Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

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.)

If you'd like to read with me, uh, tonight's scripture reading will be from Job chapter 5 beginning in verse 8.

Job chapter 5 verses 8 through 27.

Just to set the context a little bit and, and try and not step on anything um that Uncle Alan will say in the lesson.

Job has been afflicted by Satan in just about every way imaginable, and he, his friends arrived to try and console him, and they sit with him for 33 days straight and he doesn't say anything.

And when Job does speak, uh, in, uh, I believe it's chapter 3, he's in a very dark place.

And so EFAS, the first of his three friends, uh, to speak, begins responding to what Job has said and, and, uh, what's happened to Job and we're picking up here in verse 8 of chapter 5, really at the tail end of, of uh Elefaz's first response.

And I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible, which is different from the version on the screen.

However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to Him.

He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful, so the poor have hope and injustice shuts its mouth.

See how happy is the person whom God corrects.

So do not reject the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he also bandages.

He strikes, but his hands also heal.

He will rescue rescue you from 1093 calamities.

No harm will touch you in 1083.

In famine he will redeem you from death and in battle from the power of the sword.

You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land's wild creatures, for you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

You will know that your tent is secure and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

You will approach the grave in full vigor as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

We have investigated this, and it is true.

Hear it and understand it for yourself.

Well, good evening.

It's good to see everyone here.

I appreciate your interest in biblical things.

We're going to have what I think will be an interesting study this evening in the book of Job.

You may wish to open your Bibles to that book because we're going to spend nearly all of our time, in fact, really all of our time in that book, and you may wish to uh follow along and read some of the things that I'll refer.

I'm not going to put a lot of scripture.

up on the screen as I often do, because we'll stay in the same book and I'll be reading those.

The references will come up on the screen so that you can follow along.

You won't miss the references, but we'll do some reading from the dialogue of the three friends.

Well, that's rat poison.

Rat poison, as you know, in most cases is mostly non-lethal stuff.

It's grain.

It's the stuff that rats like.

It's what they want to eat.

But what kills them is that very small percentage of lethal poison.

In fact, I chose this particular graphic because they had on the front what the uh percentage of active ingredient.

That's the poison.

And it is 1073 of a gram for each kilogram.

That's a dusting.

But it's enough to kill rats.

I believe Satan uses that same principle.

He understands that the most effective false doctrine is that which is really close to the truth.

Even incorporates some truth in the doctrine, and that makes it so that when people Grab on to it when they accept it, it slowly takes them away from the Lord, farther and farther.

And I believe the story of Job and his three friends, there are actually 1063 individuals who will talk with Job, that his 1053 friends illustrate this truth.

So tonight, rather than talk about what Job's friends got wrong, we will say something about that a little bit later on.

But I want to focus primarily on 1043 things that they got right.

We often don't think of Job's friends as being uh purveyors of truth, but the, the fact of the matter is they said some things that are very true, and we'll look at those as we study in the book of Job this evening.

Really appreciated the introduction that Travis gave to the reading since he was kind of dropped into the middle of the cycle of speeches of the friends by my request, but I thought his background was very good.

In the book of Job, the first two chapters.

Basically, uh, set the stage for the dialogue of the book.

Job is a book that sometimes people will kind of uh steer away from because so much of the book is not historical narrative.

It is in fact dialogue, conversation between the friends and Job and Elihu and then later on, God as he speaks.

with Job.

But in the very beginning of the book, we are introduced to the main character, and that's Job.

Job lived as an historical person during the time of the patriarchs, most likely, and in the first chapter, we learned some things about Job.

He is introduced in the very beginning by the Lord to Satan.

And the Lord says in chapter 1033 and verse 1023, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.

In fact, Job is going to be at the pinnacle in two ways, pinnacle of humanity.

First of all, God says to Satan, there's no one like Job.

That's pretty high praise.

I don't know how many people were involved in the, the population of humanity at this point.

But God says, there's nobody like Job.

But then secondly, Job was extremely wealthy.

He possessed 1013 sheep, 1003 camels, 2121 yoke of oxen, and 217 female donkeys.

And very many servants.

So that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

Debbie and I have 2120 chickens, and it's all I can do some nights to pick out 217 chickens on the roost, make sure they're all in the, in the coop after dark.

This man had thousands of sheep, thousands of camels.

Very rich individual.

In chapters 2121 and 217, though, We are made privy to a conversation, actually two conversations that occur between God and Satan.

Satan comes among the sons of God and God asks him about Job.

And Satan's response is essentially an indirect charge or accusation against God.

The subject is Job.

But when God introduces Job to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there's no one like him?

Satan's response is, well, you've bribed him.

You built a hedge around him by blessing him so immensely that it's to his benefit to keep you happy.

Or in other words, if you wanted to rephrase the accusation, it basically is, Job only serves you because you keep bribing him by material prosperity.

If you take away those things, Satan says, he'll stop serving you.

And God gives Satan.

Permission to take away all that Job has.

And so as you can see on the screen, in chapter one, we're told that uh his oxen and his donkeys are taken by the Sybeans.

The sheep are burned up with fire from heaven, and then the Chaldeans come and take the camels.

And in addition to the loss of livestock, virtually all of the servants, you can imagine how many servants it would take.

Herdsmen to take care of 212 camels, 215 sheep, 2110 oxen, 10000 female donkeys.

All of the servants are killed as well with the exception of the one servant who shows up to tell Job about The calamity that has taken place that day.

And it's not something that extends over time, but one servant comes and says, well, this is what happened uh to the oxen and the donkeys, and while he's still speaking, here comes the next servant to tell Job about his sheep and the loss of all those animals.

And then the camels, and then finally, the fact that his children have likewise been taken from him.

God gave Satan permission to touch all that Job had, and that included in this case, his 10 children.

They are killed in an accident, uh, the house falling upon them where they were, uh, feasting together.

But it's not over.

Because Job doesn't sin, even though he has experienced all of this calamity.

In chapter 1 and verse 22, we're told in all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

I've heard someone say before that in the book of Job, Job doesn't sin and that's not accurate.

Because Job does sin, but he doesn't at this point.

In fact, Satan has predicted that if you do these things to Job, you take away the hedge that you put around him, you take away the bribe and he'll curse you to your face.

But Joe doesn't do that.

And so then in chapter 2, we're made privy to another conversation and it is important to note that Job doesn't know about these conversations.

That's gonna play a big part in the dialogue that Job will have with his friends and with Elihu, because Job doesn't understand the background of his calamity.

He does not understand that Satan is the one who's doing this to him, obviously, with God's permission.

But he thinks God is doing all this to him.

He doesn't seem to have any knowledge of Satan Satan was never mentioned in the dialogue.

In chapter 22 con conversation that God has with Satan.

And God points out to Satan.

Job's integrity, but Satan has a response.

He doesn't have skin in the game yet.

You just took his stuff, you took his children, but you didn't touch him.

So God says, all right, you can afflict Job, you can't take his life, but you can touch him.

And Job is afflicted with some sickness that not sure we can really identify, but it involved tremendous suffering as you read some about what Job says about his condition.

And so Satan was allowed to afflict Job's physical body with sickness.

And yet at the end of chapter 2, or toward the end, in verses 213 and 10, we're told that Job's wife said to him, Do you still hold fast your integrity?

Curse God and die.

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

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

In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Even in that statement, it becomes obvious that Job thinks God's doing this to him.

He's gonna wrestle with that, because he doesn't understand why God is doing this to him, why he is suffering the way that he is.

Well, as Travis noted, at the end of chapter 23 of Job's friends come from some distance.

They've made an appointment.

They've decided to gather together and they come and, and they are there to comfort Job.

In verses 11 through 13, Elefaz and Bildad and Zofar.

I want to say a little bit about the structure of this book, its organization.

We could probably describe it in three rather general terms.

The prologue is what we've been talking about thus far, chapters 1 and 2.

It gives us the backdrop.

It helps us understand why Job says some of the things he does, what Job is struggling with.

The prologue is chapters 1 and 2.

And then the dialogue, which essentially constitutes nearly all the rest of the book, chapters 3, all the way through uh the beginning of chapter 73.

And in the, that dialogue, we see the conflict of the book.

Both the conflict within Job and the conflict that he has with his 3 friends, and then the fourth friend, although Job doesn't respond to Elihu, And so the participants in the dialogue are the three friends and Job and Elihu, and then eventually, God will speak to Job uh in the latter part of the book, asking him lots of questions.

And then the third section is the epilogue, and in a sense, Job is given the opportunity.

To pray on behalf of his friends, God rebukes the three friends for some of the things that they said.

And we're told that Job is blessed, even as he had been blessed prior to the suffering of chapters 1 and 2.

The dialogue of the book is the major part of the book.

And in chapter 3, after the friends have come and they've sat with Job for 7 days in silence, incidentally, 7 days was the period of mourning typically for someone who died.

And Job's situation is so horrible that his friends basically are treating him as though he's dead already.

He's sitting there and they're in silence.

Then Job begins to speak.

And in chapter 3 in his opening monologue, he begins by cursing the day of his birth.

In the 1st 10 verses, oh, that he hadn't even been born.

And then he moves in verse 213 and through verse 19, to say that he wished that he had just died at birth.

He wouldn't have had to endure any of the things that he's enduring now if he had simply died at birth.

But you know, that's water under the bridge and so beginning in verse 20 and on through the end of chapter 3, Job says, why can't I just die now?

He's miserable.

And as Travis noted, he is in a very dark place.

Well, the friends, are going to talk with him.

In chapters 4 through chapter 26.

I'm gonna say some more in just a few moments about the cycles of speeches, but there are 3 cycles of speeches.

Each of the friends will speak in turn with Job responding to that particular individual. Elephant.

will always speak first and then build that and then Zofar, although Zofar will only speak twice.

The 3rd cycle, Zofar apparently did not have a speech.

My personal opinion is that those guys were running out of soap by the time they got into the 3rd cycle.

And it may have been that Zofar didn't have anything else to say, but he apparently did not have a 3rd speech.

Job will follow Bill Dad's 73rd speech at the end of the 3rd cycle with two monologues that constitute chapters 27 and 28, the first one and then 29 to 31, the second monologue.

But it's not over.

The dialogue because we then learn that there's been a 4th person there, that is Job and his 3 friends, and a 4th individual, a younger man by the name of Elihu.

And Elihu has been listening to his, uh, the 3 friends of Job, these older individuals, and he is hot.

He's got a lot to say.

He's wanted to say some things, but he's waited because he's younger than these other men.

And he then addresses Job in chapters 203 to 37.

When we get to chapter 38, Job gets what he's been asking for.

He wanted to talk to God.

He wanted an explanation, only it doesn't go the way Job really had anticipated because God doesn't approach Job with the idea of saying, well, no, Job, let me, let me help you understand why this is happening to you.

Instead, Job is peppered with questions.

Until chapter 42.

The purpose of which I believe was to show Job that he really wasn't in the same category with God to try to understand God's moral workings in this world.

His divine justice.

Because Job is made to realize that he doesn't even understand how the physical world acts or operates, much less the way that God works in the moral affairs of men.

There's tension In the dialogue between Job and his 3 friends.

As I said before, there are 3 cycles of speeches.

And it's interesting several things about these speeches, for instance, Uh, the friends begin by encouraging Job to repent of his sins.

They're convinced, and we'll say why in just a moment, they're convinced that he's sinned.

But as Job seems unwilling to just acknowledge his sin, they become harsher and more blunt as the speeches go on.

Build that Says, well, if your children died, it's because that's what they deserved.

So far in his first speech will tell Job, you're not getting near what you deserve.

So these friends rapidly become very Uh, almost antagonistic to Job.

There's some sarcasm there.

There's clearly anger and frustration both on the part of Job and of his friends.

In those speeches, The friends will speak and then Job will respond to whichever friend is speaking.

And as you move through the speeches, you'll notice that Job seems to address God more and the friends less.

That's my perception.

But you see in all of his speeches practically that there is a dichotomy in the sense that Job responds to his friend, but he also is asking for answers from God.

He wants to plead his case before God.

He wants God to come down and giving him an an explanation for why these things have happened to him.

Of course Job never gets that.

God has a different purpose in mind.

I guess I needed to give this, the rest of this chart.

There are the 3 cycles with the chapters that are involved, and we'll just read through all of those.

Some of you just don't believe me anymore.

What I'm going to try to do is pick out just some pieces from the various speeches, not all of them obviously, but just enough to illustrate the three points that I think, or the 3 things that I think the friends got right.

Well, we need to understand that the reason for the tension between Job and his friends, is that the, the friends are laboring under uh the apprehension that suffering is always the direct result of personal sin.

If you're suffering, it's because you've done something wrong, you've violated God's law, you've sinned, and the worse you are suffering.

The greater your sin must be.

And so the 3 friends show up and Job is suffering horribly.

And so their conclusion is, well, Job, you must have sinned in some horrible way to merit this kind of treatment by God.

And so they are repeatedly, repeatedly encouraging Job to repent and to return to the Lord.

Now, I want you to remember at this point that in the beginning of the book, God does not say, you know, Job, he, he does OK most days.

You know, some days he's better than others.

He says there's no one else like Job on the earth.

This is a righteous individual.

He's at the pinnacle of humanity in terms of moral integrity.

And here's 3 friends show up.

And they begin telling him that if he would just repent, that God would start blessing him as opposed to punishing him.

Now I believe That Job and his wife both Agreed with this kind of philosophy, this theology in the beginning of the book.

I think that's why his wife said, uh, do you still maintain your integrity?

Are you still saying that you're innocent?

It's obvious that you're sinning, you've sinned because God's doing this to you.

Go ahead and curse God and die. Job.

To's suffering is so great that his wife can only conclude, you're just about cut off from God anyway, just go ahead and curse God.

Say goodbye to God and let God finish you off.

I think that's what she's saying.

And I also believe That Job likewise believed what the friends believed about suffering.

And that's part of his consternation in the dialogue that he has both with the friends and with God.

Because Job knows that he has not sinned in some terrible way, and yet it appears as though he is being punished like he was some horrible sinner.

What, how does that work?

That's the consternation.

That's the question that Job struggles with.

Well, what is it that the friends got right?

Well, 73 things I think that we could pull out of some of the speeches.

And what I'm going to do is I've tried to pull from not just one speaker, but multiple uh friends and to kind of work our way through the cycles with each point.

And I'm just gonna read some sample passages.

I would encourage you, if, if you would like to To write down these references, go back and read before and after because sometimes I'm only giving you the beginning of an extended discussion that will further illustrate the point that I'm trying to make.

The first thing that the friends got right is God is powerful.

He is sovereign.

They affirm God's might, his ability to do whatever he wants to do.

If you look in Job the 4th chapter, in verses 7 through 11, this of course is Elehaz speaking, the first speaker among the friends.

He says in verse 7, remember who that was innocent ever perished or where were the upright cut off?

As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

By the breath of God they perish and by The blast of his anger, they are consumed.

The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Elehas says, God does what he wants.

By the breath of God, the wicked perish.

In the 5th chapter, again, Elehaz, same speech.

In verse 8, he says, as for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number.

And then finally, here in verse 7 of chapter 11, this is Zofar's first speech.

He says to Job, can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

It is higher than heaven.

What can you do?

Deeper than shield.

What can you know?

The measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

If he passes through and imprisons and summons the court, who can turn him back?

And so the friends acknowledge that God is sovereign.

Nobody can thwart God's purpose, nobody can stop him.

He is powerful.

Well, if you read through some of Job's responses to these friends, he agrees with this.

Job will give some excellent comments to the sovereignty, the power of God, even as the friends did.

Well, the second thing that I think that the friends got right and I'm indicating here that they are correct about these things.

The second thing is that God is a just and holy being.

and the friends are going to repeatedly reaffirm that God is just, that God doesn't commit injustice in the affairs of men.

They preach to Job that wickedness brings suffering and righteousness brings prosperity.

Take a look if you will, at chapter 8, verses 213 through 7.

This is Bill Dad's speech, and I've alluded to this particular part of the speech already.

Bildad says in verse, uh, that's verse 3 of Job 8.

Does God pervert justice or does the Almighty pervert the right?

If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

That's regrettable.

Job had 10 children.

And they are all killed on a single occasion.

Strong wind strikes the house of the eldest brother and it crashes down on them and kills them.

And buildad says God's just.

If your children died, if they suffered, it's because they were sinners.

That's what he said.

If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.

Now I wanted to Add a little bit more than just verse 3 and 4 because I wanted you to see that build that early on, this is his first speech, build out early on is going to encourage Job to repent, to return to God.

We'll say more about that in just a few moments.

In the same speech, down in verse 20, Job 8:20, Bildad says, behold, God will not reject a blameless man nor take the hand of evildoers.

God is light and in him there is no darkness.

God will not have fellowship with darkness.

That's New Testament.

But this is Billad saying the same thing.

God will not reject the person who is righteous, and he doesn't hold hands with the evil doer.

He doesn't support the evil doer.

In the 73th chapter in verse 20.

This is Elefaz's second speech.

The wicked man writhes in pain all his days through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.

Now, what you'll see as you read through these speeches of the friends is that they are constantly telling Job about how bad it is for wicked people, that wicked people are going to suffer, that terrible things will happen to them.

In the 18th chapter and verse 5, this is Bildad's speech.

Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out and the flame of his fire does not shine.

My understanding is that in Israelite homes in ancient days, that there would be a light left on all the time, especially at night, you'd see that light.

The significance of the light of the wicked being put out is that he is no more.

He's going to be annihilated, obliterated.

The light of the wicked is put out.

Bill that says that the wicked do not prosper in chapter 20, verse 4.

This is Zohar.

He says, do you not know this from all he's speaking, asking Job, since man was placed on earth, that the exalting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless, but for a moment.

There's something interesting that you'll notice in the speeches of the friends if you follow them closely, and that is, in the beginning, they say, wicked people just get annihilated.

At some point, they begin to acknowledge that sometimes the wicked will prosper for a while, but they'll indicate that it doesn't last very long.

In Job chapter 20 and verse 29, this is again the end of Zofhar's speech.

He says, this is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.

Zofar has just given a laundry list of all the bad things that happen to people who are wicked, and this is the wicked man's portion from God.

That's how God deals with injustice, with unrighteousness.

The friends believe in the justice of God so strongly.

That when Job will not confess whatever his terrible sins are, they begin to manufacture sins.

You know, he's suffering horribly, so he must have sinned.

Well, we probably know what he did.

And so in chapter 22 and verse 5, Eleha says, is not your evil abundant?

There's no end to your iniquities.

Now listen, Elefas didn't know that.

You remember what God said?

God said, there's nobody like Job.

He's upright and he turns away from evil, but Eleha, in order to support their theology about suffering, He's got to find something that justifies the suffering of Job.

And so he concludes, Job, there's no end to your wickedness.

And the friends will begin to list all the different things that Job has done wrong.

They have no idea that any of those things are true.

But they're saying it because they've got to support their way of thinking.

In the 23nd chapter, again, this is still Elefaz, in verse 12, chapter 22 in verse 12, Elha says, is not God high in the heavens?

See the highest stars, how lofty they are.

But you say, what does God know?

Can he judge through the deep darkness?

Thick clouds veil him so that he does not see and he walks on the vault of heaven.

Now, Elefaz is putting words in Job's mouth.

He's saying, Job, you're just like people who say, well, you know what, God's so high up, he can't really see what's going on down here.

He can't see through the clouds.

We can do whatever we want and Elefaz is saying, Job, that's your attitude.

He has no idea that that's the way Job thinks.

In fact, it is patently false.

Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

They were snatched away before their time.

Their foundation was washed away.

They said to God, depart from us, and what can the Almighty do to us?

Remember chapters 221 and 27.

At the end of those chapters, when Job had suffered all of these calamities, the loss of his livestock, the loss of his servants, the loss of his family, even his own health has been afflicted.

And Job did not sin.

He didn't charge God with evil.

But now Elefaz has decided that Job is just like a lot of wicked people who say, you know what, we can get away with it.

God doesn't know what's going on.

He's, you know, off doing his own thing.

Well, the third thing that the friends got right is that God is merciful.

As we've pointed out, they are going to repeatedly encourage Job to repent of his sins.

With the promise that if he will turn to God, God will receive him and bless him once again.

For instance, look at Job chapter 220 verses 27 and 221.

This, of course, is Elefas's first speech.

He says, behold, blessed is the one whom God reprove. proves.

Therefore, despise not the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal.

So you're being punished, you're being disciplined by God, but if you'll just repent, if you'll turn to God, then he'll bind you up.

He'll receive you again.

In Job the 27th chapter, verses 53 through 25, we read this passage a little bit earlier.

This is Bill Dadd speaking.

He says to Job, if you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginnings were small, your latter days will be very great.

If you'll just repent and turn back to God, God will receive you.

In the 210th chapter of Job in verses 23000 through 15, and this is Zofhar's speech, his first.

If you prepare your heart, he says to Job, you will stretch out your hands toward him that is gone.

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away and let not injustice dwell in your tents.

Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish.

You will be secure and will not fear.

Promises that God will be merciful to you, that he will receive the repentant sinner.

In Job chapter 22, And I mentioned earlier, this is Elefaz's speech.

He says, agree with God and be at peace.

Thereby good will, good will come to you.

Receive instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up.

If you remove injustice far from your tents, if you lay.

Gold in the dust and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent bed, then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

If you'll give up this ill-gotten wealth that Elehaz has accused him of acquiring, Then God will be your treasure.

God will be your gold and your silver.

Now, like the other points, the first two truths, Job concurs with this truth as well.

He says something in chapter 12 verses 1 through 3 that's similar to what he says in more than one place.

Job answers, uh, one of the friends and says, no doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you.

Don't miss the sarcasm.

But I have understanding as well as you.

I'm not inferior to you.

Who does not know such things as these?

I know that God's powerful.

I know that God is just.

And I know that God is merciful, that God will receive the sinner.

Accept him when he repents.

So those are 3 things that Job's friends got right.

So, what is the problem?

What is it that creates the tension between Job and his three friends?

Well, what we need to do is talk about what the friends got wrong.

Do you remember the illustration of the rat poison?

You've got a substance that is 103% good.

Rats can eat it all day long, won't hurt them.

It's just that little bit.

A poison that is lethal and kills the rat.

And the friends are so close to the truth.

But they make a fundamental error.

And that area is they assume that the wicked always suffer and the righteous always prosper.

And because they believe that suffering is the direct result of God's actions, they cannot conceive of the righteous suffering.

That would make God unjust.

Did you follow that?

If suffering is always for the wicked, not for the righteous.

Then if the righteous actually do suffer, then that makes it sound like God's being unjust.

He's punishing righteous people, and they will not countenance that idea.

And so they just keep plugging ahead, saying that the wicked always suffer, the righteous always prosper.

Human suffering in their mind is connected to wickedness.

They believe that divine justice is perfectly accomplished in this world.

That's the only way you can say the things that they say about the righteous and about the wicked.

To them, it's Set up so that the righteous always prosper and the wicked always suffer.

The problem with that is that Job began to know that sometimes it seems like the wicked seemed to prosper.

I want to read from chapter 21, Job chapter 21.

This is a little bit of a lengthy reading, if you'll pardon me.

I'm going to begin in verse 7.

Job chapter 21, verse 7.

Now, this is Job talking.

Because the friends have been beating up on him.

Telling him he needs to repent, you know, you're this terrible sinner.

Wicked always suffer.

The righteous always prosper.

And Job has been looking around.

And he's seeing that that's not true.

And so this is what he says in chapter 20 verse 7, 21 and verse 7.

Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

Their offspring are established in their presence and their descendants before their eyes.

Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

Their bull breeds without fail.

Their cow calves and does not miscarry.

They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

They spend their days in prosperity and in peace they go down to shiel.

They live their whole lives in prosperity, and then they die gently.

And are buried.

They say to God, depart from us.

We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

What is the Almighty that we should serve Him, and what profit do we get if we pray to Him?

Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand.

And then Job says the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

He wants the friends, I think, to understand.

Listen, I don't believe what the wicked believe, but this is what they say.

This is how they think, and yet they seem to prosper.

That doesn't fit your theology, friends.

How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

You remember Bill dad said, oh, the lamp of the wicked is put out.

The flame of, of his, uh, in, in his house, that's extinguished.

And Job says, well, how often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes upon them, that God distributes pains in his anger, that they are like straw before the wind and like chaff that the storm carries away.

You say, God stores up their iniquity for their children.

Job's response is, let him, God, pay it out to them that they may know it.

It's like Job is answering a hypothetical response of the friends.

Well, why is it that the, the wicked seem to get away with all of this?

They have this horrible, horrible attitude.

They're prospering and they die in peace.

Their families do well.

And one of the friends might have uh said hypothetically speaking, well, God's gonna punish their descendants and Job says, no, no.

Let them see it themselves so that they know that they're wicked and that God doesn't approve.

Let their own eyes see their destruction and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

For what do they care for their houses after them when the number of their months is cut off?

Will anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those who are on high?

One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure.

His pails full of milk and the marrow of his bones moist.

Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted the prosperity, they lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.

And so Job says, wait a minute.

You're saying that the wicked always suffer and that's not the case.

Job says, I'm looking and I'm seeing some wicked people who are prospering and sometimes righteous people suffer.

The friends Took a general principle concerning the consequences of moral integrity.

Or lack thereof, and they turned it into an absolute law.

That would govern all of the moral uh affairs of God in this world.

They took a general principle and made it into an absolute law.

Listen to me carefully cause I, I, I, this is a fine point.

I don't want you to miss this.

I believe that the principle that the wicked will suffer and the righteous will prosper is a true principle.

But that's the big picture.

That's not necessarily what happens.

Completely in this world, and that's the problem of the friends.

They believe that God took care of all of this justice, all of the punishment for the witch in this world, they suffer, all they're going to suffer.

And the righteous are going to prosper.

Now, Why is this error so critical?

I mean, Job seemed to miss it.

In the beginning, I think Job's understanding of suffering changes a good bit as a result of his own situation.

Why is this error so critical?

Well, it may seem like a small difference.

But I want you to remember that rat poison.

It doesn't take much to kill a rat.

Just takes a little bit of poison.

You can have a lot of good stuff.

You have a lot of truth.

You just need to mix a little bit of falsehood in there.

And it'll cause people to Drift away from God.

People react to suffering in this life in different ways.

Some people associate all suffering with God's actions.

That's what the friends and Job and his wife, I think, believed in the beginning.

If somebody's suffering, it's God who's doing it to them.

They're being punished.

And so someone says, well, I'm suffering, so God must be angry with me.

He must be punishing me.

Time and chance happen to all men.

We suffer for a variety of reasons.

And not always because we have done something against God's law, not because of sin necessarily.

The only perfect human being.

to ever live on this earth.

died on a Roman cross.

As his father watched.

Others, when they suffer, take a little different tact.

I'm suffering.

So either God doesn't exist, or he wouldn't let me suffer, or he has abandoned me.

And so their conclusion is to leave God behind.

God does provide us with free will.

As we said this morning, we have the ability to choose either to serve God, obey God, or to serve Satan.

But the fact that God gives us free will doesn't guarantee perfect justice in this world.

As I suggested to you this morning, we don't really control a lot in our lives because other people's actions impinge on our lives.

And sometimes those things cause us suffering because people do sinful things and we're the object or at least we are affected by their sin.

This world is a broken world.

It's a world infested with sin.

And that means that people who are living righteously are sometimes going to suffer and has nothing to do with God punishing them.

But you know, sometimes that's a hard thing to accept.

Because we believe in general that righteousness exaltation, and sin will cause it to fall and the same thing with individuals.

Now, I said, I think this principle is true because ultimately, ultimately wickedness is going to be punished.

Perfectly And righteousness is going to be rewarded.

Perfectly No wicked people are going to manage to escape the judgment of God.

And righteous people don't want to.

But that's not during this life.

That's later.

I think the error of the friends is critical.

Because sometimes all it takes is just that little misunderstanding.

And people isolate themselves from God.

People blame God for things that God apparently has nothing to do with.

And I think we need to be careful that we understand.

That we live in a world where justice is not perfect, moral justice is not perfect.

But we look forward.

To a place where there will be perfect justice, where there will be righteousness.

Are you prepared for that kind of a place?

If the judgment took place this evening.

And we all had to stand before God and give an account for how we've lived our lives as we suggested this morning in 2 Corinthians 5:10 for the things done in the body.

What would you receive?

And the fact of the matter is, for all of us who are sinners, justice means death.

That's what God ought to do.

But the Bible tells us that grace is available through the sacrifice of Jesus, who satisfied the righteous requirement of the law.

He gave himself as a sin sacrifice, doing what we could not do, dying on the cross, shedding His blood so that we could be forgiven, not condemned.

Are you forgiven?

Have you obeyed the gospel?

For those of us who are already Christians, we need to be looking at the big picture.

There'll be times when we're gonna suffer.

Things are gonna happen to us.

There'll be sicknesses, there may be deaths, there'll be calamities.

We'll lose all 3000 of our Camels But we're looking to the big picture.

We're looking to the future where there will be perfect.

Righteousness And we can enjoy peace and joy.

eternal life with God.

If you don't have that hope this evening.

And we want to encourage you to take hold of that by obeying the gospel, becoming a child of God, having your sins forgiven through your obedience to the gospel, being baptized into Christ for the mission sins.

And if we can assist you in that this evening, then we want to invite you to come to the front as we stand and sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Reading will be from Ezekiel chapter 18.

Verses 003 through 20, Ezekiel 18:1 through 20, we'll be reading from the New King James Version.

The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, what do you mean when you're using the proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge.

As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel.

Behold, all souls are mine.

The soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son is mine.

The soul who sins shall die.

But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, if he has not eaten on the mountains nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife.

Nor approached a woman during her impurity if he has not oppressed any one but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has robbed no one by violence but has given his bread to the hungry, uncovered the naked with clothing.

If he has not exacted usury nor taken any increase, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man.

If he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments faithfully, he is just.

He shall surely live, says the Lord God.

If he begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood who does any of these things and has none of those duties.

But has eaten on the mountains or defiled his neighbor's wife if he has oppressed the poor and needy, robbed by violence, not restored the pledge, lifted his eyes to the idols, or committed abominations, if he has exacted usury or taken increase, shall he then live?

He shall not live.

If he has done any of these abominations, he shall surely die.

His blood shall be upon him.

If, however, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done and considers but does not do likewise, who has not eaten on the mountains nor lifted his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, has not oppressed any one, nor with withheld a pledge nor robbed by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry.

And covered the naked with clothing who has withdrawn his hand from the poor and not received usury or increase, but has has executed my judgments and walked in my statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father.

He shall surely live.

As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by violence, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.

Yet you say, why should the son not bear the guilt of the Father?

because the Son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all my statutes and observed them.

He shall surely live.

The soul who sins shall die.

The son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father bear the guilt of the Sons.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Several of you have asked about my eyes, and I would tell you that they are doing well.

I'm still in the process of getting this.

Uh, artificial lens in my right eye, uh.

Fixed, I guess, in the prescription that it's supposed to have.

And so my eyes are still tearing.

And I promise I'm not crying over the sermon.

It's not that good.

Um But I, I'm gonna have to kind of wipe my eyes every once in a while and As a result, my glasses don't work anymore.

They're, they're not the right prescription.

And so things are a little blurry.

Um, so we'll, we'll do the best we can.

At some point, I may just have to pull the glasses off and go without them, see what happens.

I might preach anything, who knows.

Let me ask you a question this morning, just how much control do you really have over your life?

You know, there are some of us, myself included, we really like to have control.

We like to think that we are masters of our own faith.

But the fact of the matter is, you and I don't control the actions of people around us.

People whose actions actually affect our lives a great deal.

We don't control the environment around us, the physical environment around us.

I'm talking about temperature, rain, snow, wind, storms.

Those things happen and We can try to protect ourselves or adapt to those things.

We don't control them.

We don't even completely control our physical health.

We can pursue good health habits.

But genetics and some environmental factors are out of our control.

More and more we're learning that a lot of the food that we eat is not particularly good for us.

And maybe we weren't even aware of that.

We've ingested toxins.

Uh, that are involved in the production of food and the preservation of food, the processing of food.

We don't control those things.

We can try to eat healthy, but the fact of the matter is, we don't even control that entirely.

What we do control is how we react in each of these areas.

As people behave in certain ways around us, we can control how we respond to their behavior, to their actions, as it as they affect us.

We can react to weather conditions.

We can react to health difficulties that we have, even though we can't entirely control those.

Now, the reason I bring all this up is to suggest to you that we really do have some control because we can respond by choice to all of these things.

But there is A systematic theology known as Calvinism.

That basically affirms that we do not control our spiritual condition.

In fact, hardly at all.

On February the 23rd, I preached a sermon here entitled Out of My Hands.

It was the beginning of a series of sermons that I intend to present over this year that deal with Calvinism.

Calvinism is a very prominent Uh, very widespread doctrine, and we need to know how to respond to it.

We need to be able to identify it as false doctrine.

Calvinism takes our salvation.

Completely out of our hands.

We do not control our spiritual condition.

And this morning, our study of total inherited depravity, that's another term for original sin.

is going to demonstrate the truth of that statement, that we do not control our spiritual condition according to Calvinism, the teaching of Calvinism.

I want to spend just a moment or two reviewing a little bit of what we've said.

We've got too much to say this morning to, to spend too much time on that, but I think it's worth at least looking at the main tenets of Calvinism.

We presented them in kind of an overview fashion uh in that February sermon, and I suggested to you at the time that, the acronym Tulip is a handy way.

Of remembering these tenants.

That's not original with me by any means, but I think it is a good way to remember the five main tenets of Calvinism, total inherited depravity, and unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of saints.

And I'm not going to try to describe those doctrines.

We did that in the last lesson.

Instead, what I want to do is focus on Total inherited depravity.

I would suggest to you that the five points of Calvinism, as they're sometimes called, are not stand-alone doctrines.

By then, I simply mean that they are related to one another.

In fact, Essentially, all of these 5 doctrines, I should say the other 4 that you look, those 4 doctrines stem from total inherited depravity.

If you accept that doctrine, then the other doctrines make perfect sense.

If man is born with a depraved nature and cannot make an effort to, to achieve salvation.

Then God has to do that for him.

An unconditional election says God did that before the foundation of the world, not based on anything that any of us did.

And if God did not choose to save everyone, then it doesn't make sense for Jesus to die for all.

That's limited atonement.

The atonement that was offered on the cross was limited only to those that God had decided would be saved.

And once again, if man is possessing a corrupted nature, and he cannot act of his own volition to do good, that is to respond to the gospel invitation, then irresistible grace must Act upon him so that he can respond to the gospel.

To inherited depravity.

is at the bottom of these things, these doctrines, as you can see.

Total inherited depravity is often referred to as original sin.

And I want to talk about it from the standpoint of how it was described by, for instance, John Calvin.

And others, it is a misunderstanding to say that John Calvin invented Calvinism because actually what we call Calvinism and particularly original sin.

was believed by a number of the early church fathers, men like Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and origin, even Augustine, who is uh sometimes uh Credited with inventing original sin.

He just made it popular.

He was very influential in its acceptance, but it existed before Augustine, who lived in the latter part of the 4th century, uh, even came along.

And so the doctrine of original sentence didn't originate with Augustine.

It didn't originate with John Calvin either.

Although John Calvin is the one who systematized these five tenants, put them together in a work that he published in 513 or 1934.

In 1534, uh, he didn't publish it posthumously.

Humorously It was called the Institutes of the Christian religion.

I'm going to spend just a moment looking at some quotations from that.

I'm gonna try not to be tedious this morning, although that's my nature.

But I'm going to just pick out some comments and I've highlighted them so that we don't have to read all of these things.

But I wanted you to see the comments in the context in which they originally appeared, but I'm going to highlight them in text, color, so that you can pick out the salient points of this doctrine of original sin.

So, this is what Calvin wrote, at least some of it.

It's a rather extensive document, this uh institutes.

He writes that What Adam lost when he and Eve sinned.

Essentially we lost as well.

He involved his posterity, that's all of us, we're all descended from Adam and plunged them in the same wretchedness.

corrupted evil nature that he then inherited.

This is the hereditary corruption to which early Christian writers gave the name of original sin.

He says that we are not corrupted by acquired wickedness, but bring an innate corruption from the very womb.

So this is not something that we develop over life.

We are born with a corrupted nature according to uh John Calvin and others before him.

All of us, therefore, descending from an impure seed come into the world tainted with the contagion of sin.

Uh, even before the light of the sun, we behold the light of the sun, we're already considered by God, defiled and polluted.

We thus see that the impurity of parents is transmitted to their children, so that all, without exception are originally depraved.

Not only that, but supposedly, we become guilty of Adam's sin.

Now, Calvin argued a little differently than some Calvinists do today, and I'll point that out as we come to it.

But he basically said, Adam, therefore, when he corrupted himself, transmitted the contagion to all his posterity.

And so by physical generation, We inherit the depraved nature that came to be Adams after he sinned.

The religious groups that grew out of the Reformation movement, and John Calvin was a leading voice in the Reformation movement of the 16th century.

Religious groups that came out of that movement.

Adopted statements of doctrine called confessions.

And those confessions reiterated this doctrine, this idea of original sin.

I'm just gonna give you two examples.

They're commonly cited as good examples.

The first one is the Westminster Confession of faith.

This is the creed of Presbyterian churches in the United States.

I'm not going to belabor these, but I want you to see that it says that our first parents, uh, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit.

By this sin, they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and so became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

Adam and Eve weren't created with the depraved nature.

They were created in this and and pure.

But once they sin, that sin changed their nature.

And then they passed that same nature on to all of their posterity, that would include us.

Continuing with the same confession.

They being the root of mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed and the same death and sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity.

And that's why we sin now because we are born with this corrupted, depraved nature.

Total inherited depravity is the doctrine as it is represented by the tea of Tulip.

The Philadelphia confession of faith.

is the first creed that was adopted by Baptist churches in the United States.

And I would suggest to you that a number of other Protestant mainline denominations basically adopt or believe much the same thing.

And a lot of this is very similar to the Westminster Creed, so I'll not belabor the point, but again, they talk about uh Adam and Eve becoming wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body.

And because they were the first human beings, Calvinism suggests that they acted as our federal head, Adam did.

And so what he did affects us to the extent that the guilt of the sin that Adam committed and the corrupted nature that was conveyed by that sin has passed to us.

And so two things are true in this doctrine of original sin.

One is that every one of us is born with the guilt of Adam's sin imputed to him.

We've been showing pictures of babies on the screen that have been born recently to members of this congregation.

There's hardly anything as innocent looking, as pure as an infant.

But to the Calvinist, that child has a depraved nature.

That child's already guilty of sin before he actually is born into the world.

Calvin, I think in an effort to try to avoid the strength of Ezekiel chapter 18.

Calvin suggested that no one Has the guilt of Adam's sin imputed to him?

Because you can't impute sin of one person to another.

That's essentially what Ezekiel 18 says.

So he argued that when Adam sinned, all mankind participated in that sin.

So we die or we're dead in sin because of our own guilt.

So it says, what?

That's what I said when I read all this. What?

So you're telling me that I don't, I don't get the uh the guilt of Adams imputed or reckoned to me, but before I was ever born, millennia before I was born, Adamson and I, I participated.

Now, if you can figure out how that works.

Uh, I'd like for you to explain it to me because it doesn't make any sense to me.

I think that's religious gobbledygook.

But that's the idea, and that's the way that some try to avoid this idea of having the guilt of one person's sin attributed to somebody else.

We'll say more about that as we go along here, uh, just in a moment.

The second thing, the second key idea is that every person is born with a corrupted nature, and we inherit that from our physical parents and as a result of that depraved or corrupted nature that we inherited via Adam and all of his posterity, we are unable to do good to.

Please God and for His glory.

Now you have to understand that the Calvinists are not saying that a person who's not one of the elect can ever do any good thing.

It is that they cannot respond to the offer of the invitation of God in the gospel.

They cannot please God with that depraved nature.

That nature has to be regenerated by the irresistible spirit, work of the spirit.

Well, You probably are well aware that that's contrary to what the scriptures teach.

In fact, the principle that was read to you this morning from Ezekiel 18.

An Old Testament passage which presents the principle that we are individually responsible for our conduct.

I'm not going to reread Ezekiel 18.

I appreciate Hans uh reading that rather lengthy reading.

But in that passage, Ezekiel bookends a description of three generations.

He begins in verse 4 by saying, all souls are mine, the soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine.

The soul who sins shall die.

God says, I'm in control of that and the soul who sins shall die.

And then there's an explanation, or rather an illustration of 3 generations, a father, and then his son, and then the grandson.

And the father is a righteous man.

You can see these passages up there that described the uh the periccopes where those men are described.

The father is, is a righteous man, but he has an unrighteous son.

But then that unrighteous son has a son in turn, and the grandson of the first man, he sees the wickedness of his father and he lives differently.

He lives like his grandfather.

So you have 13 generations there.

And then Ezekiel closes that illustration by saying in verse 20, the soul whose sins shall die reiterates what he said in verse 4.

The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the Father, nor the Father suffer for the iniquity of the Son.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

I want you to notice the ESV in verse 20.

Because I specifically asked for the reading to be from the New King James version.

Because I don't think that the the translation of verse 20.

is a good translation as it appears in the ESV.

The ESV says that the son doesn't suffer for the iniquity of the Father, and yet we know from common experience that sometimes that is true.

That's why the New King James version translates that the son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father, the guilt of the Son.

What we're talking about in this passage, and it becomes clear from verse 4, and the whole context here.

What we're talking about is not just physical suffering, we're talking about the imputation of guilt.

The reason that souls will die is for the guilt of their sins.

And Ezekiel says, God says to Ezekiel, the soul that sins shall die.

And of course, you understand that that's contrary to what Calvinism says.

Calvinism, Calvinism says that you are dead in sin.

When you're born, Because imputed to you, Is the guilt of Adam's sin.

The creeds are more specific about that and differ a little bit from Calvin's original thinking.

But this isn't just an Old Testament principle.

I'm gonna suggest several passages to you that seem to emphasize that we will be judged for our own sins, that in fact, if we are dead in sin, it's because of our sins.

It is strikingly absent any mention of us being dead because of Adam's sin.

In any of these passages.

I'm just gonna give you some examples, we could uh multiply them a great deal.

2 Corinthians 5:10 talks about the final judgment, and each 1 may receive what is due for what he has done in the body.

That's an interesting phrase, in light of what Calvinism says about the guilt of Adam's sin being imputed to you or even you participating in Adam's sin before you were even born.

23 Corinthians 5:10 says, we'll give account or we'll receive what is due for what he has done in the body.

Moving along to Romans 14, verse 12 says, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

No mention of giving account for Adam's sin attributed to us the guilt of his sin.

One of the passages that is appealed to by uh Calvinist is Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 3.

The new King James version says, and you, he made alive, the, the verb there is actually borrowed from chapter one, where God's in his power raised Jesus from the dead.

And in chapter two, Paul says, and you, There's no verb there and you dead in your trespa.

You were made alive by that same power.

Go back and read chapter one, the end of the chapter, you'll see the connection.

And you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we We also all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature, children of wrath and that's the phrase that people focus on when they want to suggest that we actually are born with this depraved nature.

But I want you to pay attention to the, the parts of the text that I put in red font.

We're dead in trespasses and sins in which we walked.

We were conducting ourselves in the lust of our flesh.

Paul, of course, is talking about uh the Ephesians and others, but it applies to us as well, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

The word that's translated nature there by nature, children of wrath is a word that can refer to our physical nature, but it also can refer to our customary habitual practice.

That's our nature, the way that we walk or we live.

The word walk there typically talks about one's general conduct in life.

Ephesians 2:13 does not talk about us.

Being dead because of Adam's sin, or even for that matter having a corrupted nature.

Just a few other examples.

Matthew 33:21, uh, the prediction of Jesus' redemptive work.

He will save His people from their sins, not from Adam's sin.

Repent, therefore, and turn back the apostles preached that your sins may be blotted out.

And it just keeps going on.

This is Uh, First Corinthians 2, I'm sorry, uh Colossians 2 and verse 216, I don't know what happened to the reference there.

And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our transgressions.

Again, no mention.

Of Adam.

215 Corinthians 200:251, that passage where Paul talks about the certainty of the resurrection of Christ and the consequence if one denies that resurrection, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in.

Your sins, not Adam's sin, your sins.

One of the other passages that is often referred to, to support this idea that we, we were participating in Adam's sin.

is Romans chapter 21 and verse 22.

Now, the Dreams version, which is the translation you see on the screen, is the Bible that has been produced by the Roman Catholic Church.

You may be aware of the fact that the Reformation movement One of the big things was to get the scriptures into the common vernacular of the people, the, the languages that people could understand, not Greek and Latin.

Latin was the language of the Bible at that point for the Roman Catholic Church.

But in Europe, to get that Bible into the language of people where they could read it for themselves, and the Roman Catholic Church worked hard, worked hard to try to defeat that process.

We'll go into all of that.

But they eventually ended up putting out their own version in English, the Dreams version.

I want you to listen to this.

This is Romans 43:24 in that translation.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into this world and by sin, death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned.

In whom?

Who do you think the whom is?

Well, that's Adam, of course.

In Adam, we all sin.

That's the translation that the Roman Catholics use in the, that translation.

This is the ESV.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men. Why?

Because all sin, but that passage does not say that we all sinned, all men sinned in Adam.

In fact, take a look at verses 214 and 212, same passage, uh, the ESV, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, that is the law of Moses, but sin is not counted where there's no law.

Yet, death reigned from Adam to Moses.

Now listen to this, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was the type of the one who was to come.

Who would that be?

Who is it that died spiritually?

Whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam because according to Calvinism, we all sinned when Adam sinned.

That's not, somebody just said, wow.

That's right, wow.

That doesn't, there would be nobody who fits that category.

And so even Romans 5 verses 13 and 14 deny the conclusion.

That all men sinned in the transgression of Adam.

Well, is this just some sort of esoteric doctrinal point, you know, Scholars, Bible scholars argue over these kinds of things and write papers about it.

Is there any practical import to any of this?

And the answer is, oh yes.

There are consequences to this doctrine of original sin.

I'm gonna just suggest 5 to you, and then I want to tell you why I think this is so important.

First of all, God becomes responsible for those lost.

In fact, he becomes a respecter of persons.

Now, not directly through total inherited depravity, but total inherited depravity necessitates the unconditional election of God.

Just a refresher on that.

That's the idea that before the foundation of the world.

God decided whether Douglas Broadwell was going to be saved or lost.

Independent of anything that Douglas would do, say, or think, God just said yay or nay.

And when God does that, Douglas cannot break that decision.

If it went bad for him.

There's nothing he can do to be saved.

Of course, on the other hand, if God chose him to be saved, there's nothing he can do to be lost.

Perseverance of the Saints, we'll talk about that later.

So God, because of this total inherited depravity doctrine, God becomes A respecter of persons, he becomes responsible for those who are lost.

Because God did not choose everyone to be saved, according to Calvinism.

However, First Timothy 2:3-143 says, this is good and it's pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

What is that, how does that work with the idea of God choosing some to be saved and by implication, choosing others to be lost?

Or how about Romans 2 and verse 11 that says God doesn't show partiality.

That would be a matter of partiality since it is an unconditional election.

Didn't depend on anything that Douglas or anybody else would do.

Second consequence is that one man's judged guilty for another man's sin.

As I said, John Calvin tried to kind of work around that by suggesting that we all participated in the sin.

But when we read those two confessions, the Westminster and the Philadelphia confession, they basically say, you get the guilt of Adam's sin, jurors.

By physical birth.

And yet Ezekiel 18 clearly says, no, that's not the way God works.

If original sin is true, then the gospel invitation is somewhat meaningless, maybe even.

A mockery According to Calvinism, God's gonna save those whom he chose.

Nothing is going to prevent them from being saved, and those who will be lost by God's choice, nothing can be done to save them.

So explain to me why God would say Jesus would send out his apostles to preach the gospel to every creature, when in fact, God's gonna make sure that you're saved because of his choice, or you're going to be lost because God didn't choose you to be saved, and there's nothing you can do about that.

That's like setting a dessert on the table.

And telling your children, hey, y'all come and have some dessert, and then punishing them when they come to the dessert.

Or not allowing them to come to the desert.

Very similar.

Jesus commanded the apostles to preach the gospel to the whole creation.

Mark 16:15 says, knowing that most could not respond even if they wanted to.

Come to me all ye who labor and are heavy laden.

00, not you.

Cause you weren't chosen Before the foundation of the world.

We're robbed of any certainty about our spiritual future.

Cause you see, it doesn't really depend on us.

I've had some interesting discussions with Calvinist about this particular point.

Because their argument concerning the perseverance of the sciences, if that the only people who can be saved are the ones that God chose, the elect.

And so if somebody, and those people are going to be saved, they're gonna persevere, they're not gonna be lost.

So if somebody appears to be saved, they're doing the, the things that Christians should do, and then they fall away.

Calvinism says there is no such thing as the elect falling away.

So that guy was never elect. Really?

Because he thought he was elect.

You thought he was elect.

You just found out later that he wasn't one of the elect.

So how, how can you and I be certain that we are saved according to Calvinism, if in fact, at some point in the future, we may discover we're not the elect, not one of them.

And so, this doctrine robs us of any certainty about our spiritual future, and Calvinists admit that some who were thought to be saved actually were not saved.

Because as it turned out, They didn't persevere.

They didn't persevere, they're not elect.

That's kind of circular reasoning.

And then finally, this false doctrine necessitates some other false doctrines.

You probably already thought of this.

If all of us are inheriting a depraved, corrupted nature by physical generation, where does that put Jesus?

I mean, the very essence of his sacrifice is that he was a pure unblemished lamb.

But, but how could he be that if he inherit, oh, but see, he didn't.

The Roman Catholic Church fixed that by coming up with the doctrine of the immaculate conception.

Of Mary, not Jesus, Mary.

Mary was conceived and didn't receive this corrupted nature and so therefore, she didn't pass it on to Jesus.

Jesus is the second person who didn't receive a corrupted nature.

OK. Does the Bible say anything about that, about Mary?

Immaculate conception?

How about infant baptism?

You, you're probably already thinking if babies are born guilty of sin, then you got to do something about that.

And the answer is baptism.

Well, The scriptures teach that water baptism is for the remission of sins.

What the Roman Catholic Church practices is not water baptism.

It's not New Testament baptism, but they call it baptism and the reason they do what they do is because they believe that child is lost in sin when that child is born.

We ought to do something about that.

The interesting thing about it is the Roman Catholic Church has had different views about what the situation is for a child who wasn't baptized.

And died.

Calvinism, well, actually, the church fathers and Roman Catholic Church believe in original sin.

They believe that child is guilty of sin.

Guilty of Adams sin, got a corrupted nature, died before the child was baptized.

And some said, well, that child is gonna go straight to hell.

Others said, well, that child is going to be in some sort of a limbo state.

So, so as soon as you adopt one false doctrine, then you got to, you got to accommodate that doctrine by making other false doctrines.

And so on.

These consequences that you see on the screen, they demonstrate that the doctrine of original sin is contrary to the teaching of scripture.

And it's important that we understand that.

Because it's at the foundation of so much.

That is called Calvinism.

Well, let me conclude by saying the Catholics hold to the idea of inherited total depravity and nearly every mainline Protestant body denomination holds to Calvin's concept of total inherited depravity or some variation of that same concept.

But the truth is we're not born with a corrupted nature.

We're born into a world that is full of sin.

I think that's what David's talking about in Psalm 51.

But we're not born with the guilt of Adam's sin and we're not born with a corrupted nature.

We are all born with free will.

The ability to choose for ourselves whether we will obey God or serve Satan.

And God wants everyone here to be saved.

That's what we read in 1 Timothy 2 verses 3 and 4, and that's what Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, not just some, all are invited. Why?

Because you have the right to choose.

You have the ability to choose to do good, to obey God.

We're to serve Satan, that is, of course, our choice, what we can do.

And God wants you to make the right choice.

Calvinism allows us to push responsibility for our spiritual condition off to Adam.

Off to a depraved nature.

I'm not really responsible for any of that.

But the Bible says we'll be judged, we'll give account of ourselves to God.

Romans 14 and 12.

And so each of us here, responsible before God, those who are old enough to know and to understand the right and wrong.

We're gonna have to answer for our own sins, for our own choices.

And if you need to make the right choice this morning, To become a Christian, to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

Then we want to encourage you, in fact, we're going to stand and sing to invite you to come forward, we'll assist you in obeying the gospel.

Come if the invitation applies to you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

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.)

This morning, I'm going to be reading from the Gospel of Luke chapter 10.

Beginning of verse 83 and continuing down to verse 37.

And I will be reading from the New King James version.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said to him, What is written in the law?

What is your reading of it?

So we answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, You have answered rightly.

Do this and you will live.

But he wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.

And went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

And he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

On the next day when he departed, he took out to Daenera, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend when I come again, I will repay you.

So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?

And he said, he who showed mercy on him.

Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

In China, it's tradition to show respect and sacrificial love to your in-laws.

And there was once a girl in China who got married at a young age and quickly found out that her personality and her mother-in-law's personalities clashed quite a lot.

And it got to the point where they could no longer live in harmony, and it seemed like every day they would fight or argue over something.

And the daughter-in-law got so fed up with her mother-in-law that she decided to go to the local merchant who dealt in herbs.

And the daughter-in-law didn't know that he happened to be one of her friends, one of one of her mother-in-law's friends.

And the daughter-in-law explains to the herb merchant, what it is like to live with her mother-in-law and how difficult it can be because of their clashing personalities.

And after explaining how hard her life is, the young woman asks the merchant to sell her a poison that will get rid of her problem for good.

And the merchant knowing exactly what to do, he smiles and he says, Of course I'll help you.

But you have to do exactly what I tell you to do in order for you not to become a suspect when she dies.

And the young daughter-in-law says, Well, what should I do?

And the merchant replied, Treat your mother-in-law with the utmost respect and obey every command that she gives you.

So that way no one suspects anything.

And as the days, weeks and months continued, she would sprinkle the poison over her mother-in-law's food.

But at the same time she would obey every command and be respectful and kind to her mother-in-law.

And eventually they started to get along a little bit better.

Eventually, they started to feel closer and more like a family.

And seeing this change, the daughter-in-law begins to worry.

And she instantly runs out of the house and runs to the merchant who sells herbs and says, Please give me something to save my mother-in-law from this poison that I have given her.

And again, the merchant smiles and says, I never gave you any poison.

All I did was give you some sugar.

That is what you've been sprinkling over her food.

And the only poison that you were giving her was in your mind and your attitude towards your mother-in-law.

But that has all been washed away by the kindness and the love that you have shown her.

And I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences, disagreements with in-laws, hopefully not the trying to kill them part.

But, The daughter-in-law was initially solely focused on just the mother-in-law's attitude and how she was being treated.

And again, the merchant advised her to change her attitude in order to see a different result in her mother-in-law's behavior.

And the merchant was essentially telling this young woman to practice the golden rule.

And this morning, we're not gonna be talking about a golden ruler, but in fact, we're gonna be talking about Matthew chapter 7 in verse 12, which has been coined as the golden rule.

So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, Do also to them.

For this is the law, and this is for this is the law and the profits.

And a consequence of the golden rule is that the way that we treat people can oftentimes determine.

How they will treat us in return and the daughter-in-law learned this the hard way.

Few purposes of our study this morning.

I first want to discuss the importance of the golden rule by talking about 3 applications or 3 observations, and then we'll give a couple of examples from the New Testament of the golden rule, and then finally, I want to discuss how we can apply the golden rule to our lives.

We'll start this morning by talking about 3 observations of the golden rule, and the first one is that the golden rule sets us apart from the world.

And people oftentimes don't think this way.

People often think, well, if they treat me nicely, well then I'll treat them nicely in return.

That's typically how the world thinks.

But in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, we see that New Testament Christians are commanded, especially by, by Christ, but in Paul in this situation to be different from the world.

As it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 93, Paul tells us, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Secondly, I believe the golden rule does not wait for others to be kind.

And at the, uh, I believe it was right before me and Kayley got married, Tim and uh Tim and Bev Smith gave me and Kayley a book called Love and Respect written by Doctor Emerson Eggridge.

And it's a wonderful book.

And one of the topics that are discussed in this book is, should the husband start being kind or should the wife?

And essentially what he's asking in this chapter is he's saying, should the wife wait to give the respect to her husband until she receives the love that she needs.

And then on the or and then on the other hand, should the husband wait to give the wife the love that she needs until he gets the respect that he needs.

And obviously, the answer to both of these questions is absolutely not.

If everyone waited for the other person to be kind first, we would live in a society where no one was ever kind to anyone.

And finally, the third observation is the golden rule implies that we should live in harmony with one another.

In Romans chapter 12 and verses 15 and 16, Paul, writing to the church in Rome, tells them, rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly and never be wise in your own.

Sight And I think I believe I speak for everyone here when I say that we want to live in harmony with one another.

And Jesus told parables.

Throughout the New Testament about this exact topic.

And the first one was in our scripture reading this morning.

It was from Luke chapter 10.

Verses 25 to 37.

And this is of course the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And of course, Jesus has a lawyer in the crowd who asked him how he could attain eternal life.

What, what do I need to do?

And Jesus asks him, well, what is written in the law?

And the lawyer replies, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And of course, in an effort to justify himself, the lawyer asks, well, who is my neighbor?

Who out here is my neighbor?

And Jesus then begins to tell the story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

And then on the way, he finds himself in a very horrible situation where he is robbed of all of his clothing, his possessions, and he is beaten near death.

And of course, there are 3 men mentioned in this story, who saw this poor individual in his in his unfortunate circumstances.

We have the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan.

The priests and the Levite both passed this man over, not having a care in the world, or even stopping to think, if I were in this man's situation.

I would want someone to help me.

I would want somebody to stop and take their time and tend to my wounds and make sure I don't die out in the, out in the, out in the wilderness.

And that is the difference between these two men and the Samaritan.

The Samaritan was the only man in this story to practice the golden rule.

He looked upon this man who had been beaten and robbed and probably thought to himself, I can put myself in this man's shoes.

I can imagine myself in this exact situation in, in the way that I'm gonna help this man, I'm gonna, I would want someone to help me.

And I think a big part of the golden rule is being able to put ourselves and have the ability to put ourselves in other people's shoes.

And Jesus also told parables about men who did not follow the golden rule.

The first one of those is gonna be the parable of the unforgiving servant.

And this one is from Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 to 103.

And at the beginning of this chapter, or at the beginning of this story, Peter had just asked Jesus, well, how many times do I have to forgive someone who wrongs me?

How many times do I have to forgive my brother of his transgression?

As many as 7 times.

And Jesus responds by saying, no, not 7 times, but 77 times.

In an effort of saying this, he makes an effort to make Peter understand that there is no limit to the forgiveness that we should have as Christians.

And Jesus then tells Peter that the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who is trying to settle the debts with his servants.

And the first servant in this parable had a debt of 10,000 talents.

Which would take lifetimes to pay off.

And the king responds to the servant's inability to repay him by saying, well, since you can't pay, I'm gonna take you, I'm gonna take your wife, and I'm gonna take your children, and I'm gonna sell you so that I can get paid on this debt that you owe me.

The servant begins to beg him, saying, Have patience with me.

And I will repay my debt to you.

And out of pity, the king forgives this servant of his lifetime's worth of debt.

If only the story could have ended right there.

But unfortunately, it goes on after being forgiven of this massive. Debt.

The servant goes to one of his fellow servants and takes a hold of him by the throat.

And says, pay me what you owe.

And the other servant replied, have patience with me, and I will pay you.

Having, having no pity for this man, his fellow servant.

Who not two verses ago was in the same situation as him.

He has zero pity for this fellow servant of his, and he throws him into the jail.

Until he can pay off his debt of what he is owed to the first servant.

And seeing this event unfold, it, it makes the other servants distressed.

And by doing this, they rush and tell the king what has happened.

And after hearing this news, the king becomes furious with this first servant.

And in return, this first servant is thrown into prison.

And so we can see that this servant did not practice the golden rule at all.

By forgiving his fellow servants as he would want to be forgiven, is what he should have done.

And as a result, he was punished by his master.

In the third parable, It's gonna be in Luke chapter 15.

In verses 11 to 32, and this is the parable of the prodigal son.

And just for the application that we're gonna be using it for today.

Typically it's just known as the parable of the prodigal son, but I think the most important thing that we're gonna touch on is the older brother and his response.

But of course, this parable starts by the youngest of two sons has decided to take his inheritance early before his father would have given it to him on his own account.

And run off and go to a faraway country to live his life his way in the way that he sees fit.

And as this young man begins to realize his folly, And all the things that he's having to do, be sleeping with pigs and doing very unclean things for what a Jew would have to do.

He decides This is not a life worth living.

I'm gonna go back to my father and hopefully, he will make me a servant.

Hopefully, he'll welcome me back not as a son, but as a lowly servant.

And when the younger brother returns home, his father sees him at a distance, and he runs out to greet him and welcome him home.

And after the father puts a ring on his son's finger, a robe on his back, and shoes on his feet.

His father tells the servants to go kill the fattened calf, so that they may celebrate the return of his youngest son.

And then we get to the account of the older brother.

Who is not too happy about how he feels that he has been treated by his father.

And the older brother goes on to say, Dad, I've never disobeyed you.

I've been here the whole time.

I've never left you.

I've been faithful to you this whole time, and yet you have never killed a fat and calf for me and my friends.

What, why is that?

And of course, the Father responds.

By saying that his youngest son is now found when he was lost and that he should be joyful with them.

But that's the problem with the older brother.

He is selfish and thinking only of himself and his jealousy of his younger brother is seen in his comment about not getting a party for him or his friends.

And because of his selfishness, he didn't treat his brother.

The way that he would want to be treated if the roles had been reversed, if he had been the one who had gone and made his life hard and come back and begged for forgiveness.

He didn't act according to the golden rule.

And now that we've seen 3 instances in the scriptures and where Jesus tried to get the golden rule across, How can we apply the golden rule?

Well, I think salt needs to be involved when applying the golden rule to our lives.

In the first Is being the S in salt stands for serve.

We must be able to serve others like Christ.

We are not called to be served, but to serve others.

Just as Matthew chapter 133 verse 25 tells us, but Jesus called, called to him, called them to Him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they're great ones exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be a great, whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Our gifts, our talents, and our abilities are not just for our benefit in this life.

They are for the benefit of others and to bless others.

The A in salt stands for appreciate.

We need to show appreciation to others.

We need to be able to applaud good efforts and recognize the accomplishments of our fellow brothers and sisters.

Some examples that Paul gives, and first one being in Romans chapter 16 and verses 3 and 219, Paul tells Paul tells the, uh, Paul tells the brethren, greet Priscilla and Aquilo, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

And then in Philippians chapter 22 and verses 27 to 28, we see where Paul is talking about giving thanks for Epaphroditus.

Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 29, so receive him into the, in the Lord with all joy.

And honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

And even just saying thank you on a daily basis, on a regular basis, it can be a simple way to let people know that we appreciate them for what they do.

The L in salt stands for love.

And we need to love the way that Jesus loved.

In Luke chapter 210 and verse 13 to 21, we're told that we need to have a love that is sacrificial, that is open, constant, and that does not respect anything in return.

Luke chapter 22 and verse 224 to 36 tells us, if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.

And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and evil, and to end the evil.

Be merciful as your, as even your father is merciful.

And finally, we need to, T as in treasure and salt.

We need to value others around us, especially our fellow Christians.

We need to show them that kindness and respect, even.

And regardless of their past or their background.

In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, Paul tells us, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

And in Ephesians 4:32, we're told, be kind to one another.

Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

And in Philippians chapter 2 and verses 23 and 5.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but to the interests of others.

Having this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

By looking out not only for our own interests, but the interests of others, you can show just how much you treasure someone.

And when we treat others like that, we are constantly serving others when we are appreciating love and treasuring, when we are producing salt.

To our fellow man, we are living out the golden rule.

And when we live our lives this way, we become the salt of the earth that Christ has called us to be.

The golden rule is well known.

But it's not widely practiced.

Before I even realized that the golden rule was in the scriptures as a young boy, and I, I'd already heard it out in the world, just a common saying, treat others the way you want to be treated.

And even though it's so widely spread across this world, it's not widely practiced by many.

And the importance of the golden rules that it underlies the way that we should treat everyone is absolutely fundamental.

In order to bring others to him.

And finally, Christ lived the golden rule.

He lived it every single day.

In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19, we're told of the instance where we love because he first loved us.

And in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7 and 8, he looked out for our own and he looked out for our interests above his own.

And in Matthew chapter 9, verses 10 to 13, Jesus showed kindness and care for the souls of others and everyone around him regardless of their background and their past.

In Christ's love for us.

It was so sacrificial that he bled and died on a Roman cross so that you This morning would have the opportunity to be forgiven of your sins as we're told in 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse 24.

And there are conditions that must be met in order to receive his free gift of mercy and forgiveness of sin.

And we have everything here ready this morning to make you his child.

And if you're already a Christian, perhaps your life has become mired in sin once again.

Christ's death on the cross continues to cover your sin as well.

And it gives you the ability to seek his forgiveness, which we are told that the Lord is willing and able to forgive us if we seek and ask for his forgiveness.

If you are subject to the invitation this morning, 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.)

1 Peter chapter 3, the 1st 7 verses.

The screen has the English Standard version and I'm reading from the New King James.

83 Peter 3:1 to 7.

Wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives.

When they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.

Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel.

Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God.

For in this manner in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

Husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers may not be hindered.

I feel especially empowered this morning because just prior to me coming up here, I could hear Walker saying, Bible, Bible, Bible.

OK, then.

That's what we'll do.

There's a young chap who's being uh brought up the way that you should bring them up.

I am a baby boomer.

That's the.

Designation that is arbitrarily given to those who are born between 1946 and 1964.

You'll see different dates depending on the source of generation names, but the Bible, or I should say the baby boomer generation.

is sometimes also known as the me generation, a generation that was pretty concerned about themselves.

In 1979, a fellow by the name of Christopher Lash wrote the books, whose cover you can see on the screen, the Culture of Narcissism.

He was actually writing about a different generation, the millennial generation.

Sometimes known as the me me me generation.

And in his book, he described the personalities of younger baby boomers as often being narcissistic personality disorder.

In other words, it had gotten even worse than the me generation had done.

Now, narcissism may not be a word that you use a whole lot or you may not be familiar with the definition of it.

And so let me suggest just a couple of quick definitions to kind of serve as a background for our study this morning.

If you were to consult psychology today in one of their articles concerning narcissism, they say that it's characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, a need for excessive admiration, and the belief that one is unique and deserving of special treatment.

Of course, AI helps us with everything now.

And so just a quick AI overview of some of the things that you could find about narcissism produces this definition or description.

Narcissism, a personality trait, is characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy for others.

You may recognize that narcissism, that word actually comes from the name of an individual in Greek mythology, Narcissus, Narcis.

Uh, he was a hunter who, being very attractive in his appearance, fell in love with his reflection in a pool of water as he was looking down in there and consumed with his passion for himself, he eventually melted away into a flower that we now call the daffodil, although its technical name is Narcissus.

That's Greek mythology, but that's where narcissism comes from.

Somebody who was self-absorbed, who was In love with himself.

To an extreme.

Degree It might seem, if we were to talk about the me generation and then the me, me, me generation following that certain personality traits are passed from generation to generation.

Because what was true of the me generation seems to have actually been intensified in the millennial generation, those individuals who were born between 1980 and 2000.

Am I starting to get a little close for some folks?

Noticing, uh, talking about the me generation, I took a baby carriage from that came right off of Noah's Ark.

Uh, because that's, you know, the, the baby boomers, that's old people, but when you start talking about millennials, Now, there's quite a few of us that are in that particular generation.

1980 to 83.

And in 2013, there was an article published by Time Magazine, uh, written by Joel Stein, and he wanted to talk about, or in this article, he talked about the me, me, me generation, the generation that we call millennials.

Now, mind you, he wrote 12 years ago, over a decade ago.

And so, as I read a couple of quotes or excerpts from his article, as he describes millennials, that generation, please understand that we're talking about people who were uh at that age when he wrote in 2013.

That'll become more obvious as we read.

Millennials, 80 million strong in the United States back in those days.

And he writes, and I apologize for the lengthy quotations, but I think it'll help us understand.

The, uh, the description that he gives.

He says, here's the cold hard data.

The incidence of nar narcissistic personality disorder is nearly 3 times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that's now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Listen to this.

58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 33.

You remember when you took the ACT or the SAT and then the narcissist. Test.

Well, maybe you don't remember that anymore.

Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% of millennials believe they should be promoted every two years regardless of performance.

He goes on to say, in the US, millennials are the children of baby boomers, who are also known as the me generation, who then produced the me, me, me generation, whose selfishness technology has only exacerbated.

Whereas in the 1950s, families dis displayed a wedding photo, a school photo, and maybe a military photo in their homes.

The average middle-class American family today.

Walks amid 85 pictures of themselves and their pets.

Millennials have come of age in the era of the quantified self, recording their daily steps on Fitbit, their whereabouts every hour of the day on Place Me. This is a dated article, isn't it?

Who knows what those apps are anymore.

Now, we've replaced them with Facebook and Snapchat and uh other social platforms like Instagram and H or, or X rather.

And so he, he continues, they have less civic engagement and lower political participation than any previous group.

They're so convinced of their own greatness.

That the national study of youth and religion found the guiding morality of 60% of millennials in any situation is that they'll just be able to feel what's right.

And so he describes.

Millennials, in general, obviously, as a generation of people who are very narcissistic.

They're very self-absorbed, very concerned about the need for others to admire them and to watch them to pay attention to them.

And as he suggests, I think that technology has exacerbated that narcissistic tendency that was in the me generation, so that now people are recording everything about their lives on social platforms.

If I go to the grocery store, I want people to know that.

If I say something, I put it on Facebook and I want to know how many likes I'm going to get.

People tend to measure their lives by the number of likes or the number of followers that they have on social media.

And so I wanna suggest to you this morning, we may need to be very careful that we do not adopt.

The same selfish attitude that seems to characterize many people in the world, a narcissistic attitude that is paired with a sense of entitlement.

I'm owed by everybody else.

What I want to do this morning is I want to suggest 4 ways in which narcissism, and I'm going to use the word selfishness, because narcissism is essentially a form of selfishness.

It's all about me.

And I want to talk about 4 different areas in which sometimes narcissism or selfishness.

Could be a problem for us.

The first one has to do with teaching and preaching, and that may not apply to everyone here, but probably many of us.

There are some, I think we're all aware, who preach and teach God's word.

And it's all about them and not about the message that they are supposedly teaching.

Te evangelists, celebrity preachers who come out in their flashy, uh, expensive clothes with all of the lights and all of the drama and carefully orchestrated shows.

It's about the speaker.

It's not primarily, sometimes about the message.

Sermons with little scriptural value, but lots of drama, and lots of personal charisma.

Now we're getting closer sometimes, I think, to the way narcissism enters the pulpit in churches of Christ, where preachers are more interested in impressing people than they are actually providing truth.

We need to be careful about those things.

The Corinthians.

Elevated the messenger, the preacher, and in so doing, they also depreciated.

The message, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

By treating the gospel as though it was the proprietary wisdom of each of these creatures, whether it was Paul or Cephas, or Apollo.

And so the Corinthians had begun to call themselves, instead of all of them being united in Christ, they were calling themselves after various preachers.

The Corinthians, well, I should say I'm not convinced that the preachers, Paul, Apollo, and Cephas, and perhaps others, I'm not convinced that they were elevating themselves, but the Corinthians had made it all about the messenger and not about the message.

And so Paul rebukes them.

And he asks, is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you?

Were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Why are you emphasizing the messenger instead of the message, which in chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, he says, is the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of men.

I believe that later on, when Paul would write his second letter to the Corinthians, he has to deal with some individuals who had come into the Corinthian congregation, we might call them Judaizers, they may have been Jewish Christians who believed that Gentile Christians needed to continue to keep the law of Moses and be circumcised, and those individuals were very much about themselves.

Even over the doctrine that they preached.

Paul would say in 2 Corinthians chapter 23, and what I am doing, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission, they work on the same terms as we do.

And he calls them false apostles, deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

And so here were teachers who in order to elevate themselves, were claiming to be apostles of Christ.

Paul says they're false apostles.

And of course, the doctrine that they preached was false anyway.

Paul didn't do that.

In fact, he reminds the Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 2, that when he came from Athens to Corinth in his 2nd missionary journey when the church was established, that the way that he preached was designed specifically not to draw attention to the messenger.

But rather to the message and that people would then have faith or confidence in the power of God and not in the charisma of the speaker.

He says there in 1 Corinthians 2:1, and I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the test.

Testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom.

But in demonstration of the spirit and the power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

And so Paul elevated the message, the gospel of Christ that he preached by not preaching with lofty speech and plausible words of wisdom as he says, but by confirming it with the demonstration of the power of the Spirit.

The emphasis is on the message, not the messenger.

And he reminds the Corinthians about that more than once in the 1st 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians.

For instance, in 53 Corinthians 3, He says, uh, what is, who is Apollo?

What is Paul?

They're just servants.

They're planters and waters.

Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

And so Paul would say in chapter 4 and verse 1, listen.

I'm just a servant.

I'm a steward of the gospel that God has given me to preach.

Well, that's one of the ways that I think sometimes narcissism affects people, even when they're trying to or uh in the process of teaching or preaching things that may in fact be true, but they emphasize themselves over the message.

Well, I want to talk just a moment about congregation jumpers.

I'll explain what I mean by that if you're not certain what that phrase means in just a moment.

But a local congregation, a local church is a group of people who have agreed to worship and work together.

As members of the Kelly Spring Road congregation, we are involved in mutual edification, as the New Testament uh indicates that we should be.

We sing and admonish one another, teach and admonish one another in our singing, according to Colossians 21 and verse 22.

And Paul commanded the Thessalonians that they should encourage one another and build one another up.

That's the idea of edification.

And the point I'm bringing out is that as a group, we have responsibilities toward the other members of this congregation.

Responsibilities to teach and admonish, to encourage.

Paul says, even in Galatians 28:28, we may have the responsibility of correcting others.

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Moving back to First Thessalon.

23, just a few verses farther down in verse 22, Paul says, and we urge you brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

We have mutual responsibilities to one another.

But you know, sometimes.

People have an unhealthy attitude toward their relationship with other brethren in a congregation.

I think sometimes people have two different perspectives or attitudes in that regard.

There's the, the good attitude where people uh come to services or have interactions with their brethren, with the questions in mind, how can I serve and edify others?

What can I do to help you?

What can I bring to this spiritual family?

And I think that's a good way to come to services so that all of the activities in which we engage then tend to help us because we're looking for things that we can get, but we're also looking for those things that we can provide.

But then there's another attitude that sometimes brethren hold, and that is, well, what, what can others do for me?

They come with an empty bucket expecting to be filled by everybody else without any consideration of what they might lend to the local congregation.

What am I getting out of my church membership?

Now, in the world, I know that's true because people church shop.

They look for churches, whatever denomination seems to suit them.

What, what church will provide me with a program for my youth?

What church will provide me with entertainment?

What church is going to make me feel good about myself regardless of how I'm living.

And so people church shop, they jump from one church to the other to find that church that suits them.

Those with a self-centered attitude, even among brethren.

Look for a church that suits them rather than seek for the Lord's church.

And so, uh, if I'm not getting enough from the local congregation, then I'll go find some other congregation that uh will provide more for me or that I feel better about, or if there's some sort of difficulty or problem uh in the congregation, whether I'm involved or not, I, I don't wanna work to, to try to solve that problem.

I don't want to try to provide for unity.

I'll just go someplace else.

That's the easy way out.

And it, I think exhibits the attitude of it's all about me and what I need and what I want, what others can do for me instead of serving others.

Is our worship together, our work with other Christians, Is it about serving God and others?

Or is it just about being served?

I think we know the answer to those questions.

Well, in the third case, I think sometimes people do things they do just to be seen by others.

Jesus warned about people who were engaging in religious activities, activities that were not bad in and of themselves, in fact, very appropriate, but for the purpose of being seen by others.

If you're looking in your Bibles at Matthew 33, there'll be some of it up on the screen.

You'll see that Jesus approached three different activities with basically the same message and that is, if you're involved in these things, simply to be seen by others, that's your reward.

Because the Father's not gonna offer any other kind of reward.

Sometimes people would practice their righteousness before other people in order to be seen.

I think the King James version is to, to, to practice charity or do charity.

Uh, the new King James version uh uses a little different word, but the idea seems to be in the context.

of of of alms of helping others in perhaps primarily in matters of benevolence.

And some people, Jesus says, uh, they essentially, at least metaphorically are sounding a trumpet before them so that people will know what they're doing.

The motivation is, it's all about me.

It's not really about helping people.

It's all about people seeing me as some sort of paragon of righteousness.

He talks about prayer using the same kind of language or principle.

Don't be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others.

Jesus says, they got their reward.

If someone sees them, that's all they're going to receive from God.

And then he finishes up in verse 23 and following about fasting.

Individuals who fast and they disfigure their faces, so everybody knows they're fasting.

It's all about me and people's uh Thinking or uh impression about me instead of being about serving God.

Me, that's right.

Leading singing, Bible class teaching, preaching.

Do we want to get in front of the congregation so that we can be praised?

Are we seeking to serve in these ways, not really to serve, but instead to be, to rise in the estimation of others.

Well, you know, so and so, he, he's a really good song leader, so and so can really preach.

What's the motivation?

Is it all about me?

Or is it about serving others, about leading people in worship and helping them to be encouraged and built up?

I think all of us who serve publicly need to ask that question of ourselves.

Why do you do it?

What's your motivation?

You know, it's interesting that in the same sermon, the sermon on the Mount, over in Matthew chapter 25, toward the beginning of that sermon, Jesus had these words to say in verses 210 through 16.

He said, you are the lamp of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Jesus says, you're the light of the world.

You don't hide light.

Light intends to be seen.

So when you do your good works, it's not evil for other people to see you as long as it's about glorifying God in those things.

When it becomes all about me, then we've got a problem and now we've moved into chapter 6 and not chapter 5.

And then finally I want to talk about attracting the attention of others.

Wanting to be in the spotlight all the time.

We are approaching the season of nakedness.

What I mean by that, it's the time when immodest clothing becomes the rule for many people.

And I know that people have different I'm going to use the word excuses for their immodest clothing.

Oh, I just want to be cooler.

Or it's more comfortable.

And yet I've observed that some of the immodest clothing that sometimes men and women wear is so tight, so restricting, that it's not more comfortable, it's less comfortable.

It's less efficient for the things that people are wanting to do.

I want to show you something interesting about this whole question of modesty or immodesty.

A couple of passages we're going to look at and I'm going to provide you with both the ESV and the New King James version because I think there's a subtle difference in those two translations that may help us.

In the ESV 1 Timothy 2:9-53 reads as follows.

Paul says likewise also, that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women.

who professed godliness with good works.

Now, usually when we think about immodesty, a lot of times what we think about is clothing that is revealing in some way.

It may be scanty, it may be tight, it may be transparent.

Uh, those are all kinds of ways or ways in which clothing can be immodest.

But I want you to notice that when Paul writes about the way that women should adorn themselves, he doesn't give any numerical measurement standards.

In fact, he doesn't even really talk about exposing yourself, does he?

Only indirectly, as we'll notice.

But notice what he says.

He says, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire.

What does that have to do with revealing your body to others?

Well, not very much at all, but all of those things are things that are sometimes used to draw attention to oneself.

And I'm gonna suggest to you that as Paul writes about modesty, the fact of the matter is, uh, a woman or a man, for that matter, modesty is not just a female issue, but an individual could be dressed to the nines, that is all the way just covered, just totally uh covered and yet be immodest.

Because of the way the dress, that apparel draws attention to that individual.

Paul uses some words here that I've tried to give you the parallels in both the ESV and the New King James version.

I've used different color fonts, hopefully, that's obvious uh on the chart there.

But the word respectable in verse 9 of the ESV is the same word that's translated modest in the New King James version.

It's a word that, it's actually the word cosmios, which just means orderly.

It's the idea of good behaviors, the way it's sometimes translated over in 1 Timothy chapter 3, when talking about the qualifications of elders.

Basically, it means not scandalous.

The word modesty in the ESV is the same word as propriety in the New King James version.

It is a word that talks about a sense of shame.

Have you thought about the fact that Adam and Eve, when God created them, he didn't put clothes on them.

They were naked.

They were the only two human beings alive.

The only two had been created.

And so they were naked and they were not ashamed.

They didn't become ashamed until they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then they tried to clothe themselves.

When they gained this knowledge of good and evil, they realized that being naked was not a good thing.

I wonder if we could find that tree of the knowledge of good and evil and start distributing the fruits of it so that others would understand that running around half naked is not a good thing, it's an evil thing.

But this word that's translated modesty in the ESV and propriety in the New King James Version is a word that means a sense of shame.

And then finally, Paul says, with modesty and self-control, or moderation in the New King James version, and that's just a word that means sound judgment.

Trench makes this observation.

I think this is helpful.

He's quoted by Vine.

Trench said in his study of New Testament words, he says, it is that habitual inner self-government with its constant rain on all the passions and desires.

Self-control is what will not allow you to do the shameful thing.

To dress shamefully, or for that matter, to act shamefully because modesty is not just a question of dress.

It's sometimes a question of behavior as well.

I want you to notice what's prohibited.

What's prohibited in these two texts is braided hair, gold or pearls or costly attire.

Paul may be making a contrast here, somewhat in the style of the not but statement.

Because I don't think Paul is saying that braided hair is necessarily an evil thing.

But I think those, that list of things prohibited as opposed to the way that women should attire themselves with good works indicates that he's not just talking about scanty clothing, he's talking about whatever draws attention to me.

Is that not the problem with the me generation and the me me me generation?

Narcissistic in their attitude.

It's all about me.

Look at me.

And there are many ways that people try to encourage that in others.

Here's another passage along the same line.

Uh, I said I wanted to show you a difference in the New King James version, and this is the passage, uh, that, uh, that will illustrate that.

I, I made the mistake of talking about 1 Timothy 2.

But if you look at, uh, this passage, just reading in the ESB first, and then I'll point out a difference in the New King James.

Peter wrote, likewise, Wives be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

When they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear.

Now, if this is an absolute prohibition, then I guess Paul's Peter's saying we shouldn't put on clothing.

No, no, that's not the point at all.

But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's side is very precious.

Peter makes a contrast.

It's not to be, your focus shouldn't be on the outward apparel to draw the attention of others to yourself.

Instead, adorn your inner man, he says.

With the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit that God says is very precious.

Look at the New King James version.

And look at verse 8.

In the original New King James version, it doesn't show up on the, the paste here.

I should have made the, the change.

In verse 8, it says, do not, I'm sorry, verse 3, do not let your adornment be merely outward.

And I think that really captures the focus of Peter's comments.

It's not just merely the outward.

He's not saying that you can't adorn yourself in an attractive way, but that shouldn't be the focus.

Instead, rather let it be the hidden person of the heart that we are adorning.

Those who are honest, Acknowledge, I think that immodest clothing is for the purpose of attracting the attention of the opposite sex.

That's the elephant in the room.

That's what people don't want to talk about that because that talks about motivation.

But I think women and men both need to ask themselves why is it that you dress in scanty, revealing clothing.

Why is it that you behave the way that you do?

Is it because it's all about me?

I want everybody to pay attention to me.

Because it seems to me that in these passages, The apostles Paul and Peter are saying you need to be worried about the inner person.

Just a quick word Just a quick word to young men and young women.

Young men, as you see young ladies and you're thinking perhaps about dating or perhaps even about courting uh being married eventually, who are you looking at?

Who are you looking for?

The woman who flaunts herself, who shows her body before you.

Is she really the most valuable kind of wife that you could have?

Or should you be looking for the woman with good character, the one who adorns the inner person?

Much harder to do that.

But God says that's very precious.

And that'll stand you in good stead.

When you form a marital relationship.

Young ladies, Do you feel the need to attract the attention of young men by revealing yourself?

In a modest clothing.

What kind of individuals are you going to attract?

Are you gonna attract young men who are gonna be good husbands?

Who are gonna value you for who you are.

Because what I've discovered to my chagrin.

Is that all of our handsomeness and our beauty as we grow older.

Tends to fade away and we get wrinkled.

Our body shape changes.

Our hair falls out or gets white or So all that physical outward stuff then last.

So who's gonna love you?

Who's gonna stick with you?

Who's gonna support you?

When you're not as pretty as you once were, I know that's impossible, but just hypothetically speaking.

Who's going to stay with you?

The person who only sought you because of your outward appearance, whose interest in you is really superficial.

Or the person who appreciates you because you are an individual with good character who has adorned the hidden person of the heart.

Those are things to think about as we uh think about dating.

Well, let me conclude this morning by saying, I, I want to recognize that just because we belong to the baby boomer generation or belong to the millennials generation doesn't mean that we're a bunch of narcissists.

I don't think our character is determined by the year in which we were born.

Those are just ways of describing trends in society, but the truth of the matter is, We are not governed by society if we're Christians.

Instead, We are governed by the teaching of Jesus Christ.

There is, I think, of course, the danger.

That we can be swept up by our culture, influenced by our environment, the world around us.

And we can begin to think in narcissistic ways, becoming much more concerned about what people see than really who we are.

And so I encourage you this morning to think about the example of Jesus.

Paul uses that example in Philippians, the 2nd chapter.

He begins in that chapter a little bit before verse 5.

He talks about how the Philippians should treat one another, and he says to them, beginning in verse 3, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than are yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

You know, it's easy to read that.

It's hard to live that.

To constantly be thinking about others instead of thinking about ourselves.

That's the problem with the me, me, me generation.

That's the problem with narcissism.

That's self-absorption, absorption, where we're only concerned about ourselves or at least primarily with very little empathy for others.

And Paul would then pass on in verse 5 to talk about Jesus.

Jesus, who unselfishly Humbled himself, emptied himself, Paul says, and came to this earth to become obedient to the Father's will, even to the point of death, death on a cross.

Jesus told his disciples and marked the 10th chapter.

It shall not be so among you, the, the striving for power and influence, greatness, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came to be, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And so as Christians, we need to follow the instruction and the example of Jesus Christ, and look at others, and not focus primarily on ourselves.

You know it's interesting, in Philippians too, Paul does not say that looking after your own interests is wrong.

He said you ought to put other people's interests above or before your own.

That's the problem with narcissism.

That's the problem with selfishness.

God encourages us to follow the example of His Son, who unselfishly gave his life in the service of mankind, dying for us.

I appreciate it very much the comments of Tim before we took the Lord's suppers.

He talked about that and even the song that we Uh, songs that we sang this morning emphasizing the service of Jesus Christ.

What he did for our benefit by his stripes, uh, the song says, we are healed, and that healing is possible through the blood of Jesus Christ, and we come in contact with that blood in a metaphorical way when we're baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins.

And if you've not done that this morning, then I want to encourage you to think seriously about responding to the invitation.

We're gonna sing in just a moment, stand and sing, and we're encouraging you to, to follow the example of those in the first century who became Christians by expressing their faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

And having repented of their sins, they were baptized, buried in water with Christ for the remission of the sins.

If we can assist you in doing that this morning.

And we want to encourage you to come to the front.

We stand and sing to encourage you.

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.)

Galatians one.

6 through 10.

Reading from the English Standard version.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him, who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

Or am I seeking to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

There was a paradox written in about the late half of the 1st century, and the paradox is most notably recorded by the author Plutarch in the life of Theseus.

In the thought experiment describes a ship.

And that as time as time goes on, the ship must have pieces replaced as they rot away.

And at some point, all the pieces on the ship will have to be replaced.

And after all these pieces on the ship have been replaced, is it still the same ship of Theseus.

And there are two schools of thinking when it comes to this thought experiment.

You have the materialist's view, and you have the formist's view.

This evening I want to dissect these two schools of thought so that we may understand how we are to view the scriptures.

And as Christians, do we get to change out the original documentation and the inspired word of God in order to make the scriptures more modern or relevant or inclusive to to today's society?

Or we commanded to keep the scriptures as they were written.

And this topic seems to be something that churches all across the globe and even individual Christians alike are getting confused.

And this evening, I want to start by discussing the formist's view of thinking.

And I don't know anyone who calls him or herself a formist, but the equivalent term that many of us may know for today's society is a progressive Christian.

And in the paradox that we mentioned just a moment ago, the foreist believes that as long as the ship of Theseus still floats and sails and is still made of wood, it's still the same original ship.

In other words, no matter how many original pieces you remove and replace, it's still the same historic chip.

And many who consider themselves to be progressive Christians do the same with the scriptures.

And there are many churches who have decided to allow LGBTQ plus people and to be pastors, elders, and elders and other members of clergy within their churches.

The United Church of Christ, the UCC, the Episcopalian Church, and the Presbyterian Church are just some of all the churches who have publicly shown that they are perfectly fine with adding members and allowing them to participate who are openly homosexual.

In an effort to be more inclusive, these churches have decided to to go and say against what the, what the scriptures teach.

This evening, we're gonna start out in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

I don't have slides this evening, so if you would follow along with me.

1 Corinthians chapter 6, I'll be reading verses 9 and 10.

Starting in chapter 43 and verse 9 of 1 Corinthians, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Of course, Paul is saying this in in Romans chapter 1 and verse 26, Paul says something very similar.

Chapter one of Romans starting in verse 26 to 28, Paul says, for this reason, God gave up, gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged 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 one another.

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

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

So here we can clearly see that these churches are taking what they consider to be the rotted wood of the scriptures away from the ship that is the church that Christ established.

And I know this may not seem like an example that we see close to home here, but there are, this is happening in hundreds of churches across the United States.

And unfortunately, it does not seem to be a movement that is slowing down anytime soon.

And there are also churches who decide, hey, we should entertain instead of teaching.

And many mega churches now across Texas and other states now have Starbucks, bookstores, and uh and or food courts in order to entertain their members when they're not worshiping.

And in 2005, ABC News wrote an article about this.

One of the members of these mega churches said, in our family, we almost kid because we spend so much time up there because we just love it.

Said John, said Johnson Ellis, and he continues on to say, there's just a lot of fun things to do up here.

ABC News went on to state in this article, these mega churches are places where members can not only pray, but they can also work out in the gym, eat at the food court or browse in a bookstore.

And they are becoming more popular across the country.

Is this really what Christ had in mind for his church?

I think not.

And when Christ forced the money changers out of his father's house, In the New Testament, he strictly states that his house is a house of prayer and not a place of trade.

And there are 22 separate accounts of this, the first being in Matthew chapter 21 in verse 23, where Jesus said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.

As many of the people were defrauding the people within the temple.

And then we see in John's Gospel account in John chapter 2 in verse 16, we see something very similar happen and Jesus says, and he told those who sold pigeons, take these things away.

Do not make my father's house.

A house of trade.

The church that Christ instituted is not a house of bookstores, gyms, or food courts.

And here we can see again, clear evidence that these churches are stripping away the commands, the patterns, and the examples that we can clearly see in the New Testament.

All for the sole purpose of modernizing the church that Christ started.

Now I want to switch focus to the materialist's view.

Now that we've discussed the formist's view.

And I have never called myself a materialist because typically that has a different meaning.

But in this context, when it comes down to this paradox, it seems that the answer of being a materialist is what more closely aligns with what Christ had in mind for us.

The materialists answer to this paradox is if you focus on the material composition of the ship, it is not the same as all of its original parts have been replaced, making it a completely different ship altogether.

And this is how Christians should feel about apostasy in the scriptures.

And when the commands and patterns and examples of scripture, of the scriptures are being replaced, We as Christians need to stand for the truth.

Just as Paul stood for the truth when writing to the brethren in Galatia.

Brother Mil Milstead read this for us, but I wanna read it again just to put it in context.

In Galatians chapter one.

In verses 6 through 10, Paul says, I am astonished.

That you are so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we are, if, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you another gospel, contrary to the one that we preach to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, now, I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you have originally received, let him be accursed, for I am now seeking, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

Or am I trying to please man?

If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

And is it not interesting that in this account, Paul is not getting upset with these brethren, because the people were denying Christ, as so many other churches were.

Paul is upset due to the fact that they are following a gospel that is distorted.

Than the original Gospel of Christ.

In other words, these men were twisting the scriptures.

And so now that we understand the two forms of thought, both the formist and the materialist, I think it's now important that we understand what we as Christians can do to stand against apostasy in the scriptures.

The first is that we need to know the word of God.

If you would turn over to Psalm to the first Psalm.

I'll be reading verses 1 and 2.

The only way that we will ever be able to know the word of God is by spending time in His word.

The first Psalm verses 1 and 2 tells us, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked.

Nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord.

And on his law he meditates day and night.

And continuing on in the 119th Psalm, we see in verses 33 and 15 to 16, we are told again that I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes, and I will not forget your word.

And finally, in Colossians 3:16, we are told to let the word of God.

Let the word of Christ dwell dwell in us richly.

By teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And just as we are commanded for the scriptures to dwell in us richly, We also need to test the scriptures, just as the brothers at Berea did.

In Acts chapter 17.

We see a scene in which Paul and Silas have just been run out of Thessalonica.

And after they had been, after they'd been run out of the city, they immediately went to Berea.

Starting in Acts chapter 17 in verse verses 10 to 11, says the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

So Paul is trying to teach these men, and of course they don't have the New Testament scripture.

They have the Old Testament scripture and as Paul is teaching these things, they're actively looking through the scriptures to see and test if what Paul is saying is correct.

And this is how we need to be when listening to others.

And knowing the word of God and being able to discern truth from falsehood and from false teaching must be done before we can use it to defend the truth.

I would say, secondly, we need to hold the scriptures as our sole authority.

We need to make our Bible the authority that we run our lives.

And that we need to be prepared to use it as a defense for why we do the things that we do.

And and there are 3 men, I want to pull 163 scriptures from the New Testament from Paul, John, and Peter, who speak exclusively about being able to be prepared and using the word as our authority.

We'll start with 2 Timothy chapter 3.

In verses 16 and 219.

24 Timothy chapter 22 and verses 24:22.

Paul tells us all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching.

For a proof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Of course, the second being John, and 23 John 13.

We see that John tells us everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

And then finally in 21 Peter 21:29.

First Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 we are told, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect.

So here we can see Peter, Paul, and John, all telling us that the word of God is what should guide us in this life.

As our sole source of authority.

And finally, we need to contend earnestly for the faith.

In Jude 3, we see an account where we are told that we need to be willing to stand for the truth even when it's unpopular, and even when it's difficult.

In Jude 3, we're told, beloved, although I was eager, I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

So we as Christians must contend for the Lord, even when tribulation, even when those outside in the world make fun of us and And make our lives very difficult because of it.

And so now that we've listed 3 ways, there are many more, but just the 3 that I've listed in the 13 forms of thought, some of you may be sitting here and questioning, well, how can I apply this to my life?

Well, the ship of Theseus and the scriptures of Christ are treated very similarly.

And in fact, People try and distort and twist the word of God just as they would ship of Theseus, like the ship who's rotted out and worn out wood planks are replaced in order to make the ship look and or sound current and up to date.

And while there's no recorded right answer to this thought experiment, I believe that the inspired writers and the scriptures lean towards the thinking style of the materialist.

And the scriptures are very clear about how God feels about twisting his words, and or taking away or adding to his examples because they don't happen to fit someone's weak, modern-minded mold.

In Revelation 22, We see John writing.

In Revelation 22 in verse 18 and 19, towards the end of the Bible.

John says, I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

And if anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share.

In the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.

Now, of course, we look, we look at the context and we understand that John is only referring to the book of Revelation.

But if we go back to the beginning of the Bible, we see in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 2 that God gives a direct command not to do this.

In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 2, God says, you shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

And so we can understand that even though John wrote about it in Revelation, we can understand that God means this for everything in his, in the scriptures.

And the material composition of the scriptures should matter a great deal to us as Christians.

The commands, the patterns and examples of the scriptures are just as important as the overall ideas that they support.

For example, As we've discussed, many churches want to teach about grace.

They want to teach about love and all the, the warm fuzzy feelings, but what they lack is they don't want to tell you about what's involved in order to receive this grace.

And when we come together, we like to offer an invitation to accept the gospel of Christ into your life.

And if you're not a Christian this evening, God is waiting for you to come to him.

Before the foundation of the world, God, God set in motion a plan with you in mind.

In John 3:16, we're told for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

That whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The love that God offers is not just for the people who are already Christians.

It is for everyone on this earth.

And God offers you this free gift of grace.

But in order to receive this free gift of grace, there are conditions that have to be met.

You must first believe.

The word, and you must repent of your sin, confess that Jesus is the Son of God.

And finally, Be baptized for the remission of your sins.

We have everything here this evening ready to make you his child, to make you a part of his family.

And if you're already a Christian, Maybe you have a sin in your life that is eating you alive.

And I think everyone in this room understands what I mean when I say that.

And is it not wonderful that God's, that Christ's sacrifice covers you as well?

And we are told in scripture that the Lord will forgive us if we seek it.

In 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9, we're told, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you need to if you need the prayers of the congregation or the prayers of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ this evening, if there's any way that we can assist you, please come to the front as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Jim Boyd

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 morning again.

If you're visiting with us, uh, every so often, the elders will speak to the congregation.

That's what I'm doing this morning.

Alan Dvorak is our normal preacher, and if you're in the area, uh, you want to hear somebody that actually knows how to speak, uh, with some profession to it, come back and hear Alan.

He, he always creates a great spiritual, um, message in a very good manner.

I want to start off by telling you a story about once when I was gonna go backpacking, uh, with a group of guys in the woods.

We're gonna be out for about a week.

And we looked at the weather and it was gonna be in the mid-60s, in the 1st 3 days, just a steady, drizzling rain the whole time, but we were going.

So as we set out, it was, it was kind of funny watching what people were doing.

And now, this was in the late 80s, so we had rain gear, but it was terrible.

Like if you wore it, you're gonna be drenched with sweat within the first hour.

If you didn't wear it, you're gonna be drenched with rain, so what was your choice.

So, There's guys that had it on, just kind of avoiding the misery thinking, you know, this is gonna, I'll take it off in a minute.

There's guys trying to hide under trees, you know, thinking, you know, I can keep the rain off me for a little bit.

This one guy goes over to a mud puddle.

He turned his back.

Razar and flopped back into it.

You roll around a couple of times and got up.

He's like, you babies.

So, what was he doing?

He, he was gonna be miserable, he knew it, he just decided to get out of the way.

Now, I, I didn't decide to go that route, but I think maybe he was on to a little something.

This is attributed to Mark Twain and before I get into it, I'm, I'm gonna do just a little aside.

It's been You know, less than 53 years ago, that Mark Twain supposedly said this, but they don't actually know if he said it or not.

It's been attributed to a bunch of different people.

A guy wrote a book about it, but even with the internet that Abraham Lincoln invented, we can't figure out if Mark Twain did it.

It just, it makes me appreciate the Bible even more.

And something's over, the words over 2000 years old, we can have full confidence.

It's pretty amazing.

But back to the point.

He said this, if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning.

And if you're, if it's your dog eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.

Now that might sound kind of gross.

It might sound like what is he talking about, but really, what he's saying is this.

If you have a difficult task, if it's something you don't wanna do, if it's something that's unpleasant, maybe it's tedious, uh, maybe, maybe it's painful, maybe it takes a lot of attention you want to give, do those things first.

And there's, there's a lot of pragmatic reasons for it.

I, I looked on this one mental health site, and they gave a, a definition of procrastination from uh the Cambridge English Dictionary.

It says to keep delaying something that must be done, often because it's unpleasant or boring.

And then mental health professionals have decided to add to that definition with this.

Procrastination as a self-defeating behavior pattern marked by short-term benefits and long-term cost. Self-defeating.

Now, now, why would you say it's, it's self-defeating?

Well, if it's something that has to be done, the longer you put off, how well is it gonna get done?

Now, you're rushing, you don't feel comfortable, there's a lot of different reasons why.

And there's a guy named Brian Tracy who wrote a book called Eat That Frog, and it was about, why would you not do the things that you know are the most unpleasant first.

So, eat the frog is another way of saying, if you've got things that are important, no matter how unpleasant they are, you need to eat that frog first thing in the morning.

Give yourself a sense of, of responsibility or a sense of accomplishment, get started.

So, why do we procrastinate?

That, that's a huge question, isn't it?

So I normally print out my slides, just in case technology fails me, so the printer wasn't working.

It, it wouldn't print any black.

So I put it on my phone, I put it on my iPad, uh, I have my computer in case all that didn't work, and it didn't really stress me out because uh I'd known about it for about 3 weeks.

So why didn't I fix it?

Because I, I, in my mind, I didn't need it.

But in the last 3 weeks, there's been several times I went to print something and went and print black and I was like, yeah, I can do without it.

And then when I actually need it, I didn't have it.

So I put it off.

Why do you think I put that off?

I know a lot of different reasons.

We can get distracted about things.

Uh, a guy at work that knows me pretty well put this on my door.

Um, it was, I, I have like a little placard saying what my job is on the, you know, the, on the right side of my door.

Came to work and this sign was on my door.

He knows me pretty well, I think.

It says, Dear visitor.

In order to protect my concentration and sanity, I decided to implement a door policy.

Door open.

Very welcome to come in.

Yes, I would love to have a chat.

Door closed, please knock.

I will let you know if I'm able to talk.

If it's urgent.

I'll continue to work I'm or I will not continue to work.

And you should continue to knock.

I'm extremely easily distracted and will talk you to the end of time instead of doing much needed work test.

Now, he does know me.

I, I, I get guys that come by all and we'll just talk and talk and talk.

What's funny is he put two things on.

It says, never, uh, just go away if you need something.

He said he got this off Instagram or something.

This is the part that I thought was kind of funny.

This was urgent business.

The building or someone is on fire, you're bringing me coffee, there's a dog.

So In other words, the guy knows that if, if he, he knows me.

If something's going on that I don't like to do when I'm trying to eat that frog, I'll put it aside very quickly.

So I can just have a conversation and avoid taking the next bite.

Uh, maybe we, we don't like doing it because we're perfectionists.

Uh, and perfectionist, if you've known any, and I know we don't have any here.

Um, if we, if you're a perfectionist, You look at these tasks, and you know, you're, you're just dreading it, so you, you put it off.

Now, you would think a perfectionist would never put things off.

That's not the case.

Sometimes they dread the mental and physical effort they know it's gonna take to put it into something, so they just kinda put it off.

Uh, maybe you don't believe in your own abilities to do something.

You ever put something off for that reason?

You you knew something important was coming, but you just Yeah, I need to do it, but I, I don't think I can.

I don't know if I'll be able to.

Maybe I won't do it as good as I'd like.

How about fear and anxiety?

That's a huge one.

How many things, how many frogs in your life are, that you have to face that you've got to take care of it, you're just, you're scared of doing it.

It makes you super nervous, so you just kind of slide it down the road.

Let me ask you something, would that increase anxiety or reduce it?

It would increase it.

You would think it would make it less, but it's gonna make it worse.

Now, obviously, I'm going somewhere with this for this morning, and I'm talking about spiritual frogs.

They're huge, they're unpleasant, they're alive and wiggling.

Yeah, I'm not talking about fried, fried frog legs.

If you've ever had those, they're not that bad, but I'm talking about, you know, you're gonna have to crunch up those bones, pop those eyeballs as you kids you listening?

eating a frog would be gross, wouldn't it?

Well, eating a spiritual frog can be just as gross, cause you gotta look at yourself pretty hard sometimes.

And that's what I want us to do this morning is talk about eating the frog first, spiritually, the things in our lives.

If it's important, if it's difficult, if it's unpleasant, just do it first.

Get them out of the way.

Psalm 139 23-24.

Say, search me, oh God, and know my heart.

Have you ever prayed that prayer or do you put it off?

God already knows your heart, but you're asking God to know your heart.

Try me to know my thoughts and see if there's any grievous way in me.

And lead me in the everlasting way.

That's important.

We need to ask God for their help.

We need to get into our souls.

And have those things exposed so we know what's standing in our way.

And what might be some of those spiritual frogs.

Well, dealing with sin obviously is, is the one that jumps out the mind the most.

I, I had a young man tell me this.

He, he had a huge Spiritual problem that he just couldn't deal with him.

He put it off for years and he went through the cycle of guilt.

He went through all these things over and over and over.

And, and then he found that when he finally took on that, that huge spiritual frog, And ate it He said there were tadpoles everywhere.

That's not how he said it.

He said he couldn't believe how many little problems he had that were just being masked because he didn't take on this big thing.

So it's important if you got, if you got sin in your life, you gotta get on with it.

Forgiving others.

That's not an easy thing to do, reconciling broken relationships, letting go go of worldly attachments.

Living with faith over fear.

If I'm, I'm gonna say this comment and I feel kind of hypocritical about it because there's things I'm scared of in my life.

But we shouldn't have fear in our life.

We just should not have fear in our life.

Because there's nothing man can do to us.

That compares what God can do for us or to us.

Sharing the gospel Trusting God while suffering.

All those things can be really hard.

Now we're not, we're not gonna talk about all of them.

But we're gonna talk about a few that I think are pretty important.

First, I'm gonna start that dealing with sin.

In Matthew 7 verses 1 through 3 and then verse 163.

Matthew 7, and the point of reading this is not to get into the judgment part of it.

That says judge not that you be not judged, for the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the spec?

That is in your brother's eye, but not notice the log that is in your own eye, you hypocrite, verse 5.

First, take the log out of your own eye, then you will clearly See to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Again, I, I don't want to divert you by saying it's not telling you you can't deal with the speck in your brother's eye.

But if you've got that log in your eye, get it out first.

Remember I told you about the young man, he said when he, when he overcame what he thought was this huge spiritual hurdle in his life, he just couldn't get past and he did it.

He started finding all these little things he'd either neglected or was doing wrong.

And he had to get, he had specs all in his eyes.

And he had to get those taken care of.

Now, in 1 Corinthians 235:26 to 213, I'm not gonna read the whole thing.

I'm just gonna focus.

These, these would be, if these were in your life, They'd be huge spiritual frogs, wouldn't they?

Sexual immorality, idolaters.

Now, you gotta be careful about the idolatry.

Elijah mentioned idolatry and of this world, that anything that replaces the glory of God is idolatry.

Whether it's money, whether it's confidence in yourself, Uh, I don't care what it is, AI. If every place is the glory of God, it's idolatry.

Adulterers, homosexually homosexuality thieves, greedy drunkards, or vilers.

And you're probably thinking, well, I, I don't do any of those.

Well, maybe that's not right.

Maybe, maybe there are things on this list.

But you just don't want to eat that frog.

I, I would, I would say with confidence, I could probably look around this audience and say that somebody's got something on this list that may be bothering them.

And we should never look at anyone who's suffering with the giant frogs and, and look at them with disgust.

Because you might have a frog you need to chew on for a while.

And then in 217 Corinthians 210, There's another list So those are the giant frogs, right?

Well, let's, let's look at these.

You think, well, these aren't so, so bad in purity, sensuality, idolatry again, strife.

Have you ever known anybody that just loved to stir up strife?

There, there was a guy I used to work with.

He did it all the time.

In one corner of my office, there was a guy who was a total tree hugger.

I mean, you, you talked about anything in the environment.

He, he would just get all his hackles up.

He'd go after it.

There's another guy that thought we should all drink raw oil out of the ground, you know, it's just two separate guys, right?

So this guy would walk in our office and he would go, You know, I wonder why they don't shut down bike trails.

That could be harming worms.

And he'd just walk out, knowing that these two guys would just go at it for the next hour.

He loved to stir it up.

You ever seen the pictures of guys stirring the pot?

He was a pot stirrer.

Spiritually, the people can be stuck pot stirrers.

There's things that are pretty plainly evident in the scriptures sometimes that people just like to challenge.

To bring up strife.

Jealousy, fits of anger.

A lot of people struggle with that, and, and we tend to focus on men with that, but it's not just men.

Rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy.

Do you ever drive around, see these giant houses?

I make this joke all the time with the kids.

It's like, I don't want a house like that.

I just want the money to be able to have a house like that.

You know, that's a form of the in itself.

But do I dwell on it?

I hope not.

I hope I'm not envious.

Remember, envy is wanting something that somebody else has, regardless of what it takes, even if it's to their detriment.

So Now, let's look at James chapter 25, and we'll read verse 83, and then we'll look at 28 to 210.

And this is again.

Kind of a, a A dual thing here, talking about procrastination.

And then also, Just failing to do things that you know she should do.

Come now, you should say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such town and spend a year there and try to make profit.

Now, this isn't exactly procrastination, this is making plans, right?

About, hey, we're, we're gonna have all these big plans for the future.

Says instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast in your arrogance.

All such boasting is evil.

I, I didn't go into a lot of research on how these tie together.

Alan, maybe that's a good question.

How, how does Knowing the right thing to do, and failing to do it, being sent, how is that tied to making all these big plans?

Well, if your big plans for the future, are causing you to not do the good now that you need to do.

It's sinful.

So Bev in a class, we we were talking about, she made a great statement.

She said, you know, we all struggle with this feeling of, I, I can't do enough.

I think most people feel like that.

I can't do enough.

Well, there's, there's two aspects of that.

No, you cannot do enough.

Jesus has done it all.

But the other aspect of it is, God doesn't want you to do everything.

He wants to do what you can do now.

So don't make big plans that interfere with doing good.

Do the things that you should do.

How about forgiving others?

In Classians 21000:13 says, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other.

As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.

And, and it's not the only place that it's mentioned in the scripture.

It's in Matthew 6 and Luke 17, and Matthew 18 about forgiving over and over.

And it's, you, you're not given a choice.

You have to forgive.

But connected to that, is reconciling relationships.

Now, that is an enormous frog.

Any, has anybody here ever had a broken relationship?

Somebody that maybe is a friend, that is no longer a friend, maybe even an enemy?

Have you had a relationship with someone that, because of their stand on the gospel and your stand on the gospel?

You, you can't be the friend you once were.

You're supposed to try to reconcile those relationships.

And, and uh, it's not easy.

It's a big thing.

It's hard to do.

I've been on both sides of that.

I've had people that came to me to reconcile, and I've been to people to reconcile.

But I'll tell you, Once you, once you get that frog down your throat, it's gonna be the best meal you ever had.

So I want you to think this morning, who in my life do I have a broken relationship with and what can I do to reconcile it?

Maybe nothing.

Maybe there's nothing you can do.

But let's talk about that for just a second.

Before we get into this verse, I wanna.

Tell you some things to consider.

Maybe it just feels like the pain is gonna be too big.

Maybe you have this desire for justice or revenge.

Remember in Romans 12.

Vengeance is the Lord.

That's not our place.

Maybe our pride gets in the way.

No, he was wrong, not me.

He should come to me.

Maybe it's, maybe it's the fear of getting hurt again.

Man, if I, if I reconcile, I mean, he, he, he stabbed me in the back once.

How do I know it's not gonna do again?

Or I, I didn't do anything and he just turned his back on me.

Maybe they'll do it again.

I think we, we need to take a deeper look at what forgiveness really is, or, or maybe we have some unresolved bitterness that we just gotta get over.

Maybe it feels unfair.

Well, I'll tell you this, life is unfair.

But would God ask us to do anything that was not fair?

Was it fair that Jesus died on the cross?

Absolutely not.

Was it a hard thing to do so that we can have spiritual life?

Yes. So now let's look at this verse, Matthew 5.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, you should not murder, and whoever murders will be allowed for judgment.

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insult his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool.

will be liable to the hell of fire.

So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and they remember that your brother has something against you, Leave your gift there before the altar and go.

First, we reconciled to your brother and then coming after your gift.

Did you notice it?

The wording there, it said, if you remember your brother has something against you.

But he's not right.

He was in the wrong.

I was in the right.

Then it's OK. Give your offering and go about your business.

Is that what it says?

It says, no, it has something.

It doesn't even say, it doesn't even mention who was right or wrong.

It says he has something against you.

Then you go to them.

Before you get on with what you consider your spiritual life.

In business as usual.

So, these are hard things.

Now, there's other things, we already talked about doing good.

That we might consider spiritual earthworms.

They're not as bad.

I mean, we've all seen kids eat earthworms or things like that.

These aren't big things.

I, I don't, I don't do my daily prayer and Bible reading.

Um, I'm easily distracted in worship.

Let me, let me just diverse for one second about distractions and worship.

I think it's not only are you, you may be easily distracted because your attention's not with it, maybe you don't care, maybe you've got a spiritual frog, you know, you gotta eat.

Have you ever found yourself that way?

You're in church.

The summer is going on, but your mind is just completely occupied with something that is eating you up.

Maybe there's things that are distracting you, so you're easily distracted.

But let me, let me diverse one second talk about you being a distraction.

So a lot of us, I love technology, a lot of us have phones.

And we, maybe we shouldn't pay attention to what everybody's doing around us.

Some people can just lock things out and go on.

But if you're doing this, I'm fairly confident you're not speed reading the Bible.

And if you're doing this, And it just continues and continues.

I'm fairly confident you're not doing a word search in your Bible program.

That can be distracting to others.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, well, they should just pay attention to their own business.

But if the things that you are doing are distracting to others, that's a problem.

Now, this one, this is a touchy one.

I want to make very, very clear.

I'm not talking about little children, I'm not talking about mothers with babies.

We all have health issues, but how many times do you get up in the service and go out?

If I want you to put yourself in like a corporate setting or just some setting.

And your CEO, somebody big, whatever the setting is in your mind, is talking to you and you just get up and walk out.

Now, I'm not God.

Uh, Allen's not God.

Whoever is reading the scripture is not God, but that is God's word being put out.

If, if you can't plan to be here on time, if you can't plan to be able to sit for 103 minutes, Maybe you gotta look at that.

Why are you going out constantly?

Now, I know this, this is a little bit mean-hearted, maybe, but it's actually not.

It, it is distracting if you get up 50 times during the service.

Again, I know there's things with children, with babies, people who have health problems.

I've, I've had to get up and go to the back myself.

But just think about things.

How about telling white lies or exaggerating?

I used to be terrible about this when I was, especially when I was young.

I don't do it much anymore, but you'll never know.

No, I'm kidding.

I don't do it anymore.

But I, I would lie about things that didn't matter.

I mean, literally didn't matter.

I, I got bit by a spider one time.

And Nobody believed what I was telling them.

It was banished, and I think I was in 5th grade, but you know what happened?

It was a grease fire and there was a baby in it.

I had to pull it out.

Why, why would I even do that?

It's because I wanted people to look at me and go, oh, that's cool.

That's what exaggeration is, really.

You want people to go, oh, that's cool.

Or maybe you're telling that little white lie to make life a little bit easier.

Complaining or grumbling.

We're gonna move on and patient and smart enough.

If you're a constant complainer, it's just no fun being around you.

And and you'll bring everybody around you down, and you will affect your own mental state.

There, and I, I can't speak to everything about it, but it's, I know it to be true.

If you will act happy, you will become happy.

I'm not talking about putting on a false state.

I'm talking about choosing to be cheerful, choosing to look on the bright side, choosing to find something good about people instead of bad.

Choosing to find things about this building you like instead of every other thing you don't.

And we don't hear a lot of that here, thankfully, but if you've been someplace where it's like that, I have Impatient in small matters, occasional gossip or idle talk, failing to encourage others, that's a big one for me.

I, I think all the time, there's a comedian, one time he said that he was, he, he makes His shtick is to make fun of mega churches.

And he said he was walking through the foyer and he saw Mrs.

Smith coming, and he quickly went.

Lord, please be Miss Smith.

Hey, Ms. Smith, I've been praying for you.

Now, why would he do that?

Cause he feels bad cause he probably knew he should have been.

Uh, I'll tell you the prayer list is awesome.

Uh, it, it makes it where you can have at your fingertips people you need to think about.

And I know there's families here that go through that prayer list with their kids, and that, that's amazing.

Uh, laziness and small responsibilities.

Being hospitable or friendly.

That's a hard, how many times?

Have you, and I'm, cause I've done it, uh, there's nothing I'm gonna say except for maybe murder, that is a, is a spiritual fraud that probably I haven't been guilty of.

How many times do you let the congregation said, well, that was an unfriendly group.

I won't ask her to say, uh, you know, raise your hand.

But now think about Do I look for visitors and go talk to them and go out of my way to make them feel welcome.

No, somebody else will do it.

We got deacons that will take care of it.

They're, they're handing out the cards.

Alan's gonna make every effort we can get there.

We got other friends.

It's taken care of.

They, they, they know we're friendly.

No, it, you get out of your comfort zone, be friendly with people.

Be friendly with people at work.

Not letting go of small offenses.

Now, these are, you know, these are just little earthworms, right?

They're not, no, we gotta get out of that mentality because they're, they're actually frogs, we need to start swallowing.

We may think they're small things, but remember we talked about the big things and the little things, right?

Is there really such a thing.

So, let me ask you this.

How do we eat that frog?

How do we get going on it?

Well, we need to pray first of all.

Going back to the prayer of the Psalm that at the beginning, ask God to look in your heart to find what it is you need to work on.

Pray for courage.

In Philippians 4.

Now, I want you to think about these spiritual things.

We always think about being anxious about external things.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God.

That could be something very internal.

That's giving you anxiety.

Pray to God about it, that he'll give you a spirit of confidence and courage.

Because if you do that, This is not perhaps the peace of God, or, you know, if you give it a chance, the peace of God, or, you know, maybe if you're lucky, The peace of God, it says, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.

You may not even understand.

What makes you feel at peace?

Once you do these things, But that peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.

Take the first step to obedience.

And just know that you can do all things, because Christ strengthens us.

In Proverbs 35 and 6, trust in the Lord of thy heart.

Do not lean on your own understanding.

That gets in our way a lot.

Yeah, I think I know how, yeah, I've I've got this problem, but I think this is the way I should deal with it.

Well, maybe there's some other things you can do, seek accountability.

Uh, In Hebrews 13:17 says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they're keeping watch.

So this is a shameless plug for the elders.

Nothing Nothing hurts you.

More than 10 Nothing hurts us more to know that you're struggling with sin, but Nothing gives us more joy than if you'll come and ask us to help you with that sin.

And we're not perfect, We know that But he, he's given us a responsibility for a reason.

He's given us guidance in the word.

We're not gonna lean on our own understanding.

We want to help you, and God, God has given elders to look over your soul for that very reason.

Not to elevators, But to make a service to you.

James 5:16 says, therefore, con, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

I'll tell you, this is a big one for me.

I don't, I don't tell other people what my sins are all the time and ask them to pray for me.

Is it a trust issue?

Is it a shame issue?

And, you know, what is it that keeps me from doing that?

But if I do it, it says I'll be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working.

There, there's so many things that we can do to start eating that frog.

But you just got to eat it.

That's the whole point.

You gotta eat the frog.

If you got a spiritual issue, you got to address it.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father, we thank you for Uh, all the The wonders of creation you've given us.

Even, and this is light-hearted Lord, we know you've given us a sense of humor, but even as we consider the ugliness and the The foul taste that eating a raw frog would put in her mouth.

That same foul taste is in your mouth if we allow sin to reign over as if we If we haven't submitted ourselves to you in baptism, that same foul taste is our lives.

In your mouth, and Lord, we, we pray that you would help us to Look at ourselves hard, To use your word to do that.

To take on those things, whether they be what we consider big or what we consider small, we need you, Lord, and that is our prayer this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

In just a second, we're gonna stand up to sing an invitation song and uh I've said this many times and I'll say it again, the reason we stand up is one everybody's ready to stretch, service is almost over.

But if you're standing, it's easier to take a step.

If you're standing and people are singing, and you know the people here love you, it's easy to take a step.

In Exodus 8, there's a very, very funny thing.

Uh, Gary pointed this out to me years ago and I just always think about it.

When the, when the frogs were in the land.

And And Moses said, or Pharaoh said, plead to your God.

That they would be taken away.

Mos said, when do you want me to do this?

In verse 10, he said, Tomorrow.

Why would you wait till tomorrow?

And I thought about a lot.

Wouldn't it be convenient if the locust came before the frogs?

It would have been kind of neat.

But But here's all these frogs, and he said tomorrow.

Why would he wait until tomorrow?

You can't figure you could read that 1000 times and not figure out why he's waiting till tomorrow.

You may be looking at yourself and saying, why am I waiting till tomorrow?

Don't If you're not baptized and you haven't realized the forgiveness of your sin, don't wait.

Eat the frog now.

If you're a Christian and you gotta make things right, eat the frog now.

Let's stand on this thing.

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.)

If you'd like to turn to James the 2nd chapter.

James the 2nd chapter we'll be reading verses 14 through 26.

I'm going to be reading from the New King James. Version.

What does it profit, my brethren?

If someone says he has faith, but does not have works.

Can faith save him?

If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body.

What does it profit?

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.

But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God, and you do well.

Even the demons believe and tremble.

But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works, faith was made perfect.

And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

And he was called the friend of God.

You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.

Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

For as the body without the spirit is dead.

So faith without works is dead also.

I've never been one to chase the eclipse.

But I think some of you actually went to other states in order to See the eclipse in its full time.

The eclipse doesn't last very long.

Uh, sometimes it's just a minute or so, uh, is my understanding.

But can you imagine what would happen?

If an eclipse lasted 3 hours.

And covered the entire land, say all of Huntsville or wherever you happen to live.

3 hours of darkness when the sun is blocked.

That's exactly what happened when Jesus was on the cross.

There was darkness over the land for 3 hours, the gospels tell us.

And we're going to talk about this, that in this evening's question and answer sermon.

If I can get things working here.

I think we may have some technical difficulties.

Here we go.

Our study this evening, as you can see, is a question and answer sermon.

Uh, so occasionally, for those who may be visiting and not familiar with this, occasionally I'll devote one of my sermons to answering questions that are submitted to me either by email or sometimes uh verbally.

The questions that we talk about are not necessarily related to each other.

In fact, the questions tonight are not uh related to one another.

They're on different topics.

And the answers that I give to these questions are my own answers.

They're not intended to represent some congregational creed or even for that matter, uh, perhaps the thinking of the other elders.

They can speak for themselves.

But these are my answers to questions that you pose.

Our questions this evening are twofold, and apparently I've lost my Ability to turn the slides.

The first question has to do with the darkness that was over the land for 3 hours during the time that Jesus was on the cross.

The second question And some of you are saying, why do you even talk about the second question?

You never get to the second question.

I'm gonna do my best this evening to get to that second question.

And the second question is about what happens to people after they die.

And so we'll uh fill in that particular question a little bit more as we get to it, when we get to it.

But here's the first question.

And uh I've just worded it uh because I wasn't given a specific uh question what was the significance of the darkness during the time that Jesus was on the cross?

I think that's a good question.

Why was there darkness on the earth uh on the.

In the land for 3 hours.

Luke says in chapter 73 in his Gospel, it was now about the 6th hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the 9th hour, while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

And so, uh, in other Gospels, Matthew's Gospel and Mark's Gospel, the same note is made that there was darkness over the land.

We understand that Jesus was on the cross for 6 hours, according to the gospel accounts, and the darkness prevailed over the whole land for the second half of that time, the 2nd 3 hours uh of that 6-hour period.

Well, what was the nature of this darkness?

There are some who would try to explain it by natural phenomena.

Uh, perhaps an eclipse, that's fairly unlikely because of the time of the year.

It was the time of Passover, the full moon, and the length of the time, as I indicated earlier, you don't see eclips eclipses that last 3 hours, and yet that's the, uh, that's the indication of the gospel accounts, 3 hours.

I even read, I even read one.

Commentator who said it must have been a sandstorm that blew in from the east and clouded the sun, and that was the, the darkness.

Of course, there's no textual indication of anything like that.

And so I'm gonna suggest to you that what we're dealing with in that 3 hours of darkness is a supernatural event of supernatural origin.

And if so, I don't believe it's random.

I believe it has some sort of significance.

But that's really the question, isn't it?

What was the significance of those 303 hours?

The text says that it was over the whole land.

I don't know how you picture that, whether you believe that the entire earth was uh under darkness, but the word land there can mean earth, but I suspect that it's unlikely in this context.

The darkness wouldn't mean much to people who were distant from Palestine.

And so I would suspect that that same word that can mean earth is translated land in other places, and I think that's probably the point here.

Well, what is the significance of these 3 hours?

Some commentators have suggested that darkness is associated with judgment and that that's why there were these 3 hours.

For instance, if you were to look at Exodus chapter 10 and verse 22, you'd be Talking about one of the plagues that was brought against Egypt.

Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt.

Now this is for 3 days, and that obviously is a judgment.

Uh, against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but also against the gods that these Egyptians worship.

When you move into the prophetic literature in Amos chapter 8 and verse 9, there's language there that associates darkness with judgment.

And on that day declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I personally believe that's probably apocalyptic language.

not maybe intended to be literal, uh, but I believe that it also makes a connection, however, to darkness with judgment.

And there are other passages that likewise make that connection between darkness and judgment.

Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 30, if you're taking notes, Isaiah 103 verses 10 and 11, and even in Joel 3 verses 14 and 15.

Others, however, would suggest that the significance of the darkness was that God was commenting on what was taking place at Golgotha, that in fact, he was indicating the wickedness that was being perpetrated against his only begotten son who was hanging on the cross during these 3 hours.

In John chapter 3 verses 19 and 20, And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

And so here's another connection that is made with darkness in the scriptures, and that is that darkness.

And wickedness are connected sometimes.

Uh, in Ephesians the 0003th chapter, the apostle Paul likewise makes that connection.

He says beginning in verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

He's mentioned some sins previously.

Therefore, do not become partakers with them.

For at one time you were darkness, but now he's writing to Christians, you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

And so here are a couple of passages that make the connection between wickedness and darkness.

And what some commentators suggest is that those 3 hours of darkness were God's way of saying what's taking place here is absolute wickedness.

A fellow by the name of Douglas Mangum, one of the sources that I consulted, said the eerie darkness in the middle of the day indicates God's displeasure, and he cites Amos 8 verses 9 and 10, the passage that I mentioned earlier about darkness and judgment.

I'm gonna give you a couple of other comments by other commentators, but I want you to understand I'm giving you the viewpoint of some.

I don't necessarily agree with all that they write and I'm gonna point out a couple of things that I think are incorrect.

This is DA Carson's comments and he says, the darkness that came over all the land from noon till 3 p.m.

, that's what the 6th hour and 9th hour referred to was a sign of judgment and or tragedy, he says.

But the most telling background is Amos 8 verses 453 and 10, and to a lesser extent, Exodus 10:21 and 22, we looked at both of those passages.

Both passages portray darkness as a sign of judgment, but Amos mentions noon, the turning of religious feasts into morning and says, I will make that time like mourning for an only son.

He can continues by saying the judgment is therefore a judgment on the land and its people.

So if darkness is connected to judgment, then this is God's way of saying there's going to be judgment for what's taking place here.

And I'll be honest with you, I think you can make a good case for that.

I think when you read some of the things that Jesus said in the Gospels, uh, in the Olivet discourse and other comments about the future of Jerusalem.

Jesus said the people were going to suffer as a result of rejecting their king, rejecting the Messiah.

But he goes on to say, but it is also a judgment on Jesus.

For out of this darkness comes his cry of desolation.

We'll say more about that in just a moment.

The cosmic blackness hints at the deep judgment that was taking place.

And so DA Carson and incidentally the next guy as well, they will say that the darkness represents not just judgment against Israel for rejecting the Messiah, but a judgment against Jesus as he represented us on the cross as he was punished for our sins.

The darkness, it is suggested by some, is God's way or was God's way of indicating that he had, and this is an expression that I've heard many times, perhaps you have as well, of God's turning his back on Jesus.

In fact, one of the things that Jesus says, one of the seven sayings from the cross about the 9th hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli lema abbatini, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That of course is the beginning of a psalm, and so some have suggested that Jesus is indicating here that God had in fact forsaken him.

There are other passages, both in the Old Testament and New Testament that talk about Jesus burying our sins.

In Isaiah 53 and verse 4, the idea of burying our sins is there, verse 11 as well in Isaiah 53.

In 163 Peter 2:24, it is said he bore our sins in his body on the cross.

Hebrews 9:28 uses similar language.

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul says that he who knew no sin became sin for us.

And some have taken those passages and they've concluded that what happened was Jesus took our sins on personally, that's the view of some.

He essentially became guilty of our sins and so received punishment for all of the sins of mankind.

Others would suggest that Jesus didn't actually become guilty of sin.

That would be a problem, would it not for him to be a sacrifice for sin?

He would no longer be the unblemished lamb that was required uh for sacrifice or even for that matter.

Peter describes him as in First Peter 1, this unblemished lamb who died for our sins.

But some have said he didn't take on our sins personally, didn't become a sinner or guilty of sin, but he did take on the punishment for our sins.

And so this comment by Bob Utley, I, I disagree with this comment.

I think Utley has a lot of good things to offer in his writings, but I think he's off here.

He says theologically, it was a symbol, the darkness of God's turning away from his son as he bore the sins of the world.

This personal spiritual separation, as well as the burden of all the sins of all mankind was what Jesus feared most.

So Utley would say that Jesus was actually separated from the Father on the cross.

That's why he says what he says in uh quoting from the Psalms, why have you forsaken me?

And so he took on our sins in that sense.

JM Boyce makes these comments.

He says, what happened during those hours of darkness?

We know the answer.

During those hours, the Son of God took the burden of our sins on himself, was punished for them in our place, and experienced such terrible alienation from his father that he cried out at the end of that dark period, Eloi, Eloi lama sabhana, which means My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The darkness veiled the anguish of the Son of God while he was bearing the punishment for our sins, because it was not right for human eyes to look on him in his suffering.

At the same time, the darkness cried out against the blackness of our sin and testified to the tremendous cost to God of our redemption.

So at least a couple of these guys are suggesting that the significance of the darkness was twofold.

It was obviously some sort of judgment, but that judgment extended even to Jesus, who took on the punishment for our sins.

There's a lot of discussion about whether Jesus became a sinner.

And as I said, there are some who would argue that he became guilty of the sins of mankind and was punished for that reason.

Others would say he didn't personally become guilty.

But he bore our sins in the sense that he took the punishment for our sins.

I would remind you that in Ezekiel 18th chapter, God said some things about whether sin can be transferred from one person to another.

In fact, Ezekiel 93 is an rather extensive illustration in which the prophet talks about 3 different generations.

Father, Son, grandson, and the generations are different from one another.

I'm not gonna take the time to read through that whole passage, but here's the upshot of the teaching in that chapter in verse 20 Ezekiel says on behalf of God, the soul who sins shall die.

The son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father bear the guilt of the Son.

The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

That's from the New King James version.

And I think their translation of Ezekiel 18:20 is better, much better than the ESV for instance.

So, what is Ezekiel saying?

He's saying that you can't transfer either sin or righteousness from one person to another incidentally, maybe not so incidentally.

We'll talk more about that in the series that I've begun on the doctrine or the systemic theology of Calvinism, because Calvinism teaches that very thing.

It teaches that Adam's sin has been transferred to all of us by physical generation.

The guilt of that sin is attributed to us.

When we're born And so we become guilty of Adam's sin before we've ever done anything.

And they would also argue, they would agree with the idea that the sins of mankind were transferred to Jesus just as Calvinism will also argue in terms of the justification of mankind that the righteousness of Jesus is imputed to individuals as well.

Ezekiel says no.

That's not true.

Righteousness is upon the righteous.

And the sin, the guilt is upon the sinner, not others.

And so I would suggest first of all, that we should discard the idea that Jesus became guilty of our sins.

And I've already mentioned, there are some difficulties with that viewpoint, because Jesus needed to be the perfect sacrifice.

The unblemished lamb, all of those animals in the Old Testament that needed to be unblemished physically speaking, they represented Jesus Christ, they foreshadowed the sacrifice that he would make, and he is no longer unblemished.

If he is accounted guilty of mankind's sins.

I'm gonna say something that may shock you a little bit, but I believe that the question of whether God turned his back on Jesus is essentially a moot question.

And by that, I simply mean, whatever you think about that, I don't think it matters because I don't think that's the point behind the business.

Of Jesus being on the cross.

I don't believe Jesus became a sinner.

And I don't believe that Jesus was punished for our sins.

Someone said, what?

That's why I, why I disagree with these guys because they've concluded that Jesus bore our punishment.

Jesus, the text says in the Gospels, Jesus claimed that he came to give his life a ransom for all men.

He didn't just die to suffer punishment for your sins or my sins, but for all men.

Poured out his blood for the remission of sins is what he says in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 28.

I think that's the sense in which Jesus bore our sins.

Not that he took the punishment for our sins.

But that he provided for us what we could not provide for ourselves.

That was a sacrifice that was adequate for the forgiveness of sins.

You and I couldn't even offer our own lives for our forgiveness.

Because we're already staying with sin when we violate God's law.

And so as we're seeking forgiveness for those sins, we can't offer what God requires for the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:22 is one of the most important verses, I think in the New Testament.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, no forgiveness of sins.

What you and I needed was a sin sacrifice.

We couldn't provide it for ourselves.

But God allowed Jesus to provide that sacrifice for us.

I want you to think about something.

What is the punishment for sins?

Someone says, well, physical death.

No. No, you're not going to die because of your sins.

You're gonna die because of the curse that was placed on mankind because of Adam's sin.

But you don't die physically.

That's not the punishment for sin.

I've often wondered about that comment that Jesus bore our punishment because he died on the cross, and yet death, physical death is not the punishment for our sins.

It's not the penalty for sins.

Separation from God, that is a consequence of sin, is it not?

Your sins have separated you from your God, Isaiah would say in the Old Testament.

And we know that the concept of being dead in sin is throughout the New Testament in Paul's writings.

Dead meaning separated from God.

But that's not the ultimate punishment for sins.

I want you to look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 53.

2 Thessalonians chapter 1, we're gonna read just a couple of verses here.

We're going to begin In verse 6, Paul is writing to encourage the Thessalonian Christians, and he says, uh, we'll start in verse 230.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment.

Here it comes.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.

When somebody sins and they remain in those sins, they are separated from God.

But that same person can obey the gospel, be forgiven of his or her sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, and go back into fellowship with God.

And Jesus said, that person doesn't have to die spiritually again.

You can remain in fellowship with God spiritually alive for the rest of your life.

That's not the punishment for sin being separated from God in this life.

That's a consequence of sin here in the temporal sense, but the punishment for sin is eternal separation from God.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus did not experience that.

You can argue whether you think Jesus was separated from his father.

And I'm going to tell you I think that's a moot question.

Because even if he was temporarily separated from his father, that's not the punishment for your sin or my sin.

The punishment for our sins, should we still be guilty of sin when the Lord comes, is eternal separation from God.

And Jesus did not experience that.

Hebrews says he's seated even now at the right hand of the majesty on high.

So what happened at the cross?

Listen carefully.

Jesus did not take our punishment.

He offered the solution to your sin.

And that solution involved dying, shedding his blood so that you could be forgiven.

And if you're forgiven, You're not going to be punished.

God's not gonna punish people who are forgiven.

He's gonna punish the unforgiven.

And so what Jesus did was not take on punishment, because neither physical death or temporary separation.

Or even physical suffering is the penalty for sin.

But the punishment for sin is eternal separation.

Jesus didn't suffer that.

He didn't take on that.

He bore our sins in the sense that he provided the solution for our sins, a solution that you and I couldn't provide for ourselves.

Because we couldn't die for our own sins even.

We are already blemished.

By those sins.

I think that's the sense in which Jesus bore our sins.

He provided the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

That we could not provide.

So let me give you my answer here.

And that is, I'm inclined to believe that the darkness was supernatural, we pretty much assume that and constituted God's commentary on the witness, wickedness being done to his only begotten Son.

I think God looked down.

On that cross.

And to make his statement about how tragic, how terrible that act was that was being done to his son.

I think that's the reason for the 210 hours of darkness.

Well, if you have further questions about that, uh, you have two options.

You can come and talk to me or you can submit another question that we'll talk about it some other time.

But uh as I said I would, I want to go to the second question.

Here's the question.

The quotation marks mean that this is exactly what I received, although there was some other commentary, and I'll share that with you in just a moment.

But here's the question.

If you die for a short time and then are revived by doctors, is it possible to see God during that time?

Someone says, well, who cares?

Well, a lot of people are interested in what's going to happen to us after we die.

And so, uh, the questioner added a little bit more, said, I bring this question up because I've seen some Instagram posts where people are certain that they saw Jesus after dying for a short amount of time and then were revived by doctors.

Well, I want to suggest to you some relevant passages here.

One of them was read by Ralph in the scripture reading.

I, I know that that reading begins in verse 2000 that that Ralph read and it's talking about faith and works, but there's a comparison made at the very end of that uh pericopy between the relationship between faith and works and the body and the spirit.

Faith without works is dead, being alone, James says, even as the body without the spirit is dead.

He's really talking about faith and works, but he's given us some information about death.

Death, physical death is the separation of body and spirit.

Spiritual death is the separation of man from God.

Death is a separation.

That's why eternal death or the second death is eternal separation from God.

And Paul describes that as destruction, and you can well imagine why.

So, I think James 245:216 helps us out by giving us some information about what death is.

And then there's a story in Luke the 29th chapter in verse 63, uh, is the, is the point that I want to make.

There's a girl there who has died.

And Jesus has been summoned.

He comes and he raises her from the dead, but I want you to notice the language of verse 26, and her spirit returned and she got up at once.

Jesus told the mourners that were there, uh, she's just sleeping and they laughed him, they laughed at him, they mocked him.

Well, they knew she was dead.

And from what's said in verse 216, I'm convinced she was dead.

Her spirit had already departed and James says, when the body and the spirit are separated, you're talking death.

But when Jesus raised her, what happened?

Well, her spirit came back, returned to the body, uh, that it had originally occupied, and he directed that something should be given her to eat.

There's a passage in Ecclesiastes 22.

In this passage, there is a description of some of the effects of aging.

And the passage, that section ends by saying, and the dust of our, our body, dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Once again, when the body and the spirit is separated, now you're talking about death.

And frankly, to answer this question, it's important for us to define what it means to be dead.

And so I'd like to do that.

Um, I'm gonna use, uh, a, a number of illustrations to talk to you about why that's important.

How many of you have heard the expression saved by the bell?

Yeah. There's some dispute about where that phrase came from, its origin.

Some have suggested that it's actually, you know, came from boxing that I suppose that's possible.

I always thought it meant we were saved by the bell at the end of a school period when somebody asked you a question you couldn't answer and the bell rang, you were saved by the bell.

Some of you have even felt that way and some of the Bible classes that I've asked.

When I asked the question and nobody's answering, the bell goes off, I guess we're all free then, right?

But that expression probably came from a different source.

Back in the 18, excuse me, 1800s and 19th century, bells were sometimes placed on graves as a safety precaution so that if unintentionally, someone was buried alive and they revived while in the coffin.

They could ring that bell and there would be a cemetery night watchman who if he heard a bell ringing he knew somebody was in trouble that meant that somebody had been buried alive and it was time to dig furiously to get that person out.

They would tie string, a string or strings to the hands of the dead, the dead person with the idea that if that person wasn't actually dead, Then that person could summon help by ringing the bell that was on top of the grave.

That may seem like a lot of effort, if, if you're, you're convinced that somebody's dead.

The problem was that death in centuries past was determined when no pulse was discernible or it appeared that a person was no longer breathing.

But unfortunately, there are some physical conditions and there are nurses in the audience here who know a lot more about that than I do.

Hopefully, I'll get all this right.

But there are certain physical conditions where you might not be able to get a pulse, or you may not be able to discern the breathing.

It's so shallow.

So the question becomes, when does death occur?

Is it when the heart stops?

Well, maybe not.

You, you probably maybe even known people whose heart stopped and then somebody jumped them with those uh electric paddles and started their heart going again.

Were they dead during the time that their heart had stopped?

Not by legal definitions, no medical definitions.

What about when brain activity ends?

Well, we may be getting closer to it.

I'm gonna share with you some definitions.

The first one is from Cornell University.

The official definition of death, according to the UDDA.

Uniform determination of death act.

I love that.

I the quote irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem.

I'm not sure if I accept that definition because I've known some people whose brains I thought were probably not working.

But they were still alive.

They were moving and breathing, etc.

I just.

Now, the next definition I give you only because of its source.

Teach mesurgery.com.

I saw, I saw that source and I had to use this quote, OK?

I mean, you got to trust a website that will teach you surgery online.

Here's their definition, criteria for declaring death.

No audible breath or heart sounds for greater than one minute, no palpable purp pulse, and you can't feel it for greater than one minute, no palpable cardiac pacemaker pupils are fixed, dilated, and unreactive to light.

I've actually preached some sermons where people were in that condition by the end.

Even with modern medical technology, it is sometimes difficult to determine if someone's dead.

And the reason I bring all this up is the question assumes that somebody has died for a short time and then they've come back to life, which I would define as a resurrection.

But bear with me.

Let me give you two illustrations.

Um, in India back in 2024, November of 2024.

There was a young man who was 25 years old, and they had pronounced him dead.

He, he was both deaf and mute.

He was staying in a home for the mentally impaired, and he started having epileptic seizures.

He was rushed to the hospital and they concluded at some point that he was dead.

163 doctors declared him dead.

Of course, they didn't do a proper postmortem examination.

So, They take his body and they put his body on top of a funeral pyre.

Do you know what that is?

It's a heap of wood where you're gonna burn a body.

You're going to incinerate this body, this dead body.

Only when he got up on the pyre, he became alive because he was never dead.

There were problems uh with those doctors, they were all suspended because they had failed to confirm that this guy was actually dead.

So I guess you would say he wasn't dead dead, right?

Well, here's another uh example of this.

This actually happened uh in Iowa, in the United States, that other one was in India.

This is a woman.

Who was under hospice care.

She was a resident at the Glen Oaks Alzheimer's Special Care Center in Urbandale, Iowa, and her health had been declining.

She was beginning to show some of the signs that death was close.

You nurses know that there are signs where people can say, OK, it's not long.

These, these are some of the signs that somebody's going to pass.

So, she enters this hospice care on December 28th, and on January 3rd in the morning, They believed that she passed away, uh, a staff worker uh was unable to feel her pulse and called a nurse and the nurse likewise, could not find any pulse.

She was, her eyes were open and fixed and unresponsive.

Her mouth was open but no detection of any breathing.

And so they declared her dead.

She had had some minor seizures prior to this, and so she had some of the signs.

So they, they took the body of this woman to the funeral home, and the funeral home director uh gets to the hospice care at about 7:30 and he takes the woman back to the funeral home about an hour later after he gets her there, he unzips the body bag and finds out that she is gasping to breathe.

She's still alive.

And so she was then transported to a nearby hospital emergency room.

They found that her breathing was shallow.

She passed away two days later.

I guess she died again.

No, she wasn't dead the first time.

Somebody had been careless about that and that long-term care facility was fined a total of about $10,000.

I would have fined them a lot more than that, but that's just my personal.

So the question I wanna ask, and the reason I bring this up is when you say when somebody dies for a short time, how do you know that they're dead?

Are they really dead, dead, dead?

Or are they just in a situation where it's difficult to determine that there's any signs of life?

Does that make sense?

And I offer these two illustrations to suggest that that's possible, that sometimes people just don't show signs of life, but they are in fact still alive.

I want to share with you another quotation.

While the exact nature of what happens in the seven minutes after death is still a subject of scientific inquiry, some studies suggest that the brain may remain active and coordinated, potentially replaying memories even after the hearts.

Stops with some people experiencing near death experiences.

So you look at these definitions and those are the things people are looking for to determine if somebody has actually died and one of them is when the heart stops, but apparently sometimes the brain keeps going.

Now, if this question is asking about people whose hearts have stopped, but then they are revived and the assumption is that they died and now they're back alive again, I think that's an assumption that we don't need to make.

I read some really interesting things about near-death experiences.

I'm not gonna share all that.

It's not maybe real germane to uh our, our study this evening, our question.

But the study of near-death experiences has only been going on for about the last 45 years or so, and it's really interesting uh information you may want to look into that.

But some people who've had near-death experiences, in other words, if there was something that stopped, it got started again, it wasn't irreversible.

They report being aware of what's happening around them even after their breathing and heartbeat stops, suggesting this potential for continued consciousness.

Well, I want to share with you some additional.

Um, scriptures that I think are relevant.

One of them is the story, the account in Luke 16 of Lazarus and the rich man.

You perhaps remember that story where Jesus talks about a poor beggar named Lazarus and a rich man who failed to help this beggar who was placed outside the gate of his, uh, his home.

And the text says they both died.

The rich man died and was buried, and the angels carried Lazarus to Abraham's bosom, and the, the bulk of the story has to do with these two men who are in apparently the Hadaean world.

They are not in heaven.

Because Lazarus is with Abraham, he's not with God.

Jesus is not there.

He's with righteous Abraham, while the rich man is in torment, he's already suffering, but he's not in hell yet.

He's in the Hadaean world, the world of the unseen.

And of course, there's dialogue and Abraham makes the observation that nobody from the suffering side can come to the good side, nobody can go from the side where Abraham and Lazarus are over to the suffering side.

There's a great chasm between those two sides.

My point though, is that when those people get there, there's no leaving there.

The rich man would like Lazarus to go back and warn his brothers.

Nope, they have the law, Abraham says.

That passage, if you believe that that same arrangement still exists today and not everybody does, if you believe that that same arrangement exists today, then even the spirits of those who have died, they don't go to see God, they go to the Hadaean world.

Now I'm gonna put a caveat here.

I think you can make a fair argument that that situation has changed because of the death of Christ.

But regardless, um, that story would suggest that you don't see God even when you are in fact dead.

Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 5 and 6 says, for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten.

I believe what the writer is saying is that the dead don't know anything about what's going on here.

They know nothing.

Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished and forever.

They have no more share in all that is done under the sun that they've left this world.

That's their spirit is gone and so they don't participate in any of the things here.

So let me tell you what my answer is, and I'm gonna say right away, I think there are some details that we may not be able to answer that the, the, the scriptures just do not give us.

But here's my answer.

The question speaks of dying for a short time.

I'm not sure that that's possible and the term clinical death seems to be used to distinguish between people who meet some standard for death and those who are actually dead.

Oh, his heart stopped, he was clinically dead. Really?

Did his spirit leave his body?

That's how the Bible describes death.

And we have medical standards to try to determine when somebody's body has ceased to function anymore.

In truth, the Bible doesn't reveal many details about what happens immediately after actual death.

The spirit of man goes to Hades, according to Luke 16 Acts 2, talks about Jesus going to the Hadean world.

Although I cannot explain some NDEs, and I would gladly hear from the rest of you if you can.

I believe that they are the experiences of people who were not actually, and I'm using a technical term now, dead, dead.

I mean really dead.

Dead as in the spirit has left the body, dead like Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, dead like Jairus's daughter, whose spirit returned to her body.

Because Jesus called it back.

So that's, that's my answer to that question.

I really appreciated uh the songs that uh Ian had selected for this evening.

I didn't talk to him about a theme, but there was an obvious theme in his songs and it had to do with Judgment Day.

There's a great day coming.

There's a sad day coming.

There's a day coming when we're going to have to stand before God.

And I will say this.

Once my spirit leaves my body, there is nothing more I can do.

To prepare myself for that day.

And the song we sang is, Are you ready?

Are you ready for that day?

Because all the preparations that can be made must be made here in this world, in this life.

Because once we pass from this life, once our spirits leave our bodies.

There's no changing.

Our lives God will judge us on the record that we have presented up to that point.

Are you ready?

That's a sobering question.

I don't know exactly what's going to happen to people or how, what their circumstances are in the Bible, I'm not sure gives us all those details.

But I will tell you this.

Whether or not you're ready is the most important question you will ever ask.

Nothing else even comes close.

Because the punishment.

For not being ready.

His eternal death, eternal separation from God.

We can't even fathom that.

It's hard to imagine what it would mean to be separated from the God who made us.

The God who showed his love by sending His Son to die on a cross at the hands of wicked men.

And that God saying depart from me.

Consigning us to blackness.

Consigning us to judgment, to punishment.

Forever And ever And ever There's no end.

You and I have a hard time wrapping our minds around that because we live in a finite world.

Everything seems to have a beginning and an end.

That punishment will never end.

But likewise, the reward in heaven for those who are ready, who have availed themselves of the solution for sin, forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ.

That reward will also go on.

And all And all Are you ready?

If we can assist you this evening in obeying the gospel, becoming ready if you're not a Christian, baptizing you into Christ, that's what the scriptures say you need to do in order to get ready.

If you're a Christian and you haven't been living so that you are ready, you need to think about the consequence of meeting your maker in that condition.

It doesn't even bear thinking about.

It's just horrifying.

If we can assist you in getting ready, then we want to invite you and we do so 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.)

Expect that I probably spent much of yesterday, as many of the rest of you did.

Watching the television, watching the news stations, the Weather Channel, so that you could kind of track the bad weather that was moving through not just the state of Alabama but also uh Mississippi and up into Tennessee.

And we were fortunate that there were tornadoes, but that they went around us, not directly through the area where most of us are located.

And I hope and pray that you didn't suffer damage from the winds and the rain that took place yesterday.

I sometimes find some amusement in the uh Meteorologists who talked themselves to death trying to cover these storms for hours, but on the other hand, I really do appreciate the fact that they try to keep us abreast of danger and to warn us when it's time for us to take shelter maybe in a more secure place.

And every time I see this, even though I'm grateful that we, as far as I know, did not suffer any lasting damage, I'm mindful of the fact that those tornadoes went through other places and there was hail in West Alabama.

Some of that rather sizable, the kind that Egypt suffered, I think, in the plague, enough that it would damage property and would perhaps even seriously injure or kill an individual who was struck by hail that size.

And so I'm reminded of some of the scenes that I've seen in on television after tornadoes have gone through a community and they're interviewing somebody whose house has basically become just a pile of rubble.

In one moment they have a home and in the next few moments the winds, the tornado have basically destroyed all of that and they're standing next to a pile of rubble and their possessions are here and there and in the next county.

And you can see on their faces sometimes the, the confusion, the despair.

They're distraught over the fact that their lives have just been torn apart by this tornado.

What do we do When life becomes difficult, and I'm not talking necessarily about tornadoes.

I'm talking about any number of things that can happen to us in our lives where we suddenly have our lives just torn apart.

The tornadoes of life tear through our lives, and they leave behind emotional and Spiritual damage and destruction.

Some people give up.

Some people just give up, they surrender, and others will actually blame God for not protecting.

Why did God let this happen to me?

And then some people will actually turn to God even in those kind of circumstances.

We sing a song entitled Count Your Blessings.

In fact, we sang it fairly recently.

And it's a song that encourages us to take stock of the good things that God has done for us.

Ephesians 1 chapter verse 3, Paul reminds us that all spiritual blessings, God has given all these blessings to us in Christ.

And the psalmist would say in Psalm 33 and verse 2, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits.

This morning, I'd like to take a little closer look at this song.

It's a familiar song to most of us, I suspect.

I grew up singing it and I think we remember the lyrics, but I wanna make some observations about That song, and I want to say some things about counting our blessings.

The fact that sometimes maybe we don't make a full count of those things that God has done in our lives that benefit us spiritually speaking.

The song Counts your blessings has 3 verses.

And the first verse, uh, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to read it.

I think you're probably familiar with it.

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed.

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

The second verse says, are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy?

You are called to bear.

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, and you will be singing as the days go by.

The third verse says, so amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is overall.

Count your many blessings, angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

I want to make several observations about Blessings and particularly this song.

It's obvious that every verse mentions the difficulties of life.

This song is concerned with our circumstances when life is difficult.

Oh, it's easy to be happy and uh to draw close to God when life is going well and everything is good in our lives.

But it's the difficult days that make us sometimes falter.

And the song talks about life's billows being tempest tossed on these billows or being burdened with a load of care.

Being burdened with a heavy cross or cross that seems heavy to us.

And amid the conflict in verse 3, all three verses mention the difficulties of life.

And all three verses likewise mention the effect of difficulties of life.

Have you noticed that?

Look at verse one.

Discouraged thinking all is lost when you're tossed to and fro by life's billows, burdened, carrying a heavy cross, even sometimes doubt, doubt about whether God's really looking out for us and will protect us.

And then verse 3 repeats the concept of discouragement.

And all three verses likewise, describe what will happen to us or the effect of counting our blessings.

For instance, in the first verse, if we'll count our many blessings, it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

We often pray, Lord, we thank you for all the many blessings that you bestow upon us.

How many times do we count them one by one?

And I'm not necessarily suggesting that we need to do that in our prayers or that our comment has To be extensive to include every possible blessing that God has given us.

I would suggest to you that would be a long list.

But I wonder if we do the count, do we ever talk about the specific blessings, or do we just simply say thank you for all the many blessings?

It'll surprise you if you name them one by one.

What the Lord has done in your life.

Verse 2 says, and every doubt will fly.

Once you begin to think about what God has done for you, even in the midst of, as it says here, uh, a burden being burdened with a load of care.

Your doubt will fly, and you'll be singing as the days go by.

I think singing here is supposed to represent happiness, rejoicing, even in the midst of difficulties.

And then finally in verse 3, count your many blessings.

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

Well, the 4th observation.

is that this song acknowledges that life has difficulties.

Well, I understand that's pretty much an obvious statement, and the song has listed some of the possible uh descriptions of difficulties in life.

But I say that because I think sometimes almost subconsciously, Christians begin to think that because they are Christians, that therefore there won't be any difficulties in life.

If I'm God's child, then surely my life will just be easy and there'll be no storms, and that's not the case.

It has never been the case with Christians.

God has not promised to make us immune from persecution or even from the difficulties that come as a result of time and chance, things like tornadoes and floods and fires.

Acts records the persecution of the early Christians.

We're familiar with the persecution that the apostle Paul and others endured as a result of their preaching the gospel.

Later on, Paul, towards the end of his life would write indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Paul says, count on it.

There are gonna be some difficulties in your life.

And although we are encouraged to count one by one.

The song also assumes many blessings, and I think it's interesting every verse uses that word, many blessings.

Count your many blessings, and that's what we need to remember when we're looking at a situation in life where things are not going well for us, at least that's our perception, where we're struggling with negative things, with bad things that happen in our lives.

Remember, count your many blessings.

Well, I'm going to say something that probably you'll think about the deepness of this thought, and that is we can't count blessings if we don't recognize them.

Makes sense, doesn't it?

If you're gonna talk about counting your blessings, you really need to, need to know what those blessings are.

You need to be able to recognize those blessings.

When Moses listed the blessings and curses for Israel in Deuteronomy 28.

In the 1st 13 verses, he talks about how if they'll keep the covenant, God says, I will bless you in all kinds of ways.

But then beginning in verse 15 and really all the way through the end of the chapter until verse 68, there are curses that will come about if Israel does not keep the covenant.

How they would be uh their their uh their situation would be determined largely by whether they kept the covenant or didn't keep the covenant.

And I would guarantee you, if you'll go back and read those blessings and read the curses, Israel didn't have any difficulty recognizing what the blessings were versus the curses.

Read the curses beginning in 15 when you have the opportunity, and they, they're horrible.

God says, this is what's going to happen to you.

And I don't think any Israelites had any trouble when those things were happening to them, understanding, these are curses.

These are not good things.

In our lives But I want you to think about the fact that sometimes what seems to be a curse is actually a blessing.

I read a story about a gospel preacher.

He was staying with a farmer apparently holding a gospel meeting and staying with this farmer and in the morning they get up to sit down for breakfast and here's the farmer.

He's already in his bib overhauls and so as they begin for breakfast, he bows his head and he begins to pray.

And the first thing he says is, Lord, I hate buttermilk.

And the preacher, you know, he's vowed, but he kind of opens his eye and he's a little bit puzzled about that where this prayer is going to go.

And then the farmer follows that with another loud exclamation, Lord, I hate Lord.

Now the preacher is beginning to get a little concerned about where this prayer is going, and he opens his eyes and he knows there's some other people who are a little bit uh Concerned as well.

And so finally, without missing a beat, the farmer says, oh Lord, you know, I don't much care for raw white flour.

And now he realizes everybody's getting a little uncomfortable.

The preacher does.

But then the farmer continues, he says, but Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits.

So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing.

And he concluded his prayer by saying it will probably be even better than biscuits.

So sometimes the things that may seem negative to us, things that perhaps don't seem to be blessings, but rather curses, maybe we need to reconsider those things.

I, I realized as Jonathan was talking about Jonah that he probably grabbed the best example that I could find in Scripture practically of someone, of something happening to someone that might seem like a very negative thing.

When was the last time you were swallowed by a big fish?

think that'd be a blessing.

Something we pray for?

Well, I sure hope today's the day I get swallowed by a big fish and spend 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of that fish.

That would seem kind of a negative thing, right?

But I guess if you're at the bottom of the sea, you're being tossed around by the storm, and you're about to drown and a fish comes by and swallows you, and now you're safe.

Well, that puts that great fish and swallowing being swallowed by it in a very different perspective.

And this sermon would have been shorter if Jonathan hadn't used that example because I'm gonna go ahead and use my other examples, but I thought I'd point out that that's a very good way of illustrating that what might seem to be a negative thing.

Could possibly turn out to be something very good for us in a physical or spiritual way.

But I'm gonna go with the examples that I used, and I've got 4 of them that I want to show you.

The first one is from the apostle Paul's life.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul begins that chapter by talking about some revelations that he had.

Uh, it's obvious he's talking about himself as he continues in the text there.

And he talks about these revelations.

They were great and surpassing the surpassing greatness of these revelations, things that he heard that he could not repeat.

But then he says in verse 7, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh.

A messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon you.

For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

You know, people have done a lot of, uh spilled a lot of ink to try to define what the thorn in the flesh was, and I don't know that you can say for sure, not even from this text, but I will tell you this, it's described in two different ways in verse 33.

It is a messenger of Satan to harass him.

Now, I'm gonna guess that's not a good thing.

In fact, Paul pleads with the Lord 3 times that the Lord will take away this thorn in the flesh.

So it certainly wasn't a pleasant thing apparently.

But that thorn in the flesh is also described as something that was given to him to keep him from becoming conceited because of the visions that he had seen.

Do you think that Satan gave Paul this thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming conceited, so that Paul would be humble and spiritually healthy?

I don't think so.

I think this messenger of Satan, this thorn in the flesh, also performed another function, and that was to keep Paul humble.

And so what may have seemed as a very negative thing in Paul's life actually was providing a spiritual benefit.

And the benefit was that it humbled Paul and caused him to rely on the Lord's strength, and not on his own strength.

That is a benefit.

The second example.

I want to take from the end of the Beatitudes there in Matthew chapter 5.

Blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst have to write, blessed are those who mourn.

But when you get down to verse 10, they take kind of almost a different flavor.

Now, all of the beatitudes are what we would call contrary to the world's values.

But verses 25 through 23 in a very special way, don't seem to fit very well with our concept of what being blessed is all about.

In verse 25, Jesus says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom.

Of heaven blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed is the one who is persecuted.

For righteousness' sake.

That's not what we would normally call or consider a blessing or even a blessed state.

Some versions that are a little freer in their translation may say happy is the one.

When was the last time you were persecuted for being a Christian and you were happy about it?

He thought that was a good thing.

And yet Jesus says, blessed is the one who is persecuted, and he actually gives the reason why it is because the reward that is given for that kind of loyalty, that kind of faithfulness, the one who will stand for righteousness, live righteously, despite the consequences, perhaps even persecution.

Great is their reward.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In the third place, In Acts chapter 23, the apostles were preaching.

In the temple and they're arrested by the council.

The rulers of the Jews.

And they appear before this council.

The council really wants to kill these men.

But instead they just beat them and then release them.

When was the last time any of us were beaten for our faith?

That's what happened to the apostles.

And so when they come back with the rest of the church, it says they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

They rejoiced that they had been persecuted. Why?

Because they were suffering for righteousness sake.

They're the perfect illustration of Matthew 23:21 to 13.

That's why they rejoiced, because they realized the kind of reward that comes to those who remain loyal and righteous before the Lord.

Blessing or curse?

Well, I think most of us would consider a beating a curse, not a blessing.

But in this case, apparently it was considered to be somewhat of a blessing.

And then finally Paul's imprisonment in Rome.

Maybe you remember in the book of Acts that Paul will complete his 21rd missionary journey in Jerusalem.

He comes back to that city and he's there for a few days and then through some accusations of some unbelieving Jews from Asia, Paul ends up being assaulted in the temple area there.

And he's being beaten and then the Romans come down out of the fortress Antona, which was adjacent to the temple, and they rescue Paul, and they carry him off into the fortress.

And then he's sent to Cesarea where the governor was.

And although he has done nothing wrong, he'll spend 23 years incarcerated there in Cesarea.

And in order to protect his life, he's compelled to appeal to Caesar as a Roman citizen, had the privilege of doing.

And so then he'll take this laborious journey to Rome, where he'll spend another two years, not in a prison, but in a rented house, but not free to go wherever he wanted to go, but confined by the Romans.

I want you to realize that in Romans chapter 22, written on the third missionary journey.

Before Paul comes back to Jerusalem, he talks a little bit about his travel plans for the future, and he says to the Romans in chapter 15 verse 22, this is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you, a reason he'd previously given.

But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions and Since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints.

So Paul's wish was to go west, to go to Rome, visit with the Christians there and then be helped by them on his way even further west to the area of Spain.

Well, that didn't happen, did it?

He ends up being put in prison, as we've just noted, and he'll spend the next 2+ years getting to Rome.

Where Luke says in the very end of that book of Acts.

He lived there 2 whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Blessing or curse, being arrested in Jerusalem.

And by the way, protected now from the Jews.

And so now he's carried to Rome, which is what he intended to do anyway, although not under those circumstances.

And even as he wanted to preach the gospel in in Rome, as he talks about in Romans chapter 1 verses 13 to 33.

Now he has that opportunity to do it.

He's a prisoner, but he's in circumstances where anybody who wants to come and see him can see him in this rented house, blessing or curse.

Which was it?

Well, I would say that Paul's plans were expedited.

By what happened at the end of his 3rd missionary journey.

Maybe we need to think more about what a blessing is before we count our many blessings.

And I'm going to suggest to you that whatever benefits me spiritually is actually a blessing.

Now I understand that that means that sometimes blessings may be a little uncomfortable.

And I think that's the problem.

I think we have this concept that a blessing is always something that makes me feel better or is makes life more convenient.

Something that helps me in my life, although we sometimes view that only in physical terms.

But the truth of the matter is, whatever benefits me spiritually is a blessing, even if it doesn't make me more comfortable, even if it isn't easy to endure, but if it produces in me greater spiritual strength, greater steadfastness, greater endurance, guess what?

It's a blessing, not a curse.

Let me give you a couple of examples of that.

In the beginning of James's epistle.

He says in verses 2 and 3, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

Well, shades of beatitudes.

That's what that sounds like, isn't it?

Rejoice when you're persecuted.

James says, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

James says, do you realize that some good things can come out of these trials?

If you become more steadfast because you've been tried and strengthened by resisting those trials, is that not a blessing then at least?

As we've defined it, whatever benefits me spiritually is a blessing.

Take a look at Romans 5 verses 3 through 5.

Paul says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings again, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

When I read verse 3, The first thing I think And I know it's not in the text.

But I think, well, maybe.

Because suffering doesn't always produce endurance.

Sometimes people's reaction to suffering is like what I said in the very beginning.

They surrender, they give up, or they begin to blame God.

But Paul says, suffering can produce, that's what he means.

It can produce endurance, steadfastness.

Doesn't always.

And so whether that suffering becomes a curse or whether it becomes a blessing, do you see it really depends on me to some extent.

How do I respond to that?

It can be quite the blessing, and that endurance can produce character and character producing hope.

There's a chain here, and it starts with what might seem to be a curse, not a blessing.

Well, my point this morning is not to say that we can't recognize blessings that you never know.

It is to say that we may not always recognize when God is blessing us.

Because we have a tendency to say, well, now, this is a bad thing for me.

I think persecution, we would typically conclude is a bad thing.

It's a negative thing in our lives.

Jesus says, that's a blessing.

Good can come out of that.

You can be rewarded for that.

Just like James says, we can be made stronger.

More steadfast by the trials that we face.

And so what we consider to be negative may in fact result in our spiritual benefit.

And that makes it a blessing, not a curse.

Has that happened with you?

Have you ever found that something that when it began this trial, this difficulty, this, this negative experience in your life, when it began, you thought, oh my, can things get any worse?

But as time went on, as you try to meet that trial by with biblical principles, remaining faithful to God, you realize that you become stronger as a result of that, not weaker.

That's a blessing.

That's a special, uh, a spiritual benefit.

And that's the point I'm trying to make.

Discipline, the Hebrew writer would say, is painful in the moment.

But it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Just another illustration.

It's sometimes the things that really benefit us spiritually.

are difficult to endure.

Sometimes they seem negative.

Sometimes they seem to be more of a curse than a blessing, but we need to remember what blessings are.

The song that we've been looking at this morning encourages us to count our many blessings.

And so I think doing so will cause us to be grateful to God.

Give thanks.

I appreciated Quinn's selection of songs.

He led at least 3 of my favorite songs this morning.

I want you to think about the same passage.

That we looked at in the very beginning.

And for some reason, we're not advancing.

Let's see if we can advance.

There we go.

It's Ephesians 1:3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

I emphasize many blessings, just like the song does.

And I think that's what Paul is saying here in Ephesians 1:3, every spiritual blessing.

Think about all the spiritual blessings that we as Christians have and understand that all of those are because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Every spiritual blessing in Christ, but that raises the question.

To everyone this morning.

Have you been baptized into Christ?

Have you entered into that spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ?

Because that's where the blessings are.

Outside of Christ, as Paul would write in Ephesians 2, we're without hope, and the spiritual blessings that are available to the Christian are not available to us.

This morning, do you want to be blessed by God?

Given every spiritual blessing, forgiveness of sins, hope, fellowship with other Christians, guidance, protection spiritually.

And an eternal reward.

All of those blessings are there, are there for you, but they are within that relationship with Christ.

If we can assist you in being baptized into Christ this morning, then we want to encourage you, and we do so as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Scripture reading this evening will be Psalm 47.

Psalm 47.

I'm, excuse me, I'll be reading out the new King James Version.

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples, shout to God with the voice of triumph, for the Lord Most High is awesome.

He is a great king over all the earth.

He will subdue the peoples under us and the nations under our feet.

He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob, whom he loves.

God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Sing praises to God.

Sing praises.

Sing praises to our King.

Sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth.

Sing praises with understanding.

God reigns over the nations.

God sits on His holy throne.

The princes of the people have gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God.

He is greatly exalted.

A number of years ago, there was a campaign for Twix candy bars.

I really like Twix candy bars and I like their campaign.

The campaign with various commercials went kind of like this.

An individual would be asked a question.

That they really didn't want to answer because it was a loaded question.

Honey, does this make me look fat?

Or they had said something and then realized that it was.

Totally inappropriate or something.

And so, they would immediately, you know, cram the Twix candy bar in their mouth and begin chewing as though, well, I can't say anything right now, you know, I'm, I'm protected.

Well, I'm suggesting to you tonight that that's something you can use.

Not Twix candy bars.

But I'm gonna give you a get out of jail free card like the Twix candy bar would allow you to avoid the responsibility of answering a question or taking the consequences of what you had said.

And it's very simple.

You just say it was divine sovereignty.

And that just ends the discussion.

It was divine sovereignty.

And so, husbands, if you accidentally say the wrong thing and your wife begins to give you that look, just say it was divine sovereignty.

I'm not responsible.

Or perhaps you forgot Mother's Day, I'm warning you ahead of time, or maybe a birthday, an important birthday, just say it was divine sovereignty.

It wasn't me.

I was destined to do that.

And young people, it'll work for you too.

Because a lot of times when parents say to kids, what were you thinking?

Why did you do that?

What's the response that we sometimes give?

I don't know.

Scratch that.

From now on, it's, it's divine sovereignty, OK?

And I'm kidding, don't do that.

But Divine sovereignty will work just as well, maybe even better than Twix candy bars.

Now, someone says, well, how does divine sovereignty get me out of the hot seat if I've said something or done something that, that I don't want to have to answer for?

Well, let me give you the reason for that, and it's a quotation from, uh, and I believe his uh name is pronounced Lorraine Bettner, but he is quoted in a book by Spencer called Tulip.

Spencer is an advocate of Calvinism, and he quotes Bettner.

Here's what Bettner says, Everything.

was infallibly determined and immutably fixed, can't be changed by God from the beginning.

And all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity.

See how that works?

You can't be blamed for saying something unkind to your wife.

It was divine sovereignty.

It's already been determined before the world began, and you, if you forgot the birthday, it's because God determined that you were gonna forget that birthday.

To get out of jail free card.

You're not responsible.

Everything that happens has been ordained in eternity and cannot be changed.

Divine sovereignty.

What is sovereignty?

Well, the Oxford, the concise Oxford English Dictionary says that sovereignty means supreme power or authority.

To give a little bit more elaborate definition, sovereignty means what a sovereign has, namely control over his kingdom.

God's sovereignty, the idea that God is in control of the whole universe, Geyser says, is a doctrine clearly taught in the Bible.

And so God has power.

He's in control of the whole universe.

Now, I hear people say that sometimes we need to remember that God's in control.

Be careful.

With what you're saying, because some people would use the same language, only they mean what Lorraine Bettner says, not what the Bible says.

We'll develop that more, but let me give you another definition.

The meaning of sovereignty could be summed up in this way.

To be sovereign is to possess supreme power and authority, so that one is in complete control and can accomplish whatever he pleases.

Donald Trump is not.

A sovereign Because he is limited by the Constitution, whether he likes it or not, he is.

He doesn't have complete control.

There are checks and balances in the government that would restrict him from doing certain things.

He is not a sovereign according to the definition that we're looking at, but God is.

And he is sovereign over all that he has created.

Divine sovereignty refers to the power of God over all His creation.

We began a discussion of Calvinism, and I intend over the months of the rest of this year to talk more about the main tenets of Calvinism with the idea of identifying them and showing how they are not uh biblical concepts.

And uh Calvinism teaches that divine sovereignty is essentially responsible for God's choosing and not choosing election and reprobation of all mankind.

When we talked about Calvinism, when I introduced it, I suggested to you the acronym of pilot.

No, that's backwards.

It's tulip.

You have to go from the bottom here to go up.

And the reason it's in that order is because the foundation doctrine for those five main tenants, total inherited depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, all of them stem from the first doctrine and that's total inherited depravity.

But undergirding the whole system.

is the concept of the sovereignty of God.

And so it's important that we understand what the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty and for that matter, man's free will, and that's what we'll be talking about this evening.

The doctrine of unconditional election.

is based on a misunderstanding of divine sovereignty.

The thinking goes like this.

If salvation were available to all, and the gospel, uh, the great commission is go and preach the gospel to every creature, make disciples of all the nations.

If salvation were available to all, and some men could choose to reject the gospel offer of salvation, the Calvinistic way of thinking is that the sovereignty of God would be negated.

If God Want everybody to be saved.

And some could choose not to be saved by rejecting the gospel call.

Then God's not sovereign.

He's not in complete control.

People are able to thwart God's will.

And so you can begin to see perhaps already how the sovereignty of God is an important doctrine for the uh systematic theology of Calvinism.

A proper understanding of divine sovereignty does not contradict the idea of conditional election.

And I want you to look at the you that is up on the screen, unconditional election.

What we said in the first lesson on Calvinism is that Calvinism teaches that God before anything had been created.

God had already decided he had chosen already those who would be saved, and of course, by implication, also those who would be lost.

If you weren't chosen to be saved, then obviously you're going to be lost.

There are only two alternatives there.

And so that election was unconditional.

God didn't look forward to see how you would behave or how I would behave or anybody would behave.

He simply chose various individuals independent of their works.

Or their character or anything that they might accomplish in their lives, God chose certain to be saved and others to be lost by implication.

Unconditional election.

But what I'm saying to you tonight is that if we understand the divine sovereignty correctly according to the way the Bible talks, there's no contradiction with the idea that God chose those who would be saved on a conditional basis.

Now, we still have to clarify the nature of God's choice, but that it was unconditional.

is not biblical.

And so we'll develop that as, as we go along.

God decided who would be saved in the beginning.

He decided that everyone who would believe in His Son and be conformed to the image of his son would be saved.

And whether or not we're in that group of saved people is a choice that we make, that we have to make.

For some religious people, however, The doctrine of divine sovereignty means that everything that happens does so because God ordered it to be so.

I hasten to point out, of course, that like pre-millennialism, which has more flavors than Ben and Jerry's ice cream, so Calvinism has people who are uh not all exactly on the same page.

But Calvinists typically believe that God, in order to be sovereign, he must control everything that happens.

One writer says it this way, this is the fellow I mentioned earlier, the author of the book Tulip, in which he defends, explains, and defends Calvinism.

He says man may connive and scheme following the counter plan of their god Satan, but they cannot bring to pass so much as one act contrary to the will and plan of God, who fordained all of history from the largest event to the most insignificant.

Everything you will do tomorrow, according to this view, God's already determined it.

Kind of makes you feel a little bit like a robot, doesn't it?

Or a computer that's been programmed.

I want to bring up the quote that we looked at a little bit earlier.

Bettner says everything was infallibly determined and immutably fixed by God from the beginning.

You can't change your life from the way that God has determined that it's, it's going to happen and all that happens in time is but the accomplishment of what was ordained in eternity.

Now, surely you are already beginning to think about some of the consequences of that idea.

For instance, When Debbie and I went to Florida College, I thought I chose her to be my wife.

Turns out the Calvinist says that God had determined that I was going to be married to Deb before I was ever born for.

She was born before the world was ever created.

Oh, I'm so tempted to make a comment here, but I got into trouble this morning.

I'm going to preserve my safety this evening.

But I thought I was in control.

I thought I was the one who said, not that one, that one.

Turns out, according to the Calvinists, God had already decided that Debbie and I would be married and that we would have uh 2 children, 23 sons.

We foolishly thought that our 2nd son was gonna be named Amber Renee.

Turned out his name is Jonathan Martin.

But that also had apparently been determined before we were ever born before the world was created.

So, the choice of a spouse is not your choice.

God's already determined that, uh, economic decisions and families, all that's been arranged by God.

Someone says, well, that seems, it seems like you're taking a look at those quotes again.

There's no wiggle room here.

That's exactly what they're saying.

Everything in your life has already been predetermined and cannot be changed.

Everything What about my sin?

If I violate God's law, did God determine that, that I would do that?

Did he decide that that's what I was going to do?

Not anticipating what I might do, but determining what I would do, and that's what that doctrine says.

I'm not being unfair to them.

I wanted you to hear from the Calvinist viewpoint what they understand about God's Power his sovereignty.

Does the Bible teach this?

And the answer is no.

In 1 Chronicles chapter 29 verse 11, The scripture says, yours, oh Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens, and in the earth is yours.

Yours is the kingdom, oh Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all.

In your hand our power and might, and in your hand, it is to make great and to give strength to all.

God is sovereign.

And we'll look at a number of passages that will confirm that very point.

But what is it that the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty?

Some disturbed a little bit by the extreme predestination that uh we saw in these quotes just a moment ago.

Some in response to Calvinists uh view of divine sovereignty, they would deny that God is presently sovereign over all things.

And so they would argue that uh he will be sovereign in the future, but right now he's not, and I think that's an unbiblical position to take.

And I'll try to support that.

They argue Satan is identified as the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2 and 2.

He's identified as the ruler of this world in the Gospel of John.

How can that be if God is sovereign, if he's in control of everything?

What does that leave for Satan?

How do we reconcile those kinds of statements about Satan with a God who is indeed sovereign in complete control.

Of the creation.

Well, first of all, I would argue that we don't need to deny the sovereignty of God.

The Bible clearly teaches that truth.

I'm gonna just suggest a few passages, we could spend the rest of the evening and my sermon would be timeless.

To borrow a little bit from this morning.

We could spend the rest of the evening putting together passages that affirm the power, the control, the sovereignty of God.

But just a handful here, Psalm 47 2, for the Lord, the Most Highest to be feared, a great king over all the earth, for God is the king of all the earth, sing praises with the psalm.

Psalm verse 7 says, In the 33th Psalm verse 3, that the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.

The superlative statements, God's not in the group.

He is above all.

In 2 Chronicles 20 and 6.

Oh Lord, God of our fathers, the king says, are you not God in heaven?

You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

Again, just plain statements of God's sovereignty.

Isaiah the prophet in chapter 14 and verse 24 beginning, says the Lord of hosts has sworn, as I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him.

Underfoot, and his yoke shall depart from them and his burden from their shoulder.

This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations, for the Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back.

If God decides he's going to do something, who's going to stop him?

Job makes that statement in his conversation with his friends.

The friends make the same statement.

They believe in the sovereignty of God, uh, despite other uh errors in their thinking.

And then in 1 Timothy 6:15.

Which he will display at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and Lord of lords.

In the 93th Psalm and in verse 3, the Psalmist said, our God is in the heavens.

He does all that he pleases.

He is sovereign.

But the Bible also teaches that you and I and all other human beings have free will.

I want to share with you a quote from the book Predestination and Free Will.

On the one hand, the author's right, we believe that God made us morally responsible beings with the ability to make meaningful moral decisions, and they parse that sentence carefully as you'll see as we go into some of this.

God made us morally responsible beings with the ability to make meaningful decisions.

Then if we were not able to make meaningful decisions, then why Scripture exhort us to turn from evil things or to lead godly lives.

If we were not responsible for freely choosing our actions, then how could God justly reward or punish us for them?

That is for uh our actions.

I think that those are good questions, and they're questions that I have asked those who would defend the idea of Calvinism.

Every invitation to obey the Lord's commands is an admission that God man rather, has the ability to choose his path, that he has free will.

We could illustrate that, I guess in the Old Testament by looking at the fact that God set before his people decisions, options, choices.

In Deuteronomy 11:26, see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.

The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known.

Well, wait a minute.

He just gave two options.

Do people really have a, uh, uh, an ability to choose one or the other or were those decisions made for us by God before the world began?

That's the Calvinist view incidentally, as you already understand.

After the people had left the wilderness wandering and they'd entered into the land, Joshua had helped them conquer the land as the leader of the people after Moses.

And then at the end of Joshua's life, he says in chapter 24 verse 15, and if it is In your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve.

Either the gods your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell.

But as for me in my house, we will make the decision that God has already made for us.

I'm sorry.

That's a different version.

I'm reading from the ESV that says, but as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua said, we're making our decision.

And we've decided to serve the Lord.

There are other passages that operate along the same kind of argument, that is, there are invitations extended to mankind.

Matthew the 11th chapter comes to mind.

You may have already thought of this passage where Jesus says, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy lady.

How many people would that be?

Well, that would be all of us, wouldn't it?

At some point in our lives, all of us are laden and are laboring and are heavy laden with our sins.

Come, Jesus says, all of you, what a cruel invitation if Calvinism is correct and most of humanity can't make that choice, even if we wanted to.

Of course, they argue we don't because of our corrupted nature.

Later in Jesus' life, he would look over the city of Jerusalem.

And say, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

I would have gathered you, I would have protected you, provided for you, you didn't want to.

Well, wait a minute.

Calvinism says that the people didn't really have a choice.

That Jesus can say, I would have done this for you, but the fact of the matter is, it had already been predetermined by God that those people were gonna reject Jesus. Predetermined.

I didn't say that it wouldn't happen.

I said God had given them no other choice, didn't have free will to make that choice.

Jesus says, you could have, I would have provided for you.

There's a term that I really don't use very often.

I don't think any of us do.

It's the word antenemy.

JI Packer in his book Evangelism and the sovereignty of God describes the meaning of antinomy.

It's when you've got two truths.

Both with evidence that they are true, but there seems to be some difficulty in believing both things at the same time.

And that's where people find themselves when they look at what the Bible says about divine sovereignty and what the Bible says about man's free will.

How can God be sovereign and have control over his whole creation if in fact, I can do what I want to do?

Does that not destroy the sovereignty of God?

That's The difficulty that people wrestle with.

Packer writes, it is an apparent incompatibility between two apparent truths, and antinomy.

An antinoy exists when a pair of principles stand side by side, seemingly irreconcilable, yet both undeniable.

There are cogent reasons for believing each of them, each rests on clear and solid evidence, but it is a mystery.

To you, how they can be squared with each other.

How do they harmonize?

You see that each must be true on its own, but you do not see how they can both be true together.

And I've already suggested that God is sovereign and the Bible teaches that, and that man has free will and the Bible teaches that.

How do we reconcile these two things that at least to the Calvinistic mind seems to be irreconcilable.

Can God be sovereign?

If man chooses to act contrary to his will.

And the Calvinist shouts, no.

If you can act against God's will, then God's not sovereign.

He doesn't have complete control.

You are in control, at least of that particular part, your corner of the universe.

Another quotation that helped define some of these things.

There's a fundamental difficulty in the notion of an omnipotent God creating men with free will.

For if men's wills are really free, this must mean that even God cannot control them.

That is, that God is no longer omnipotent.

Well, I don't agree with that statement, but it's pretty clear.

If you can make a decision that God doesn't want you to make, then God's not in control.

He's not omnipotent.

You can thwart his will.

Karl F. H. Henry in his book God, Revelation, and Authority says this.

To be morally responsible, man needs only the capacity for choice, not the freedom of contrary choice.

At the bottom, I've got a box and it says, what?

Because that makes no sense at all.

Oh, you have a choice, but your choice is this one option right here.

Well, what other option do I have?

You don't have any other options.

Well, that's a different kind of choice then, isn't it?

That kind of sounds like I'm pretty much determined to go that one way.

So he continues, human, human beings voluntarily choose to do what they do.

The fact that God has ordained for ordained human choices, and that his decree renders human actions certain.

Does not therefore negate human choice.

You know what that is?

That is the assertion with tongue in cheek that man has freedom of choice when he really doesn't, because he only has one choice he can make.

That's a nothing doctrine.

It doesn't even make good sense.

If God has control of all things, why would man ever sin?

Oh, it means that God's determined that he'll sin.

God makes him sin.

Well, that raises a whole plethora of questions.

Like for instance, is it just for God to send me to a place of eternal torment if in fact, God is the one who made me sin and he condemns me to eternal torment on the basis of those sins.

Parent puts a cake on the table.

And children gather around, you know, oh, that looks so good.

It's got icing on it.

I love that kind of icing.

And the parent says, Yeah, go ahead, get you a piece of cake.

And of course, children being obedient, uh, they get pieces of cake and then the parent says, What?

You're eating the cake?

Shame on you.

Line up.

I'm gonna spank every one of you.

Well, you'd begin to wonder if that parent's got all of the marbles rolling around in the same direction.

And yet that's what the Calvinist says about God.

And you know the answer to that?

When you say, well, that sounds to me like God's not a just God, you don't have the right as a human being to question God. Really?

You mean I can't understand from the scriptures even what justice is, what holiness is, what fairness is?

Can he even make Man, can man even make his own choices?

Again, quoting Bettner from another source, God so controls the thoughts and wills of men that they freely and willingly do what he has planned for them to do.

So you have a choice, but you know what, you're gonna always make the choice that God wants you to make.

Cause it's been preordained what choice you will make.

Oh, that's foolishness.

We need to understand that the Bible speaks of God's will in more than one sense.

And I'm gonna suggest to you a couple of different senses.

But the idea that these guys, these Calvinists are presenting is that man has freedom of choice, but he willingly always chooses what God wants him to choose.

So when you sin, if you sin, You made the choice that God wanted you to to make, because God's sovereign, he's in control of everything.

Thus Calvinists pay lip service to man's free will, but in actuality, they deny it.

You are a robot.

You've been programmed by God before the world began, and there's nothing you can do about it.

I titled the last sermon out of my hands.

Because that's exactly what Calvinism says.

It says that your salvation is out of your hands.

It's God from beginning to end, and you virtually have very little to do with it.

And you can see that as we've laid out this idea of sovereignty.

The scriptures speak of God's will in the sense of this is the decree of God.

This is what God says is going to happen, and there are plenty of passages that affirm that when God decides to do something, that's what's going to happen.

Uh, Psalm 33 and verse 11, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

We already looked at Isaiah 14:13 to 27, verse 27 says, for the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Do you and I have any problem accepting the idea that God is omnipotent?

He is the Almighty God, and if he decides to do something, he has the power to do it.

I don't have any problem with them.

I don't think you do either.

Isaiah 46 and 212, declaring the end from the beginning, God does, and from ancient times, things not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

What we do understand from the scriptures, passages like Ephesians chapter one, is that God uh decided on a plan of redemption and he brought it to fruition and it was going to happen because he is the Almighty God.

He is a sovereign God.

Paul describes that plan, at least in some detail in Romans 219.

Verses 25 to 22.

He says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

God had a purpose before the foundation of the world.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined, what did he predestined them to do or be, to be conformed to the image of his son.

In order that he might be the first born, Jesus, that is, among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, that's part of the process, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

That's past tense.

He also glorified.

Is he not talking about the future for us?

It is so certain that it is going to happen when a sovereign God decides that's what's going to happen.

That it's past tense already in a sense.

He talks about it as though already having been accomplished.

I understand.

I'm not saying what the Calvinists say about your life and my life.

For all of the things that happen in this world.

What I am saying is that God had a plan.

And he decided what that plan was going to be and how it was going to be carried out and God's will.

Will happen.

Alan Turner in his book The Christian Calvinism said whatever God proposes and Himself carries out and himself carries out will in fact happen.

I believe that's an accurate statement based on some of the things we've read so far.

But sometimes when we talk about the will of God, we need to understand that we're talking about God's will in a different sense.

I can read in my Bible, the will of God, meaning those precepts that God wants me to follow.

This is God's will.

This is his law.

This is what he wants me to do with my life.

Hebrews 23 29:23, for you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

Mm, you mean I, it's possible that I don't do the will of God?

Oh, absolutely.

Here's God's laying out the, the, the way he wants me to behave, but I have the right to choose not to do that.

And in fact, Jesus says in Matthew 22:23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Listen to me.

If Everybody has to do what God wants them to do His will, then all people will be saved.

Cause that's what Jesus said.

Those who do the will of God are the ones who are gonna enter into heaven.

But of course in that same periccope Jesus is saying that there'll be people who will not enter heaven.

Just another problem with this whole view of the divine sovereignty.

Passage in 24 Peter verse 3 chapter 3 and verse 9.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Depending on who you think Peter is speaking about, whether he's speaking about the Christians to whom he is writing there, the Christians that are spread out perhaps over 5 different Roman provinces, or whether you think he's talking about mankind.

He's talking about mankind.

And why would anybody be lost if God wants His will is that everybody comes to repentance.

In 1 Timothy 2 and 33, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

That's what God wants.

So why won't it happen?

We're told it's not going to happen.

We're told that there's 2 roads and most people are following the road that leads to destruction.

There are very few, Jesus was asked at one time, how many are going to be saved?

Few are going to be saved.

I don't understand that.

God wants all people to be saved.

Well, that's his desire.

But you and I have the choice.

The ability to decide whether we will follow his preceptive will, whether we'll follow his commands, his instructions.

Man's free will allows him to choose to obey or disobey God's perceptive will.

His will in that sense, as the word is used in that sense, doesn't force man to act in any particular way.

We can choose And so as a result, there are things that happened that God neither purposes or desires. What?

How can God be sovereign if things happen that he doesn't really want to happen?

Well, man's sins are in this category.

If I understand the Old Testament prophets and even the New Testament writings correctly, Isaiah said in verse 60 chapter 65 verse 12, God said, I will destin you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter because when I called, you did not answer.

When I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.

So here were people who did things that God did not delight in.

God called them and they were able to say no.

Reject the call.

That doesn't sound like the description.

Of God's sovereignty that we read earlier.

And then let's put a little bit of icing on the cake here.

Jeremiah 19:5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire has burnt offerings to Baal.

Jeremiah is talking about the sins of the people, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind.

God said, I never wanted that.

But you're doing it How does that work with the sovereignty of God?

Well, I want to conclude here, but I wanna make a statement here very quickly about my intentions.

I would like to have talked this evening about the sovereignty of God and prophecy.

Because I think there are some interesting precepts that we need to wrestle with, but I'm going to leave that for, no, I'll just go ahead and do it tonight.

Just kidding.

I'm gonna leave that for another sermon.

So we'll talk more about God's sovereignty and particularly with respect to prophecy.

If God says something's going to happen way off in the future, is he not going to have to determine how people are going to behave in order for that purpose to happen?

Well, we need to talk about that, but time doesn't permit that this evening.

And I'm probably gonna let Ian discuss that.

There is, of course, a sense in which everything that happens is under the control of God.

Even those things that are contrary to his perceptive, I may have perceptive, but preceptive will.

Because he permits them to take place.

If God wants He can make all of us do exactly what he wants.

I believe he has that power.

That's part of being sovereign.

But God chose to allow us.

To demonstrate our love.

Our gratitude.

In obedience to his will, if we choose to do so.

The fact of the divine sovereignty, I, I hope you realize this is critical to our salvation.

This isn't some esoteric discussion about, well, OK, God's sovereign, you know, let the Calvinists fight about that.

Listen to me, our confidence in the promises of God rests upon the sovereignty of God.

What good are promises if the one who made them is incapable of fulfilling them?

In keeping them.

If God says, I'm going to give eternal life to those who are conformed to the image of my son, do you care whether God can fulfill that promise?

Of course we do.

Why else would we be here this evening?

Why else would we order our lives the way that we do?

Our prayer life depends upon the sovereignty of God.

Why pray if there's no one listening who has the power and authority to answer our requests?

If God doesn't have the power to, to answer our prayers, and, and I know there's the, the, the, there are other factors here we could talk about Providence, we're gonna do that.

But just the bottom line is, can God do anything about what you're asking for in prayer?

Why would we pray otherwise if we didn't believe?

And a sovereign God.

Here's what I want you to take away from this study of divine sovereignty besides the fact that I don't know when to shut up.

The Bible clearly teaches both the sovereignty of God.

And the free will of man.

And because God is sovereign, because he has control of his creation, God will carry out his purposes, and no one can thwart his plan.

God has set forth his desired will for mankind.

We have it revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

But every individual has to choose whether to submit to that will or not.

And Jesus said, the ones who will enter the kingdom of heaven are the ones who do the will of the Father who is in heaven.

The final judgment's going to occur.

It's part of God's plan.

It's part of his purpose.

We're going to stand before Christ and give an account for the things done in the body, whether good or evil.

And it doesn't make any difference what choices we make.

We cannot escape that appointment.

It's going to happen.

Because God is sovereign.

It's part of God's decreed of will.

He has decreed that's an event that will take place.

And so neither Satan Nor evil men can act with ultimate impunity.

They are going to have to give account just as we will.

Well, I want you to remember these two passages, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Peter Timothy rather 2 verses 3 and 4, if you wanna get the whole sentence.

This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

God has provided a way for you and me.

To be saved, to have fellowship with God for eternity.

But the decision is ours.

The choice is ours.

God will not force us.

If we choose to be disobedient and rebellious, he will allow that to happen.

But then we'll have to give account for our decision on the day of judgment.

What decision But choice Are you making?

Have you decided?

To submit to the will of God.

To make that choice as opposed to rebellion and sin.

If we can assist you in obedience to the gospel this evening, we certainly want to do so, and we're going to stand and sing to encourage you if you need to do that this evening.

Come to the front and we'll help you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Scripture reading this morning to be 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 1 through 343.

I'll be reading from the new American Standard version.

Now as the times and the epics, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you, for you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying peace and safety, the destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child.

They will not escape.

But you brethren are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day.

We are not of night nor of darkness.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.

For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God is not destined for us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Therefore, encourage one another and build up another just as you are also are doing.

Well, if you haven't discovered it yet, we just began daylight saving time.

Actually, not just now.

It started this morning at 2 a.m.

Have you ever wondered why 2 a.m.?

I mean, what's the point in all of us staying up until 2 a.m.

to move our clock one hour forward?

When we could just as easily have done it before we went to bed, and then it would just automatically be the right time in the morning.

But since I know that you are law abiding citizens, I suspect that some of you didn't get as much sleep last night as you might normally have gotten.

And so this morning, In light of the fact that just losing a single hour of sleep can really change our world, I'm going to talk about sleep.

Hopefully not to lull anybody into that sweet rest that perhaps you did not get last night as you.

Stayed up To turn the clock forward at 2 a.m.

But at least we can talk about sleep this morning.

The consensus of studies is that many Americans are sleep deprived.

I believe that.

If you've ever seen people in the morning sometimes, uh, if you go to work and you're in an office and people kind of trudge in maybe, I don't know, I don't have that experience.

I just have to look at Debbie in the morning.

There was no connection there whatsoever.

You may see people who look like they need several more hours of sleep and uh they'll have their coffee.

uh Mike usually, I think probably has like a mug that's size of a small water tower.

But we're a sleep deprived people.

Part of that perhaps is because we live in a society and a culture where there's technology allows us to do so many more things than we used to be able to do, and we try to cram more things into our days until the time that we go to bed seems to get closer and closer to the time that we have to get up in order to take care of the activities of the next day.

Webster has an interesting definition of sleep.

The natural periodic suspension of consciousness, during which the powers of the body are restored.

The only problem with that definition is it also can describe the condition of many students in school during classes they don't like, where there's a suspension of consciousness, uh, until the bell rings.

But that's what happens when we sleep.

Uh, as a person falls asleep, our senses become less and less active.

We become less aware of our surroundings.

It's first our sight that uh goes uh into unconsciousness, then taste and smell and hearing, and finally even touch becomes practically inactive.

Our breathing slows and our heartbeat slows.

The muscles of our bodies relax.

When uh Cheryl and Vicky and I were young, uh occasionally we were not anxious to go to sleep at the time when we were supposed to go to sleep.

And so sometimes we'd get out of bed and we'd be spying on mom and dad and stuff.

And then if dad came, you know, closer to the bed, and we'd run and jump in the bed and we'd all be mm, you know, you gotta get that slow, relaxed breathing to convince dad that we are fast asleep.

In Dreamland We sleep in cycles with much of our sleep being superficial or light sleep.

Uh, we dream only during a deep sleep.

Uh, as sometimes it's called.

And some people can sleep through just about anything.

I'm suspicious that that picture is manufactured, not by AI. I just think two guys decided to get together and do something funny, but I've seen people sleep in situations that were not much better than that, if even that comfortable.

But you know, in the Bible, there are a number of people who are described as being asleep during activities that you would not suspect would be conducive to sleeping.

I'm thinking of Adam who had major surgery while he was sleeping, a deep sleep upon him, and the result was a woman.

Can you imagine?

You go to sleep, you're by yourself, you wake up and there's this beautiful woman next to you.

Happens to me every day.

Did that make up?

OK. Samson When Delilah is trying to discover the secret of his strength, He finally tells her that if she will weave the 7 locks of hair on his head into the loom.

That he'll lose his strength.

And so she lulls him to sleep, and then she's weaving these locks of hair into the loom and he sleeps through all of this.

Well, that didn't turn out very well with him eventually.

But you wonder how he could do that.

King Saul was asleep with his men around him, and David and, and another came into the camp and took the spear that was next to Saul's head and a jug of water there.

Saul never woke up.

The text does say that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Saul.

I'm thinking of Jonah.

There's a huge storm and in the Mediterranean, Jonah is in the ship.

The sailors are losing their minds.

They think they're going to die.

They're doing everything they can to try to save themselves.

There's Jonah sleep and the sailors are like, how can you be sleeping?

Joh, of course, understands the cause of that storm.

Jesus likewise on one of his journeys across the Sea of Galilee.

is asleep when the boat is being tossed by a storm, such storms as were common on the Sea of Galilee.

And then there's Uticus.

You knew we had to talk about Uticus, who falls out of an upper story window while Paul was preaching.

And then apparently was revived by the apostle Paul.

I don't usually notice even if people are sleeping.

I remember one time, uh, many years ago, I was preaching and there were two young boys who were sitting on the front pew.

They'd never sat there before.

They sat on the front pew.

And both of them were fast asleep by the ser middle of the sermon.

Their heads were back, they were snoring.

And I just said, boys, wake up and just kept on going.

And uh the parents were not very happy with me.

But I don't usually notice people sleeping, and some have kidded me about how many people I can put to sleep, but this is not a sleeping congregation.

Rarely does it seem like anybody is not focused on the things that are being said, the activities that we're engaged in.

But I've learned that sometimes people doze for reasons that are beyond their control.

They're taking medication whose side effects sometimes is to make them drowsy or they work long hours and they're coming off their shift in the morning even.

And so they come to services.

Despite the fact that they haven't had hardly any sleep, uh, in the previous hours or shift work, if you've never worked shifts where you're uh cycling from one shift to another, it's hard sometimes for your body to make that adjustment, especially when you are now just making the shift change.

And so I try to be understanding uh about that.

Uh, people have come to make the, they made the effort to come and to listen.

But I will tell you I do not have the ability to raise anybody from the dead, so sleep at your own risk if you choose to do so.

Well, this morning I want to talk about staying alert, staying awake.

Because each of us needs to be attentive to the spiritual dangers that we face in this world and the sin that can be so quickly in our lives, we need to be alert and active in the Lord's service.

It's interesting to me that like some other things in life, for instance, the eating of food, that sleep is described both in a positive way and a negative way.

In the book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 5 and verse 12, we're told that the ability to sleep uh is a sign of a lack of worry or anxiety.

The full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

I like uh the new King James version, the abundance that he has.

He's maybe be concerned about keeping his things.

He can't even sleep at night, but the laborer, whether he eats little or much, he is able to sleep.

In Psalm 4 and verse 10, the psalmist said, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, oh Lord.

Make me dwell in safety.

When people realize that God is taking care of them, that Satan can't.

Take them over without their consent, that God will not permit that.

Then they can sleep at night knowing that they live in the love of the sovereign Lord.

But on the other hand, excessive sleep is the mark of the sluggard.

So Proverbs talks about individuals who are lazy and so, uh, he asks, how long will you lie there, oh sluggard.

When will you arise from your sleep?

Little sleep, little slumber, little folding of the hands to rest.

And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.

The word sleep is used in a metaphorical sense in the scriptures to refer to death as I think probably we're aware.

In John 203th chapter and verses 11 to 13, Jesus had previously been informed that his friend Lazarus down in Bethany in the southern part of Palestine was sick.

Messenger had brought that news and Jesus delayed going to Bethany.

But then he says to his disciples in verse 11, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.

The disciples said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he will recover.

Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest in sleep.

And so the Bible talks about death as sleep.

When Stephen was stoned in Acts chapter 25 and the end of the chapter, the text just said he fell asleep.

When Jesus died on the cross, the text in Matthew says that the bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and after the resurrection of Jesus came into the city and appeared to many, but that was interesting.

In 222 Corinthians 246:21, Paul says, we shall not all sleep, meaning we're not all going to die before the Lord comes.

There'll be some who will still be alive, but he says we will all be changed.

I want to share with you a comment from W Vine on the, uh, at the point.

Where he defines the word that's translated sleep to sleep.

And he says this metaphorical use of the word sleep is appropriate, that is to talk about it as uh representing death because of the similarity in appearance between a sleeping body and a dead body.

Restfulness and peace normally characterized both.

The object of the metaphor is to suggest that as the sleeper does not cease to exist while his body sleeps, so the dead person continues to exist, despite his absence from the region in which those who remain can communicate with him.

Uh, I don't know that that's something we can conclude 215% if that's the object of the metaphor, but it's quite possible.

And he says that as sleep is known to be temporary, so the death of the body will be found to be.

Well, that certainly is scripture, and we sang about that one day, one day Jesus will be coming.

And when he does, the graves are gonna be empty.

There'll be a general resurrection.

All who are in the tombs and the graves will hear his voice, and they'll come forth, some to life and some to condemnation.

But there's a time when you shouldn't be sleeping.

To sleep is also used in a metaphorical way to talk about inattentiveness or inactivity.

Those who are sleeping as Vine notes and as we've noted already, they become unconscious of the things that are going on around them and that's not a good thing for Christians.

To be unaware of the dangers that are around them that they face.

It's not time to sleep, Paul would say.

I think that's quite an appropriate metaphor, the idea of sleeping, uh, to talk about inactivity or inattentiveness in view of the physical changes that happen when we fall asleep.

The psalmist in Psalm 234 and verse 33, in what appears to be a community lament, has recited how God has taken care of his people, but now it seems as though God is, is not listening.

He's not aware of the things that his people Israel are facing.

And so the psalmist says, awake.

Why are you sleeping, oh Lord, Rouse yourself.

Do not reject us forever.

And David would say much the same thing in Psalm 23 and verse 213, when he says, awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord.

In both Psalms, the writer is saying, Lord, are you seeing what's happening to us?

Rouse yourself, awake as though the Lord is unaware of what's happening to his people.

Many of you are aware that I enjoy hunting, deer hunting.

And I have many times sat in a deer stand.

And it is that hour before it becomes illegal to shoot.

You can shoot 217 minutes before sunrise, you can shoot 30 minutes after sunset.

We always, when we hunt, we always know what time, exact time sunset is so that you're not tempted to shoot when it's illegal to shoot.

That's the golden hour.

That hour where it's beginning to be dusky and then even the, the light is fading, and that's when the deer, a lot of times will come out into the open.

I've sat all day long sometimes in a stand didn't see anything until the golden hour.

There will come that deer out of the woods in order to eat.

But unfortunately, I seem to be sleep deprived sometimes and so it's not unusual for me to be sitting in that stand and I know that this is the time when I need to be awake and I'm, you know, you can't move around cause the deer have great eyesight.

So you gotta be still, and that's death to the person who's trying to stay awake but needs to sleep.

And so I find myself waking up and then waking up.

And I think only seconds occur between one time that I'm falling asleep and the next time I'm falling asleep.

Mike is laughing, but If you want, I will tell you a story about Mike sleeping in the stand.

When he shot a deer and or I shot a deer and he claimed it.

That's the way I tell the story.

You, you can get with me.

I'll be glad to tell you that story.

But I've wondered sometimes as I'm struggling to stay awake because my body just is saying you can't stay awake.

I wonder how many times deer have come out and just walked in front of me, maybe some big buck and he's telling the doe with him.

He needs his sleep.

I wonder how many opportunities.

I've missed because I wasn't alert when I really needed to be.

The scriptures present a contrast in multiple passages between those who sleep and those who are awake.

And watchful or alert.

One such passage is Mark the 13th chapter.

Beginning in verse 32 is where I'm going to start reading, and I believe that Mark 13 is not talking about the end of the world.

I know there are uh some who do believe that.

I think Jesus is still talking about the destruction that is going to come to Jerusalem, but The point that I want to make is that Jesus talks about uh a contrast between those who are sleeping, those who are, uh, and those who are alert.

He says in verse 32 of Mark 13, but concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father.

Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come.

Dropping down to verse 133.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows are in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

Whether that's talking about the final coming of Jesus or the destruction of Jerusalem, the point is, you don't know, Jesus says, when the time will come, stay awake.

You don't want to be found sleeping.

When that occurs.

Now, I believe in 1 Thessalonians 5 that Paul is writing about the end of the world, the coming of the Lord, the day of the Lord, the final coming of Christ.

And he says in 1 Thessalonians 5, it's on the screen if you care.

Read along with me, for you are all children of light, children of the day.

We're not of the night or of the darkness.

So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

Why do we need to stay awake, stay because we're children of the day, we're children of light, sleep, drunkenness, that's characteristic of the night.

The drunkard, like the sleeper is not vigilant, he's not watchful.

Well, If you want an example of watchful.

A deer is a pretty good example.

A deer will come out.

And just away from the edge of the woods and watch and look.

And they're not in a hurry most of the time.

And they'll just look and watch, and they'll come out a little bit further, and they'll reach down maybe and eat and then their head will come up.

I've learned that a deer that's got his head down or her head down eating, she's still watching.

And it just takes a very little bit of motion.

tens of yards away or more, and she's alert and that tail, that white tail comes up.

She's alert like that because she lives in a dangerous world.

She's got multiple predators including yours truly.

And so she's constantly alert to whatever is going on that doesn't look right.

And that's why we need to stay alert, because we live in a world that at least spiritually speaking is dangerous.

There are lots of spiritual dangers that we encounter, false teachers, bad influences in terms of associations that we might in some cases be forced to have because of work or other reasons.

And when we let our guard down, when we Go to sleep, so to speak, and become inattentive to those kinds of dangers.

It can result in our destruction.

Just like the deer who just walks out into the middle without of the pasture, without looking to see if there's any kind of danger around.

We need to watch so that we don't fall into temptation.

The passage that's cited there, Luke 22 and verse 46, is the passage where Jesus and his disciples are in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus is about to be arrested.

He has brought his disciples there to be with him, and he leaves them as a group, and then a smaller group, he leaves and he goes on and prays by himself, but he comes back and he finds the three that he, he finds them sleeping.

And he says, why are you sleeping?

Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

Now, I understand that in the circumstances, it was late at night.

They had been probably tired because of some of the things that had gone on during the day and Jesus had taught them.

There may have been some fatigue just because of the tension that, that had gone on during the previous hours, during the supper, and, and then the things that Jesus said afterwards.

But here they are in a situation where they really need to be awake and they're sleeping.

And Jesus says, rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

We need to be alert.

We need to be watchful.

For temptation lest we fall prey.

To the tempter We cannot afford to be spiritually inattentive.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 15:34 in the ESV, Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame.

Wake up Wake up and do not go on sinning.

We have an adversary who seeks to devour us, who seeks to destroy us.

And I sometimes get the impression that some Christians are basically asleep.

I don't mean that they're sleeping during services or, or that they're uh sluggards in that sense.

I mean, I, I, I think they're just inattentive to what's going on.

They don't seem to understand what's really important in life.

They're unconscious to the spiritual challenges that face them.

They're all wrapped up in all of their little physical activities that in the end won't mean anything.

They're asleep With respect to the things that are eternal in their consequence.

In their import Be sober-minded, be watchful, Peter would write, and that word watchful is the same word that would be translated in other context as Awake, be alert, be awake.

Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

There are some others who need to be watchful, especially.

Elders need to watch for the flock.

Paul, when he met with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, the record of his conversation with them.

Luke says Paul said, Therefore, be alert, remembering that for 3 years I did not cease night or day to admonish one with tears.

Be alert, he says.

There are wolves.

There are sheep who need help.

In Hebrews the 13th chapter and verse 17, the author of that book says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, but that would be of no advantage to you.

That's the job of elders.

It's not to decide paint color, carpet color, to take care of the building, to guard the treasury, primarily.

It is to watch after souls.

And the Hebrews writer says, submit to them as they do that work.

They need to be alert, need to be watchful.

Parents need to be alert.

They need to be protecting their children from spiritual dangers.

Well, we could go on, but I'm afraid that some might fall asleep.

So I'm just going to conclude by saying that what we've seen from the scriptures is that the word sleep can be used in a metaphorical way with different meanings.

Sometimes it's used to talk about death.

Sometimes, sleeping is an indication of spiritual inattentiveness or inactivity.

And so as Christians, we need to stay awake, stay alert.

I know that the illustration falls down.

Everybody has to sleep eventually, right?

But as Christians, we really need to continue to be awake and continue to be alert if you follow the parallel, the illustration.

We need to be on guard against temptation.

We need to be watchful for the souls of others, not just elders in that task, but all of us as well.

The Greeks had a word that described a rest house.

A place where travelers could come kind of served as uh what we would call a hotel or an Airbnb.

Uh, it was the Greek word Coitarian.

And what it meant literally was a sleeping chamber, a place for you to sleep, but it also could mean a burial place.

And that word, that Greek word with some minor changes has been passed on to our English language.

It's the word cemetery.

That's what a cemetery is.

It's literally a sleeping place.

I'm not suggesting that souls sleep, but I'm suggesting that when someone sleeps, we expect that they will arise the next morning after their sleep.

And when people are buried in cemeteries, We expect because the scriptures teach this, that at some point, they will be resurrected.

In fact, that's what the word resurrection literally means.

It's a raising to stand.

It's compound word that talks about standing and standing again.

Someone who has died, has been laid to rest and then resurrected stands again.

And so Jesus said that the hour was coming.

And all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and they'll come forth, there'll be this resurrection, both of the wicked and the just.

But that resurrection is going to have a very different outcome.

For those two different, those two groups, we'll all stand up again if the Lord doesn't come before we sleep.

But some We'll stand again to life everlasting.

Some to eternal loss.

Which Will it be for you?

If you're not a Christian.

You still have time, you still have opportunity, at least for the moment, for the present.

We're not guaranteed.

I thought uh some good comments about time that Jim made.

The fact that we're not guaranteed even the rest of today, much less of tomorrow, but we have the opportunity always, we have the opportunity right now to do what we need to do in order to make sure that our relationship with the Lord is one that will result eventually in eternal life, and eternal fellowship and not eternal loss.

If you've not obeyed the gospel.

We're going to send just a few moments to sing and to encourage you to think about doing that very thing, expressing your faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and having repented of your sins, you can be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins.

If you're a Christian and you've been asleep, maybe you've dozed off spiritually and you realize that you haven't been, been paying attention to the most critical things in your life, the spiritual obligations and challenges that you face, then today would be a good day.