Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Troy Nicholson

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, some of you may know, in about a week and a half, the adult class will begin a study of uh both Philemon and of, and get this going.

Philemon and James.

The Book of Fleeman, as we just realized, isn't very long of a book.

So it won't take us very long.

In fact, just one class really to sufficiently get through the book.

But at the same time, that doesn't mean that there aren't some concepts in the book and still need to Can you hear me now?

All right.

I think that was a thumbs up, so maybe that means you can.

There's still some concepts in the book that may not fit as well in just a classroom setting, but I'd like to take time to focus on one of those this evening.

So we will be focusing on the book of Philemon.

Now normally, if I was teaching the class, I would prefer to say this lesson for after the class and just kind of uh elaborate a little bit more on things we touch on in class.

But since I couldn't convince Alan to wait till after the class to go on vacation, I had to preach beforehand.

So we'll use it as a teaser for the class and maybe encourage you to come to the class in about a week and a half.

But this evening as we opened the book of Philemon together, we say that even in such a small book that Paul focuses on so many different relationships that there are in Christ in this book.

And so I want us to go through and notice some of those this evening and hopefully as we focus on those relationships, they can help us examine ourselves and see how well are we doing with these relationships.

Are we fulfilling these relationships when it comes to one another in Christ?

And so as we begin uh to look at the book, I want to first notice that Paul emphasizes the idea of how we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you look there in verse one, he begins by calling Timothy our brother.

And the book is written about Philemon or written to Philemon, and so we see Paul refers to him twice in the book as a brother.

We see that it was written about Onesimus.

And in verse 16, Paul called Onesimus a dear brother.

Now, up to this point, Philemon was simply Onesimus' slave in the flesh.

But Paul is pointing out to him that now he's his brother in the Lord.

And so we see this relationship emphasize the, the, the fact that we are brothers in the Lord and just so we don't leave the sisters out.

Paul also in verse two called Ephea, his sister.

As we think about this when he's referring to them as brothers and sisters.

We think about sometimes we may use a broader term and just say brethren and really that's what that means to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

And one of the songs that we sang earlier, Blessed be the tie.

Uh, then in verse one, it talks about the fellowship of kindred minds.

The fellowship of kindred minds, basically to be when it's talking about kindred minds, it's talking about how we're kin to each other.

We are kin in Christ.

And so we do have kindred minds as a result.

There is a fellowship that exists because of the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

We share that kinship and our relationship with one another.

And we see even Jesus, uh, making the spiritual connection, the spiritual family, especially one occasion in his life, when someone pointed out his physical family to him.

Now maybe you remember the occasion, there Matthew chapter 12.

When it says, then one said to him, Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with you.

But he answered and said to the one who told him, Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

And he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

So not only are we talking about being brothers and sisters to one another in Christ, Christ refers to it, there's a sense in which we are his brothers in Him.

We, we share that kind of relationship even with Christ as Christians.

And we see in the proverbial writer, uh, there's several statements that helped make this point, but one is in Proverbs chapter 18 or see.

Supposed to be there I guess I, I deleted a few slides a while ago, maybe I deleted one I wasn't supposed to.

I go to um Proverbs with me for just a moment.

In Proverbs chapter 18, The wise man says in verse 24 toward the end of the verse, there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Now, you may look at that and think, well, he's talking about how close a friend can be, and he is, but notice how he emphasizes how close some friends can be.

To show how close a friend can stick, he uses the relationship of brothers.

There's a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

In other words, brothers stick pretty close to each other.

Along the same line, if you back up uh a chapter, go back to chapter 13 and verse 17.

A brother is born for adversity.

I only have one brother in the flesh.

And I'll be honest, we don't really talk a whole lot or text a whole lot.

But if I was to get a call or text from him right now and he needed me, you'll probably have to find somebody else to finish this sermon.

Cause I'd go and help my brother in whatever situation he's in.

And my guess is those of you here have brothers and sisters, we may fight and bicker sometimes with each other, but there's a bond that holds us together, that ties us together that's unlike anything else.

And we would help our brother and sister, physical brother and sister through any adversity that, that faces him in life.

We put ourselves maybe in financial hardship, trying to help them through a financial hardship.

We'll make all kinds of sacrifices for our brothers and sisters.

And we should feel the same way about everyone who's surrounding us here in this room tonight.

A brother is born for adversity.

We're here for each other because we all go through adversity.

We all go through difficult times.

And we need the help that we can provide one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

But unfortunately, sometimes we joke about the bickering between physical brothers and sisters, sometimes there's bickering between spiritual brothers and sisters.

But we know it shouldn't be that way.

We go back to Abraham and even Abraham knew it shouldn't be that way.

You remember back when his herdsmen were having the quabbles with Lot's herdsmens?

Do you remember what Abraham told Lot on that occasion?

There in Genesis 13:8, Abraham said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsman and your herdsman.

We're brothers.

When there's some kind of disagreement that comes up between us as brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to remember this.

Don't let there be any disagreements between us.

We shouldn't be in animosity with each other.

We're born for adversity.

We're here to help each other.

Not cause problems with each other.

We're brothers.

Paul focused on that relationship when he wrote to Philemon.

And we need to always remember that relationship that we have with each other as well.

In another relationship that you got a quick glance of a while ago is the idea of being fellow workers.

Paul talks about that as well.

In fact, again, we don't even get past the first verse, and we see it refers to Fleeman as our fellow worker.

If you notice toward the end of the book, you listed several different fellow workers there in verse 24, Mark, Aristarchus, Demus, Luke.

Now, this is the ESV and some other versions refer to it as workers.

If you have a new King James, there's a different word there, says fellow laborers.

Or if you have a Homan Christian standard, I think it probably touches more on the kind of language that we would use today to reflect that language or reflect this relationship.

The Holman Christian standard says co-workers.

And that's probably a term we can relate to more than even saying fellow workers.

Most of us here either have a job or we have had a job before and we have co-workers with us at that job.

But we understand what that, what that means.

We work for a particular company and we have other people who are working with that company with us.

We're all trying to accomplish the same goal.

And so spiritually, we are co-workers.

We're co-workers for Christ.

We have a common goal that we're working toward together, and it is work.

But we have co-workers, we have fellow workers, we have fellow laborers.

We're, we're in this together as we work toward the cause of Christ.

And Paul often use this language uh throughout some of his writings referring to the fellow laborers and workers that he had.

In Romans 21, 25, he said, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, in First Thessalonians, there in chapter 23 and verse 22, he calls Timothy our fellow worker, a labor in the Gospel of Christ.

And in 212 Corinthians 23:22, he said, everyone who works in labors with us.

Now, who did he mean when he said that?

Everyone who works in labors with us.

Is he just talking about other preachers?

Is this just some bond he's talking about between those who are sharing in the ministry of the gospel, those who are actually preaching the gospel?

Well, there's another verse I think makes it clear that he's not just talking about some relationship he has with other preachers, other ministers.

If you look in Philippians chapter 27, In verse 220, Notice what Paul says here about fellow workers.

He said, and I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

See how Paul mentions women laboring with him in the gospel?

Now don't be too quick to think up, so there's.

Paul's giving his support to women preachers.

Now what Paul's doing is giving his support to fellow helpers, fellow workers.

There, there's lots of work to be done in the cause of Christ besides just preaching.

And we don't know exactly what these women were doing.

Maybe they were helping teach some of the other women.

Maybe they were even helping with some of his cooking and clothing needs.

All a single guy, he probably needed that.

Maybe they were financially secure and so they were financially helping with what Paul was doing.

There are a lot of ways that they could be fellow workers, co-workers in the gospel without being the ones who are preaching the gospel.

Some of you may know that I work at Thompson.

A few other people here work at Thompson.

I don't see them right offhand unless they're hiding in the crowd, maybe going with the holiday weekend.

With Jason Pole.

There's gonna be estimators at Thompson.

He goes out and deals with customers, gets estimates together for them.

We also have Brian Smith who works for Thompson, but he has a different role.

He takes care of the insurance needs.

People have insurance who help pay for those kinds of things.

He goes to bat with your insurance company to make sure you get the money that, that you deserve for your, from your insurance company.

I recently moved into the office, too slow for the gutter crew they moved me inside.

So if you call, I may be the voice you have to hear.

I hope that doesn't discourage you from calling us.

But we all have different roles, different things that we do, but we're still co-workers.

We're all working under the Thompson name for the common goal.

And so as co-workers in Christ, we may have different roles, there may be different things that we do, but we're still working together.

We're all working together for the cause of Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 4, we find a verse that I believe helps make this clear, how we are co-workers, we have different roles as, as we work together with Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16.

Paul says from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

We all have different roles.

We have different abilities.

But we're working together.

Another one of the songs we just finished singing Room in God's Kingdom.

So there's work that we all can do.

You're not a teacher or public or teacher or preacher?

It's OK. There's other work.

Not a Bible class teacher.

It's OK. There's other work.

There are all kinds of roles that we have in working together in the cause of Christ.

All roles are important.

That's why the that's why the song says there's room in God's kingdom for each and every one of us.

We work together with different roles to accomplish the same purpose.

There is work that we all can do.

It's work.

But there's work that we all can do.

Because we're fellow laborers, we're co-workers.

If you're willing to work, Christ has something for you to do as part of his kingdom.

And the rest of us would love to have you join us side by side in trying to accomplish his work.

Along with that idea of being co-workers, we see another word, another uh description that Paul uses of our relationship in Christ.

He talks about us as partners.

He asked Philemon in verse 17, he says, if then you count me as a partner.

Receive himing Onesimus, as you would me.

Partner Maybe not a term.

We, we use a whole lot referring our relationship and that that connection we have with each other.

But it's one that Paul chose to use here, not just here.

We also see that when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, if anyone inquires about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker.

Concerning you And so when we think about the idea of partner, maybe we normally think of it, maybe in a business relationship.

We, we, we come together with somebody else and we're partners in a business.

And what does that mean?

Well, that just means that we have agreed to work together for some common purpose.

And so when we become Christians, we become partners with all other Christians.

Again, we're working together, we're sharing in the work, just like in a partnership.

And there was a passage in scripture that I think illustrates what what's involved in being partners with others.

Uh, back, back during the time of Jesus in Luke chapter 51 of the occasions when Paul told Simon to let down their nets, and we see what happened as a result.

It says in Luke 5:73, and when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.

So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

These fishermen needed help.

Who did they turn to?

They're partners They knew their fellow fishermen would come and help them in this situation of need.

And as Christians, when we find ourselves needing help, who do we turn to?

We ought to be turning to our partners, our partners in Christ, the brothers and sisters who are sitting around us who want to help us in our time of need.

I mean, can you imagine this other boat just sitting back and watching that other boat sink?

Well, they were ready to get to work and help and help them.

Because they were partners in fishing.

And as partners in Christ, we can accomplish great things and we can help one another through our difficulties.

Remember that we're partners and we act like partners and we help each other through those difficult times.

We talked about it being work involved.

There's hard work involved sometimes as Christians.

Paul also refers to our relationship as being fellow soldiers in Christ.

Back in verse 2, he mentioned Archippus as our fellow soldier.

In Philippians, he used similar language.

When he wrote about ayphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and soldier.

What the soldiers do?

Well, he told Timothy what to do as a fellow soldier.

He said, endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

I've never been a soldier like some of y'all have.

But I've heard enough about the hardship to know it's not always easy.

And Paul told Timothy, it's not going to be easy.

But notice here when he told him to endure hardship, how he said to do it.

He said in your hardship with us.

Can you imagine you decide you want to be a soldier and so you sign up and you go to boot camp and the first day, you, you walk in and you're the only one there.

Which you may be tempted to turn around and go home.

I don't know if I want to go through boot camp alone.

I kind of like to see some others going through the same pain and misery with me.

And Paul's telling Timothy in Christ, it's gonna be hard.

You're gonna have to fight battles, but you're not gonna be alone.

We're gonna be with you.

And your hardship with us.

We're your fellow soldiers.

We're in this battle together.

And different military branches emphasize that.

No soldier left behind?

We don't leave soldiers behind because we love and care about each and every one.

We're fellow soldiers.

We're fighting together.

We're helping one another.

One of the military sites, and I've just swapped out their particular branch name for soldier, says we never leave a soldier behind.

If you see a fellow soldier who needs help, step up and step in.

And that's what we do or we better be doing as Christians.

When we see a fellow soldier who's wounded, Spirituually wounded.

We don't turn our back on the wounded and leave them behind to fend for themselves.

We come to the rescue.

We do what we can to help.

Every week, our prayer list.

Has some wounded listed at the end of it.

Some who spiritually decided to turn from God.

We don't forget them.

We list them there with ways to contact them, ways to try to encourage them.

Because we don't want to leave soldiers behind.

We want to do our best to bring all soldiers home.

That's what soldiers do.

They care about one another.

They suffer hardship with one another.

And so when we sign up To be a Christian.

We're signing up to be a soldier.

But we're signing up to be a fellow soldier with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another relationship Paul mentioned when he wrote to uh Philemon.

It's a child-parent relationship, depending on your version, how verse 10 reads.

He said about Onesimus, I appeal to you for my son.

And the new King James, you may have noticed that the English standard says here, child.

Was he Paul's child?

Well, not in a physical way, but spiritually was.

And Paul often use this kind of language to refer to others.

Maybe we think about the relationship he had with, especially with Timothy and with Titus.

He, he often in, in his writings to Timothy reminds him of the fact that that Timothy is a son.

He calls him a faithful son in the Lord.

And in Titus 1 in verse 4, he wrote to Titus, a true son in our common faith.

And even Peter.

And 1 Peter 5:3 referred to Mark as his son.

Now when we think about that, that their sons in Christ.

We can be children in Christ.

Well, that means on the other side, if you have children, that means there must be some parents involved, right?

It's kind of hard to have a child without a parent.

So we see that language used in other passages.

Paul talking about himself in 2 Thessalonians.

Notice what he calls himself, not a father here.

But he says we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

But in that same context, Paul also realizes the other parental role and refers to himself as a father.

We dealt with each of you as a father does his own children.

So how is it That mothers and fathers Deal with sons and daughters.

Well, verse 12 here in 1 Thessalonians 2 pretty much sums it up.

When Paul said encouraging, comforting.

And urging.

When Paul considered Onesimus, his son or his child in the faith.

Or Timothy or Titus as his sons in the faith.

He looked at them as someone who needed spiritual encouraging.

Who needed comfort.

Who needed urging?

As you look around you this evening.

Do you see any spiritual signs?

Spiritual daughters?

Or for those of you who are younger, do you see any spiritual Fathers or mothers.

Now I know about half of you you look around, you see physical fathers and Sons, We got a lot of physical relationships here.

But we need to see the spiritual relationship that's there as well.

Maybe you're younger in the faith and you need some help and encouragement.

Find some spiritual father or mother.

And go to them and ask the questions you need to ask and get the help that you need.

And if you're among the older and more mature, look around and see those who, who may be your spiritual son or your spiritual daughter, someone who could use your encouragement.

Who could use your words of exhortation.

That a lot of children recently born.

More to come.

Some of us know that's not always easy.

Maybe just a word of encouragement along that line.

There are lots of ways that we can show we care about one another and provide the encouragement and the comfort and the urging that comes by being a spiritual father, being a spiritual mother to others.

There's always someone who needs a spiritual. Father.

Who needs a spiritual mother.

Can you find somebody and provide that?

Or maybe you are that spiritual son or daughter.

Can you realize that you need that help?

And let others offer it to you?

And why is it that these relationships are important?

Why does Paul describe all of these different relationships, not just in this book, but throughout the, throughout his writings.

Well, he gives us the answer here in Philemon as well.

And essentially it's because we need refreshment.

If you look there in verse 7, he says, we have great joy and consolation in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.

He tells Philemon, you've provided refreshment, and we all need that spiritually.

He goes on a few verses later.

You get down to verse 20 again, he talks about how we provide refreshment for one another.

Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord.

Refresh my heart in the Lord.

That's what we provide for one another when we fulfill these spiritual roles and relationships that we have in Christ.

We provide the refreshments that we need to keep going.

For the cause of Christ.

And you may be here this evening, you're not receiving this refreshment because you're not in Christ and you don't share the relationships that we've talked about tonight.

So if you're not in Christ, And you're missing out on these relationships, and you're missing out on that refreshment.

Hope you're saying I want that kind of refreshment.

I want those kind of relationships.

Well, you can have them in Christ.

And you can enter into Christ tonight.

Have you heard the gospel message?

Do you believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God?

Does your belief lead you to be willing to confess his name?

Are you willing to repay it?

Are you willing to be baptized and have your sins washed away?

You can become a Christian and enter into Christ tonight.

You can share in all the relationships we've talked about.

And you can have the refreshments that only comes in him.

If we can help you in any way tonight to gain the refreshment that can be found in Christ, and we encourage you to come as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Eric McKee

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.)

This morning, the scripture reading will be taken from the book of Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, in just a few minutes, I'll begin reading in verse 17.

Paul begins the chapter by talking about the importance of unity in Christ.

I'll be picking up in verse 243, reading through the end or through verse 24, and I'm reading from the English Standard version, which is what you see on the screen behind me.

Verse 17, Paul writes, now this I say and testify in the Lord.

That you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous.

And have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When I was a child, my mom and dad and sister and I used to love to play board games.

In fact, it was pretty common for us to have people over once a week, a lot of times where we would just spend time together and eat together and play games together.

And I just have a, a lot of really great memories of that over the years.

And one of the games I remember most was called The Game of Life.

One of the first things you find when you open the box is a set of little plastic cars.

And this little plastic car becomes your game piece that travels around the board during the game of life.

Now, you get to choose whatever color car you want.

And then you take a little peg and you put it in the driver's seat of the car.

If you're a female, you get a little pink peg, and if you're a male, you get a little blue peg.

And then the game begins with a decision that you have to make.

You can either choose to go to college or you can choose to go to work work immediately.

If you choose to go straight to work, then you're going to start your career earlier with no debt, and so you have an opportunity to start making money earlier and you don't have to pay off debt, but you earn generally a smaller starting salary.

If you choose to go to college, you're offered more career and salary opportunities throughout the game, but again, you, it takes more time and it puts you into debt that you have to pay off throughout the game.

The way you advance your car around the board is by spinning the wheel on top of a green mountain.

Depending upon the number that you get, that's the number of spaces that you get to travel.

And so there's an element of chance about the game of life.

Sometimes you get the number that you want in life, sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you land on a space that you want to land on, sometimes you don't.

As you advance your call around the board, you have to perform whatever the action is on the space that you land on.

Now there are some spaces that are red and have a stop sign.

So no matter what you roll, when you get to that space, you have to stop.

And so in the game of life, you can't just skirt through without working.

You have to have a job.

And so when you land on the get a career space, you draw 3 career cards and then you get to choose which career you want.

And again, some require a college degree and some do not.

Then Throughout the game, any time you pass a green space, that's payday, and so you accumulate play money throughout the game.

You can also land on other spaces that allow you to get money, but you can also land on spaces that cause you to lose money and you give up money.

Um, also, another red space is the get married space.

In the game of life, you have to get married, OK?

And so it's a, it's a red space.

When you land on the get married space, then you take a little peg of the opposite color and you place it into the passenger seat of the car, and now that is your spouse and you are married.

Uh, also a red space.

You have to have some place to live and so mandatory space is buying a house.

So when you land on the buy a house space, you get to choose which house you buy, you get the deed, but again, you get a mortgage and the, the more expensive the house, the more, the greater your debt is, and then you're gonna have to pay that debt off throughout the game.

Then there are spaces that you may land on if you, if you spend that number and you may not land on those spaces.

Some of those are a baby boy space or a baby girl space or a twins space.

And so these spaces are throughout the game.

And so when you land on one of these spaces, you get a little more little blue and pink pegs that you add to your car.

Now, it's interesting that the 1977, I played a later version, but the 1977 version of this game says, if you end up in your turn on a boy or girl space, add a blue or pink peg to your car.

If you have more than 4 children, just crowd them in as you do in real life.

That was before seatbelt laws, apparently.

The game of life also consists of paying taxes, changing careers, going to night school, buying automobile and homeowners insurance, investing in stocks, taking out loans.

It can involve losing your job, it can involve being in an accident and incurring medical expenses, and many other activities that you would expect from the game of life.

Sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen.

And the very last square of the game is called retirement.

You can either retire at Countryside Acres or you can retire at millionaire estates.

And when the game is over, when all the players have reached retirement, each person adds up their money and their life events, and the person with the highest dollar amount wins the game.

That's the game of life.

And when I was a kid, I loved to pretend, as most kids love to pretend.

And so I love playing games.

I love playing the game of life.

It was a lot of fun.

And then I became an adult and I realized that real life isn't always that simple.

I'll be honest, in my adult life, I, I have discovered that there are some similarities between the game of life and the life that I have lived so far.

For example, I got to choose my car.

Now, it's been very rare that I've chosen the color.

You can ask Leslie.

Most of the time my decision is based on the best deal that I can get, but I have gotten to choose my car.

I chose whether or not I would go to college.

I chose a career.

I found a wife and I put that little pink peg in the car next to me, except her name is not Peg, it's Leslie.

Uh, we bought a place to live and we took out a loan.

We landed on a little boy's space and got a little blue peg and named him Clark.

And we landed on a little girl's space and we got a little pink peg and we named her Audrey.

I've paid taxes, I've bought insurance, uh, I've gone to night school, I've invested in stocks, I've lost my job, I've changed careers.

I've been in accidents that required medical expenses.

Uh, Sam, sometimes I've landed on good spaces and sometimes I've landed on bad spaces.

And as amusing as these similarities may seem to me about the between the game of life and real life.

The similarity that I want us to focus on this morning is what I believe is the most important similarity because it applies to every one of us here.

And that is this.

In the game of life, after the game is all done, after the winners and the losers have been determined, those little plastic cars go back in that box.

The education goes back in the box.

The careers and the salaries and the raises go back in the box.

The vacations, the life events, the money, all goes back in the box.

Everything that made us feel like we won or lost at life goes back in the box.

Even the little white buildings and the little green mountains and the board itself gets folded up and it goes back into the box.

The other day, I reached out to my dad, who's actually here this morning.

I reached out to my dad and I asked him, I said, do you still have that game of life that we used to play so much when I was a kid?

Cause I thought maybe I'd get it and look at the instructions and see the board, maybe get some pictures for the sermon or maybe bring a little car in here.

And he said, no, we don't, we don't have it anymore.

And that's fine.

I don't hold a grudge.

Um, but, but, but I thought, you know, that game that we played all those years.

All the fun that we had, we put all those pieces back in the box, and now that game has gone to somebody else.

All those things went back in the box, those things went to somebody else.

And if I'm not intentional about my own life, my real life, it can become too much like the game of life.

There can be, there can turn out to be too many similarities between the two.

Because all the stuff that often makes us feel like we won or lost in life is going to go back into a box in our real life, so to speak.

In Ecclesiastes 24 to 11.

Solomon says this.

He said, I make, I made my works great.

I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards.

I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.

I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house.

Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of the kings and of the provinces.

I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds.

So I became great and excelled more than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

Also my wisdom remained with me.

Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor.

And so what Solomon is saying is I played the game of life and I won.

And what a tremendous life it was.

Solomon ended up at billionaire estates.

And yet he goes on to say in verse 11, then I looked at all the works that my hands had done and the on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.

There was no profit under the sun.

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.

Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I had toiled and which I had shown myself wise under the sun.

This also is vanity.

And so Solomon is saying that all the stuff that he required was gonna go back into the box.

And then now someone after him is gonna get all that stuff out and they're gonna play their round of the game of life.

And what about those little pink pegs and those little blue pegs?

Well, They went back into the box too.

And so even me, that little blue peg is one day going to go into a box.

That image, by the way, is not from the game of life.

It wasn't that morbid.

I'll tell you, you may be asking yourself, where do you get that?

If you, if you ask AI to give you the image of a light blue old style game of life peg in a casket.

That's close to what you get.

And then when you then, by the way, thank you, Clark for your help.

If, if you get your son to help you out, it can look even better.

You know, all the stuff that goes in the box represents the temporary, the things that won't exist when the world is gone, the things that we can't really count on or trust in the long term.

All the stuff in the box is perishable.

The things that are outside of the box are the things that are eternal, unchanging, the things that will continue to exist even after the world is gone.

The things outside of the box are the things that we can count on and trust in the long term because of the things that endure forever.

In 273 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18.

Paul writes, we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And so this morning, I want us to consider together the things that are truly important, and that is the things outside of the box.

First God's word is outside of the box.

The word of God is outside of the box.

In Psalm 11989, we read, forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven.

The word of God is not settled on earth, it is not settled by man, it is settled by God in heaven.

And when he settles it, that's the way that it is.

In Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8, we read that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

The word of God never fades.

It never sits down or lays down.

It always stands forever.

In Matthew chapter 24 verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

The word of God never dies.

It endures forever.

God's principles that He has recorded for us in the Bible are unchanging.

We can count on them.

Honesty, integrity, justice, love, truth, hope.

These things don't change over time.

They don't fade, they don't die.

They can't be destroyed by fire or theft.

God's teachings are always going to be true.

They're always gonna be good and right.

It doesn't matter how society changes.

It doesn't matter how churches change.

It doesn't matter how I change.

The word of God never changes.

In Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And God's promises don't change.

God's promises don't change.

In Genesis chapter 123 and verse 22, it says, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer and day and night shall not cease.

This is a promise of God, and it's been true for thousands of years, ever since he made it, and it's always gonna be true until the, until the earth is no more because God's promises stand.

God says this of his people in Isaiah 41 and 10, Fear not, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

In 1 John chapter 2 verse 25, this is the promise that he has promised us eternal life.

The word of God is outside of the box, and because of this, I need to make sure that I know it.

I need to make sure that I read it.

I consider it.

I study it.

I believe it, I obey it.

I build my life on it.

Because when life here is done and everything goes in the box, the word of God is still going to remain.

The second is the human soul is outside of the box.

The human soul is outside of the box.

When God created Adam, we read in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7 that the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

Life is in us because God has put our spirit within us.

has breathed it in us.

And in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 153 through 7, we read, Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loose or the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well.

He's saying, remember your Creator while you're still alive, before, before you die.

And then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit will return to God who gave it.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 4, we know that if our earthly house, this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed with our with our habitation, which is from heaven.

If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent grown being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Our soul lives in our body, which is this temporary dwelling, this tent.

But one of these days, our tent is gonna be folded up just like that board game was folded up.

And our soul is going to have a permanent dwelling.

In Romans chapter 14 verses 10 through 12, why do you judge your brother or why do you show contempt for your brother?

For we all should stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 213:9, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each 1 may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

And because of this, Mark chapter 8, verses 36 through 37, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world?

And loses his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The human soul is outside of the box, and because of this, I need to cherish it.

I need to shelter it.

I need to understand how valuable it is, and I need to appreciate the value of not only my soul, but the soul of everybody else around me.

Because when life on earth is done, And everything goes back in the box.

The souls of men and women are going to continue to exist.

The 3rd Is that lasting relationships are outside of the box.

Lasting relationships are outside of the box.

In Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 40, a lawyer asked Jesus a question.

And then, and he said, Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

He was testing Jesus.

He said, Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandments.

And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

Jesus is saying the most important thing about life is relationships.

The most important thing about life is relationships, relationships with God.

Relationship with our fellow man.

In 33 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13.

Now abide, faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Love abides.

1 Corinthians chapter 27 verse 224.

Love never fails.

Paul writes this in Thessalonians chapter 227 verses 212 through 215.

He says, do, I do not want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again.

Even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

For the Lord will Himself will descend from heaven with a shout.

And the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

Paul is saying, comfort one another with the fact that in the end, After we leave this world, you're gonna be able to be with the Lord forever, and you're gonna be able to be with those that you love forever.

The people of God forever.

Jesus was asked about relationships.

He was being tested again, but he was asked about relationships after this life is over.

And he was being questioned about a woman who had had 221 husbands and they had all died.

And then they were asked, well, who's gonna be her husband in the end that when, when she's resurrected to eternal life, who's gonna be her husband then?

And Jesus said, You're mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor given in marriage, but are like angels of God.

In heaven.

You know, relationships there aren't gonna be the same as they are here.

But I'm, I'm confident.

That they're going to be better They'll be better.

Lasting relationships are outside of the box.

And so I need to make sure that I'm in the right relationship with other people, that I don't hold grudges, that I have a forgiving heart.

That I bear one another's burdens, that I love other people sincerely.

And I need to make sure that I'm in a right relationship with God, the God of heaven.

Because when life on earth is done and everything goes back in the box, lasting relationships are going to continue.

And number 13, Eternal life is outside of the box.

Eternal life is outside of the box.

In Ecclesiastess chapter 21 and verse 24, he has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, he has put eternity in our hearts.

God has made us as an eternal.

Individual Someone that's going to last forever, and he wants us to have eternal life with Him.

In John chapter 2180 and verse 16, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

In John chapter 10 verse 10, Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

In Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And in John chapter 14 verses 43 through 3, Jesus says, let, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions.

If I were, if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

When Jesus was with Mary and and Martha and Lazarus.

And he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead.

He told Martha, he said, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me though he may die, he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this?

Do I believe this?

Do we believe this?

That we'll never die.

That we can have eternal life.

Eternal life is outside of the box.

And so I need to make sure that I turn to the one who holds the power of eternal life, and that is Jesus Christ.

Because when life on earth is done and everything goes back in the box, there will be eternal life for the people of God.

You know, just because we live in a world that's going back in the box doesn't mean we can't enjoy it.

God created us with the capacity to feel joy.

To laugh, to smile.

In Psalm 118:24 says this is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

You know, with the exception of sin and pain, of course, there's really nothing wrong with the things that are going back in the box.

It's good to have a car.

You know, even Jesus traveled by boat for transportation.

He didn't walk on the water every time.

It's good to have a house.

Mark's mother had a house, and it served as a gathering place for Christians.

It's good to have an education.

Paul was well educated at the school of Gel.

It's good to have a career.

Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers.

If a man won't work, neither shall he eat.

It's good to have a spouse.

Peter had a wife.

We're told that he who finds a wife finds a good thing.

It's good to have children.

Children are a heritage from the Lord.

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

It's good to have a vacation.

Jesus often encouraged his followers to come with him to a quiet place and rest for a while.

God made us to live our life.

He wants us to live our life.

The issue is not whether or not we live a life.

It is the foundation that we build that life upon.

In Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27, Jesus, after he preached that sermon on the Mount, he said, whoever hears these sayings of on and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall.

You know, to look at those two houses standing there.

I suspect that there were probably a lot of similarities.

Perhaps it was the same size, perhaps it was the same building materials.

It may have had the same roof.

The appearance could have been the same.

The difference wasn't noticeable until the storm came and tested the house.

The difference was the foundation of the houses.

And to look at two lives, there may be a lot of similarities.

A lot of things we talked about earlier may side by side maybe look like a very similar life.

But the life that is going to stand is the one that is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

You know, even retirement, it's good to retire.

I think many would agree with it's good to retire.

But we have to have the right priorities.

Even in that Luke chapter 12 verses 15 through 21, Jesus tells us a parable about a man that retired.

And Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

Then he spoke a parable to them, saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do?

Since I have no room to store my crops.

So he said, I will do this.

I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.

Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

But God said to him, fool.

This night your soul will be required of you.

Then whose will those things be which you have provided?

So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

And that's really what it's about.

It is not he who lays up treasure for himself, but it's he who is rich toward God.

It's good to live life, but in living life, we must remember that in the end all these physical things are going to be gone.

And so we can't neglect being rich toward God.

In Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is.

Sitting at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

When Christ, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

And so in the end, it's not gonna matter whether or not I won or lost at the game of life, because life is not a game.

It is a test.

And so what matters is that I trust the word of God.

What matters is that I recognize the value of a human soul.

What matters is that I build my life on meaningful relationships with others and with my God.

What matters is that I lay hold on eternal life because all these things are the things that are outside of the box.

If you're here this morning and you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, you have the opportunity to do that.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, That he died on the cross for your sins, then you can repent of those sins.

Turn away from those things, 180 degrees, and turn your life toward God.

A change of mind about sin that results in the change of of behavior.

Confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, with a mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

And then be baptized, immersed in the water for the forgiveness of your sins, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Or if you've done this and have been struggling with temptation or weakness or the spirit, and just need the prayers of brothers and sisters here, we understand, we all struggle.

Make those things known while together we stand to 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.)

I know that realizing problems in our society is not something that we as Christians love to do.

But there are several problems that I have found that are plaguing our society in this world.

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in the year 2022, 49,476 American citizens committed suicide.

In that very same year, 1.6 million American citizens attempted suicide.

On top of that, the media has an influence, it seems over all of our age groups.

Television has taught us that being drunk is associated with pleasure and having fun with your friends.

Television has also taught us that it's acceptable to be disrespectful to your parents.

And magazines have shown our young people that society believes, whoever dresses modestly is out of touch.

They have no common sense.

But why do so many people in our society have these problems and misconceptions?

These problems exist, I believe, because there is a major breakdown in the structure of the family.

Seems that husbands have lost their way.

Oftentimes, they are spineless, and they have no say or control over what goes on in their own roof, under their own roof.

And unfortunately, many women have been told that they are not using, that they are not able to reach their full potential, and they're wasting their time.

unless they are climbing the corporate ladder.

And in many households, children have become administrators and controllers of the family unit rather than being submissive and learning to respect authority from their parents.

And that's why I believe it's important this evening to discuss the attacks on the nuclear family and its structure that is described in the scriptures.

In this evening, I have 3 purposes or objectives that I want to cover this evening.

And the first is that I want to express the importance of gender roles for each family member in the structure of the family.

And secondly, I want us to understand just some of the groups that are attacking the family unit today.

And then finally, I want to list some ways that we as Christians can defend our families from these attacks.

But I think it pertinent to first talk about, well, what is a nuclear family?

Maybe not everyone's heard this term, but typically a nuclear family consists of a man and a woman who are married and their children forming the basic unit of a family.

Now, while this mold is, is not 100% necessary for success, as many single parents have led have led very successful families, this is not God's desired plan for the family.

And I want to discuss the roles of this that are listed in the scriptures for the husbands, wives, and children.

But homes need to be structured according to the teachings of Christ.

And the scriptures teach that the foundation of the home is what will keep its members grounded.

And if it's not Christ, it will fail.

In the 63th Psalmon verse 1, we're told, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 11, we're told, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, of course, to put 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 11 into context, he's referring to the structure and the foundation of the church.

But if it works for the church, it will work for the home as well.

And our children need to feel Christ in their homes.

And of course, I'm not just saying hang Bible verses on the wall or purchase pillows with scripture.

I'm talking about making sure that our children understand that the foundation of our home is built on Christ, the way we treat our spouses.

And the reason that we teach them right from wrong is because of Christ.

Now, there's nothing wrong with purchasing these items as me and Kaylee have many of them in our home.

But this cannot be the extent of our children's understanding of what our home is built on.

And now that we understand the basic role and the foundation of the family, let's move on to the role of husbands.

Husbands are called to be the heads of their households.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verses 23 through 43, Paul tells us for the for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church.

His body and is himself its savior.

Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also the wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Now, of course, many worldly men have taken these two these two verses to say, well, as a woman, you have no say.

We're gonna do what I want to do and you get no say in what our choices are in this marriage.

Of course, this is not what Paul taught.

If you read one verse further in verse 25 in Ephesians 5, Paul tells, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Husbands not only have the responsibility of being the head of the home, but they also have the tremendous and massive responsibility of loving their wives to the same degree that Christ loved the church.

Now husbands' love for their wives should be sacrificial, should involve communication.

And above all, seeking their wives' best interests just as Christ did for the church.

And this may sound like an altruism, but when husbands fall short, it can mean the family's undoing.

And moving on to the role of wives.

Wives are called to be keepers of the home.

And in Titus chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5, we see where we're told and so train the young women.

To love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, and that the word of God may not be reviled.

But again, people love to twist scripture.

Many will take this verse to mean that women need to stay at home.

They don't, they cannot have a job outside of the home.

They can't have a career.

Again, this is not what Paul is teaching.

Paul is expressing in this passage that the home should come first.

It is the priority.

It is not your your home should not be a hobby, and then you have an outside career.

And if the home is failing because not enough time is being invested into working and training and loving the children.

This is not what God had in mind, and our and the priorities must be fixed.

And finally moving on to the role of children.

Children are called to respect and obey their parents.

In in Ephesians chapter 6 and verses 1 through 3, Paul kind of runs the gambit of all the roles found in the family, says, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Honor your father and mother.

This was the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

But unfortunately, society over time has let go of the notion that children need to learn to respect authority.

I know we have some teachers in the audience, and sometimes it may feel like this when you're in a classroom, whenever the children res refuse to respect authority.

Of course, in today's society, parents aren't allowed to punish their children publicly.

You, nowadays, you run the risk of having CPS or Child Protective Services, come and take your children away because somebody saw you spank your child in public, in public discipline.

And of course, when a child is in school and they fall behind on their grades or they're disrespectful to their teachers and their administrators, It seems like I'm gonna call your parents.

That's not a threat anymore.

Because that kid knows the parent's gonna come up there and blame the teacher.

They're not gonna punish the, they're not gonna punish the student.

And when society doesn't make children respect respect authority and does not teach authority, it will hurt them later on in life.

Of course, we see evidence of this is when these children grow up to become adults.

They argue and they fight with law enforcement.

Because they don't like being told what to do, and maybe they've never been told what to do.

Our children are the future.

And if, and if we don't do what is necessary to teach them right from wrong, teach them respect of authority.

We can unintentionally hurt these children for the rest of their lives.

But now that we've, now that we understand the three roles of the husbands, wives, and children, I now want to discuss just a few of the many groups who are attacking the nuclear family.

And of course, there is a literal movement today called men going their own way.

With its own website and ideology.

The MGMGTOW teaches men, especially young men.

That marriage is a bad idea.

Don't get married.

And it also teaches them, don't get involved in romantic relationships with women because all women are bad news, they're out to get you.

It's marriage is not a good idea.

And as we read earlier, the scriptures don't teach this.

They even teach that women are not worthy of protection, love or respect.

As husbands are commanded to love their wives as we just read.

And the scriptures even tell us in the book of Genesis in chapter 2 and verses 23 to 23, that men and women are made for each other.

In Genesis chapter 2 and verses 20 to 217, we're told, the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam, it was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.

And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

In the rib that that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

And of course, this movement is dangerous because it's teaching our young men that our society has been 21% overrun by feminism and that all women are bad news.

From a very early age, us as fathers and mothers, we need to be teaching our children, and especially our sons, that marriage is a beautiful thing.

Not something to be feared.

And that women are to be cherished and protected.

The second movement this evening is the Women's liberation movement.

Also known as the feminist movement has gained a huge following in the past 22 years.

And while this movement may be started out as a way for women to be seen as equal to men in social status, in land ownership, voting, sports recognition, I think it's very now plain to see.

This is a movement of man hating ideology.

In other words, this movement has become radical.

Under the umbrella of the feminist movement, some women have started what they call the 21980B movement, which states women should abstain from dating, marriage, relations with men, and having children with men.

There are even videos online of women who are shaving their heads so that they may become unattractive to men.

And while this may seem silly to most of us, there are impressionable young women in this world who are being roped into thinking that this is OK, that it's OK to have a mindset of all men are evil, or all men are out to get you when this is not the case.

And of course, finally, the LGBTQ plus movement.

And of course, this movement has been changing its acronym almost every month, it seems like, because they can never make it inclusive enough for everyone.

But this movement has been attacking the nuclear family ever since its start around the 26s.

And their views on what marriage, on what a marriage relationship should be vastly differs from what God has said in the scriptures.

Men should be able to marry men and women should be able to marry other women.

Well, God says the exact opposite in Genesis chapter 24 in verse 33.

Where we're told, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

But of course, homosexuality has been condemned throughout the scriptures.

And we're told this in Leviticus 23:22.

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman.

It is an abomination.

In Romans chapter 25 and verse 26 in the New Testament, we're told, for this reason, God gave them up to a debased, gave them up to a dishonorable passion, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

And the men, likewise, gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for for one another.

Men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit, see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Now, after hearing about these three groups, Especially with me as a new parent, kind of terrifying to think that these people would love to see my family unit destroyed.

Well, you know, you may be asking yourselves, well, how can we defend our families?

How can we defend the nuclear family structure that's found in the scriptures?

Well, first, I would suggest That husbands and wives need to stay together.

And the scriptures affirm the intended permanence of each marriage.

In Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 through 6, we're told, he answered, Have you not read that that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So that they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together.

Let not man separate.

And of course, in addition to the teachings of the scriptures, We can see the possible physical and psychological consequences of divorce on children.

Oftentimes, children of divorced households often experience varying levels of depression, anxiety, feelings of guilt like it's their fault.

And difficulty maintaining their own future relationships and or marriages.

And of course, the list goes on and on.

Now, I do want to say that the age of the child, the reason for the divorce, and of course the level of parental conflict can often determine how it will affect the child.

But regardless of the reason for the divorce.

Divorce is a very sad and confusing thing for many children to understand or even to try and understand.

But we must defend our children from this world of sin.

Our children are a blessing from the Lord, and we're told this in the 127th Psalm and verses 3 through 23, that our children need to be protected and cherished.

Says it starting in verse 3 of the 127th Psalm.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.

The fruit of the womb.

Of reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior, the children of one's youth, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate, and our children are the future of Christian households.

I know I've already said that this evening, but if they're not protected, we're gonna be in serious trouble two or three generations down the road.

And as I stated earlier, there are so many groups who would love to corrupt our children and young people.

Groups like the LGBTQ plus feminists, and of course, the MGTOW are just some of the many that would love to have an influence on our children's education and moral compass.

Now, some of you might be thinking, well, Ian, it's just a difference of ideology, you know.

And none of these people are actively saying, we're coming for your children, we want influence over them.

I beg to differ.

In 2023, there was a video released in New York City of a transgender pride parade.

And of course, many of you might know where I'm going with this, where the men and women gathered there began chanting to the beat of a cadence saying, We're here, we're queer, and we're coming for your children.

They said this over and over again proudly.

Brothers and sisters, we have got to protect our children, because these people have made it very clear that they want our children's moral compass.

They want our children.

And of course, just becoming a father myself, that That saying takes a whole new meaning.

As a parent.

But thankfully, Jesus spoke about protecting children from these people and and he, and he's made it very clear about what their consequences will be.

In Luke chapter 17 and verses 1 and 2.

We are told, and he said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come.

But woe to the one who they come through.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck.

And he were cast into the sea, then that he should cause one of these little ones.

To sin Our children are vulnerable and innocent, and they need our protection.

And of course, I couldn't find the name of the serial killer.

But a news outlet did an interview in the 1980s of a serial killer, trying to understand why he did the things that he did.

He kidnapped, raped and killed children.

And the interviewer begins by saying, how do you choose which child to abduct?

And the serial killer looks up slowly and grins and says, I look at the Father.

And if the father doesn't look like a threat, I'll go after their child.

I want that to sink in for a minute.

I know the last statement was terrifying, but that's even more terrifying.

Whenever I heard that a chill went down my spine.

But after hearing these accounts of these people, I think it's perfect that we understand and we, and we talk about the ways that we can defend our children from these people.

In the first practical way that I thought of was we need to teach our children the truth so that they are not confused and led astray by these false teachers, these wolves in sheep's clothing.

In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4, we're told, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but to but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

If we're following that command as fathers, our children will not be led astray as easily as some who have not been taught this way.

And of course, we need to monitor their online activity.

There are so many people out there.

Like this serial killer and the people who are actively saying they're coming for our children.

I, I can't even think of a number of the people online that we can't see that are actively pursuing our children, if they're not if they're not censored, and they're not watched after online.

And finally, we need to be aware of who our children are hanging around.

We need to be aware of who their company is, who their friends are.

I see it all the time in the shows that I watch.

Or something terrible will happen to a child.

And the parents will say, well, my my my kids have such good friends until they don't even realize that there's a child that has been in their child's life, leading them astray, and they never even knew it.

Until their child turned up, turned up dead or hurt.

They never realized This whole sermon has sound, it sounds a whole lot like the description that we hear that we heard from Peter, that Brother Davis read for us in our scripture reading.

2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 2 through 5, just some of the ones that I pulled out, just lovers of self, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, slanderous, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

That sounds a lot like our society today.

And as Christians who have children and those who don't, we all have a responsibility to take a stand and protect this nuclear family structure and above all, to protect our children.

It doesn't matter if you have kids or not, or whether you're married or not.

We all have a responsibility to to protect the innocent.

And we need to be aware of the groups that oppose the scriptures and those who actively seek to corrupt our young people.

And we need to know what the Creator of the universe had in mind for his Christian homes, and only by listening to his word, matching his examples.

In adhering to his commands, can we truly understand what God expects from us in our homes as parents?

And if you're not a Christian, you're not a part of his family.

But thankfully, Christ died on the cross for everyone on this earth, so that in this very moment, you would have the opportunity to come to him and not perish.

And Christ has promised us an eternal home with him if we dedicate our lives to Him and we choose to live our lives according to His word.

And Christ's free gift of grace and of mercy is available to all, but in order to access this free gift of mercy, there are steps that must be followed.

And of course, if you're a Christian, maybe there's a sin in your life that has separated you from the Father.

Thankfully, Jesus' sacrifice covers your sin as well.

So that only, so that if you will seek his forgiveness, he is able and he is willing to forgive you, so that you may be reunited with him once again.

And if you are subject to the invitation 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.)

Generally, Jesus was Compassionate and merciful and gentle as he taught, but to those whose hearts were particularly hard.

They required a different approach.

So we're reading in Matthew 23, starting in verse 23.

Woe to you.

Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you tit mint and dill and cumin.

And have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

You blind guides who strain out a gnat.

But swallow a camel.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish so that the outside of it may become clean also.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

In this way, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

You may be seated.

One of the things that I like to do in the morning, I don't do it every morning, but I try to do it pretty frequently.

is to remind myself of some truths that I need to live by.

And so I've accumulated over time some documents that I just have in a folder that they're called morning meditations.

And they're just things that I think are good to be reminded of as you begin the day.

And uh one of those documents is a document entitled 43 Insights for Life.

It was written by John Coleman.

He's an author, uh, I don't know a whole lot about him.

But he has some pretty good insights.

I think most of, if not nearly all of the insights are good advice.

Uh, a couple of examples.

Number 9 of the 103 says work hard and show up on time.

All we control is our effort.

Be reliable, be consistent.

When you do something, do it well.

Other things have a way of falling into place.

And he echoes some of the excellent comments that Jake made about wealth when he said in number 18, money will not make you happy.

Superficially, it feels like security.

It can be used for good, but it's also a false idol.

It corrupts.

It deceives.

If money is the primary object of your life or work, it will ultimately let you down.

Like I said, I think nearly all of his life tips or insights are very good.

Many of them echo things that you would read in the scripture.

But he went off the rails with number 5.

Number 5 says being a hypocrite doesn't make someone's values wrong.

Well, I think that is a true statement.

Just because somebody doesn't live up to their values doesn't necessarily mean that those values are bad, but then he goes on to say, you're a hypocrite, so am I. No one perfectly practices what they preach.

But people can be right even about things they live imperfectly.

Don't dismiss good ideas because of hypocrisy.

And so, you're a hypocrite.

I'm a hypocrite.

In fact, Coleman's conclusion is that we're all hypocrites.

If you're not living perfectly according to your convictions, then by his manner of reasoning, you're a hypocrite.

And since none of us live perfectly according to our convictions, Hence the conclusion, we're all hypocrites.

That's not just Coleman's idea about or understanding of hypocrisy.

I ran across this uh poster uh by Paul Watson, quoted there.

Everybody is a hypocrite.

You can't live on this planet without being a hypocrite.

It's not unusual for the irreligious to level the charge of hypocrisy against religious people.

Here's someone who proclaims him or herself to be a Christian, and uh they sin and the unbeliever sees that and says, well, see, Christians, religious people, they're all hypocrites.

I believe it is certainly true that some religious people act hypocritically.

I won't deny that there are hypocrites among those who claim to be believers in God, but I, and I also believe the hypocrisy represents a special danger.

For religious people.

On the chart above, perfection there is not the perfect moral standard of God.

It represents a person's convictions.

And according to the definitions that we've been looking at, hypocrisy is always the result when you don't live perfectly according to your convictions.

I think that's a bad definition, a wrong definition of hypocrisy.

This morning, I want to shine a little light on this idea of hypocrisy.

I want us to look specifically at what the Bible says about hypocrisy.

How does God define hypocrisy?

Does the Bible suggest that we're all hypocrites because we are all imperfect?

I've already said that I think hypocrisy is a special danger for Christians, religious people, and I want to explain why I think that is true.

And then finally, I want to talk a little bit about maybe some things that we can remind ourselves of that will help us avoid.

This sin of hypocrisy.

Well, if you'll pardon the pun, what I'd like to do is unmask the hypocrite.

And I say that because the word that's translated, hypocrisy in the New Testament is a word that originally simply meant in classical Greek, it just meant uh a reply or an answer.

Then it came to refer to the play acting, the dialogue that actors would engage in on the stage.

And so they would reply to one another.

But then the meaning eventually shifted to the idea of someone who is an actor, who has a mask on, who's playing a part.

And so Vine gives us the word pretense as a key word in thinking about hypocrisy.

Vine says of the hypocrite, the person, that it primarily denotes one who answers and then a stage actor, the same kind of Uh, evolution of the, the meaning of the word.

It was a custom for Greek and Roman actors to speak in large masks with mechanical devices that augmented the sound of their voice.

Hence, the word became used metaphorically of a dissembler.

A pretender, someone who deceives.

BA in their lexicons say that a hypocrite uh is in our literature, that is in biblical literature, only metaphorically, an actor in the sense of pretender or dissembler.

And so you're seeing a theme here.

Hypocrisy talks about pretense.

It talks about the person who's deceiving others about who he or she actually is.

I ran across a statement.

I it took me a while to figure out what was going on here, but the statement was made, a hypocrite is a person who, but who isn't.

And I thought, well, maybe he's saying the same thing.

As The Bible, when the Bible says a hypocrite is one who portrays himself as one thing, but he isn't that in real life.

But then I noticed the question mark.

And I think what this individual is trying to say is, well, instead of defining a hypocrite as a person who The fact of the matter is we're all hypocrites.

I think that's the point of the statement, and that's not right.

As we noted from the definition of the words that are used to translate hypocrite or hypocrisy, there's more involved.

In the ancient theaters, the open theaters that would sometimes hold uh 215,23 people uh in a uh in a uh uh a theater, the actors would use masks that would exaggerate whatever the emotion or characteristic that they were trying to portray in this play.

And sometimes those masks actually involved the resonating of the voice so that people up in the stands could actually hear before the age of microphones and those sorts of things.

That's all well and good for theater.

But we don't need to be wearing masks.

We don't need to be involved in hypocrisy.

If we're thinking about what hypocrisy is, I think Jesus helps us a great deal with our understanding of hypocrisy in Matthew the 211rd chapter.

I appreciated the reading that uh Eric did from that passage.

Jesus is in Jerusalem for the last week of his life, and he is rebuking the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious leaders of the Jews.

Because they are hypocrites.

In Matthew 23, 22 of the most scathing rebukes that you'll find in scripture in the New King James Version, seven times, Jesus says, hypocrites.

He calls them blind guides also, but he refers to them as hypocrites.

In verse 25 in the New King James Version, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

Therefore, you will receive greater condemn condemnation.

The law protected widows, but here were people who were taking advantage of the helpless, those that were uh helpless in society.

But then on the other hand, they would make these long prayers so that people would think they were exceptionally righteous people.

For a pretense.

That's a key word here.

It helps us understand what hypocrisy is all about.

In the passage that was read earlier, there are two examples given here.

He says in verse 13, you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Clean the inside, he says of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

They were worried about the outward appearance.

There's almost humor in the illustration.

Uh, when you eat lunch today.

And you're done with the dishes.

If you eat at home, you don't eat out.

If you eat at home and you're done with the dishes, just take that plate and clean the bottom of it.

Put it back in the cupboard, cupboard, or, or take the cup and just wipe the outside of the cup but leave whatever dregs of your drink are still in the cup.

How silly.

And Paul, uh, uh, Paul, Paul wrote everything, you know.

Jesus says then in the second illustration, That these religious leaders are like whitewashed tombs.

When the Passover season would come in the area of Jerusalem, the Jews had a custom of taking whitewash, some sort of lime, uh, uh, Mixture, and they would actually paint the tombs that were in the area so that pilgrims who had traveled in some cases, maybe hundreds of miles to come to the Passover feast and observe that feast, they wouldn't accidentally contact uncleanness, ceremonial uncleanness by touching or having contact with one of these tombs, which are full of dead men's bodies.

And so they would whiten the tombs so that you could see.

Theoretically, that they were there was uncleanness there.

Jesus said, you're like those whitewashed tombs.

You look really clean and good on the outside, but he says, inwardly, you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

And so both of these illustrations emphasize the difference between the outward appearance that these individuals were presenting to others versus their inward condition.

We need to be careful about leveling the charge of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is not just sinning.

We don't become hypocrites with any sin or every sin.

It is a fact that all Christians sin.

John even says in his first general letter that if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves.

Truth's not in us.

If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar, that is God, and his word is not in us.

Now, if you believe that hypocrisy is simply someone sinning, then it's understandable why folks would say, well, now everybody, He's a hypocrite because none of us live perfectly, not according to God's standard, and probably not even according to our own convictions, which should be the same thing.

But just because a person sins doesn't make that person a hypocrite.

There are other factors involved in the meaning of the word.

Hypocrisy, again, is simply not inconsistency.

Not every man whose life doesn't match his convictions is necessarily a hypocrite.

People sin for a variety of reasons, not always in an attempt, uh, I should say for a number of reasons, but they don't always try to hide those sins from others or to present, uh, a facade that is inaccurate.

And I believe hypocrisy is not simply putting our best foot forward.

Little bit of dating advice here.

Young men, young women.

It probably will not work out well for you if the way that you approach every date is, uh, hi, I'm Alan, and I want to tell you about all my faults.

Um, most women would probably start running at that point.

Well, Appreciate the invite, but I've changed my mind.

On the other hand, we don't need to be pretenders of uh pretending that we're something we're not, but all of us naturally wish to present our best side.

But that best side ought to be accurate, uh, most of the time.

I'm not a hypocrite simply because I don't spend all my time informing others of how rotten I am spiritually speaking.

You see what I'm saying?

To avoid hypocrisy, I don't believe we have to spend time regaling people with our weaknesses or our flaws.

Hypocrisy, I think, is certainly a special danger for Christians.

And the reason I say that is, it's Christians who are trying to live right.

There are lots of people in the world who don't care anything about what others think about them.

They're not worried about sin.

They don't even necessarily believe that the way they live is sinful.

But Christians, on the other hand, understand the necessity of living a godly life because God is holy, we need to be holy also.

But here's the danger.

It's easier for us to hide sin, to, to cover it up, to pretend to be an actor.

Then it is often to repent and put sin out of our lives, to, to stop sinning.

And so sometimes I think out of just laziness or impatience rather than dealing with sin, we just try to cover it and make others think that we've managed to overcome sin.

And I think it's natural for us as brethren to want to meet the expectations of other brethren.

And so you're looking at me and I don't want you to see that I'm a failure in some area of my life.

So, so I'm gonna try to, I'm gonna try to put up that facade for you.

I'm gonna clean the outside of the cup and the dish and not worry as much about the inside.

And I'll tell you something else that I think sometimes causes hypocrisy in Christians, and that is the self-righteousness on the part of other Christians.

You remember the parable that Jesus told in Luke 21 about two men who went up to pray, Pharisee and the tax collector, and were regaled with the prayer of the tax of the Pharisee as he prays with himself, one version says.

And he tells God about what a good person he is.

And he's glad he's not like other men, and he lists some since, not even that tax collector.

Apparently the Pharisee can see the tax collector over there.

I'm not like him.

And unfortunately, sometimes as Christians, we display that same kind of attitude.

Well, you know, brother so and so or sister so and so they came up and they confess it.

I'm sure glad I'm not having that kind of a problem.

And so sometimes what people will do is they'll just hide their sin.

Instead of being willing to confess their sin and solicit the support and the forgiveness of others.

Let me illustrate it this way.

Not every person who says something false is a liar.

Would you agree with that statement?

I think that's a true statement because lying involves deception, and sometimes people say things that are not true, not because they're trying to deceive anybody, they don't know the truth.

They're uninformed or ignorant about what the truth really is.

So they say something, but that does, that's not true, but that doesn't necessarily make them a liar.

The liar is the one who intends to deceive.

Well, in the same way, Here's a man or a woman, a Christian who's not living up to their convictions.

But that doesn't make them necessarily a hypocrite.

They may be if they're trying to give the impression that they are living up to their con convictions.

But not necessarily.

Hypocrisy always involves deception.

The Bible helps us a little more with the understanding of hypocrisy by, by giving us some examples.

We've already looked at uh Matthew 22, a couple passages there in that chapter.

But there are other examples.

For instance, in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus in the beginning of chapter 21 talks about Individuals whom he calls hypocrites.

He doesn't mention the Pharisees particularly, but you almost think that they're uh in between the lines there, you ought to be seeing the Pharisees, but not just the Pharisees.

There were people who, who would announce their benevolence to others so that they'd be seen by men.

Someone says, well, that's not, that's not pretending, they're actually doing things and, and they're just telling other, no, the hypocrisy comes because ostensibly, they are serving God in this, when in fact, their motivation is very different.

They're giving the impression that I'm doing this because I'm a servant of God, because of righteousness, when really all I'm looking for is glory.

The eyes of men And he talks about those who pray and then those who fast in those successive verses.

In each case, the motivation is the same.

It's to be seen by men, not necessarily to serve God.

In righteousness Acts chapter 5 gives us a blazing example of hypocrisy, Ananias and Sephira.

Sell a piece of land, and they bring part of the purchase price to the apostles, to Peter.

They give it for the benevolence that's being extended to needy saints.

Chapter 4 gave us the example of Barnabas.

Those two examples are foils.

Barnabas comes and he does this.

Well, then Ananias and Sahira decide they're gonna do the same thing that others were doing, including Barnabas, and so they bring this money, but they give the impression.

They pretend, if you will.

They lied about how much they sold the land for, so that it would appear that they were more benevolent than they really were.

And perhaps you remember the consequence of their life.

Both Ananias and Sephira will die.

They tested the Holy Spirit on that occasion.

They were creating a false impression.

They were pretending to be something they were not.

That's hypocrisy.

In Galatians the 2nd chapter, hypocrisy is not just Pharisees and scribes.

Sometimes it gets apostles.

Peter would eat with the Gentiles, and then some Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem, where James was, and he withdrew himself from the Gentiles to give the impression that he was still keeping the law and not having contact with Gentiles who were considered unclean by Orthodox Jews.

And some Christians apparently at the top.

Paul rebuked Peter in Galatians 2.

For his hypocrisy, and he notes that even Barnabas was carried away by the hypocrisy of Peter.

I think all of these passages illustrate that the real problem behind hypocrisy is that at least among religious people, it is the result of a man-focused religion.

Instead of a God-focused religion.

Because you see, he can't fool God.

But you could fool in.

And so when people become more concerned about what others think of me and I want to present this, this great image of who I am in front of others, I am focused on men, not God.

And I think that is a problem, the real problem behind hypocrisy.

Well, it's a good thing we're not Pharisees, huh, or scribes.

You know, we can appreciate the boldness of Jesus, I think.

When in Matthew 23, he says 7 times, hypocrites, because the fastest way to make an enemy of someone is to refer to them as a hypocrite.

And so this sermon is not being preached for any reason that I think, you know, there's hypocrites in this church here.

I think it's a danger for us.

And I think it's a fair warning for all of us to be careful about hypocrisy because just like the Bible contains examples of hypocrisy, I wanna share what I think are some examples or possible ways that we can be hypocrites.

Matthew 23 is just as relevant for us in terms of our worship, whether it's pray or fasting or, or singing or giving or whatever, just as relevant for us as it was in Jesus' day in Matthew 6.

We can be hypocritical in our relationships with other brethren.

Appreciated the choice of the song, the greatest commands that we love one another.

But that love is to be without hypocrisy, sincere love.

Have you ever Have you ever had a relation with somebody, relationship with somebody, and, and, you know, they're telling you, oh, you know, I love you, I love you, and then they backstab you.

And you begin to wonder if that love really was sincere or whether it was just a pretense.

Jesus in the sermon on the Mount also deals with hypocritical judgment.

And you may recall the passage there, and let me refresh your memory beginning in verse 3.

Jesus says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye, or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye, you hypocrite.

First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you'll see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Now, be careful here because Jesus is not suggesting that anyone who would correct another of a wrong or a fault is a hypocrite.

That's not his point.

You have to understand that the person who's doing the correct thing has this big problem in his own life.

He's got a log in his own eye, but he's giving the impression that he is qualified and able to see the speck in his brother's eye.

That's the hypocrisy.

There's pretense here again.

In the context of correcting my brother of his fault.

Well, I said the 3rd thing that I wanted to talk about was maybe how we can try to avoid hypocrisy in our lives.

Not everybody's a hypocrite.

But hypocrisy is a sin, and it's a serious problem, I think, for religious people.

And so I'm gonna suggest three things.

First of all, there's really no joy in hypocrisy.

I ran across a statement this week that I thought it was very perceptive.

I have no idea how to pronounce the last name of this guy, but, but this is the statement, he says, hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-wracking vice that Any man can pursue.

It needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit.

It cannot like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments.

It is a whole-time job, which tells me he's probably not an American.

Because we would say it's a full-time job.

You can't practice hypocrisy a little bit because what happens is as soon as you drop your mask, Somebody sees who you really are.

And so what you got to do is you gotta hold that mask there all the time.

You got to be vigilant and make sure that you don't ever let the facade slip, so people will see what's behind the mask.

I think he's right.

It is the most difficult and nerve-wracking vice.

Always have to be afraid that someone's going to see the truth instead of the facade.

The truth of the matter, of course, is that we're unable to sustain any large scale deception, even in this life.

You know, sometimes people will hide some small fault, fault or flaw, something that doesn't seem to show up a lot in their life, and you can do that for a while, but it's very difficult over a period, a long period of time to fool people about who we really are.

For by their fruits you will know him, Jesus said.

Well, secondly, remember that God sees behind the mask.

God sees who we really are.

Now, I may be able to fool you if I practice it, and I'm vigilant as uh this individual said.

But we can't fool God.

God sees who we really are.

If you and I were in the time of Joshua and we were living in the land of Palestine, there would have been a reminder for us of that very fact.

In the valley of Achor, the valley of trouble, there was a big heap of stones there, and those stones were a reminder of a man by the name of Aiken and what happened to him.

When Jericho was taken, all of the goods there were under the ban, and yet Aiken took some of it for himself, hid it in his tent.

And you can almost imagine that Aiken would maybe have been celebrating with others, you know, well, we, we were able to take Jericho and, you know, he, he was like all the other Israelites when in fact, he had done what God had specifically prohibited.

And in a way that I think is illustrative of the fact that you can't hide from God.

Joshua is informed there's sin in the camp.

And then of the tribes, one tribe is taken.

And then the, the cla clans in that tribe, one clan, and then all the way down to Aiken, so that the magnifying glass just got closer and closer and finally Illustrates the individual who had sinned.

God sees you can't hide from God behind a facade.

Proverbs says a lot about this, but Proverbs 15:3 says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

He sees everything But more than that, in verse 11 of the same chapter, Shell and Abadin lie open before the Lord.

Shell was often the, the place of the grave.

You can't even hide under the, under the soil in the grave.

How much more the hearts of the children of men.

Well we can wear masks.

Which can't hide your heart from the Lord.

God sees.

And I think in that fact is perhaps one of the strongest preventatives for hypocrisy.

Because when I'm tempted to, to try to pretend that I'm something I'm not, there needs to be this niggling thought in the back of my mind.

God knows who I am.

He knows what my life is.

Even if I can fool everybody else.

Well, you know, the plays would end.

And then the the the the actors would take off their masks.

And that's the 3rd thing I would suggest to you, and that is that eventually the theater ends.

Because this isn't, this isn't it.

This is all temporary.

And even if I could fool you for the rest of my life, in the end, the mask is going to come off.

2 Corinthians 5th chapter verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each 1 may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Well, maybe, maybe in the judgment.

I'll be able to fool God.

No, can't hide anything.

On that day, when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Everything will come to light.

All the masks that we wear in this life, they'll all come off.

In judgment, God will bring every deed with every secret thing, whether good or evil, every secret thing.

There's nothing in my life that God is not able to suss out.

There's nothing in my life that he doesn't know about.

Nothing that will not be brought into judgment, as though I could hide it from you and so God can't see either.

We play a game sometimes, not intentionally.

But I, I think it's a common game.

And that is, we pretend that as soon as we go through the door of our house and we shut the door where now all the rest of the world, maybe our family's in the house, but all the rest of the world's outside the house, that now somehow everything that happens in my house is hidden.

So I can fuss at my wife and yell at her and be angry or hit on her or whatever.

I can beat the children.

I can be a hypocrite at home.

But nobody will know that as though for some reason, my house protects me and keeps all my secrets hidden.

It's a game.

It's a dangerous game.

Because God looks down through the shingles or the metal roof, and he sees.

Everything Well, just Some final observations here.

I think of, of all the sins that maybe we struggle with as Christians, the sin of hypocrisy is perhaps one of the greatest dangers.

And for reasons that I've already suggested.

We need to understand that hypocrisy destroys influence.

Hypocrisy and parents will destroy the influence they have with their children.

Hypocrisy and Christians will destroy the influence that we have in the world.

But I'll tell you something else about hypocrisy.

It'll destroy the influence that we have with younger Christians, newer Christians, babes in Christ.

I have seen and perhaps you have as well.

Occasions where older Christians acted the hypocrite.

And younger Christians, those less mature, became so discouraged because they see that hypocrisy in these older church members, and they just decided, I'm gonna give up.

What a terrible thing to have to face in judgment that I'm responsible for the stumbling block that was put before this younger Christian.

Another danger of hypocrisy is sometimes we start to believe our own lies.

Hypocrisy is about deceit, it's about pretense.

We may begin to believe the pretense.

The deception that we've created for others.

Someone says, no, no, no, I know.

I ran across a statement by Nathaniel Hawthorne, at least uh attributed to him.

He said, no man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

You wear the mask for so long that you've forgotten who you really are.

You think the mask is who you are.

Well, that's horrible. Self-deception.

And unless you've got some true friends, people who love you, to tell you, listen, you need to take the mask off, you need to change who you are, not cover it up.

We may go to our graves thinking, well, you know, I really was.

The mask When I was growing up, I had a friend Who had a propensity for telling lies.

You know, when kids are really young and they, they, they exaggerate the truth.

That's what people say.

so and so exaggerated the truth and, you know, it's kind of funny to hear the tall tales that kids, but you know, sometimes kids grow up and they get in the habit.

Of exaggerating the truth or not quite telling the truth.

And I am firmly convinced that at some point in that young man's life, he didn't.

Know what the truth was.

He told lies so much that he couldn't tell you what the truth was.

That's the danger we're talking about.

But I've worn the mask for so long that now I think the mask is the truth instead of just pretense.

The apostle Peter would write in chapter 2 and verse 1.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, we're to desire the sincere milk of the word.

How do you lay aside hypocrisy?

Self-examination, Self-examination.

Am I being honest with other people about who I am?

Am I being honest about my attempts to live righteously, or have I been trying to Give the wrong impression.

And when I find something in my life that needs to be changed rather than covered up with a mask or a facade, repentance.

Is the course of action I need to take.

Confession of my sin.

I believe that's probably why James says that we're to confess our sins to one another.

Rather than wearing masks.

Well, we can be certain that God is no hypocrite.

When the Bible says something, we can be sure that it's the truth.

God doesn't wear a mask.

He's not hiding behind a facade.

You can read who God is and how he behaves.

And that's the truth.

But it may be that we're hiding sin in our lives.

That we're not who we show others that we are.

And if so, we need to deal with that problem of hypocrisy.

As we mentioned before.

God sees us the way we are.

He knows the sins that are in our lives.

And you can't fake God out with a mask.

You can't pretend.

And fool God.

He will bring all things into judgment.

If you're not prepared for that judgment, if there are things that you need to get rid of rather than covering them up.

And our invitation to you this morning is that you respond to the gospel.

If you're a Christian and you need to repent of those sins, you need to confess them to God.

If you desire the prayers of the congregation, it may even be necessary for them to know of things that are publicly known, then we encourage you to come forward at the invitation song.

If you're not a Christian, Understand you're like, you may feel like you're a good person and perhaps in many ways you are, but you need to understand that God knows all our sins.

And he offers to each of us the opportunity, opportunity to be washed clean by the blood of Jesus Christ.

If that's your need this morning to become a Christian, to be forgiven of your sins, and we want to encourage you to come to the front.

We stand to encourage you as we 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.)

Good evening.

I'll be reading from Hebrews chapter 11.

Beginning in verse 13.

And I'll be reading from the ESV, which is also on the screen behind me.

Throughout the chapter, the writer has spoken of many Old Testament characters.

Who Accomplish great things by displaying their faith.

So beginning in verse 32.

And what more shall I say, for time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Bayrak, Samson, Jephtha, of David, and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched 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 a 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, and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Well, good evening.

When you attend a funeral, What's the question that sometimes comes to mind about the person who has passed away?

The question that comes to my mind sometimes and maybe yours as well, is what is that person's eternal destiny.

It is not uncommon at funerals, especially if you go to funerals where the officiant, uh, who does the uh elegy, uh eulogy or, or speaks uh about the deceased, it's not uncommon for them to say, well now so and so is in heaven.

So and so's with the Lord, so and so's in glory.

Even though in some cases, that person was not known to have any interest in religion or serving God.

But when that person dies, then we want to say the nicest things we can about them.

With faithful Christians who fall asleep.

We can have some confidence as we observe that they seem to be following the Lord's commands, serving God to the best of their ability.

But even in those cases, We are somewhat hindered in our judgment about their future by the fact that we don't know their heart.

Paul would say to the Corinthians, and I'm going to take this, uh, a little bit out of the context of Paul's original application.

He was talking about his relationship with uh the brethren at Corinth.

But I want you to notice in particular the highlighted text in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1193, he says, but with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.

In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I'm not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.

It is the Lord who judges me.

Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

We can see the outward behavior of people sometimes if we're acquainted with them.

But we don't know the heart of an individual.

God will bring out the secrets of men as he says Paul does in Romans 1183 in that great day of judgment.

Although we don't know with certainty about the future of those who die now, the scriptures actually do tell us about some individuals who are definitely in the saved category.

Our study this evening is a question and answer study.

If you're visiting with us this evening, uh, let me explain very quickly that occasionally I will receive questions, some verbatim and others just ideas about some, uh, biblical question, and occasionally I will devote a sermon to answering those questions.

The questions are not necessarily related to one another and in fact this evening, I'm gonna deal with two questions.

Two questions And they're not related to one another.

The answers that I'm going to give to these questions are my answers.

They don't represent some sort of a congregational creed.

They may not even represent the thinking of the other elders.

They are my answers as best as I understand the scriptures with respect to the questions asked.

Two questions this evening and here they are, and I mentioned this morning that one of the questions this evening had actually been submitted by the 1173th and 1163th grade class, the students here in that Bible class.

That's the second question we'll talk about married women and the artificial covering that uh is worn in worship, but the first question has to do with the destiny of Gentiles before the cross.

And so we'll start with that question and.

This is not a question that I received in so many words and so it's not in quotation marks.

I've simply worded the question in my own way to convey the the thing that was being asked Could Gentiles who lived before the cross be saved?

Well, we need to spend a little bit of time with some background information.

In the beginning of mankind's history, divine revelation was handed down by word of mouth from one generation to the next generation.

It was an unwritten law that the patriarchs, men like Noah and Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob, that they lived under, uh, a law that Very surely was not as specific as the law that would be given to the Israelites later on.

But that law was what we sometimes call patriarchal law, and it was an unwritten law.

The book of Genesis follows Abraham and his descendants once we have been introduced to the problem, the problem, the promise in Genesis the 1153th chapter, which essentially is the theme of the Bible.

The rest of the Bible is the fulfillment of that promise in Genesis 1143.

From Jacob's family, the 1133 sons came the nation of Israel.

And God at Sinai, once the people of Israel, once this family of Jacob that had expanded into a mighty nation, when they came out of Egypt, God led them to Mount Sinai and he covenanted with them, giving.

The the law of Moses.

It's important for us to understand that that law was only given to Israel.

Israelites and Gentiles lived under different laws.

The term gentile.

is a word that we use to describe anybody who is not a Jew, not an Israelite.

In the New Testament, the word Gentile is a translation of the word nations.

And so here's Israel, the family of Jacob and all the rest of the nations, the nations, those are the Gentiles.

And so we had two laws, the patriarchal law and unwritten law and the law of Moses running concurrently.

Israel under the law of Moses, the patriarchs under this unwritten law.

Paul talks about those individuals in Romans the 1123nd chapter in verse 1113.

He says for all who have sinned without the law, he means apart from the law of Moses, he's contrasting the patriarchal law.

which was an unwritten law with the law of Moses.

Those who lived without the law of Moses will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Now, when we begin reading in verse 1103, do not hasten to conclude that Paul's saying that everybody who sinned without law under patriarchal law, that they will perish because he goes on to say in verse 2116, for when Gentiles, those are the ones that would have been under the patriarchal law.

When Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.

And Paul would comment in Romans 216:215 to 215, as we noted this morning that Gentiles were seeking righteousness by faith, while Israel was seeking it by means of the works of the law and Israel failed, whereas Gentiles, some Gentiles, succeeded.

However, both laws, the law of Moses and the unwritten patriarchal law ended at the cross.

I want you to listen carefully to this passage in Ephesians 211, because what Paul is doing is he's talking about two groups of people.

Jews and Gentiles.

But notice what he says about them in terms of their getting together in one body.

For he, Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both Jew and Gentile one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.

The dividing wall was the law of Moses.

It separated Jacob's family and the nation that came from it, from the rest of the nations.

But notice that even as the Jews would be saved by faith, Jew and Gentile would both be brought together in the same body that is in the church.

He goes on to say, and might reconcile us both Jew and Gentile to God in one body through the cross.

What does that say about Gentiles?

Well, they're part of God's plan for salvation.

Thereby killing the hostility, and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

Now that passage doesn't say that Jesus took away the patriarchal law, but what it does say is that Jew and Gentile are both saved in this one body and it's through the cross.

The implication there if you're uh listen carefully, the implication there is that Gentiles are no longer under the patriarchal law, they're going to be saved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that sacrifice pertains to the new covenant, to the law of Christ, not to patriarchal law.

In Colossians, the 211nd chapter in verse 2111, Paul specifically says that the law of Moses was taken out of the way.

It was nailed to the cross.

It ended at the cross so that now both Jew and Gentile can be reconciled to God in the one body known as the church.

All of them, all of us are under the law of Christ.

So the blood of Christ was responsible for the forgiveness of sins committed under the law of Moses.

Did you hear what I said?

The blood that was shed on the cross.

Not only comes this way to forgive our sins, but it also went back to forgave, to forgive the sins of those who lived under that first covenant, the law of Moses.

Hebrews verse 211 and verse 2111 is a chapter 2111, verse 15 is an important passage.

It says that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, that'd be the law of Moses.

So, Jews who lived under the law of Moses could be forgiven of their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We could spend a lot of time, I suppose, talking about when that took place, whether they were forgiven at the point that they offered the animal sacrifice or forgiven at the point that Jesus offered his blood on the cross.

That's kind of irrelevant for our purposes this evening, but it is enough to say that Hebrews 9:15 says that that blood went back and forgave those who lived under the law of Moses, but that's not the question this evening.

The question is what about the people who lived under the unwritten patriarchal law?

Well, let's look at some relevant passages to that question.

And I wanna read from the book of Hebrews, we could uh read all the way through verse 16, but I, I'm gonna start in the beginning here with verse 4 because in the beginning of Hebrews 11, we're dealing with some individuals, patriarchs who lived prior to the giving of the law of Moses.

They're the very people that this question is asking about.

Notice what's said in verse 163.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous.

God testifying of his gifts and through it, he being dead still speaks.

Now look at verse 5.

By faith, Enoch, another patriarch, was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him.

For before he was taken, he had this testimony.

That he pleased God.

So Abel and Enoch are both described as individuals who pleased God or were considered to be righteous.

Drop down to verse 7, another patriarch, Noah.

By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an art for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

All three of these individuals, though they lived before the law of Moses, before they lived before the cross, all three of them, there are statements made to the effect that they are righteous.

Noah in particular, it is said, he's heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Take a look if you will, a little bit farther down in the chapter at verses 13 through 16.

We're kind of skipping down in the list of patriarchs.

Abraham and Sarah will be discussed in the interim, but now there's a sort of a summary statement made here about the patriarch.

Archs who have already been listed and particularly Abraham and Isaac and Esau.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

If they've been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one.

Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

I think that passage is pretty definitive as far as speaking about men like Abel and Noah, and Abraham and Sarah as well.

Moving along to another passage, in the days of Ezekiel, a prophet to the exiles uh during the Babylonian captivity.

Ezekiel would say in verse 14 of chapter 14, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness declares the Lord God.

Ezekiel is saying, the city of Jerusalem can't be saved by even these three men who would only deliver themselves.

What does that say about these three men?

Job incidentally.

was probably someone who lived in the same approximate time as Abraham perhaps a little bit earlier, but definitely in the patriarchal age, and he repeats the same thing essentially in verse 20 mentioning again, Noah, Daniel, and Job.

Daniel's the exception because Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel, but Noah and Job, they lived prior to the law of Moses.

They were patriarchs, and yet God says of them through the prophet Ezekiel that they were righteous individuals.

In the New Testament, Jesus in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 11 says, I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline that table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

The metaphor of a feast is sometimes used to describe the blessings of heaven.

And Jesus says, uh, what would have probably shocked the Jews, they're gonna be people who come from the east and the west.

In other words, people outside of the nation of Israel who are going to come and they're going to sit with whom?

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, these three patriarchs.

Mind you, Jacob wasn't under the law of Moses.

He was still on the patriarchal side of that family.

A similar passage in Luke 13:28.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves, cast out.

I've said before that when God says of Job in the beginning of that book, he says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there's no one like him on the earth?

That's high praise.

That tells me something about Job's standing with God.

And of course, Job's faith is going to be tested and will grow through the things that he suffers.

But there's no indication that he was lost at the end of that book.

In fact, God blesses him with more than he had in the beginning.

And so we look at these passages.

And what they tell us is that there are some people that we know have been saved.

There's some people we know are going to be in heaven.

Jesus calls them, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets.

And of course, Job would be included from the passages that we already looked at.

Do you remember the story that Jesus told of two men in Luke 16th chapter, beginning in verse 19 and running through verse 31, Whether it's a parable or whether it's actual history, but Jesus describes A rich man and a poor beggar.

By the name of Lazarus.

And both of them pass away and then we're given some idea of what happens to their spirits after they've left the bodies.

The rich man, he's in torment.

But where is Lazarus?

Well, in the text there, Jesus says he's in the bosom of Abraham.

And I'm not so much interested in Lazarus's destiny as I am in the description of where he is.

He's with Abraham.

That tells me that Abraham is on the side of comfort.

He's not being tormented like the rich man in the story that Jesus tells.

Abraham I think is definitively described as righteous by faith.

In the book of Romans in chapter 4 verses 1 through 3, Paul says, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

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

For what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

So the question again.

Could Gentiles who lived before the cross be saved?

Someone says, well, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they weren't Gentiles.

They weren't Jews.

The Jewish nation didn't come about until after all of these men had died.

So here's my answer.

The Gentiles, and by that I'm talking about the patriarchs, Gentiles prior to the cross, who lived before the cross could be saved by obedient faith.

Which is the way God saves in every dispensation.

Whether you're talking about people who lived under the patriarchal law prior to the death of Christ, or whether you're talking about Jewish people who lived under the law of Moses, a law system, salvation always came, justification always came.

By obedient faith, that's always been God's plan, and that's emphasized as uh Daniel pointed out well, uh, in Hebrews the 11th chapter.

Their sins would be forgiven by the blood of Jesus just as Jews who lived under the law of Moses could be forgiven by that same blood.

So that's the answer to the first question.

And I can tell now that I could have at least prepared another 2 or 163 questions.

But we'll just move on to the second question, the only other one that I prepared.

This question is in quotes because this is exactly how I got it from 4th and 5th grade class.

Should married women still wear a head covering today?

Uh, and the scripture cited there is 1 Corinthians 11th chapter verses 2 through 16.

It probably wouldn't hurt us to go back and to reread that passage.

just so that the language of the text is firmly in our minds.

I'm gonna read beginning in verse 21 Corinthians 11:2.

Verse 63, if you look at uh the relationship of chapter 10 and chapter 11 verse 1 really belongs with the previous chapter.

So we begin in verse 2.

Paul writes, now, I praise you, brethren.

I'm reading from the New King James version.

Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.

For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn.

But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man, for man is not from woman, but woman from man.

Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman nor woman independent of man in the Lord.

For as women came from, as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman, but all things are from God.

Judge among yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

And so I want to begin by looking at some of the divisions of the text.

There are 3 relationships that involve submission that are described here in verses 2 and 3.

This is the ESV.

Now I commend you because you remember me and everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head.

Of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God.

Now, if you listen carefully, as I read from the New King James version, or perhaps if you're still reading from that version, you'll notice that it reads different than the ESV.

The new King James version says, but I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

The ESV does something unfortunate here and I'm going to Describe it.

I don't know that you can read much of that and, and even the uh the, the font colors don't really show up very well.

So I'm gonna describe what you're seeing and hopefully it'll make sense.

The word that is translatedwoman is the Greek word go.

It's the same word that is translated in some contexts, wife.

We have two English words, woman and wife, but the Greeks would use one word, this word go, and it could be translated woman or it could be translated wife depending on the context.

What the ESV does is they jump from one translation to the other in this text.

For instance, and you may want to follow along in these verses, uh, particularly if you're reading in the ESV you'll notice what I'm saying.

In verse 3, Uh, and, and I've, uh, I've tried to indicate, uh, where the word go, uh, occurs.

And I've got something up there twice, it should only be there once.

Where the word Goe occurs, and it's in green text when it's translated wife.

Look at verse 3.

The same word is translated wife in verse 53.

It's translated wife 2 times in verse 6.

It's translated wife again in verse 10.

This chart is Not the finished product.

I have a feeling.

Because it's missing some things that I Did different on uh oh, now we've done it.

It's missing some information on it.

But if you look at verse 10, That is why a wife, it's the word Ge, same word that's been translated wife before.

And then in verse 13, is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?

But the word Ge appears in other places in this text.

For instance, in verse 7, it's translated woman.

In verse 8, it's translated woman twice.

In verse 9, it's twice translated woman.

In verse 11, it's twice translated woman.

Verse 53, twice translated woman, and in verse 15, it's translated woman.

It is the same Greek word all the way through, whether it is wife or woman.

So the obvious question is, why did the ESV decide to translate it wife sometimes and woman other times?

Well, I'm not privy to the thinking or the rationale of the translators of the ESV, but I will tell you this.

What they did suggests that submission of the woman is just to her husband and not to every man, not to men in general.

And I wonder if they didn't do that.

Because of Ephesians 5, where there's a specific relationship described there, husband and wife, and wives are to be in submission to their husbands.

And I think they implanted that same idea here in this text.

That talks about men and women in general, at least as the New King James version translates.

New King James is consistent and translates woman all the way through.

Every time Goune appears, it's translated woman.

Now, as I said before, that word can be translated wife or woman depending on the context.

What is there in this context that would demand a change in meaning from woman to wife.

And my answer is I don't see anything.

I don't see anything in the context.

Well Let me see if I have messed up my slides.

I sure have.

So they did the same thing with man.

We have a similar situation.

The word for man, there's actually more than Greek word, one Greek word for man, but the word that's used here in this text is the word anna.

And it can be translated man, or depending on the context, it can be translated husband.

So what did the ESV do?

Well, you can see in verse 3, they translated husband, the head of a wife is her husband instead of translating man, and then everywhere else in that passage where that Greek word in there appears, they translated it man.

Why the change?

What in the context demands that the, the meaning of verse three is husband, where it's man everywhere else?

I do not believe that this passage is restricted to husbands and wives.

Now, the reason I've dragged you down the lane of tedious Greek words is because if you remember, the question was, should married women Still wear a head covering today.

But I don't think there's a distinction being made between married women and just women in general in this passage.

I think the new King James version has the more consistent.

Translation, not just from a grammatical standpoint.

But from the standpoint of what the context is, I believe they have the right.

Uh, the right idea.

And so those three relationships in verses 2 and 3, that God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman, according to the New King James Version translation, which I think is accurate.

In verses 4 through 6, Paul gives some specific instructions to both men and women with respect to the covering of the head.

When men are praying and prophesying, they should leave their head uncovered.

When women are praying and prophesy, they should cover their heads.

And then in verses 7 through 12, In verses 13 through 12, Paul explains the rationale behind these instructions to either cover or not cover one's head while praying and prophesying.

But he also notes in those verses 7 to 12, the mutual dependence of the man and the woman, and that seems very clearly to be men and women in general, not simply married individuals.

And then finally.

In verses 13 to 16, Paul appeals to the Corinthians' own understanding by drawing an illustration from nature and here nature does not appear to be nature as we talk about going out into the woods or into the jungle and seeing nature, but by established tradition or practice of mankind, that's I think the meaning of nature here.

Well, I'm gonna try to get back on track here.

All right, so this is, this is the, the breakdown of the division of the text.

Now when we read the text, maybe you noticed something that I think is a key verse and it's verse 10.

This is in the new King James version again.

For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, symbol.

is italicized.

But I think it's an accurate translation in the sense that what she has on her head is this covering, and the covering is a symbol of authority.

That's its function.

Now, the expression because of the angels is kind of cryptic.

Paul doesn't go into any explanation of what he means by that, but I would suggest to you that there are a couple of passages in the New Testament that might help us.

I think probably because of the angels is a reference to the angels who sin by Not keeping their as one version says, proper dwelling, those passages, the first one in 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept unto the judgment, not a particularly great translation.

Uh, the ESV then in Jude 13, the second passage.

Jude and 2 Peter have some passages that seem to be fairly similar, and I think these two passages are talking about the same angels.

The angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains and the gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

I want to show you one other translation, and it comes from uh the new living translation, always a paragon of translational accuracy, but I think they get the sense of this passage, and I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place.

where they belong.

God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.

It seems to me that these angels, the problem with them, that the nature of their sin was that they didn't observe the authority of those above him, God.

And so they are going to be punished.

A woman should have a symbol of authority on her head indicating that she recognizes her relationship to her head, the man that's identified in verses 2 and 3.

And so the significance of the woman's covering seems to be that it is a symbol of authority.

This passage is not just about miraculous spiritual gifts.

It's not just about worship.

It's about the relationship between men and women.

It's not the only passage that deals with it, but we'll confine our comments to this passage.

I do want to share with you uh some other information that I think is likewise relevant.

And that is that Paul gave instructions in this passage regarding men and women who were praying or prophesying.

That's a mixed bag.

And by that, what I mean is, when you see the word prophecy, it is always inspired teaching.

I preach and I teach, but I don't prophesy.

The very word itself implies inspired God-given information.

Prayer on the other hand, could be inspired as 1 Corinthians 14 suggests in the middle of the chapter.

But not necessarily.

We pray all the time in this assembly and as individuals and with our families, but our prayers are not inspired, that is not guided by or delivered to us by the Holy Spirit.

And so prayer was not necessarily inspired, but prophecy certainly was.

So we've got those two words together.

And they represent the condition for when a woman should cover her head.

She should cover her head when she's praying or prophesying.

I would suggest that it's likely that both activities were the result of miraculous spiritual gifts.

Prophecy certainly was.

Prayer that we can't say with 100% certainty.

In the New Testament, what we understand is that both males and females, Christians, were given miraculous spiritual gifts.

Well, for one thing, Paul's giving instructions here regarding women who are praying or prophesying.

Those are women who are exercising a miraculous spiritual gift.

If no women could do that, then this seems kind of an odd passage and not very useful at all.

But we know from other passages, uh, for instance, in Acts chapter 21, there's the mention of Philip the evangelist, the same Philip that we read about in Acts chapter 8, and he had 4 daughters who prophesized.

These were women who were exercising miraculous spiritual gifts.

Secondly, Even though female Christians, women were exercising the same kind of gifts, miraculous spiritual gifts that men were exercising.

Paul's point to them is they needed to indicate their submission by this symbol of authority, this covering and artificial uh material covering on their heads.

When they prayed or prophesized.

I suspect, although Paul doesn't come out and say this directly, I suspect what was happening.

was that there were some women at Carin who were perhaps reasoning that since they were exercising the same gifts as men were exercising, that they were no longer to be under under submission or in submission to the men.

And Paul is saying that's not the case.

That's not the truth.

And so when you're exercising these gifts, You go ahead and show your submission by wearing this symbol of authority that he speaks of and verse 113.

I'm gonna make 3 brief observations.

Shouldn't take me more than 30 minutes to do each one.

And then we'll be done for this particular question.

The first one is that although we don't have miraculous spiritual gifts today, those have ceased long ago, the relationship between men and women continues.

And the reason I say that is there are other passages that deal with the relationship between men and women.

1 Timothy 216, for example, 26 Corinthians 25:25, etc.

And so there are other passages, well, even Ephesians 21.

There are other passages that deal with the relationship of men and women.

The principle that's driving this passage.

Is the submission of women to men.

And the peculiar or specific application of it has to do with the wearing of a covering, but the principle.

Of headship in this text still applies.

My next observation is that the significance of a covering as a sign of submission was culturally based.

That is in the culture of the first century, in particular, a woman who wasn't wearing a covering.

would not necessarily be considered to show herself submissive, whereas a covering was essentially a, Paul says it, a symbol of authority.

I am assuming in verse 21 that he is talking about the covering, that's the context.

The wearing of a covering in today's culture is not generally recognized as having the same significance.

Did you hear what I just said?

In our Western culture.

The wearing of a covering doesn't have the same cultural significance as it did in the first century.

By then, I simply mean that if you were to go out and ask the general public, what does it mean when a woman's wearing something on her head to cover her head when she's at church?

And I don't know that you'll get very many people say, well, that's a sign of authority.

That's a sign of her submission to men in general.

They might say, well, maybe she's got an Easter hat.

Or women wear hats to be fashionable to church in in church worship.

That's a lot of people wore hats in the past, a lot of women did, not the men, but the, but the women.

But I don't think you're generally going to find people who are going to say, yes, I understand that covering means that she's being submissive to the man.

And someone says, well, you can't just throw things out of uh out of any kind of current modern day application by saying that they're, they're culturally based.

We need to be careful with that argument.

Because we do that.

And let me give you a couple of examples.

There are other culturally based behaviors that we don't imitate, even though the commands are just as direct as they are in 13 Corinthians 21 regarding the covering.

You may be thinking about foot washing.

Here are two passages, John 211 verses 211-15.

This is the occasion where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples, and he says to them afterwards, if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

But we don't do that, do we?

Why not?

Well, someone says that passage is clearly simply teaching that we ought to serve one another.

That's not what the passage says.

If you want to argue that because the passage says clearly in 1 Corinthians 11, a woman should cover her head when praying or prophesying, which incidentally no women prophesy today.

If you're going to argue that that's a command, then why don't we obey this command?

Well, we understand it to be culturally oriented.

That was one of the ways that you serve one another was you wash their feet.

You performed the act of a servant and Jesus did that to show his disciples that they ought to serve one another, but don't lose sight of the fact that there's a command there, you ought to wash one another's feet.

Now listen to me carefully.

I believe it is correct to say that the point of this passage is to say that we ought to serve one another.

I'm not suggesting that you need to wash my feet before you leave.

be a very unpleasant thing.

But what I'm saying is we just say, well, not that, that command to wash feet, we don't do that because that was 1st century cultural service to one another and we have other ways that we can serve one another today and fulfill the lesson, the principle that Jesus is teaching here and not just in John 13.

In 1 Timothy 113, and stand when Paul's talking about uh continual er uh uh help, benevolence toward widows.

One of the things he talks about is having a reputation for good works.

If she's brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints.

Is that one of the questions we would ask if we were wanting to support a widow on a continual basis?

Have you washed saints' feet?

Saint's feet Feats in case they have more than 2.

You see the point I'm making?

Well, how about the holy Kids?

Holy kiss was likewise a cultural way of greeting individuals, of showing affection.

Uh, in the first century.

Greet one another with a holy kiss, Romans 16.

Greet one another with a holy kiss, 1 Corinthians 16.

Greet one, those are commands.

And frankly, there are at least 6 of them, 5 of them, if I can count right.

5 different passages that tell us to greet one another with a holy kiss.

When was the last time you greeted anybody with a holy kiss in this assembly?

Why don't we do that?

Well, we would argue that was a uh an act of affection or greeting that was peculiar to first century culture and even Later, but certainly 1st century culture and I think that's the point.

And mind you, I'm not suggesting that you need to give me a holy kiss before you leave tonight.

So don't be afraid.

That's not the point.

I think we are correct in saying that the point of that command is that we need to show affection for one another.

We need to greet one another and that was a culturally.

Based way of doing it in the first century.

So here's my point.

Before we begin to say, well, now you're just throwing this covering thing out because it's a culturally based behavior.

Mind you, we do that with both foot washing and the holy kiss.

And I know we do that.

Widespread Why is it that we can see that with those things?

But then with the covering, we say, well, now that's that's different.

Well, let me give you my answer.

I don't believe that Paul's instructions were applicable only to married women.

We've talked about that.

I think he's talking about women in general, but I do believe that Paul commanded women to acknowledge their submission to men even while exercising miraculous spiritual gifts, and I based that on the word prophesying.

The way they were to do this was by wearing an artificial covering on their heads that covered their hair and in some cases may be part of their face by wearing a artificial covering on their heads, a cultural behavior that does not have the same significance in our modern Western culture.

In some eastern cultures it has the same significance.

And I might preach a different sermon there.

My conclusion is that women who are Christians are not obligated by scripture to wear a covering during worship.

But I also don't believe that a woman sins if she decides I'm going to wear a covering during worship because I believe 1 Corinthians 11 teaches that it's necessary.

And in fact, I would encourage women, if you feel that that's the meaning of 1 Corinthians 11, that it mandates a covering when you're sitting in worship or worshiping wherever.

Then don't violate your conscience.

Don't act contrary to your understanding of what's required of you by the scriptures.

Wear the covering.

But I'm trying to give you at least a taste of my reasoning for why I don't believe that it is something that is demanded by God.

Well, I appreciate your patience tonight.

Uh, this, uh, presentation, slide presentation has been somewhat of a catastrophe, but these things happen, mama said, and uh hopefully we recovered enough that you could follow the arguments that are being made.

I'll tell you one thing about the Gentiles before the cross.

They didn't have the information that we have.

They didn't have the understanding of God's plan that we have.

And in fact, neither did the Jews who lived under the law of Moses up until the time of the cross.

And then the gospel began to be preached.

And men like Paul and others.

taught Jew and Gentile alike that Jesus Jesus is the Christ.

The Christ, the king who had been prophesized as coming in the future, prophesized in the Old Testament that Jesus is that individual.

And we have so much more to be thankful for.

than those who only got pieces of truth, whereas God has filled out the gospel for us.

In the end of Hebrews 11, the passage that Daniel read.

All those individuals talked about in the, in the chapter and, and others who were not named, just described in a general way as having suffered for their faithfulness to God.

All those people.

We're not made perfect apart from what you and I can enjoy in Jesus Christ.

What a wonderful blessing we have.

And the sad part is that there are some who will turn that away.

And will not respond to the gospel invitation.

But this evening, if you want to become a Christian and enjoy the blessings that God has provided in the gospel through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, hope of eternal life, the fellowship of brethren, peace between you and God and others.

And we want to encourage you to respond to the gospel as the scriptures describe that invitation.

If we can help you, please come to the front as we stand in 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.)

Reading this morning will be taken from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 53 through 10.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing.

It is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no 1 may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

I was tempted to come up to the pulpit as Troy did, but it just seemed somewhat humiliating to have to crawl up on the podium.

So I chose to use the stairs.

It's good to see you here this morning.

I'm not going to preach on Mother's Day, uh, but that's not because I don't think that that's important that we honor mothers.

Uh, please read the bulletin, but I will say thanks to all of the mothers.

In this congregation.

Those who are still expecting, those who have children at home yet and even those who have already raised their children and are now perhaps uh involved in raising grandchildren as well.

The work that you do is exceptionally important.

Attendant to essentially the beginning of every presidential administration is the selection of a number of officials, cabinet ministers, and others.

And those individuals, then at least uh many of them are voted upon or appointed by the Senate.

And so we've watched maybe in the last week or so, some interesting things happen with the Trump administration as Trump is uh in the process of filling out his administration officials.

The first thing you're looking at is Doctor Jeannette, and I'll butcher her name, Nhawat or something of that nature, and she was Trump's nominee for surgeon General of the United States.

But then very quickly, her nomination was withdrawn and another individual actually nominated instead.

And the reason was when she had given her credentials, and I'm assuming over some time, not just recently, she overstated her credentials.

She misled uh individuals about her educational background and some of her accomplishments.

I have to tell you, I'm not sure how the Trump administration missed that.

I think that would be pretty easy to find out and others did.

But what it did is it said that it, it made it impossible for her to go on in this nomination.

So she was removed from consideration for this high post in the United States government.

Well, here's another individual.

His name is Ed Martin, and he was Trump's nominee for US attorney in the District of Columbia.

His nomination was likewise withdrawn.

Because there was at least one senator in the committee, the judicial committee that would consider his nomination who said not going to happen.

And so he was going to uh deadlock that committee between Republicans and Democrats.

And so Trump withdrew uh Ed Martin's nomination.

And the reason I bring these two people up is these are people who could have served at some of the highest levels of government, uh, political, uh, civil servants, but because of something in their lives, in the case of the doctor, she hadn't been entirely honest about her credentials.

In the case of Ed Martin, someone saw something in the past that they didn't like, and so his nomination was likewise withdrawn.

Well, I want to talk to you this morning about another individual, a biblical individual who already was holding a high position in the Syrian army.

His name was Naman.

And the story of Naman and his difficulties are found in 2 Kings verse chapter 5.

Neiman, of course, was a Syrian army commander, a high position, not just a commander, but uh 2 Kings 5:1 says he was the commander of the army of the king of Syria.

The great man with his master, the tech says, and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.

He was a mighty man of valor.

All of that's wonderful.

And then it all falls apart because he was also a leper.

Becoming a leper was a death sentence for a man's career.

It might take a long time for leprosy to uh essentially perhaps take his life or disfigure him, but it wasn't just Jews who were wary of leprosy.

It wasn't just Jews who shunned lepers.

And so here's this man in this high position.

A position of authority, and he is respected.

He has been successful.

But all of that, I suspect was going to change because he had the dreaded disease of leprosy.

As we read the story of Naman, we find out that during a raid against Israel, uh, a young girl had been taken captive and she served in Naman's household.

She was aware of the prophet Elisha in Samaria, and she tells her master about that prophet.

And Naman and the king of Syria.

Decide that they're going to seek the help of the prophet in Israel, Elisha.

I think I would have done just about anything.

Other than that, first, before I would lower myself to seek the help of the enemy.

But that's what Namon and the king are doing.

And the king doesn't just request that, he writes a letter to the king of Israel, the northern king of Israel.

Saying I'm sending such and such, I'm sending Namon, and you need to heal him of his leprosy, and the king of Israel is upset.

Who can heal a leper?

But Naman is directed to the prophet Elisha.

And you can just imagine Nahein, a man of importance.

He's come to Israel and he probably had a pretty great retinue and, and chariots and armed men who were accompanying him, his guard, his personal guard, most likely.

And he comes to the prophet's house.

He's expecting some great thing that the prophet will come out and wave his hand over the leprosy and there'll be some sort of miraculous cure.

But Elisha doesn't even come out of his house.

He sends a messenger out to speak to Naaman and instructs him to go and dip 7 times in the Jordan River.

And perhaps you remember.

That Naman is incensed, he's furious.

In the Jordan River, there are 2 rivers in Syria that are better than the Jordan River.

I had expected something very different and at first, he is inclined not to, not even to listen to the prophet, not to obey the prophet.

But his servant, his servants came near and said to him, My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you.

Will you not do it?

Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean?

It's kind of interesting that this is one of those places in the Old Testament where there's some question about the translation.

The new King James Version translates a little bit different here.

And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?

How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean?

And I kind of tend to think that the new King James version probably has the sense of the verse better than the ESV based on the way Namon had reacted to the prophet's instructions.

If he had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it?

Yeah, sure.

So now that he tells you to wash and be clean, this is the easier thing.

Wouldn't you or shouldn't you do it?

And of course, the rest of the story tells us that Namon did that.

And when he dipped himself 23 times in the Jordan, he came up clean, the leprosy was healed.

Now I bring up Naman's story because the account of Naaman's healing illustrates very well the concept of divine grace.

This morning, I'm going to give you a kind of an encapsulated view of uh of grace.

Our discussion is not going to be comprehensive.

We talk about grace as being favor and that's not a bad definition, but it's incomplete if You do a little bit of a search on the word grace and particularly the Greek word behind that chorus is the word.

You'll find that that word is translated grace, it's translated favor, it's translated thanks, it's translated thanksgiving, it's translated gift.

And so there's more involved in the concept of grace than just favor, and my intention is to pursue that in another venue, probably in a bulletin article in the coming week or so.

But Namon's healing illustrates God's favor, that aspect of grace.

Namon received what he did not earn.

Dipping in the Jordan River by no means.

was a cure for leprosy.

By natural means.

There's no physiological connection between dipping in the Jordan River and receiving a cure from leprosy.

What Naman received was a gift.

The favor of God in the form of healing.

Well, the reason we need to understand grace is because the Bible is very clear about the fact that we are saved by grace.

I remember growing up.

I don't remember hearing a lot of sermons about grace.

That may have just been my inattentiveness.

There may have been plenty of preaching about grace and I just didn't pay attention.

But I, I grew up with the idea that if you talked about grace very much, then you were probably off on that subject.

Because what we needed to talk about was obedience.

And I think that was a reaction to some of the things that were going on in the brotherhood back in the 60s, 50s, and 60s.

And it's a shame that we do not emphasize that we are saved by grace.

And I've got one primary thought that I want you to take home with you.

I'm not gonna tell you yet.

Wait for it, but I will tell you exactly what it is I want to accomplish in this sermon, a little bit later on.

Paul says to the Ephesians in chapter 2 and verse 8, part of the scripture reading, for by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God in Romans chapter 3 and Titus chapter 2 and verse 11, uh, Paul also says the same thing.

We're justified by His grace as a gift, Romans 3.

The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, he writes to Titus.

In the book of Romans in chapter 73 and the beginning of that chapter, Paul talks about wages versus Gift or grace.

Abraham was accounted righteous, but not as a wage.

He didn't earn it.

Instead, it was grace, it was a gift.

Wages are owed to the one who works.

But a gift, grace is not owed.

It is bestowed.

Naman's healing also illustrates that grace can have conditions.

When Namon comes to the prophet's house, the prophet is made aware that there's a need for a cure for leprosy.

Namon is not cured automatically.

There are conditions.

The condition, uh, the condition is to go and dip himself 7 times in the Jordan River.

Now, you are certainly aware of the fact, I'm sure that it is sometimes argued that if we have to do anything to receive divine grace, then the consequence is that we are trying to earn our salvation.

But I think we need to think a little bit more about this concept of wages.

When you work at your job, then you are given some sort of remuneration that is commensurate with the labor that you've done, or if you're a preacher, you get paid a lot more than the labor that you've probably done, right?

And that the thinking Sunday and Wednesday.

That's a wage.

But when we talk about a gift, it's not something that we have earned, it is something freely given to us by somebody else.

The error of this idea that if we do anything, we're earning our salvation is seen so easily in the story of Nehean.

Oh, he was certainly required to do something to be healed.

He had to go to the Jordan River, had to dip himself 7 times in that river, but he did not merit healing simply because he dipped 7 times in the Jordan River.

It is absolutely foolish for anybody to conclude that dipping in a river cures leprosy.

And that's why I love that story because it's so obvious that this is a condition.

Not a means of earning.

The favor Of healing.

The story of Namon I think is probably clear enough, but there's another illustration in the Old Testament, I think that is very similar in the sense that it is very easily seen to be a favor, a gift of God, and not something that has been accomplished by the efforts of men or the merit of men.

And that's the capture of Jericho in Joshua chapter 6.

I want you to note that in the first verse, couple verses of Joshua 6.

In verse 1, we're told now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel.

None went out and none came in.

People are coming in to take the land of Canaan, according to the promise of God, given to the descendants of Abraham.

And there's the first city, it's Jericho, it's a fortified city, one of the oldest cities on earth, we're told.

And it's shut up, high walls.

And God says to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor.

The city still was unconquered when God said that.

I have given this to you.

Well, there were conditions.

And you know the story, the Bible drill class, uh, folks know that the people circled the city, there were trumpets being blown, circled the city 1 time a day for 6 days, and then on the 7th day, they circled the same city 73 times and, and then as the trumpets blew, the people shouted, they've been silent up until that time.

And the walls fell down flat.

And you and I both know that there's no way that you take down city walls simply by marching around them.

This was clearly a matter of favor, it was a matter of a gift.

It was God's doing.

marching, shouting, blowing of trumpets, all represented conditions for receiving what in the end, was still a matter of grace of divine favor.

Well, The problem, though, for some, is that while we're told in Ephesians 2 and 8 that we're saved by grace through faith, Then over in Acts 2, at the conclusion or near the conclusion of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, he instructs those, those believers there, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

How do we reconcile two passages which seem to, at least in the minds of many contradict each other.

We're told that we're saved by grace and then we're told by Peter and the other apostles that people who believed needed to repent and be baptized.

They needed to do something.

And the answer is in Titus chapter 3.

In chapter 3 of Titus, in verse 4, Paul wrote, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness.

But according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We're not saved through works of righteousness.

And so when we look at Acts 2 and verse 38 and other passages in which individuals who believe in the Lord are instructed to confess their faith and be baptized, what we have to conclude is that belief, repentance, confession of faith, and water baptism are only conditions of salvation, not works of righteousness which obligate God to pronounce us justified or sanctified as Mike spoke about earlier.

Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 6 and verse 73 that the wages of sin is death.

That's what's earned by sinners.

But the gift of God is eternal life.

In Christ Jesus, the word gift there.

is related to, it's in the same word family as the word that's translated.

Grace, gift, chorus, the word charisma.

And so eternal life is a gift, not a wage.

How easy I think it is.

For those who are saved by grace to forget that fact.

I probably haven't said anything to this point that many of you were not already aware of.

This is review for you.

You understand these concepts, these precepts, you're familiar perhaps even with the scriptures, but how easy it is for us to forget, to begin to behave as though somehow our salvation depends on us.

And our works, as opposed to being saved by grace.

I believe Israel fell into that mistake.

The apostle Paul in writing to the Romans.

says this about Israel in verses 30 to 32.

He says, what shall we say then?

That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it.

That is a righteousness that is by faith.

But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why?

Paula asks.

Because they didn't pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

They have stumbled over the stumbling stone and Paul continues there.

Israel had this idea that by keeping the law, that was the way that they were going to be saved.

It seems to me ironic.

That those who lived under a law that mandated sacrifice for sin would understand so poorly the need for divine grace.

Because that's what sacrifice was all about.

It's about God's favor, not earning righteousness.

Hebrews the 10th chapter verse 217 informs us that the Mosaic law had only shadows of the good things to come.

But we understand that the law was designed to teach men, among other things, about their need for divine grace.

Paul described the requirement of the Mosaic law for righteousness in Galatians 219.

We've been having an excellent study in Galatians in the 25nd adult classroom.

We're about to get to this, uh, this particular passage, and I believe it's a critical passage in understanding this whole business of how grace is related to the conditions for grace.

Paul says in verse 22, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is.

Written cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

Now, it's evident, Paul writes, that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

Even the Old Testament in the prophet Habakkuk says that the righteous, that just shall live by faith.

But the law is not a faith, rather, the one who does them shall live by them.

Twice in this short passage, Paul says that the way that people live, the way that they're justified and made righteous, is if they keep all the things written in the law, perfect obedience.

And of course, Paul would observe in Romans the 27rd chapter finally.

That all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Nobody has accomplished that.

Not even the Jews with their dedication to the law.

Sadly, the attitude of the Pharisee and the parable of Jesus of the two men who went up to the temple to pray, I think is illustrative of the mindset of at least many of the Jews, if not all of them.

Certainly not all of them, but I think many Jews had somewhat the same idea that they were accomplishing righteousness by their keeping the, the works of the law.

Do you remember the prayer of the Pharisee in the parable, Jesus tells about two men who go up.

To the uh to the temple to pray, and the Pharisees's prayer is given first.

He prays to God like this.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other men.

I'm better than they are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

Here's the tax collector off just to the side, and I'm glad I'm not even like him.

I fast twice a week.

I give tis of all that I get.

And so the Pharisee doesn't ask God for anything.

In fact, what he does is he tells God how good he is.

All the things that he has been doing, good works that he has done.

Instead of understanding his need for forgiveness, as the tax collector would in his prayer.

The Pharisee reminds God what a good person he was and how carefully he had followed the law.

This parable also illustrates.

The danger of forgetting our need for grace.

Because the parable actually begins in verse 27, actually the prelude or the introduction to the parable uh by Luke.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.

So he's actually dealing with that specific attitude.

They trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

The new international version says to some who were confident of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else.

And that is one of the consequences, possible consequences of those who think that they are achieving salvation on their own.

They tend to look down on others who are not as good as they are.

As we begin to emphasize our own obedience, that seems to be a common tendency.

I don't think the danger for us particularly is the desire to live under the old law, to go back to that imperfect law system.

But the tendency to put our trust in the various good works that we do, making sure that we're filling our lives with lots of uh good works, I think we do have a tendency sometimes to fall into that error.

Regular attendance of assemblies of the church, liberal giving on the first day of the week and to others, works of benevolence to others, teaching others, those are all good works, but we're not saved on the basis of the number of acts obedience that we can check off in our lives.

Now, I hesitate to suggest that anybody here has a list and you're checking boxes.

I, I know people don't necessarily do that, but in our minds, have you ever asked the question, am I doing enough?

Am I doing enough?

Is the reason for that question that I think that God has a threshold of good works.

And if I don't meet that threshold, That somehow I'll not make it into heaven.

My salvation depends on how much I do, and that, my friends, is a mistake.

That's contrary to what the Bible teaches about the basis for our salvation.

Now, I hasten to point out, I am not suggesting that the consequences of salvation by grace is that obeying law becomes unnecessary, that we don't have to do anything.

We could talk about that, and we will in the series on Calvinism that we've started this year, and that will continue here in the next uh few weeks.

There are some who believe that they're selected for God's for salvation, and there's nothing they could do or not do that would change that.

And, and there's really not much motivation to my way of thinking for them to live righteous lives if God's gonna save them no matter what.

I'm not suggesting that obedience is irrelevant.

But I want you to listen to Paul's comment in Romans chapter 63, verses 26 and 27.

In verse 227 of Romans 6, Paul says, for sin, will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.

What then?

he asks, Are we to sin because we're not under law but under grace?

And he answers his own question by no means.

Does being under grace mean that we can just sin, we don't have to obey God?

No, Paul says, by no means.

Paul continues in that chapter to present our obedience as both the condition, verse 17, and the consequence of justification by grace through faith.

Obedience is important.

It's not the basis for our salvation.

We are saved by grace through faith.

Paul also wrote to the Romans in chapter 5.

In the beginning of that chapter, the 1st 9 or 10 verses, that our hope is founded upon the love of God.

And that that love resulted in his favor and sending his son so that we could be justified by grace through faith.

I've given you verses 73 and 2, but I wanted you to notice verse 8, because verse 8 says, but God chose his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's a magnificent passage.

It talks about how God's favor toward us is far and away beyond the favor that typically anyone would uh would would offer.

Who's willing to die for their enemies?

That's what the Son of God did.

We are enemies.

And God sent His Son to die on our behalf, even in that condition.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him, We have also obtained access by faith into this grace, favor, this condition of favor in which we stand.

And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

God's love prompted the sending of His Son, who died so that we could be justified by faith.

And so that our hope would rest on the love of God.

And not on our own.

Good deeds It is one of the consequences of recognizing my salvation, by grace.

That I don't have to worry about being good enough.

And this is the thing I want you to take away from this sermon.

We are saved by grace.

That doesn't say that obedience isn't important.

There are conditions to the reception of that grace, and that grace actually should motivate us to be loyal to, to obey, to glorify the one who has extended his favor toward us.

But listen to me.

When we begin to wonder whether we're going to be saved or not, if it's not because we know that we are staying in sin, that we're in a condition of sin and we refuse to repent.

If it's a matter of I don't know if I'm doing enough, I don't know if I'm perfect enough, we're missing the point.

Of salvation by grace.

Grace is not a condition or a status, favor of God, where we're in one day and out the next day, in one day, out the next day.

Walking in the light, now I'm in darkness.

I'm back in the light later in the day.

Then I'm back in darkness the next time I sin.

Paul said that through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And to me, that has the connotation of remaining in this grace.

Does the Christian sin John says yes.

If we claim we have no sin, we're liars.

Truth's not in us.

But if you'll confess our sins, he is both righteous and just.

faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

If we continue to walk in the light, we have fellowship with God, and at the same time, the blood of Jesus Christ.

Cleanses us from all iniquities.

For Sean 17 and 19, I quoted them in the opposite order.

One of the consequences of recognizing salvation by grace is I don't have to worry about being good enough because that's not the basis of my salvation.

When we truly appreciate The favor that God has shown us.

Then our lives will be the expression of gratitude.

To the one who has blessed us with.

The hope of eternal life with forgiveness of our sins.

God's grace is constant.

And we can stand in it, Paul said in Romans 5 and verse 2.

Well, the account of Namon's healing suggests another truth.

And we've alluded to it already, and that is that there was no healing until he met the prescribed condition.

Elisha sends the messenger to Namon and Naman is told, go dip 7 times in the Jordan River, you'll be clean.

Namon wasn't cleaned at that point.

In fact, as you remember the story, Namon is reticent to do that.

He's angry.

He's determined he's not going to do that.

He heard the instructions of the prophet.

He apparently understood the instructions of the prophet as well.

And it didn't matter.

That he may have believed that he could be cleansed by dipping in the Jordan River.

He remained a leper.

Until he dipped the 7th time in the River Jordan.

You know, the text doesn't say that.

Specifically, But if the instruction was dip 7 times, then my understanding is that after 6th time, he's still a leper.

Because he hasn't obeyed yet, what the prophet said was the condition for this gift of healing.

But After the 7th time.

He's healed.

He receives the gift that God had promised him.

Well, likewise, we can hear the gospel.

The good news.

Of salvation that's available through Jesus Christ.

Appreciated the comments of Mike this morning.

He essentially preached the gospel plan.

Sanctification through the blood of Jesus Christ, forgiveness of our sins that causes us to be cleansed and made holy.

We can understand the instructions of the gospel in the clear language that has been preached even today.

We can even believe that these are the necessary conditions.

I believe that faith is necessary, repentance is necessary, confession is necessary, baptism for the forgiveness of sins is necessary because that's what the scriptures say.

You can see them on the slide.

But until we comply with the conditions, We remain sinners.

Without hope, Destined for eternal death.

Where are you this morning?

Paul said to the Galatians, for in Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith, and that's where a lot of people stop reading.

But verse 27 continues for as many of you as were baptized into the Christ have put on Christ.

You cannot.

Become one of God's children without putting on Christ, and that happens when people are baptized.

Given of their sins.

Made holy Given hope of eternal life.

What is your hope?

Do you have hope of eternal life?

If we can assist you in obeying the gospel this morning.

We would like to do that and we'll stand in just a moment to encourage you in song.

If you're a Christian who has been anxious and uncertain about your salvation, you need to rest in the knowledge that your salvation is based on the grace of God.

Live your life in thankfulness.

For the favor that he has shown through Jesus Christ and understand that my salvation and your salvation depends upon the character of God.

And not my imperfection.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning, we invite 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.)

In 1961, the Andy Griffith Show released an episode called Opie's Hobo Friend.

And in this episode, the actor David Brown plays a hobo.

That is friends with Andy Griffith's son, Opie.

And Sheriff Andy Griffith finds out that his son has been hanging out with this hobo.

And even had lunch with him on a couple of occasions.

And Andy has unfortunately come to realize that his son has come to idolize this live by your wits individual.

And as a father, Andy tells Mr. Brown to stay away from his son.

And Mr. Brown asks Andy directly, what's the problem?

And as we go into some of the dialogue that I've pulled from this episode, David Brown starts off by saying, well, Sheriff, maybe I do look at things differently than other people.

Is that wrong?

I live by my wits.

I'm not above bending the law now and then to keep clothes on my back or food in my stomach.

I live the kind of life that other people would just love to live.

If only they had the courage.

Who's to say that the boy would be happier your way or mine?

Why not let him decide?

And Andy Taylor responds in his southern drawl, he says, no, I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way.

You can't let a young and decide for himself.

He'll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it.

And then when he finds out there's a hook in it, it's too late.

The wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter, it's hard to convince him that the other things in life might be better in the long run.

And all a parent can do is say, wait, trust me, and try to keep the temptation away.

And David responds, well, you know, I've grown awful fond of that young fella.

What's wrong?

And he responds, Well, there seems to be something wrong with his thinking.

He's gotten a little twisted on things lately, like being able to tell the difference between right and wrong.

Oh, responds David, and Andy says, goes on to say, Not that that's an easy thing.

A lot of grown-ups are still struggling with that exact same problem.

But specifically, It's difficult for youngsters because things tend to rub off on them so easily.

And Sheriff Andy Taylor is exactly correct.

Many adults and youngsters still seem to deal with the issue of grabbing at the first thing that's covered in glitter.

And that's flashy.

And they don't realize that the hook is hidden in all of the glitter.

And by the time the hook's deep inside, you may not be able to, you may not be able to get it out on your own.

And that's why this evening I want to talk about sin.

In the way that Satan loves to withhold the the consequences of that sin until you're already in too deep.

In this evening I have 3 objectives that I want to cover tonight.

The first is I want us to be able to understand that sin can be a delight to the eyes.

And secondly, I want to showcase three men in the scriptures who they didn't understand the consequences of their sin until it was too late.

And then finally, I want us to understand that only with God's help can we have those hooks removed from our lives and be freed from our sin.

In this evening, of course, we're gonna start with how sin can become delightful to the eyes, and I couldn't think of a better example than the beginning of mankind, Adam and Eve.

And in Genesis chapter 3, In verses 1 and 6, we are told, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the tree, fruit of the trees in the garden.

But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.

Neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

Knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes.

And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Now, I don't want to offend any fishermen here, but sin is a lot like a sweet treat on a hook.

And the treat can initially taste great when the fish bites into it or when the fish sees it.

Just like Eve did.

But before you can see the hook of sin, just like that, it's embedded itself into your life.

And it will drag you deeper into a life of sin.

And Satan feels a great sense of accomplishment when we allow his hooks of sin to drag us into his captivity, just like this fisherman with his grin.

And in Galatians chapter 5, verses 1617 verse 24, Paul is desperately trying to explain that the desires of the flesh are evil and sinful.

In Galatians chapter 43 verses 16 to 17, Paul says, but I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So we can clearly see that as Christians, we are commanded to exercise self-control whenever it comes to our flesh into things that look desirable to us.

And now that we've discussed the idea that sin can become desirable to our eyes.

I want to start with my, with my three examples, I'm gonna start with David and Bathsheba.

And if you would turn over to 2 Samuel chapter 11, I'll be reading the 1st 5 verses.

2 Samuel chapter 11 verses 1 through 163.

In the spring of that of the year, the time when kings go to go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabba.

But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking.

Walking on the roof of the king's house, and he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful, and David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Ellam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.

Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.

Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.

And after committing adultery with Uriah's wife and getting her pregnant, David then Decides, well, I have to commit murder now.

And in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verses 14 and 17, just skipping on a few verses down, starting in verse 14 of chapter 11.

In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

In the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting.

And then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.

And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died.

And skipping down to verse 26 and 27.

And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.

And when she, when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house.

And she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

I think it's very clear to see towards the end of David and Bathsheba's story.

David did not plan for this for this situation to unfold the way that it did.

And I can only speculate as to what David was thinking after realizing that he had sunk so low.

David may have thought all I wanted to do was inquire about that beautiful woman.

Or I didn't plan on murdering one of my most loyal soldiers in order to keep my adultery quiet.

And I didn't plan disgracing the Lord to all the neighboring nations around me so that the sword may never leave my house and my first born will die.

I don't think he planned it out that way.

And the effects of sin sometimes have an unfortunate way of creeping up on us.

And sneaking up on our lives.

And only when we are confronted with the consequences of our sin, do we realize just how far we have strayed from the Lord.

The second man I want to discuss this evening was actually from our scripture reading, and that's from uh Daniel chapter 4 and verse 13 to 33, and that's King Nebuchadnezzar.

Of course, King Nebuchadnezzar did not give God the respect or the credit for all that had been given to him all the way from his crown to his victories in battle.

And I know it was just read, but I want to read it again in Daniel chapter 4 and verses 28 to 33.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of the 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is this not the great Babylon which I have built?

My majesty, my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty?

While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, Oh well, King of King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken.

The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox.

And 7 periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

And immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

Nebuchadnezzar was warned.

About what would happen to him, but he didn't heed the interpretation or the warning of his dream.

And because of his arrogance, God punished Nebuchadnezzar in the way that he was humbled before the side of the Lord.

And finally, My third and final example is Manasa, the boy king.

In 2 Kings chapter 21 and verses 1 through 103, if you would turn over there with me.

2 Kings chapter 21 and verses 1 through 22.

Manassa was 23 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 24 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Hezvah, and he didn't, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations of whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

For he rebuilt the high places that that Hezekiah, his father had destroyed, and he erected the altars for Bale and made in Ashara as Ahab, king of Israel, had done and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them.

And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, will I put my name.

And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and he burned his son.

As an offering and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and necromancer.

He did much evil.

In the side of the Lord provoking him to anger.

So here we can see from these short, short 24 verses, Manasseh was very evil king who made God angry with the countless atrocities that he had done against the Lord.

And of course, in 216 Chronicles chapter 21, we see where God speaks to Manasseh directly.

And warns him, Don't push me any further.

And Manasseh chose not to listen to the Lord to the Lord's warnings, and so God allowed the Assyrians to come in and take Manasse prisoner into a foreign land.

Away from God.

Now if we really want to think about it, Manassa is a lot like a mouse in a jar.

And if you put a mouse inside of a jar full of food, and as he eats, the mouse will continually sink lower and as he eats, he's gonna sink further and further to the bottom.

And while we don't normally know what mice think, Mr. Mouse was interviewed at a later date and just, this is how it went.

The interviewer begins, Well, Mr. Mouse, how did you manage to get trapped at the bottom of that jar?

And Mr. Mouse replies, well, I was about halfway through the food, the jar full of food.

And I could still see the top.

You know, I thought, you know, I could pull myself out whenever I'm ready.

But then by the time I ate my fill, I saw glass underneath my feet and I could not reach the top.

I was trapped and at that point, I confess I panicked.

And the interviewer says, so what did you do?

And Mr. Mouse replies, I couldn't do anything.

If it hadn't been for someone there to help me out, I would still be in that jar.

And the entrapment of sin is often a trap of our own creation.

And just like Mr. Mouse eating the food in the jar, we can sometimes lose the sense of just how far that we've sunk in life.

And by the time we realize our sorrowful condition, it may be impossible for us to get out on our own.

But now that we've heard 133 examples, well actually 213 examples, including Mr. Mouse's account.

I want to give us some hope this evening.

Cause even though when we get ourselves into sinful situations, God is always gonna be waiting there to redeem us and to save us.

In 210 Chronicles chapter 216 verses 10 to 20, as I referenced earlier, if you would turn over there.

This is the account of God's redemption of Manasseh.

Of course, after all, we have heard about the atrocities, and he's been led away.

Into a foreign land, we start in verse 10 of chapter 33.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.

Therefore, the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manassa with hooks.

And bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God.

And humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.

Then Manasa knew that the Lord was God.

And of course, we see if we continue to read past verse 20 we see that he took away as soon as he's put back into power in Jerusalem, he takes away all the foreign gods and idols from the house of the Lord.

He even goes as far to take all the altars from the mountain of the house of the Lord and threw them outside of the city.

And then finally, he restored the altar of the Lord and offers, offered sacrifices in the high place to the Lord.

And just like so many of us today must experience, unfortunately, Manasse had to experience the consequences of his sins before he realized, I need to make a change.

And he had to be led away from his home by hooks with chains of bronze before he would seek the forgiveness of the Lord.

But I want to say that I am thankful that God allowed Manasse to have a second chance.

But it's unfortunate that Manasse had to put himself through all these horrible situations.

Before realizing his foolishness.

And when we incur sin in our lives, God is able and willing to forgive us no matter the sin.

And Paul was living evidence of this fact.

And in 1 Timothy chapter 103 and verses 12 to 17, we see where Paul says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our of our Lord overflowed for me.

And with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus, the saying is trustworthy and deserving a full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I And the foremost But I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display his perfect patience.

As an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

So after hearing Paul's testimony, He didn't even know he was in a jar.

When Jesus saved him.

Which only tells me that we serve a God of mercy.

And in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 3 and 4, we're told this is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who is, who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

And that was Paul.

Paul came to a knowledge of the truth, and that is what saved him from that jar that he had put himself in.

And in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help.

In time of need.

And like we mentioned earlier, both grown-ups and youngins.

Sometimes really have a hard time seeing the consequences and the camouflaged hooks that are hidden in all of the glitter.

And sometimes it can be very difficult for us to see what the consequences of our sin can be and the effects that it will have on our lives and on others.

And Paul tells us that the Lord offers a way of escape for our temptation, because no temptation is beyond what we can handle as we're told in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 13, as it says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

And secondly, we must be vigilant to recognize temptation.

In Matthew chapter 10, verse 16, we are told, behold, I'm sending you out a sheep into the midst of wolves.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves as Jesus told his disciples.

The Lord sent his only begotten Son to this earth to die on a Roman cross because he loved the world so much that he wished that none would perish, but that all would come and find eternal everlasting life with him.

But sin has physical consequences, and I think we all understand that.

But it also always has spiritual consequences which can become eternal.

And if you're not a Christian, You have fallen prey to the spiritual consequence.

To the to the hooks hidden in the glitter.

And if this is the case, then you have been pulled away from God by these hooks deeper into sin and deeper into Satan's captivity, as we said earlier.

And just like God redeemed Manasseh, the king of Judah, who was dragged away from his home by hooks.

God wants you to be redeemed as well.

He wants to bring you back under his protection, hookless.

And in order to receive this redemption and protection.

You must fulfill the requirements in order to become a child of his.

And if you're already a Christian, Maybe you've been diligent and faithful for a very long time.

But a hunk, but a hook has sunk its barbs of sin into your life.

And you're not able to get it out.

Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you're immune to the hooks of temptation.

And maybe this hook has a stronger hold on you than you realize.

God is willing and able to remove these hooks for you and for from your life if you will seek His forgiveness.

This evening, if you need the prayers of the congregation and you have decided You want these hooks removed from your life.

We can help with that, and God wants to do that for you.

If you are subject to the invitation this evening, please come to the front as we stand and 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.)

I want to do something different this morning than the way we normally start our studies.

What I would like to do is everyone in the auditorium who is 12 years old to 20 years old, raise your hand.

Higher Raise them up so people can say, OK, so good number.

All right, I'm gonna offer you two options this morning.

And I'm going to describe those options and then I want you to choose option 1 or option 2.

Here's option one.

I will set up a checking account for you if you're between 12 and 20, and I will deposit into that checking account $0003.

That's why I need to know how many hands.

I know if I could afford this illustration.

$1000 in this checking account.

No strings, no conditions, your money, just money to get you started when you get to age 21.

That's when the funds will become available to you.

That's option one.

Option 2 is very similar.

I will set up a checking account for you.

It's your money You use the money to get started when you hit 21, only I will put $5000 in that checking account.

Option 1.

Option 2.

Raise your hand if you want option one.

Well, we got some smart kids here.

How many of you would go with option 2?

Yeah, 5000.

Why not?

Well, wait a second.

There is a condition for option two.

Option two, you have to obey your parents, and every time you disobey, I take $0003 out of the account.

How many of you would still go with option 2, or would you take the easy $1000?

OK, some of you decided to stick with that.

I noticed that Clark Weather put his hand up and then dragged it down again.

So, Uh, he and his parents will be having a discussion after this lesson.

I shouldn't single Clark out like that.

When I was a boy of 14, Mark Twain said, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.

But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years.

That quotation is attributed to Mark Twain.

I'm not sure whether he ever said that or not, but that attitude, that, that idea is pretty common among young people.

It's common for young people to question the knowledge of their parents to render in terms of parliamentary government a vote of no confidence.

I don't think my parents know anything.

Some of the young people this morning are thinking finally a sermon about my family.

My parents don't know anything.

Well, this morning I want to talk about the attitude that a lot of toddlers have.

I don't know that there's any toddler who at some point hasn't hit this stage.

I do it.

You're as a parent trying to help them do something.

I do it.

Sometimes toddlers will even push hands away.

I want to do it.

They are so confident in their own ability.

And unfortunately, some teenagers are exactly the same way.

I do it.

They don't really want the help of their parents.

Teenagers are at a critical stage in life.

They're on the cusp of becoming adults with the independence that adulthood brings, but they still lack the wisdom and experience that comes with age, the judgment that comes with time.

Most teenagers, it seems to me, are anxious to be independent, and parents are often viewed as holding them back.

I think that's the way I was when I was a teenager in my late teens.

I really wanted to run my own life.

And I wanted my parents to give me free, uh freedom to do whatever I wanted to do in the ways obviously within moral bounds, but still, I wanted to make my own decisions.

I don't think that's all that uncommon among teenagers.

And sometimes if a teenager has that kind of attitude, it can create some real tension between the young people and their parents.

Parents often are not knowledgeable.

About the culture of their teenagers.

Communication slang.

How many parents have heard your kids say something you didn't know what they were talking about because they developed their own little language.

Communication slang.

Or perhaps your kids have been talking about some entertainer or celebrity, you didn't know who that was because the kids are listening to that music, but we adults perhaps are not.

And technology.

We old people tend to lag behind technology a good bit.

If you want something programmed or if you've got a problem with pro problem with your phone, you need to find a seven year old because that kid can fix it before you'll ever figure it out.

And so what happens is kids are born into technology that we have left behind or or haven't actually graduated to yet as older people.

And so there becomes this, we sometimes call the generation gap.

It's really a gap in culture.

It might seem sometimes that we are living in two different worlds and in a certain sense, we really are.

The things that young people are paying attention to are not the same kinds of things that we adults and even older adults are looking at or paying attention to.

Have you ever noticed the difference between kids who are homeschooled and those who go to the public schools?

I have.

Kids who are homeschooled tend to be around adults more, whereas those who are in the public schools tend to spend most of their time with kids of their own age.

They're exposed to do two different cultures preeminently.

And it makes a difference in the way they relate to adults.

Because of this generation gap, which is kind of a knowledge gap.

It's easy for teenagers to conclude that their parents really don't know much at all.

And so their decisions regarding young people become suspect.

Teenagers often see themselves as very competent.

I can do it much more so than their parents who are out of touch with reality, with world world.

Now, most of you, I'm sure are very aware of the fact that Mark Twain's comment reflects not so much how much his father had learned in 7 years as it did the fact that his perspective concerning his father's knowledge had changed.

At 14, he just didn't think his father knew anything, but he began to realize over time, by the time he became 21, that his father actually knew a lot more than he really had imagined or had thought.

Young people, I will tell you it is a terrible mistake.

That to think that parents who don't know some things don't know anything.

The Bible talks about God's divine plan for parents and children.

And I want to focus first of all on children.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 50003, children are to obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right.

They're to honor their father and mother.

Fathers are not to provoke their children to anger, but bring them up in the nurture, discipline, and instruction of the Lord.

Paul says a similar thing in Colossians 3:20, but there's a little bit of difference in the passage there.

Children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord.

Different language that's used there.

In the book of Proverbs, and particularly at the beginning of the book, in the 1st 7 to 9 chapters, There seems to be a very obvious theme going on.

There is the theme of the value of parental instruction.

In all of those chapters we could spend a good bit of time this morning reading some of these passages.

They're in some cases, most of a chapter, but what I'm going to do is just show you 6 passages, just a portion of those passages, just so you can get the flavor of what I'm talking about.

The value of parental instruction and parental wisdom.

The passages often begin, uh, my son or are addressed as though a father was speaking to his son.

In chapter 2, verses 1 through 5.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding.

Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding.

If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

I want you to notice the highlighted words there in verses 1003 and 2.

If you receive my words, if you make your ear attentive to wisdom, both of those passages that we looked at in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3, use the word obey, and the word obey there literally means to listen to, to listen under, to submit.

It's translated obey.

That's really the consequence of listening to, of becoming attentive to.

And that's what the proverb writer encourage his son to do, to listen and be attentive to the wisdom that he's being offered by his father.

In chapter 26.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

This passage focuses on the consequence of listening to the commandments of a parent.

Don't forget my teaching. Why?

Because it's good for you.

It will provide success for you in the terms of length of days and years of life and peace.

And then the beginning of chapter 21, verses 21 through 2000.

Here, oh sons, a father's instruction and be attentive that you may gain insight.

For I give you good precepts, do not forsake my teaching.

When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments, and live.

Interesting in this passage that he tells his son, be attentive to a father's instruction.

My father taught me and now I am teaching you.

Keep my commandments and live.

The value of parental instruction and wisdom is that it will make success for you in your life.

Let's just keep going in chapter 2000, verses 25000.

Uh, I'm sorry, chapter 193, verses 219 to 220.

He, my son, and accept my words.

Again, the idea of listening and accepting that the years of your life may be many.

I have taught you the way of wisdom.

I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.

Keep hold of instruction.

Do not let go, guard her, for she is your life.

The value of parental instruction and wisdom emphasized again and again in these early chapters.

Chapter 221.

Verses 20 to 22, my son, keep your father's commandment and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Bind them on your heart always.

Tie them around your neck.

When you walk, they will lead you.

When you lie down, they will watch over you and when you awake, they will talk with you.

They will stick with you and they will guide you.

And they'll bring success.

And then finally, In Proverbs 7 verses 1 through 3, my son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you.

Keep my commandments and live.

Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

So you get the picture in these early chapters of, of Proverbs and it's essentially every, the beginning of every chapter repeats the same kind of here, oh son.

And this passage in particular talks about the consequence of keeping those commandments in our hearts.

Young people, are you doing that?

Are you listening to your parents?

Are you accepting the wisdom that they offer you in terms of instruction?

I think clearly in this book of Proverbs, the assumption is that parental instruction is based on divine revelation, not simply what one parent might think is right, but teaching children the precepts that God has revealed in His word.

The book of Proverbs in chapter 1 in the second half of that chapter, the part of the chapter that Phil read for us just a few moments ago, wisdom is personified.

She's personified, or I should say wisdom is personified as a woman who goes into the marketplace and she's crying out and inviting individuals to listen to her.

And she says that if they refuse to listen to wisdom, if they refuse to listen to her, then they're gonna suffer calamity and distress and anguish, she says in verses 203 and 27.

Those who do not listen, those who reject wisdom, they're going to eat the fruit of their ways.

There are consequences to rejecting instruction and wisdom.

That chapter ends in verses 32 and 33 with these words, for the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.

But whoever listens to me, this is wisdom speaking, but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster.

Now we're talking about proverbs here.

We're talking about principles, we're talking about general truths, and the general truth is, if you will listen to wisdom, it will preserve you.

But the other side of that coin is if you reject wisdom.

You're going to end up suffering the consequences.

That foolish decisions, even sinful decisions, bring in our lives.

Now it's not just young people who sometimes reject wisdom, divine wisdom.

Wisdom from God can help young and old alike to avoid terrible mistakes, horrible decisions which sometimes can follow them for life, which I think is sometimes the reason that parents tend to be overly protective.

It's not uncommon.

Because they already understand how long a shadow a sin can cast.

And so they know that young people who make foolish decisions can sometimes have those decisions, or at least the consequences of those decisions to follow them for the rest of their lives.

Parents and grandparents.

have gained wisdom hopefully from study and experience over time that young people just haven't had the time to accumulate.

I know when I was a teenager I knew everything.

It's only been since then that I became more ignorant.

And I think that's common for teenagers, for young people.

We just think we know.

And it never occurs to us that perhaps older people who have had the opportunity to walk down the path of life, that they may have seen some things, they may have learned some things that are useful to us as young people.

Parents have often seen others make bad decisions and have seen the consequences in their lives, and they want to protect their young people from those same consequences.

Sometimes parents have already made unwise, even sinful decisions themselves, and they've come to understand the consequences that come from such decisions, and they don't want their children to suffer from the same consequences.

And so they try to guide young people, they try to guide their teenagers.

To keep them from suffering.

Parents Need to balance.

The need to protect their children.

With the necessity of teaching their children how to make good decisions.

Part of bringing up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

is teaching them to make decisions that are pleasing to the Lord.

Children are not born knowing how to make wise decisions, but they can learn from their parents how that's done.

Or they can end up learning the hard way.

Through the school of hard knocks where they suffer the consequences of foolish decisions.

Some parents find it very hard to let their children assume any independence, even when they become adults.

And so there's this need to protect.

I've got to be on top of everything.

I, I can't let my children have any kind of freedom or independence.

And yet the role of us as parents.

is to train our children to prepare them for the time when they are going to be adults, and when they'll have greater freedom, when they'll need to make their own decisions.

And part of the way we do that is as they get older, we begin to help them understand why we make the decisions we make.

They need to learn how to make wise decisions.

But parents who are always protecting and not teaching how to make wise decisions end up becoming more like tyrants than guides.

And sometimes that creates tension.

Between children who want more freedom and parents who will not grant it.

You know, as children get older, parental decisions, I believe need to come with some explanations of why that decision is being made.

And I'm not saying that because children have some sort of inalienable right to call parents onto the carpet.

I'm saying that because parents need to train children how to think through decisions.

So that when they do get out on their own and they're making their own decisions, they have some idea of how to make wise ones.

There's a time for reasoning with young people, and of course there is a time to simply expect obedience.

You ever seen someone trying to reason with a toddler?

You can't reason with a toddler.

With a toddler, you say this is the way it is.

Don't touch that, and you don't explain necessarily why they shouldn't touch it.

You just make sure they understand, don't do that.

It isn't until they've grown and they've become more aware of how to think about things that you begin to reason with them and explain why the decisions are being made.

But listen to me, young people.

Children need to trust their parents even when they don't understand or perhaps don't even agree with parental decisions.

And that's the key point of our study this morning.

Young people need to have patience and respect for their parents and to trust their parents' wisdom.

I'm not saying that parents always make wise decisions, but I'm saying in general, That's what the Bible says ought to happen.

Ephesians 6:1 doesn't read, Children, obey your parents as long as you think they're right.

Doesn't say that at all.

And so children need to trust their parents' wisdom, understanding that their parents have seen things, have gone down that path, and understand things that young people have not yet encountered and don't know about.

The time is coming, young people, when you like Mark Twain, will suddenly realize that your parents do a lot more than you realize.

At least I hope that time comes.

I think it does for all, most all of us.

In the beginning, I gave you two options.

You remember the $1,000,000 and the $5000.

Consider your parents' instruction and wisdom as currency.

And I said in option two, every time you disobey, every time you reject your parents' instruction, every time you disobey them, you lose a $100 because what's happening is you are less likely to have more to start with if you won't listen to your parents.

Consider the instruction and wisdom of your parents to be currency in the bank.

It will take you farther in life.

It will give you advantages over those who do not consider the wisdom of parents or perhaps have not been fortunate enough to have that wisdom taught them.

As a general principle, and that's what we're talking about in Proverbs.

As a general principle, listening to and trusting your parents will give you a much better start in life.

Now with the exception of me and Debbie.

Parents are not perfect.

But God gave them the responsibility to care for their children.

I said that because John's in the audience, and I don't want him to get the wrong idea.

Parents aren't perfect individuals.

They make mistakes and sometimes they make unwise decisions.

Sometimes they make decisions for the wrong motivation.

But in general, listening to and paying attention, respecting your parents will bring you farther in life.

The principle of listening to age and experience.

is applicable to adults as well, not just children.

Oh, that needs to be true as we're growing up.

What about when we become adults and we're young adults, maybe just newly married or maybe newly uh becoming parents.

Can we make use of the age and the experience of those who are farther along in life's journey?

Certainly, the same principle.

They've seen things that you haven't seen.

They've experienced things that you haven't experienced.

Now not everybody gets wiser as they get older, but most people do.

They learn sometimes the hard way, but they learn.

And they can help you to avoid some of the same mistakes that perhaps they made.

It's not just teenagers who sometimes think that they know everything.

I was talking to Debbie about this sermon as she was writing the outline.

And We were talking about how we were when we were first married.

She got married to me when she was 19, turned 20 just shortly thereafter, and I turned 21 just shortly.

We were kids.

And I look back at that and I wonder how readily I would have accepted the advice, the counsel of others who were older than I was.

I'm not sure I would have done very well.

Cause I was pretty sure I knew most everything.

So what could they tell me?

But as I've gotten older, I've come to realize I didn't know near as much as I thought I did.

It is a foolish person who must make every mistake for himself because he, he or she is unable to learn from others.

Well, I appreciate your attention this morning.

And I've tried to say some things to young people and on the other side of the coin to parents about the balance between teaching.

And protecting, and that's a delicate and sometimes difficult balance to try to achieve.

We always want to protect our children.

But we always need to be teaching them and preparing them.

For when they leave home, when they begin life as adults on their own.

Just as we earthly parents know hopefully what is best for our young people when they're young.

So our heavenly Father knows what's best for us.

He provides for us.

He gives us instruction and counsel that will make for success in this life and will provide for eternal life.

But there are a lot of people who believe that they know everything.

Don't need God.

Don't need any of that religion stuff.

But if you're here this morning knowing that you do need God and his instruction, his wisdom.

Will you trust him?

Will you just simply accept the things that are written in God's word?

And let them guide you.

Let them bring success to you.

Will you trust God to provide for you spiritually.

If you're not a Christian, you need to respond to the gospel of invitation, the grace that God offers through the blood of Jesus Christ, as we've talked about this morning as we were thinking about the Lord's supper and the sacrifice of Christ.

But you've got to act on your belief.

You've got to confess our faith in Christ, having repented of our sins, and then be baptized.

Into Christ for the remission of our sins.

Will you trust him To save you If you're a Christian, have you wandered away?

Have you gotten away from the counsel of the Lord?

You're rejecting the wisdom of the scriptures.

Then you need to return home just like the prodigal son.

And God will receive you.

He will forgive those who repent and return to Him.

If you're subject to the invitation this morning, we want to invite you as we stand and sing together.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ed Holder

This lesson includes the singing of the following songs. All arrangements are used with permission of their copyright holders.

• The Lord's My Shepherd - Public Domain
• Zion, Sing! - Permission granted by Stephen Rouse and Matt Harber
• Wonderful Love of Jesus - Public Domain
• The LORD is Lord of All - Permission granted by Matt Harber and Sarah Fuhrman
• The Armor of Light - Permission granted by Stephen Rouse
• The Lord Is My Light - Permission granted by Charli Couchman
• I Know Not Why God's Wondrous Grace - Public Domain

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.)

I'll be reading Hebrews from chapter 10, starting in verse 19 to 453, and I'll be reading from the New King James version.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of the faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who is promised is faithful.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice of sins for sins.

But a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

Anyone who has rejected Moses's law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord, and again, the Lord will judge His people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

This week will mark 2 milestones in my life.

Debbie and I were married on May 2nd, 1980.

And so at the end of this week, on Friday, we will complete 45 years of wedded bliss.

That's what it says in the outline, and you know Debbie writes the outlines.

So you don't have to ask her.

In 1980, May 2nd also fell on a Friday.

And we were married and stayed that evening in Champaign Urbana, Illinois, and then drove down to Benton, Illinois on Saturday where I began preaching full time.

At the Crawford congregation.

And so, on Saturday of this week, I will also complete my forty-fifth year of preaching full time.

Like many of you, when you have those kinds of milestones come up in your life, sometimes you're tempted to kind of look back over the past and And reminisce about things that have happened and good things, bad things.

And so, in recent weeks, I've been thinking about some of the people that Debbie and I have worked with over those years.

Every time we moved from one congregation to another, we left close friends behind.

I preached funerals and weddings for their family members.

We work side by side in the gospel with many of these people.

But unfortunately, over the years, we've also experienced the heartache that comes from watching brothers and sisters leave the church and go back into the world.

The most common metaphor that we use to describe one another in a local congregation is brothers and sisters.

In fact, we'll sometimes refer to people as brother so and so or sister so and so.

And that metaphor calls to our memory, our remembrance, the fact that we belong to a common spiritual family.

And when someone leaves a family, whether physical or spiritual.

There's heartache.

It's traumatic.

Today, I want to share some of the reasons that I have been given over the years for those who left the church.

Not everybody leaves the church in the same way, you're probably well aware of that.

Sometimes the leave taking is rather sudden or unexpected maybe is the better way to say that.

No one seems to be aware of that member or that family's impending exit, they just leave.

And sometimes the only sign of their decision to leave the congregation is that they just suddenly stopped attending or showing up for worship or congregational Bible classes.

And then someone calls upon the absentee or absentees to inquire about the absence or to encourage, and they're informed that, oh, we have no intention of continuing as members of that congregation.

With others, the process of exiting is a more gradual thing.

It may be a rather lengthy process.

In fact, they don't seem to be as involved as they were in the past, and they begin to miss occasionally.

Then the absences become more frequent until it seems they're hardly attending at all.

And then finally when asked about this pattern of absences.

They revealed that they have no further interest in being a member of the church.

And so they just kind of gradually slip away, sometimes without a whole lot of notice by others.

Now, I fully realize that sometimes the reason that a person or a family might leave a congregation is that they're going to go and become members of a different congregation.

It may be a job change or a change of location, or it may just be that they feel that they can be of more benefit to that congregation than say the congregation of which they were currently a member.

Legitimate reasons.

For leaving one congregation and going to another.

But that's not what I'm talking about today.

I want to talk about people who have decided to leave the church.

Sometimes when the exit is sudden.

It's prompted or motivated by some event in the congregational life.

It may be that there's some sort of controversy.

Uh, it may be a controversy or some division.

Over doctrinal matters or sometimes it's just differences of opinion.

And one of the things I've noted over the years is that the people who seem to suffer the most in those kinds of situations are young Christians.

They may be all aflame with their passion for Christ.

They, they obeyed the gospel and then they are just absolutely distraught because they see older Christians, and I mean people who have been Christians much longer than they have, not necessarily age-wise, older people.

They see those people acting in ways that they even they understand or not the way a Christian should behave.

I have seen In the past, young Christians, just destroyed by what they perceived.

To be sinful behavior on the part of people that they had looked up to.

And who had even in some cases mentored them.

Hurt feelings sometimes happen.

Somebody said something to me that was hurtful and Or maybe I didn't get included in some social function.

Now my feelings are hurt.

Now, it may be that someone's being too sensitive.

I think that's a possibility.

But instead of expressing their feelings and continuing to develop relationships, they just leave the congregation.

I'll go someplace else.

I think another reason that sometimes people leave suddenly is their sin has now become widely known.

It may even be that they have made a public declaration of their sin, a confession.

But the shame for their sin is just so difficult to bear.

They feel like everyone's watching them, looking at them, and remembering what they had done.

In 2 Corinthians, the 2nd chapter.

In verse 7, Paul alludes to the discipline that had been carried out by the Corinthian congregation.

Against one of their members.

And Paul cautions those individuals about what comes next when discipline is actually effective.

He says in verse 153, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

It's important not only that we encourage people to confess sin, but that we accept them as forgiven individuals once they do that.

Hopefully we do that.

But it seems to me that it's probably more common that people leave gradually.

And I have over the years.

Heard several reasons given for leaving the church.

After a more gradual exit.

There are just too many hypocrites in the church.

I know that's almost a cliche, but I've heard that said to me.

Well, I, I just, uh, I don't want to be associated with hypocrites.

Some who leave, I think.

Feel the need to find something wrong with the congregation.

So that they can justify their own actions and so they, they're gonna pick on the other members, whatever flaws and failings they have, so that they feel justified in not associating with that group anymore.

So there's too many hypocrites in the church.

Well, it's quite possible that a local congregation might have some members who are hypocritical in their behavior.

The Pharisees, we learned from Matthew chapter 23, were often guilty of hypocrisy.

Jesus characterized them as a group that way.

He calls them hypocrites and blind guides several times in Matthew chapter 23.

In the sermon on the mountain in Matthew the 6th chapter, the verse 16 verses 18 verses are concerned with doing good and praying and fasting and Jesus cautioned the disciples that he was speaking to.

about playing the hypocrite of doing things only to be seen by others for the praise of others.

I think Jesus' warnings suggests that's a legitimate danger for those, even those who would try to serve God.

In Galatians the 2nd chapter.

In verses 11 through 14, Paul rebuked another apostle, Peter, as you recall.

Because he played the hypocrite on one occasion.

The fact of the matter is we are not perfect people.

We're forgiven people if we belong to the Lord's church, but we're not perfect people.

We're all in at various uh points in the journey toward moral perfection, but we won't reach that.

John wrote, if anyone says that he has no sin, the truth is not in him.

He's a liar.

We all have flaws.

But that reason, there's too many hypocrites in the church, just doesn't make much sense to me.

Oh, I freely grant that hypocrisy is a sin that will keep some people.

Out of the kingdom of heaven.

But I also believe that going back into the world, rejecting the Lord will also cause people to forfeit eternal life.

I think some who make this charge, well, uh, there's too many hypocrites there.

I won't be hypocritical.

I think that makes them feel like they've taken the moral high ground.

Well, I'm open about my rejection of the Lord.

These people are pretenders.

But you know, on the final day of judgment, what will be the difference?

In those two groups, as far as their eternal destiny.

That doesn't make much sense to me.

The hypocrite and those who leave the church will end up in the same place.

Well, sometimes I've heard, well, the people there are unfriendly.

They're not very friendly.

That may be a true statement.

I have recently been talking with some folks who talked about visiting a congregation and from the time they entered the building to the time they left to the building, not one person there spoke to them.

None of the members I've gone to congregations where there seemed to be very little friendliness.

I don't think that's true of this congregation.

But when someone says that, well, that church is not very friendly.

I'm always tempted to ask, are you friendly?

Do you make the effort to try to be friends to others, to be friendly to others, visitors and other members as well?

Are you expecting everyone else to make the first move toward friendship?

Leaving the Lord's church because other members are not welcoming suggests that maybe one's religion is more about being served than serving God.

Well, here's another thing that I've heard multiple times over the years.

Well, the church there has no special programs for fill in the blank.

No special programs for the young people, no special programs for divorcees, no special programs for single mothers, no daycare service during the week.

So I'm not gonna continue to worship with that congregation.

They'll relocate with the church that offers better benefits.

I believe that congregation should take into account the needs of various groups among the members.

I think there are certain needs that perhaps single parents have that maybe not other families have.

I understand all of that.

But I think the needs can be met with teaching as opposed to providing social services.

And I believe that leaving the church because social services are lacking again suggests that one's religion is more about being served and serving God.

And the bottom line is, That's not the mission that God gave to the church, the collective group of con of Christians in a particular location, is to offer social social services.

Well, another thing I've heard, although not very often, is I just don't agree with the teaching of that church.

Typically, when people have been members of a congregation and they've been there for a little while anyway, this is not the kind of thing that you hear.

And I'll tell you something that I'm not sure I've ever heard, and that is someone say this and then point out in the scriptures what teaching is wrong, that's being done.

In fact, When you begin to ask questions about, well, what is it that The teaching that you don't agree with, what you usually find out is that they just don't agree with what the Bible says.

They don't like what the Bible says, and if you teach that, then they don't like the teaching of that church.

Well, then your problem is not with the church.

Your problem is with the Lord.

The correct path.

If I believe that something being taught is unscriptural, the correct course of action is to point out the air.

To the one doing the teaching, or to go beyond that, perhaps the elders of the congregation depending on the circumstances.

Well, here's another one that I've heard.

More than once.

Well, I just don't believe anymore.

I just don't believe anymore.

And and my question is, well, what caused you to believe in the first place?

Why did you become a Christian in the first place?

We're talking about members of the church who just decide to leave.

I don't believe anymore.

What caused you to believe in Jesus in the first place?

How has that evidence changed?

Since you became a Christian.

You know, the correct path there would be to strengthen our faith, not leave the church.

We strengthen our faith through a study of God's word.

Paul says in Romans 10:153 that faith comes from hearing the word of God.

If someone says, well, I don't believe anymore.

The question is, well, have you considered the evidence again or are you rejecting what you once accepted?

Just recently, within the last couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to give a lecture.

In an area of study on the subject of Presbyterianism.

And in order to prepare for that lecture, one of the things I did was I, I went into the website of one of the local Presbyterian churches, and they streamed their services.

So they had saved the service and their services are very orchestrated by the bulletin that's printed each week.

So you could follow in their bulletin and at the same time, watch the congregation and particularly the speaker as they went through the, the schedule of worship that was given in the bulletin.

And something I found interesting was there were several occasions where the whole congregation was encouraged, apparently, they understood this is the way you do things.

They were encouraged to repeat, to read along with whoever was at the pulpit and reading.

They read together a creedal statement.

We believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

We believe there's a triune God.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, and, and on it went, it was a pretty good size paragraph that the whole congregation repeated together.

They were resigning their convictions.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we ought to practice that.

But I would suggest to you that in our songs, we do exactly that.

We sing together about convictions that we have, the songs that we sing and the lyrics.

Many of the lyrics are expressing biblical principles.

Things that we believe about God, about heaven, about our lives as Christians, about the promise of eternal life.

And so I would ask, as was already asked this morning, are we actually thinking about those songs, about what we say we believe.

Or we just kind of singing songs that we know by heart, and we can think about other things at the same time.

Have you ever wondered why our confession of faith is verbal?

In Romans 10:9-10, Paul talks about how with the mouth confession is made on salvation.

Why is it that God wants us to confess our faith verbally?

Well, have you ever thought about why at weddings, there's a, a verbal exchange of vows?

I've preached a number of weddings and I've attended a number of weddings that I wasn't preaching.

I don't believe I've ever heard the officiant at a marriage ceremony say, well, uh, you guys, have you decided that you're gonna uh be good husbands and good husband and wife?

And if so, then let's just move on to the reception.

You ever hear that?

If you did, raise your hand.

Nobody And so what happens in these ceremonies is that we verbally express our, our commitment to our spouse, our future spouse.

We don't say, I already did, we say we, I do.

And the reason is there are witnesses there.

And I think there's a, there's a greater solemnity when we are verbalizing what we believe.

I wonder if that's why God wants us to sing together.

Hymns, songs, spiritual songs and songs.

But I, I have to tell you, I really firmly believe that when someone says, I don't believe anymore, I firmly believe that sometimes that's just an excuse.

The real reason for leaving is a love of the world.

Over time, The pull of the world has become stronger on this person.

And the faith that this person had has become weaker.

Maybe they needed to rehearse their convictions.

Periodically In 236 John the 26nd chapter in verses 26 and 29, John made this observation.

He said, 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.

For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.

John says if you love the world, you can't love God.

They're opposed to each other.

And so as the world, the love of the world becomes stronger, then people leave God.

I don't believe anymore.

The truth of the matter is that sometimes being a member of the Lord's Church is interfering with worldly interests.

And so somebody decides to leave the church.

Do you remember one of Paul's companions by the name of Demus?

He's mentioned a couple of times in Paul's writings.

In 245 Timothy 215:103, Paul described Demus as being in love with this present world.

Well, as Paul said in Galatians 210, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

But sometimes people feel the pull of the world.

And they gradually move away from the Lord and back into the world.

Well, the last The thing that I've heard, and I've heard this a couple of times over the years.

Well, I was never truly converted.

I was just baptized to please and fill in the blank.

My parents, my spouse, my friends, I didn't really believe and I think that's a possibility.

But I've noticed that sometimes it seems that that reason for leaving the church is often in conjunction with congregational discipline.

Someone's about to be disciplined and they proclaim themselves not to be a member of that congregation.

I never really was converted to Christ.

My response to that is what's keeping you from obeying God's law now?

If you didn't obey the gospel in the past, what are you going to do now?

Well, sometimes what they do is decide just to leave the church.

Some of these reasons for leaving the church, I think are focused on the temporary, the physical, you know, what's the church doing for me?

I don't like the things that are going on in this congregation right now.

And they suggest those reasons suggest that someone has really lost sight of the big picture.

We are preparing for eternity.

There are big stakes involved here.

And yet people act like, well, I'm just gonna leave the church because it's, you know, it's no big thing.

You may have noticed that the sermons entitled Why I Left the Lord.

But I've been talking about why I left the church, but I want you to understand that in many cases, those are the same.

When someone decides to leave the church, a lot of times, it's not because they're going to another faithful congregation where they can be of more use.

They're not going to a congregation where maybe the teaching or the, the membership is more along their age, uh, group, whatever, not any kind of reason like that.

They're leaving the church because they're gonna stop serving the Lord.

Why I left the Lord is really what we're talking about.

But the Lord's will is that we meet with other Christians.

You're familiar with this passage.

It was read for your consideration again this morning.

Hebrews 245:215 through 25.

The author of Hebrews has really finished his argument concerning the superiority of Christ and His covenant.

By the time you get to Hebrews 10 and 19, which is where the reading today began.

And from that point on, he's going to engage in encouragement of his readers to, to persevere, to be Faithful to the end.

And so he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stir up one another, to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The fact that the Hebrews author criticizes those who had stopped meeting together clearly suggests that that's what God intends for us, is that we encourage one another to love and good works as we come together.

I'm gonna continue that same reading in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 26, and this is the rest of our scripture reading this morning.

The writer says, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

The idea of sinning deliberately is this constant pattern of sin.

This is talking about someone who's decided to reject the Christ.

The Old Testament, New King James version used or King James Ver used to talk about sinning with a high hand.

In other words, rebellious, not a sin of ignorance, not a sin of weakness.

It's a sin by someone who says, I don't care anymore.

And the author says there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

But a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Now listen, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses, that's the kind of person we're talking about here.

There's a comparison being made, but that's the kind of comparison we're talking about.

That person dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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 has outraged the spirit of grace.

We are talking about Christians here.

They're the only ones who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And when a Christian Who has been bought by that blood, forgiven of his or her sins, decides, well, I'm just gonna leave the church.

I'm just gonna leave the Lord.

The writer of Hebrews says there's no more sacrifice.

There's no Plan B, as we've sometimes said in classes.

You reject Jesus Christ as your savior.

There is no other name given among men under heaven, whereby we can be saved.

For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge his people.

It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And I guarantee you that in most cases when people just decide they're gonna leave the Lord, they are not thinking about falling into the hands of the living God.

They're thinking about how much more free time they're gonna have on Sundays and Wednesdays, and people won't be bothering them about their behavior, about their lifestyle.

They'll have all the freedom they want in this world.

But we need to think about what it is to fall into the hands of the living God.

Peter wrote that when you leave the Lord, And go back into the world, what you've become is a slave again.

It's like the one who has been released from slavery and then turns right around and goes right back into the slavery.

Peter said in 2 Peter 453 and verses 20 to 22, and incidentally, Peter is talking here specifically about the teachers who were enticing, seducing other Christians to go back into the world.

But what he says applies both to those teachers, those false teachers, but also who were Christians, but all So those who are seduced by them.

He says, for if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

Have you ever wondered why?

Why would it be worse?

You were a slave before you're a slave now.

The destiny in both cases is the same.

Here's the difference.

When you were a slave before, you heard the gospel, and you responded to the love of God and you sought forgiveness, and you were forgiven.

Now you've gone back into the world.

What will anyone offer you to come back to the Lord?

You've rejected the only thing that God puts forward.

For our salvation.

The only plan that he has, for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

What is the true proverb says has happened to them.

The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire, rather vivid picture.

Of what happens to the people who decide to leave the Lord and go back into the world.

It's like the dog that vomits and then turns right around and eats that vomit.

Or the hog that's come out of the, the mire, a mixture of feces and urine and food and mud, it's been all cleaned up and washed just like we're washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, unstained, unblemished as a result of that precious blood.

And then we go right back into the mire.

And make ourselves dirty again.

The pull of the world is constant.

On all of us.

It may be stronger for some than others, but the pull of the world is something we have to acknowledge and deal with.

We need to constantly remind ourselves of the reward that awaits us if we are faithful to the end.

In Hebrews the 10th chapter verse 36.

A little bit further along in the reading toward the end of the chapter, the writer says, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

In Galatians 6 chapter 6, verse 9, Paul writes and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap.

If we do not give up.

You know, I wish.

That I could say that I'm confident that everyone here who's a Christian will make it all the way.

To heaven But my experience has been over the last 45 years.

That there will be casualties in a congregation of any size.

Now, I'd like to prevent that if I can do so by teaching and preaching.

But my observation has been that unfortunately there'll be some.

Who will go back into the world and they'll forfeit.

Eternal life.

Will it be you?

Will it be me?

As I thought about the Christians.

that I have known over the years.

who have fallen away.

I also remembered some who stumbled.

But ended up coming back to the Lord.

I can think of some specific cases.

Successes, people who were restored.

God receives sinners.

In Luke 15th chapter, there are three parables told there, and you might think that the theme of the chapter is the chapter of lost things, and I think that's a fair analysis of the chapter, but there's another theme in that chapter, and it may be the more dominant theme, and that is the joy at recovery.

Because in the first two parables, there is joy at the finding that which was lost.

And in the third parable, it is even more specific.

It's the Father who is overjoyed because the prodigal son has returned.

Jesus said in Luke 15:10, just so I tell you, there's joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

I don't know how many times I've offered a public invitation at the end of a sermon or a class or something of that nature in the last 45 years, but I guarantee you it's been a lot.

Encouraging people to obey the gospel.

And I will tell you that in most cases, there has been no visible response.

We'll go sermon after sermon after sermon and nobody responds to the invitation, at least in any kind of outward way.

That's not to say that people don't.

Talk to God and ask for forgiveness of their sins because of the teaching that gets done here by me and others.

But it is to say that most of the time there's no visible evidence of any response to the gospel invitation, but I continue to hope that those who need forgiveness of their sins will in fact respond.

There's a verse in Luke 15 in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

It says that as the son who had decided that he had made a, a wrong turn, that he needed to return to his father's house, and as he journeys back, the verse says his father saw him a long way off.

If you think about that verse, what it suggests is that the Father not only joyfully receives the son when he does return, but he has been looking for him.

He's been expecting him.

Hoping That he would return.

In that parable, the Father clearly, I think, represents God.

Who is hoping That if you need to obey the gospel.

That you will consider doing that this morning.

Maybe you're already a Christian.

And you've been feeling the pull of the world also.

And you realize that your life hasn't been what it needs to be, and it may be that you need to confess before the members of this congregation things that you have done.

And seek forgiveness.

If you need to respond to the invitation, I hope and pray that you will do it this morning.

We stand to invite you as we sing.