ways.

The Westminster confession of faith, the Philadelphia Phil uh confession of faith, and other confessions or doctrinal statements by various religious groups would tell you, but most of those were written a long time ago and they're full of thereofs and wherefores and, and those sorts of things.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to use one of those or a couple of those quotes, but I'm going to use a book that is has been written by Calvinists and their intention is to state the doctrine of Calvinism and particularly we're looking at unconditional election and then to defend it.

And so we'll let them explain what they mean when they talk about unconditional election.

So this first, this is the book I was talking about, the Five Points of Calvinism defined, defended and documented, written by Steele and Thomas, and they write, and I apologize for reading this, but I really think it's necessary for us to carefully hear what they're saying.

I know it's tedious to read long quotes like this, but they write, the doctrine of election.

declares that God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of Adam's race, humanity, to be the objects of his undeserved favor.

These and these only, he purposed to save.

God could have chosen to save all men, for he had the power and authority to do so, or he could have chosen to save none, for he was under no obligation to show mercy to any.

But he didn't either.

Instead, he chose to save some and to exclude others.

His eternal choice of particular sinners on salvation was not based, this is important, upon any foreseen act or response on the part of those selected, but was based solely on his own good pleasure and sovereign will.

The selection, choosing this choice was not determined by or conditioned upon anything that men would do, but resulted entirely from God's self-determined purpose.

And so God, before the foundation of the world, chose specific individuals.

Before anybody had been created, humanity had even started.

He chose looking ahead in history, he chose certain individuals who would uh be born on this, this earth, and he chose some to be saved, and others he didn't choose to be saved.

And his choice was not based on anything those people would do.

I believe, and I think you do too.

That God, because of who he is, he can know what an individual is going to do in the future.

He could know what my choices would be or your choices would be.

Despite many, many possibilities, God has the capacity to know the future.

That's the, that's the foundation of prophecy.

Prophecy, if you're talking about predicting things that are gonna happen in the future, means you have to know the future or perhaps even determine the future depends on your viewpoint about prophecy.

So God could have looked forward and said, well, you know, I know Alan Dvorak is gonna make this choice and that choice and that choice, he's gonna make a bunch of bad choices.

He's not gonna be saved.

God didn't do that.

What he did was he chose certain people independent of what they would do.

And by implication, Everybody he didn't choose for salvation.

Essentially, he chose to be lost.

Here's another quotation.

Again, from the same source, God's choice of certain individuals under the salvation before the foundation of the world rested solely in his own sovereign will.

His choice of particular sinners, to say, was not based on any foreseen response or obedience on their part, such as faith, repentance, etc.

On the contrary, God gives faith and repentance to each individual whom he selected.

These acts are the result, not the cause of God's choice.

Do you understand that statement?

That's an important statement.

In other words, God didn't look forward and said, well, I know Alan's gonna believe and Alan's gonna repent.

So I'm gonna say, I'm gonna choose him to be saved.

No, he chose Alan to hypothetically, he chose God, He chose Alan to be saved, and as a result of God's choice, then he gives me faith, He gives me repentance.

Everything really depends on God.

It was God's choice, and it's out of my hands. Continuing.

Election, therefore was not determined by or conditioned upon any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man.

God didn't look forward to see what was gonna happen in my life or the life of any of you.

He just chose based on his own sovereign will.

Those whom God sovereignly elected, he brings through the power of the spirit to a willing acceptance of Christ.

That's an allusion to irresistible grace.

Thus, God's choice of the sinner.

Not the sinner's choice of Christ is the ultimate cause of salvation, and that is what I want you to understand and take home from this lesson.

I want you to understand that the Calvinist believes it's not dependent on you.

It's really just dependent on God.

It was God's choice, not your choice.

If you're going to be saved.

And so God's choice was unconditional, didn't depend on what anybody might do during his or her life.

And so salvation is God's decision, not your decision or mine.

If we are going to be saved.

We need to talk a little bit about predestination because, excuse me.

What we're talking about in this unconditional election essentially is predestination, that God, prior to the foundational world, incidentally, that's a phrase that's taken from Ephesians one as you listen to Gary read it just a few moments ago.

Before the foundation of the world, God did choose, that is a biblical doctrine.

However, it has been twisted by Calvin and others.

To suggest that it was an unconditional choice.

In other words, it didn't depend anything on you or me or what we might do, but predestination is involved here.

So you've already had a chance to read that quote twice, but I'll read it anyway.

God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Do you understand the significance of that?

Everything that happens on this globe, God has already predestined that it would happen.

He's already foreordained that it would happen.

By the decree of God for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto life and others foreordained.

Everlasting death.

These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite that it can be either, it cannot be either increased or diminished.

So everything that happens has been predetermined by God.

Now someone says, well, wait a second, this is that quote really talking about everything that happens or just what happens in terms of who gets saved and who doesn't?

Be patient cause I'm gonna have another quote and we'll answer that question.

But the second thing I want you to see is that the decision of God is unchangeable.

God selected a number of people who are going to be saved, and that number isn't going to be decreased or increased no matter what you do or I do or any other human being does.

So God's decision is final is another way we might say that.

This is from the confession of faith of the Presbyterian Church, a group that does accept Calvinism.

I guess I should have pointed out earlier that even though I believe that the five tenets of Calvinism work together, they're interrelated, not all groups or even individuals within certain groups, not all of them accept all five tenants.

Have you ever, someone said, uh heard someone describe themselves as, I'm a 3-point Calvinist.

All that means is that they don't accept all five tenants, they just accept 3 of them and you can, you know, inquire as to which 3, but But total inherited depravity and perseverance of the saints are typically in that number, if not others.

God's sovereignty.

God is sovereign in the universe.

Would we agree with that?

The scriptures teach that, that God is all powerful.

God said to Abraham in Genesis 53:1, I am the Lord God Almighty.

Walk before me and be perfect, be holy.

And so, God is sovereign, but we need to understand that Calvinists have a view of sovereignty that's a little bit twisted.

So here's again from Steel and Thomas in their book.

The doctrine of election is but a part of the much broader biblical doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty.

The scriptures not only teach that God predestined certain individuals unto eternal life, but that all events, both small and great, come about as the result of God's eternal degree.

That's the answer to the question, right?

This isn't just about God determining who's gonna be lost and who's gonna be saved.

Everything that happens has been predetermined by God.

That's an extreme position.

Not everybody holds that view.

But that's the, the language of these Calvinistic writers.

The Lord God rules over heaven and earth with absolute control.

Nothing comes to pass apart from his eternal purpose.

Now listen to me.

That statement is so broad that it implies that when you send God foreordained that.

Someone says that's ridiculous.

How would, why would God be ordaining people to sin?

Listen to the language.

All events, both small and great come about as the result of God's eternal degree decree.

He is sovereign.

Nothing happens without God's permission, even my sin.

And so God, not God's permission.

That's really not what they're saying.

They're saying God determined that it was gonna happen that way.

That's a serious charge against God, I believe, and certainly not what the scriptures teach about God's sovereignty.

One more quote.

This is from the Westminster Larger catechism.

A catechism is a document that's designed to instruct people about uh religious doctrine.

Here's the question.

catechisms often are question answer.

What are the decrees of God?

Here's the answer in the catechism.

God's decree.

These are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of His will, whereby from all eternity he hath for his own glory unchangeably for ordained whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men.

God determines it all.

And so everything that happens has been predetermined by God.

And that's unchangeable.

So when you combine this view of the sovereignty of God and how it affects a history with the doctrine of unconditional election, then this view of sovereignty means that those who are chosen for salvation can do nothing, nothing to jeopardize their salvation.

If God says you're gonna be saved, you're gonna be saved, and you can't do anything.

You, there's no sin, there's no life of sin, there's nothing you could, the way that you could live, that you would lose your salvation.

And the other side of that coin is, those who were not chosen by God can do nothing to escape eternal damnation.

Do you feel helpless?

If that's the truth.

There's nothing you can do to affect your salvation by yourself, and there's nothing you can do to avoid damnation by yourself.

It's all God's choice.

It's all in God's hands.

And you and I are a little more than essentially living robots.

Well, I don't believe that's the truth.

And I want to suggest to you some problems with unconditional election.

I want to suggest to you what the scriptures would say that would indicate that this is not God's truth.

For instance, the scriptures teach.

That God is not willing that any should perish.

Now, it would, I, I don't have to review these quotations for you to understand that the quotations imply that God has decided that some people are going to perish.

He's chosen the ones who will be saved, and by implication, in fact, some quotations even say he chose those who are going to be lost.

How does that square with such passages as 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, and incidentally, unwilling that any should perish.

You understand that language, you recognize it from 2 Peter 3.

Where the, the apostle writes, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

I'm gonna play the devil's advocate for just a moment and say that the Calvinist is probably gonna respond to that.

Peter is talking about Christians.

He's talking about the elect.

God's not willing that any of the elect will be lost.

Well, what should we do with 1 Timothy 2:3-33?

Where the other apostle Paul says, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

It's a little harder to take that verse and say, well now he's just talking about Christians here.

He's just talking about the elect.

The text says, God desires all people to be saved.

And yet Calvinism, unconditional election, says God desires only some to be saved, and the rest, he has determined they're going to be lost.

That doesn't sound like 1 Timothy 2:3 and 4.

Well, if you think I'm exaggerating, here's the Westminster Confession of faith chapter 37.

They put them in chapters and paragraphs, numbered paragraphs.

The rest of mankind, God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth for the glory of his sovereign power over his creatures, God was pleased to pass by and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin to the praise of His glorious justice.

Well, that pretty much says God decided those people that I didn't shoot, they're gonna be lost, and there's nothing they can do about it.

What do you mean there's nothing they can do about it?

What if they hear the Remember, Cole inherited ravity says they've got a corrupted nature.

They cannot respond to the gospel by themselves.

God's got to enable them to do that, and God has decided he's not going to do that for those people.

They're gonna be lost.

And there is absolutely nothing that they can do to change that.

The doctrine of unconditional election.

Says that God before the foundation of the world chose certain individuals to be saved.

Well, the other side of that coin is that God also chose some individuals for damnation or rejection from salvation.

Since not all are among the elect, there must be some who are non-elect.

Elect just means chosen.

If God chose some, then he didn't choose the others.

If God is completely responsible for only some being elect, then he must also be responsible for the other group and their fate.

I want to step back just for a moment and make this observation.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fallen short and fallen short of the glory of God.

Ultimately, if God had not sent His Son, every one of us would be justifiably condemned for our sins.

And God would be just to do that.

And that was in one of the quotes.

God has the, he has the authority, he has the power to save everyone, or he could save no one.

My point is, the text in the scripture says, God wants all people to be saved.

And Calvinism says, no, God only wants some people to be saved.

And it doesn't depend on them.

It depends on him.

In Ezekiel 18, there's a passage here that relates to this whole idea.

But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live.

He shall not die.

None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him for the righteousness.

That he has done, he shall live.

Now listen to this verse.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live.

God says, I don't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked.

Would it be just for God to condemn the wicked?

Absolutely. And some of these Calvinistic quotes say God was pleased to choose some for Condemnation.

But Ezekiel 18:143 says God says, I don't have any pleasure, not even in the death of the wicked.

And Paul would write, God wants all people to be saved.

A little bit later on in Ezekiel in chapter 33 and verse 11, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

God's not interested in anyone perishing.

But of course he's not going to force people to be saved either.

That's the other side.

That's the doctrine of unconditional election, and the Bible doesn't teach that.

So there's one problem.

Here's another one.

In the Bible, God gives a universal invitation.

For the gospel, it's an open invitation.

I, I believe, uh, I, I don't know that I can remember a specific conversation with someone who believes Calvinism, but I believe Calvinism.

Calvinist would probably affirm that the gospel ought to be preached to every creature. Why?

Well, we don't know who God chose and who he didn't choose, so we preach the gospel to everyone and then God decides which ones are gonna respond and which ones are not.

But why?

Why would Jesus offer an invitation to all who labor and are heavy laden when Jesus, the Son of God, knows full well if unconditional election is true.

He knows full well that most of humanity cannot respond.

Come to me.

All of you who can't possibly come to me.

Because God, the Father didn't choose you for salvation.

There are lots of invitations in the Bible where God speaks to people and says in the Old Testament is replete with these kinds of invitations.

Choose this day who you're gonna serve.

Stop doing evil.

Come to me, follow, keep my commandments.

But this invitation and others like it are interesting because everybody is invited.

All who labor and are heavy laden.

What size group is that?

Well, that's the Romans 3:29 group.

All have sinned, all are laboring and are heavy laden with sin.

We all sin.

So that invitation is open to everyone and it's a cruel invitation if in fact, Most of humanity can't possibly respond because God hasn't regenerated their corrupt nature so that they can respond to the gospel.

Here's another problem with unconditional election.

It really makes God a respecter of person.

She probably already thought of that because God's making a distinction between this individual and that individual, but on what basis?

Well, not anything related to them necessarily.

It's just God's sovereign will.

You know, I have talked to Calvinists, and I've questioned that.

And said, how can you be good with the idea that God just said, I'm gonna condemn all these people over here.

And you know what the response to that is, at least the one I've heard.

It's God's choice.

God can do anything God wants to do.

But you know the scriptures say that God cannot lie.

The reason he can't lie is because he's a holy God, because he is truth.

It is contrary to his nature.

And so if you can point out something that's unjust, That God does.

Well, then you got a problem, don't you?

God becomes a respecter of persons.

Paul says in Romans 25, with respect to the judgment that God is not a respecter of persons, and that's what Peter preached to Cornelius in his household in Acts 21.

Remember, Peter was called to go and preach to Cornelius there in Cesarea.

A bunch of Gentiles had come together.

And Peter and some Jewish brethren to come there.

And so Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Tell me how that passage squares with the idea that God just randomly chose this one or that one or somebody else to be saved and everybody else.

They're just going to be lost.

No rhyme or reason to it.

Just random choices.

Well, what about Jacob and Esau?

God made a choice between Jacob and Esau.

If you got your Bibles out.

And I forgot to uh set up my iPad here, but I think we can get to Romans the 24th chapter.

Romans chapter 25.

And I'm going to begin reading there in verse 23, Romans chapter 83 and verse 28.

Now we're kind of dropping into the middle of this text, but I will, I will suggest to you that Romans 228.

is basically pointing out that God can make choices.

He can choose to show mercy to whom he wants and to whom he doesn't want.

And we would agree with that.

God is sovereign.

He can do that.

Verse 25.

And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even our father Isaac.

Verse 11 is parenthetical for the children, not yet being born, remember, she had twins, nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls.

Wow, is that unconditional election?

Is that what Calvinism is saying?

It sounds like Paul is saying that God chose between those two children, Rebecca's twins, before they were ever born, before they ever did good or evil, that God already had made some choices.

It was said to her, the older shall serve the younger.

As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

What shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God?

Certainly not, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.

So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, and that's the sugar stick.

Of the Calvinists with respect to unconditional election.

See here, Paul says, God can make his choice and it's not, doesn't depend on.

What's the context of this chapter?

It it did God make a choice between Jacob and Esau as far as who would be saved and who would be lost?

Because that's unconditional election.

That's what unconditional election is about.

Who's gonna be saved and who's gonna be lost?

Individuals being chosen or not chosen, is that what this passage is about?

And the answer is no.

God's choice between Jacob and Esau did not result in their salvation or their demise.

It was merely whether they would be in the line of the Messiah.

And so this text isn't talking about what the Calvinist is talking about when they talk about unconditional elections.

Well, here's another problem.

Any biblical warning about falling away.

Now, we'll talk more about this in greater detail when we talk about perseverance of the saints.

But even at this point, remember one of the quotes said that the number of people who are going to be saved, the number of people who are gonna be, that number is fixed.

It, it's not gonna be diminished, it's not going, and it was fixed before anybody was alive, before humanity even existed, before the foundation of the world.

God had already said, this is the number of people who are gonna be saved.

Here are the individuals and the rest of them are going to be lost.

Remember that none of the elect can fall away.

Their number can't be increased or diminished.

It's interesting that in the Old Testament, Israel was God's chosen people of the old covenant.

Passages like Isaiah 41:8-9, talk about that.

You're my servant, uh, the prophet says to, to Israel, I have chosen you and not cast you off.

And yet Some of them perished in the wilderness, right?

As we read about in 1 Corinthians the 10th chapter 5 verses.

Paul in that passage is warning Christians at Corinth about the fact that they could do the same thing.

They could make the same mistake and fall away as well and be and perish.

And there are many other warnings to God's elect.

Christians, what's the purpose of these warnings?

Why would you warn people about something that cannot happen?

It's impossible, the Hebrews writer would say.

In the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away.

You know, the Calvinists will say, oh, well this isn't talking about Christians.

Really, If they've never been the part of the elect, how can they fall away?

Are those descriptions, the descriptions of non-elect people?

The writer says, and have fallen away.

What about Hebrews the 10th chapter?

In that chapter, the writer of Hebrews is describing people, and he describes them in several ways, but I want you to notice in verse 29.

He says, of how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified?

And brethren, I will tell you, even the Calvinists believe that the only people sanctified by the blood of Jesus are the elect.

Is this passage talking about the elect?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it presupposes in the context that they can fall away.

There's no, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins for those who go on sinning deliberately.

A fearful expectation of judgment is all that remains.

Well, I'm gonna move along kind of quickly here.

We're, we're losing our time.

In 1 Corinthians the 9th chapter, even the apostle Paul, even the apostle Paul talks about the possibility of him being disqualified.

What a nonsensical thing to write.

If in fact, Paul is part of the elect.

Do you think Paul was part of the elect?

What a nonsensical thing for him to write.

If he was part of the elect, did he not understand that there was no way that he could be disqualified?

That's the doctrine of unconditional election.

And the sovereignty of God.

Galatians chapter 5 again, the apostle Paul writing, but now talking to the Galatians, he says, you're severed from Christ.

You know, you really can't be severed from somebody if you haven't been joined to them in the first place.

That would be the elect, right?

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified to the law, you have fallen away from grace.

Listen to me, the Calvinist says that only the elect receive the grace of God.

All the rest are condemned by God's choice to eternal damnation.

But Paul writes to these Christians in Galatia, saying, if they are trying to be justified by the law, they've fallen away from grace.

I don't want to give the impression that predestination is some sort of false doctrine because the Bible talks about predestination.

The Bible suggests in Ephesians 1:4-5, that God made a choice before the foundation of the world.

And he chose us in Him.

In fact, uh, our time is gone, so I'm not gonna do this, but if you'll go through verses 3 through 14, look how many times you find the phrase in him or in Christ.

God chose people to be saved.

He didn't choose me specifically.

He chose people who would belong to Jesus Christ, people who would be in Him, in Christ.

Those are the people who will enjoy all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.

Paul's plan is Outlined, at least in in kind of a summary way in Romans 8:28, where Paul writes, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

What did God foreknow?

What did he predetermine that those who would be saved are those who would be conformed to the image of his Son.

And so he goes on in order that he might be the first born among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called.

Well, you know, we're called by the gospel, Paul writes to the Thessalonians.

And when Jesus sends out his apostles, he tells them to preach the gospel to every creature.

All the nations, make disciples of all the nations.

Those are the ones that God intends to be called, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Those who respond to that call.

Can be justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Calvinists themselves frequently will affirm that all 5 of these tenants.

Tulip are inseparable.

They stand or fall with one another.

The election has to be unconditional according to their doctrine because of inherited total depravity.

We can't make the choice ourselves.

God made the choice for us.

But we've shown clearly, I think, that God does not have a depraved nature, nor is he born a sinner.

We've done that in previous studies.

And man has free will.

He can choose to obey the gospel or not to obey.

Here's what I want you to take away from all of this.

You may not care about all the intricate details of unconditional election and sovereignty and all that, but here's what I want you to understand.

Calvinism takes salvation out of your hands and says you have almost nothing to do with it.

And what the Bible says.

it's up to you.

That you have free will.

That God invites you.

To be his child, his spiritual child, that you have the ability to respond to that invitation.

That you can choose whether you will be lost.

Or whether you'll be saved.

There may be some this evening here who know that they are lost.

Listen to me.

If you're lost, it's not God's fault, and it's not God's choice.

It's not his desire.

God wants all people to save, be saved.

He wants you to be saved.

But you have to make the choice.

To either respond to the invitation and become a Christian.

Or to reject it.

It's our choice.

It's in our hands.

Will you be conformed to the image of God's Son?

By obedience to the gospel, humble submission to God's commands, so that you can enjoy all spiritual blessings in Christ.

The invitation is extended to all who need to respond, and you have the ability to do that this evening.

We stand to invite you as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Acts 5.

But a man named Ananias with his wife Sephira sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostle's feet.

But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for your so yourself, part of the proceeds of the land.

While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You've not lied to man, but to God.

When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last.

And great fear came upon all who heard it.

The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

After an interval of about 3 hours, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened, and Peter said to her, Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?

And she said, Yes, for so much.

But Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?

Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.

Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.

When the young men came in and found her dead and carried her out and buried her beside her husband, and great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Good evening.

It's good to see you all out.

I want to welcome our visitors.

And I know that many of you in the audience are sports fans, some of you football, baseball, softball.

But in Sports Illustrated, a couple of years back, there was a story about a little league baseball game that was played in Wellington, Florida.

And in this game there was a 7 year old named Tanner Munzi.

Who tried to tag a runner before going, who is trying to get from 1st to 2nd base.

And of course, the umpire called the runner out.

But young Tanner immediately ran to the side of the empire and said, Mr. Empire, I didn't tag the runner.

Which, of course, if you're a sports fan, you know that did not work in his favor.

So the umpire reversed his decision and the runner went to 2nd base.

And Tanner's coach, because of his honesty, gave him the game ball.

And 2 weeks later, The umpire was the same, and Tanner was playing shortstop when a similar play occurred.

In this time, the umpire ruled that Tanner had missed the tag.

On the runner going to 3rd.

And he called the runner safe, and Tanner looked at the umpire and without saying a word, he went back to his position.

But the umpire sensed that something was not right, so the umpire goes over and says to Tanner, did you tag the runner?

And Tanner replied, Yes, I did.

And the umpire then called the runner out who was going to 3rd, and the opposing coaches had a fit.

They started to protest until the until the umpire explained what had happened 213 weeks prior.

And the umpire said, if he's this honest, I have to give it to him because this game is for the kids.

And this article ended with Will with Will Tanner, be as honest when he's 37 as he is when he's 7 years old.

And then he asks 3 questions at the very end.

The first is, who is honest and where are the tanner Munsies of the world?

And does anyone tell the truth anymore?

And honesty seems to be a topic that doesn't get a lot of show time, especially from our local news stations.

As something to be admired.

And that's the reason I believe it's important to understand what we gain from being honest.

What do we gain as Christians from honesty?

And I want to start by discussing the importance of honesty, but before we do that, I first want to go over 3 objectives for our study this evening.

On honesty.

And the first is I want us to understand that honesty is the best policy and why that is.

And then I want to show an example of honesty in the scriptures and then an example of dishonesty.

And to understand what the consequences of dishonesty are.

And finally, I want to take a look at some observations that we as Christians can apply to our lives.

And so like I said, I'm going to start out this evening by talking about the importance of honesty.

And that honesty is one of the most important aspects in any relationship because every social activity, every human experience that requires people to act in concert or in unison automatically crumbles whenever people are not honest with each other.

And the honesty that I'm referring to is not just informing the umpire.

Hey, I didn't tag that guy out, or yeah, maybe I didn't.

Or maybe I did.

The kind of honesty that I'm referring to is not just truth telling, but it's truth living.

And this is the kind of honesty that the prophet Jeremiah was looking for in the city of Jerusalem, so that the Lord would spare the city.

And Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 1.

We are told run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem.

Look and take note.

Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.

And so the question I pose to you all is, is would Jeremiah be able to run around this church and find one person?

That would be, that would be a truth living person, and I believe he would.

I believe he'd find many people.

Because when you don't practice honesty in a relationship, people may have a hard time believing you even if you are telling the truth.

And a young shepherd boy found this out the hard way.

Of course, there was a shepherd boy who was up on a hill, and his job every single day was to look over the sheep that belonged to the villagers.

He was a shepherd.

And of course, in his boredom, he decided to amuse himself by shouting, Wolf, wolf!

Somebody, somebody come help me.

In the villagers, of course, they run up the hill to go and help the young boy defend the flock from these wolves.

But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf.

And so the boy laughed at the villagers in their, at their angry faces.

Of course, they replied, Don't cry wolf, whenever there's nothing wrong.

Cry wolf whenever there is actually a wolf so that we can come help you.

And of course, later he does it again.

He cries wolf, and the villagers run up again with their pitchforks and their torches ready to help.

But again, there was no wolf.

And finally, the 3rd time, later that same day, he saw a real wolf attacking the sheep, and the sheep were scattering, running for their lives.

And so he cried louder than he did the 1st 2 times, wolf, wolf.

But the villagers thought that he was trying to fool them again.

So as to not look foolish themselves, they decided, I'm not gonna go up there and waste my time.

He's not telling the truth anyways.

But at sunset, everybody wondered why the young shepherd boy had not come home with their property, with their sheep.

And so An old man who happened to be amongst the villagers who went to go check on the young boy.

He said to the young boy, we'll help you look for the sheep in the morning.

But he said to the young boy, nobody can trust a liar.

Nobody believes a liar, even when he's telling the truth.

Now, of course, I'm sure everybody's heard this storybook out of many children's books, maybe even heard it in school as a way to talk about dishonesty.

But this story, it should be a cautionary tale for us as Christians, because this young man had to learn a very hard lesson about what it means to be honest.

Now, I want to move into the Old Testament and talk about 83 Kings chapter 12, about one example of honesty.

And of course, in 2 Kings chapter 12, I'm referring to King Joe Ash.

King Joash of Judah, of course, noticed that the temple, the house of God, needed some repairs.

And so the king ended up getting a chest.

And allowing people to make donations to the to the uh building of the rebuilding and the fixing of the church or of the temple, excuse me.

In the 2 Kings chapter 12 verses 11 to 15, we are told, then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they paid it out to the carpenters and to the builders who worked on the house of the Lord and to the masons and the stone cutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs to the house of the Lord and for any outlay of the repairs of the house.

But there were, but there were not made for it for the house of the Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or of silver from the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the Lord with it, and they did not ask for an accounting from the men whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.

So of course, what do you think these building superintendents did?

I mean, we're given multiple different positions.

You had masons, stonecutters.

Carpenters, There was a lot of money that went into this project.

This wasn't just, you know, people handed 5s and 10.

I mean, people donated a lot of money to this.

And so there was probably some room for people to take some money for themselves, but there was no need for an accounting, as we're told in verse 63.

There was no need for accounting as the men who dealt with the money dealt honestly.

But like any profession today, building superintendents who are dishonest give the good ones a bad name.

Of course, some pocket the money, others may use the money to pay off old debts while while still working on a project.

But I want us to understand what honesty meant to King Joash during this project, this monumental task of repairing the temple.

And that's the kind of people that I want if I'm building a house, and actually, for a matter of fact, that's the people I want in my life.

I want to be able to call my friends, my family, my church family.

I want to be able to look upon the people who are around me 24/7 and say these are honest people.

These are who I want to surround myself with.

And I would imagine all of us want the same.

And now that we've given an example of honesty, I think we need to talk about dishonesty and the consequences.

And of course, Ananias and Sephira came to my mind.

And of course, a man named Ananias and his wife Sahira came together and they sold their plot of land so that they, so that like Barnabas, the son of encouragement and many others, they could give money to those who were in need.

That was the job of the apostles.

They were collecting money so that they could give out to those in need.

And of course, there's nothing wrong with that.

But the problem is that they lied to Peter about how much the land was sold for, and then how much they were giving to those in need as to sound more generous than they actually were.

And of course, in Acts chapter 5 and verses 3 and 4, we're told of Peter's response to Ananias.

And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart?

To lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land.

While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you've contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to man, but you have lied to God.

And if you continue to read after Ananias is Being, you know, berated by Peter, he dies.

And of course, the men who wrap him up and buried will come up here in just a moment.

Peter then goes, after a short period of time, Peter goes to Sephira, his wife.

And asks her, did you sell the land for the amount that your husband gave to us?

She said, I, we did, yes.

And of course, in Acts chapter 5 and verse 9, we see Peter's response to her, where he says, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the Lord?

Behold, the feet of those who bury, who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.

And I know that sometimes whenever reading the reading the scriptures, it can be very hard to put ourselves in the shoes of those who we are reading about the, the people and the characters that we're referring to.

That is a bleak scene.

Because of course we know Sehara doesn't know what's happened to her husband.

She doesn't know this yet.

But imagine, after replying, yes, we did, you're told that the people who have buried your husband are now at your door and they're gonna carry you off the same way.

And I think it's important to understand that and and I since the fires their greed.

Plus their pride which caused them to be hypocritical in their donation.

Which resulted in their dishonesty towards the Holy Spirit.

They wanted to be seen as Barnabas was seen.

They wanted to be seen as more generous than they actually were.

And they died for it.

And now I think it's important to understand some observations about honesty that we can apply to our lives, is that, of course, in the first being is that honesty is the best policy.

And the Proverbs writer tells us that honesty will always be the way to go.

In Proverbs chapter 12 verses 19 and 233, we're told that truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Deceit is from the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy.

And I know we have some teachers and maybe even retired teachers in the audience.

Maybe this has happened to you, maybe, maybe you've responded this cleverly as this teacher has, but I want you to imagine for a moment, you're sitting in a classroom.

And you've just completed a test and 4 students arrived late to class.

And the teacher says, What's your excuse?

Why are you late?

And all 4 students in unison say, we had a flat tire, right?

But without getting upset, the teacher asked the students to take their seats and said, the test is but one question.

Of course, all the kids cheer cause they're exci I was excited if my teacher ever told me I had a one question test. Simple.

But then the teacher says the question is which tire was flat?

And of course, all 4 kids hung their heads as they took their seats, going to answer the question, of course, all 28 kids had different answers.

But they were all punished and given zeros on the test because they lied about why they were late.

Just a possible scenario in this situation is if they had been honest, the teacher may have been understanding if they'd been truly honest, even if it wasn't a good reason.

And sometimes teachers, I would imagine you would say that sometimes you reward honesty.

Even though it may not be the easiest thing to do for the student.

But as Christians, we don't need to expect a reward, but sometimes honesty is rewarded because people appreciate honesty.

And the 236nd, 237nd observation is that honesty makes you genuine.

And to be honest, it means to be real and authentic.

And that's what people want from others.

They want to deal with somebody who is real and authentic and genuine.

And in 221 John chapter 28 and verses 26 and 13, we're told, and this is the judgment, the light has come into the world.

And the people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light.

It does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Cause just as honesty, uh, to being honest means to be real and authentic, dishonest, dishonesty means to be forged, feigned, fake, or even fictitious, probably.

And honesty expresses a disposition towards light.

And it's while dishonesty seeks shade.

And covering concealment.

And the third is that honesty gives glory to God.

The Proverbs writer also wrote in Proverbs chapter 21 and verse 21, that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

And I think within this observation, I think it's important that we understand that we, as people, we as Christians are not honest because society tells us to.

We are honest because God commands us to.

And if we want to be honest, no pun intended, our society is not honest, and it even rewards those who gets, who feel as if they get away with dishonesty.

Dishhonesty is evident in our government, within our politicians, our judicial system.

Our businesses And yes, even our schools.

But the pervasive thought with all four of these institutions is that As long as you can get away with it.

If you get away with it, nobody finds out, more power to you.

Great job.

Just don't get caught.

But those who think that they have gotten away with dishonesty, people who think that they have gotten away with white lies or even giant spider webs full of lies.

They will be met with a terrible fate one day, when they are forced into the light by the Lord, when they are forced out of their concealment in their cover by the Lord on the day of judgment.

And the 29th observation is that we need to be honest regardless of the consequences.

Because when we're faced with situations where we can get in a lot of trouble, Either by physical harm or even just being berated by, by your friends or being persecuted.

We need to be honest no matter what the consequences are.

And I would refer you to Luke chapter 22 and the three denials of Peter.

Luke chapter 22 and verses 57, 58, and 60 we're told, but he denied it, saying, Woman, I do not know him.

Verse 58, and then a little later, someone else saw him and said, you are also one of them.

But Peter said, man, I am not.

And in verse 13.

But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about.

And immediately while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

This was foretold by Christ, that it would happen.

But Peter said, Lord, you know that I love you.

I would never deny you.

But when the rubber met the road, Peter couldn't stand.

And he fell.

And I can't imagine cause right after he, right after the rooster crows, you see that the Lord looked at Peter.

I can't imagine the the gut-wrenching feeling that Peter felt.

I can't imagine.

But thankfully, Peter later in his life would write.

About the importance of honesty.

In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 10, we're told, for whoever desires to love life and to see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

And I'm sure that everyone here at one point in time, whether you did something wrong or not, has been pulled over by the police for even just a basic traffic stop.

And the police officer walks up to your window and says, license and registration, please.

And you know, you, you ran that stop light back there, or excuse me, the stop sign, and you look at the officer plain as day, so nonchalant and say, no, I didn't.

Even though you know you did.

And the police officer tells you again, sir, I have it on video.

I saw you do it.

Why would I pull you over if I didn't see you do it?

And again you look at the officer and say I didn't do it.

What do you hope to gain from lying to this police officer besides maybe making him upset?

For lying to his face.

Do you maybe hope to get out of the ticket?

Or maybe, you know, just, you just don't want to admit to a crime.

In Mark chapter 8, verse 36 and 37, we're told, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Beating a, a speeding ticket or, you know, a violation is not gaining the world.

Why, why in the world would you forfeit your soul or something like that?

Admit to what you did.

But many people don't believe this way.

And of course, God As we've talked about this evening, God is looking for honest people.

He's looking for people who he can trust.

He's looking for people who will be honest in all their dealings, just like the building superintendents.

People who will practice what they preach.

And people who will keep the promises that they make, people who is, whose word is their bond.

I'm sure many of you have heard older movies where two men come together and they make an agreement, my, you have my word.

That's very hard to do these days.

Cause so many people, their word is not their bond.

It almost seems you have, there's no such thing as handshake agreements.

You have to have legal documentation for everything to hold people accountable.

But of all these people Will you be that person?

Can you call yourself amongst just some of those people that I've listed?

But of course, dishonesty is something that that can become a habit in your life.

And in order to overcome this habit, you must make the concise decision ahead of time.

Regardless of the consequences.

And of course, dishonesty is a sin.

We've established that this evening, even though many people consider it not to be a sin.

Well, everyone does it, right?

Everyone's everyone lies sometimes.

It will keep you out of heaven.

And I think we all need to understand that.

Revelation chapter 21 and verse 8 tells us, but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars.

Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

I need you to understand, liars are in the same boat as murderers and sexually immoral people.

Many people wanna classify different kinds of lies.

Well, you know, you have your big lies over here.

But then you have your white lies way over here.

All liars will be forfeited out of heaven, forfeited from heaven.

Paul tells us in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, for the wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death.

This evening, if you're not a Christian, you don't have a relationship with the Lord.

And your sins, which may, among them include dishonesty, has separated you from God.

But God wants to set you free from your sin because Christ died on the Roman, on a Roman cross so that you would have the opportunity this evening.

To make a change in your life and to have your sins washed away.

And to become a new person.

But there are some conditions that must be met in order for this to happen.

Believing, repenting, confessing.

And baptism are all necessary in order to become his child.

And if you're already a Christian and you struggle with being honest, You have separated yourself from the Lord.

As little as our society may deem it not as important as it should be, you have separated yourself from the Lord.

Thankfully, due to his son's sacrifice and God's decision to send his son to this world, you have an opportunity this evening to be back to come back and to be welcomed back into his fold, to be under his protection to become his child once again.

Because God tells his children, if they seek his forgiveness, it will be granted to them.

1 John chapter 1 and verse 9, we're told, if we confess our sins, he is faithful.

And just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all.

All unrighteousness.

If you are subject to the invitation this evening, if there's any way that we can assist you this evening, please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripts you're reading this morning will be from Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 to 39.

I'll be reading from the New King James version, the ESV is up on the screen.

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.

I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household.

He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And he who does he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Debbie and I have looked forward to being back with you after uh being on vacation.

We were very disappointed not to be with you on Wednesday, but uh had brought a cough and some sinus congestion back as souvenirs from our vacation and uh didn't want to share that with you.

We just selfishly wanted to keep it to ourselves.

Neither of us is exactly 100%, but uh I'm as close as normal as I probably ever get.

And Debbie is recovering uh as well.

We always miss you as our spiritual family when we are gone.

Fortunately, we were able to spend some time with Angie Ison while we were on our trip and of course, Mike was there, but.

Well, you know, So it's good to be back with you and I uh ask your patience while I try to remember how this preaching thing goes.

I'm pretty sure that the morning sermon goes an hour.

I'm not sure about that, but I think that's what Steve said.

I want to draw your attention this morning to one of the conversion accounts that Luke gives us in the book of Acts.

It is found in chapter 8 of Acts in the latter part of that chapter, and it has to do with a man by the name of Philip, who is encouraged to go and to teach an Ethiopian treasure who had been to Jerusalem.

And was riding in a chariot.

He's an official, a high official apparently in Ethiopia.

And he is returning from Jerusalem.

And as he is riding in his chariot, he is reading aloud from the Isaiah scroll.

He's reading from Isaiah chapter 53, and you're probably aware that that's a messianic passage.

Then the Holy Spirit instructs Philip to go and to uh join himself with this individual and uh so he does that.

And the text tells us that The Ethiopian didn't understand who the prophet Isaiah was talking about.

In that passage.

And so it's a natural opening for Philip to begin teaching the Ethiopian treasure about Jesus, and that's what he does.

He preaches Jesus to him, and that preaching must have included some information about water baptism.

Because as they go along, they come to some water, the text says, and the Ethiopian asks an important question.

Here's water, what hinders me from being baptized?

And it's interesting the response that Philip makes.

You know, if you've taught people and you've studied with them and you've encouraged them to obey the gospel, if they get to the point of asking you the question, is there any reason that I can't be baptized right now?

Most of us are willing to jump into the baptismal garments and into the baptistry or river wherever we happen to be, because that means a success.

But Phillip does something interesting.

Instead, he answers the Ethiopians' question by giving him a condition for being baptized.

And in verse 37, this is the New King James Version, Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may.

There are numerous details that are of interest in this story, but that is a critical detail.

Because Philip is telling the Ethiopian treasure that he needs to be fully committed.

To faith in Jesus Christ.

No doubt, no uncertainty.

But fully committed to what he is going to do if he is baptized.

It's very difficult to be committed to something that you don't believe in with all your heart.

Of course, Philip is really not saying anything different from what Jesus taught during his ministry on numerous occasions.

I'm just going to suggest a couple here very quickly.

In Matthew 6:73, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other.

Or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

Now, in the context, Jesus talks about serving God or money, but the principle is, regardless of whether you're talking about money or some other God, the principle is you can't serve acceptably to masters.

You have to choose one or the other.

You love one and despise the other or vice versa.

And so what Jesus is saying is, serving him requires all your heart.

Not a divided heart.

He will say much the same thing in Mark 12th chapter, and we'll look at that in just a moment.

But people with divided hearts cannot be fully committed to the Lord.

In 1 John the 2nd chapter in verse 15, the apostle John in his first general letter says, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Again, John presents that dichotomy.

You either love God or you love the world, but you can't love both of them.

You can't serve God with a divided heart.

In the 12th chapter of Matthew, excuse me, a Mark, in verses 28 to 30, Jesus answers the question of a scribe about the greatest commandment.

Last year sometime, I don't know if it was for birthday or uh some other gift occasion.

My son David, who has a unique sense of humor.

Bought me a t-shirt and that's what was on the t-shirt.

Yeah, good enough.

Mediocrates, the Greek philosopher.

Now, I love a good pun.

And I love that shirt.

But I have a little bit of Anxiety wearing it.

In fact, I wore it while we were on vacation.

And I had one of the people that we were associated with on, on the, on our trip, uh, asked me what does that mean?

And so I had to explain who mediocris was.

But Jesus says, you and I can't afford to be mediocrates.

He says in Mark the 12th chapter in verse 28.

When one of the scribes came up and heard him disputing with another and seeing that he answered them well, ask this question, which commandment is the most important of all?

And Jesus answered, The most important is hero Israel.

The Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.

That pretty much covers the basis, doesn't it?

There isn't anything left for anybody else.

You love God with everything you are.

That's what we would refer to as total commitment.

And that's what I wanna talk to you about this morning.

I want to talk to you about being totally committed to the Lord.

Unfortunately, there are many who call themselves disciples of the Lord, who are not fully committed to Him.

Now, mind you, they are involved in religion.

They're doing religious things.

They're doing things that have spiritual or biblical overtones.

That's not the same thing as being fully committed to the Lord.

And I want you to remember that distinction as we talk about our commitment.

How strong is your commitment?

Our friends, Miriam and Webster.

would help us understand the idea of commit to commit by defining it to mean to obligate or pledge oneself.

To commit to something means you are obligating yourself to some responsibility or some relationship.

You are pledging yourself for some responsibility.

And friends obedience to the gospel involves a commitment.

It involves a pledge.

In Romans the 203th chapter in verse 9, in the first half of that verse, the apostle Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

Have you ever wondered why Paul in Romans 10 does not say that we need to confess with our mouth that Jesus is the Son of God?

That's what the Ethiopian treasure confessed when Philip challenged him, uh, with respect to his faith.

If you believe with all your heart, and that's the response he makes.

That Jesus is the Son of God.

But I want you to understand the connection between that confession and what Paul says in Romans 10th chapter in verse 9.

The word Lord there, Curios is a word that implies that one has the authority to command.

It could be used in a little different sense sometimes if you were, let's say you were in the first century and you're walking along the road and, and you happen to greet somebody, just uh uh uh a friend or a stranger, you might refer to him as Lord Curios, much in the same way that we use the word.

Sir, we don't mean much about it other than it's just a, a courtesy, a social courtesy.

But the word also can have the connotation of being someone who is above us and has the right to command us, and that is the issue here.

That's the point that Paul's making.

Why is it that Jesus is Lord?

Why is it that he has the authority to command us?

And Paul supplies that answer in Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 when he says, That Jesus was proclaimed the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus is Lord because he is the Son of God.

And so when we confess him as Lord, we are obligating ourselves to obey Him.

We are pledging ourselves as his servant.

In Romans the 6th chapter, the apostle Paul would talk to the Romans about their own obedience to the gospel.

He says in answer to the question, can we continue in sin?

This is in uh verses 13 and 14 and 73.

He says in 16, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

But thanks be to God that you who were one.

Slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.

When we obey the gospel, we pledge ourselves as And the word here literally is slave.

It's sometimes translated servant.

But it's literally the word that would be translated slave in most contexts.

And so Paul is suggesting the commitment that we make when we obey the gospel.

A number of synonyms for commitment.

Would include words like devotion.

Dedication, allegiance. Steadfastness.

Loyalty and each of those words has some shade of connotation a little different from others, but all of them speak to the general idea of concept of commitment and that's what we're talking about this morning.

It's not just when we obey the gospel that we make commitment to another.

The marital relationship involves pledges or vows frequently in the ceremonies that we go through when we get married, bride and groom will vow to one another that they're going to make certain commitments and they are total commitments because they involve the rest of our lives.

When a woman says to a man, I will submit to you in everything as my head.

That's a huge commitment.

When a man says to a woman, I will love you the way that Christ loves the church, that is a huge commitment, and they are making a commitment that is designed to last for the rest of their lives.

And yet, The high incidence of divorce for unscriptural causes suggests that many spouses really are not fully committed to the marital relationship, or at least do not continue to be committed if they were in the first place.

Here we are in the Bible Belt, in Alabama, North Alabama, no less.

You can't spit without hitting a church building.

And yet, Alabama ranks number 12 in the 50 states of the Union in terms of the rate, the percentage of divorce.

The statistic that I found on the net, and of course the internet never lies.

Was that in Alabama, the rate is 10.04%.

Now that doesn't mean that that We sometimes would interpret that, or at least I would have until I investigate a little bit more that it means that 10% of marriages.

Now, what that says, what the statistic was intended to imply was that 10% of Alabama's population is divorced.

In the Bible Belt.

Which suggests that we're not nearly as committed to marriage as perhaps one might assume from the vows that we take when we get married.

But I want to show you some commitment.

Not, not my personal commitment to a short sermon.

I forget about that.

I want to talk to you about Daniel the 3rd chapter, about 3 men who show total full commitment to serving God.

You, you probably remember the story perhaps of the 3 Jewish captives who are now in positions of authority in Babylon.

Shadrack, Meshach, and Abenigo.

Daniel is the 113th, he's mentioned in chapters 1 and 2, but chapter 3 of Daniel focuses on these 3 men who have been made high officials in the province of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar decided that he would make an image, uh, one might assume of himself.

The text doesn't actually say that, I don't believe, but it is his image.

It's a golden image.

And the instruction is.

That of all the officials of the kingdom of the empire that he has gathered together for this purpose, that when the auditory signal happens, the sound of instruments playing, everybody bows down to this 90 ft tall image.

And everybody does.

Except these 3 guys.

Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego.

I, I don't know how accurate this particular, uh, picture is.

I suspect the image may have been much higher, uh, if we were, uh, keeping scale here.

But I wanted you to look at the image because it's pretty easy to pick out people who are not bowing when everybody else is.

You have a tendency to stand out when you're the only people who are standing up and everybody else is bowing down.

And somebody did notice, several somebodies.

Some Chaldeans who may have done this out of jealousy, they go to the king and say, rehearse for him his law that when the sound of the music plays, everybody's supposed to bow down.

But you know, there are 3 guys over here that you've appointed high officials and they're not bowing down.

They don't worship your gods and they don't bow down to your image.

And Nebuchadnezzar.

Who is pictured in the book of Daniel as a rather arrogant individual.

He is furious.

He is incensed.

But he gives these three men when they are brought before him, the opportunity to go ahead and, and bow down.

And I want you to pay attention to their answer.

You've heard it, you're familiar with it, perhaps, but just for the purpose of review, they say to him, Oh Nebuchadnezzar, he's already told them.

You don't bow down and you're gonna be thrown into the fiery furnace.

In fact, that was made clear from the beginning of this law.

Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, OK. But if not, and boy, that just says, Volumes But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

Here are 3 men who do not know apparently for sure that God is going to deliver them.

If you, you know, cheated and went to the end of the story, then you already know that God does deliver these 3 men.

But they apparently didn't know that was going to happen.

For all they knew, they were going to be thrown into this furnace and burned alive.

And Nebuchadnezzar is so incensed at this answer, the impertinence of these three men that he orders that the furnaces to be heated 73 times more than normal.

In fact, the guys who bring these 3 men to throw them in the furnace, they get consumed by the fire.

That's commitment.

That's total commitment.

When you're so committed to serving the true God that you're willing to give up your life to be burned alive in a fiery furnace, because you will not do what is contrary to God's will.

That's full commitment.

How committed are we?

How would we measure up?

Against these three individuals.

Well, I wanted to draw your attention to a New Testament example as well.

And actually, it's not just one example, it's a multitude of people.

In Hebrews the 11th chapter, the writer uh details the faith of a number of people starting with Adam and going all the way through uh Moses, and we could look at any number of those examples, but what's interesting is that when he gets to verse 32, He says, and what more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Bayrak, Samson, Jepha, of David and Samuel and the prophets.

Now, he mentioned some individuals, but then he just begins to talk about kind of a nameless multitude.

Now, some of the things he says beginning in verse 225, I think apply to the names that he's mentioned in 220, but not all of them.

He says, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stop the mouths of lions?

Think Daniel, quench the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Women received back their dead by resurrection.

Some were tortured.

Refusing to accept release.

So that they might rise again to a better life.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned.

They were sawn in two.

They were killed with the sword.

They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.

The author of Hebrews says these were people who suffered because they were committed to serving God.

And would not compromise, not even.

When the cost was their lives.

When the cost was suffering.

Not everybody has that kind of commitment.

Because when we come into the New Testament, we move to the book of Revelation, we read about some ho-hum Christians.

The church at Laodicea was addressed in Revelation chapter 27 beginning in verse 220.

I know your works, the Lord says.

You're neither cold nor hot.

Would that you are either cold or hot, so because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Now these people weren't totally indifferent.

But they weren't fully committed either.

They weren't hot.

They weren't passionate.

About their service to God.

And so the Lord continues, for you, say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined, refined by fire, so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sav to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

He were people who were Christians, but they weren't totally committed to their service to God.

And in fact, they had forgotten what God had already done for them.

If you want a better description of them, go to 27 Peter chapter 211.

Peter describes them perfectly.

They become so near-sighted, so blinded, that they didn't remember what God had already done for them.

They needed to hear what Israel was told by Samuel.

In 33 Samuel chapter 23 and verse 214.

Only fear the Lord, Samuel says to Israel, and serve him faithfully with all your heart.

Fully committed for consider what great things he has done for you.

Interestingly enough, in the book of Revelation and among these seven letters, there's another church that stands in stark contrast to the Laodiceans.

It is the church at Smyrna.

And to that church, here's what Jesus wrote.

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna right, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life, I know your tribulation.

And your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Well, those are sobering words.

Don't fear what you're going to suffer.

There's the intimation that suffering is on the horizon.

But he says, don't fear, behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and for 227 days, you'll have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

That's the Church of Smyrna in the first century.

In the middle of the 2nd century, there was a Christian.

Who lived at Smyrna.

His name was Pollycarp.

Polycarp was taken into custody by The Romans.

And encouraged to blaspheme Jesus Christ during a period of persecution of Christians.

Policarp was an old man at this point.

But he refused to compromise.

And give up his lord.

There's a document called the martyrdom of Polycarp.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I'm gonna share it with you.

It's already on the screen.

This is reputedly what Polycarp answered to repeated admonitions, just, just blaspheme the Lord, you know, burn some incense to the emperor, and you can be free.

And he said, for 80 and 6 years, have I been his servant, and he has done me no wrong.

And how can I blaspheme?

My king who saved me.

You threaten with the fire that burns for a time and is quickly quenched, but you do not know the fire which awaits the wicked in the judgment to come and in everlasting punishment.

Pollycarp wouldn't compromise and so they burned him to death.

Jesus described the kind of commitment that disciples need and, and he did it in several different ways.

I'm gonna share just three passages very quickly, we won't dwell on them.

I think the point will be clear.

In the sermon on the Mount, and Matthew's account of it in chapter 5, Jesus says, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

I want you to notice something.

Those verses are not independent of the context, as you might suspect.

In fact, they are intimately related to the previous verses where Jesus says you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks, that's what you do with your eye.

And a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Now, Jesus is not talking about the overt act of adultery, that's the idea of using one's hand.

One sees, one acts, and Jesus says, you do what's necessary to avoid sinning.

I have many times pointed out that I believe in verses 29 and 30 that Jesus is using hyperbole, exaggeration.

To make a point that he doesn't really expect us to tear out our eye or cut off our hand.

But brothers, do we miss the point of the passage by talking about how this isn't literal, and we miss the fact that Jesus is saying, you go to what extremes you need to to stop sinning.

Now, granted, Mark 143 says, what defiles the man comes from within, from within him, from his heart, and so cutting off your hand isn't going to do the trick or tearing out your eye.

There are just a whole lot of things that we can do in life to keep ourselves from sinning.

if we're fully committed.

To doing that.

Is that not what Jesus is talking about?

Is he not talking about full commitment?

Where I will do what is necessary in order to avoid Sinning and being punished eternally for my sin.

Appreciated the reading.

Uh, that Clark did a little bit earlier.

I want to look at that passage again.

I want to focus on verse 35.

And and Uh, through verse 38, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

They're gonna be families that are going to essentially be torn apart because of the different reception that they make, members of the family make toward the gospel.

You know that some of you have suffered those kinds of things in your family, many of us have.

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

If you love family members more than you love Jesus, you're not totally committed.

That's just the truth of the matter.

And Jesus will go on to say, you're not worthy of me.

Because Jesus was fully committed to your salvation and to mine.

How much do you love your children?

Some parents say, well, there are days.

There are days when we're frustrated, frustrated with our children.

There are days when children are frustrated with their parents.

And there are days when spouses are frustrated with each other, but there are these familial bonds that are so strong in this life, but Jesus says, those are nothing compared to what you ought to feel and the way you ought to act toward me, full commitment.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Not even my own self.

Can I love more than Jesus Christ?

I need to take up a cross.

Jesus hears knew exactly what that meant.

Take up a cross and you're on your way to death.

That's what Jesus did.

He carried the, the part of the cross, the cross piece tibuum until he was unable.

But that's what crucified people would do.

They would carry that cross piece on the way to the scene of death.

To the sign of the crucifixion.

And Jesus says, if you're not willing to do that, die to self, then you're not worthy of me.

He's talking about full commitment.

Have we died to self?

That's a tough question.

And it's one that I'm afraid sometimes I probably couldn't answer the way I should.

I hope you can.

The third passage is in Luke 14th chapter.

Notice in verse 25, the text says, great crowds accompany Jesus.

That's success, right?

I mean, numbers, that's the thing.

You want to have as many people as possible to become disciples.

Jesus turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus didn't soften the requirement for discipleship.

He didn't.

Kinda sweet coated or anything.

He said there's got to be full commitment.

Or you cannot be my disciple.

I've said this numerous times.

Jesus did not say that we would be bad disciples if we loved wife, children, or other family members more than him.

He said, you cannot be my disciple.

It's all or none.

And that's going to lend some people an eternal punishment.

Don't let it be us.

The total commitment that Jesus wants from us.

Will manifest itself in our lives.

You can't be totally committed to, to Christ without it showing up in the way that you behave.

Other people are going to see it.

What do you think about the company employee?

Who just sometimes doesn't come to work, no explanation, just doesn't show up, or is consistently late for work.

One excuse or another.

Or once he gets or she gets to work, just goof off at work.

Would you describe that person as totally committed to the job?

Well, of course not.

In fact, that person likely is going to be fired.

Unless they're related to the boss, I guess.

Because most employees, employers will not put up with that.

They want people who are committed to the job.

Totally committed disciples will be in the assembly of the saints on Sunday morning, if at all possible.

I understand there are occasions, there are reasons why sometimes people can't be here.

I'm sure God understands better than I do.

But totally committed disciples, it will be hard to keep them away.

Totally committed disciples.

are going to be here.

To take the Lord's supper on Sunday morning because that's the purpose that we gather for on Sunday morning.

When the disciples come together to break bread in the Following the example of Acts 20 7.

Where the disciples at Troaz and Paul included came together on the first day of the week to break bread.

That's what we're commanded to do.

Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.

Acts 20 7 tells us that's what you and I need to be about.

If at all possible.

And yet I've heard people talk about the fact that they didn't make it to services as though it's no big deal.

Yeah, I wasn't there.

That's not total commitment.

What does the Bible say about not keeping Jesus commands?

It's a sin It's a sin.

And Jesus said, you need to do whatever is necessary to avoid eternal punishment.

And I want to encourage all of us to do that.

To the best of our ability.

I think it would be embarrassing.

To have to stand on the judgment day, if, if you can imagine, perhaps I don't think this is necessarily the way it's gonna happen, but if on the judgment day, there's just, you know, a line there and, and uh the Lord is dealing with people pronouncing sentences, they come before the throne.

Wouldn't you find it embarrassing to stand next to some of those people mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 while I offer excuses for why it was too hard for me to get to church on Sunday morning?

Well, I was sewn in two.

I was flogged.

They stoned me.

CX 7 Stephen.

Well, Lord, I just had trouble getting out of bed.

Or would you want to stand next to Shadrack, Meshach, and the bed you go?

That'd be tough, wouldn't it?

Christians who are passionate about serving the Lord, don't have trouble getting to the assembly on Sunday mornings to remember the one who died for them.

Serve the Lord with a whole heart, Samuel said, for he has done great things for you.

And listen, The blessings that Israel enjoyed.

I'm nothing compared to what you and I enjoy on this side of the cross.

Totally committed disciples who've taken up their crosses don't have to be begged to study their Bibles.

Show of hands here.

How many of you parents have kids who love to read?

And when it's time to go to bed, they don't want to quit reading.

And so they'll, they'll, they'll get their covers, and they've got a book underneath their covers, and they're shining the light on a book because they're so anxious to read the Hardy Boy mystery or Nancy Drew or Whatever's popular now with kids.

In my day, Jim and or Joe and whatever his name, Hardy, that it was with the guys.

And so they're, they're, they're under the covers with the light there.

They're supposed to be sleeping, but they want to read so bad that they're gonna try.

Got any kids like that?

Am I the only nutcase among this group?

OK, I'm not gonna call out the two other hands that went up, 3 other hands that went up, because I just called me a nutcase and my hands up just like yours.

Totally committed Christians don't have to be begged to read the scriptures.

It's like honey, Totally committed disciples who have died to self, don't have to be browbeaten to live pure lives.

Don't have to be pushed to serve God.

They want to do that because they are committed.

Remember what Philip said to the Ethiopian, If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized, is the idea.

Luke 14:27 says, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

God wants all of us.

Not simply some percentage.

But there are a lot of people who are not willing to make that commitment.

Not willing to be totally committed.

They can get wet.

But they can't be disciples.

Because they're not willing to give all that they are.

To the service of God.

There's a difference between being involved and being committed.

I'm afraid that some Christians do not have that commitment.

And I think probably with most of us, our commitment is not always at the same level, but hopefully, we look at ourselves periodically to make sure that we're not being distracted by other things, so that our commitment to the Lord wanes or is divided.

If that describes your life.

It describes my life, then we need to be zealous and we need to repent.

Lest the Lord cast us aside.

If you need to obey the gospel this morning.

Understand, you can get wet.

If you're not fully committed to obeying the Lord, if you don't, your faith is not absolutely certain, believe with all your heart, then that's all that'll happen.

Even if you come up and we baptize you, we immerse you in water.

But the gospel invitation is to all those who understand their need and who believe.

With all their heart in the Lord Jesus.

And if that's you, we invite you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: David Weatherford

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

The scripture reading tonight will be from Joshua chapter 9.

I'll be reading from the English Standard version, same as on the screen.

Joshua chapter 203 verses 1 through 15.

As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan and the hill country and in the lowland all across the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Parisites, the Hibitites, and the Jebusites heard of this.

They gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI. They um they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wine skins worn out, torn and mended with worn out patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes.

And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.

And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country.

So now make a covenant with us.

But the men of Israel said to the Hippotites, Perhaps you live among us.

Then how can we make a covenant with you?

They said to Joshua, We are your servants.

And Joshua said to them, Who are you and where do you come from?

They said to him, We are from a distant country.

Your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan.

To Scion, the king of Heshbo and to Og the scene of the king of Baishan, who lived in Asterroth.

So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, take provisions in your hand for the country and go to meet them and say to them, We're your servants.

Come now, make a covenant with us.

Here's your bread.

It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey.

On the day we set out to come you come to you, but now behold, it is dry and crumbly.

These wine skins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst.

All these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.

So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord, and Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live.

And the, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

Good evening.

We make choices and decisions every day, even tonight, probably before you go to bed, you will make a decision about whether you're gonna eat or what you're gonna eat.

What time will you turn in tonight?

If school were going on and you had an exam tomorrow, you may have to make a decision.

how much time am I, am I going to study for that exam?

Am I gonna go to college?

Or am I just gonna pursue a career and what will that career be?

Decisions, decisions, the list is endless.

Life is full of choices and decisions.

Now some of them are pretty simple and they're insignificant and what I mean by that is the consequence of some decisions are pretty minimal.

For instance, if I decide to eat at Wendy's over Burger King, the tummy ache I'm probably gonna get at either place it's probably gonna be about the same.

I like both of those places.

But some of our Uh, choices that we are faced with some of the decisions that we make, however, That we are faced with can set our life course for the remainder of our years and even beyond.

Who will I spend my time with?

Who will I befriend?

Because those people are gonna affect and influence us in the way that we act.

Who will I choose to date?

When it comes to our salvation, who, what decision am I gonna make about whether I'm gonna obey Christ and come to him in obedience?

When I'm tempted, am I going to give in to that or not and resist?

In a mate, who will I choose for my mate?

You know, there are more weighty decisions in life.

These are some of the more weighty decisions, decisions that are consequential in life because the results of those decisions can make your life easier or harder.

They can make your life more manageable.

Or more difficult Those are decisions I think that call on us to exercise careful reflection, wisdom, and thought, and more deliberate calculation.

Because how we decide on those things can set us up to even lead us closer to God.

And to pursue a more righteous life or on the other side.

Lead us farther away from God into sinful actions.

And so what I wanna talk to us tonight about is how should we approach these weighty decisions.

You know, although this lesson really applies to all of us, I'm kind of primarily I wrote this lesson primarily for our younger people because you have a lot of life decisions ahead of you.

You have some major decisions that some of us who are older have already made those decisions.

So tonight I want to look at what are some steps that we can take, what are some things that you and I can do when we have difficult decisions to make.

What kind of mindset will help prepare us as we make these important decisions and so to do that what I want us to do is look at some scriptural examples of individuals and even some groups of people in the scriptures that made decisions that were faced with decisions and how did they go about making those decisions?

And I'd like for us to consider their ways and observe what they did or maybe what they did not do and learn from them with the goal of helping us in our decision making.

Our first example that I want to look at tonight comes from Numbers chapter 13 and 14.

That's our text.

For this first example, And this is a decision.

That Israel was faced with, uh, in that early part of the chapter 13, God tells Moses to send the spies to the land that I'm gonna give you and so they go they spy off the land, they come back with a report and they say it is indeed a good land, a land that flows with milk and honey, but they say the people in it are strong, their cities are fortified and moreover giants live there.

Well, in about verse 30 of Numbers chapter 13, Caleb speaks up and he says, no, we should go up and take it.

We will overcome it.

Well, as we move into chapter 14, We see that the people are beginning to make their decision and Joshua is encouraging the people not to rebel against the Lord or fear the people in the land.

But they have a decision to make.

So I want you to put yourself in their shoes.

You've heard the two reports, what decision would you make?

What else would you lean on besides these two reports that have just come back from the spies?

Well, I would hope that we would look at the evidence.

You know, God mentions later in this chapter, verse 22, he talks about all of the glory and all of the signs that these people saw that he performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet they have put him to the test.

He had provided them ample evidence that he would take care of them.

He slaughtered the Egyptians as they crossed after them.

They crossed on dry ground as they went through the wilderness, he took care of them, so they had evidence that they should have used and factored in to their decision making process.

But what was their decision?

Well let's look at what they did in verse 153 of chapter 14 after they heard this report, it says, then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.

So later, the next day, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Caleb are trying to encourage them.

Not to be fearful in verse 10.

It says, but all the congregation said to stone them with stones.

And that was their decision.

What was the failure in their decision making process?

I think it really comes down to the fact that they did not have faith.

I think had they had a strong faith in God, The other 10 spies would have had the same report as Joshua and Caleb had.

I think that the people would if they had had the faith that they should have, would not have been persuaded maybe by the other 10 spies.

I think a strong faith from the congregation would have uh given them the confidence they needed to trust in God.

I want you to look at Deuteronomy chapter one.

I've got it up here.

Verse 26, Moses is recounting this decision.

And he says, yet you are not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you grumbled in your tents and said, because the Lord hates us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

They said God hates us.

Where does that come from?

I think that's a lack of faith.

Where was their faith?

Why such disbelief?

I think it showed that their faith was really very weak, if any, but almost nonexistent in God.

And so the lesson that I would pull out from this young people develop a strong faith in the Lord and trust his ways and I think that will help put you on a track to make wise decisions in life.

You know, doubt is an enemy when it comes to trust.

And when we don't trust our creator in the instruction that he has given us through his word and his promises, then our likelihood of making a bad decision is greater and it's gonna lead us farther away from him, similar to Israel.

On the other hand, the more we can learn about God and understand even the evidences that he has left for us, then the more we understand through his word that he desires.

His desire is for us and for our good.

And the stronger our faith can be, the more that we realize that His ways are best and will ultimately help us.

Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 says without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 9 says the heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps.

And then Jeremiah 223:11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

So establish your own faith in God, and that will help you in your decision making.

The next example that I want to look at really comes from the same text.

It's actually the follow on decision to what they had just decided.

God, at this point, after they have rebelled against his command, he gives them instruction through Moses to turn by way of the Red Sea and head back to the wilderness.

So they have yet another decision to make.

What was that decision?

Do we listen to God?

Or we do it our own way and take Cana.

Well, if we look at uh chapter 14 and verse 39 of Numbers 14, when Moses spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people mourned greatly.

In the morning, however, they rose up and went up to the ridge of the hill country saying, Here we are, we have indeed sinned, but we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised.

Let's make some observations here.

The people initially mourn their bad decision.

They recognize they've made a mistake and they acknowledge their sin.

They saw their error.

That's good, right?

That's, that's good.

That's first steps.

But good decision making would say, you know what, we messed up by not listening to God's instruction.

The first time, so we better listen the next time and then just accept the consequences.

But instead, that's not what they do.

They decide to go on into Canaan and handle things their way and they even cite God's original promise uh that they can take the land.

It's interesting that they, they do that then.

But Moses counsels them in verses 42 through 45, he tells them, don't go up.

The Lord is not with you.

You will be struck down.

And you will fall by the sword.

And so Moses really cautions them about this decision.

But sadly their decision is made and contrary to God's command and Moses's warning they go up anyway and what happens?

Well, if we look at verses 44 through 45, it says, but they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the hill country.

Neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses left the camp.

Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and struck them and beat them down as far as Horma.

The people were defeated.

They were crushed before the Amorites, and the people wept greatly.

Looking at this decision, what would have been the correct decision in this second situation?

Well, except their mistake.

And return under God's instructions.

Just listen to him.

But instead, they choose their own way, disregarding God's word.

So what was the failure?

Well, it says they went up heedlessly.

They did not listen to the Lord.

They did not heed God's word.

Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 1 and verse 113 that you have rebelled against the command of the Lord and have acted presumptuously when they went up into the hill country.

Presumptuously means to act proudly.

To be too bold, to be bold, to go too far, uh.

To rebel.

And it's the idea of failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.

Um, what guided their decision, the second decision was not a godly sorrow.

I think it was a sorrow that does not lead to repentance, and it ended up being rebellion.

I think they admitted their mistake because they didn't want to accept the consequences.

Well, lesson number 2 in this is that pride and arrogance and rebellion will guide us into bad decision making.

To make wise decisions, we need to have the mindset of a humble heart.

Recognizing if we've messed up that we've made a mistake and listened to the counsel of the godly.

Arrogance and presumptive behavior can cause us to go against God's word.

But on the other hand, having humility and recognizing our own limitations and realizing we need help in the bigger decisions of life may help put us in the right frame of mind to make the proper choices.

Let's look at another example.

And this one involves uh Joshua and the men of Israel.

Appreciate Clark reading this that was the, the text of what he read and this was the men of Gibeon who craftily attempted to deceive uh Israel, Joshua, and the heads of Israel.

They knew that Israel was supposed to go into the land of Canaan and utterly destroy all the inhabitants.

And so these people were afraid and seeking to save their life, they come up with a scheme to deceive.

And in verse 7, it indicates that uh Joshua and the people were suspicious.

Verse 7.

Uh, it says, what if you are living within our land?

How then shall we make a covenant with you?

They knew that they should not be making covenants with people within their land.

Well, what was the decision to be made here?

Well, it was either to listen to these men, believe them, and make a covenant.

Or 212, to go get some counsel about this decision.

Let's get some help.

Well, look at verse 215.

The text clearly says that they did not do something.

Regarding this decision, it says so the men of Israel took some of their provisions and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord.

Instead, in verse 213, Joshua made a covenant with them.

And so did the elders of the people, and they did not kill them.

And those people consequently lived in Israel at least until the time of Solomon.

And even the heads of Israel and the people grumbled against Joshua for making this covenant with them, and it caused some issues.

Well, what was the failure here?

Well, they did not seek God's counsel.

In this decision, I think that's very telling when the text is that clear.

They did not ask for counsel of the Lord.

And that implies to me as I read that, that they, they could have, they could have and I'm pretty sure that God would have helped them understand the truth here, but they did not.

You know, sometimes decisions in this life are hard.

Many times we don't know exactly what to do or how to decide on an issue.

I don't know, I don't really think that Joshua here was trying to rebel against God.

I don't think his intentions were evil.

I just think they were tricked.

You know, our decisions sometimes may be difficult.

For instance, young people, if you're looking for someone to date.

You know you may date someone seem like a nice person maybe they claim to be a Christian.

They seem like they love the Lord, but I'm suspicious.

Maybe there's some things you're seeing maybe there's some things others are seeing that are concerning that aren't quite right.

Maybe it even gets to the point of where you're about to get married, you have to make that decision.

It's very fitting for us to seek God's counsel.

How do we do that?

Well, prayer is one way to do that and the other is through reading his word that he has communicated to us and looking for the guiding principles and the commands that we see in his word.

You know, critical decision making needs to include God and His will.

How do we prepare our minds for those kinds of decisions?

By reading, studying his word, contemplating upon it, meditating upon what it says, looking for those principles that will help guide our decision making.

And the other part of that is being willing to make that hard decision based on that counsel.

Sometimes our desires may not be what the direction we need to go in and we need to be willing to make that hard decision.

When Joshua and the men of Israel needed to seek God, they relied on their own wisdom, and they were deceived.

Seek God's counsel.

James chapter 220 and verse 215 says, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Philippians 222:143 says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

So use prayer, ask for his guidance, ask for wisdom to help him see through his word to help us in our decisions and perhaps God will open doors for us or he may close doors if he knows that we are seeking the right path and willing to see it.

The next example that I want to look at in decision making is Real.

Realm had a big decision to make in 214 Kings chapter 230.

Uh, verses 219 through 4, Solomon, his father had, uh, had died and Ria Boam has now taken the kingdom of Israel.

And Jeroboam and a lot of Israel come to speak to Riaboam and to implore him to lighten their load so that they will follow him that if he does that, we will follow you.

And so they tried to reason with him to lighten this burden that Solomon had placed on all the people.

uh, Solomon was very wealthy but did that at a pretty hard cost to the nation.

And the people were looking for a change.

Well, Riabo has a decision to make here.

New leadership, a new beginning.

And so the people take this opportunity to reason with him and ask for relief.

And Reba has to has to decide do I listen uh to these people?

Do I listen to the council of the elders or my peers?

Well, let's look at what he did.

In verse 5, it says he sent them away for 3 days, and then he said, return to me for my decision.

Then in verse 6, it says he took counsel with the elders.

What did they say?

They said, listen to the people, be their servant.

And speak good words to them and they will be your servants forever.

But the second thing he did was he consulted with his peers, and these were young men who had grown up with him, uh, his age.

They instead counseled him to make their burdens even harder.

Basically show them who's boss.

Well, what did he choose?

We know the story.

Verse 8.

Says, but he forsook the counsel of the elders.

And he took the advice of his peers, which consequently was the wrong advice because the outcome of that decision was the kingdom was torn apart.

And there was rebellion against him.

Let's talk about what went wrong here.

Mm. Maybe let's start with, what did he start off doing?

I think he started off doing a good thing.

He asked for time to contemplate and make a logical choice.

I think there's value in doing that.

You know, when we have a big decision to make, we don't need to rush into that.

Even Jesus talking about discipleship talks about calculating the cost specifically in committing to Him.

You know, some major decisions in life don't need to be made hastily without giving proper thought and researching maybe the outcomes.

Ria Boha wanted to get some, have some time to get some counsel, and I think there's a good lesson in that for us.

The other thing is he sought out counsel, he sought out some different views, you know, a good leader, a wise person will do that.

At work we oftentimes have meetings and our leaders will ask for recommendations about certain problems and they listen to the team that comes together and put several recommendations.

That's what good leaders, good decision makers do.

But a good decision maker also will be able to determine the best advice given.

And they should have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

And in this case, unfortunately, Riabo listened to the wrong counsel for advice.

And I think there's a lesson in that.

He forsook the counsel of the elders, and he listened to his peers.

Young people Be careful about listening to the advice of your peers.

If that counsel goes against what you know to be right.

Or if that goes against what maybe your parents are advising you to do.

Or if it goes against what you know God's word says, you know, our peers can have a powerful influence over our decisions.

Be wise enough to listen to good advice and to follow the counsel of the wiser and in many cases those are the older people that are more experienced that have seen some things.

You know, ultimately, it would seem that Ria Boha's decision may have also been guided by his own desire for power and greed that led him to the decision that he made.

Well, another example.

That we have and this is the last example we'll look at.

is a account that's familiar to us comes from 2 Kings chapter 303, and this is the story of Naammon.

Naaman was a leper from the Syrian army.

And he heard from his servant, uh, young servant girl who was an Israelite.

She said if he, if he, you could only, uh, get to the prophet in Israel, he could heal you.

And so a lot of Naaman makes makes all the.

Uh, necessary, uh, You know, things to go find him.

He gets his king involved and he gets a king of Israel involved.

Elisha gets word that he has come uh with his entourage, and so he is uh directed to go to Elisha's house.

And Elisha sends word out to go and wash in the Jordan 7 times, and you will be clean.

Well, Naman had a decision to make.

And Elisha's instructions were different than what Naman thought.

He would do.

In fact, the text tells us that in verse 11, and I think this was upsetting to Naam that apparently it was because instead of just simply obeying the command, Naaman reacts in a rage and he leaves.

Um, without obeying the command, without even trying.

Well, what brought him back to his senses and kind of grounded him in making a good decision here?

Well, verse 13.

His servants come to him and they implore him, my father.

Had the prophet told you to do something great, would you have not done it?

How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean?

Well, he listens to his servants, and they, he goes and obeys and God heals him of his leprosy.

Well, what is the lesson in Namon's decision for us?

Well, one thing I would say is listen to reason.

Don't let your own preconceived ideas cloud your judgment uh in decision making.

You know, sometimes I think that we, um, maybe young people as well, you know, the solution to a problem might be different than maybe how we think it should be or maybe how we see other people in the world doing something and we may be tempted to look at that, so, well, maybe that's the way to go.

But the answer to major decisions may be very simple.

We may need to just listen to good counsel from those who love God and who are seeking the very best for us.

So be willing to listen to reason.

Be open and willing to see it.

And others may see something that we don't.

Um, and I would, uh, encourage us to all even ask for advice from others.

Proverbs, uh, there's a number of proverbs.

I wanted to just bring up Proverbs 12 and verse 15 says the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advise.

You know something that we can learn from both Rim and Naman's examples, something that would help us all in our decisions and even in life in general is just surround yourself with wise, godly people and listen to them.

Make friends who are spiritually minded.

Proverbs 13:20 says he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 22 says without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed.

And then Proverbs 11:14, where there is no guidance, a people fails, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

I think these are just some great proverbs that hammer the point that those who wish to make wise decisions in this life will seek out help and guidance and listen to the counsel of those who are wise.

Let me just say here that at Kelly Spring Road in this congregation we are blessed with uh many elders.

And I know that those men clearly love God.

They love this congregation and they would love nothing more than for you to be with God for eternity.

And They would be more than willing to sit down and provide you counsel to help you in decisions that you may be struggling with in life.

Well, in conclusion, Life is too short to mess it up with bad decisions.

And you don't have to look far into the world to see the poor choices that some can make that can just result in a lifetime of dealing with those consequences.

And I hope that tonight our reviewing some of these biblical accounts of others in scripture who made choices, uh, some good, some not so good, will help us to hone our skills and our intentions as we approach some of life's serious decisions that lay ahead.

You know, none of us are perfect, and we've all made poor choices and decisions.

I know I have, but the good news is we have a heavenly Father who is patient and he is willing to forgive.

Jesus talked about a parable about the prodigal son.

A young man who made a series of unwise decisions, but when he finally came to his senses, he wanted to return to his father, and his father was willing to forgive and to bring him back into his house.

What is your choice going to be this evening?

With regard to eternal life.

You know, that's really the most important decision in this life.

And that's a decision that requires commitment.

In Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19.

God speaking through Moses, called upon the sons of Israel to make a choice.

He said, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

So choose life in order that you may live you and your descendants.

You know, we don't live under the old law, and we don't live under the promises that God made to Israel.

But thanks be to Christ, we live under an even better covenant and even better promises.

And God has given us the free will to choose life or death.

You can choose death.

Most of the world is going that way, and they've made their decision.

But in the end, that decision is gonna take you far away from God, as far away as you can possibly be, and it will be the biggest regret that people will have.

Unfortunately, it may be too late to change that decision.

But while we have opportunity tonight, you can choose life.

eternal life through faith in God through His Son.

Repenting of your sins and confessing.

Him as Lord being baptized into him you can clothe yourself and that he will wash your sins away and give you the gift of eternal life that will await those who persevere and continue on and not grow weary in doing good.

So tonight I would encourage you to be wise and choose life.

will stand to sing to encourage any

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Neal Grantham

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

I'm happy to have the opportunity to preach again this morning.

Um, it actually took me a while to decide what sermon I wanted to preach.

Um, but last time I was, last time I spoke would have been November, and when I spoke to you then, I spoke about, uh, well, I don't know if you remember or not, but I spoke about Manasa, people like Manasa and Solomon and the thief on the cross, that somehow, uh, still made it to heaven, even though, uh, much of their life was lived in wickedness.

Um, and Manassa was kind of, you know, right up there at the top.

He lived, he lived a really awful life and, and committed some of the worst sins that a person can commit.

Uh, in this earth, and yet he still repented and spent the remainder of his days following Christ.

Uh, this lesson is from that series of lessons that, that I used to preach, uh, if I had a gospel meeting and much of its focus is on finally getting to see Jesus.

Uh, it's about heaven, it's about the way that Man and woman's relationship began in the garden with, with the Lord, how it was stained with sin and how man and woman was redeemed.

Uh, this morning's lesson has to do with, uh, my favorite topic, which is heaven.

Uh, I probably told you this last time I preached.

But when I was 15 years old, I was baptized into Christ.

I was surrounded by, um, a bunch of other Christians at a Christian youth camp, and I was taken down into the pool and the preacher at my local congregation, uh, took me down into the water and I was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins.

And I might have told you this too, um.

That when I rose up from the water and I knew my sins were washed away.

I was extremely joyful and that night I went to my, my bunk in the cabin and I was talking to some other guys there and this is gonna sound kind of morbid, but I told them, man, I really hope I pass away tonight.

And I meant it.

I meant it because I knew that if I passed away from since I had gotten baptized that night, I was like I, I haven't sinned in between and I get to go see Jesus.

I, I don't even have to wake up in the morning and try again.

I just get to go see him.

And um that was, I was 15, I'm 37 now.

It didn't work out like that.

Um, and that's OK, that's OK. Um, because God has plans for us in this life as well, good works for us to do and lessons for us to learn.

But sometimes I get a little bit frustrated.

And sometimes downright angry because I would like to go ahead and go to heaven.

In Genesis chapter 3, We read of the curses that are brought upon the serpent and woman and man because of sin.

And starting in verse 16, The word of God reads, so I'm gonna start with the woman.

I'm gonna skip everything that it says about the serpent's curse and start with the woman and man.

He says, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain, you will bring forth children, yet your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.

Then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying you shall not eat from it, curses the ground because of you and toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face, you will eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

And then of course, uh they are cast out of the garden.

And I don't know exactly how long they were in the garden before they uh You're tempted and, and committed this sin and we're cast out.

But The way it looks in the Bible is a short time because it's just the first couple chapters, right?

And then everything else after that are the consequences of sin and of course also the path to redemption.

But the first section of my sermon, or well, I didn't tell you the title of my sermon, which is I, I titled it, Where will I dwell.

And that's why I have the scripture reading come from John 1 John 14:13 through 4 because it talks about a dwelling place for us.

But first, I'm gonna talk about where we dwell right now, which all of you are very familiar with, the earth down here that's been stained by sin.

And that's what we get in chapter 3 is, is life is going to be difficult at times and it's going to Uh, require painful work and suffering and things that happen to us that sometimes feel like it's the end of the world.

In Genesis chapter 4, just right after we read about them falling and being cast out of the garden, then we read about Cain and Abel.

And we just start off with just some of the worst things happening, right?

If we can't, it's, uh, it would have been nice if we could have built up like so and so in chapter 4 said a little white lie and then chapter 5, so and so got into an argument and got a little physical and then it builds up and it doesn't, it just jumps right into murder in chapter 4.

And in the same chapter.

Toward the end of the chapter we have Lamet who has now taken God's plan of one man and one woman, and now it's one man and, and two women.

And he's avenging himself and taking somebody's life.

That all just happens at the end of chapter 3 and then all of chapter 4.

As soon as sin was introduced, Into the paradise of God.

Everything went downhill immediately.

To the worst possible things.

In Genesis chapter 6, we get a little bit of a break in chapter 33 because it's all the descendants, right?

And then it jumps right back into it.

We find out in chapter 6 that man has gone his own way, and I really think that that's mostly the point at the beginning when he says, uh, the men, the, the sons of God, uh, looked at the daughters of men, saw that they were beautiful and took whoever they pleased.

I think the point, at least that I get out of it is They were not choosing godly people like he had planned.

They just said, hey, this is the person I like.

I don't really care how they act or their relationship with God, and they were selfish, and they said, I'm gonna go my own way and man goes his own way.

And then several times in chapter 6, we see the world is now filled with violence.

Just like in chapter 4.

So it's the, it's the one instance from Cain and Abel, and now it's the world's filled with that.

I, I still don't really know how many years went by between chapter 3 and chapter 6, but we get all that in 3 chapters.

And it just, it gets really sad.

Right at the beginning of God's word, there was this beautiful garden.

I, I try to picture what it may have looked like and I know that I can't.

Because for a time, it was a place that was without sin.

And God walked there.

And now it is just the complete opposite, and it's sad and it's full of grief and it is sorrowful and it's depressing.

And then I skip several chapters ahead and I'm not gonna actually spend a lot of time talking about the depressing stuff.

Because I told you I want to talk about heaven this morning and I really want to focus on it, but I'm gonna spend the first few minutes talking about how bad it is.

We get to Genesis chapter 19.

And I'm, I'm gonna say it in a way that, uh, you know, I don't have to go into all the details, but you read about a society there in Sodom.

That does the filthiest, most wicked things that That human beings can do on this earth.

And it, it doesn't take much reading to, to understand that.

It's, it's as far as sin can take you.

Just like Manassa, just like all the worst people, all the worst kings and leaders and wicked people in this world, that's what Sodom's like.

And I have heard people before, sometimes I, you know, they, they talk about God flooding the world and they talk about God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and they talk about his wrath.

But if somebody did the things To your friends and family.

that men and women had done.

In Genesis chapter 6 and in Genesis chapter 19.

You might actually be asking for some wrath to be brought upon the world as well.

Now, I know we're still supposed to be merciful and pray for the souls of people, but Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis chapter 843, Manassa, and people like that, that's pretty much as bad as the world can get.

That's as wicked as people can be.

And it's things that I, I honestly, I wish I had never heard about.

And there's things in my life I wish I had never experienced.

There's evil thoughts that are still in my heart that I wish I had never stumbled across.

And I wonder when am I gonna forget about those things.

Am I gonna, am I gonna just know those things forever?

And I know the real answer to that.

The real answer is no.

I'm not.

And that's why I focus on, on heaven a lot.

So we could spend an entire sermon talking about how awful the world is, um, and then probably go home depressed and I might not even want to eat my lunch.

I think that's enough.

Just to think about that, how far the world has gotten.

And then for me, I, I have kind of a daily reminder of it in, in the career that I changed over to in law enforcement.

I've only been in that a year and a half.

It's not like I've just experienced the worst things a person can experience.

But most days I see people whose minds are depraved.

And corrupted and who are about as far from Jesus as you can get.

And there's kind of that each day I go in, there's kind of a reminder of, hey, this, this world really needs Jesus.

This world really needs some help.

And it surprises me when I find people that just don't want Jesus' help and don't see how far into the darkness.

They've gone.

So, in my new career, I found out I've got to focus on heaven a lot.

Or I will go home depressed and I will bring it into my house and I will bring that anger and that grief and that sadness and, and then just ask my wife and children to carry that as well.

And so what I would rather do is dwell on heaven as often as I possibly can.

And so, I started out by talking to you about when I was baptized at camp.

And that place that I was at is that, I, I found out later in my life, you know, not all the truth was taught there, but I will say this, I knew what I was doing when I was baptized.

I, I knew, as simple as it seemed that when I rose from the water, I would be forgiven.

And I knew That I would be able to go to heaven.

And I was afraid, at 15 years old, I was afraid, what if I mess up because I'm gonna lose access to that.

And I'm not gonna get to see Jesus.

And as I told you back in November, I personally Heavily struggled with the idea of still being lost.

I know what scripture says, I know what my wife says, I know what my friends say, but I still battle the anxiety that comes with that.

And so, I want to spend the rest of this morning, really focusing on the positives and talking about heaven and talking about a place.

That's perfect.

That's so much better than where we are now.

And I don't, I don't think we're supposed to go around all day just this place is so terrible and being full of anger and hatred and all that.

Now, instead, we're commanded to be full of the joy of the Lord.

But it is difficult here and it's a battle, and it's a battle that when we get to heaven, we don't have to fight that anymore.

I don't have to fight between good and evil.

In fact, I, I won't know him.

And so I look forward to that.

In Exodus chapter 15.

Uh, after the Israelites, uh, cross over and the, the Egyptians who are chasing them are destroyed.

Uh, Moses and the people are singing a song.

And I don't know how it went, so I'm just gonna read it.

I don't, I don't know if I could get it if I sang the song, but Exos chapter 15.

Uh, I'm just gonna start in verse 9.

The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil.

My desire shall be gratified against them.

I will draw out my sword and my hand will destroy them.

You blew with your wind, the sea covered them.

They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who is like you among the gods, O Lord, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?

You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

In your loving kindness, you have led the people whom you have redeemed.

In your strength, you have guided them to your holy habitation.

And I want to stop and think about that, that last uh statement for a moment.

I think anytime you hear a lesson about holiness and sanctification, we do tend to think of the idea of being set apart.

And so as I begin moving from the negative to talking about the really positive aspects of heaven and that new dwelling place, I want to think about that first, the idea of being set apart.

We spent a few minutes talking about How bad the world is.

And like I said, I didn't focus much on it cause it'll just get me really depressed.

But I read, there's enough scripture there that we already talked about that says, hey, the world's really bad.

But God's habitation is different.

It's set apart, it's not in that same location.

And he says it's holy.

And, and the great thing about holiness, in my opinion, is that there's no evil.

In holiness, there's no evil at all.

There's a habitation where evil cannot exist.

Which is what I was looking forward to.

When I was baptized, and, and now it's been 22 years, and I'm still looking forward to it.

is a place where evil cannot exist, for my sins no longer have to be washed away because Jesus has done it.

For all time In 2 Chronicles chapter 2, Uh, we'll start in verse one.

Solomon decided to build a house for the name of the Lord and a royal palace for himself.

So Solomon assigned 70,000 men to carry loads and 843,000 men to Cory Stone in the mountains and 3600 to supervise them.

Then Solomon sent word to Hiram, the king of Tire, saying, As you dealt with David, my father, and sent him cedars to build him a house to dwell in, so do for me.

Behold, I'm about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, dedicating it to him.

To burn fragrant incense before him and to set out the show bread continually, to offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on Sabbaths and on new moons and on the appointed feasts of the Lord our God, this being required forever in Israel.

The house which I am about to build will be great, for greater is our God than all the gods.

And, and you build up to that and that sounds, I mean, it sounds amazing.

So we're going to build a house for God.

And, and you kind of get this idea of dwelling in this house with God and it kind of fights against what they were told in the garden.

Originally in the garden, they walked with God, but then God cast them out from the garden because of sin and so there's this idea and this feeling of separation.

It's there, and we still feel it and the people here feel that, so we're gonna build a house.

But then he says in verse 6.

But who is able to build a house for him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain him.

So who am I that I should build a house for him except to burn incense before him?

And so still.

Is this reminder that there's still gonna be something different down here.

Even if you build the most extravagant house and the greatest place of worship for God down here on this earth, there's still something wrong.

Not with God's house, but there's something wrong with the, the location of God's house here.

And Solomon recognizes there's not really a house I can build that's actually gonna be suitable for him.

And I think wrapped up in all of that are things that Solomon didn't have to say here, but people understand is that God's completely pure.

He's completely holy.

He's all powerful.

All of these things that, that we look forward to experiencing in his presence.

And so it really says, I'm gonna build this house, but there's still something that's missing.

There's still something that's off.

In Psalm chapter 26, This is a song from David, so.

The beginning of David's story is also one that's really exciting.

He's a hero.

He defeats.

The greatest giant on the earth and everybody loves him and David becomes a king, and you start, as you read David's story, like, man, this is about as good as life can get on the earth as being David.

And then, of course, in David's life, He runs into sin as well.

And, and some really wicked scenes.

Especially if you include Bathsheba and Uriah and the things that David did there.

And there, there are other wicked things that David did, even though, and, and we know that he's a man after God's own heart, we know that, that he messed up and at times departed from the Lord, but he always returned.

And I think with all of those pains from his sin and, and recognizing there's still something wrong down here.

Even if I'm the king.

Even if I, even if I'm chasing after God and trying to follow him, there's still something that I can't shake.

That follows me around on this earth.

And so in Psalm 26, I, I really like David's focus because It's on God's house.

We'll start reading in Verse 5.

David says, I hate the assembly of evildoers, and of course I don't think David is saying I hate people.

But what he is saying is I hate evil.

I hate being around it, especially those who gather together, who congregate with the idea of committing wicked acts against man and God.

He says, I shall wash my hands in innocence and will go about your altar, oh Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all your wonders.

So I'm, I'm gonna walk around talking about you, reminding people of you.

In hopes of bringing them out.

Of that assembly of evil doers.

He says, oh Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells and so What I find with David's story.

is that he cannot get fully comfortable here.

He can't be spiritually satisfied here.

There's some other place that he has to look to that he can't quite picture with his physical eyes.

But his focus is there beyond this earth.

And so he says, the place where your glory dwells, that's what I'm looking forward to.

Do not take my soul away along with sinners nor my life with men of bloodshed in whose hands is a wicked scheme and in whose right hand is full of bribes.

But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity, redeem me and be gracious to me.

My foot stands on a level place in the congregations, I shall bless the Lord.

So he ends that talking about a different assembly or a different congregation.

On this earth, there are assemblies of evildoers and I don't mean that they gather together in one particular building.

But there also are assemblies of righteous, and David says, I'm gonna surround myself with that.

I'm gonna look to where you're at, and while I'm here, I'm gonna surround myself with your congregation.

When I read that, even though I guess David didn't really know about the church, then I think about the church.

I'm going to surround myself with people who are all looking in the same direction.

They're all looking to God's dwelling.

When they read those stories about Adam and Eve, and David's sin and Manasseh, and all the people that that turned away from God, but then repented and came back, all those people have the same hope that because they turned away.

But then came back to Christ.

They can also look forward to that dwelling.

In Isaiah chapter 66, God is talking about His dwelling place.

Let's start, it's just verse one, so Acts 66, I mean, sorry, Isaiah 66:173 says, thus says the Lord.

Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

Where then is a house you could build for me?

And where is a place that I may rest?

For my hand made all these things.

Thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord, but to this one, I will look.

And so now, We've been talking about looking, David's talking about looking to God's habitation and I think even if you go back, I mean, I, I don't know what kind of life Adam and Eve lived.

I'm sure it was a lot of grief since they had experienced God's paradise and been cast out.

But I would imagine that they spent the majority of their days for the rest of their lives looking forward.

And hoping to renew that relationship with God.

And so, God says, here are the people that I'm gonna look back at.

So if we're all looking to Him, God is gonna look back and say, you know, I've got a dwelling place for you, and that is to Him who is humble and contrived of spirit and who tremble at my word.

For the sake of time, I'm not gonna unpack all those things.

But I think you know what a humble person looks like, what a spiritual person looks like, and someone who fears God's word, and he says, I've got a place for those kind of people.

And it is better than this place.

In Acts chapter 7, There's a story of Stephen who I really like Steven because, you know, I don't read a lot about him, but he's pretty bold, the kind of people that he's talking to, the kind of power that they have and what he's willing to say to them, and what he's willing to risk.

To just simply talk about Christ.

In Acts chapter 7, starting in verse 44, As Steven's preaching to this group, he says, Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness just as he spoke to Moses.

Uh, sorry, just as he spoke to Moses directing him to make it according to the pattern which he'd seen.

Having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David.

David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

So we're back to that theme again.

Man seems to be righteous men and women seem to be trying.

To set things up right here where God can come back down and they can have that relationship again.

It's like, hey, I know that the world's really evil, but we've got a pure place over here that we're gonna prepare and God can be right here with us.

And I think that sounds noble and good.

But just like Solomon said, and, and here's this reminder again, as Stephen's speaking about it, and he's reminded of Solomon, but it was Solomon who built a house for him.

However, the most high does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and earth is the footstool of my feet.

What kind of house will you build for me?

says the Lord, or what place is there for my repose?

Was it not my hand which made all these things?

And we'll stop right there with Steven's story and come back to that part later.

But the idea of being back in a, a perfect relationship with God seems to be in the hearts of the righteous.

It's just that there's something that we can't seem to do.

We can't seem to prepare a place down here for him.

That's perfect and that's suitable for him.

So, I had us read the scripture John 14:14 because that's something that was quoted to me a lot when I was a child.

And as I was growing up, I would hear John 14:1 through 4.

Because it's a constant reminder.

Even though, look, I know, I know in Matthew 7, it says that narrows the way and there's a few that find it and I believe that.

But there's a lot of places prepared up there.

I know it's one place, OK, so don't get me wrong, but There's a, there's a lot of space up there.

That God's provided for people.

There's a lot of opportunity to get there.

And I think that's why Jesus is saying, don't, don't let your heart be troubled.

I've got plenty of room for you.

But that's totally opposite from what man had been trying to do up to that point.

They kept thinking, hey, we'll, we'll set a place up right just for you.

We know you're perfect.

We'll get it built for you.

When Jesus, uh, goes through the transfiguration, and they say, oh well, we'll build a tabernacle here, one for you and Moses and Elijah.

And then God just says, just focus on Christ here.

And Christ in John 133 says, it's not gonna be exactly like you thought.

Now, these are my own words, of course, but it's not gonna be that you build something down here for me so I can come down here on this earth and be with you.

Not forever.

Look around you Genesis 3, Genesis 4, Genesis 6, Genesis 23, and, and several other stories of wicked people.

that have damaged this place.

In a way that God has no intentions of staying down here forever.

And I'm OK with that.

I like John 21.

Because it sounds to me like he specifically picked a place just for me.

And I know it's just for you too, but it sounds like when he, when he says it, the way I hear it is he's also talking individually to me while he's also talking to every Christian.

Hey, don't be troubled.

I've got So I'm sorry, I got that I got that same thing that Jim Boyd's got when he talks in front of a group sometimes he gets real emotional.

I caught that from him.

Um, just hearing him speak so many times. Anyway.

I specifically have something for you.

Because Jesus doesn't just think.

About the entirety of the group.

I love that he thinks about the whole church, but he also thinks specifically about me.

And my thoughts and the things that I'm struggling with.

And so that's how I like to think John 23 reads.

Sometimes I get sad about it because look, even though I'm 284 years old, I feel like there are some things that I, that I've experienced that, that were really painful.

And I bet there's some, some people here, quite a bit older than me.

That have probably experienced a lot of painful things as well.

And in the loss of family members, there are some people that struggle with their health.

And they're always going to struggle with their health.

They may have a chronic illness that they know is not going to go away.

Until this life is over.

They may have lost, and I wrote it down here, they may have lost friends, family, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters.

And, and even though they have the saints to To surround themselves with.

And they've got God's word to read.

And a lot of things still go good in their life, that doesn't just go away.

It does.

There are people that I lost in my life that I'm not going to completely get over that while I'm here.

And I don't mean that in a depressing way.

I don't mean I'm gonna wake up every morning and go, oh no, you know, life's over.

I'm just saying that is a pain that's gonna stay with me while I'm here because something's missing.

And if it's health, well, that's a pain you can feel very physically, right?

And it might not go away completely while you're here.

There's a few other things that I, that I'm gonna say that will probably make me kind of sad as well, but they're very important for my lesson.

So there are people, I, I, I preached a sermon.

It's probably about 284 years ago, something like that.

And I was talking about the things that are gonna be offered to us in heaven, things that I can read in the Bible, OK?

Not things that, oh well, I suppose it'll be like this.

I don't think that.

But After I preached the sermon, somebody came up to me and I, I don't, I don't think in any way they're being rude.

I, I think they were trying to tell me, well, I think our major focus in heaven is supposed to be we're there face to face with God.

I agree.

And while that's our major focus, there are also some other good things that we're told.

When, when the Corinthians are told not to be troubled about those who have passed on, he says, hey, That those people will be with Christ too.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm gonna get there and I'm gonna, you know, Jesus is gonna walk up to me and I'm gonna go, hold on just a second, I'm hanging out with Beth right now.

I'll talk to you later.

I'm gonna be most thrilled to be around Jesus, but as far as I read, I also get to be around all of the other faithful saints, and I don't know what it looks like, what it's gonna be like, but that's what I read.

And so, there are people that They were the most important people in my life and they've passed on, and I don't get to be the judge of their life, but based on what I've seen, I, I believe they went to heaven.

Uh, just last year, I lost my grandmother.

I, I lived with her for several years and she loved the Lord and talked to me about the Bible every single day.

And a lot of times I caught myself because she lived at 217 years old and she was a widow since '13 and I was like, you know, sometimes I'd talk to God about it and I was like, I really love being around her, but I kind of wish you would just take her because it must be sad to have been widowed this long.

I had a friend named James Swinton that Pretty strange dynamic because he's about 21 something years old and I was 23, but he studied the Bible with me regularly and he wasn't, it, it wasn't that he was a very educated man, he just loved Jesus and he loved the Bible.

So he would talk to me about the Bible a lot.

And when I was on an overseas trip in college, he passed away.

I was like, man, I, that was, that was really inconvenient, the way that worked out.

I would have liked to have seen him before he passed and it, and it, and it broke me pretty bad.

Now I'm not mad about that.

Because what that did allow need to remember is that even if I didn't get to see him in his final days.

As far as I know, He, he went to be with Jesus.

My parents lost my sister in 217.

I, I didn't know her.

I was born in 1988.

But I know, cause I can still talk to my mom about it.

I know that they still miss her.

It's 1985.

I know that there are some pains that don't go away while you're here.

And the last one I'll say cause I'm, I'm, it's making me sad again, is Beth came up to me yesterday and she found out.

You know, she used to teach and there was this little girl that I, I don't remember what disease it was but it had severely crippled her and she couldn't hear properly and and talk properly.

She passed away.

And, and Beth wishes she could have seen you one last time.

But we both talked about it.

And we know where that little girl's at.

So my wife still knows there's an opportunity to see her too.

Even though, yes, our focus is to be there with Jesus.

There are these other things that I'm really excited about, about heaven.

Some of the other things that, that I wanted to mention.

Before I read some of these final verses, and then I'll stop being so emotional, is Sometimes since I don't get to see Jesus face to face here.

Like actually physically walking beside him.

I try And I can't because I don't know what he looked like, but I try, like I'll take a walk and I'll, I'll talk to him.

And I just try to imagine if he were walking beside me, you know.

I know he's in here, but I try to imagine like, hey, it would be nice if you were, you know, standing here beside me and walking and we can talk.

And so I'll do that and I'll do that when I'm in my patrol car.

I'll try to imagine.

That he's sitting there beside me and riding along with me.

And in Bible class the other day when Philip Philip was teaching it.

Um, one of the things that we talked about is when we gather here on Sundays and we take the Lord's supper each Sunday.

He is here with us.

And when I Imagine that you guys might be upset about it.

I try to imagine that you sit beside me while we're doing that.

And I know that means that he's, he's not as close to you guys, but I try to picture that he's sitting beside me.

He's still in the room with you guys and I, I know that's not how it works, but it, you know, it, it brings some happiness to me.

But it also reminds me that there's still something that's not completely right.

I, I know my sins are washed away.

I know for those of you here who have been baptized into Christ or small children who aren't seen by sin.

I know that you have salvation promise to you.

But I also know that, that there's something a lot better than this.

And it is so much better that The only thing I can do is imagine.

I can read about it in God's word, but I can't fully picture it because that's what I'm waiting for.

That's what I want to know.

What is it like to be there?

With him.

And so I've got a last, uh, a few, a few more verses before, before the end of the sermon.

Um, Something I'm really excited about is found in Revelation 21 and 22.

In Revelation 21, we'll start in verse 1.

So, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there's no longer any sea.

And I saw the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will no longer be any death.

There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things have passed away.

Then in Revelation chapter 33, Starting in verse 3, he says there will no longer be any curse.

So that, that thing that happened in Genesis 3 and the curse from sin, he says, it is finally going to be over.

That curse isn't gonna exist anymore.

The throne of God and the Lamb will be in it.

His bond servants will serve him.

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

There will no longer be any night.

They will not need the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun because the Lord God will illine them and they will reign forever and ever.

And so it's almost like he finished the book perfectly.

I say that in jest, obviously.

is from God So he finished the word of God by reminding us of where we get to go.

So not, so our focus isn't down here.

Our focus is straightforward looking to the day that we'll see his face and that will dwell.

In his holy habitation.

One of my favorite verses is 1 John chapter 3.

1 through 3.

And It reminds me of some of the things that David said.

So if you hold that spot and go over to Psalm 84.

And I'm almost done.

I appreciate you guys bearing with me for this long sermon.

Ah Oh, I'm sorry.

I told you Psalm 84.

We already looked at that.

I meant Psalm 17.

And we'll read, we'll start in verse 13 in just a moment.

So in 1 John chapter 3, the promise is when Jesus appears.

So we're waiting for him to come back and gather us up with him and take us to heaven, is that we will be like Him.

Now, I don't think that means he's gonna make me God also.

I don't really know what it means, but I know this is that Jesus is holy and righteous and pure and good, and he has no evil in him.

So I'm hoping we get at least those things.

When he says, we'll be like him.

And in Psalm chapter 17, this is David again, and David's focus in the Psalms.

Arise, oh Lord, confront him, bring him low, deliver my soul from the wicked with your sword, from men with your hand, O Lord, and from men of the world whose portion is in this life.

And you take, and he's gonna take us away from that focus.

So forget about this life.

He says, whose belly you feel with your treasure, they're satisfied with children leave their abundance to their babes.

And what it sounds like is the people who've made their portion here, they don't have the same kind of trouble that the saints have.

Because in a way, they're satisfied here while the saints are saying there's something wrong and Jesus.

He's not here, not in the way we want him to be.

And so finally, David ends it like this.

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness and will be satisfied with your likeness when I awake.

And so that's the promise that I wanted to encourage everybody with this morning and remind myself again is that one day when Christ returns, I don't have to think about those bad things anymore.

I won't remember them.

I won't be hurt by them.

And I get to see Jesus every single day, or maybe it's just one long day.

It doesn't matter.

I get to see him all the time.

This morning, um, Since I spent so much time on that, I'm just gonna spend a few moments as a reminder to those who maybe have not given their life to Jesus yet.

And, and if you, if you know that sin is in your life and you haven't had it washed away, but you do believe Jesus and you've been hesitating or, or putting it off for some reason, there is an invitation again this morning to come and repent of your sins, confess Jesus as the Son of God and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, so you can have that same promise.

And if you have that need or any other need, we ask that you come forward as we stand and sing.