Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

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.)

Appreciate the presence of everyone here this morning.

We've been given the gift of life.

Another day in which to serve God, to worship God.

Not everybody gets that privilege.

Just about a week ago, a little over a week ago, one of my high school classmates passed away.

We graduated in the same year, 1977, back when everybody rode horses to school.

And uh he wasn't one of my closest friends.

He was kind of in a circle of friends that we would uh kind of pal around sometimes together.

But once we graduated, my path, life path went one way and his life went another way.

And I don't know that our paths crossed in the years since we graduated.

In fact, I saw notice of his passing on Facebook.

So we weren't communicating or staying close over the years.

That's really been the pattern, uh, for Debbie and I as we have, uh, in the years that we've been married and I've been preaching, that we've moved from one congregation to another.

We've worked with several congregations.

And in each of those congregations, there were some folks that we were very close to.

We spent a lot of time with, we may have had some similarities.

And it's always difficult to leave a congregation when you, when you have folks like that.

It's just because you know that once you leave, your life path is going to go a different direction.

You may not have a lot of contact with those people.

And that's been the case.

Every place that we've worked, we've left behind close friends and because I am probably the world's worst correspondent, We haven't stayed close to many of those people.

That's about the only reason I stay on Facebook.

I don't like Facebook particularly.

But it does help me keep up with people that otherwise I would lose track of altogether.

There is coming, however, a time.

When all of our paths are going to merge.

In fact, the paths of all human beings will merge in the future on the occasion.

Of the final judgment, the judgment day.

Judgment Day is material for com comedians.

They like to make fun of and, and joke about uh Judgment Day, but the Day of Judgment is hardly a topic of humor or levity.

It is a very serious and sober topic.

Regardless of how different our lives may be from the lives of others, we are all, think about this, we are all rushing headlong toward the same place, the same event.

And all the nations will be gathered before the Lord.

And we'll be judged.

I want to talk to you this morning about the Day of Judgment, and I, I hasten to point out, as we do so, That I'm not going to be able to say everything that the Bible says about the Day of Judgment.

There are multiple passages that talk about the nature of God's judgment.

True and righteous are your judgments, oh Lord, is a phrase that you find in the scriptures from time to time.

And there'll be some other passages that, that are maybe peripheral to uh the judgment topic.

But what I would like to do this morning is to at least consider some significant scriptures, and we won't look at all of these scriptures in detail.

Don't worry.

Some of you, I noticed we're starting to shift in your seats.

What we're going to do is we're going to look specifically at one passage, 43 Corinthians 5 and 10, because that passage tells us a great deal about the judgment Day, about the final judgment.

And we'll fold some of these other passages in as they relate to some of the things we'll say about 2 Corinthians 5 and 10.

The scriptures may not satisfy our every curiosity about what will happen or the way things will be done on that final day, but they do supply us with some important information.

And so let us begin by looking at 2 Corinthians, the 5th chapter and verse 10, the apostle Paul writes, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each 1 may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

And I'm going to suggest to you several things that we learn about the judgment just from this passage, just one word descriptions.

And the first one is that this judgment is going to be universal in its nature.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Paul wrote something very similar to the Romans in chapter 123 and verse 10.

When in the context of brethren judging other brethren in matters of, uh, of no moral import, he says, why do you pass judgment on your brother or you?

Why do you despise your brother?

For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Earlier in the chapter, he said, we have a judge, and we'll have to answer to him.

So the final judgment is going to be universal.

Nobody will be able to escape that judgment.

So the judgment is inescapable.

We must all, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Again, back in the book of Romans in chapter 2 and verse 3, you may recall that in the first chapter of Romans, Paul talks about the condition of Gentile society, noting that because of their desire to not accept God, be grateful to, to abandon God, they had fallen into the uh Uh, the recesses of moral turpitude.

And then in chapter two, he addresses Jews who might have, uh, applauded what he had to say about Gentiles.

Oh yeah, Gentiles, they need to be judged.

And so Paul says, do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Do you think that you will be able to escape?

Paul's implying that there will not be any such escape.

In verse 9, he says, there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first, and also the Greek.

Now verse 9 is clearly talking about all of those who have done wickedness, but those are the ones who will want to escape the judgment because of the consequences of their life decisions.

But Paul says, there is no escape uh uh from the judgment of God.

And it will be a fair judgment.

It'll be individual, I should say, I skipped ahead there.

Sorry about that.

Verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 5 again, so that each 1 may receive what is due for what is done in the body.

Uh, we looked at Romans 133 and 10 a moment ago, dropped down a couple of verses to verse 12, where Paul says, so then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

And so we will not be judged as a congregation.

We won't be judged as an extended family, we won't be judged as married couples.

We're going to be judged as individuals.

Now, of course, it's true that I will be judged based on how I treat you.

So, and, and vice versa.

But I'll be responsible for the choices that I make.

We'll stand alone.

Even as we all stand together in front of the judgment seat of Christ, each one of us will have to face our own judgment.

I've known people.

Who had exemplary. Parents.

Or spouses.

But that won't matter in the judgment.

God's not going to say, well, you can ride the coattails of this other righteous individual.

Your parent or your spouse.

You and I will have to answer for ourselves, give account of ourselves to God.

And now the one that I'm dying to get to.

And that is that God's judgment is fair.

You know, that's one of the things that we would think is probably the most important about any judge is that the judge is not partial, that, that he judges fairly.

We have that problem sometimes in our own judicial system that sometimes the judicial system isn't particularly fair.

Judges, uh, even juries sometimes, but judges sometimes are not very fair, but God is going to be fair.

Uh, again, back to chapter two, look at verse 5.

Paul writes, but because of Your hard and impenitent, your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works.

Now, once again, remember the context.

Gentiles have been condemned, or at least Gentile society in general has been uh illus.

to be immoral, they fall into the depths of immorality, but the Jews shouldn't expect that they're going to escape.

If they are also guilty of sin, God is not going to be partial, simply because they are the physical descendants of Abraham.

That's the idea behind this first section of chapter 2.

And Paul will Say a little bit later on, uh, in verse 11 of Romans 2, that God is impartial, there's no partiality with God.

He's going to judge both Jew and Gentile fairly.

Peter would say in 1 Peter 1 and verse 17, and if you call on him as Father, who judges impartially, according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.

One of the things I hated in school.

was occasionally you'd have some bad actors, you'd have some classmates, and they're getting in trouble, they're doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

And the teacher rather than punishing the ones who are actually involved in the wrongdoing, just punish the whole class.

Everybody gets the same punishment.

Uh, if you were scheduled to go out for recess or you're scheduled to go to the gymnasium for some reason, nobody gets to do that.

And that used to fly all over me.

That's not fair.

It's not fair to punish the innocent with the guilty.

God won't do that.

If you or I are punished on the day of judgment, on the final judgment Day, it will be because of what we have done.

Debbie won't be responsible for the sins that Alan commits.

And you won't be responsible for the sins that I commit.

Each of us is going to be judged according to what he has done, New King James Version.

Well, 163 Corinthians 5 and verse 10 tells us something else, tells us who the judge is going to be.

If you've been following some of the trials that Donald Trump, uh, ex-President Donald Trump is involved in, you know that that's one of the big questions is whether those judges are fair.

It makes a difference which judge gets assigned to your case in our judicial system.

2 Corinthians 5:10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

We're told exactly who the judge is going to be.

The apostle Paul was speaking to the intellectually elite in Acts 17 on Mars Hill.

And as he is moving to the point of, of encouraging some action on their part, he mentions in verse 30, the times of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all people everywhere to repent.

Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

That's the guarantee that we will be judged by Jesus Christ.

God raised him from the dead, gave assurance to us that that judgment will come.

And then one final point, not quite as clear perhaps from 2 Corinthians 5 and 13, but certainly clear from other passages, and that is that this is going to be a comprehensive judgment.

I don't know about you, but in college, when I would attend classes, maybe the first class where the professor or teacher would kind of lay out the semester and say, OK, here's what's going to be required, and, and you, you know, you got to do this homework or that or whatever, and there'll be a, a final.

And the thing I want to know is, is that final going to cover everything?

There'd be a midterm and a final, usually, I is that final, Is it going to cover everything that you've said in this class?

Or is it only going to cover the second half of the semester?

That's huge.

You know that, right?

It, it makes a big difference in how you're going to have to study if you have to go back and remember everything in the semester, or whether you can kind of uh only take care of the second half.

And when you've got several finals all at once, that's huge.

The judgment is going to be comprehensive.

Not just the things that I do on my best days.

But Paul says it'll even include the secrets.

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

You know, we're pretty careful, aren't we, about what we let other people know about us.

We, we certainly want to present a good picture.

I'm not talking about hypocrisy.

I'm just saying that we don't, as soon as we meet someone says, hey, Fred, I'm Alan.

Let me tell you some bad things about me.

Let me, let me, let me describe some weaknesses I have.

Any of you introduce yourselves that way?

If you do, have you ever wondered why you don't have friends?

You, we may have stumbled onto that.

What, what we do though is we really want to leave a good impression with others.

We want, we want people to think well of us.

I think that's a natural thing and not, not by any means a bad thing.

But what it does mean is that we have a tendency sometimes to kind of hide those parts of us that are not quite as uh exemplary, the secrets in our lives, and all of those.

The curtains will roll back.

In the judgment, and all of that's going to be revealed.

Let me ask you a question.

Are there things in your life that you would be ashamed for this congregation to know, and these are God's people.

These are your spiritual family.

These are the people who probably want you to succeed spiritually more than anybody else in the world.

Are there things in your life that you would be ashamed for the rest of this congregation to know?

Because rest assured all of that's coming out in the judgment day.

In Ecclesiastes the 12th chapter, the wise writer of Ecclesiastes said, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

In fact, on one occasion, Jesus said this in Matthew 12, he said, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak.

That's a sobering verse, because I'm willing to suspect that all of us sometimes speak careless words, maybe.

Multiple times in a day.

And Jesus said, we'll give account for all of those words.

Now just some of them.

All of them.

And so it behooves us to be careful about what we say, knowing that judgment is going to be comprehensive.

Wouldn't it be nice though, if we could do like the athletes do in uh track and field, for instance, where if you're doing the triple jump, you're in the Olympics and you're doing the triple jump, you get 3 attempts.

And assuming they're all valid, and you didn't fault on any of them, you get to take the best attempt, the longest distance, that's the one that counts.

And the other two, they're just ignored.

When I went to high school.

And we took the SAT test.

We took it one time.

We took it one time and whatever score you got on the SAT, that was it.

And nowadays, students take the SAT sometimes multiple times.

You take the test and, and you don't do particularly good, you get to take it again and you can take the higher score.

And sometimes people, like I say, take it multiple times.

And those other scores, those bad scores, the lower scores, we just ignore those.

The judgment isn't like that.

In the judgment, everything is brought in.

And we have to give account for all of those things, not just our best efforts.

We're not going to be allowed to erase those words and actions and thoughts.

That perhaps we're ashamed of later on.

Well, I'm going to move to another passage that talks about the standard of judgment.

That's critical.

If you're going to be judged, you need to know what the standard is going to be that you're going to be measured against.

And that standard, Jesus said in John 222 and talking about a specific part of that standard, he says, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.

The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

Jesus' words are going to be the standard of judgment for us.

The principle of accountability, I think is laid out in Romans, the 225nd chapter in verse 24.

Paul, of, of course, is talking about Jew and Gentile, and noting that each one will be judged according to the law to which that individual was responsible.

The Gentiles weren't responsible to the law of Moses.

That was a law that was given to the people of Israel.

Israel was responsible to this written.

the law on tablets of stone, while the Gentiles were responsible to a patriarchal law that had been passed down by word of mouth.

It was, as Paul says, an unwritten law.

We won't go into all of that.

But Romans 212 and verse 213 says, for all who have sinned without the law, that'd be the Gentiles, they'll also perish without the law.

They're going to be judged by the law that they were under, and all who have sinned under the law, the law of Moses, will be judged by the law.

And the fact of the matter is, All of us are going to have to be judged by the perfect law of liberty, the law of Christ, the covenant of Christ.

James says that in James 216 and 13, all people on this side of the cross are going to be judged by the new covenant, the words of Jesus.

Well, I want to very quickly make 21 observations about the judgment Day that I think we can bring out with some other passages beyond those that we've already spoken of.

And one of them is that salvation is by grace.

I, I think when we talk about giving account of all that's done in our lives, we still need to Understand there are other passages that talk about our salvation, in addition to those that have to do with judgment.

There is some sense in which we must give account for all the things that we have done.

But the Bible also says that you and I, if we're going to be saved, we will be saved by the grace, by the favor of God.

Let me illustrate it this way.

I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but the Muslim faith believes in a resurrection and a final judgment, just as we would believe in a resurrection, uh, a general resurrection at the second coming of Christ, and a final judgment.

But Islam, according to the Koran, their holy book, believes that good deeds are going to be balanced against evil deeds.

As though it were some sort of a, a, a balance to see which is lighter and which is heavier.

And souls will pass to heaven or hell on a bridge, quote, finer than a hair and sharper than a sword.

In the 21000rd surah or chapter, if you will, of the Quran, this is the comment that's made there.

When death comes to a wrongdoer, he will say, Lord, let me go back that I may do good works in the world I have left behind. Never.

These are the very words which he will speak.

Behind them, there shall stand a barrier till the day of resurrection.

And when the trumpet is sounded on that day, their ties of kindred shall be broken, nor shall they ask help of one another.

Now, there's a couple of things said there they're kind of interesting.

One is that the wrongdoer, he dies, and then he wants to go back and kind of try to spiffy things up a little bit.

I want to go back and do more good works.

Nope, that door is closed.

There's, there's The barrier, you can't go back and change that.

And all of your ties to family, those are all broken.

In other words, you will stand on your own deeds is what's being said here.

Those whose good deeds weigh heavy in the scales shall triumph, but those whose deeds are light shall forfeit their souls and abide in hell forever.

The fire shall scorch their faces, and they will rise in anguish.

And so the Quran here in the 250rd surah, and also for that matter, in the 11th surah, it says that good deeds can make amends for sins.

And so the judgment in their view is basically just a balancing act.

What did you, how did you live?

Did you live with more good deeds than evil deeds?

The Bible doesn't teach that good deeds will be waived, weighed against evil deeds.

That's uh essentially a salvation by works concept, although the Jewish concept was a little bit different.

But now here's the reason I bring this up.

I think it is easy for us to fall into that false way of thinking that if we do enough good, we can kind of somehow balance out or cancel our sins.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

The Bible certainly teaches that we need to be zealous for good works.

God's people need to be involved in good works.

But the Bible doesn't teach that you can cancel sins by good works.

Now, some religious groups would suggest that, that in some way, you kind of balance out this sin over here by doing these good works over here.

But that's not what the Bible teaches.

We will be saved by the grace of God through the forgiveness of sins.

That is accomplished by the blood of Jesus Christ.

That's Ephesians 2:8 through 10, passage, I think many of us are quite familiar with.

Well, here's my second observation, and that is that the judgment Day, according to Scripture does not seem to be an occasion for determining our future, but more a pronouncement of what our future is going to be.

According to Jesus in the 16th chapter of Luke, when he tells this story about a rich man and a poor beggar by the name of Lazarus, Jesus says both individuals die.

They don't pass out of existence, either one.

They go to the Hadean world, but they are not in the same condition.

They're not in the same status in that Haian world.

Lazarus is being comforted.

Rich man, he's suffering.

And in fact, Jesus gives us a conversation between the two.

And it becomes obvious that their destinies were already decided when they died.

The judgment Day is not going to be an occasion where God says, OK, let me look at things here.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna kinda rifle through the, the records of Alan Dvorak's life and figure out whether he goes there or there.

That will be known.

That will be determined at the time that I pass from this life into the next world.

And it'll be determined for you as well.

And there won't be any going back.

Luke 16 doesn't particularly.

Discussed that, but Hebrews 10003:27 sure gives that idea.

That after death, We just die once, and then comes what?

Not a second chance.

The judgment And so we won't be able to change things after we die.

And that can be a scary thought.

Because we don't control how long we live on this earth.

We don't even control what's going to happen to us the rest of today.

We don't know if we'll be involved in an accident.

We don't know if we're going to get sick.

We don't know if we might be the victim of violence.

We don't control even today.

And if today should be the last day of my life, Then I'll be Judged based on where I am at the time that I die.

And the same is true for all individuals.

We're going to be judged according to our deeds.

Our destiny in eternity is going to be pronounced on the Day of Atonement.

And so I think what the Bible is trying to say to us in various passages is, you don't want to stand before God blemished by sin.

But if you do, It's not God's fault.

Because he's giving you every opportunity.

to be forgiven of your sins.

He's made all the provisions for our forgiveness, so that those things that we have done that are wrong, those things can be forgiven, and I don't have to face them again on the Day of Judgment.

What a wonderful thought.

Now, I've been presenting the Day of Judgment.

Really in kind of a sense as a, as a, as a, a danger, almost a negative thing.

But the day of judgment is going to be a day of vindication for the righteous.

It's going to be a day of victory.

Those who stand before Christ and are judged to be faithful, to be forgiven of their sins, God's children, that's the best day ever.

Third observation.

is that the judgment day is going to bring some surprises, probably to many people.

Jesus said in Matthew 7 in the Sermon on the Mount, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

There's the basic premise in verse 21, the response of some is in verse 22.

Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, they're claiming some sort of relationship.

He's my Lord.

He's the one who, that I'm Serving, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

These are people who thought that Jesus was their Lord.

But they weren't obeying him.

They weren't doing the will of the Father.

So Jesus says you're lawless.

And we didn't ever have a relationship.

How's your relationship?

Is it based on what the Bible teaches or just feelings and wishful thinking?

In the passage that Troy read for us.

In Matthew 25, I believe that passage is a description of the final judgment, obviously, in some symbolic ways.

Um, I don't think we all turn into sheep or goats.

But it's just a way of illustrating there's a difference in these two groups.

And Jesus will say, the judge will say, to the righteous, that are on his right, enter into the blessings of heaven.

And the righteous seem to have some. Puzzlement.

When Jesus says, you did this for me, you did this for me, you did this for me.

And they asked the question, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

But when you did it to others.

You did it to me.

That service, those good deeds, that was really also done to me.

But the wicked likewise are puzzled.

Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or, uh or strange or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

I don't understand why you're sending us to eternal punishment.

We didn't have the opportunity to serve you personally.

Well, you didn't do it to these others, so you didn't do it to me.

The judgment day is going to involve some surprises.

Don't you be surprised on the day of judgment.

Because the information about how we need to live, what's expected of us, how we will be judged, it is in God's book.

And you and I can know all that we need to know.

As we conclude our study this morning, let me remind you, the final judgment is going to be comprehensive.

It's going to involve all of our deeds, our words, our thoughts.

It's going to be universal, it's going to be fair, it's gonna be inescapable, and it's going to be individual.

Each of us will stand before God on our own deeds.

I really thought as I was thinking about how to present some of this material because I understand a lot of this is, is, is material that you're familiar with, it's review.

I thought about the possibility of just talking about the emotions of judgment.

For instance, Think about the emotions that will flood those who are separated to the sheep side.

They know, they knew even before that.

But now the pronouncement, the vindication, the victory is assured.

Can you imagine the relief?

Can you imagine the joy?

It was all worth it.

No matter what they went through, and Christians have been killed in some of the most terrible ways because of their faith, but it was worth it.

Come ye blessed, inherit the kingdom.

It's prepared for you.

But at the same time, I try to imagine what emotion those who are on the left side, those who are condemned, how will they feel the despair?

The agony The regret of so many who knew the truth and didn't follow it, because they were in love with this world.

And everything here was more important than there.

Think about those emotions.

And I would suggest to you that those emotions should probably characterize us at least to some degree, even here, depending on what our condition is, how prepared we are for eternity.

Well, I've been trying to describe the final judgment with single words and I've got one more word for you.

It's the word finality.

Finality, or if you please, the final judgment.

Life is full of second chances, isn't it?

If you don't do well in school, you can continue to learn and, and develop your intellectual skills to do better in life, have a better job or whatever.

If you take a job and things don't work out very well, maybe you just weren't suited for that job, you can go get another job.

All things being equal, you may find something even better.

And on and on it goes.

We get second chances to improve our behavior, to improve our status.

But the second, the final judgment is not like that.

And in fact, once we pass from this world, it is fixed.

There's no changing it.

If you or I die right now, wherever we are in terms of our relationship to God, That's where we will be for eternity.

If you're separated from God because of your sin, because you've never been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, may I suggest to you, you are in extreme danger.

You're, you're taking chances with an eternity of damnation.

That's Not a good thing.

If you're a Christian, but you're not living right.

If you've got those secrets.

In your life Please understand, there is no hiding them.

When God judges.

He knows all Everything is open.

And revealed, according to Hebrews chapter 4, verses 12 and 13.

Where are you?

The rich man in Luke 16 learned there's no more opportunity for salvation after death.

The time to deal with sin is now.

Now, Peter does mention in 1 Peter 1, that there's coming a time when we will receive grace.

He's talking about the day of salvation.

But I think what he's talking about, not is that, not, not that when we get to the Day of Judgment, that we can finally petition God and, and he'll grant us grace at that point.

I think what he's saying is, that's the point at which we then experience.

The grace that God offers us in terms of salvation and eternal life.

Are you ready for the judgment day?

It's coming.

You may feel like you're 1000 miles away in terms of your life and your relationship.

Your need for salvation.

But let me tell you, all of us are headed to that occurrence.

Are you ready?

If not, then I would encourage you this morning, we would encourage you in just a moment as we stand and sing, to do what is necessary so that you are ready for that judgment, regardless of when it comes.

If it comes today or if it comes 50 years from now, you are ready for that day.

If we can help you in any way, we want you to come forward, we'll assist you.

We encourage you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Tim Smith

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

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

The scripture reading this morning will be from Psalm chapter 8.

Psalm chapter 8.

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

I think the ESB is above.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth who have displayed your splendor above the heavens.

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I consider your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained.

What is man that you take thought of him and the Son of Man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than God.

And you crown him with glory and majesty.

You make him to rule over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea.

Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

I think I only have one job, and that's to make certain this green light is on, so I, I did that.

Uh, so we're good.

It's good to be with you this morning.

Good to be able to, to speak to you from God's word.

Um. All I can say is, uh.

I don't, I don't know Uh, that Hans saw my outline.

But the first point of my outline.

Which I was gonna hammer on.

I don't have to anymore because it's talking about uh our, our praise of God and, and, and who, who it is that we, we pray to.

This morning, I'm gonna spend a few more, few minutes talking about something that I need to think about.

Excuse me, I'm to work on.

And don't panic.

It's only gonna be one thing that I need to think about and work on, uh, because if it was all the things that I needed to think about and work on, this would have to be a continuing series or maybe a lesson as long as Allan preaches.

Um. What I'd like to do is, is to spend some time this morning pointing out some of the things that prayer teaches me.

Uh, this is not going to be an exhaustive list, and you may have some things that, that you think, well, Tim forgot that.

Well, there's a bunch of things that wind up on the, on the cutting room floor when you, when you put together a lesson, um.

Hopefully What this will do is encourage each of us to not only reflect on what an awesome privilege that prayer is, but also encourage us.

To pray as we should.

Thank you, David, for the reading.

The How, how excellent is your name in all the earth.

See if I can Psalm 18.

I love you, oh Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

Describe to the Lord, oh heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

The Lord sits enthroned over the flood, flood.

The Lord sits enthroned as King forever.

May the Lord give strength to His people.

May the Lord bless His people with peace.

Shout joy to God, all the earth, sing the glory of His name.

Give him glorious praise.

Say to God, how awesome are your deeds.

So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you.

They sing praises to your name.

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth or from, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

You return man to dust and say, return, oh children of man, for 1000 years in your sight are but as yesterday when it has passed, or as a watch in the night.

We sing.

A number of songs we sing, praise the Lord, we sing hallelujah, praise Jehovah, and in, in Psalm 148, we hear that the Lord, that praise the Lord from the heavens, from the heights, all His angels, all his hosts, sun and moon, all of these things.

And the chorus that we, that we sing with each of those verses as in, in the book is, let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted.

His majesty is above earth and heaven.

Psalm 40 or not Psalm, I, I was going, I knew I'd do that.

Isaiah 40.

Beginning at, at the end of verse 9, so say to the cities of Judah, behold your God.

Down to verse 12.

Who has measured, speaking about God, the waters in the hollow of his hand.

And marked off the heavens with a span.

Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in the balance.

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel?

Whom did he consult and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop in the butt from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales.

Behold, he takes up the coast lands like fine dust.

Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him.

They're accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness, down to verse 53.

Do you not know Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Down to verse 25.

To whom then will you compare me?

That I should be like him, says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these, who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing.

Verse 28, have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait on the Lord will renew their shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run.

And not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

We can see from these descriptions, from these, just a small snippet of passages in the Psalms and, and from Isaiah 40.

The God that we're able To speak to We see Just a small.

Measure of a word picture of our God.

I spent a lot of time.

In the last couple of days looking for something that I absolutely know I have seen.

or heard.

From Dee Bowman.

So I'm gonna try to do my best to, to describe what it is that he The word picture.

And it goes something like this.

He says, I happen to be in Washington DC today.

And There was a presidential A parade or or some procession.

That, that went by.

And he said, and I saw the President of the United States.

And I'm confident that as he was going through the crowd that he looked and he saw me and he looked at me.

He says, I'm confident of that.

To be able to, to have eye contact with, with the leader of the free world, the most powerful man on earth.

He said tonight I bowed my head And spoke to the God of the universe.

And that was much more significant.

Than seeing the President of the United States and having the President of the United States see him.

The God that we talked to.

The God that hears our prayers.

is the one who did all the things that we've just described.

The one who created everything, and yet he considers us When we Say as did Jesus when he uh gave them the, the, his disciples the model prayer says, oh, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, holy, sanctified, set apart.

Not something that's common.

He holds our lives.

I'm a little bit behind on my slide here.

Daniel, when he was talking to Belshazzar, And you have the handwriting on the wall in Daniel 5.

He's talking to the most powerful man on earth, the one who is the king of Babylon, who was the world power until that night.

And what he's, what he told Belshazzar is he, he said in verses 22 and 23 of Daniel 5, he says, I'm gonna start and actually, I'll just read verse 23, he says, but you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them.

You have praised the gods of silver and gold and of bronze and iron and stone, which you, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath.

And whose all your ways you have not honored.

The idea of God has his, has our breath in his hand.

He has our very life in his hand.

He is the one that that we are able to talk to, to pray to.

And he's not What what Paul said about God and Act 17 as he, as he spoke to the men on, on Morris Hill.

He said in him we live and move and have our very being.

Verse 103 He also said That the God who made the world, verse 24 and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

The God that, that we pray to, the God that we serve, doesn't need anything from us.

We need Him.

Which, which should teach us humility.

When the two men, when Jesus spoke a parable, Luke the 18th chapter, beginning in verse 9.

Of some, to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt, and we know the, know the parable.

The, the Pharisee who said, Lord, You're just lucky to have me.

And the, and the, the publican, the tax collector says, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

The conclusion of that parable is verse 14.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

But the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

And I want to, to emphasize to you, I, I've, I've spent.

The better part of the last 10 minutes telling you about the greatness of God and about what he's done.

And who he is, in spite of his awesome power, in spite of, of who he is.

And in spite of our smallness, He's on our side.

Romans 8th chapter.

In a, in a passage that I, I think the last time I preached to actually.

actually made some points from Romans 8.

So if, if, if I just keep on coming back to Romans 8, you'll know, know why, why it is because there's a lot here.

Verse 26 beginning says likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we all, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

I don't know how he does that.

But, but God Himself is interceding on our behalf when we don't know what to pray for as we should.

And he, he says, and he who searches hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Down, down to verse 303.

What then should we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how we not also with him graciously give us all things.

God justifies verse 333, Christ is the one who died on our behalf.

So in verse 37, therefore, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

The Father desires that we speak to him.

The, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf.

In fact, verse down in verse uh.

34, I skipped over.

Jesus, who's at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

So, so the Spirit's interceding for us, Jesus is interceding for us.

God wants to hear, hear our prayers.

All Of deity The Godhead is working for me.

We don't have a high priest who doesn't understand what we go through.

But he has uh.

One who is, one, we don't have one who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, Hebrews 4:15, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Prayer teaches us who God is, but it also teaches us trust and confidence.

I want to I want to be careful how I say this.

Prayer is an act of supreme confidence, a supreme trust.

We are praying to someone that we do not physically see.

We have never physically seen.

We see we see evidence of him all around, and, and he has provided the evidence that we need through.

The person of his son.

And by the, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we, we have confidence not only that he, that he's there, but that he has power to do what, what he says he's going to do and that he cares enough for us that he has given his, his Son.

No one has seen God.

First John 1:18.

The only God who is at the Father's side has made him known.

So when you pray, Matthew 6:6, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

And the Father who sees in secret will reward you.

I think New King James says openly.

This God that that has demonstrated That he can be trusted, that he is the one that we can place our confidence in.

He says, cast all my cares on him.

I'll look, you know, there, there's a bunch of words in there that, that, that you could, could hone in on, but the one that I honed in on is all.

Maybe it's because I like small words.

Sometimes I don't use small words, but I like small words.

All means.

The, the, the, I love what.

What W. Vine said here says radically means all.

I got it.

Uh, use without the article, it means every, every kind or variety.

It signifies either all of the whole is when it's used with the article, it means the whole of one object.

In the plural, it signifies the totality of the persons or things referred to.

Used without a noun, it virtually becomes a pronoun meaning everyone or anyone.

In the plural with a noun, it means all.

So when, when the scripture says, rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say rejoice.

Let your reasonable, reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything.

That word is all right there and all by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

And the word all is used again in verse 123, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, all comprehension.

We can't comprehend anything beyond what he's doing.

We guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

OK. So that the, so that Paul wouldn't have uh the only, only uh words on this.

In 1 Peter the 5th chapter.

We're told There, humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all.

Your anxieties upon him.

Because he cares for you.

We, we just talked, we've talked about the, who God is and someone who is high and, and, and above all, and yet he cares for us and he says, Throw, throw the cares on me.

I can handle it.

I'm not suggesting that that's easy.

I'm not suggesting that that I do that well.

But the Lord said, Cast all your anxieties, cast all your cares upon Him.

The idea of the of of of casting is, was, was sort of and we're, we're not in this, in this, this society but you know, throwing some throwing some clothes on, on top of a, of a donkey so you could get on, get on the donkey, just put, put something on there and then, then you can, you can ride on, on that.

I don't know about y'all, but, but when, when When a problem presents itself.

The first thing Almost, almost instinctual is what am I gonna do about this?

How am I going to, how am I going to handle this?

How, how, how, how is, how is this gonna, how, how am I going to resolve this?

That that may be a, a man thing.

I don't know.

We, you know, every, when, when the only tool belt tool in your belt is a hammer, all problems look like nails, so.

It's a The first thing that comes to my mind is what am I going to do about this.

Maybe what I need to be thinking is, I have, I have access to the God of the universe.

Who can help me with this, and he says in everything.

He says, cast all your cares upon me.

On him, for he cares for you.

Why do I not Say, Lord, what are we going to do about this?

How are you going to help me deal with this?

To my shame, I don't do that enough.

But let's all Work to do that How's my faith?

Prayer Offered in faith, Jesus said, You can move mountains I think he's talking figuratively here, but.

A lot of times we think that our problems are mountains.

And what what he says, if you have faith to say to this mountain, be cast off into the sea, then It'll be done, done for you.

This is not a, uh, says be taken up, does not doubt in his heart but believes that what, that what he says will come to pass will be done for him.

Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it'll be yours.

I'm not suggesting this is a, a name it, claim it thing.

Uh, but, but the idea is that there's nothing too big for God.

We sing a song Every so often Uh Well, not very often, uh.

It's called Come My Soul, your, your, your plea prepare.

And verse 2 of that.

A song says you are coming to a king.

Therefore, large petitions bring for His grace and powers are such.

None can ever ask too much.

We look at, at some, some problem or some issue that we have and say well this is, this is just too much.

Can't deal with this.

Well, You have access to one who can help you deal with it, and one who will, who has promised to help you.

James 25 We see that it's, it's not a, uh, we need to be.

confident in our asking.

If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and will be given to him, but let him ask in faith.

With no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

So let's make certain that our, our ask, our desires are known.

In Confidence When you start putting together a lesson, the first thing that comes to me is that.

I'm not going to have enough to cover 28, 21 minutes, 25, well, you know I've never talked 210 minutes, so, uh.

I, I think I'm, I'm 230 minutes into this and I still have 13 points and a, and a big conclusion, so I'm, I got to really move on now, um.

Prayer Teaches us to seek God's will.

This, this is, this is, this hard.

Uh I started This lesson.

Well before the current circumstances with my mom.

And I've confessed to a number of you that I really don't know.

What to ask you to pray for.

Uh. And even with, you know, the Your good news and bad news, you don't, I still don't know what, what's, what's the, what it is that, that I, I desire and, and what I've, what I've come back to.

is that I still pray.

And I, I know that you're still praying for her.

The prayer that I offer.

concedes the idea that I don't know.

I don't know, Lord, what's best.

But you do.

And I ask that when you pray for her, that you, that you request what's best.

For her In his side.

Romans 21 basically says that the Spirit helps with things when we don't know what to pray for as we ought to.

The spirit is helping in that regard.

But even when I do, I know what to pray, pray for.

I think I know what to pray for.

Paul was, was given a thorn in the flesh and, and he said, I besought the Lord.

I, I, I, I, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take this from me.

And what the Lord said is, no.

You need it.

This is what's best for you.

So what I would suggest to you is The circumstances that that come to us That may cause us pain.

That may cause us discomfort but result in the glory of God.

is what we need to be praying for, what we need to be searching for as, as the desire of our heart.

Question is, am I willing to submit to God?

In that regard.

Prayer teaches us about forgiveness.

Jesus, in concluding, The model prayer.

Said, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

And the New King James adds, um, yours is the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Or something to that effect, um.

He concludes though, he, he, he makes a, he appends that and says, if, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

So if then, if then.

And he, he He reiterated that in the last week of his life, says, whatever, and whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone.

So that your Father, who also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

I, I put the, the different colors there.

If you do this, then God's going to do this.

So if, if you forgive, then God will forgive.

It ought to scare you to death.

The other half of the sentence which says, if you don't forgive, God's not going to forgive either.

Scares me.

We We read over that and, and, and it's, and it's easy to read, but that's hard.

We Let's, let's, let's bring it down to the, to, to what's important.

Let's, let's talk about family relationships.

Now, a lot of times we think, well, if, if, if, if somebody, if, if I have something against somebody or if, if I need to, if, if somebody's done something to me, then I'll forgive them.

Do you have a relationship with a, with a child?

Does, does the child have a relationship with a parent?

There's some stuff that needs to be forgiven there, folks.

I It it's, it's, it's real.

This, this is not some theoretical thing.

Well, you know, if you happen to have something that somebody's done against you, that you for no, it is, it's real.

You need to be a forgiving person and I said parent and child because that one's a little bit further removed from me now, but, but husband and wife.

When you have a close relationship.

There's, there's gonna be things that need to be forgiven.

You're going to need to forgive, and if you're not willing to forgive in that relationship, what does that say about what God's going to do?

Is he going to forgive us?

I don't think so.

That's, that's scary.

That's, that's what, how we need to, to read these, these passages says what is, how is it that I need to deal with this?

If we don't forgive, God's not going to forgive us.

Can I say that any more emphatically?

I could probably raise my voice just a little bit more, but.

But I think we get the point.

This is not a theoretical. Exercise.

The parable of the unforgiving servant.

In Matthew 21 tells us about, you know, This, this comes on the heels of Jesus talking about, uh, if your brother has something against you, go to your brother and restore your brother and, and you, you go through the, the steps that if he doesn't listen then you, then you bring, bring another, and then if he doesn't listen to that, bring it to the church and, and Peter asked the question says, how many times can I, should I give my brother?

Up to, up to 230 times?

Up to 3 times, 7 times.

What did he say?

I'm sorry, uh.

One of those two numbers, they're both good biblical numbers and I can't think, I can't think which one.

Up 7 times, OK. And Jesus said, no, not 7 times, and the English standard says 77.

The New King James says 70 times 13.

It's a lot of them.

Uh, I'm not gonna do the math here now, but, uh, it's because you lose your brain when you walk into the pulpit when it comes to math here, uh.

The end result of that, then he tells, tells the parable of the man who was forgiven just a tremendous debt and then by king is forgiven just thousands of talents and then he goes and finds somebody that owes him just a little bit and and he will not forgive him.

And the king says, I forgave you this and you didn't forgive that.

Verse 35, he says, also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

Prayer Teaches us The value of forgiveness and remember, If we want to receive forgiveness, then we must be forgiving.

We must forgive.

This, this lesson has been intended to encourage us to pray.

Because God desires that we pray to Him.

I am Blessed with, with a number of grandchildren.

I can tell you how many afterwards, but, but one of the, one of the sweetest things that you ever hear is the first time that grandchild and you know it, it also applies to children, but I, I do, do remember when, when I was trying to get my children to say my name.

You know, dad, dad, or, and, and, and to hear that is just music to my ears and to hear one of them say Papa Tim and, and however he winds up saying it or she winds up saying it, that is, that is great until cousin Camp and when I hear it about 150,000 times and then I would like to forget it for just for a minute, uh.

No, I, I, I say that in, in, in jest here.

God, we, we see him in, in the Psalms and it says, he inclines his ear to hear us.

You know, listening for us to, to speak, um.

I think Jim or not Jim, uh, uh, David mentioned the, the fact that our prayers are, are as incense to, to God and, and that's, that's, that's scriptural, that's from Revelation 5:8 that, that he's, he is, he desires us to speak to him.

He doesn't judge our prayers by our standards.

I've I've listened to, to people praying and thought, boy, I, I sure, I, I can't pray like that.

Lord doesn't expect me to pray like that.

He expects me to pray like I can pray.

And it doesn't have to be.

An all-night prayer like, like Jesus.

It doesn't have to be, uh, you know, something like, like Solomon's prayer in, in the, in the dedication of the temple, but I need to be expressing my heart's desire to Him.

He's not looking for length or how it sounds or, or how complete it is.

Did I, did I cover everything that I was supposed to cover in this prayer.

He wants, he desires that we pray to him.

Don't let discouragement keep me from praying.

And, and I had a, I had a whole, whole list of things that, that might discourage us.

Maybe it's embarrassment about our sin.

Uh, maybe it's anger at myself or, or somebody else.

Maybe it's sadness, maybe it's because I failed, you know, I, you know, it's, it's one of those things that, that you don't pray and you don't pray and you don't pray and you think, Lord doesn't even want to hear me pray now.

I, I've, I've been, I've, I've made a commitment to pray all this time and, and, and I've, I've failed on him and I've failed and I've failed.

He still wants us to pray.

We need to pray.

We need to, to approach him.

We need to, to confess.

The, you know, uh, Lord, help my faith.

Uh, Or we fall so short of, of examples in scripture or of our peers.

I'm going to say this kindly but emphatically.

And, and, and I'm speaking right to myself.

The one of the last times that I preached, I forgot to put my own hearing aids in.

So it's one of those things that I was preaching to y'all, but I wasn't preaching to me.

This time I got my hearing aids in and I've got them on.

Stop planning and start doing.

Can I say that again?

I'm gonna put, put the right word in here this time.

Stop planning and start praying.

Because Thinking about praying and studying about praying is not praying.

Praying is making our request and our heart's desires known to God.

And he wants us to do that, and we need to do that.

Well, let me, let me give you all the excuse.

I, I don't have time for all the excuses that you could make for not praying, but let me.

Let me encourage you to pray without ceasing as Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 5.

That's not just continue to pray all the time, but don't stop praying.

And he told a parable right before the parable of the, of the Pharisee and, and the tax collector about a a widow who made her request known to the king and kept coming back, kept coming, get back, kept coming, and he said.

He told them a parable to the effect that they always, always to pray and not lose heart.

Well, maybe you don't think you have time, maybe it's the stage of life, maybe it's the fact.

You, you're not gonna get away from, from me not showing a rocket.

That's what I do for a living, um.

The reason I have these two pictures up here, one of them was middle of February.

It was a launch from Cape Canaveral, um.

It was right around midnight.

And I, I had, I got an invitation to go to that, to that launch, so I Went, I drove out at 10:30 at night.

The launch happened at 12 at midnight.

I got on a bus going back to the hotel or going back to my car about 1, 1:30.

I didn't complain at all.

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.)

The reading this evening We come from Genesis, the 25th chapter.

Beginning in verse 4003.

In going through verse 28.

Isaac and Rebecca were wanting to have a child.

And I'll be reading from the New King James.

This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham's son.

Abraham begot Isaac.

Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca as wife.

The daughter of Bethu, the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban.

Laban the Syrian Now, Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren.

And the Lord granted his plea.

And Rebecca, his wife, conceived.

But the children struggled together within her.

And she said, if all is well, why am I like this?

So she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb.

Two peoples shall be separated from your body.

One people shall be stronger than the other.

And the older shall serve the younger.

So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed, there were twins in her womb.

And the first came out red.

He was like a hairy garment all over.

So they called his name Esau.

Afterward, his brother came out and his hand took hold of Esau's heel.

So his name.

was called Jacob.

Isaac was 60 years old when he, when she bore them.

So the boys grew, and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents.

And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.

Some of you are already aware that this morning I had slides and because of some miscommunication, uh, they didn't get shown and I didn't realize that until actually after the sermon was over.

I was sorely tempted to preach the sermon again this time with slides.

But I decided to be gracious and not make you sit through that.

And so tonight, a different sermon.

But without slides.

No slides I have to tell you this evening that I've had one of those days that I think all of us have from time to time where Murphy's just dogging me.

Everything I've touched today has turned to dust.

So there's no telling what will happen this evening.

I'm gonna warn you that we're going to spend most of our time in the Book of Genesis.

And so I would encourage you, uh, since there won't be slides with passages on the screen, if you'll take out your Bibles, you can follow along.

I'm going to read some from the Book of Genesis and we'll make a couple of other, uh, forays and other books.

But for the most part, we're going to stay in Genesis.

And I want to begin in Genesis 48, Genesis 48.

Where Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh.

The title of the sermon this evening is The Story of Two Brothers.

But we're going to begin our study in Genesis 48, where Joseph brings his Two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to his father, Jacob.

Jacob has become ill, and it was customary at the end of a patriarch's life for him to grant blessings to his sons.

In this case, we're talking about Jacob's grandsons.

And there's a reiteration of the promise that was made to Abraham.

If you're in your Bibles, take a look at verse 2.

Of Genesis 48, and it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you.

Then Israel Jacob summoned his strength and sat up in bed, and Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz, also known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting. Possession.

That's essentially a reiteration of the promise that had been made to Abraham back in Genesis 12th chapter.

Verse 43.

And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.

Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are.

Reuben and Simeon, of course, the two eldest sons of Jacob.

And so Jacob says, I'm claiming your sons as my own.

And he explains to Joseph, all the other sons that you've had since then, those are reckoned to you, but Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine. Mine.

And uh I want you to go down to verse 8 now.

It says, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these?

Which sounds kind of odd since he's been talking about Ephraim and Manasseh.

But we're also told just a little bit later, that he had eyes that were dim with age.

He couldn't see well.

And so he asks about these two young men, and uh, Joseph.

Removed them from his knees and bowed himself before his face to the earth, and Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel, or Jacob's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near him.

It's important that you follow what's being said here about positions because Jacob, excuse me, Joseph is facing Israel. Jacob.

And what he does is he takes Ephraim and he has his right hand on Ephraim's head and he takes his left hand on Manasseh, and he presents the two boys to Jacob in that order.

Of course, Israel's facing Jacob and so it's reversed for him.

Manasseh is now on Jacob's right hand, and that's what Joseph intended.

It wasn't accidental.

As we continue to read here.

It says, and Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim.

So what he has to do is he has to cross his arms, so that now his hands are opposite of what Joseph intended.

Joseph wanted the right hand of Jacob to be on the head of the firstborn, Manasseh, and Jacob has switched hands.

He laid it on the head of Ephraim, his right hand, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands, for Manasseh was the firstborn, and he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who's been my shepherd all my life long to this day.

The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, blessed the boys, and in them, let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

But Joseph is not happy.

Because he had deliberately put the boys in the position so that Jacob's right hand would be on the head of the firstborn, Manasseh, and Joseph, excuse me, Jacob is messing that up by crossing his hands.

And so Joseph says to his father in verse 18, not this way, my father, since this one, he's indicating Manasseh is the firstborn.

Put your right hand on his head.

Well, what's the difference?

They're both hands, and he's putting hands on both of the boys.

The difference is The greater blessing, the blessing of the first born is the right hand.

And the blessing to the other boys, the left hand.

That's how Joseph had set it up.

But Jacob knows that it's not going to work that way.

And so he says, in verse 19, he refuses to change his hands and says, I know my son, I know he, Manasseh also shall become a people, and he also shall be great.

Nevertheless, his younger brother, Ephraim, shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.

What Jacob says is that essentially the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham is not going to follow the course of Manasseh.

It's going to go through Ephraim, at least in the terms of becoming a multitude of nations.

Now that passage.

I think gives us a foundation.

For talking about two other brothers.

Jacob and Esau.

What we just read occurred at least in the latter part of Jacob's life.

But what we're going to do is we're going to go back in history, all the way back to Genesis 25th chapter, to the portion of scripture that was read a little bit earlier by Ralph, uh prior to the beginning of our study.

Let's go all the way back to the time when Jacob and Esau have been born and they've become adults.

And we are told, then in verse 29 of Genesis 25, Genesis 25:29.

Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted.

And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I'm exhausted.

Therefore, his name was called Edom, means red.

Jacob said, Sell me your birthright.

Esau, although we're dealing with twins, Esau was the older of the two twins.

And so Esau was the one through whom the promise would be directed, normally speaking.

But now Jacob has said, sell me your birthright.

And Esau says, I'm about to die.

Of what use is a birthright to me?

Jacob said, swear to me now.

So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.

Thus, Esau despised his birthright.

Now here's what I wanted you to see from Genesis 48, is that the birthright which belonged to Ostensibly to the firstborn was also associated with the promise or the means through which the promise would be fulfilled.

The birthright and the promise were together.

And that's why Joseph wanted Manasseh to get the blessing of the right hand because he was the first born, but it wasn't going to work that way.

And so now Esau, who is the firstborn of the two twins, He sells his birthright.

We're told in Hebrews, the 203th chapter.

In verses 15 through 17, 1 of the few passages we'll read outside of Genesis this evening.

The Hebrew writer says, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal, for you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

I want you to look at that text carefully.

Because in that text, the Hebrew writer joins the birthright and the blessing.

Esau was not rejected by his father.

In fact, as we'll read just a little bit here, Isaac wanted to give the blessing to Esau.

It wasn't that he was rejected by Isaac, Esau, that is.

He was rejected because he sold his birthright to Jacob.

And in so doing, he gave up the blessing that would normally be afforded the firstborn.

Because now, Jacob, Jacob has the rights of the firstborn.

He's the one who will receive the blessing.

What Isaac was trying to do was basically go around this agreement.

The text doesn't say in Genesis whether he understood about the commerce that had gone on, the sale of the birthright.

I rather think he did.

But at any rate, he is going to try to give to Esau what actually now belongs to Jacob.

By virtue of his purchase of the birthright from Esau.

Move if you will, in the text now to the 27th chapter, and let's read specifically what the text has to say about that particular occurrence.

In verse 1 of chapter 27, Genesis chapter 27 verse 1, the text says when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, My son, and he answered, Here I am.

He said, Behold, I'm old.

I do not know the day of my death.

Now, therefore, take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out into the field and hunt game for me and prepare for me delicious food such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.

And so Isaac calls Esau, and he wants to give the blessing to Esau that frankly, now should go to Jacob because Esau sold his birthright.

But Rebecca, Isaac's wife, hears what Isaac is doing.

And so she calls to her son Jacob, and she instigates and helps Jacob now to deceive his father and obtain the blessing that frankly was his by right, but that Isaac intended to give to Esau.

Rebecca made savory food out of goats, and Jacob was wearing, was given, uh, Esau's clothing so that it would have the smell of, of the older boy.

And he puts the clothes on and he dons the skin of the young goats that have been killed to make this savory food on his hands so that his hands, although uh Jacob was a smooth individual, he wasn't hairy like Esau, but with that goat skin, he would feel like uh Esau.

And so he comes to his father.

And uh if you look in verse 18, we pick up the text, and uh he goes to his father, and says, my father.

And he said, here I'm, here I am.

Who are you, my son?

Jacob said to his father, I'm Esau, your firstborn.

There's the first lie.

I have done as you told me.

Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me.

But Isaac is suspicious, and the reason is, This has happened pretty quickly.

And so we asked the question, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?

And Jacob makes a brazen statement here.

He is in the midst of deceiving his father with the help of his mother.

And he pulls the Lord into it.

He responds to his father because the Lord your God branded me success.

I'm here quickly because God has helped me in this.

What a brazen thing to say.

Isaac said to Jacob, please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son, Isaac or not.

Why is he asking that?

Well, he's suspicious.

And the reason is, he says, the voice is Jacob's voice, the end of verse 203, but the hands are the hands of Esau when he feels the hands.

And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands.

So he blessed him.

And he asked in verse 24, Are you really my son Esau?

He answered, I am.

And that's essentially the third lie.

The first one is, yes, I'm Esau, and the Lord helped me with the success of my hunt, which he hadn't done.

And now he again affirms that he is Esau.

Bring it near to me, Isaac says, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.

So he brought it near to him and he ate and he brought him wine and he drank, and Isaac will now bless Jacob with the blessing that he was intended for the firstborn.

Of course, what happens, as you're probably well aware, Is that Esau then comes in not too long later.

And discovers that Jacob has been blessed with the blessing that Isaac had intended for Esau.

I want to share with you a quotation by Derek Kidner in his commentary on Genesis.

He says, We shall misjudge the situation if we overlook the evidence of Hebrews 12:16 and 17.

That in selling the birthright, Esau had traded away the firstborn's blessing.

This makes all four participants in the present scene almost equally at fault.

Isaac, he says, whether he knew of the sale or not, knew God's birth oracle of chapter 25 and verse 23, the elders shall serve the younger, that had been prophesized before the boys were even born.

I'm certain Isaac knew that, yet set himself to use God's power to thwart it.

This is the outlook of magic, not religion.

Esau, in agreeing to the plan, broke his own oath of chapter 25 and verse 33.

Sell me your birthright, Jacob says.

And Esau did that, and he swore that the birthright now belongs to Jacob.

So Esau is not guiltless in this either.

Rebecca and Jacob, with a just cause.

Made no approach to God or man, no gesture of faith or love, and reaped the appropriate fruit of hatred.

And so Kidner says that Hebrews 12 joins the birthright and the blessing.

And so Jacob really should have been the one who received the blessing.

But the fact of the matter is, even though the blessing of the firstborn actually belonged to Jacob, the way that he obtained it involved him in deception.

And that's something we need to remember because we're going to come back to that here in just a few moments.

Well, as I said before, when Esau comes in and realizes that Jacob has stolen his blessing, um, he is furious.

And in fact, what he's thinking, if I may uh channel the new living translation, always a paragon of translational accuracy, when dad dies, I'm gonna kill my brother.

That's what he's planning now.

And Rebecca learns of that.

Esau hates Jacob because of the blessing that Isaac did give Esau, and that is that he would serve his younger brother.

He lost the advantage of the firstborn.

Esau says, uh, is he not rightly named Jacob?

And he's making reference to the fact that when the boys were born, although Esau is the firstborn, when they come out of the womb, Jacob does, his hand is holding the heel of Esau.

Jacob's name.

Means he takes the heel or he cheats.

I'm not sure of the difference in the derivation there.

But basically, what Esau is saying is he's not named Jacob for nothing.

He's a deceiver.

He's a cheater.

Esau makes that charge, and I think he makes the charge unjustly from his perspective.

Jacob did deceive his father.

What he did was not right.

But he didn't steal anything from Esau.

He was taking what really should have been his.

He went about it the wrong way.

Well, Esau hates Jacob because of the blessing he received from his father, and he plans to kill Jacob.

Rebecca learns of this, and she sends Jacob off to a far country, off to Haran, back to her, her family, Laban, her brother, so that he can stay there until Esau's anger abates.

Well, I want you to turn over to chapter 123 now in your Bibles, chapter 29.

And let's pick up the story of Jacob after he has come to Laban and he has met Rachel, and he stays for a period of time, a short time, it's a month, uh, with Laban there in Haan.

And Laban wants Jacob to work for him.

I want you to go to verse 15, Genesis chapter 29, verse 15.

So, after this month, Laban says to Jacob, because you're my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing?

Tell me, what shall your wages be?

So Laban wants to hammer out a work contract with Jacob.

What do you, what will it take for you to stay here and serve me in the capacity of an, uh, of a worker?

Of course, we understand Laban had two daughters.

The older daughter is Leah, the younger daughter is Rachel.

Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance, and the text says that Jacob loved Rachel.

And so he says to uh Laban, in verse 18, I will serve you 7 years for your younger daughter, Rachel.

7 years.

Well, I dated Debbie for a while before we got married.

I think we were engaged for a year and a little bit more.

So I wasn't tested with the seven-year test.

But the reason Jacob uh accepts this deal is he doesn't have a dowry.

He comes to Laban with virtually nothing.

He's fleeing from his brother Esau.

He's getting away.

And when he comes up there, he doesn't have the wherewithal to give a bridal dowry to the father of the bride, which typically then was shared, at least in part, if not totally with the bride.

And so Jacob is going to offer the, the only thing that he has, and that's himself.

He's going to serve Laban for 7 years.

The text is beautiful.

So Jacob served 7 years for Rachel, and they seem to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

That's, that's a sweet thing.

So at the end of that period, Jacob says to Laban, Give me my wife that I may go in to her.

And Laban gathers together all the people there in the place, and he makes a feast.

But he swaps the sisters.

And so in the marriage tent.

In the night, Jacob ends up with Leah, not Rachel.

Now their marriage customs were different than ours.

We look at that and think, how in the world could Jacob marry Leah and not realize That it was Leah, not Rachel.

The answer is she was probably heavily veiled.

She would go into the marriage tent, probably in the night.

Text says in the evening, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her, so it was evening.

And the text says, and in the morning, behold, it was Leah.

And Jacob said to Laban, What is this you've done to me?

Did I not serve with you for Rachel?

Why then have you?

Deceive me.

Is that not the pot calling the kettle black?

This is the guy who deceived his own father in order to obtain the blessing in cahoots with his mother.

And now he comes to Laban and Laban does the same thing to Jacob that he had done.

To his brother and to, uh, and to Isaac.

He's taken advantage of them, he's deceived them, and now he's irate because somebody has done exactly the same thing to him, deceived him.

And of course, you know the story.

Laban says, you're not from around here.

We don't do things that way here.

We don't give the younger, um, again, giving you a free translation.

We don't marry off the younger before we marry off the older.

So it was part of tradition.

You had to take the older daughter.

I guess they didn't discuss that before the wedding.

And so, give her her week, that is Leah.

And then you can have Rachel, for whom you will serve me, another 123 years.

And so he gets 14 years out of this work contract.

After Rachel and Leah are both now married to Jacob.

The baby wars commence.

They commenced because it was an honor.

It was something that every wife desired was to produce children, sons for her husband.

Rachel has problems conceiving, but the unloved wife, Leah, she begins having children.

She has 6 altogether.

And in the course of the baby wars, each wife, Rachel and Leah, end up giving their handmaid that Laban had given them when they were married to Jacob as a wife.

So he has 4 wives, and eventually he will have 11 sons.

Benjamin will be born later after Jacob and his family have returned to Judah, turned back to Canaan rather.

Laban and Jacob hammer out another work contract.

This is in chapter 30, if you're following along in your text, chapter 30, and I'm going to look beginning in verse 25.

Chapter 30 and verse 25 of Genesis.

As soon as Rachel had born Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away that I may go to my own home and country.

Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.

But Laban said to him, if I have found favor in your side, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.

Name your wages, and I will give it.

Jacob said to him, You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me, for you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly over the last 53 years, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned.

But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?

Laban responds, What shall I give you?

Jacob said, You shall not give me anything.

If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it as he had done for the last 14 years.

Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages.

So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages with you.

Everyone that's not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.

Well, that's a great plan.

My sheep will be identified by the fact that they're not pure white.

They've got speckles and spots, sheep and goats, but yours, yours will be white, and if there are white ones found among my flock, it's stolen.

It's a great plan.

I want you to see what happens here.

Of course, Laban thinks it's a good plan.

He says, good, let it be as you have said.

But that day, Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, one that had white on it and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons.

So Jacob's not even going to be able to.

For his own sheep.

Laban's sons are going to take care of Jacob's sheep, and he set a distance of 3 days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.

So the division of the flocks and Laban's sons take care of Jacob's sheep, and Jacob's taking care of Laban's sheep.

You remember what Laban said to Jacob?

God's blessed me because of you.

And so he wants Jacob with his sheep.

And Laban's sons, who we don't know anything about really.

They're with Jacob's sheep.

I think also that Laman had in mind that as long as he could keep Jacob's spotted and speckled goats and sheep by themselves, they wouldn't be breeding with his sheep and producing more of them from his flock.

Let Jacob take care of his own flock.

Laban is really looking out for himself.

And I think as it'll become apparent, he's taking advantage of Jacob in this work contract that they have hammered out.

But the text goes on to tell us that Jacob's flocks increased and Laban's decreased.

And so that brings us to uh Genesis 31.

And look at, look at verse 1, Genesis 31:1.

Don't worry about the length of the sermon.

We're in chapter 31 and there's how many chapters in Genesis?

So we're cruising right along.

Verse one says, now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob's taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's, he has gained all this wealth.

And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.

Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.

So Jacob gets together with Rachel and Leah, and he says, Listen, God's told me I need to head back home to Canaan.

And the two daughters don't seem to have a whole lot of homesickness for Haan.

Here's what they say in verse 14.

They respond to Jacob, Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?

Are we not regarded by him as foreigners, for he has sold us and he has indeed devoured our money.

The bridal dowry, if, if when Debbie and I were dating, intending to get married, If we had followed the same custom, I would go to her father and say, I want to marry your daughter.

John would have responded to me, it's going to take 6 ducks and 203 chickens.

And maybe a mule or two before you can marry my daughter.

So I've got to come up with this, this menagerie to give to him, and then he would either convert it to money and give some of it to her, or maybe he might convert all of it to money.

And give it to her.

Sometimes jewelry was used as a dowry.

That way the woman could wear her dowry so that if at any point her husband said, Away with you.

I'm putting you out of my house, she leaves with her dowry.

She has some sort of financial support.

What had happened with Rachel and Leah?

Well, the dowry wasn't anything concrete like jewelry or animals or money.

It was Jacob's service, his time, 14 years of it.

And all of that benefited Laban, not Rachel and Leah.

And that's why Jacob had said before, send me back to my family, to my home, because I've got to provide for my own household.

Up to that time, all that he had done was make uh Laban richer.

And now the daughters say, well, he sold us, our father sold us for the, the service of Jacob.

And he says, they say, and he has indeed devoured our money.

We have no dowry.

Not to be trite, but we got nothing out of this deal except Jacob.

All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children.

Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.

And so, that's exactly what he does.

Jacob gathers his family, he gathers his flocks, and they flee.

Of course, Jacob does that because he does not trust Laban.

There's tension there between Laban and Laban's sons and Jacob as we read in the beginning of verse of chapter 37.

When it was told Laban, verse 22, on the 3rd day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for 7 days, and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.

Gilead, of course, is an area to the east side of the Jordan River.

So Jacob has come from the north, from Haran, Syria.

Pan Aram, and he's coming south toward Canaan.

He's on the east side of the Jordan River, and Laban is in close pursuit.

Verse 2 says, excuse me, verse 24 says God came to Laban in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.

Laman may not have had good plans for when he overtook Jacob, and he does in verse 25.

And Laban says then to Jacob in verse 26, What have you done that you have tricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword?

Layman is going to put the best face on all of this that he possibly can.

You, you've taken my daughters and you've taken them like they were captives.

Uh, Rachel and Leah went pretty willingly.

They said, our fathers basically cheated us.

Let's go.

Then he continues, he says, now you've done foolishly.

It is in my power to do you harm.

Well, God had warned him, don't you do that.

Because, and now you have gone, I, I'm sorry, uh, look at verse 203.

It's in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.

And now you have gone away because you long greatly for your father's house. Really?

Is that why Jacob has left?

Or could it be that Laban has taken advantage of Jacob, that he has cheated Jacob, he's deceived Jacob?

But you're homesick.

I understand, Jacob Laban says.

But why did you steal my gods?

What Layman is talking about are some household gods, and some versions are called terraphim.

And they basically, not only were objects of worship, but some have argued that they were essentially like the title deed to property or to possessions.

And Rachel, before they left, had stolen those idols, those household idols.

And so Laban says, why did you steal my gods?

That may have been the biggest reason that Laban came after Jacob.

Jacob answered and said to Laban, because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

He knows Laban.

Anyone with whom you find your God shall not live in the presence of our kinsmen.

Point out what I have that is yours and take it.

Jacob, of course, as we're told now, didn't understand that Rachel had in fact stolen these gods.

And so what Jacob says he was kind of dangerous.

He didn't realize the full risk that, that this involved.

But you can imagine the scene, can't you?

Here's Jacob with all of his children, his big family, and all of his possessions.

And Jacob says, Here's my stuff.

You just go through it.

And anything you find that belongs to you, including these household gods, you bring it out in front of everybody, so that we can get this cleared up.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he didn't find them, the household gods.

Rachel had hidden these gods, and Laban doesn't find them.

And so I want you to look now at verse 36.

After Laban has gone through all of this, and he hasn't found these household gods, it appears that he's making a false charge.

Of course, like still, Jacob does not understand what Rachel has done.

And Jacob Finally has had enough from Laban.

Verse 36 says, then Jacob became angry and berated Laban.

Jab, Jacob said to Laban, What is my offense?

What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

For you have felt through all my goods.

What have you found of all your household goods?

Can you imagine how the anger was building in Jacob as Laban sifting through this and looking into that and moving that, and nothing there belongs to Laban.

There's no household gods to be found.

Rachel, of course, is hidden them.

Now Jacob is furious, for you have felt through all my goods.

What have you found of all your household goods?

Set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between us two.

And then Jacob begins to rehearse some of the ways in which Laban has taken advantage of him over the last 20 years.

He says, Excuse me, in verse 220, these 220 years I've been with you, your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I'm not eating the rams of your flocks.

I didn't take advantage of you by consuming some of your animals to feed myself.

I'm not sure what exactly is the entire import of the statement, you're ewes and your female goats have not miscarried.

I think that maybe uh Jacob saying, listen, I took care of your pregnant uh lambs or ewes and goats so that they would bear healthy young that you might even assist in the birthing process.

I took care of your stuff and I didn't take advantage of you.

Verse 212, what was torn by wild beast, I didn't bring to you.

I bore the loss of it myself.

From my hand, you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

If an animal came in and killed some sheep, the sheep that replaced them came from Jacob's flock.

If somebody came and stole sheep, it was required of Jacob to restore the to replace those sheep.

These 212 years I've been in your house, verse 25, I served you 220 years for your two daughters, and 123 years for your flock, and you have changed my wages 212 times.

That statement says a lot.

It says that every time Laban saw that God was blessing Jacob, he would change the deal.

Ever had someone like that?

They make, they make an agreement, and then it doesn't really work the way they thought it was going to work.

They end up getting the short end of the stick, so to speak.

And so they decide they're going to change the deal.

And I'm not sure that Jacob responded or, or I should say agreed to all this.

He says, Layman, you've changed the work contract 211 times.

212 may be a symbolic number just to talk about a number of times, a complete number, so to speak.

But at any rate, Laban has been looking out for Laban, and he has taken advantage of Jacob.

He has deceived Jacob, and Jacob now knows how it feels to be deceived and taken advantage of.

Of course, that's what he had done.

Back when he was home.

And he took the blessing through deception.

And Jacob doesn't like how it feels.

He's angry.

The next part of this passage is kind of almost amusing.

The two men who are kind of, you know, at loggerheads here, they, they construct a heap of stones, and they name it each one according to their own language.

Uh, but the heap of stones basically is a border.

And Laman says, this, this heap of stones, this memorial, it's a reminder that you need to take care of my daughters.

Like Layman was really concerned for his daughters.

But the heap of stones also, as I said, was a, a boundary.

And Laban says, you stay on your side of this boundary, and I'll stay on my side.

I don't think Jacob probably resisted that arrangement at all.

That probably suited him just fine.

So Laban's going to go back home and we want to move to chapter 32.

If you're familiar with the story of Jacob and Esau, you know that we're coming to the end of this, this lesson.

As Jacob is returning to Canaan, He sends multiple presents to Esau in the form of animals, one group, and then a little later, another group of animals, and then a little later, another group of animals with the messengers.

And each time, Esau is learning that Jacob has sent him another present.

Why is that?

Well, two things.

First of all, Jacob's not sure how Esau feels about him, but what he does know from a messenger that he has sent to Esau is that Esau is on his way to meet Jacob, and he's bringing 400 men.

400 men is an army in that day and age.

Esau is coming with a large company and Jacob is terrified about what might happen to his family.

Well, I'm going to cut to the chase if you'll permit me.

And I want you to go to uh chapter 33, the beginning of that chapter.

There are some other events that are very interesting that we're skipping over, but in the interest of time, go to chapter 33 and look at verse 1.

And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming and 113 men with him.

So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel into two female servants, and he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph, last of all, I don't think Jacob worried too much about how Leah felt about this or the maidservants.

He's pretty obvious, isn't he?

Brutally obvious.

He himself went on before all of these, bowing himself to the ground 7 times until he came near to his brother.

He can't resist 400 men.

And so he basically gives himself.

To his brother, for whatever his brother wants to do.

But look at verse 4, but Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, Who are these with you?

Jacob said, the children whom God has graciously given your servant.

And they come to an agreement about how they're going to deal with this situation.

But I want you to remember that Esau is the same individual who 20 years earlier had said, when dad dies, I'm going to kill my brother.

The days of mourning for my father are at hand, and I'm going to kill Jacob.

But it seems to me that both of these men Have changed.

Jacob was a deceiver, a liar, took advantage of those that he could.

But now during these 20 years, he's learned what it's like to have that happen to you.

I think he's a changed individual.

Esau has also changed.

He hated Jacob, but now there's this reunion, which seems to be a good resolution of the relationship that had been estranged or broken between them.

I want to end our study this evening with a couple of passages from Hebrews chapter 12.

The author of Hebrews in chapter 12 encourages his readers not to regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.

So in verse 5, he writes, and have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

And he quotes, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

I believe that God was disciplining Jacob during those 20 years.

I think discipline can be punitive sometimes, it can be the matter of correction, but it also can be instructive.

And I believe Jacob, what's interesting is that when you go back to the, the time when Jacob and Rebecca have deceived Isaac and taken advantage of him.

There doesn't seem to be hardly any statement.

I don't, didn't detect any of this statement where God said, and I'm done with you, Jacob.

In fact, as Jacob is on his way to Haran, he stops at Bethel, and God reiterates the promise to Abraham to Jacob.

But there doesn't seem to be any rebuke of what Jacob has just done.

Even though he has lied to his father, if nothing else.

And Jacob suffered for 20 years at the hands of Laban.

As we've detailed this evening.

And God didn't stop it.

He blessed Jacob, but Jacob was still had to go through all of this business with Laban, because I think God was teaching Jacob a lesson.

I think Jacob learned it.

You can draw your own conclusion.

Hebrews 12:11, if we drop down in Hebrews 12, says for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Chastening sometimes involves suffering.

It's not pleasant, but I believe Jacob became a changed man as a result.

Listen to the text again.

God chastises every son whom he receives.

Sometimes the things in our life that seem difficult, things that we look at and say, what's happening here?

Why is this happening to me?

Sometimes that may be God chastising us.

That may be God training us, disciplining us, teaching us something, just like I think he taught Jacob.

About how it feels to be deceived, to be taken advantage of as Jacob had done.

Others And so the question this evening is, how do you receive chastisement?

How do you receive the chastening of the Lord, His discipline toward us?

Do we accept it?

And profit from it.

Or do we become discouraged and blame God?

And criticize God.

Why is this happening to me?

It's God's fault.

When in fact it may be that God is preparing us.

To be better people.

The lesson is yours, and it's not a lesson that is particularly devoted to the obedience to the gospel.

But if there's anyone here this evening who wishes to obey the gospel or wishes to have the prayers of the congregation here because of things that are difficult in your life, sins that you're trying to overcome, perhaps.

We stand ready and willing to assist you in that.

We want to encourage all of us always to know that we have that avenue of prayer together.

And so if you need that, we encourage you to come forward.

We'll assist you as we can as we stand and sing the song selected.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

I'm gonna read from 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 3 through 12, and I will be reading from the English Standard Version.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

Therefore, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

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 in flaming 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 of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.

When he comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all those who have all who have believed.

Because our testimony to you was believed, to this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.

So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified you.

glorified in you, and you and Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I can't use my computer because Microsoft Word is being updated.

Don't you just love technology?

But some of you who are beginning to think maybe there wasn't going to be a sermon this morning that God had indeed blessed you, I have an outline.

So we proceed.

It's good to be with you this morning.

I'm glad you're here.

I want to talk to you about a problem that I have.

It is the problem of procrastination.

I have a list of projects that I want to accomplish at the house there, some of them outside on the property, some of them that have to do with house maintenance and that sort of thing.

And some of those projects I have put off for an unreasonable amount of time.

And the reason is, I'm not sure I'm gonna like that job.

It may involve some tasks that I don't really like or I'm not fond of, or it may be that it's just I'm afraid to get into that task, that job, because I'm not sure how far this is going to go, how long this is going to take, how much effort is going to be required.

And so I tend to, uh, procrastinate about that.

Is there anybody else here who has maybe a similar problem?

OK, I'm not alone, and many of you are honest to a fault.

Uh, I'm glad that I'm not alone.

I, I, sometimes I know what needs to be done.

It's just.

I can't get to it No, not that I can't get to it.

I just choose not to.

I choose to push that off and do something else that may be easier or maybe shorter.

The ironic thing about some of those tasks is a task that I may have put off for months.

Finally, it's, well, I'm going to do that and I find out it takes 63 minutes.

It was practically painless to get the whole thing done.

I could have done it months ago.

And uh yet I put it off.

Just that fear that maybe it's gonna be more than I'm wanting to do at this point.

Ronald Reagan in one of his speeches, made a line, gave a line that I think is probably a classic now in our, our society.

He said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.

And of course, he was talking about the fact that government sometimes is the problem.

And when people find out the government's here to help, that's scary to them.

Well, I'm going to borrow that concept and say that for some Christians, the two most terrifying words are personal evangelism.

As soon as you begin talking about getting out and teaching other people about the gospel, Some people be, begin to be afraid.

Those are terrifying words that I would have to get out and try to teach somebody what the Bible says.

And sometimes that fear.

Causes people to avoid evangelism just like sometimes my fear of a project causes me to procrastinate.

In the pursuit of that project.

This morning, I want to talk to you about a story in John the 4th chapter.

I think it's a story that most of us are pretty familiar with.

Jesus and his disciples are traveling through the area of Samaria, and they're between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, there's a little village there called Sicar, and they come to Jacob's well, which is located there in between those mountains.

And the disciples go into the village to get some food for Jesus.

He's tired, he sits there by the well, and here comes a woman.

With no idea.

That her life was going to radically change that very day.

She was living with a man, but she was, wasn't married to him.

And she comes out of the village to the well to draw water.

She has her water pot, probably carrying it on her head.

She's doing what she's probably done countless times before.

That's how you got your water.

You went to the well.

But today, Today there's a man sitting by the well.

She recognizes him some way.

I'm not sure exactly how, as being a Jew.

And he says to her, Give me a drink.

And that request puzzles her since he was a Jew and she's a Samaritan and typically Jews didn't engage in any kind of relationship or con conversation with Samaritans.

But that request begins a conversation.

That ends with Jesus identifying himself as the Messiah to this woman.

And when she hears this, she leaves her water pot at the well.

Hopefully, you didn't miss that detail.

She came out to draw water, but that's all forgotten.

She leaves the water pot there at the well, and she goes back into the village, and she starts spreading the word about Jesus.

He told me all that I ever did, she says.

And so others then come out to the well, and they begin to talk Jesus, Jesus comes into the village, stays there for a couple of days.

And many people believe in him.

First, as a result of what she said about him, and then because of the teaching that they themselves heard.

Now this woman wasn't irreligious.

Because when she perceives that Jesus is a prophet, she immediately then asks a question about, well, where's the place that we should worship?

So I don't think she's an irreligious person.

But I would suggest to you that she's not living a moral life.

Jesus says, go call your husband.

I have no husband, she says.

Jesus says, that's right.

You've had several husbands, and the one you're living with now is not your husband, so he points out that she's living an immoral life.

She's living in fornication.

What if she hadn't met Jesus that day?

What if she'd gone out to the well just like she'd done many times before, filled her water pot, put it on her head, and she trudges back into the village, and that day becomes like the day before and maybe would be like the day after, but this day.

This day is different.

Because she comes in contact with someone who provides her with information that changes her life radically.

It is certainly true.

That there are many ways for people to learn what the Bible teaches.

But I want to talk to you this morning about the urgency of evangelism, us being involved in getting the Word of God before other people.

And my intention this morning is not to present anything that's particularly new or Startling to you, but to emphasize some things that I hope will spur us, me included, to greater efforts in teaching others.

Well, as I said, there are plenty of ways for people to learn what the Bible teaches.

In this country, in this area, anywhere practically in the United States, you can walk into a bookstore, and there will be lots of Bibles available, various translations, other works that are uh commentaries on the Bible, that sort of thing.

If you want to know what the Bible teaches, you can get that information.

Rather easily in the United States.

And there are websites.

Now we are in this, uh, this technological age where you can get online and you can learn about anything.

You want to do heart surgery, I'm sure there's some sort of tutorial online, you can learn how to do that.

But if you want to learn about the Bible, there are lots of websites, now granted, many of them are not teaching what the Bible teaches, they're not really telling you the truth.

But there are lots of good websites that will help you understand what the Bible teaches.

Gary has a website in which he has numerous materials on there that, that are similar to other websites where you'll be able to find out what the Bible teaches simply by going to the website and reading.

There's written communication, books and pamphlets and stuff like that, that you can easily get a hold of.

I'm just saying there's lots of ways for people to learn what the Bible teaches.

And then of course, there's personal contact.

One person showing another person what the scripture say about Whatever.

What they need to do to be saved, how they need to live in order to please God.

And the fact of the matter is, despite all of that.

The vast majority of the world's population is in spiritual danger.

They're in danger of losing their souls or being punished eternally.

The majority of people in the state of Alabama are lost.

The majority of the people of Madison County are lost.

The majority of the people in Huntsville and Madison and Harvest.

And Athens in Limestone County are lost.

Let that sink in.

There are several groups of people.

I'm going to say there are several kinds of people I think who are in danger.

of losing their souls.

There are, of course, some who are frankly just anti-religious.

There are those who say this business of believing in God, that's just a myth.

That's just a way for people to feel good about themselves, some kind of pie in the sky type hope.

They rest their faith in science, or what is falsely called science.

And many of them have no interest in anything that you have to say or that I have to say about what the Bible teaches, because they think that's just an old book.

But there are others.

that I would describe as irreligious.

They're not necessarily against religion, they're not atheists.

They may be agnostics, they may suggest that they're not really sure about whether there is a God or not.

But they really don't have any concern for religious things.

And some of them, maybe many of them are at least in some ways, following moral principles.

Just because someone doesn't frequent a church building doesn't mean necessarily that they are reprobates in a moral sense.

There are people who don't steal.

There are people who will stop and help you if you're broken down on the side of the road.

There are people who are faithful to their mates.

I'm just saying they, they don't really have any concern for spiritual things.

And so sometimes their convictions about moral things are kind of weak.

But there are good people in the sense of people who are helpful and friendly, who are in this group.

But they are lost.

And then there's another group, which continues to dwindle in size in our culture.

And that's the religiously wrong.

And by dwindling inside, I'm in size, I'm saying that the number of people who will identify themselves with some religious group, that group's getting smaller and smaller.

There was a time when many people in a community would have identified themselves with one religious group or another.

But the fact of the matter is now the number of people who even go to church, however, slight that affiliation might be or represent, that number is going down.

And even among those who are zealous in their religious convictions, they go to church regularly and they talk about the Bible, etc.

Many of them are without knowledge.

They've been blinded by false doctrine, false teaching, by traditions and history.

They're unconcerned in some cases with what the Bible says.

Their religion is all about social things now.

And they are what they are because that's what their parents were, what that's, that's what their family has been, that extended family.

And then there's a 4th group.

These are people who actually have obeyed the gospel, but for one reason or another, they have fallen away from the path of righteousness.

They've become unfaithful to the Lord, and they are in spiritual danger as well.

I'm going to suggest to you the urgency of evangelism for two reasons this morning.

And the first one I've just finished talking about, and that is the number of people who are in spiritual danger.

Of entering eternity in an unprepared state.

And the second reason.

Is the consequence.

of being unprepared.

On the day of judgment.

The consequence for those who do not obey the gospel is very clear in the, in the Bible.

In 1 Peter the 4th chapter in verse 17, Peter says, For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

That's a lesser to the greater argument, essentially.

If we who are trying to follow God, we're part of the household of God, part of his church.

If we're going to be judged, what's going to happen to those?

who haven't even obeyed the gospel of God.

Well, Paul gives us that answer in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

Part of the reading that Elijah did, appreciated the reading.

I'm going to cut into the reading at verse 7 for the sake of time, but we've read it already from verse 3 on down to verse 43, so we're rereading uh material.

Paul writes, 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 and flaming fire, Inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God.

And those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

Paul says, those who do not obey the gospel, those who do not know God, they're going to be punished with eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord.

Well, what about Christians who have obeyed the gospel?

But who have fallen away, who have become unfaithful.

The Hebrew writer gives us the consequence of that behavior, that lifestyle.

When in Hebrews 10 and 26, he says, for if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.

But a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace.

Two observations here.

The first one is, we are talking about Christians here, because they're the only ones that the Bible talks about as being sanctified by the blood of the covenant.

So we're talking about Christians, who have, as the text says in verse 26, they've decided to go sinning on sinning deliberately.

And we're not talking, secondly, we're not talking about the Christian who occasionally sins.

John talks about that in First John 28 and says that those people can have the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, remove their sins, cleanse them.

If they are willing to confess those sins, he's both faithful and just to forgive them of all of their transgressions.

No, we're talking about a different kind of individual.

We're talking about a Christian, who has trampled underfoot, the Son of God, who has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, treating it like it was some sort of common or unimportant thing.

That's who we're talking about.

And the Hebrew writer says there's no more sacrifice for them.

And I don't believe that the Hebrew writers in any way saying that someone who has decided to become unfaithful cannot return to faithfulness.

He is saying there's no Plan B. It's either Jesus' sacrifice.

Or you have to go the route of perfect works, and the bulletin comments on how successful that has been for mankind.

The latter part of that section.

The writer concludes it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

And so the urgency of evangelism is seen and what the consequence of not obeying the gospel, and the fields are white.

As Jesus would say, don't say it's so many months until harvest.

The fields are white.

There's a harvest out there.

There's urgency to evangelism.

I want to go back to the passage in 222 Thessalonians 23.

Because I want to talk a little bit more about the consequence of not obeying the gospel of not knowing God.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, that eternal destruction is the punishment that awaits those who, as he writes, do not know God or do not obey the gospel.

Eternal destruction.

Away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might is the entire expression.

How can destruction be eternal?

At some point, aren't you destroyed and that's it.

And that's a misunderstanding of the word destruction here.

This is not a word that means annihilation.

You just pass out of being.

It's all over.

You've been destroyed, no more.

That's the doctrine of some groups.

That's not what this passage is teaching.

The word that's translated destruction here means ruin.

And ruin does not necessarily imply annihilation or the cessation of being.

You can be ruined and stay ruined for a long time, and the ruin that Paul is talking about here.

Is being away from the presence of the Lord.

You know, that is the very definition of ruin.

Being separated from everything that's good, from everyone that's good.

Consigned For eternity To be with those who are evil, those who have lived evil lives in this world.

Jesus talks about the same punishment.

In Matthew chapter 24, there's a scene there, beginning in verse 25, where Jesus talks about the sheep and the goats being separated.

And each group is addressed by the Lord.

I assume this is a representative of the final judgment.

And each group is told what their future will be.

There's some confusion on the part of both groups, in the sense that even the righteous did not seem to understand necessarily that what they were doing for others was in fact being done for Christ.

We've talked about that recently in our adult Bible class.

But the wicked also are confused.

When did we see you naked?

When did we see you without food or thirsty or in prison?

When were we, when did we have the opportunity, Lord, to do these things for you?

And he says, if you didn't do it for Your brethren, these others, you didn't do it for me.

But I want you to notice what's said here in verses 26 to 43.

He says to those on the left, that would be the goats.

Depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food.

I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger.

You did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.

And they will also answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you.

Then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

The word that's translated eternal here.

is the same word that's translated eternal in 24 Thessalonians 213 and verse 222.

The eternal destruction.

It's a word that means everlasting.

In Mark the 9th chapter in verse 43.

Jesus says, and if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell to the unquenchable fire.

And so this eternal punishment, this eternal ruin.

Not just a place of suffering, it's separation from God.

And there's no end to it.

And I want to talk a little bit about that.

You may have noticed, as I have as well, that when you read about people who take a gun and they go to some public place, maybe it's a school or a church or a theater or whatever, and they kill as many people as they can, it's just violence unhinged.

And then when it becomes impossible for them to escape justice, They shoot themselves.

They kill themselves.

Rather than suffer some lengthy prison sentence.

Which most certainly, certainly would happen should they appear in a courtroom afterwards, or live under a death sentence because of the enormity of their crime, they choose suicide.

I think with the idea that it is a momentary and perhaps relatively painless death, it's over like that.

And I thought to myself a number of times.

How surprised they must be.

To come to understand that that's not the end of everything.

And that in fact they have just initiated.

An eternity of suffering.

The punishment at the end of time that Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians 1, that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25, is not destruction that occurs in a moment.

It is forever.

And ever, there's no end to it.

Just as there's no end to life.

Communion, fellowship with God.

In heaven.

If a Christian sins, John tells us that forgiveness is available through Christ's blood.

Verse 7, I've mentioned this verse already, verses 133 and 9.

Let's read it together.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let me ask you a question.

How do you feel?

When you have done something that is wrong.

And you recognize it.

You know that you've sinned.

How do you feel about that?

You feel like David did, did when, when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and, and had not repented, hadn't confessed his sin, with months.

With the burden of that sin hanging over him, and he describes his feelings in the Psalms.

weighed heavily on him.

He felt like his health was just drying up.

How do you feel when you sin?

Does it bother you?

I hope so When it stops bothering us, we're in trouble.

But what's available to you if you're a Christian is that you can have that sin forgiven.

If you'll repent, if you'll confess, as we read here in First John 1 and verse 9, and we can talk about other passages, Acts 8 and verse 22, talk about repentance, and necessity of repentance for forgiveness of a Christian.

If you'll do those things, then you can be free of that.

You don't have to worry about that anymore.

Because when God forgives, he forgives.

He didn't go back and say, well, yeah, I know I forgave you, but I'm going to make you responsible for that again.

That's kind of the way sometimes we operate as people.

But God doesn't do that.

So when you're forgiven, you're free.

You get a second chance.

A 3rd and a 4th and a 5th and a 6th.

In fact, you became free from sin when you obeyed the gospel, you were sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You were clear of all sins.

But after that, when you sin, you can return to that earlier state by having those sins, that sin forgiven, and you start over again, you get a second chance.

After our failure.

We can be clean again.

But in eternity, there are no second chances.

No way to change one's status.

After death At the judgment.

For those who suffer this punishment of eternal destruction, the suffering, unquenchable fire, it's designed to illustrate suffering.

It goes on.

And on.

And there is no end.

How do we adequately describe eternity?

How do we wrap our minds around the concept of something that just continues and never ends, because everything in this life is finite.

N Had a dream A nightmare.

That was so Real feeling.

And because of what was going on in the dream, you became anxious, physically anxious.

Because you felt like there was no escape, that something was happening in your dream, and you couldn't stop it.

And you wake up.

How'd you feel?

Wow. Have you ever said to yourself, man, I'm glad that was a dream.

I'm glad that wasn't reality.

I have.

And I dare say probably all of us have experienced that.

The relief of knowing.

That that's not reality.

There'll be no waking up.

In eternity.

No, waking up and saying, oh, all that, that punishment, that was just a dream.

And now I'm going to change my status.

Or things are going to change for me.

There are a lot of things in this life that are unpleasant.

Physical pain as a result of illness or surgery or injury.

And we soldier on through those things.

We endure them, we bear them because we know that there's an end to that.

The end may eventually be death in some cases, but we know that there's an end to it.

It's not interminable.

Anybody here love going to the dentist?

But I don't see any hands this time.

OK, so one hand, um, and you need to get with your children.

Who likes going to the dentist?

Especially if it's not just for a cleaning.

Especially if the dentist has said to you, well, we're gonna have to do some work.

You got a cavity here.

And you know the sound of that drill, don't you?

That high pitched whine.

And the feeling of it chipping, grinding away at your teeth.

I love Doctor David Bruce.

Now I don't know who your dentist is.

That's the dentist that Debbie and I have gone to for a long time now.

And Doctor Bruce, I suspect is overly cautious about the anesthetic that he applies.

He's got that needle and by the time he's done, I can't feel my nose.

He's careful about that, but I'm glad.

Because I've sat in a dentist chair where someone wasn't that careful, and they managed to hit a nerve.

And you can levitate even if you've never done it before.

come up out of that chair, it's almost uh an involuntary, involuntary reaction, the pain just from one little drill and one tooth.

Can any of you identify with that?

Yeah, some of you.

Doctor Bruce is gonna get a lot of phone calls on Monday.

I suspect people say, I want that guy.

But I'll tell you what I do in situations like that.

I just keep reminding myself, this is going to be over quickly, because it's only a few minutes, relatively speaking, and, and then, you know, I'll put up with the numbness or whatever, but it doesn't last long.

I can deal with it for a while because it's going to end.

You see where I'm going.

How do you deal with something that never does end?

Pain, suffering that never does end, gnashing of teeth is the way it's described, weeping.

And it just keeps going.

Can you imagine?

Please try.

The hopelessness of knowing that.

If we find ourselves in that eternal punishment, there is no end to it.

No way to change that solution, that situation, I say, I should say.

The sermon this morning is not intended.

As a rebuke to anyone in specific.

Uh, here, it's not intended as a rebuke to this congregation in general, I know there are efforts that are always being made to teach others about Jesus, because I see the effects.

Sometimes I become aware of studies that people are having, but I'm also convinced that there are no doubt other efforts that are only known by those who are doing the teaching.

I don't know about them.

I don't need to know about them.

Nobody here necessarily needs to know about them, but people are talking to others about Christ. Sometimes.

I preach sermons that I think I need.

Actually, quite a few times.

And sometimes I need reminding of the urgency of evangelism.

It is too easy to enjoy the spiritual blessings that we have to feel secure and safe.

And to become complacent.

If somebody wants to know the gospel, they'll come to us.

Well, and they may.

And I reiterate what I said earlier, there are lots of ways for people to learn about the gospel.

But I think about that woman.

At the well In John 4 She wasn't irreligious.

But I don't think that she went to the well that day in John 4, thinking to herself, well, I hope someone will tell me about the Christ.

I hope I can go to the well and someone will tell me about where we're supposed to worship, or what kind of worship we should offer to God that would be acceptable.

I think she was just doing what she'd always done, gone to the well for water.

Without any idea probably.

That she would come in contact with someone.

Who could radically change her life by giving her the information, the spiritual instruction that she needed.

Do you think there are other people like that?

Here in our society.

I think so.

And something else we need to remember, we didn't talk about this particularly.

I didn't read through it.

But there were many other Samaritans who heard about Jesus, because of the conversation he had with that woman.

It wasn't just her.

She spread that to other people.

And that happens today also.

Where someone hears about the gospel, becomes a Christian.

And those are the people who seem to be most motivated to talk to other people about what they have just experienced, what they've just discovered, spiritually speaking.

So there's an urgency to evangelism.

I want to look at one more passage.

In Luke the 13th chapter, verse 22, we're told Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few.

What a great question.

How many people are gonna be saved, Lord?

I don't know what prompted the question, but here's Jesus' answer.

He said to them, strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us, and he will answer you, I do not know where you come from.

Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets, but he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from.

Depart from me all you workers of evil.

I believe what Jesus is saying in answer to the question.

Basically, first of all, is they're going to be few who are actually going to be saved.

Few in the sense of relatively speaking toward all with, with, with, in comparison to all the people who live and die on this, this earth, few are going to actually be able to be saved, not because God is miserly about salvation.

But because they will not do what God requires obeying the gospel to seek his grace and to be forgiven.

But the second thing I see in this passage is there's coming a time when the door is shut.

Jesus says that the Master comes, he shuts the door, and people are gonna knock, open, open, Lord, open to us.

And there won't be any way to open the door.

Opportunity is gone.

Don't wait.

Until the door is shut.

Don't wait until opportunity has passed.

And I'm talking not just to people who haven't obeyed the gospel.

I'm talking to us, Christians.

Who as we make our decisions day by day, we are deciding our future.

Based on what God has said in His word about what he intends to do on the Day of judgment.

And sometimes Christians think, well, I've got plenty of time.

I'm going to change my life, but not right now.

Or maybe I'm going to change my life, but I'm going to keep this one thing here.

This one sin that I'm kind of, I'm, I'm kind of shepherding, I'm fostering it in my life.

I'm saving it.

It's kind of back in a, in a deep recess of my heart of my life.

And, and I'm not going to give that up.

I'll do everything.

The door is shut at some point.

It may be because of our death.

Or it may be because there's the sound of a trumpet.

And the Lord comes with His angels.

And it is too late.

And wherever you are at that point, Sheep or goats.

That's where you'll be for eternity.

That ought to serious us up.

And this morning, if you need to change your life, if you need to obey the gospel, As the slide has shown the steps that are necessary in order to come into the come in contact with the, the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ.

Don't wait until the door is shut.

Don't wait until there's no more opportunity.

How terrible it would be to know that you were that close.

And you can think about that for eternity.

Because you didn't take opportunity.

And for those of us who are Christians.

Think about all the people that you know, that you meet, that you see, and I I'm sobered by the opportunities that I know I miss.

And I wonder about those people.

Could I have made a difference in that person's life?

And so Sometimes I need to be reminded of the urgency of talking to other people, and I'm reminded of how important it is to make sure that I am living right as a Christian.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning, either to obey the gospel or to seek the prayers of the congregation here to strengthen you and to encourage you.

If you've got sins you need to confess, don't wait.

We stand and sing to encourage you, if you'll come to the front, we'll assist you with your needs.

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 will be from 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 1 through 23, and I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.

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, 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 sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.

And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

I want to begin this morning by reiterating what was said earlier that if you're visiting with us, we're so happy that you're with us.

We appreciate the fact that you've come to worship God and we pray that the things that we've done thus far in our assembly have been encouraging to you and uh energizing as we strive to serve God together.

I trust that all of us are probably uh familiar with the story of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, as Genesis tells us that God created the worlds and then put life on this inanimate mass and created a garden where he placed Adam and Eve, a garden that had everything that they needed.

And then of course we understand.

That while God had forbidden them to eat of just one of the trees in that garden, they were free to eat of any of the others.

That Eve was tempted by Satan.

She took up the fruit of that forbidden tree and she shared it with Adam.

And they ate of the knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And when they ate that fruit, their eyes, the Bible says, were opened.

And they understood that they were naked.

Genesis 3:7 tells us.

And as a result, they made coverings for themselves to uh cover their nakedness before the Lord.

We live in a society, in fact, in a world.

That is seems to be enamored with sexually provocative clothing.

That seems to be the norm rather than the exception anymore.

So many people dress in scandalous ways and they don't seem to care that in some cases they are for all practical purposes, naked.

There are many people, I think, who have the same problem that those in Jeremiah's day had, and that is, that frankly, they've forgotten how to blush.

If you notice in Jeremiah, the 6th chapter in verse 15, the Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah, concerning the people of Jeremiah's day, were they ashamed when they committed abomination?

No, they were not at all ashamed.

They did not know how to blush.

Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall at the time that I punish them.

They shall be overthrown, says the Lord.

Many people have forgotten any sense of shame if they ever had developed it, and Jeremiah says there are people who are committing abomination, and they don't know how to blush, and people today wear clothing that is sexually provocative, that is immodest.

And there's no blushing.

They are not in the least bit ashamed.

The Bible often correlates nakedness with shame.

We could spend time, I guess, looking at several examples, but I think one will do the trick.

Revelation chapter 3, verse 18 is a section taken from the letter of the Lord to the church at Laodicea.

And of course, the Laodiceans thought that they had everything they needed, that they were rich, etc.

Uh, but the Lord says, you really need everything.

You're, you're poor, you're destitute, you're naked.

And he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and sal anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

And so the Bible connects nakedness with shame.

In passages like this and others.

Unfortunately, it's very easy for us to become desensitized.

What's acceptable uh yesterday.

is blase today.

And so the scandalous of today is what was acceptable yesterday.

I said that backwards.

I apologize.

Today's acceptable was yesterday's scandalous.

When we choose the clothes that we're going to wear on any given day, I suspect we do several things.

We, we choose our clothing on at least a couple of bases.

One is what we're going to be doing.

Um I'll tell you something just a little bit amusing.

Uh, our Doberman, Ajax, he knows the difference between work pants and go to the office pants or go to church pants.

And so in the morning, when I get up and I'm getting ready to dress, he stands by the bed to watch which pants I'm going to put on, because he knows that if I put on the work pants, he's probably going to get to go outside, which is what he wants to do.

And sometimes you can almost see the disappointment in his face when I put on the other pants, the pants that don't mean we're going outside.

That's what we do though.

We select our clothing based on what we're going to do.

If you're going to go to uh a sports event, or if you're going to participate in sports, you don't put on a tux.

And hopefully, if you're going to some sort of formal event, you don't go in in shorts or athletic attire.

And so we choose what we're going to dress based on what we're going to be doing, but we also consider the temperature.

One of Debbie's favorite questions is, is it cold outside this morning?

Uh, well, do you need to wear a sweater or not?

Do you need long sleeves or short sleeves?

But I think there is also another principle that ought to guide our dress, our selection of dress, and that is the principle of modesty.

As we begin to talk about modesty in an intent, uh, attempt to understand the concept clearly, I want to go back to the story of Adam and Eve because the Bible tells us, as I mentioned earlier in Genesis 3 verse 7, that Adam and Eve made Clothes coverings for themselves.

The word that's used there, uh, that is translated coverings in the New King James Version is translated loincloths in the uh ESV.

A word that's translated, the Hebrew word that's translated there, hagor is a word that can refer to a girdle or a sash.

It may be that they had made fig clothes or clothes out of fig leaves to cover themselves and then girded them with some sort of sash, or it may be that that word is being used to talk about something that just covers the middle of the body.

And it is instructive that God didn't say, well, good deal.

I'm glad to see that you made these clothes.

In fact, what God does is he then later makes tunics for them, and that's a different word.

It's a word that's commonly used in the Old Testament to talk about a much longer extensive garment, a garment that would go, say, from the shoulders down to the knees or even between the knees and the feet.

It was a lengthy garment.

And God apparently did not believe that the garments, the clothing, the coverings that Adam and Eve had made for themselves were adequate.

And so he instead made them uh tunics of skins.

But now something else interesting about this whole story is that after they have made their coverings, the Lord comes into the garden and he's walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, it says, and Adam and Eve hid themselves.

And I want you to listen to what Adam says in response to God's question of him.

When the Lord says, Where are you in verse 9.

And Adam says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

And I want you to understand that by that time they'd already made their coverings.

They already had the fig leaves, they'd already tried to cover their nakedness.

And yet Adam still feels as though he is naked.

And so he hides himself from God.

And it is after that, that God then provides tunics of skins for these two individuals.

I think 83 Peter 3 is a very good passage for us to begin looking at as we try to understand the concept of modesty in the New Testament.

It's interesting if you will just look across some of the passages that deal with dress or that sort of thing, you're not going to find passages that will give you a standard for how low the neckline can be or how high necessarily the skirt can be or how tight clothing can be, or even whether it can be translucent or has to be opaque.

The Bible does it.

Deal with modesty in that perspective, primarily.

Instead, the Bible addresses the character of the person who's putting on the clothes.

And you see that I think most clearly in passages like 1 Peter 3 verses 23 through 24.

I'm going to look at verse 21.

This is the passage that Jonathan read just a few moments ago.

Look at verse 22.

Peter writes, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing that you wear.

Verse 22, here's the contrast, 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 sight is very precious.

Now, Peter's addressing women.

We'll talk more about The fact that modesty is not just a female issue, but here Peter is dealing with the adornment of women.

But I want you to see that the contrast here is not between skimpy clothing and character, but rather it is between the gentle and quiet spirit on the one side and drawing attention to oneself on the other.

Modesty involves more than simply the clothing we wear.

It is possible for an individual to be dressed.

In what we would typically consider modest apparel.

And yet be involved in immodest behavior, drawing attention to oneself.

Modesty talks more about more than just one's clothing.

Character determines conduct.

And that's why Peter writes that women need to be concerned, not so much with the external, but with the hidden person of the heart.

That's dealing with character.

And what they're to adorn themselves with is, as he says here, a gentle and quiet spirit.

Character determines conduct.

And so the hidden person of the heart.

If properly adorned with a gentle and quiet spirit, will manifest chaste or modest conduct.

And clothing apparel.

Another passage I think that's helpful to us.

22 Timothy 53:25-28.

Uh, in the ESV it reads, likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

Now, there are two words that are particularly of interest here in this passage.

The first one is the word modesty, and in the New King James Version, it is translated propriety, propriety.

Those are words, particularly propriety, that probably is not one we use a great deal.

So I'm going to go to the American Standard Version which translates shame fastness.

I really don't like the King James Version, which I believe is shamefacedness, which kind of gives the idea that you should be ashamed of yourself.

But the concept here is not that someone is ashamed of who they are, but someone is bound by shame, by a sense of shame, bound by this desire not to do anything that is dishonorable or shameful.

And that, of course, would include Wearing immodest clothing and displaying one's body for others.

Moderation is the second word in the New King James Version.

Self-control, I think is, is a good translation and understandable, involves sound judgment, decency, that sort of thing.

Women who profess godliness are going to adorn themselves.

Uh, Paul writes with good works.

Again, the emphasis is on the inner person.

And when that's right, Then clothing will tend to be right as well.

Godliness is the devotion that seeks to please God.

We'll say more about that as we answer the question, why do you dress like that?

What is it that helps us decide which clothing we're going to wear or what kind of clothing we're going to wear?

Women are not the exception.

God desires that all of his people be engaged in good works.

That's a theme in the Book of Titus, We're on multiple, in multiple places, Paul says to Titus that he is to teach uh the members of the congregation that he's working with to be zealous of good works, to be ready for good works.

Every once in a while, I don't know how many of you are people watchers, but every once in a while, maybe you're, you're in a situation where you're just watching people watch by, walk by or whatever, and you will see someone who will catch your attention.

Someone whose appearance is really obviously designed to get your attention.

Look at the two characters that are up on the screen.

And you'll see the boots, the, the jackets with the studs, the hair piercings that are a little difficult to see.

But that's a common thing now is to, uh, to do these kinds of things.

And the intention of that, I'm persuaded is to draw attention to oneself.

Which is ironic, because if you go into a store and the clerk who's checking out, uh, helping you pay for your purchase, it has a, a loop in her lip, and a chain that goes to her ear, and you're kind of looking at like Isn't that kind of painful?

And they get upset at you sometimes.

What are you staring at?

I'm doing exactly what you want.

You want people to look at you.

So don't be upset when they do exactly what you're trying to accomplish.

What I said earlier is that modesty is this idea of not drawing undue attention to oneself.

And of course, that's the very opposite goal of people who dress and pierce themselves like these.

I'm going to say this.

I shouldn't have to, but I'm going to just for the purpose of not being misunderstood.

I didn't say that every piercing is, is, is bad.

Some of you have pierced ears.

Hopefully you don't go bizarre with it, but nevertheless, the point is there's some piercings.

Whose purpose it literally is simply to draw attention.

Look at the picture at the bottom of the screen.

I, I just look at stuff like that and I think, why would you do that to yourself?

But it's to draw attention to you, to be different from everybody else, uh, who are not willing to do those things to themselves.

I think people, especially women, sometimes engage in shocking behavior or they wear indecent clothing for the specific purpose of being noticed by others and sometimes with respect to women, particularly noticed by men.

And they so desperately want to be noticed and admired that they will court and accept even the lascivious attention of evil men.

Young ladies, may I say something to you, those of you who are teenagers and uh in that uh college age group.

It is absolutely true that immodest apparel, revealing clothing, whether we're talking about scanty clothing or whether we're talking about super tight clothing like the yoga pants and some of the other tight leggings, or whether we're talking about material that is transparent so that really it hides nothing despite the amount of material that's used, whatever kind of Immodest apparel you're talking about, the truth of the matter is that it will attract the attention of men.

I guarantee it.

But the question you need to ask her, ask is, are those the kind of men whose attention you want to attract?

Are those the kind of men who become good husbands or good fathers?

The one whose interest in a, in a woman is superficial, it is only about her shape or her uh physical appearance, cares nothing or very little about her character or about what kind of person she is.

You can attract their attention, but it may be that those are not the people that you should be trying to attract.

Character is harder to see.

It takes time for individuals to discover what kind of character you have on occasion, but the young men who seek good character in young ladies are in fact the kind of men that make good husbands and good fathers.

When you're in that age group, that teenage, early college or college age group, there's a sense of pressure there, competition.

There are other women out there who are also seeking someone to be with.

And so sometimes the feeling of young ladies is, I've got to compete with this one over here and this one over here.

And the way to do that is I become more uh Or shall I say, Uh, brazen, I'll use that word, more brazen than this one or that one.

That way, the attention focuses on me.

And frankly, young men are sometimes exactly the same way as they try to attract the attention of young ladies.

Unfortunately, in many cases, a woman's estimation of her personal worth is determined by the attention that she can attract with her appearance.

Who's watching me?

And the more people who are watching me, the more valuable I am.

And I will say to you husbands.

If your wife feels that she needs to attract the attention of other men, you are not.

Do. What you need to be doing as a husband.

Helping her to understand that she is valuable to you.

That you think she is a worthy person.

And that you're glad to be with her.

And so I think sometimes married women do the same thing that the unmarried do.

They dress in ways to try to compensate sometimes for what their husbands are not providing in terms of self-esteem.

and value The affirmation of a person.

In Genesis 21, there's a story, an interesting story there concerning one of Jacob's sons, Judah.

Judah, it appears, had kind of moved away from the other brothers and had gone and was living among the Canaanites there in, in Canaan.

And he had selected a wife for his oldest son, but the oldest son died with no heir.

And so, By process of Leverite marriage, then that woman whose name was Tamar, was then given to the 2nd son, the next oldest son.

He likewise dies without an heir, and now, Judah is unwilling to give his 3rd and youngest son to the same woman, Tamar.

This is in Genesis 38, if you're following along in the text.

And so Tamar, decides she's going to take matters in her own hands.

And so she dresses in a particular way, and she places herself where Judah will pass by at an appropriate time.

And Judith thinks that she is a prostitute.

Now, he didn't think that because of previous behavior, although eventually, she will essentially act as a prostitute, but he thinks she's a prostitute, because of her behavior, and because of her dress.

The way she was attired.

And what I'm saying is that our clothing Say something about us.

Tamar was judged to be a prostitute because of her dress and her behavior, not because Judah had seen her previously uh engaged in prostitution.

It's an ugly story, but it is instructive.

About the importance, the influence of our apparel.

Another passage that is likewise uh instructive is found in Proverbs 2, 7th chapter, and some of this is going to be um Some of it's going to be, you would know my Bible would go bonkers on me.

Some of it's going to be on the screen here, the 1st 83 verses.

My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you.

Keep my commandments and live.

Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.

Bin them on your fingers.

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Say to wisdom, you're my sister, and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

And then the writer, I assume Solomon.

Begins to describe a scene.

And in verse 6, he continues, for at the window of my house, I've looked out through my lattice, and I've seen among the simple, I've perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

Passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight in the evening in the time of night and darkness, and behold, the woman meets him.

Dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart, she is loud and wayward.

Her feet do not stay at home.

Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner, she lies in wait.

And the text goes on to describe how she entices this young man, assures him that there's blessings, uh, physical blessings, pleasures if she'll, if he'll go with her, and she notes that her husband is away from home, not expected back for some time.

It's a safe thing.

And the point I want to make to you.

Is that she's described as having the attire of a harlot.

She's an adulteress or at least is seeking to commit adultery with this young man.

She's identified as having the attire of a harlot, and her behavior identifies her as an immoral woman.

But she is not a prostitute.

She's a married woman who is involved in this immodesty that is designed to entice this young man.

Our clothing says a great deal about us.

I want to make Two primary observations.

There are some major differences between the sexual responses of men and women.

This is not a biology class.

And so all I'm going to say is that physiologically, men and women are not the same.

I know in our society, we're trying to either swap the sexes or pretend that everybody is exactly the same, that there's only really one gender.

But men and women are built differently.

It is natural for men to be attracted to the female form.

God designed us as men that way.

But he also warned us about some of the ways that we need to control our desires.

Women, and I think especially young women often do not understand the effect upon men of exposing their bodies.

And shame on mothers who do not teach them about that.

And fathers who allow their daughters to dress in ways that will excite young men and older men as they go about their activities, that is, these young women.

Men understand.

And fathers need to teach their daughters.

And mothers can teach their daughters about modesty by their own modest example, that is in the peril and behavior.

Men are more easily stimulated by visual images than women.

And I think that's part of the reason that the passages that seem to deal with modesty are, are more inclined or addressed to women.

Passages that deal with lust tend to be addressed more to men.

Matthew the 5th chapter, verse 28, Jesus said, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

That's an acknowledgement of the danger for men.

In looking at women with lust, desire to have them sexually, and that's stimulated sometimes by the kind of clothing and the kind of behavior that women are.

Using Modesty is not only the concern of women.

The passages that warn against immodesty are more often directed to women than men.

Why would any woman dress in such a way as to expose her body to the gaze of men other than her husband?

I think immodest clothing, and I'm going to make a general statement here, but I think immodest clothing usually has both the goal and the effect of attracting the attention of the opposite sex, and that would be true of both men and women.

I will freely admit there are probably some women out there who don't have the intent.

of causing others to lust.

But I believe, for the most part, that when women dress in a way that is immodest, they know something about the effect it's going to have On men.

The truth about outrageousness.

is that it's subject to the law of diminishing returns.

As I said earlier, as I misspoke earlier.

What is scandalous today will be acceptable tomorrow.

And so in order to push the margins, the border, to push the envelope, people have to become more and more bold.

There was a time when a woman who went swimming in a swimsuit that basically went all the way from her, her calves all the way up to her shoulders and covered everything.

She was considered immodest if she went out in public like that.

But you know you got to push the envelope and so eventually swimsuits became two pieces.

And now some swimsuits basically are nothing.

People are just parading around essentially naked.

And it keeps getting worse because if you want to be noticed, you have to stand out among everybody else.

That's not a competition you want to be in.

There's no good prize there.

Why do prostitutes dress the way they do?

Because they're attracting the attention of clients.

of men.

That's their objective.

And so they dress in ways that are designed to show their physical features.

To attract the attention of men.

The woman who causes men to lust after her body because of her dress or her behavior has sinned.

She is placing a stumbling block, an occasion for sin, a temptation to sin in front of these men who see her in this immodest state.

And so not only has she sinned in her own behavior, but now she's causing others to sin as well.

And Jesus would say, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

We will be held responsible, not just for our own sins, but for our behavior that causes others to sin.

Over the years, as I've preached occasionally on modesty.

I've heard a number of defenses that are made.

And so I'm gonna suggest just 3 of them very quickly, maybe a 4th 1 if we have time.

You know, preachers talk about modesty and modesty because they have dirty minds.

Now you may not think that's a serious defense, but I've heard that.

I've been accused of, well, you're just, you just have a dirty mind.

You're just thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking about.

Why would a sermon on modesty bother any woman who dresses and behaves modestly?

You know, it's interesting, I could preach on murder and I don't think anybody would be upset about that.

Who would complain about a sermon on murder?

How many murders are there in the audience?

If you're a murderer, raise your hand.

OK. So I can preach on murder, murder, and nobody worries about that.

Nobody, you know, is, is upset, but you preach on modesty, and then people begin to say, well, you know, you've got a dirty mind.

And I'm wondering, why is it that you object to a sermon on modesty?

I'm saying you in a general sense.

But you don't object to a sermon on murder.

Maybe that says more about the listener than it does the preacher.

Well, some men will lust no matter what I wear.

And I think that's a true statement.

I really do.

I think there are some men who will lust because as Peter describes in 2 Peter 2, they have adultery.

Their eyes are full of adultery.

That's all they think about when they see women.

It doesn't make a whole lot of difference, whether they're dressed modestly or immodestly.

The men have the problem.

But modest dress doesn't encourage that.

Modest dress doesn't put the stumbling block in front of somebody else.

And that's what we're talking about.

This is the one I like.

People see so much nakedness these days, and we do, that they just don't really pay attention to it anymore. Really?

Really?

Are you serious about that?

If that's a defense that we're going to make of immodest apparel is, well, people don't see it anymore.

Then if that's true, why is it that advertisers on television and on the internet, incorporate scantily clad females or men in so many of their commercials?

Have they not gotten the message?

That that doesn't attract any attention anymore. Really?

Advertisers spend.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars figuring out what it is that people are interested in, so they can advertise their products.

And if you understand that fact, then look at the commercials.

Some of which, frankly are so involved in immodest behavior or apparel that sometimes it's hard to know just exactly what the product they're trying to sell is.

They know what sells.

That defense doesn't hold a whole lot of water.

I'm going to use one more.

It's not on the screen.

It's not in your bulletin notes.

And that is that.

It's not immodest to wear a bathing suit, a standing bathing suit if you're going to the beach.

You don't do that at church.

You might not do that in other venues.

But when you go to the beach, it's OK because circumstances justify it.

Where's the passage that teaches that modesty doesn't apply to, say, for instance, sports activities?

Mixed swimming, for instance. Weddings.

I've really appreciated the fact that I've known a number of young women who when they got married, It's obvious that they paid attention to the wedding dress.

Sometimes at extra expense or difficulty, so that the wedding dress was modest.

Because wedding dresses frequently are not.

That's an opportunity for the bride to show how beautiful she is, and typically that involves her disrobing to some extent.

But I've known godly women who look beautiful.

In modest wedding gowns, and I appreciate their example.

Hopefully you do as well.

Where's the passage which teaches that modesty doesn't apply to weddings, or that modesty doesn't apply to the attire that we wear on the beach or wherever we're going or whatever we're doing?

Where is it that modesty is limited only to when you go to church?

Or if you're going to some other place where Christians are going to be gathered together.

Those defenses are very poor defenses of modest of immodesty.

The way that we dress should be influenced by a desire to please God.

Do women wear short skirts, tight clothing, revealing blouses because their intention is to please God?

Is that the reason that those kinds of garments are chosen?

I don't think so.

Or is it to show themselves to others?

Why do you dress like that?

What should be the answer to that?

I dress in a way.

That will be pleasing to God.

I dress in a way.

That will not cause others to stumble or to sin.

Appreciate your attention this morning.

That desire to be pleasing to God is the fundamental.

concept that I want to emphasize.

In modest apparel, modest behavior is just an extension of that desire to please God, and that desire begins.

As we think about obeying the gospel.

Recognize that we're sinners, recognize that we need God's forgiveness.

We need God's grace.

And God has said, this is what you need to do.

In order to become one of my spiritual children.

And those of us who want to please God, we follow those instructions.

And as I said, then modest apparel, modest behavior, that's just an extension of that same desire to please God.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8, chapter 5, verse 8, yes, we are good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.

Don't forget the next verse, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each 1 may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or evil.

We're going to be judged according to the way that we live.

Are you pleasing God?

Are you pleasing God?

By being a priest, by being a Christian, are you pleasing God by Your clothing, the choices that you make in the attire that you wear.

This morning, if you need to obey the gospel, to please God, to receive His forgiveness, and we want to encourage you to make your wishes known, we'll assist you this morning to put on Christ and baptism as your sins are forgiven.

We sing now to encourage you.

If you're willing to come, come to the front.

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.)

For context, um, this is the tail end of Jesus' sermon on the Mount.

A lot of people gathered to hear him preach, and he got up on the mountain and preached to them.

The things he preached to them were difficult and different from what they had heard before from other leaders in the Jewish leaders.

And this is how he decided to close his sermon.

So Matthew 7:24-27, I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell.

The rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house.

Yet it did not collapse because its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell.

The rivers rose.

The winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

It collapsed with such, with a great crash.

Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mound is the most extensive record of the synoptics.

It is the largest, the longest, more detailed, and I want to look at the end of that sermon, but backing up even a little farther than where Hans began reading, appreciated the context comments, uh, I think those were helpful.

And so I want to look at some contrasts.

I don't know if you have noticed this, I suspect you have, but in several of the Periccope in the end of this sermon, there are contrasts of two different things.

For instance, in verses 13 and 14, Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide.

And the way is easy that leads to destruction, and there are those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

And so Jesus says there's two ways one leads to life, one leads to destruction.

A lot of people are following the destructive road or the road that leads to destruction, and very few are following the one that leads to life.

And then in the very next verses.

Beginning in verse 15, he begins talking about fruit, and there's a warning here in verse 15, where Jesus says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Now, Jesus is going to talk about good fruit and bad fruit, but he warns his listeners, first of all, that it's not just what people are saying, they're false prophets.

Prophets who appear to be teaching truth or good things, but they're actually predators.

And so Jesus says you'll recognize them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree.

Bears bad fruit.

A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

And so what he says in verse 13, he repeats again, there's good fruit and there's bad fruit, and a diseased tree can't bring forth good fruit.

So you'll know them, not by what they claim by word of mouth, but by their fruits, by their actions, I believe is part of what Jesus is saying.

And then in the next section, beginning in verse 21, Jesus again talks about two groups.

There is, of course, the group that is doing the will of the Father who's in heaven, and then there's another group who claim to be loyal to the Father, claim to have a relationship with the Father, but the Father doesn't know them.

They don't obey.

His will.

Jesus says, 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.

You're seeing the contrast in each of these sections, and on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?

Then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Just like the wolf in sheep's clothing who might give the appearance.

These are individuals who on that great day of judgment will claim that they are in a relationship with the Lord.

The truth of the matter is only those who do the will of the Father in heaven, can say that and that brings us to the last section in which Jesus talks about two builders.

It's interesting that what he has to say in this last section really is intended to talk about their reaction, that is those of the listeners, their reaction to all of the things that Jesus has said in this sermon on the Mountain.

As Hans noted, there are some difficult things in here and in fact, some things that would be different from what perhaps the Jewish leaders would have said, even the rabbis of Jesus' day.

So Jesus says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them, so we've got someone who hears them and does them, he's gonna be like a wise man who builds his house on the rock and of course there's some difficulties, there's some pressure against that house, but it's solid because it has a good foundation.

Everyone who hears these words of mine verse 26 and does not do them will be like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand.

Essentially, in Luke's account of this, he's not building on a foundation at all.

There's nothing there to support his house and so as a result, when there's pressure from rain and floods and winds.

That house falls.

And so Jesus Illustrates the need to listen and obey what he has said in his sermon by comparing two groups of people again contrasting them, they both hear, but only one group does something about it, obeys the words, the other one does not, and, and Jesus says the group that.

Hears and obeys is the wise likened to the wise individual and the other group likened to a foolish individual.

It's been a little while since we did a Biblelands tour.

And uh since the last time, which I think we've gone to about 20 or so, 25 places over a period of several years now, uh there have been a number of people who have come to the congregation.

And so let me explain to you what this means.

It's expensive to travel to Israel, the flight, uh, if you have a guide or if you're with a group, and so not everybody can do that.

And so, uh, Bigal's low budget Biblelands tour is not prohibitive to those who can't come up with the funds to travel to Israel or for some other reason.

Now there's a war going on, wouldn't want to go on a literal tour.

And so we've been visiting various places in the Bible lands through the means of the pages of scripture and secular sources that tell us about these places.

You can tell from the picture of the bus that we use that this is a low budget trip.

However, I want you to know that we've spared no expense on the driver, and so you're in good hands.

Um, we'll be able to uh do our visiting this uh this evening as we are going to visit Caesarea Maritima.

I'm calling it Caesarea Meritima because there were two Caesarea in Palestine in the time of Jesus, and we're dealing with the one that is by the sea, Meritima, by the sea, not the Caesarea Philippi that was in the northern part of Israel.

So we're looking at the Caesarea on the sea coast. Sometimes.

You'll see that city's name spelled C E S A R E A, and that's just another spelling.

It's not a different place.

I'm going to spell it for the most part, C A E. Don't, don't get excited about that.

I want to tell you a little bit as we begin our journey.

Hopefully everybody dressed warmly.

It's gotten a little chilly.

Um, as we begin our journey, I want to tell you a little bit about the history of Caesarea Maritima.

The city of Caesarea.

is located, uh, I should say it was built by Herod the Great, uh, before the time of Jesus.

Matthew, uh, or, or excuse me, Herod, uh, builds it between 25 and 13 BC. You're gonna get some different dates depending on your source, but basically, about 20 years or so before Jesus is born, uh, Herod the Great is going to be building this city. Location-wise.

It is 25 miles northwest of Samaria.

I like the map that I've got up on the screen, except that it doesn't have Samaria on it, so that's not very helpful, but I've put a yellow dot where Samaria is, and, uh, as we've studied in our divided Kingdom studies just recently in the auditorium class one.

Locate Samaria.

You go about halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea on the Jordan River and then go halfway between the Mediterranean coast and the Jordan River, and those that that GPS system will put you where Samaria is, and that's basically where the yellow dot is and so.

Caesarea Marittima, which is on the coast there, you can see it labeled.

It's about 25 miles northwest of Samaria and it's about 33 miles south of modern Haifa.

Haifa is what we would call Mount Carmel, and so I've placed a blue dot up on Mount Carmel, and so that gives you an idea of where this, this city was located with reference to both Old Testament or New Testament cities and modern cities.

Herod built this city as a port.

And it was a very wise decision, although it was a very costly decision.

The coastline of the Mediterranean Sea there along Israel is really not advantageous or doesn't lend itself to natural harbors.

It's straight.

There's no protection, and so ships that would come in and Land on the coast there they can be beaten by the waves and the wind that come from the west and so what Herod wanted to do was to build a harbor, a port city that ships could come in and they'd be protected from some of these, uh, these weather problems, Caesarea.

was designed as a classic Roman metropolis.

Its name is designed to give honor to uh the Caesars.

And so he built a city that was complete with an amphitheater.

It had at least one hippodrome, had Roman baths, pagan temples, had a theater, and the jewel in the crown of his city was the port.

Which is one of the most amazing architectural feats in the ancient world.

I'm going to show you a few pictures now.

Some of them are pictures that I've taken myself.

Some of them are pictures from others.

This is the amphitheater or the theater that is very close to Herod's palace, and you'll see the orientation here in just a moment.

There used to be a wall that would be essentially in front of us as we're looking into this theater that would rise to the height practically of the highest bank of seats.

And so when people would be speaking, there would be better acoustics.

That wall, of course, is gone, but I want to draw your attention to the middle of this where the red circle is, and now I'm going to show you an enlarged portion.

This is the box seat.

That's where the Roman governor would sit.

He had the best seat in the house, right in the middle, people not too close, etc.

And so this amphitheater was part of the complex right around Herod's palace.

Next to Herod's palace was a hippodrome, a racetrack, if you will.

Sometimes they're called circuses, and this particular one, you are standing.

On the edge of Herod's palace as you look into the hippodrome, he had the best seat in the house.

All of those other seats are stone seats, those original seats.

They haven't really replaced them or tried to repair a lot of them.

This is another picture of the same thing.

Just a little bit closer, but basically this is what Herod would see if he sat down or uh the Roman governor later on, if he sat down and he was watching the events, the athletic events that are going on in the hippodrome.

What you're seeing now is an aerial view of the hippodrome to the right there you can see kind of the long course and to the left, the bottom left, what you're seeing are the ruins of Herod's palace later to be used by the Roman governors who made Caesarea basically their, uh, their capital, so to speak.

That palace would actually extend out into the Mediterranean Sea.

It was a rather elaborate structure, and you're now standing kind of toward the Mediterranean end of that palace as it extended out in a promontory type way out into the sea, and what you're looking at there, that kind of squarish area there, that was a swimming pool.

Herod's palace had both a freshwater pool and a saltwater pool.

There's an aerial picture of it.

You're looking now from the Mediterranean back at the promontory there.

There's not a whole lot left of this palace or of the two pools as they extended, but you can also see if you look carefully.

And I don't have the right clicker to show you with the little white circle, but if you look at the promontory there and then just a little bit behind it, you see the amphitheater that we were looking at just a few moments ago.

And then of course to the left of that is the hippodrome that we also looked at.

Now one of the things that Herod did was because Caesarea doesn't have a great source of freshwater, he brought water all the way from Mount Carmel, and the water that he brought from Mount Carmel actually had come in an underground aqueduct from north of Mount Carmel, but when it gets to Mount Carmel.

He would bring it in this elevated aqueduct all the way down to Caesarea along the coast there.

Um, I would love to have waited until all these people left so I could take a picture without them, but they were determined to ruin the picture, so we had to take the picture and just be good with it.

So, You get a feel of maybe some of the elaborate nature of Caesarea Marittima as Herod the Great built this city.

Herod was a builder who liked to build things that would be remembered, magnificent structures, and Caesarea certainly vies as one of his most magnificent.

The Jewish historian Josephus.

Mentioned that this city had large sewers that were actually flushed by the seawater as it would come in and out.

So it was a rather elaborate, uh.

Uh Project that uh Heard the Great uh completed.

Now, Caesarea Marittima has quite a few mentions, Caesarea does in the scriptures, and I'm gonna note some of them.

Uh, you'll probably remember some of these.

It was an important, important city.

It would become the, essentially, the capital of Roman government in the Near East for about 600 years.

And uh, so the governors, the Roman governors would be stationed there.

We'll talk about them in just a few moments.

But there would also be Roman soldiers there.

And so, Cornelius, who was a Roman centurion, he's the one who calls for Peter to come to Caesarea from Joppa, Jappus to the south, a good distance.

Uh, Cornelius was stationed at Caesarea in Acts the 10th chapter, we get the story of them coming together, Peter teaching Cornelius and his household, he and his household responding to the gospel.

So as I said, Caesarea was essentially the capital of Roman government in the Near East.

It served the seat of Roman governors for the province of Judea, and there would be Roman soldiers stationed there, uh, sometimes legions stationed either at Caesarea or in the province, including in Jerusalem.

We know of 3 Roman governors mentioned in Scripture who lived there.

Pontius Pilate was one of them.

Then later on in the Book of Acts, we have the names of Felix and Festus.

Paul would be dealing with both of them.

Archaeologists have found the name of Pontius Pililate carved in stone in the theater at Caesarea.

The Roman Jewish war would actually begin in Caesarea.

Of course, it started, uh, it, it spread to other places.

The the garrison of Roman soldiers in Jerusalem would be massacred, those that were in the fortress Antona.

But it actually started in Caesarea.

And uh it was also at Caesarea, this was in 1866, it was also at Caesarea that Vespasian was proclaimed emperor by his legions while he was there.

And as a result, he commemorated that particular event by elevating the city of Caesarea to the status of a Roman colony.

I don't want to get into a lot of history.

Um, it's bad enough I'm showing you geography.

At any rate, uh, when Nero dies, there's no real successor.

And so in quick succession, if you'll pardon the pun, three individuals try to take power in Rome, and none of them are particularly successful.

Vespasian has been pursuing the Roman Jewish war in Palestine.

This would be in the year 68, 69.

And his troops say, you know, these other generals are trying to take power in Rome.

You could do the same thing.

Vespasian manages to seize power and hold it, and he will be the Roman emperor from 69 to 79 AD. In addition to some of those things, it appears that Herod Agrippa the First made his last speech at Caesarea.

We talked this morning when we're talking about John Mark.

We talked about the beginning of chapter 12 in which Herod Agrippa arrests, incarcerates James, and then executes him.

He then arrests Peter and intends apparently to do the same thing to Peter.

Peter's released.

And Herod has all of the squads of soldiers who had been entrusted with guarding Peter.

They're all executed.

That would have been about 103 soldiers if I understand the text there.

And then as you move farther into chapter 12, you find that Herod goes back to Caesarea, and that's when he makes this speech and the people trying to gratify him, the voice of a god.

And because he accepted that kind of adulation, God struck him and he died.

Josephus says it was a couple, 3 days or more later.

But it appears that all of that took place uh at Caesarea, at least his, uh, his death, his last speech.

The city's harbor was also a port of arrival and departure.

Excuse me.

For several of Paul's journeys.

In chapter 9, when he is, uh, has come to Jerusalem following his conversion, and he's meeting with the church there and, and his life is being threatened, they take him to Caesarea and send him to Tarsus.

As he would come back from his journeys, the missionary journeys, he would come to Caesarea, come to Jerusalem in some cases, and then go back up to Antioch.

And so, the city was obviously a place where Paul would come, uh, at times.

In chapter 27 and verse 221, Paul actually visits someone that we learned about way back in chapter 223, Philip, uh, with his prophetess daughters.

And Paul visits Philip there in Caesarea.

We also know that at the conclusion of Paul's 27rd missionary journey, you may recall that he was arrested, taken into Roman custody in Jerusalem, and then quickly, because of the, the plots of the Jews, he is quickly transported to Caesarea so that he can appear before the governor there, the centurion.

Or the tribune in Jerusalem is glad to get that problem off of his hands.

He sends Paul to Caesarea, where he will stay for two years before being forced to appeal to Caesar so that he's not just released to the plots of the Jews, and it is at Caesarea.

During this time, these two years, that Paul would make his defense before Felix, and then later before Festus and Herod Agrippa the 21nd, um, we've already talked about Herod Agrippa the 23st back in chapter 113 of Acts.

So I want to focus now.

I want to zero in on the harbor that Herod built there.

It's called Sebastos.

Sometimes you may see, if you look it up in a, in an encyclopedia or a Bible dictionary.

It'll say Sebastus harbor.

That's the same thing as Caesarea.

Sebastus means August in Greek, and so they, they've given it that name.

Um, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit behind here.

So Herod's Harbor is believed to be the first artificial harbor in the world.

Now, I have a little bit of uncertainty whether I buy that or not, but it's certainly the most extensive artificial harbor in the ancient world.

In order to build a protected harbor.

Herod built breakwaters off the shore that went off the shore into the Mediterranean Sea and basically enclosed an area.

The opening in that to that enclosure would be on the north side.

That would be the best side for ships to be able to come in without being driven into breakwaters.

And so basically he, he creates this enclosure.

So that ships could come in and they could be in the harbor without being beaten by waves and wind off of the Mediterranean Sea.

The southern breakwater, the entrance was on the northwest corner of this.

The southern breakwater extended 211 ft out into the sea, and once ships had come into this enclosure, then they could be actually transported to a warehouse warehouse district through a quay that lasted or went about 22 ft long.

The foundation of these breakwaters, I mean, you're basically creating a wall out here.

The foundation of those breakwaters was composed of huge concrete blocks.

Now when we talk about pyramids, you know, the big puzzle is how did they move these big blocks and get them up, uh, at, you know, the upper heights of the pyramids.

That's not what they did here and it wasn't aliens either, in case you were wondering.

What they did was they constructed large wooden forms that they floated out, pulled out, positioned, and then sank.

And they filled those forms with hydraulic concrete, concrete that's made from a special volcanic sand.

I don't know the process, and in fact, after the end of the Roman Empire, this technique was lost for centuries.

But they knew of a way, the Romans did, and Herod used it, of actually pouring concrete into water that would then harden while it was underwater.

And so all they did was put the forms in the right place, hopefully, and then pour this concrete into the water.

It would sink into the forms and they would construct these blocks.

Huge concrete blocks.

Some of them are over 219 tons.

Uh, or tones, if you're British, 39 ft by 49 ft by 5 ft.

Now think about that.

39 ft by 49 ft square or rectangular and 5 ft. Thick.

23 tons or more and they were using these blocks to create the foundation for this this harbor.

This is an artistic representation and you can find lots of different they they're all kind of vary a little bit.

This is kind of one of the more bland ones, but what I wanted you to see.

Is, uh, and we know some things about this harbor because of Josephus and other historians when the ship came in to the opening here, you see it here kind of in the bottom, uh, middle of the bottom and would come in, it could go to the this wharf along the side and there were storage rooms all the way along there so they could have multiple ships coming in and unloading their cargo all at the same time.

It became a very important port, at least for a time.

Here's another representation of it.

Very similar and you can see on the backside of the of the enclosed harbor there you can see, I don't know if you can or not, it's really clear right here, but you can see perhaps the different rooms where stored things would be stored that were that were being shipped into Caesarea.

These are some Existing storage rooms, uh, the picture, uh, is a picture that Debbie and I took while we were there, and this is an artist's representation of how they would have moved these large forms.

Uh, I had to put some swim trunks on some of these divers, so I could use this picture.

But they would maneuver this large form that floats obviously and then when they got in the right place they'd sink it and then they'd fill it and uh theoretically then they could build this, this, these breakwaters they'd lay the foundation, just keep building.

The majority of the harbor today, however, is only distinguishable by aerial photography or by underwater exploration.

And the reason is that's what the harbor looks like today, not as a result of war or people breaking down the harbor.

What apparently happened was the breakwaters, these enclosed these walls that enclosed the harbor, they began sinking.

In fact, I've read, and I'm gonna tell you there's some different scholarship now, but I've read that they began sinking within a generation or less of the completion of the city.

So it was a great harbor for a little while.

And then these things started to sink.

Uh, obviously different rates.

That's one theory that they lacked adequate foundation underneath these huge stones that form the bottom layer of the breakwaters.

Now there's another theory that's a little more modern and may possibly be true, and that is that it was actually the result of a series of earthquakes, that there's a fault that runs off the shore there, and the resultant tsunamis had pushed and damaged these breakwaters.

Well, I'm going to suggest to you that I think the sinking of the foundation stones, the bottom stones, I think that's what happened.

Now, I'm not an archaeologist, so I'm giving you just my opinion.

But what I want you to think about with reference to Caesarea is how important it is to have a good foundation.

As magnificent, as interesting as the techniques were to build this thing, it was a tremendous project.

It didn't have a good foundation.

And so as a result, it wasn't all that long before that harbor wasn't actually of any use anymore.

This is an aerial view and you can see some of the area that was enclosed in the past.

You can even see kind of on the lower left.

You see an opening there, but all of that has gone down below the level of the oceans.

It sank.

And so apparently did not have a good foundation.

Well, when you think about a foundation, what are the important things that a foundation needs to have or be?

Well, one is it needs to be firm enough.

It needs to be strong enough to accommodate the weight that's going to be put on it.

In our area of the country where a lot of houses are built on concrete slabs, you're aware that there are footers that run around the outside and sometimes even in the middle, but a lot of times on the outside of the area that the house is going to occupy its footprint.

And those footers may be 18 inches wide and 18 inches deep, and they've got rebar in them, and yet inside that footprint, the concrete may not be even in some cases a whole 4 inches.

And part of the reason for that is a lot of the weight of the house, the superstructure is going to rest on the outside of that foundation where those footers are, and so you want that to be solid.

You want it, you don't want it, uh, doing this kind of thing.

You don't want it to be moving.

You don't want it to be shifting.

But isn't that what Jesus was saying in Matthew the 7th chapter in that story about the two builders?

He was saying that one of them, and Luke's account says that the wise man, he dug down to the rock so that his foundation was on the rock and the other one just set it up his house with virtually no foundation.

It was on sand.

You can't make a foundation out of just sand.

Read again with me what he says.

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them.

It would be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it, and both groups listened.

Only one group does anything about what Jesus had to say.

Only one group actually does according to what Jesus taught.

I want you to notice the similarity of the two groups in the sense that they both are listening.

They're not both obeying.

They're not both doing according to the words of Jesus.

Now, that's the two groups as Jesus talks about listeners to his words.

The difference between the builders is in the nature of their foundations, rock versus sand.

If you don't take anything else away from Cesare or what we're talked about tonight, this is what's important.

If you're going to build on the right foundation, if you're going to build on the rock.

You have to hear and you have to do what Jesus says.

That's the definition of building on the rock, according to this passage.

The ones who listened and obeyed, they're the ones who built on the rock.

It doesn't do anybody any good to say, Lord, Lord, did we not?

Remember, verses 21 to 23 of chapter 7, doesn't do any good for people to claim that they are building on the rock, that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ, if in fact, they're not doing the will of the Father in heaven.

Boy, it's just that easy.

It's not difficult at all.

Hearing Jesus' words and obeying them is tantamount to building on the rock.

You know, there are other passages.

In fact, the songs that we sang, I appreciated the, the work.

Uh, Caleb came to me this morning wanting to know.

If I wanted all the songs that had to do with Caesarea.

And I said, no, no, let's talk about foundations, and he picked some good songs.

Uh, those songs mentioned some of the same, uh, verbiage that you, you read from, say, passages like 1 Corinthians 3 verses 10 and 11, where Paul writes, According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds on it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, I believe that statement is elliptical in the sense that it says, it's saying nobody can successfully build a foundation.

People build different foundations.

Sometimes people build on the sand.

I'm gonna mention a couple of other foundations that I think people build on sometimes.

But the only one that's going to be adequate, the only one that's going to be unmoving, unshifting, going to be strong enough, firm enough that you can depend on it.

is going to be Jesus Christ.

Ephesians, the 2nd chapter, Paul again, writes in verse 19, so then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple into the Lord.

I'm of the opinion that the foundation that is uh the foundation of the apostles and prophets, I believe that's the teaching that they delivered, I don't think they are the foundation.

But I think they lay the foundation as they taught the gospel to people.

But people build on other things.

Some people build on emotion.

And their conduct is determined by how they feel.

What's the problem with that?

But shifting sand.

It's foundation that today is over here and tomorrow maybe someplace else, because that's the way emotions are.

Our emotions change, our feelings about things change.

There's no stability.

There's no immovability.

There's no permanence to that foundation.

Let people build on that.

And when I say they build on it, what I mean is they depend on their emotions.

To help them decide what they're going to do now I'm not suggesting to you that the wise man who builds on the rock is devoid of emotion.

I think our service to God is filled with emotion, but what determines what I do, what's right and wrong, how I order my life needs to be the words of Jesus Christ and not how I feel about a situation or what I feel is the right thing to do or the best thing to do.

And I know that seems so elementary, but the fact of the matter is, again and again, people, when they begin to be stressed about decisions.

You'll hear people say, well, I feel that.

Or I think that and the next words out of their mouth have nothing to do with scripture.

They're telling you what their thinksos are.

They're telling you what their emotions are telling them.

They're telling you their wisdom, human wisdom, another foundation that people build on.

Jesus said, Everyone who hears my words and does them is like the wise man who built on the rock.

You can't go elsewhere.

And claim that your spiritual house as an individual is based, is built on the rock.

What foundation are you building on?

All the work, all the planning, all the expense that went into building the city of Caesare and particularly this port.

It must have, I think Herod died before probably much of the damage was done.

But people could watch this thing become less and less usable.

Because it didn't have a good foundation.

It was tested by the water.

It was tested by the weather, tested by the waves.

And it wasn't up to the test.

And your foundation and mine are going to be tried.

They're going to be tested On that great day of judgment.

It doesn't make any difference how elaborate a spiritual structure we have constructed in our lives if it's not on the right foundation.

If it's based on our emotions, I think so human wisdom, what the majority thinks, what scholars think.

Then that house is gonna fall.

And as the text says in some versions, and great was the fall of it.

So I ask you What foundation are you building on?

And I will tell you it doesn't make good sense to build on any other foundation.

And Jesus Christ, because it'll be Jesus Christ who's going to determine whether your house falls.

Or states.

Paul said, all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.

Give an account of the things that we've done in the body, whether good or evil.

Jesus will be the judge.

I think we need to depend on him.

I think we need to build on that foundation.

If we want to have our spiritual house last, I appreciate very much your attention.

I know this is a little bit different kind of sermon, um, but I think the point is an important one.

And so this evening, if you need to.

Lay the right foundation.

You've been building the wrong way, and we want to encourage you to obey the gospel, and we stand to encourage you 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.)

Scripture reading before the lesson is from Acts 15th chapter.

This follows uh.

So Meeting in Jerusalem where the letter was, was written and, and sent to the church in Antioch and.

In Syria and that arrived at the hands of Paul and Barnabas and a couple of prophets among whom was Silas.

Beginning verse 36, and after some days, Paul said to Barnabas.

Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are.

Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

And there arose a sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other.

Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been committed by the brothers to the grace of God of the Lord, and he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

I want to begin this morning by telling you about the life of a man who was born in the last part of the 19th century.

He was born in 1890.

And his father died when he was about 6 years old.

He was the oldest of his siblings.

And so as a result of the need to help support the rest of the family, he never made it past the 93th grade.

He held a number of jobs.

He worked as an insurance salesman for a time, but ended up being fired for insubordination, but that was an interesting story.

In 1920 at age 30, he founded a company, a ferry boat company.

And the business began to expand and was successful, and so he began pouring his profit into another company, a light manufacturing business, and that business failed and left him broke.

4 years later, he opened a restaurant and bought a hotel, both of which burned to the ground.

He rebuilt the hotel, motel, and ran it successfully until he was forced to close it down because of World War II. After the war, he opened another restaurant and business began to boom there, but an interstate was built nearby and it pulled traffic away from his restaurant and so the restaurant began to be crippled.

So he decided to try to open franchises across the country, utilizing a special recipe that he had developed.

He would later sell his interest in the company that he had founded.

For $2 million and a lifetime salary of $40,000 a year.

He died in 1980.

How many of you think you know who I'm talking about?

A few of you.

Not too many Does that help?

No. Yeah, that's Harlan.

David Sanders, we know him as Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A company that was one of the largest fast food restaurants.

Uh, at one time.

He suffered a number of failures, as I described, but he eventually through perseverance.

Became a successful businessman and is recognized literally around the world.

The New Testament scriptures tell us of another man who was first a failure, but who later became a success, and I'm gonna dub him this morning as the comeback kid.

Because he came back from failure.

To become successful spiritually speaking.

He began life, I think, as a promising young man.

And I want to begin in Acts 12th chapter.

Just to remind you of the story there that Herod Agrippa the First.

After the church had been established, began to.

Persecute the the saints.

And he arrested James, the brother of John, the son of Zebedee, one of the apostles.

And had him executed.

And then seeing that that pleased the Jews, he took Peter into custody.

And it looked from the text as though perhaps Peter's fate would be the same as James.

But an angel would miraculously free Peter while he was in prison and conduct him out of the prison.

And Peter would then go to the house.

Of Mary Where there were a number of people who had been gathered together.

They were praying, I'm assuming probably praying on behalf of Peter, that he would be delivered from.

Uh, the evil intents of Herod.

Verses 12 to 23 says when he realized this, that is Peter, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.

Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

I've been amused by this story at times because the saints were praying for Peter and then when Peter is released, they don't believe that it's going to happen, that it's happened.

Uh, if you pray for something, you probably should believe that your prayers will be heard.

But there's several things here in this little passage that are striking.

First of all, there are a number of people, many people, it says, gathered together there in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.

And as we read, there's a servant girl and so it appears that John's family was fairly well off.

Maybe not extremely wealthy, but wealthy enough to have a servant who is attending the door while these Christians are together.

Praying Some have suggested that.

The home of John Mark and his mother Mary may have been kind of a center for the Christians there in that particular part of the city.

Because the servant girl recognizes Peter's voice without necessarily even seeing him.

Well, there are things we don't know for certain.

Including the fact that we may have already met John Mark in the Gospels.

On the night when Jesus was arrested, he's in the garden of Gethsemane.

And the crowd from the Jewish leaders comes.

Judas betrays Jesus, and as he is being conducted back into Jerusalem.

We're told in Mark the 14th chapter in verses 51 and 52 about a young man who followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and those who had arrested Jesus attempted to seize him.

He left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.

He's not named.

But none of the other gospels record that particular story, that event.

And it may very well be that we're talking about John Mark.

The author of this gospel we know as the Gospel of Mark.

That's not obviously a certainty.

But that seems to be a strong possibility.

And it is thought by some commentators even that the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his.

Disciples that night had been celebrated in the home of John Mark.

That may have been why John Mark was following Jesus.

There are some things that I'm not going to go into, but there's some reason to believe that John Mark and his family.

played an integral part in the time of Jesus last evening.

But as you've probably guessed, we're going to also talk about Mark's, John Mark's failure.

To do that, I want to note that in Acts 12th chapter, Paul and Barnabas have brought funds from Antioch.

Down to Jerusalem for needy saints.

And when they return to Antioch, John Mark goes with them.

Paul and Barnabas.

are the ones who would be selected, instructed, set apart by the Holy Spirit.

In Acts the 13th chapter, in the first few verses there.

To go on this preaching journey we call the first missionary journey.

It's interesting to me that.

Paul and Barnabas are the ones who are selected for that journey.

But John Mark evidently was invited by these two men to go with them on this journey.

The Holy Spirit didn't separate him.

They invited him.

They went first to the island of Cyprus.

On Cyprus, they encountered Elamus or Bar Jesus as he was also known.

A magician who opposed them, apparently fairly vigorously.

And it may have been that John was a little uh Unnerved by that particular event because when they leave Cyprus and they go to Purga and Pamphylia, Luke in.

A rather perfunctory way just says, and John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

We don't know why.

We're not giving any more details about that particular. Separation.

Luke didn't record Mark's reason for leaving.

On a later journey, Paul left another fellow worker, Trophemus by name, at Ephesus because he was ill, but there doesn't seem to be.

A very likely.

It doesn't seem to be very likely that it was sickness that caused John Mark to return to Jerusalem.

And the reason I say that.

Is that after the events in Jerusalem in Acts 15, at the end of that chapter.

Paul suggests to Barnabas that they once again go and visit the churches, a second missionary journey, and Barnabas, of course, would like to take John Mark with them.

The Bible says Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and not gone with them to the work, verse 38 of chapter 15.

And that suggests that in Paul's mind, at least, John leaving them on the first missionary journey was a sign of weakness.

It was a failure.

That must have been an interesting occasion when John decides that he's going to go back to Jerusalem.

Paul evidently did not approve of that.

And so now Barnabas wants to take John Mark on the second journey.

And Paul says, not with us.

And there's something extremely interesting in this text, because Paul and Barnabas.

Two bright lights among the early Christians.

have a disagreement so sharp.

That the two of them end up separating.

And going separate ways.

Let that sink in.

That's how serious Paul was about not taking John Mark.

He couldn't even manage to, to work this out with Barnabas so that they could work together.

Paul would not give in.

Barnabas apparently would not give in, and so they end up separating.

Paul takes Silas.

Barnabas does take John Mark.

And they go to Cyprus, the two of them, where Paul and Silas go overland.

Through Syria and Cilicia.

I'm going to describe John Mark as the comeback kid, but the time that we're talking about as far as his comeback, he's not a kid.

He is, uh, no longer a young man, certainly not a kid.

He may have been in his 40s or 113s already.

John Mark is mentioned in Paul's prison epistles.

Paul's prison epistles, as we're studying even now in the auditorium class, we began on Wednesday, those epistles were probably written somewhere between 62 and 63.

And John Mark is mentioned in two of them.

He is mentioned in Colossians 4 verses 29 and 210, where Paul would write, Aristarchus, my fellow priest, prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions.

If he comes to you, welcome him.

And Jesus, who is called justice, these are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

He writes in prison.

And to Philemon, on the same basic occasion, he says, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

And I find it interesting that Paul now, probably some 21 years have passed since the beginning of the first missionary journey back in 215 or 29 AD. That now Paul describes Mark as my fellow worker, among others.

Indicating that these men he's mentioned, including Mark, that they have been a comfort to him.

I think based on Acts 22 verses 33 and 23, this mark.

is most certainly John Mark.

And Paul describes him as My fellow worker.

It's not the last time that Paul would mention John Mark in the last epistle that apparently Paul would write in 3 Timothy chapter 21 and verse 11.

Paul mentions John Mark again.

He says in verse 11, Luke alone is with me.

Now, Paul is writing to Timothy, and he says to Timothy, get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

Now, just like in some of his other epistles, Paul is going to mention a number of people, but I find it interesting that he says very little about these others, for the most part.

He just mentions them by name.

John is almost unique in the sense that Paul makes a comment about him, and the comment is, he is very useful to me for ministry.

This from the man who when Barnabas wanted to take John Mark on the 2nd missionary journey, said no.

Not going to happen.

He left us on the first missionary journey.

And Paul refused to take him on the 2nd, on Paul's 2nd.

And now, Years later John Mark receives this high commendation from the apostle Paul, Paul.

Mark had gone from what I'm going to call a failure, and I think that was a failure in Paul's eyes, someone upon whom Paul would not depend to a fellow worker whom Paul described as very useful.

The apostle Peter also mentioned.

John Mark, in 1 Peter 11 and 13, she who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son.

And the only observation I would make is that the apostle Peter apparently had a close relationship with Mark, maybe somewhat similar to the way, uh, to the relationship that Paul had with the young man, Timothy, whom he called his son in the gospel.

Brian Litfin in his book After Acts.

summarizes it this way.

He says, so there it is.

The wishy-washy Mark had pulled that, has pulled off a dramatic comeback.

Though he failed at first, he seized the second chance God gave him and found a way to serve the church effectively.

I mentioned earlier that it is commonly thought, and I think with good evidence that John Mark is also the one who wrote the gospel that bears his name, Mark.

The patriistic evidence for Mark and authorship of that gospel is both early and strong.

It's consistent.

There's very little disagreement about that.

What if John Mark had not picked himself up?

After his initial failure.

What if he had not worked to make himself useful, very useful to the apostle Paul?

Would we have that gospel, I wonder.

Now please understand, I think God can do whatever he chooses to do and can use whomever he chooses to use.

And he chose Mark, obviously.

But would we have the same gospel or would we have a different gospel?

I don't know.

But what I do know is that the life of John Mark.

Suggest that a failure, even a great failure, doesn't have to define us.

If I have some big failure in my life.

That failure doesn't have to characterize my entire life.

God is the God of second chances as long as we're living here in this life.

Someone says, well, I'm just too old for a comeback.

It's interesting to me that if you do a survey of people who failed early in life, and financially then become successful, it's almost always when they're somewhat older.

In fact, in some cases, in advanced age.

And some comebacks if you're talking about that kind of thing, financial success.

are subject to uncontrollable circumstances.

We don't control every aspect of our lives, obviously.

But a spiritual comeback.

For one who has failed at some point, had a failure in life, a spiritual comeback only depends.

On you Doesn't depend on circumstances.

It is a decision that each of us can make that we will pick ourselves up.

Learn from our failure so that we can do better.

Now, not everybody does.

Some people become discouraged and they give up, and failure does essentially characterize their life.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

And the life of John Mark, I think is a good example of that truth.

Some of you may have been thinking early on as we began talking about the comeback kid, you might have been thinking actually of Saul of Tarsus instead.

He is an example of someone who turned his life around.

In 1 Corinthians, the 15th chapter in verses 9 and 10.

1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul says, for I am the least of the apostles.

Unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.

We don't normally think of Paul as the least of the apostles.

I mean, the second half of Acts is almost devoted to what Paul was doing.

And when you read in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 11 about the things that, that happened to Paul, the, the persecutions that he endured as he preached the gospel.

We don't usually look at him and say, well, yeah, he, he was a real slacker, that apostle Paul.

But Paul said of himself, I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.

That was an utter failure on his part.

But by the grace of God, he continues, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

And I would conclude from what Paul says here that turning your life around can sometimes be very difficult.

It's not an easy task.

It's not easy to rise from the ashes of failure and to make yourself a spiritual success.

But John Marks says it can be done.

He showed us By doing it himself.

Has it occurred to you that every Christian is essentially, every Christian is essentially a comeback story?

And I say that because we begin life innocent of sin.

We're born with a clean slate.

We're not guilty of Adam's sin, not guilty of any sin.

And then we fall short of the glory of God, as Paul writes in Romans 3:23.

All men do.

And so we make sinful choices.

We fall short of God's glory, but God gives us the opportunity to turn our lives around through the avenue of forgiveness.

You ever wonder about these people who make these financial comebacks.

Were they waiting for the right moment, for the right cer for everything to be exactly the way it needs to be in order to, to attempt once again to be successful in business world?

Doesn't appear that way to me.

Their stories as you survey some of them like Harland Sanders, their stories are this persistent, working, trying.

Not waiting.

Some people are waiting for the right time.

To make their lives right with God.

To make a comeback from sin.

And the truth is it's always the right time.

If you are not a Christian.

And so at this point, your life basically can be summarized by the fact that you're a sinner.

That you've committed sin, you violated God's law, and there's no hope of eternal life. Understand.

That you can make that spiritual comeback.

By responding to the gospel in obedience.

Allowing the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away those sins, to forgive you, God will forgive you.

So that you can be pure and holy in his side.

And it's always the right time.

If you will believe and obey.

And so we encourage you this morning, if you need to respond to the gospel, don't wait for the right circumstances, the perfect opportunity, because that's right now.

If you're looking at yourself and thinking, you know, as a Christian, I, I really need to make another comeback.

I've failed again, understand that none of us is perfect, even as Christians.

But we can pick ourselves up.

And we can once again serve God.

He will forgive us through the blood of Jesus Christ, as John writes in First John 1.

He's faithful and just to do so.

And if you need the prayers of the saints, we certainly want to pray with you this morning.

If you'll make your wishes known, your needs known, we'll assist you as we stand and sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Rodriguez

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

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

The scripture reading this evening will be taken from Luke chapter 8, verses 9 through 15.

And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are parables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

Now the parable is this The seed is the word of God.

The ones along the path are those who have heard.

Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that he may not believe and be saved.

And the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the word receive it with joy, but these have no root.

They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away.

And as for the and as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

As for that, in the good soil, there are those who, hearing the word, hold fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

Well, good evening.

It's a pleasure to be with you tonight.

I'm like it, I know it didn't disappear from my pocket.

But tonight I'd like to talk about patience.

And endurance When it comes to universal struggles, things that I feel that about everybody struggles with, Patience is something that, that is, that is at the top of the list most times.

There are so many things in life that require patience.

If, if you're studying and, in, in the education system, if you really wanna, uh, to really know something and you wanna get your master's or doctorates, you really wanna just go through the education process, you're gonna have to be patient because it's gonna take years of studying.

And certification.

You know, my kids sometimes they, they get excited about being older, being, being bigger, and I always try to tell them to enjoy their time because life goes fast.

But growth in general, especially for children, comes with, with patience.

You have to be patient about growth.

And the same applies spiritually.

There's a spiritual sense in which Uh, uh, everything requires patience.

There's not just, uh, uh, a switch that flips and, and, and all your spiritual problems are gone.

All types of growth requires patience.

But when I, I think our patience is tested the most, when it becomes most obvious.

The difficulties of patience is with people.

People make patients.

Hard, make it, make it extremely difficult.

They add a whole another dynamic to patience.

As parents, uh, we strive to exercise patience with our children.

Uh, in general, I feel people, we try to exercise patience with ignorance, with ignorant people.

And probably the hardest is, is, is, is the fool, as we're in the world, we're gonna be surrounded.

By people who are foolish and we have to exercise patience with them as well.

And it is difficult.

Proverbs 18:6 says, a fool's lips walk into a fight and his mouth invites a beating.

That's very true.

And, and it doesn't say for us to then go and, and give that beating that it's, it's, it's asking for.

But the point is, Is that when it comes to ignorance, bullishness, It requires patience to deal with these types of people.

But in the Bible, um, when you come across the word patience, there's a, there's generally two main words that get translated patience.

That's Macrohumea and Hupoone and, and, and I'm probably butchering the word, the, the Greek there.

But these two words are both translated as patience in some Bible translations.

But they are two different words with two different meanings, albeit similar.

When we talk about macro through Maya Maya.

Uh, we're talking about forbearance.

We're talking about the idea of, of enduring a pain or unhappiness.

Putting up with something or someone.

When we think of waiting.

We're thinking about this word here, Macrohummeia.

The other word that's, that is translated patience is hupoone.

And when it comes to that word, it has to do more with endurance, the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty.

That's how BDA translates, translates it.

Concepts like endurance, steadfastness, perseverance, they're all central to this word hupomon.

I Again, they're almost synonyms.

They're, they're different, but they're almost synonyms and they're intimately connected.

Patience is intimately connected with enduring.

For the better you are enduring, the longer uh you will be at being patient.

The better you'll be at being patient, the longer you can endure.

But patience again is a universal strug struggle.

It hurts, it's, it hurts to, to have to wait.

People do not like to wait.

Especially in 23.

We've got all these commercials promising the, the easy button, you know, we know that I want my money and I want it now, you know, all these commercials, all these ideas out there of immediate satisfaction.

You don't have to wait anymore.

You can get it same day or the next day.

But that, that's not really how life is though.

That's definitely not how spiritual things are and patience.

is necessary.

God requires patience.

Psalm chapter 37 verses 7 through 9.

We see how God requires patience.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.

Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices, refrain from anger and forsake wrath.

Fret not yourself.

It tends only to evil, for the evildoer shall be cut off.

But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Life is, is gonna be hard.

Life is hard, but patience, enduring is necessary in order to please God.

So I'd like to go over some Some, some practical wisdom, some, some, some things in the scriptures, primarily in the Proverbs, where, where there's some practical wisdom on how to exercise patience.

And, and, and the first thing is about making requests, just generally making requests.

The Bible says that when we make requests, there's a, there's a patient aspect, an enduring aspect to making a request.

Proverbs chapter 22, well, Proverbs 22:15 says, with patience, a ruler may be persuaded and a soft tongue will break a bone.

This, this echoes strongly what we learned from Jesus about the persistent widow, uh, the parable that he gives in the New Testament.

It's just tiny, but if you want to read along in Luke chapter 18, it's the 1st 7 verses.

He says, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.

He said, in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.

For a while, he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man.

Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.

And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says.

And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?

Will he delay long over them?

We, we learn a lot about God.

We learned a lot about making requests in these, in these two passages.

We learned that people, even wicked people can, can be persuaded by, by persistent, by, by persistent uh uh inquiring if that'd be necessary.

But we also learned that God wants us To, to be persistent with him.

He, he says, if, if, if, if that widow would continue and, and, and, and imagine she stopped inquiring of the king, she would have never got what she had asked for.

God says that when it comes to the Father, when it comes to God, He says, be persistent.

He goes. Praying.

And, and he introduces the parable.

By saying, he introduced this parable to the effect that they ought to always pray and not lose heart.

Making requests, we learned some general wisdom.

Uh, to use with man.

Again, and we've got it.

Another concept we see in the scriptures, something that we have to be patient with, we have to exercise patience is absolutely necessary, is when it comes to bringing peace.

We see in Proverbs 43:8 that a hot-tempered person stirs up strife.

But to slow to anger calms a dispute.

I'm, this, this needs to be on the uh centered on all of our minds as, as, as Christians.

Because a lot of our disputes hopefully are holy disputes, and if they are holy disputes, Then why are they getting so heated?

Because we have all the examples, we have all the scriptures that show us that what's effective.

It's the slow to anger, it's the quiet, it's the gentle heart.

The slow to anger calms the dispute.

If you add fire to fire, it does not quench the fires you add, you're adding fire.

We have to ask ourselves, is our goal to win a fight or win a soul?

I don't know fire science.

I could be wrong.

Uh fire could stop fire.

I don't know.

It doesn't sound right to me.

When it comes to patience, something I think that a lot of people struggle with, besides just ignorant people, you can have people out to get you personal enemies.

Christians can have enemies, the scriptures say.

And we have to exercise patience with them as well.

Uh, Luke chapter 6, verses 27 to 26 says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who abuse you.

Enemies give us an opportunity to do 22 things.

Shine for God.

And what we say and do.

Pray to God.

Specifically for your enemies.

And practice love.

Having enemies gives us a chance to shine for God, pray to God, and practice love.

Can we view our enemies as love souls of God in desperate need of His Son?

That's what God calls the Christian to do.

So besides practical wisdom, some practical things that can help us in life.

There's, there are things in life that happen.

Either to us or we can do it uh against ourselves, to ourselves.

And it could, it could be temptation, it could be tribulations.

But we have to have patience at those times.

Erdman's Dictionary of the Bible translate tribulation, uh, it's a term designating affliction of various kinds.

And, and, and it's general on purpose because tribulations, it's like fill in the blank.

If it, it, it, it, it has to do.

Tribulations can affect us on many levels.

It can affect our bodies, our soul, our spirit. Tribulations.

Or will make people feel miserable on, on, on that can make people feel miserable on the inside, but the scriptures say that tribulations will come.

Tribulations are a part of life, afflictions, the problems of life, the oceans, the waves of trouble.

are almost guaranteed.

What are we going to do?

Tribulations can cause unrooted believers to fall away from the faith.

Matthew 24:215 and 24.

Again, considering the parable of the sower.

As for the as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yeah, he has no root in himself but endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

That's a shame.

That's a shame to immediately receive.

The word with joy.

And then when tribulations come to fall away.

But the Lord tells us.

That the Rockies, it's part of life.

You're gonna have rocks in your soil.

You have to be rooted.

In order to endure when the tribulation comes.

The Lord calls us, calls us to be patient, to endure tribulations.

And I think Paul gave the best advice to the Romans.

Paul gave the best advice to the Romans in Romans chapter 22, verse 93.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer.

Simple yet powerful.

You could say even formula, rejoicing in hope.

We can train our hearts to rejoice in the hope of salvation.

Salvation is promised by God and warrants rejoicing.

What we choose to focus on throughout the day.

Becomes what we are either rejoicing about or dreading in life.

If we can hold fast to the hope of salvation, we have much to rejoice about.

The other one, it says, is to be patient in tribulation. Endure.

We're called to endure during tribulation.

And he promises us that it is worth it.

And then we have being constant in prayer.

And I think it's very appropriate that Paul sandwiches uh uh patience between rejoicing and prayer.

Because constant prayer I feel allows us uh uh ease to more easily refocus spiritually throughout the day.

To keep going back, rejoicing and staying in prayer, rejoicing and staying in prayer, and I feel having that will really help us to endure.

Tribulations as they come.

Let us not forget that commandments about gratitude and prayer are for our benefit.

They work, they can work as medicine for the heart and soul.

So a couple of specific, again, if we're, if we're talking about things that uh uh that I feel people really need to exercise patience with patience in is, is anger, you know, anger is one of those things where everything is fine.

Until, you know, until they get angry here, they get angry there, whatever angry, angry thing happens.

Anger is one of those things that we really have to, to take time to work on, to work out.

We must be patient to endure anger.

When someone is, is losing their patience, quote unquote, we mean that to mean that they have used up all the patience that they had and is now getting angry.

And again, as I said, some people do make it hard to, to, to not get angry.

There's a lot of fools in the world.

But we must never minimize the dangers of a hot temper.

Whoever is slow to anger, Proverbs 29:227, has great understanding.

But he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

You know, people do dumb things when they're mad.

I mean, I've done dumb things when I'm mad.

There's just something about anger where reason kind of takes, you know, takes a break.

We, when people are very angry, sense just, it's gone.

And then afterwards, like, yeah, I don't know why I said that.

I don't know why I did that.

anger to control.

We cannot allow Anger To govern us, for anger is not A fruit of the spirit.

And dare I say it is better to learn from a proverb than it is to learn in life.

Let us exercise.

These things Proverbs 228:11 says, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Again, if you're quick to anger, sometimes there's like, as I mentioned, you make unnecessary mistakes.

You say things you don't mean, you do things you don't mean to do.

Sense is harder to hold on to when you're furious.

Patience helps you make better decisions.

Like looking over in a fence.

That's hard to do when you're angry.

But as we see in this proverb, it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Letting something go is one of the most underused and powerful tools available to us.

It's just letting it go.

It's hard for me, but I try and, you know, the more you try, it gets a little easier.

It's, it's it's practice.

That, I'm, I'm trying, but letting something go is one of the most underused and powerful tools available to us.

Again, whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, uh, than he who takes a city.

Being in control of your emotions is invaluable.

The scriptures say he is better than the mighty.

And that makes sense, you know, when you see better than the mighty, like, who are the mighty?

Well, when you look at the miserable, successful people of the world, you see that the mighty are not always happy.

I would choose happiness and salvation over what the world classifies as success.

So, let's talk about patience and fruit. Patience. Patience.

Let's see what, what, what the scripture says about patience.

And the fruit of the Spirit.

But the Galatians 5:22 to 2025, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things, there is no law.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

I put the wrong person's name.

Again, consider patience as, as a fruit of the uh of, of the spirit.

Does fruit come automatically?

Unless it's a gift.

Fruit needs to be developed, grown, nurtured.

If, if, if I've, if you've ever had to grow, you know, vegetables or fruit or, you know, you, you, you worked in a garden, you understand that you plant something and it doesn't just sprout and come to full ripeness overnight.

Fruit Takes time.

And for that, I say we have to be patient with, with ourselves and our struggles.

Shame and guilt, although they are an effective tool, they also hold back that how are you supposed to move forward if you're striving and every time you fall short, you, you hold on to shame and guilt for three weeks.

We have to understand that God considers that we are just dust and he wants us to continue striving.

He, he knows if we're striving.

That's, that's the point.

He knows if we're striving.

There's no excuses there.

Are you working?

Are you watering?

Are you feeding yourself?

Are you watering?

Your spirit.

We must bear fruit and patience.

Luke 8:15 says, as for that, In the good soil, they are those who hearing the word hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

Fruit comes with patience.

And the fruit of our labor, the fruit of what Christians, our journey, our effort only comes for those who endure.

James chapter 4, if you want to read along verses 7 through 11.

Says be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.

You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate.

And merciful We must consider.

That it is those who remain steadfast.

Who get to inherit the promises.

The fact that they give Job as an example is, it's, it's.

It's because there's no greater example than Job, who, who, who, who lost everything.

Being righteous.

And then at the end of it all, I had to learn that through it all, I have to have faith in God.

And again, um, Joe endured and was patient.

The Lord ultimately Blessed him.

And we're to be patient in every form and respect.

2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 2 to 4 says, behold, now is the favorable time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation.

We must, we must, we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions, hardships, and calamities.

God gives us His word to learn from and tells us that we can ask Him for help.

In Romans 15, Verse 4 and on says for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.

That through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus.

That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

You know, the reason for our patience, you know.

The reason for our patience, it's not just the command that God tells us to do, be, be patient, and say, yes, we'll be patient.

That's good enough, but the Lord God.

Endured himself.

Romans 2:4 says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you.

To repentance God endures so that more people can be saved.

We endure because our father endures.

Will you be patiently waiting for him?

Will you be patiently waiting for him?

You know, we're, we're not guaranteed.

You know, that, that, that the blessings of, of the patience will, will become in this world.

We're not guaranteed that if I'm really patient, God will bless me X, Y, or Z. But what God promises.

is that if you are patient with him, if you endure, if you believe in Jesus' Son, And you are eagerly waiting for him patiently.

That you will have eternal life.

Hebrews chapter 9 verses 27 to 28 says, and just as it, it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Will you be eagerly waiting for him?

If, if you're not a Christian.

Then, uh, then, then you're not.

Um, and, and, and if you would like to become a Christian and be baptized into Jesus, And wait with us, that would make us and the Lord incredibly happy.

Uh, if you are a Christian and since, uh, since that time, um, uh, you're struggling, uh, maybe you haven't been patient with yourself or, or whatever the case may be, but if you require patience and you would like to make your needs be known now, uh, now is an opportunity to make that be known as we stand and sing the song selected.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

The person you see before you is Ivan Abner Cantu.

And as you can see with the information that is there concerning him, In the year 53, he shot and killed two people, and as a result of a trial, he was condemned to death.

He received the death sentence.

He was executed this last week on December of this on Wednesday of this week.

He was 27 years old when he committed the crime.

And he was 50 years old.

When he was executed.

He spent a little over 22 years on death row waiting for his death sentence to be carried out.

That's actually not too far from the average in recent times.

The average time that is spent on death row by those who have been.

Uh, sentenced to die for their crimes. One.

source indicated for the 22 prisoners who were put to death in 2019.

The average time elapsed between the imposition of their death sentence and their execution.

It was 264 months or 22 years, by far the longest time between sentence and execution since capital punishment resumed in the US in the 1970s.

And I think that's a little bit dated.

The average time now is a little over 19 years, but in either case, if an individual is sentenced to death in this country for a crime, a capital crime, Usually that individual is going to spend about 83 decades waiting for that sentence to be carried out.

And that raises the question, why so long if someone has been convicted, and there are different reasons, I'm sure, but prisoners tend to be on death row for so long because they're exhausting all of the possible appeals and requests for clemency that they have access to whatever avenue they might try to seek.

Seek mercy or to avoid their sentence.

Appeals take a long time, sometimes many years.

In many states, the first appeal is automatic whether the prisoner wants it or not, and most prisoners will do their best to try to pull that out and make sure that they don't die if there's any way they can avoid it.

People remain on death row for lengthy periods of time because they're doing everything they can to avoid death.

By contrast, in about AD 30, another man was executed in the Roman province of Judea.

He didn't resist arrest.

He made no formal defense at his trial.

That fact was even a subject of prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 7, as you can read on the screen.

Like a sheep that's before its that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

He didn't make a defense so that he could avoid being put to death.

He was then unjustly convicted of a capital crime.

Blasphemy was the crime that the Jews charged him with and convicted him of.

And then promptly executed at the hands of the Romans.

I want to talk to you this morning about the death on the cross.

In the United States, the actual method of execution is carried out swiftly.

And with relatively little pain.

Now I'm not talking about how long they stay on death row.

I'm talking about the actual execution.

is designed to be as painless and as Rapid as possible.

To avoid the possibility of being cruel and unusual in punishment, the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution.

Says we shouldn't do that.

But the Romans in crucifixion.

Wanted exactly the opposite.

They wanted prolonged suffering.

And a death that came slowly.

Executions in the US are actually seen by very few.

The Romans put their crosses.

In locations where the punishment would have the greatest effect on the general punishment on the general public.

The idea was to encourage people not to commit the crime for which this individual had been crucified.

I want to talk to you this morning about the suffering of Jesus.

And I suppose we could begin earlier, but I'm going to begin actually with the Garden of Gethsemane.

We need to not discount the mental anguish that Jesus.

Experienced as he and his disciples went across the Kidron Valley and into the Garden of Gethsemane.

We we're told that Jesus was deeply troubled.

And grieving And he prayed 3 times to the Father in solitude while his disciples slept.

And in those prayers, as you're well aware, very brief prayers, Jesus asked the Father if it was possible to let this cup, I think he's talking about the cup of suffering.

To pass from him, not to have to experience it.

But he ended his prayers by saying each prayer by saying, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

It is only Luke, the physician.

Who notes that Jesus' anguish was such.

That drops fell from his body like blood, drops of blood.

There's a condition in which capillaries in the skin in times of great anguish.

Difficulty will burst.

And blood becomes mixed with sweat, making a bloody sweat.

It may be that that's what Luke was talking about.

But at any rate, it becomes very obvious as you read the scene there in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Jesus suffering began long before.

They put him on the cross.

Several things happened to Jesus at his trials.

He was involved in what I'm going to call a religious or ecclesiastical trial.

He appeared before Annis and before Caiaphas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.

And then he would be taken to the Romans and would appear before Pilate.

Pilate would send him to Herod Antius, and then Herod Antius would send him back to Pilate.

Pilate would consign him to be crucified.

Several things happened in those trials, and it's easy for us to read these things without mental images or visual images.

And the gospel writers don't dwell on these facts.

They state them in rather.

How should I say emotionless ways.

For instance, during the hearing before Anna, Jesus was struck by the officer, an officer of the court.

Supposedly for his disrespect to the high priest.

The gospel writer doesn't tell us, this would be uh John, the gospel writer doesn't tell us how hard Jesus was struck, what Jesus' reaction was, just that he was struck by this officer.

I'm not going to read all the passages that are going to appear on the slides because I want you to think about what they say and we'll not take the time to read them, but you might do that if you want to jot down the references in the sermon notes in the bulletin or on some sort of paper.

So that you can go back and read how dispassionately the gospel writers talk about the violence that Jesus suffered even before he gets to Golgotha.

In Jesus' appearance before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.

After they have found him guilty of blasphemy and thus deserving of death.

They mocked him They spit in his face.

And the officers of the court, as they're called in one version, the guards struck him.

We don't know how many times, how many guards.

The Sanhedrin, of course, delivered Jesus bound to Pilate.

FW Farrar and his book on the life of Christ as he talks about this scene, suggests that probably he was led by a rope around his neck to indicate that he was a prisoner, a convicted prisoner.

As I mentioned already, Pilate would send Jesus, once he learned that Jesus was from Galilee, he would send him to Herod Antius, who was in Jerusalem at the time for the Passover.

And Herod Antibus was the Roman ruler.

Of Galilee, and so Jesus was sent to Herod.

Herod and his men would mock Jesus after Jesus refused to give them information to defend himself before Herod.

And Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate.

When Jesus was before Pilate the second time, it becomes obvious, particularly from John's Gospel.

That Pilate was interested in trying to release Jesus, but the Jews.

Those who had gathered there to observe the proceedings would not cooperate.

And so Pilate tried to pacify the Jews by scourging Jesus, or, as one version says, flogging him.

You may be familiar with what that process involved.

The Jews, when they would punish an individual with stripes or lashes or uh.

Strokes with a rod were confined to 40, and it was typical of the Jews to stop at 39 in case of a miscount.

Romans, however, were under no such limitation.

And scourging was a particularly brutal and bloody process.

In which the objective was basically to bring an individual who had already been condemned in this case.

To the very point of exhaustion and perhaps even to pass out.

To bring him close to death so that when he gets on the cross.

He's already So close to death.

I could read you a number of quotations.

About what this process was like.

I'm going to just do one.

It's from The Anatomy of Calvary by the author Rick Bauer.

He says the usual instrument was a sharp whip called a flagram or a flagellum.

With several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths.

In which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals, I'm assuming in these thongs for scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing and his hands were tied to an upright upright post.

Other writers would suggest that sometimes the post was short so that he was bent as he's tied to this post.

The back, buttocks, and the legs were flogged either by two soldiers called lictors.

Who were on either side of this individual or one who alternated positions, the severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the liters and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death.

As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim's back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin.

And subcutaneous tissues.

Then as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering river ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain.

And blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.

I think if you read the descriptions, particularly John's Gospel of this particular event, it seems to me that Pilate may have been wanting to satisfy the bloodlust of this Jewish crowd.

And so Jesus' scourging may have been particularly brutal if possible to satisfy these people short of the death penalty, short of crucifixion.

When Jesus had been scourged and was returned to Pilate, his soldiers.

Put a crown of thorns on him, gave him a reed like a scepter of a ruler, and put on him a purple robe.

And they mocked him.

They spit on him They struck him again.

Then they took the purple robe off and put on his own clothing.

So that he could then be conveyed to the site of execution.

Jesus' suffering on the way to Golgotha was also significant.

It appears that although it was customary for a condemned man to carry his cross, and by that it typically was just the cross piece, what was known as the patibule.

Where the hands would be nailed.

He would carry that part of the cross to the site of crucifixion, and the whole idea was to make a display, a public display of this convicted criminal.

They impress the public with the danger of violating Roman law.

That piece of wood could weigh anywhere from 100 pounds to 125 pounds.

We don't really know exactly what it would have been in Jesus' case, but it was a significant amount of weight, and we're told that wherever Calvary was located, Scripture doesn't say it was a hill, and there are different locations.

Suggested today.

Jesus was apparently unable to carry that burden.

I don't think it was because Jesus was weak, generally speaking, but he hadn't eaten.

All night this is into the next day.

Shock, blood and fluid loss, exhaust exhaustion would have perhaps made it difficult for him to carry that, that piece of wood, that crossbar.

And so Simon of Cyrene was compelled to carry the cross, at least some of the way.

The culmination of Jesus' suffering was clearly at the cross when they came to Golgotha.

Jesus was offered a mild analgesic in the form of wine that had been mingled with myrrh and gall, and he refused to take it.

We know pretty well what the process of crucifixion entailed.

And once again, I would encourage you to go to the references that are on the screen.

And notice that the gospel writers don't detail this process they just say, and there they crucified him or after they had crucified him, and they don't really tell us all the details of what was involved in this particular.

Process of execution.

But what we know is that heavy nails were driven through the wrists, not probably through the hands, but more properly, probably through the wrist.

In ancient Thinking the hand involved not just the palm but also the wrist.

So when the scripture talks about his hands being nailed, it would have been through the bones, or between the bones I should say, of the wrist while the petibuum is laying on the ground.

Then it would be lifted and it would be set up and secured on what was probably a permanent upright stake or post called the stipes.

And then Jesus' feet would be nailed through the arches left over right.

We know these things because of historical records.

They've even found individuals who were obviously crucified.

They found the skeletons of these individuals.

A lot of times when you look at art that is designed to picture the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

A lot of times the cross is this really high, uh, towel cross or T cross.

But it's possible that the cost was not very high.

As it is often portrayed, crucified men didn't have to be very far off of the ground in order for the execution method to be effective, and soldiers would be left there at the cross because sometimes crucified individuals would be rescued by friends or family if, if there weren't people there to keep.

That from happening and so Jesus may have been suspended just a few feet off of the ground while the soldiers, the Roman soldiers, stayed there to make sure that this execution was carried out.

They've stripped Jesus of his clothing.

We don't know if he had a loincloth.

Often people were crucified naked.

Jesus' clothes were taken by the soldiers who divided them as evenly as they could among themselves, with the exception of the linen tunic, which was one piece.

And so they cast lots to see who would get that fifth garment.

As the body would sag, there'd be pain that would race through the arms.

You could push yourself up with your feet, but that would produce agony in the feet, and it also rubbed you against the back.

Of the your back against the post that held the petibuum.

The Egyptians, maybe I should say the Romans were not the only ones who use crucifixion.

The Egyptians had used crucifixion in the past, but what they would do was tie an individual to the cross and leave him there until he died of exposure or starvation.

On the Roman cross, the typical cause of death was asphyxiation.

Or shock.

Individuals who had been beaten.

A scourge like Jesus was would lose so much blood and fluid that shock could easily set in.

There was a slow starvation for air because you had to pull yourself up in that situation, that position you have to pull yourself up to breathe.

Your chest is not allowed to expand.

And that would become more difficult and more difficult as cramps begin to set in because of fluid loss.

While Jesus is on the cross, he's reviled by the two men who are on either side of Him, the thieves who have been.

Crucified with him.

Of course we recognize from Luke's Gospel that one of those thieves repented.

shows an enormous amount of knowledge about Jesus.

That's an interesting question.

How he came to know these things.

And he has promised that he would be with Jesus in paradise.

There were others Jews who had called out for the crucifixion of Jesus who now taunt him and mock him while he's on the cross, including those who passed by.

Apparently the, the cross was located not too far from a road perhaps.

The difference between death and just a few hours.

Or death, it would take 13 to 3 days in some cases to transpire.

Was a little block of wood on that upright post.

That would give some measure of comfort.

So that a person could rest.

Himself on that block of wood.

There's no indication Jesus had that.

We don't know.

Before long, as I've suggested, cramps and a loss of fluid and thirst would continue to make for more suffering.

And that loss of fluid would put an added added burden on his heart.

You can read about it in Psalm 22 and verse 14.

Jesus was on the cross for 6 hours.

He wouldn't have been on there much longer because the Jews wanted the bodies off of the cross before the beginning of the Sabbath.

And so the legs of the two thieves were broken so that they could no longer push up, they would quickly expire.

But Jesus, as they determined, was already dead.

He had given up his spirit.

Well, the things I'm telling you are not things that you probably have not heard.

As we remember the Lord's death in the Lord's Supper, we often talk about the physical suffering that was involved in crucifixion, and it was prolonged, it was excruciating.

I don't think that because that's not something that we have observed ourselves that it's really possible for us to fully appreciate.

What went on, but I've tried to give you a little bit of a picture.

Because I want to emphasize now another aspect of the birth of the death of Jesus.

That I think is highlighted by the terrible suffering.

That he endured And it is this.

That Jesus' death was avoidable.

Now what I mean by that is that.

There were a lot of people in the first century that were crucified.

In 70 AD, Titus, the Roman general, would come to Jerusalem.

And Josephus says he lined the hills around Jerusalem with crosses and crucified Jews until there was no more.

No more room.

For crosses, you can imagine that scene.

Many people since the first century have died painful and horrible deaths, deaths.

Excruciating in their nature.

And most of them suffered because they couldn't avoid it.

They were criminals like the man that I suggested earlier who didn't die a particularly painful death.

He died quickly and relatively painlessly.

But there have been criminals over the course of men's history who have died because they committed crimes and they couldn't escape the punishment that came for those crimes.

And then there have been others who've just been the victims of the cruelty and the Barbarous behavior of others.

They suffer sometimes greatly as they die.

But I want you to think about something, and you know this in the back of your minds, I suspect, if you're familiar with the public ministry of Jesus, and that is that Jesus had previously avoided the murderous designs of the Jewish leaders during his public ministry.

On several occasions, the Jews attempted to kill Jesus and they were unsuccessful, as the gospel writers say sometimes, his hour had not yet come.

Just 3 examples of this, the more obvious perhaps at Nazareth when he preaches in the synagogue where he grew up.

The people are incensed at some of the things he's saying, and they, they seize him and they take him to the brow of a cliff where they intend to throw him off, and the text says passing through their midst, he went away.

So apparently he was able to avoid being killed.

Although that was clearly their intention.

In Luke chapter 4.

In John 8 verse 59, we're told that while Jesus was in Jerusalem on that occasion, the Jews took up stones.

They were going to kill him.

That was the method of capital punishment among the Jews.

But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, so he avoided death.

In John the 33th chapter, once again in Jerusalem, they took up stones, but the texture says he escaped from their hands.

In the Garden of Gethsemite.

As Jesus was being arrested, you may recall that one of the disciples, John identifies it as Peter, took a sword and sliced off the ear of the high priest's servant, a man by the name of Malchusus.

And Jesus administers a mild rebuke to Peter.

But he also observes that he could appeal to the Father, if he wanted, who would send 12 legions of angels.

Well, if my pulpit math is good.

That's 72,000 angels, typical legions, 226 men plus auxiliaries.

22,22 angels.

We're told in the Old Testament that one angel.

Took out 25,28 Syrian soldiers in a single night.

I think 21 legions.

Of angels would have been Sufficient to protect Jesus.

If he had chosen to avoid this, but Jesus' comment to the disciples was, but how could the scriptures be thus fulfilled?

In other words, if I took that, that avenue, if I took the escape.

How could the scriptures be fulfilled?

In John the 183th chapter verses 218 and 21, Jesus said, for this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

I want you to listen to verse 22.

No one takes it from me.

Now I've already demonstrated at least 3 occasions where that was true.

People were intending to kill Jesus, and they were unable to do so.

But I think Jesus is speaking in general, that he was in control of his life, that if he dies, it's because he lays his life down.

Not because the Romans or the Jews were too powerful and Jesus couldn't resist them.

Finally, they figured out a way.

To put him to death, this troublesome rabbi from Galilee.

Jesus says, I have authority to lay it down.

And I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I've received from my father.

I think we all recognize that we will eventually die.

But most of us really don't know how.

I don't know how much longer I will live.

I don't know the, the cause of my uh future death, and I think most of us are in that situation.

There are some, of course, Who close to death have that knowledge.

What if we knew That our death would involve suffering that was matching that of crucifixion.

What if you knew?

That 4 years from now you are going to die an excruciating death, prolonged suffering.

Would you try to avoid that?

Jesus knew exactly what lay ahead at the end of his public ministry.

It's an interesting question to think about.

When Jesus in his, in his life prior to his public ministry, when he realized What his mission was, I don't think it was as an infant, obviously.

I think he was a baby just like babies today are.

Walker doesn't know what's ahead for him.

Probably be president But Jesus, at some point, he knows exactly why he's come to this earth.

He came to die.

He came to redeem.

The law And he predicted that to his disciples.

Now, the occasions I'm going to suggest here, the passages I'm going to show you, the first one, Matthew 16:21, these are actually not in the beginning of his public ministry, in my opinion.

Two of them are caught toward the end.

But suffice it to say that Jesus knew what was ahead.

There wasn't any question about, well, will they arrest me?

What will they do if they arrest me?

What will they do if I come into the power in the custody of the Romans?

He knew exactly what was going to happen.

And he told his disciples, even though for some reason they had difficulty comprehending that.

Uh, maybe accepting it.

In Matthew 16:21, the passage on the screen from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

In the same gospel in the 13th chapter in verse 17, the text says, and as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, I believe this obviously the last time he's going to go into the last week of his life in Jerusalem.

As he was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside, and on the way, he said to them, See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the 3rd day.

And then of course during that last week, Matthew chapter 26, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after 2 days, the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Jesus didn't just know that he was going to die.

Jesus knew how he was going to die.

He even knew who was going to put him to death and the circumstances of that.

That'd be difficult information to have, wouldn't it?

Especially if you had the power to avoid it.

Think about what it would take to go ahead and submit.

To this death.

When you know what's involved, every Jew knew what crucifixion meant.

And so when Paul writes in Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even, even death on a cross.

Human beings die.

We're all, we all have that appointment.

If the Lord doesn't come before, we all have that appointment, but Jesus humbled himself even to the death on the cross.

In his last statement, it's interesting to me that when individuals are executed.

They will give you information, I'm sure for legal reasons.

They'll give you information, but they also record whatever statement the convicted criminal wants to make before he's put to death.

Tentu's statement was somewhat lengthy.

I'm not going to read all of it, but basically it says I didn't do it.

You, you need to find out who did it so the families of the people who were killed can have some relief, he said, but I didn't do it.

I'm not guilty.

Of course he'd been convicted in a court of law.

I'm not familiar with the details of the case, so I don't know.

I'm assuming that was a just conviction.

As one of the Crucified thieves pointed out to his companion.

Jesus had done no wrong.

And Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.

Jesus didn't die because he was guilty of some crime.

Jesus died as an innocent man, as Peter would say in 1 Peter 2, he didn't revile in return when he was reviled.

No evil from his mouth.

That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

Jesus was treated as though he was one of the worst of criminals.

That's what crucifixion was reserved for.

The worst of criminals, enslaves, the bottom of society.

And Jesus was treated as though he was one of those individuals, and yet he had done no evil.

The point I want you to take away this morning particularly.

Is that it wasn't the nails.

That kept Jesus.

On the cross Because as I've pointed out, Jesus on other occasions had avoided death.

This is an individual who could calm the sea and the wind.

Who could multiply bread and fish, who could heal the sick, who could cast out demons.

Who could call upon the father.

To have help sent in the form of legions of angels.

But what kept Jesus?

On the cross.

Was his love.

Some of you are thinking.

Jared told us that earlier we could have just stopped then.

And gone to lunch earlier, but I wanted to emphasize to you.

All of the things that Jesus went through, he went through those things.

Because he loves you Because he loves us.

And so the question this morning is, What will you do?

About the love.

That Jesus demonstrated.

I willingly Going to the cross If you're not a Christian.

The love of Christ continues to invite you through the plea of the gospel.

That you will trust in Him as the Son of God.

That you will respond in obedient faith.

By confessing your faith, repenting of your sins, and being immersed in water, buried in baptism with Him in His death.

And into your death to sin.

So that his blood offered on that cross.

can wash away your sins.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning.

Our invitation to you, our encouragement to you.

I don't wait And we encourage you to come and let us assist you in becoming a Christian this morning as we stand in.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Rodriguez

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'll turn with me, our scripture reading is 53 Chronicles 29.

Read verses 10 through 14.

I'll be reading from the ESV.

Therefore, David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are You, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever.

Yours, O God, 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, O God, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all.

In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly, for all things come from you and of your own have we given you.

The title of my sermon today is called Honor and Malachi.

And we'll predominantly be focusing on, on honor.

But if you want to turn to the book of Malachi, we'll be uh there a lot.

It is kind of the central passage of this morning.

When it comes to honor, there's a universal aspect to it.

People generally understand.

What honor is, even if they can't define it.

And there's two basic ways that we typically think of it.

There's honor that you give, and then there's honor that you receive.

And sometimes honor is something that we pay attention to when we're not getting any.

But honor is a main theme of the Bible.

And a place of contention between God and His people.

There is something about honor and God's people.

That God's people get wrong.

Or at least often have throughout history.

So let's talk about honors meaning.

In the Bible.

What is honor?

Let's talk about honor and, and the Hebrew word that's used for it.

The Hebrew word which is used for honor in the Old Testament is Kabet.

And cave is used relatively broadly, and by that I mean that it refers to things like Honor, generally can mean to to distinguish, to glorify.

It could also talk about, uh, refer to things such as wealth.

Things like money.

And sometimes it's even used to describe things such as weight in pounds.

How much does something weigh?

And conceptualizing honor as weight.

could help us understand it better.

And I want to take a second to focus on that.

Let's look at honor and relationship to wait.

In Job chapter 6 verses 2 to 3.

We read, it's a joke speaking.

Oh, that my vexation were weighed and all my calamity laid in the balances, for then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.

Again, Kaed is used, that Hebrew word ked is used to describe the weight of Job's vexation.

Technically, a translator could have translated this passage as, as Job's vexation being honored more than the sea.

But no, the word they use here is, is weight to describe the heaviness of it.

Another passage that describes honor as something that is like a weight, something that's heavy, is Lamentations chapter 3 verse 7.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape.

He has made my chains heavy.

The word heavy there, again, ked is the same word used for honor in the Old Testament.

And in this passage, it is used.

To make something heavy.

And again, technically a translator could have translated it that he has honored my chains or he has brought honor to my chains.

The relationship between weight and honor, I think really helps us understand.

How important it is.

Because we honor.

What we make heavy in our lives.

I'm gonna say that again, we honor what we make heavy.

In our lives.

And make heavy is just another way of saying value.

You know, when it comes to the Greek in the New Testament, the words used there are things like time or temeo.

In general, the thoughts behind them are the same honor, value, things like price.

And although these words have a less broad usage in the New Testament, the same basic point is behind their meaning.

As it is in Hebrew, and that is what is made heavy, what is considered valuable.

Anytime we talk about things that have value.

The value that is ascribed to them could be viewed as how much honor these things are getting.

We individually Honor things in our life, the things that we value.

So there's a problem in the book of Malachi.

If you, if, if you're there, we're going to go ahead and read there.

The book of Malachi deals with God not getting his due honor.

And you know, there's a sense in the very beginning, there's a sense in which, in which honor is customary.

Uh. Verse, starting with verse 6, it says, A son honors his father and a servant, his mother.

You know, there's a sense in which everybody shows honor to somebody and God is aware of the honor that we exercise in our lives.

A son honors his father and is serving his mother. Honor.

is a part of life.

Each one of us assigns value to people, places and things.

The things we make heavy in our lives essentially are who and what we are honoring.

And when it comes to children, children must be taught how to honor, how to place value on things, and what to place value on.

Honor is traditionally learned by children as they learn to honor their parents, their elders, and others in general.

The goal being ultimately, ultimately for them to learn how to honor God above all.

And it would be difficult for them to learn how to honor God if they never learned how to honor you.

When it comes to honor, I'm speaking to myself as well.

Parents are quick to teach by instruction.

Thou shalt not.

Don't do this.

Which is good, it's necessary. Instruction.

It's a big part of parenting, but we need to make sure that our children knows what honor looks like in action.

When our children look at us and we give them a sheet of paper and say, write the three most important things to Papa.

What would they say are the things that you honor above all else?

They know that they'll know they're not they can guess.

It's our job That they write down, oh, he cares or she cares about God, about spiritual things.

Because you know what?

As far as uh uh the Israelites were concerned in the Book of Malachi, God was disappointed in their honor.

A son honors his father and a servant his master.

Then he says, if then I am a father, where is my honor?

And if I am a master, where is my fear?

says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name.

So here God calls them out ungrateful children.

If I am a father.

Now, just real quick, let's take a second.

Was God calling himself a father is the way that we talk about a father, uh, a father today, you know, Father God, as opposed to Jesus, the son.

Well, there's a special way that Israel is called God's Son in the Bible.

In Exodus chapter 223 verses 22 to 23.

Says, uh, then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn firstborn son.

Again, Israel is called God's firstborn son in Hosea chapter 11 verse 21.

when Israel was a child, I loved him.

Well, not firstborn, doesn't say here, but in Exodus it does.

In Hosea 211, it says, when Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son.

OK. So, God was a father to Israel in a special way.

And the priests of Israel were in honoring their father.

They were committing.

What we can characterize as half-hearted service.

Their service was absent-minded to say the least.

If we read, but you say, if we continue reading, but you say in verse 22, how have we despised your name?

By offering polluted food upon my altar, but you say, how have we polluted you?

By saying that the Lord's table may be despised, when you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil?

And when you offer those that are lame or sick.

Is that not evil?

Now those are rhetorical questions.

They are indeed evil.

But it's interesting.

How, how God perceives their, their question.

Is it possible?

He says, how have we despised your name?

Is their response when God says, you have despised my name.

They say, how have you despised my name?

Is it possible that the priests did not know that they were sinning against God?

If the priests of Israel did not know that offering sick.

And blemished sacrifices to God was unacceptable.

Then they're either lying.

Or they have been stuck on autopilot their whole lives.

They've been absentmindedly serving God.

And their primary focus spiritually seemed to be the ritualistic worshiping of God.

And Jesus faced similar problems, right?

That, that wasn't that a problem that he faced.

Jesus and first century problems.

What do you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and Dylan and Cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

If the people and priests of Israel genuinely did not know that they were breaking God's law, that's because they didn't care to know that they were breaking it.

They knew the tithe.

They knew all the ritualistic things to do.

But they never, they either never took the time to investigate what God wants from them or they had their ears shut when those things were being read or discussed. Disgust.

You know, God doesn't accept half-hearted service.

We see that right there in verse 25.

211, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain.

I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

As father and master to Israel, he was not receiving his due honor, and he did not accept their empty service.

I want to take a second now to, to make it personal because all of this is to talk about ourselves.

And I want to ask, is, is God your Father?

This is a question for everyone really, because as far as Christians are concerned, God is also a father to you in a special way through Jesus.

John 25:5 says, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

God has adopted Christians into his family.

Christians, do you honor your father?

You know, it's interesting cause we're all called priests, are we not, in, in, in the New Testament.

So when I read Malachi and I see all the issues and the fake sacrifices and the absent worship of these priests, I'm like, well.

The Bible calls calls Christians priests.

I gotta make sure I'm Making the right sacrifices.

You know, to everyone who is not a Christian, God is also generally called the Father to everyone and everything else.

Paul described him to the Ephesians like this, one God and Father of all.

Who is overall through all and in all.

You know, people might not claim God as their father, but he is the Creator.

And they are his.

He fathered our souls and the life that is in us, and we are completely dependent on Him.

The issues That the priests were having in Malachi.

We don't necessarily face the same types of issues in the sense that we don't offer sacrifices anymore.

We don't, you know, we don't have to go to our herd and look at sheep and, and, and, and consider them and, and, and, and pick a good one.

But God's basic requirements for his people have, have essentially always been the same.

And that's that he wants your heart.

Works, rituals, and the heart.

are all intimately connected and I want to consider the Pharisees again.

Both used scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for they tithed mince, dill, and cumin and neglected the weightier matters of the law.

Justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

They were neglecting the things that they were supposed to do.

They were focusing on the actions.

They were focusing on the, on the checklist.

They were focusing on the, well, I've got to give 224%.

I've got to tithe this.

That's something I can do.

But God says, what about, you've been neglecting your heart.

That's what I've, that's what I want.

The ritualistic aspects that God commands.

are important and essential because he commands them.

But they were never the focus.

The folk, it was supposed to teach us about him.

In Micah chapter 26, this is kind of small, but I'm gonna read it out loud, verses 240 to 8 says, With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings with calves of 1 year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

No. He has told you, oh man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

The heart of what God wants has always been the same, a people that walks with Him.

Is your heart honoring God?

Are you honoring God?

Because God still doesn't want fake service.

The Laodicean Church in Revelation, the last book in the Bible, chapter 3, starting with verse 15, says, I know your words.

You are neither cold nor hot.

With that, with that, you were either cold or hot.

So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

We don't check the box with God.

He looks into our hearts.

And he knows where our, where we are putting our honor.

He knows what we are valuing.

I think it's interesting.

That half-hearted service, absent-minded service, being lukewarm, going through the motions.

is, is kind of the, the, the, the, the end, the end caps to, to, to both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Both Malachi, Malachi and Revelation and Basically, With a warning.

To make sure that you are honoring God and that God does not accept fake honor.

You know, God knows we know better.

Um, Again, considering Malachi in verse verse 63.

That says, uh, when you offer these animals, is it not evil?

When you offer those that are lame or sick, is it not evil?

And God says, present that to your governor.

Will he accept it or accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts.

When it comes to honoring people of the world, there's a general understanding.

Uh, uh, of when a quote unquote important person comes over, you know, the president, the governor, someone of, of whoever that is of value in society.

Come over, people are not gonna give them.

The worst of what they have unless they're trying to send a message.

They want to give them the best of what they have because they have a guest.

And they're, they're honored guests as an expression goes.

God says, you know what honor is.

You know what honor is.

Offer it to your governor.

Oh, now you know what honor is?

Offer it to your governor because you know, If you would offer it to your governor and he won't accept it, how much more the Lord of hosts, the Creator of the universe.

And I think we have, we have all this to obviously learn from Israel, you know, everything they clung to, the Israelites, that is.

was, was physically taken away from them at the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. And you know, God has promised that Jesus will come again and judge the world according to how we honor God and His word.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.

But in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him is not condemned.

Whoever does not believe in him is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Honor Him that is Jesus while you live, because in the end, God will be honored and Jesus will be honored.

If you turn to uh Malachi chapter 1 verses verse 11, it says, for from the rising to the sun to the setting, to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place, incense will be offered to my name and a pure offering.

For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

That's what God told them, uh, in, in Malachi.

And this universal honor that is mentioned in Malachi 1 verse 11 was fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

In Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 to 11, again, apologize for being small.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

All honor goes to Christ.

To the glory of the Father.

Malachi teaches us, the Book of Malachi teaches us how and how not to honor.

And when it comes to Jesus, If you do not honor him.

You, you do not honor the father.

Um, you know, there's some people today, uh, you know, the new age movement, uh, you know, spirituality, spiritualism, mysticism.

Even Judaism That they honor, they, they try to honor it all or God.

A being But they take Jesus out of it.

The sonship of Jesus is what is necessary.

For us to believe in To have eternal life.

It says in John chapter 5 verses 22 through 24, for the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.

John chapter 6 verse 40 says, for this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the sun believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

God tells you this is where you need to put your value.

The scriptures tell us, and it's on Jesus.

If we value Jesus, everything about how we're supposed to live, what, everything about what should I honor today.

Kind of becomes clear because you've already decided to honor Jesus and therefore God and therefore the Word of God.

And you value it and study it, and it becomes a part of you.

You know, the reason One of the reasons we value God.

It's loud in our, in our faces that God values us.

For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For once we scarce, for once we scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to even die.

But God shows His love for us, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were still sinners, God said, I value you.

And I'm gonna save you.

And sent Jesus.

And Jesus valued us and laid down his life for us.

How do you honor that sacrifice?

Do you even believe that it happened?

Do you believe that God confirmed Jesus' words by raising Him from the dead?

If, if you have, if you haven't, uh, uh, if you don't, if you do believe, if you have not, now you do, you believe, you believe in Jesus.

Now is a great opportunity to come forward and be baptized into him.

And and begin honoring him for the rest of your life.

Christians, if, if, if you fail to honor him the way that, that you should, And, and you would like to, you would like prayers or, uh, uh, or let's say you've committed some public sin, you'd like to request, uh, uh, uh forgiveness for now, uh make a confession of now is also a good opportunity to do so, uh, while we stand and sing the song that was selected.