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.)

Scripture reading this morning will come.

From Hebrews chapter 9, verses 193 through 10.

I'll be reading from the ESV which will be on the screen.

As well Uh, the Hebrew writer here, sorry, the Hebrews writer, you don't know that he was Hebrew necessarily.

was, uh, is addressing the difference between the covenants and in this particular passage, uh, he is reviewing the, some of the regulations and the, uh, implements and the structure of the, uh, the holy place within the tabernacle and the temple, and considering some of the implications about the new law from even from the structure of the, of the old, uh, place of worship.

Verse one, Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness, for a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence.

It is called the holy place.

Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold.

In which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.

Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made.

The priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.

According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

In 1981, The film Raiders of the Lost Ark came out.

I was putting together this sermon outline, and it occurred to me that's ancient history.

That's 45 years ago, which means that a lot of you weren't even born when that was a popular movie across the United States.

I don't know if you've seen the movie.

How many of you have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark?

OK, so apparently we're into classics.

That's good.

The film is set in 1936 and it stars Harrison Ford as archaeologist.

Indiana Jones.

The Nazis are searching for the lost Ark of the Covenant.

An archaeologist, Indiana Jones is tasked by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can find it.

In the film, the ark is said to make any army that possesses it invincible, and that's the reason that the Nazis are interested in finding the ark.

Of course, Indiana Jones finds the ark.

But then loses the ark and uh to the Germans and his rival archaeologist, Renee Bloch.

Uh, takes possession of the ark.

Bellech dresses up as a high priest and wishes to conduct a ritual on an island with the ark.

And this particular clip from the movie, he's looking into the ark as the lid has been taken off and he's seeing this beautiful figure coming out of the ark.

It's beautiful, he says, only it turns into the angel of death and all of these German soldiers that are there and are viewing what's going on, they all die, including Bello and.

Uh, some of his companions.

Indiana Jones and his romantic interest and sidekick.

Marion Ravenwood, Ravenwood, I guess it's the way it's pronounced.

They are there also, but they keep their eyes closed.

And so they managed to survive where everybody else has been killed.

Now, if the Nazis and the American government had paid attention to the Bible, they would have known that an army in possession of the Ark of the Covenant was not necessarily invincible, because when we go back to 1 Samuel the 4th chapter, we find out that Israel had fought against the Philistines on one day and lost 4000 casualties.

And so they got the ark from Shiloh and brought it into the camp thinking that that would.

Uh, caused them to prevail against the power of their enemies, the Philistines.

Unfortunately, the next day they lose again this time with 30,000 casualties.

And the ark is captured.

We won't go into the rest of that story, but, uh, the ark is eventually returned to Israel by the Philistines who are plagued by their possession of the ark.

The Ark of the Covenant, essentially a golden box, speaks to us today.

And the author of Hebrews helps us to understand what the ark has to say.

I want to spend just a few moments in giving some background to the ark.

The ark was constructed at the same time that the original tabernacle was there at Mount Sinai.

And the ark was essentially uh a rectangular box that was made of acacia wood.

If you've ever tried to find a good graphic of the ark, you're probably aware that it would be easier to find the ark today than to find such a graphic.

It's amazing to me how many graphics are completely wrong in one or more details.

If you read through the biblical text, you understand right away those pictures are inaccurate.

But nevertheless, it was just a rectangular box made of acacia wood.

It wasn't a very big box.

It was about 223 inches long and about 27 inches wide and only 27 inches high, although the text in Exodus 25 indicates that it had feet on it, so it stood.

Uh, a little bit higher perhaps than the 27 inches that was the dimension of the depth of the box.

The box was overlaid inside and outside with gold, and it had a molding, the Bible says, around a molding of gold around it.

It had 4 ft, as I mentioned already.

With a ring of gold on each foot.

When you look at images of the ark, a lot of times you'll see the staves or the poles, and they're either at the top of the arc or in the middle of the arc, but the rings through which the poles were passed were on the feet of the ark.

So this image, while it may be inaccurate and maybe some other ways, I'm not sure about the grading there uh as a part of the box.

But that image is more accurate than the arc that Indiana Jones found.

In the movie, where the staves are in the wrong place.

But at any rate, it had two rings on each of the long sides, I believe, and there were poles also made out of acacia wood and overlaid with gold.

They were passed through these rings, and that was the way in which the ark was supposed to be transported from one place to another.

You probably remember the story of David wanting to bring the ark into Jerusalem, and he puts it on a new ox cart, but that wasn't the way God indicated the ark was to be transported and so Uzza dies as he tries to steady the ark as the oxen go over a threshing floor.

This box had a cover that top there was a separate piece, and that piece was called the mercy seat.

It was made of pure gold.

And on either side of that cover, there was a cherub, two cherubim that were facing each other with their wings extended toward each other.

Uh, some will show almost touching.

That's probably fairly accurate.

And the cherubim and the cover were all of one piece.

Cherubim were made of hammered gold.

Douglas read from Hebrews the 9th chapter, where the author of Hebrews indicates there were 3 things in the ark.

There were the 2 tablets of stone that had been given to Moses at the mount, sometimes called the testimony.

There was the urn or a jar of manna with some manna in it, manna that had been given to the people of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness, teaching them that they needed to depend on God.

And then finally, there was also Aaron's rod that budded.

By the time of Solomon's temple, only one of those 3 items was still in the ark, and that was the 233 tablets of stone.

The other things had apparently disappeared.

Back to the tabernacle.

The Tabernacle had two rooms.

When we talk about the tabernacle, we're actually talking about a large area that was bordered by mobile curtains.

The whole arch could be taken apart and moved.

It was a mobile worship place and so there was a large courtyard, and the sanctuary actually inside that courtyard was comprised of two rooms, the holy place.

And the most holy place, which on this thing, I'm not sure you can really see that very well up on the screen, but to the left of the smaller square, that represents the most holy place, and that, of course, is where the Ark of the Covenant was placed.

Moses received instructions about how to construct this tabernacle in the book of Exodus, beginning as early as chapter 25, and then as you move into the latter part of Exodus, you read about the construction, uh, the putting together of this tabernacle.

The Ark of the Covenant was in the most holy place, the only thing that was in there.

And then a veil separated the Most holy place from the holy place, and there were 3 pieces of furniture that were in the holy place.

There was the lampstand or the menorah, the altar of incense, and the table of show bread.

And they are oriented in the holy place, specifically as God indicated.

The tabernacle always faced to the east.

The opening, uh, over here, I've got curtain up there.

That was always to the east and so these three items of furniture were oriented based on the way that the tabernacle was pointed or the, the entry of the tabernacle was oriented.

When the tabernacle was moved.

Aaron and his sons would go into the holy place, and they would take the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy place, and they would use it to cover the Ark of the Covenant.

And then there were two other coverings, one of goatskin and, uh, and then another, uh, a blue cloth.

This is all described in Numbers chapter 4.

Of the clans of Levi, the sons of Kohath were the ones who were tasked with the responsibility of transporting the furniture of uh the tabernacle, the sanctuary part of the tabernacle.

The sons of Kohath were not allowed to touch or even to see the Ark of the Covenant as it is being moved.

The staves were supposed to stay in the rings, and they would then lift that up and carry it once it was covered.

Solomon's temple built later, obviously, uh, the most holy place.

This is, uh, incidentally, this is, uh, Rose Publishing's.

Uh, representation of what the temple may have looked like.

It's a side view, cut apart side view, and over to the right on your, uh, from your view is the most holy place, and it was a perfect cube, 20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits, as First Kings 6:20 tells us.

In Solomon's temple in the most holy place, there was something else in there besides the Ark of the Covenant.

There were two large cherubim, each one of them 10 cubits high.

That's 243 ft, which means that they stretched from the floor.

Not quite to the top of the room, but very tall, and it appears as though they faced the opening.

From the holy place into the most holy place.

There was a veil there.

These cherubim had their wings extended.

These are my wings, in case you didn't know.

The wings were extended and the two cherubim were standing side by side with their wings touching in the middle of the room and the tips of their other wings touching the walls on either side of the most holy place.

They were enormous.

They were made out of olive wood and then overlaid with gold like the ark was as well.

The Ark of the Covenant was then placed under the wings of these two large cherubim.

And you can, you can't really see that on this illustration, but First Kings 8:6 to 9, which describes the consecration of the temple, uh, will tell us that.

And by this time, as I said earlier, there were only 2 tablets of stone in the ark.

The other elements that had been in there earlier apparently had disappeared.

The importance of the ark.

is really seen in the Day of Atonement, one of the annual feasts of Israel, which took place on the 10th day of the 7th month of their religious calendar.

On that day, the high priest would do several things as he went about the business of seeking atonement for himself and for the nation.

One of the first things that he would do would be to cloud the most holy place so that When he would come in there with the blood, eventually of a bull and then a goat, there would be a cloud of incense.

The reason being that the Ark of the Covenant and particularly the mercy seat was where God would meet with the high priest.

And when the high priest comes into the most holy place the first time, he comes in as a sinner, just like the rest of the people.

And so he clouds the room to begin with, with a censer of incense with incense on it, and then a bull is killed.

He kills a bull out in the courtyard.

He catches the blood and he takes that blood into the most holy place.

And he sprinkles blood on top of the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

The significance of that is that the sacrifice that was made in the courtyard is now being presented in the presence of God.

And that first sacrifice of the bull was for him and for his family.

But then he would go out.

In the courtyard and a second animal would be killed.

He would kill a goat as a sin offering for the people, and he would do with the blood of the goat exactly as he had done with the blood of the bull.

In Exodus chapter 25 and verse 22.

As the Lord is giving instructions for how the Ark of the Covenant is to be constructed, this is what Moses wrote.

The Lord said, there I will meet with you, that is, uh, in the most holy place, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, they're on the Ark of the Testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

The instructions for the Day of Atonement are in Leviticus 16 and verse 13 of that chapter says, and the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.

And so that mercy seat, the cover of the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God as he would come and meet with the high priest when the high priest brought blood into the most holy place and presented it as sin sacrifice before God.

The priest then, the high priest, would then take some of the blood from the bull and the goat, and he would sprinkle it on the horns of the bronze altar that was out in the courtyard.

You may have seen that a little bit earlier in the tabernacle uh figure.

The priest then would take a second goat, which is known as the scapegoat, and he would place both of his hands on the head of that goat, and he would make a general confession of the sins of the people, and then that goat would be taken out into the wilderness and released.

That was the Lord's instructions about what was supposed to be done with that second goat.

The first goat is a sin sacrifice, and the shedding of blood is what God required for the atonement of sin.

The second goat became the sin bearer, and he carried the sins of the people in a figurative sense, obviously, away from the, away from the people, away from the camp.

Both of those goats represent what Jesus did.

As our sin sacrifice, and the one whom Isaiah says bore our sins, carried them off in a figurative way through his sin sacrifice.

Interesting story.

By the time of the first century, The Jews were not taking the scapegoat out into the wilderness and releasing it.

And the reason for that was that prior to the first century, they had taken one of these goats, this is an annual thing, they've taken one of those goats out into the wilderness.

And it came back, it brought the sins of the people back into the city of Jerusalem.

Oh, big problem.

And so what they decided was they would take that goat out into the wilderness, and they would kill the goat so that it couldn't come back.

Well, that's great, except that's not the instruction that God gave.

But nevertheless, you know, people find ways of deciding what they need to do, rather than what God tells them to do.

The high priest went into the most holy place on only 1 day per year.

In Hebrews 9, it talks about he went in once a year, when in actuality, he went in at least 2 times and may have put the censor in a 3rd time.

Actually the censor first and then the bull and then the goat, but he enters into the holy, most holy place only 1 time a year, and that is on the Day of Atonement, but he does that 3 times on that day.

Now, there's something interesting in Hebrews 9 and verse uh 9, that I want you to look at.

The writer of Hebrews says that this holy place and most holy place and the division between them, the veil that separated them, that this was symbolic for the present age.

Well, what is this golden box have to do with us?

That's all Old Testament stuff.

That's the tabernacle, that's the temple, that's all gone, right?

Doesn't have anything to do with us.

Well, the fact of the matter is it does have something to do with us.

The Old Testament had shadows of the things to come.

The Hebrews writer says that in chapter 10 and verse 13.

And by looking at some of these Old Testament things, we can better understand what's going on in the new covenant, what's going on in the high priesthood of Jesus Christ.

It's interesting that in Leviticus 16 and verse 14, In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament scriptures, the word mercy seat there is the same word in the Greek that appears in Romans chapter 3 and verse 224, where it's translated propitiation.

Verse 219 of Romans 222 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift.

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom Christ Jesus, God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, that's the instrument of the agent by which propitiation is made to be received by faith.

There's something that an individual has to do, believe, in order to have faith, to have faith in order to receive this propitiation.

And Paul continues, this was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

A propitiation.

is that which appeases divine wrath by satisfying the requirement of divine law.

The high priest of the Old Testament would come into the tabernacle, later the temple, into the presence of God at the mercy seat on the day of atonement with the blood of an animal to make atonement for his own sins, first with the blood of the bull, and then for the sins of the people, the blood of the goat.

The Hebrews tells us in chapter 223 and verse 224, and also in verse 21, that the blood of bulls and goats can't take away sin.

In other words, those sacrifices, although they met the requirement of the old law, they were inadequate for the actual forgiveness of sins.

God required more.

Something very important happened when Jesus died.

You probably remember that Matthew records that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

In Solomon's temple, and then similarly in Herod's temple, the renovated temple of Jesus' day, that curtain, that veil that separated the holy place from the holy, most holy place, was much taller than a man.

And so the significance of that curtain or veil being torn from the top down indicates that this is divine action, not to mention the fact that Josephus says that veil was about a hand breadth thick.

In its weaving, it would have been almost impossible for the average man even to tear it in two, even if he could reach the top.

But the tearing of that veil.

As it is connected to the death of Jesus Christ, signified that the way into the most holy place was now open to men.

Jesus' blood, as Paul explains in Romans 43:24, Jesus' blood truly accomplished propitiation, satisfied the requirement for the forgiveness of sins.

What is it that God requires?

Hebrews 25:23 tells us, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

What was necessary for your forgiveness, for my forgiveness was the shedding of blood, and Jesus offered himself as a sin sacrifice on the cross.

I really appreciate the comments that were made, uh, by Daniel about the significance of Jesus' death and the care, uh, the, the conditions, the, uh, things that surrounded it.

It was a death of violence.

Jesus allowed himself to be put to death by the Roman soldiers.

But he said in John 10, as Tim read from that passage earlier today.

That he laid his life down.

No one took it from him.

And so we need to understand that when Jesus died on the cross, it was by his own volition, even though it constituted a Roman death, uh, a death by the Romans, and it may have seemed as though Jesus was being overpowered, but the truth of the matter is, that was God's plan, and God, Jesus followed that plan.

And so he satisfied the requirement of the law for the forgiveness of sins, and in so doing, He propitiated the Father, appease the wrath of the Father by offering what the law required.

And so the Hebrews writer continues in chapter 10 and verse 19.

Really, the end of the argument of Hebrews is in chapter 10 and verse 18.

And in verse 19, the author says, therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, And then he begins to encourage his readers to stand fast in their faith.

Jesus shed His blood on the cross, and at his ascension, some 53 days later, he completed the work of a high priest, presenting the sacrifice before God.

You remember that on the day of atonement, the animal was killed out in the courtyard, but the blood was taken into the most holy place, sprinkled on the mercy seat.

In other words, Presented to God in His presence.

And until that was done, the work of the high priest wasn't complete.

Jesus died on the cross.

Blood was shed just like bull blood and goat blood was shed in the courtyard.

But then Jesus ascended into heaven and presented his blood, obviously in the figurative sense.

His sacrifice in the presence of God.

Now, that's not my opinion.

That's what the Hebrews writer says in verses 11 and 12 of Hebrews 9.

He says, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent.

Tabernacle was basically a tent.

But this is one not made with hands that is not of this creation.

He's not talking about the earthly tabernacle.

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves.

That was the day of atonement, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Then in verse 24, he basically says somewhat the same thing, for Christ has entered not.

The holy place is made with hands, not an earthly tabernacle.

Those are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

That's what the high priest did on the day of atonement.

He appeared in the presence of God on behalf of the people, and that's what Jesus does, did for us when he ascended into heaven.

And completed the work of a high priest.

So let me remind you again, verse 19.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, we can come into the presence of God without fearing condemnation, because Jesus Gave himself as a sin sacrifice.

By his blood, we can be forgiven of our sins.

And so, the Hebrews writer gives three, commands or encouragements.

He says, first of all, verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.

You don't have to be afraid to, to talk to God.

You don't have to be afraid to come into the presence of God, because of what Jesus did.

In offering himself as a sin sacrifice.

Let us hold fast, he continues in verse 23, the confession of our hope without wavering.

No reason to doubt, because Jesus has opened the way into the presence of the Father.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, God will deliver.

And then he says in verse 24, verse we're more familiar with, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Therefore, because of what Jesus has done, these are the things that we ought to do.

This is how we ought to behave.

That golden box in the tabernacle and then later in the temple represented the presence of God here on earth and was accessible only to the high priest who went in once a year on the Day of Atonement and did so with trepidation.

It was written that when the high priest went in, the nation held their breath.

Because the first time he goes into the most holy place, he is a sinner just like they are.

And we read in First John one, that God is light and in him there's no darkness at all.

He will not have fellowship with, he will not countenance sin.

And so blood was necessary.

To be offered for sin.

Jesus has opened the way into God's presence for all of us.

And we can draw near to God with confidence because of the blood of Jesus.

Noted preacher Dee Bowman used to say, I've heard him say it several times in the past, if you miss heaven, you've just missed all there is.

And I think that's a true statement.

It suggests the importance of the goal, the hope that we are striving for.

That inheritance that's reserved for us in heaven, as Peter writes in 1 Peter 1 and verses 4 and 5.

When this life is over, will you be in the presence of God for all eternity?

Jesus opened the way.

But that propitiation, that satisfaction.

It was accomplished by his blood.

Paul says in Romans 3, it has to be received by faith.

And not a dead faith, but an active, obedient faith.

If you've not obeyed the gospel, In the past, this is your opportunity.

To be able to come into the presence of God in the future, to live in eternity in fellowship with God.

In the paradise it is called heaven.

If we can assist you this morning in responding to the gospel and expressing your faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and being baptized for the remission of your sins made possible by the shedding of the blood of the sin sacrificed Jesus.

If we can assist you in doing that this morning, we want to encourage you.

If you'll come to the front, we'll assist you in obeying the gospel even as we stand.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Mike Eison

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

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

Well, I also, uh, want to echo Eric and wish everyone a, uh, a good morning.

It's wonderful to see everyone here.

We're especially thankful for the number of visitors that we have here.

We're delighted that you have chosen to do the most important thing any man or any woman will ever do on any particular day, and that is to be here and to worship God.

And remember the death of his son Jesus the Christ.

So we're glad that you're here, uh, and would ask again that if you are a visitor, if you would fill out one of these cards or, uh, take a picture of the QR code is, uh, or take a picture of the QR code.

As I mentioned in my uh sermon this past uh September, I'm gonna be preaching on a Number of topics from a new series of sermons that I have been trying to develop entitled Lesser Sins.

I'm well aware that the title is somewhat attention-grabbing and that's why I was careful to attach quotes to the word lesser.

Over the course of the next couple of years, plan to present lessons on what many people would consider to be lesser sins, sins like jealousy, sins like anger.

Sins like greed or disobedience or pride, things like this.

One of the main points I'm hoping to make with these sermons.

is that these lesser sins will have the same eternal consequences as any other sins we commit if we're unwilling to repent of them.

One of the things that I have learned.

In my life is that our secular society and some Christian denominations see some sins as more egregious.

than others Um, I see that personally, perhaps because I was raised a Catholic.

And we were taught to discern between venial sins and mortal sins.

I was already conditioned, uh, before I came to Christ and thinking that there are some sins that are, that are more egregious than others.

I would argue that some religions don't even uh view certain sins as sins.

And our secular world, of course, is, is no different.

In our country, murder, kidnapping, arson, things like that are felonies, whereas DUI and domestic violence and, and petty thefts are simply misdemeanors, minor wrongdoings or misdeeds that often go unpunished.

And as I mentioned in my previous sermon, Society, I believe, has influenced a lot of our thinking, certainly Christian denominations.

Into believing that some sins are much less serious than others.

A white lie is often ignored.

Because no one is harmed by them and you know, everyone does them.

The same for pride and jealousy and disobedience and greed.

As a reminder and especially for those of you who did not hear my last sermon and certainly for the visitors that are here with us today, uh, I want to make this next point.

Quite unambiguous.

I want to make it crystal clear.

That there are no lesser sins.

Sin is sin.

Isaiah 59:1-2 reads, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened.

It's not so short that it cannot save or his ear dull that it can, that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sin, sins have hidden his face from you so that he's not here.

All unrighteousness is sin.

God makes no exceptions.

All sin is a transgression of God's law, whether it be fornication.

Whether it be adultery or lying or even a haughty look.

As we'll see on our next slide.

Proverbs 6, starting in verse 16 reads, And I know you see this in just about every one of my sermons.

I don't apologize for that.

This is just one of my favorite, uh, pericoppe in all of the Bible.

It's just, uh, and again, perhaps because of my conditioning, my, my religious upbringing, uh, before I came to Christ.

Proverbs 6 and 16 reads, there, there are 33 things that the Lord hates, 7 that are an abomination to Him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue.

The hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

This proverb, of course, is by no means an exhaustive list of those things, those sins that the Lord hates.

Scripture specifically lists many other things that the Lord hates in Deuteronomy 16, if we had the time.

We would read that the Lord hates false religion.

Psalm 55 says that the Lord hates those who do iniquity.

Proverbs 8:13 says that he hates perverted speech.

Isaiah 1 says that he hates religious rituals and festivals that are conducted by the ungodly.

He hates robbery in his burnt offerings, Isaiah 61:8, and he hates divorce.

Malachi June 16, and he hates many more sins.

But I think we clearly see in this proverb and perhaps why I like it so much.

We see clearly in this proverb that God hates what some people might describe as lesser sins.

And he hates those as much as he hates what we would call major or grave or mortal sins, and he calls all of them.

Abominations I didn't solicit, uh, of course, any feedback from my last sermon.

Only But I had several of you that come, came up to me and uh asked me to address the lesser sin of gossiping and wanted to know whether I would preach on that.

My intent was to preach on the lesser sin of greed, but because a few of you asked me to do gossiping, uh, uh, I thought I would do that this morning and I certainly thank you for your suggestion.

I think that it, this is a topic that is absolutely worth Our time discussing this morning.

Got a picture up here, uh, from Grock.

Uh, I asked Grock, which is always a Kind of a weird thing to do, but anyway, uh, I purposely asked Rock to make a picture of two people sharing secrets, gossiping inside a church.

Uh, you'll note, uh, Boyd Grock and I went at it.

Uh, you'll note that he finally was able to give me a picture of two people that appeared to be gossiping, whispering, uh, to each other, and they're doing it on a wood pew and if you look real closely in the background, there's also some stained glass.

Anyway, uh, I did this because I firmly believe that gossiping is one of the most destructive sins within a church.

And part of that I think is because there's just simply a lot of people that don't take the sin seriously and I'm afraid that many people have just simply become desensitized to this particular sin.

We can't escape gossip.

Gossip is everywhere around us.

You can't go to the grocery store.

You can't go to Kroger, you can't go to, well, maybe go to Trader Joe's, I don't know.

Haven't seen it there.

You can't go to a grocery store without seeing magazines advertising gossip.

You can't watch TV without being inundated with information on people that you just really don't want to hear, don't want to know.

Gossip has destroyed more people.

tarnished more reputations, broken more friendships, and split more churches than just about any sin that I'm aware of.

Gossip is quickly told gossip.

is quickly spread.

Gossip is quickly heard.

And perhaps Worst of all, gossip is quickly believed.

People will confess to theft.

They'll confess to adultery.

Some people will even confess to murder.

But I'm not sure that I've ever known anyone to admit that they have gossiped or that they confess that they're guilty of the sin of gossiping.

I suppose it's Probably human nature.

To want to hear a bit of juicy news.

Especially news about someone else.

People are drawn to gossip like moths to a flame.

When someone has a story to share about someone, we are often tempted to latch on to every word we can about that person.

As the Bible says in Proverbs 23 and 8, the words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels.

They go down to the inner parts of the body.

This proverb warns us of the corrupting effect of gossiping.

When we listen to gossip, it goes into our inner parts.

Gossip sinks its teeth into our hearts, our souls, and into our minds and corrupts us just like a fast-spreading cancer.

And what I've experienced in my life is that people devour, that people devour gossip like candy and they are Either unaware or unconcerned that gossip is really a poison.

It's a poison that unites people together to do evil.

And when we go on to share, uh, gospel with others, we are united with them in that evil.

But gossip is a deadly poison that divides.

It is a poison that will kill both the person who spreads gossip, and it will also kill the person who hears it.

Let's start our quick sermon this morning with, with a bluff with a bottom line up front.

Uh, I had 4 points that I wanted to make this morning.

I took the gamble that I would not have enough time to go through 4 points, so I cut it down to 3 this morning.

The first point that I wanted to make about gossiping was that it destroys relationships.

Uh, the second point that I hope to make is that gossiping is a serious sin.

I don't want anyone leaving here this morning thinking that gossiping is not a serious sin.

It disrupts unity within a church, and God will judge us for it.

And, uh, perhaps what a lot of us don't think about is the fact that listening to it is just as bad as telling it.

And finally, gossiping must be stopped and just as important as that, it can be stopped.

So what is gossip?

I guess that's a fair question to start off with.

Uh, well, I suppose we could probably look at secular sources for perhaps a, a pithy, uh, definition of gossiping and I, I found one off of the, uh, Oxford University Press.

Uh, it says that gossip is casual or unconstrained conversation, reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true and I think that's probably why.

Uh, I gravitated to that definition is that's often the case, right?

Is that a lot of times gossiping, uh, isn't or perhaps most of the time it's not true.

Uh, it's a person who likes talking about other people's private lives and I think that's a pretty decent secular definition of gossiping.

In the ESB version of the Bible, the word gossip, uh, if I counted correctly, was used only 3 times.

Uh, it's used in Romans 1:25 and I, uh, I'm sorry, it's, it's used in Romans 1 and 29, I believe it's particularly insightful.

Uh, the, the word is defined as someone who is a secret slanderer.

It's defamation.

It's a person that speaks false statements in order to injure someone's reputation.

It also means a tattler or a whisperer or a backbiter.

I think First Timothy.

33 and 13 is kind of interesting as well.

1 Timothy 5:13 reads, besides that, they learn to be idlers going about from house to house, not only idlers but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not.

Uh, the word here is used to define someone who's an excessive talker.

A pratter Someone who talks excessively or idly about trivial matters.

Someone who is excessively chatty.

Someone who indulges in empty and foolish talk.

Perhaps the problem with gossiping is that we kind of know what it is but it's kind of hard to define.

Gossiping comes in many different forms or flavors.

Um, There's not a one size fits all definition for gossiping either secularly or spiritually because gossiping, as I said, comes in many different forms.

You, you have, uh, one form of gossiping is rumors.

Something you've heard about someone it's usually unsubstantiated.

Perhaps you're hearing some dirt on someone.

When I wrote that line, I was thinking about the song from Don Henley, uh, give us dirty laundry.

Um, I remember the line says people love it when you lose, they like dirty laundry.

I guess I'm probably dating myself, probably only Allan and Tim and I probably remember that song.

Um, but, uh, I thought about that and I think that's true.

I think people do like it when you lose.

I think they like hearing dirt on someone.

Uh, you talk to others about, about, uh, you know, to get more information and, and when you do the, the gossip mill is, is off and running.

However, Proverbs 13:3 says, whoever guards his mouth preserves his life.

He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin, and I think we would be wise to remember that particular, uh, proverb.

Slander Purposefully talking about someone with the intent of comment causing damage either to them or to their reputation.

We see this from Colossians 3 that slander is not some lesser sin.

Colossians 3 starting verse 5 says, put to death, therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On account of this, of these, the wrath of God is coming.

And these you too once walked when you were living in them.

But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Another form of gossiping comes, uh, is what I call the, ah, I was only kidding, uh, kind of jokes that you might tell to someone.

Jokes that are made to have your listener question.

The character of the person that you're joking about, uh, and the problem, uh, a lot of problems with this kind of gossiping, but one of the problems with the, uh, the, the kidding type of, of gossiping is it's a passive way to spread gossip about someone.

And then finally, um, what I call innuendos, these oblique illusions, uh, or subtle insinuations to intentionally lead your listener into drawing a false or wrong conclusion, uh, about someone.

So as I stated on my bluff slide, gossiping, uh, destroys relationships.

Proverbs 33:28 says, a dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

And what we learned from this proverb, um, I believe, to Alan teaches us something better in his, in his, uh, Proverbs class, is that gossip is active, uh, is actively divisive and is capable of breaking even the closest of friendships.

Proverbs 11 and 13 says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he was trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

And I think we learned from this proverb that gossip is, uh, untrustworthy, uh, betrayal of someone.

The most obvious way.

We can lose friends or we lose our relationships is to specifically talk about a person, a friend or, or someone else.

And when word gets back to them, and it, it inevitably will, our relationship with the person will be permanently damaged.

Uh, Another reason gossip destroys relationships is because sharing gossip, even if it's about someone else, ultimately destroys our friend's confidence and our own trustworthiness.

Alan and I are developing a new Bible class on church fathers.

Shameless trailer.

Uh, talk about some of the, the early fathers from the 24nd, 24rd, and 229th century and who they were, what they believed, and why we should study them.

And as I was preparing for this class, this new material, came across a couple of Of, uh, quotes from the church fathers that I thought were kind of interesting.

John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers from the 23th century, said that gossip is a form of murder.

With your tongue, you slay the reputation of your neighbor.

In other words, gossip will kill the good name of your neighbor and it will, uh, damage the good reputation of your neighbor or your friend.

Augustine of Hippo said this about gossiping.

He said, Let not your tongue be a weapon to wound your neighbor.

I think what he's saying is that gossip is a weapon.

Gossip is a weapon.

It's not just a pastime.

Gossip is a serious sin whether people think it is or not.

Perhaps one of the main reasons gossiping is so serious is that, as I mentioned earlier, is it disrupts unity within a church.

And I think that this might have been what Apostle Paul was writing about in 22 Corinthians 23:20193 when he wrote, For I fear that perhaps when I come, I may find you not as I wish and that you may not find that you may find me not as you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

And from this Text we see that I think that Paul's concerns is that he would find quarreling and jealousy and anger, hostility, slander and gossip in the Corinthian church.

Grouping it with other behaviors that would disrupt unity within that church.

Gossiping is a serious sin and God will judge us for any gossiping that we do.

Paul wrote in Romans 22019 starting verse 226, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetous, covetousness, malice.

They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They're gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil.

Disobedient to parents, foolish, faithful, faithless.

Heartless, ruthless.

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Gossips or as it's sometimes translated whisperers, slanders are included among those that have, uh, are included among those of people with debased minds alongside with envy and murder, deceit and much more that we read.

It's interesting that Paul notes that people that engage in gossiping, whispering, slandering.

are people that deserve death.

They deserve God's righteous judgment, and I think approving of gossip is also quite sinful as well.

In this place gossip.

I think this one, these 220 verses right here, these 3 verses right here, I think this really put stomps the fact that gossip, gossiping puts you in extremely grave company.

Gossiping is a serious sin and not just for the gospel, it's a serious sin for those who listen to it and for those who entertain it.

Proverbs 17:4 says an evildoer listens to wicked lips and a liar gives ear.

To a mischievous Tom.

And I think what we should learn from this is that we need to be careful not just spreading gossip.

But listening to it This proverb, I believe, stresses.

Perhaps the motivation of why are we, why we're listening to gossip.

In the first place, Jesus said in Matthew 12:36, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will, will give account for every careless word they speak.

Brothers and sisters, careless words are not just confined to malicious words.

Whatever is in our hearts is what comes out ultimately from our mouths.

Our words reveal our heart and its intentions and its desires.

And finally Gossiping must be stopped.

And moreover, and thankfully, it can be stopped, but before we talk about stopping.

Um, gossiping, I think it's perhaps a fair question to ask ourselves whether any of us are actually guilty of gossiping.

Uh, and I will admit upfront.

That this is a tough question with no easy answers.

In fact, I think probably a whole sermon can be devoted to the topic of, uh, of knowing whether you're actually engaged in gossiping or not.

But I'll try to suggest at least something I've always used as a supervisor of hundreds of people and as an elder and, and so forth.

Um, I've always tried to look at this.

Uh, from the lens of, of Socrates' story.

I don't know how many of you all ever heard the story of the three sieves, uh, that, that Socrates told, um, Um And I tried to employ the three questions that he asked in this story.

If you're not familiar with the word sI, CI is just a filter, OK?

So this story is sometimes called the 3 filter test for gossiping.

And the first is the first filter is truth, and we need to ask ourselves and ask the person talking to us whether what they are telling us is actually the truth or not.

The second is goodness.

We need to ask the person, we need to ask ourselves talking to us whether it's good for the person talking to us, tell me about my friend or my neighbor or coworker or whoever we're talking about.

Uh, and then the third filter is usefulness.

Is it necessary for me to know this about my colleague or my friend or my neighbor?

And I think that the point Of going through these three questions is simply this.

This is kind of the blob, this is kind of what I take away from, from this test or what I've always taken away from this test.

is if what someone wants to tell me about another person is neither true or good or useful, Why would you even tell me something and Why should I listen?

I think that's a pretty good test.

Like I said, that's not all I want to say or could be said on this subject, but I think that the, the three-filter test is a good way to determine whether you're engaged in gossiping or not.

We need to stop gossiping because gossiping directly violates God's commandment to love one another.

Jesus said in John 3:34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you all sorts of love one another.

Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 starting in verse 4, that love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

And again in Ephesians 4:29.

Let us, let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths, but only such as is good for building up.

As fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear, brothers and sisters.

We see from these verses and throughout the rest of the scriptures repeatedly, Scripture urges us to speak only what builds each other up and not those things that tear one another down.

Anyone here have a problem with taming your tongue?

Just me.

All right, well, I'll just preach to myself.

James 3 reads, but no human being contained the tongue.

It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

With it, we bless our Lord and our Father and with it we curse people, who are made in the likeness of God.

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.

My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Um, I love this passage.

Um, I love this passage because it's a reminder to me.

It's a constant reminder to me to watch my tongue.

Um, I have a hard time doing this, so I need this reminder and I need it often.

Our tongues.

have the ability to not only destroy relationships with others but has the ability to destroy ourselves as well.

Our tongues affect our hearts.

Our tongues control our bodies.

If we use filthy speech, say lewd things with it, uh, and gossip, our bodies will naturally do what is in our heart.

As I mentioned a couple of slides ago, our tongues simply reveal what's already in our hearts.

Ultimately, our problem with our speech, our problem with whispering, with gossiping, with slander, with rumors, innuendo, is simply a problem with our hearts.

You know, you look at that, those, those 2 or 3 verses there in James 3, a cursory look at these verses makes you think that no one can tame our tongues and it's probably hopeless.

I know I felt that way about myself a few times.

But I've come to see this, these verses a little bit differently.

What James says.

Uh, when he says that these things ought not to be so, that implies that we can tame our tongues, and we should, and we can do this with God's help.

So what are some ways To avoid gossiping.

Well, Proverbs 2019 says, Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets.

Therefore, do not associate With a simple babbler, and I think we need to avoid gossipers.

and I think that's what we're taught in this proverb.

We need to make sure that we don't put ourselves in a position where we might hear something about someone, uh, from certain people in our lives and we need to either avoid these kind of people.

Or we need to start correcting these kinds of people.

Proverbs 26 and 20 says that for lack of wood, the fire goes out and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

Gossip fuels arguments and strife like fuel to a fire.

If we stop the gossiping, if we proactively stop listening to gossip, Peace will return.

As the quote at the bottom of the slide says, gossip dies when it hits a wise person's ears.

And I guess that's the message this morning is let's be wise people.

In short, if the words we speak are not useful, helpful, and something that you would say to a person, Don't speak them.

Furthermore, we need to stop others from gossiping, and we need to stop listening to gossip as well.

The Bible doesn't treat gossip as some minor.

Some insignificant issue that God just kind of winks at.

Gossip is destructive speech that reflects a sinful heart.

It harms others.

It disrupts unity within a church.

And ultimately it will bring about God's judgment.

Speaking of God's judgment, I want to go back to the quote that I had from Romans one.

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty.

Boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Though they know that God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

And I think from these few verses right here, Paul has made it crystal clear that gossiping is as much, is as dangerous a sin as is murder or being a hater of God.

I hope and pray that I have said some things this morning that will cause perhaps some introspection.

I hope and pray that you are convinced that there are no such thing as lesser or minor sins, and I hope you have a better appreciation for the seriousness of the sin of gossiping.

The question this morning is gossiping.

Uh, is gossiping is sin.

That you struggle with The good news this morning is that gossiping, like any other sin can be forgiven.

You can take care of this sin and all the other sins in your life.

Take care of those right here and right now.

If you believe that Jesus is the Son of Christ and are willing to confess this publicly and repent of your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, we ask that you come forward as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Scripture reading this evening is from 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

From verse 4.

Should that be 143?

From verse 14 through chapter 7, verse 1, and I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible.

Um My son was asking before I got up here, that he mentioned that it was odd that it ended in chapter 7 on verse one, and church was starting, so I didn't get a chance to answer him.

Remember that the chapters and the verses were put in over 1500 years after this letter was written, and I think Um, Robert Este and Robert Stefani, the guy that made this chapter and verse divisions, did a pretty good job for the most part, but just because a chapter divides doesn't mean we should divide the context as well.

Beginning in 2 Corinthians.

Chapter 6, verse 14.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness.

and lawlessness.

Or what fellowship has light with darkness.

Or what harmony has Christ with Belial?

Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols, for we are a sanctuary of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch what is unclean, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

Therefore, Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

My apologies, my computer has a mind of its own.

He's trying to direct me to a different sermon.

Than what I had planned to preach.

It's good to see you this evening.

I appreciate everybody's presence as was indicated, uh, this morning as well, and we're glad that you're here this afternoon.

I'm gonna talk to you this evening just for a few moments about political correctness.

Political correctness, if I understand the concept correctly, generally dictates.

That a person should not make another person uncomfortable by criticism of their behavior or words, etc.

or by disagreeing with that person's behavior or viewpoint.

And so the underlying idea is that basically all viewpoints, all positions are equally valid, equally valuable.

And as you're probably well aware, our society has bought into this lunacy of political correctness in nearly every avenue of thought and communication.

And so as a result, the expression narrow-minded has become somewhat of an epithet, a term that has derogatory tones.

Narrow-minded people are those who criticize others believing that their opinion represents the best or perhaps even the only way, proper way to think.

Narrow-mindedness, bad, broad-mindedness, good.

That's the kind of mantra that our society has adopted.

How do you think of yourself?

Do you think of yourself as narrow-minded or broad-minded?

Well, if I go to the gas station, And I start pumping gas and I'm watching those numbers just spin like a roulette wheel.

And I'm paying all this money to my truck and I'm thinking, oh, that seems like I'm spending a lot more on gas.

Well, it's probably that Iran thing.

But then when I asked about it to the attendant, What happens is he says, well, we've moved to the 3 quart gallon now.

And so when we say gallon, that means 33 quarts, not 4 quarts.

Well, how would you feel about that?

Would you say, oh, OK, I understand, that's good with me.

3 quart gallon, you know, whatever.

I don't want to be critical of your viewpoint about what constitutes a gallon of fuel.

If I go to the grocery store and sometimes uh I've been known to do that.

Um, and I buy food by weight, vegetables and fruits, sometimes fresh vegetables anyway, you're buying them by weight, and it seems like I'm spending a lot of money for not much in the way of vegetables and fruit.

And then I'm informed by the cashier, well, what's happened is the store has decided to go with the 10 ounce pound.

Uh, we used to do 16 ounces or 17 ounces, whatever it takes.

Uh, but now we're going with 10 ounce pounds, uh, because it's better for us.

Would, would you want the gas station or the grocery store to be broad-minded about what constitutes a volume of measure or a particular weight?

I think we would all want those folks to be narrow-minded.

A pound is However many ounces, 16 ounces, OK. And a gallon is 4 quarts.

We want them to stay with that standard.

And we wouldn't necessarily say, well, narrow-minded people, they're still convinced that it's 4 quarts to a gallon.

Just as we're narrow-minded, and I think we all are in this regard, with regard to certain standards of measurement, I believe that God expects us to be narrow-minded with respect to our fellowship, to comply with his standard of determining fellowship.

We've been talking a little bit in recent weeks and months about fellowship, and I want to just quickly revisit a couple of Major points about those passages, those uh sermons rather, the meaning of fellowship is basically joint participation in spiritual activities such as worship or evangelism or edification.

What we're doing right now, it would be described as fellowship.

We are, excuse me.

We are jointly participating in the study of God's word, a spiritual activity.

When we took the Lord's Supper this morning, we were having fellowship with one another.

We were jointly participating in a spiritual activity.

Now, the world uses fellowship with a different meaning.

It talks about social activities when you eat together, you get together for a party or something, we're having fellowship, but the Bible doesn't use the word fellowship in that way.

And the basis for fellowship with God is twofold.

Relationship, I should say, is the basis and action then that is based upon or entails uh that relationship.

We suggested from Amos, the 23rd chapter in verse 3, that the idea of having fellowship would involve people who are united in some behavior and relationship.

Can two walk together?

Amos asked, unless they are agreed.

And we spent some time in 1 John 1.

Verses 6 and 7 in particular, verse 5, we talked about this morning, God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

And John continues in verse 6, if we say we have fellowship with Him, while we walk in, walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

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.

So tonight, I want to continue our study of fellowship by talking about the boundaries of fellowship.

There are people with whom we may have fellowship based on a common relationship with God and our participation, joint participation in spiritual activities.

But I think there are also folks that we should not have fellowship with, um, and we'll talk about, uh, those matters.

I want to emphasize tonight, and this is, I think a major point of our study.

I want to emphasize that we don't have to all agree on every matter of scripture in order to work and to worship together, to have fellowship with one another.

In fact, I would tell you this evening that in an audience this size, we will have different understandings of some.

Things in scripture, and yet we can still have fellowship with one another, and I'll explain how that can happen.

But I also want to suggest that there are some areas or some things in which we must not have fellowship with others.

Uh, this sermon was intended to be preached a couple of weeks ago, I guess, and, uh, so I'm kind of moving it till now.

Uh, and so let's talk a little bit.

About the disruption of fellowship.

In order to do that, we need to first establish that our fellowship with God is based on the fact that we are walking with Him, just like those two people walking on the road, they're walking in the same direction.

They can walk together because they are agreed on the path that they will take.

Well, in the same way, in 1 John 1 and verse 93, we're told by John.

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

And so if people are walking in the light as God is light, and that's John's point in 1 John 1 and verse 7, then they have fellowship with God.

I believe that First John 1:7 is talking principally about vertical fellowship.

In other words, our fellowship with God, the hymn.

In verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, that's God.

We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

But my fellowship with other Christians is likewise predicated on the same thing, walking in the light.

And so if you're walking in the light, then you have fellowship with God.

If I'm walking in the light, I have fellowship with God, and you and I can have fellowship because we sustain the same relationship with God as we're participating in spiritual activities, then, of course, we have fellowship.

What does it mean to walk in the light?

Well, the fact of the matter is, in the Bible, walk, particularly in the New Testament epistles, signifies the way that one lives in general, one's walk is one's general conduct of life.

In Galatians, the 5th chapter in verse 25, Paul wrote, for if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

In other words, walk according to the dictates, the teaching, the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Paul used the word walk in Ephesians 5 and 113 also to talk about us needing to walk in love.

And what he means by that is that love should characterize our general behavior, the way that we live in.

In a general way, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Now I want to point out very quickly that when we talk about walking, our walk in life, we are not talking about just this specific thing or that specific thing, but we're talking about the general conduct.

And what that means is that walking in the light does not mean sinless perfection.

Can I say that again because it's important.

Walking in the light does not mean sinless perfection.

No single act defines a person's spiritual walk.

And the reason is that walk is a reference to the way one lives generally speaking, and not necessarily uh in each particular act.

The reason that's important.

Is that sometimes people will talk about walking in the light, but what they mean is I'm walking in the light only as long as I don't sin.

And as soon as I sin, the first time I sin, I'm out of the light, and then I repent and I ask for forgiveness, and I'm back in the light, and then I sin again and I'm out of the light and, and you see the point.

And some have said, well, you people who believe that a Christian can be lost, you never know if you're saved or not, because the fact of the matter is you could have sinned just a moment ago and now you're in darkness.

That's a misunderstanding of what it means to walk in the light or for that matter to walk in darkness.

I want you to consider again, First John 1 and verse 7.

This is a very important verse when you begin talking about walking in the light.

John writes in verse 71 John 1, but if we walk in the light as he, God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, that's the first consequence of walking in the light.

And the second consequence is that the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Two things are true if we are walking in the light.

The first one is that we have fellowship with God.

In fact, that's really the basis of our fellowship, that relationship, and our walking with God.

But the second consequence is that while we are walking in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ forgives us of our sins.

Did, did you understand what I just said?

That means at the same time that I'm walking in the light, I can be forgiven of a sin.

That means my walking in the light does not imply per sinless perfection.

Now, that's very different from saying that God doesn't care about sin or that I don't have to worry about sinning because John goes on to say in verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Forgiveness of sins requires repentance and confession of sin.

Back in Acts chapter 8 in verse 22 in that story about uh Peter and Simon, who used to be the sorcerer and, and was converted, became a Christian.

Simon reverts to some of his own ways of thinking, old ways of thinking, and, and he wants to purchase this power that the apostles have to bestow spiritual gifts.

And Peter's instruction to him is repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiving you.

And so what we see is that forgiveness is predicated upon at least two conditions, and that is repentance.

And confession, as John says in 1 John 1 and verse 103.

Now, I need to follow up some of what I've just said by this statement, and that is that anybody who sins and will not meet those conditions, anybody who continues to walk and sin, at some point, God says, you're walking in darkness.

What characterizes your life, the general conduct of your life is that you're unrepentant of sin, you're still living in that sin.

You're in darkness.

That's God's end of the stick to whittle on, not ours.

So just as fellowship with God is disrupted by a Christian walking in darkness, once a Christian begins walking in darkness, then that fellowship that John talks about in First John 1:7, that's gone.

And in fact, the consequence is our fellowship with that person is also disrupted. Why?

Because we don't have that common relationship with God any longer.

That's what our fellowship required, both of us walking in the light.

Now, sometimes what happens is you've got people who are still jointly participating with Christians who are living faithfully, who are walking in the light, and you've got a Christian over here who has a sin that he's, he or she's not willing to repent of their They're nurturing it, keeping it.

They are walking in darkness, but they can come to this building, they can sit in a pew, they eat the supper, they can sing, they can pray, they can give, but we don't have fellowship. Why?

Because we don't have that same relationship anymore.

Fellowship is not just joint participation.

It's joint participation by people who have the common relationship with God that they are walking in the light even as God is light.

The truth of the matter is that when a congregation practices discipline toward an unrepentant member, we are not withdrawing fellowship.

You, you understand that?

Because if a person is living in sin, walking in darkness, there is no fellowship with that person.

Our fellowship with one another is dependent on the fact that we're walking in the light, each of us as we participate in joint spiritual activities.

But here's somebody who's not walking with God anymore.

And when that happens, we may not recognize it immediately, but the fact of the matter is, there's no more fellowship with us.

And so what we're doing when we withdraw from an unrepentant member.

is we're recognizing that fellowship has already been disrupted.

And we need that person to understand that.

And as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:14, that they may be ashamed.

And perhaps come to their senses and return to fellowship with God so that we And have fellowship with them as we did in the past.

Now I said earlier that I believe there are some things that we can differ on and yet still have fellowship, one with the other.

The Corinthian church had a lot of problems, as you're probably well aware.

They were divided in different ways.

And so as Paul addresses their division in the 1st 4 chapters, he begins in chapter 1 verse 10 by saying, I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

And so as brethren, we ought to seek to speak the same thing.

And may I say to you that that's one of the big purposes of our Bible classes is to help us come to a common understanding of what God's word says.

However, This is important.

Fellowship between brethren does not depend upon complete doctrinal agreement any more than fellowship with God depends on complete doctrinal correctness.

May I illustrate it this way?

When Philip taught the Ethiopian treasure down by Gaza on the road.

The Ethiopian is returning home.

He preaches Christ to him, and the eunuch asks why he can't be baptized.

Philip baptizes him.

Do you think by any stretch of the imagination that the Ethiopian treasure understood everything about the gospel, that he understood everything that the Holy Spirit had revealed even up until that point?

I think not.

So, are we to conclude that he wasn't in fellowship with God because he didn't know everything that the gospel might include?

No, of course not.

He had a relationship with God that was established by the fact that he's now free from sin, and he is light.

He's not darkness anymore.

His sins have been forgiven as he obeys the gospel and is buried with Christ in baptism.

So here's my point My fellowship with God doesn't depend on my perfect understanding of scripture.

If it did, I dare say few of us, if maybe any of us, would actually be in fellowship with God.

Now I'm going to tell you, I'm this close to doctrinal perfection.

I'm being facetious, and you know that.

As much as we study and as we work to learn everything that we can about the scriptures, the fact of the matter is it's a process and we continue to grow in knowledge and understanding.

And my fellowship with God does not depend on my complete doctrinal agreement, and my fellowship with you does not depend on both of us agreeing on every question that scripture might prompt in our minds.

Peter said in 53 Peter 3, there are some things in scriptures that are harder to understand than others.

He said that Paul, I'm quoting from the New Living Translation now, that Paul, he can write some difficult stuff.

He was speaking the truth.

There's some stuff in scripture that's more difficult than other things.

I, I think we need to readily admit that and our ability, my ability to understand God's word is affected by several things.

It's affected by my ability to think logically, by my background, by my prejudices, biases that I have developed over a lifetime.

And so the fact of the matter is, with spiritual maturity, hopefully we generally gain a better understanding of the scriptures.

But we can have fellowship with God as newborn babes in Christ, and we can have fellowship with other Christians who are newborn babes in Christ as well, even though they may not understand nearly as much as we do about the scriptures.

Hopefully that's clear.

Well, I need to explain this phrase.

We can have fellowship even as we disagree.

I want to note some areas in which we may disagree and yet still enjoy fellowship with one another, at least in my understanding of the concepts of fellowship.

One of them is questions of interpretation of scripture that have no real practical impact on our behavior.

I'm going to use kind of a trite example here.

But how many of you are late daters when it comes to the book of Revelation?

Meaning that the book of Revelation was written by the apostle John in the last decade of the first century, in the 90s.

Well, you don't have to raise your hand, but I know some of you are early daters.

You believe that the book of Revelation written by the apostle John in the 60s, in the mid 214s, prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.

I'm gonna say something here.

The message of revelation doesn't depend on that date.

If you're a late dater, you're not going to conclude, well, I guess because I'm a late dater that fornication is OK. That's ridiculous.

Or because I'm an early dater, I think that gossip is fine.

The question of how you would date revelation has no impact, as near as I can tell, on our behavior, our walk in life.

And there are other questions that similarly do not affect the way that we live.

I made the observation before in classes on Revelation that regardless of what date you assume for the writing of the book, the message is the same in the end.

All the high school students could speak now.

God wins.

That's the message whether you are an early dater or a late dater.

I think there are some matters of expediency or personal, personal liberty or judgment that we can disagree on and yet still have fellowship with one another.

Paul even discusses some of those things in his epistles, for instance, in 23 Corinthians chapter 22 and verse 29, he says, food.

Will not commend us to God.

We're no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do.

Paul says it doesn't matter if you eat meat or don't eat meat.

That's a matter of judgment.

It's a matter of liberty.

You can choose one way or the other, and two people who make different choices can still have fellowship because that's not a matter that's going to cause either of them to sin.

Assuming we're not talking about violating conscience.

I think there are other matters, but Paul talks about eating meat and not eating meat, and his point is that we can differ on some questions like that without a disruption of fellowship.

When Debbie and I were first married, I hadn't thought about using this illustration, but it occurred to me when we were first married.

There was another couple in the area we were in Southern Illinois.

There was another couple that had been married just about the same time that we were, maybe a little bit longer, neither of us couples had children, and so we got to know them they were Christians and we had them over to the house one night and had a nice supper and after supper, uh, Debbie, uh, I don't know if it was Debbie, one of us suggested, hey, do you guys wanna play some cards?

you should have seen the face.

Faces of these two, they had been taught growing up that playing cards.

We're an instrument of the devil.

They didn't play cards.

Well, we had no way of knowing that until, of course, they explained to us, we don't play cards.

Well, that's fine.

I don't think they were any worse off spiritually speaking because they didn't play cards and we weren't any better off spiritually because we did play cards.

You see what I'm saying?

I think there are going to be things where we have some personal uh judgment about whether we should participate or not that will not disrupt. Fellowship.

Now there are other matters, doctrinal matters I'm going to call them, that are not in the realm of expediency or personal liberty, but which do not affect our collective action.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

You may not agree with these examples, but one of them is the artificial covering for women.

If a woman wants to wear the covering, she does not prejudice anybody else.

She doesn't cause anybody else to sin.

If a woman chooses not to wear the covering, she decides that 211 Corinthians 210 doesn't mandate that covering under the circumstances today, but you've got two women who have different understandings of Scripture.

Now Scripture says something about that.

But you've got two people who have different conclusions about that particular practice, but it is an individual practice, and so each woman can practice her conviction on that subject without causing the other woman to sin, and I think there are other doctrinal matters like that.

There are some folks who think that it is absolutely wrong for a Christian to be part of the military, to be involved in carnal warfares, it's often described.

And then there are people who say, I think that's fine.

I think the Bible teaches that an individual can uphold justice and that's the purpose of the military, however you want to argue it, but there are people, Christians who are on both sides of that question.

But if one Christian decides I'm gonna enlist in the military that doesn't cause another Christian to sin that Christian can practice his or her conviction while this Christian likewise practices his or her conviction on that particular question and we can talk about other questions.

But I think you see the point.

And I'm going to give you a 13th category, and I think this is doctrinal matters that involve collective action, but there are no application in the local congregation.

For instance, There may be some Christians who worship in congregations where the music is a cappella, vocal music, but they wouldn't have a problem with instrumental music being used in worship.

They're not demanding that the church isn't doing that.

There's a difference of understanding and what's permitted or not permitted, but together what the congregation is doing is they're singing and they can all agree that that's scriptural.

It may be that there are some Christians who believe, you know what, I think that a church could take money out of its treasury and send it to an orphan's home, but they're not pushing for that.

The local congregation doesn't do that, but there's a difference of opinion about what could be done and what can't be done.

Can those people have fellowship?

Yes, I believe they can.

Unless, of course, it becomes an issue and there's division that's caused, we'll talk about that in just a few moments.

But hopefully, you see that there are some matters that involve collective action.

In other words, we're involved together in this particular activity.

And some may believe that it could be done, but it's not being done by the congregation.

They're agreed on something that both can agree is scriptural.

I think these kinds of disagreements.

are not evil as long as there continues to be an honest search for truth.

Uh, we don't have to agree with everything that is taught.

Now, I know, I know that everything that I say from this pulpit, everybody agrees with. Right?

That's just like me being, yeah, somebody gave me the thumbs up.

He just woke up, so he didn't know exactly what I said.

It's just like when I said I'm this close to perfect doctrinal understanding.

I fully believe that there are things I'm going to say that you may not agree with, and I, that doesn't, that doesn't bother me other than I would like for you to give me a hearing.

I'd like for you to consider what I'm saying, but you have to study the scriptures for yourself just like I do.

We all have that right and that responsibility.

In the search for truth on many subjects, we may find ourselves disagreeing on some important questions.

And yet I believe with reference to these areas we can still have fellowship one with another.

You don't have to disrupt fellowship.

Well, under what circumstances should we recognize that no fellowship does or can exist?

I'm going to suggest to you, uh, 21 different areas in which we cannot have fellowship.

One of them is we can't have fellowship in the teaching of error.

In Titus 21 verses 26 and 11, Paul said this to the young evangelist Titus, as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him.

So here's somebody's teaching.

Something that's causing division.

I'm assuming he's teaching something contrary to the scriptures, and Paul says warn him once, warn him twice, and then don't have anything to do with him.

No fellowship, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he's self-condemned.

Galatians 1:8-9 would suggest the same point.

Paul says, but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

We can't have fellowship with people who are preaching another gospel.

And there were some at Galatia in Galatia that were doing that.

As we have said before, Paul repeats himself, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Now, if somebody, we, we think somebody's teaching false doctrine, teaching error, we should be able to show clearly from the scriptures that that teaching is false.

None of this business of, well, I don't agree with so and so, so he's teaching error.

Error is determined by scripture, not by my opinions or your opinions or any man's opinions.

Sometimes men draw wild conclusions from scriptures and then act as though the Bible said what they think in so many words.

We need to make sure that our conclusions, our convictions are in fact based on scripture.

We can't have fellowship with those who are practicing error.

We talked about teaching error, but practicing error is also a problem.

In Ephesians 5:5 to 13, Paul again, the writer says, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is.

Covetous, that is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

That's someone who's walking in darkness.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, do not become partners with them.

You remember that the word coinonia, the word that is often translated fellowship, is in the ESV sometimes translated partnership.

Don't be partners with people who are practicing air.

Paul says.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk us children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Trying to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the fun, fruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Don't actively participate with, as he says here, the unfruitful works of darkness.

Expose them.

You can't have fellowship with that.

Lest you become sharers in God's wrath as well.

In 2 Corinthians 6:14, I may have given the wrong uh number on the scripture reading, I'm sure uh that Debbie got that wrong, but anyway, verse 14, Paul says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what?

Partnership, what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

They're diametrically opposed.

They don't walk together.

Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

What accord has Christ with Bal or what portion does an unbeliever share with a believer rather share with an.

Believer, what agreement has the temple of God with the idols, for we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So when people are walking in darkness, there's no fellowship between those people and those who are walking in life.

And then 3rd, John says we shouldn't endorse error.

It's not necessarily that we're involved in the error in committing the error, but we shouldn't even encourage it or endorse it.

He says in 2 John verses 9 to 11.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

Here's verse 10.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, what teaching?

Well, the teaching of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

You don't assist him in teaching something that is false.

Not even to the point of acting as a host for this person, we understand that in those days, uh, there wasn't a Holiday Inn Express on every corner and so when people would travel from one place to another, often they would be hosted.

By uh those who were uh either willing to host strangers or if they were Christians, uh, fellow Christians, etc.

John says don't receive him into your house if he's teaching some other doctrine.

Don't give him any greeting that is uh the idea of a uh of uh supporting his teaching for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

You become one who is having partnership sharing in that error.

And so in short, don't be partakers in other men's sins.

I mean, I think that's kind of a conclusion, uh, from these other passages.

First Timothy 5 says, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others.

Keep your.

Self cure there was more than one purpose for the laying on of hands.

We understand that the apostles sometimes would give gifts, spiritual gifts, miraculous spiritual gifts to individuals by the laying on of hands, but the laying on of hands was also done in the sense of appointing somebody to a particular task.

Paul tells Timothy, Don't be hasty in the laying on of hands.

Don't take part in the sins of others.

This is why matters involving the treasury, a local church's treasury, are frequently areas of division.

Because on Sunday, when you and I lay by in store, we become a part of whatever is done with that treasury.

That's what John's talking about.

That's what Paul's talking about.

And so if the church, the local congregation that I'm putting money into the treasury for the work of the Lord, if that congregation begins doing things that are not authorized by scripture, I'm part of it.

I'm supporting it.

By my contribution on the first day of the week.

And that's why elders need to keep the congregation informed about what's being done with the treasury.

You have not only the right to know, you have the responsibility to know, so that you're not involved in something that is sinful.

You don't want to be a partner.

A sharer In unauthorized behaviors.

Any collective activity with which we cannot agree and are forced to participate in would necessarily disrupt fellowship.

If you come here on Wednesday, thinking, well, we're gonna go ahead and uh we'll have the invitation and then we'll sing a song and then we'll go to our classes and right up here, there's an organ up here.

You come in and, and somebody sits down and says, well, we're gonna, we're gonna play the first song.

What's going to happen?

Well, first of all, there's gonna be a rebellion, I suspect.

He'll brethren here will stand up and say, no, we're not, because that's not authorized.

But if the elders decided we're gonna have this organ and we're gonna have people play, it would disrupt our fellowship, wouldn't it?

Because we can't participate in this collective activity of worshiping God in an unauthorized manner.

The Bible doesn't authorize instrumental music.

It tells us to sing and make melody in our hearts.

Let me conclude this evening.

By saying I think they're in, in, in questions of fellowship take place, there are at least two important characteristics that we need to pay attention to.

One is a love for the truth.

The only way we'll end up walking with God is if we love the truth, if we want to be in the light, even as he is light, and charity.

Love and understanding for brethren.

Brothers and sisters, I think sometimes we are too quick to draw lines of fellowship when it's not necessary.

Because somebody disagrees with us on something.

Oh, you know, so and so is a lake gator.

And so immediately we jumped to the question of whether or not we can have fellowship with those individuals.

I'm certain that some brethren.

Including me, are sometimes inconsistent in deciding where we should draw lines of fellowship in areas of differences.

I think we need to be charitable toward one another rather than jumping to conclusions.

I freely confess that there are some questions.

For which I am not sure I have the answers.

I know that's shocking to all of you, but I would also counsel all of us to act with caution when we're talking about the spiritual condition of others.

Because walking in the light is a general behavior in life, and sometimes we don't have all the information we need.

What difference does it make?

What difference does it make if we recognize fellowship with someone where no fellowship really exists?

I think two dangers happen.

One is that we may implicitly support a brother's sins, and Paul says don't participate in others' sins.

Don't support it.

Don't be a part of it.

And then secondly, I think there's the possibility of compromising our own fellowship with God.

What happens when we participate in somebody else's sins?

Well, if we continue in that, we end up in darkness ourselves.

And if we say that we have fellowship with God when we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, John says in 1 John 1 and in verse 6.

Narrow-minded Well, the scriptures demand that we be narrow-minded in some respects, that we can't just extend fellowship however we might, but rather, we need to observe the boundaries of fellowship that God has placed before us.

I'll tell you how narrow-minded God is.

His son came to this earth and said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

And he said, no one comes to the Father except through me.

Tell you what, that's pretty narrow-minded.

That's pretty exclusive.

But Jesus says, there's just one way, and I am that way.

How many ways?

Just one.

And that's why the apostles preach there's salvation and no one else.

There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

That's narrow.

It doesn't allow us to just decide where we're going to find salvation.

Salvation is through Christ.

It's in Christ, in the relationship that we have with Him when we obey the gospel.

There's just one path to forgiveness for the individual who's not a Christian, and the question this evening is, have you taken that path?

Are you walking with God?

Are you walking in the light?

So that you have fellowship.

With the God who created this universe and who so much wants your salvation.

If we can assist you in obeying the gospel this evening, we certainly want to encourage you and we stand and sing to do so.

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 today will be Psalm 32 verses 1 through 6.

Psalm 103 verses 1 through 6.

I'll be reading from the ESV.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dry, as by the heat of the summer.

I acknowledge my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him.

Good morning.

I want to begin our study this morning by telling you a couple of stories from the Old Testament.

Both stories are set in the final years of the southern kingdom of Judah.

Josiah was the last good king of Judah.

There weren't many, but he was the last.

And after he died in battle at Megiddo at the hand of the Egyptians, 3 of his sons and 1 grandson ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah.

None of them were good kings, as I've already suggested.

Jehoahaz was the 1st, and he was on the throne only for 3 months before the Egyptian pharaoh came through and replaced him with his brother Eliakim.

whose name was changed to Jehoiakim, and he ruled for 11 years.

We're going to talk about him in just a moment.

Jehoa Kim's son, whose name was Jehoa Chin, I know it's confusing, would succeed Jehoa Kim, but he would only rule for about 3 months, and then he would be replaced by his uncle, uh Zedekiah, another son of Josiah.

During the reign, uh, toward the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, who was a wicked king, Jeremiah the prophet instructed the scribe Baruch, who apparently was associated with Jeremiah through much of his ministry, instructed him to write down on a scroll, the various prophecies that Jeremiah had made against the nation of Judah.

Talking about their sins and the impending judgment that was coming for the nation of Judah.

Baruch was instructed to go and to read the contents of this scroll in the temple.

And when he did, some of the officials of Jehoiakim's administration heard what he had to say.

And they arranged for the king to be told about these words that had been read in the temple, and the king.

instructed the scroll to be brought to him.

And so it was.

That the scroll was brought and began to be read to him, but as it was read, Jehoa Kim would use a scribe's knife and he just cut part of the scroll and he'd chunk it into a fire pot that was heating this winter house.

That's the time frame of the year when this story took place.

That picture is not very accurate, but it's the best that mid journey could do.

Jehoiakim was still a relatively young man.

I don't know if that gray beard looks a little old to me.

But at any rate, he basically cuts this scroll into pieces and burns the entire thing.

And Jeremiah chapter 36 and verse 233, suggests that neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid.

Nor did they tear their garments.

Jehoiakim basically.

saw all of the things that Jeremiah had to say about the sins of the people is no big thing.

Disdain for it.

That's the first story.

The second story is actually about Jehoiakim's father, Josiah.

Josiah was a good king, very different from his son Jehoakim.

When Josiah came to the throne fairly early in his reign, he began to repair the temple that had fallen into disrepair, and during those repairs, Hilkiah the priest found a book.

It was the book of the law.

It seems, although the text doesn't explain this, but it seems likely that this book, it's the law of Moses, the Pentateuch, that it had been hidden in the temple during the time of Josiah's father, the King Ammon, who was an extremely wicked individual.

And so the book had probably been hidden, hidden to preserve it, but it's been found.

And Hilkayah brings the book.

To the king, Josiah, and the Book of the Law was read to Josiah and his response to the Teaching of the Lord and the wickedness of the nation as it existed at that time is extremely different.

In fact, the opposite of Jehoki.

Josiah tore his clothes, and he instructs officials to go and inquire of the prophetess, Holder that he might find out.

What's going to happen to the nation?

Two very different reactions.

Jehoiakim, who says, I don't worry about it, cuts the scroll, burns it, no big thing.

And Josiah, who tears his clothes and humbles himself, and with tears and chores of the Lord.

What's going to happen to a disobedient nation?

Well, this morning, I want to talk to you about the attitude that we have towards sin.

Some people say, well, it's just no big thing.

Don't worry about it.

But I want to talk to you uh from the scriptures about the fact that God takes sin very seriously, and I think we ought to have the same attitude.

And I want to give examples, at least one or two, of how we might minimize in our own lives the seriousness of sin.

In order to appreciate the seriousness of sin, we really need to spend some time identifying what we mean by sin.

Now you may think, oh yeah, that's easy, but I would suggest to you that the scriptures describe sin with a number of different words.

I'm going to focus on the New Testament, and there are at least 8 different words that are Used to describe sin or some aspect of sin.

I'm not going to trouble you with Greek words this morning, but I do want to give you what are probably the etymological or literal meanings of these words and then the English translation that you find in, say, for instance, the ESV.

The first one is a word that literally means an overstepping.

And the new, uh, the ESV translates that word as transgression in numerous places, Hebrews 2:2 is one of those places.

It's interesting that in that same verse, there's another word that is translated disobedience, but it literally means an unwillingness to hear, which obviously then results in disobedience.

In Romans, the first chapter in verse 18, Paul wrote, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

That word ungodliness there signifies a lack.

of reverence toward God.

It is a compound Greek word that says not reverence is basically the, the meaning of that, and it is as suggested by the verse here, translated ungodliness.

One of the most common words.

That is used or a word that's used frequently I should say, is found in First John 3:4 and it's translated lawlessness, and again it's the negative for lawless or for lawful I should say, not lawkeeping, lawlessness.

It's a contempt for and a violation of law.

In that same verse, 1 John 3 and verse 4, there's another word, and it is the most common word translated sin in the New Testament.

It's the word and it means a missing of the mark.

That's its etymological meaning, although it seems that etymological meaning has kind of been lost in the New Testament.

It is the idea of a missing of the mark.

Violating one's conscience is also sin.

This word is usually translated sin.

Another word is means a loss with respect to salvation, the idea of a loss, and it is translated in Romans 13:12, failure.

But if you begin reading that verse, there's another word there that also refers to sin.

It's the word trespass, and it is the translation of a word that means a lapse or deviation from truth.

And so sometimes it's translated trespass, sometimes it's translated offense, but that's the idea behind the word.

And then finally, There's a word in James 5:20.

That means a forsaking of the right path, a wandering, and that's how the ESB translates the word in fact.

Let him know that whoever brings a sinner back from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

I wanted to share with you these eight words because they give us different pictures.

Of what sin is, we can maybe summarize them quickly in other terms by saying that sin is the act of one who refuses to hear or is ignorant of God's law.

Sin is the result of a lack of respect and reverence for God.

We see that in one of the words that's translated for sin, a failure to hit the target set by God.

God's law is his target, acting as though one is without law, lawlessness, and overstepping or wandering away or straying from the right path.

God's will gives us that path, identifies it, a false step or deviation from truth, the idea of transgressing, walking across outside the boundaries, and it is a failure, a defeat.

And so when you see all of that, you get several different ideas that the New Testament puts together to describe sin.

But I think probably the easiest definition for sin is simply that it's a violation of God's law, a violation of God's law.

In fact, you really can't talk about sin in any of those definitions, hardly, without saying something or referencing divine law.

And the reason for that Is that divine law is what identifies sin.

Sin is the violation of divine law.

Paul says that repeatedly in the book of Romans, in chapter 3 and verse 20, he says, through the law comes knowledge of sin.

In chapter 5 and verse 13, he says, sin is not counted where there is no law.

If sin is a violation of God's law, then if there's not a law given, there's no sin.

Anytime someone has committed sin, there's a law that has been violated either by transgression or omission.

And then finally, in chapter 7, verse 7, he says, Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.

The law identifies sin by indicating what is required and what is forbidden.

Well, I want to spend the rest of our time talking about the seriousness of sin.

And I'm going to suggest to you 203 ways in which we see the seriousness of sin, and the first one is seen in its consequences.

The Bible suggests that when individuals sin, Although we are born innocent, at some point, we learn or become responsible to God's law.

And when we sin, we are separated from God by that sin.

Isaiah chapter 59, kind of a classic passage to make this point.

Yet, the prophet wrote in verse one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Isaiah's writing about the nation.

But the principle that he reveals here about the effect of sin also applies to you and I as individuals, that when we sin, when we live in sin, we're separated from God.

And there are numerous passages that talk about that separation, and many of them in the figure of death.

James writes in chapter 2 of James in verse 26, that as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

And so when the spirit leaves the body, the body is dead.

Death is the separation of body and spirit.

Or if you please, in a figurative sense, spiritual death is that separation between man as a sinner and the God who created him.

And so sin, its first consequence is that it separates us from God.

Isaiah says, it's not that God can't help you.

It's not that God doesn't know what's happening to you.

The problem is your sin has caused him to turn his face away from you.

Well, somebody might ask, why does man have to be separated from God by his sins?

After all, God can do whatever he wants, right?

He's God.

Why can't God just ignore our sins?

The answer to that question is because he's God, but that's not all I want to say about that.

The reason God doesn't just ignore our sins like an indulgent parent or grandparent who tells a child, don't do this, and then the child goes ahead and misbehaves, and we say, oh well, that's OK, don't worry about it.

So we weren't really serious about the behavior in the first place because we allow misbehavior without any kind of repercussions or consequences.

But God's not like that.

There are actually two characteristics of God's nature that I think answer this question, why God just doesn't ignore our sins?

And those characteristics are his justice.

And His Holiness.

There are so many passages in the Old Testament and New Testament that talk about the fact that God is a just God.

And if God says that this is sin, this is my will, and if you don't do that, that's sin, and the punishment for that sin is death, then if he doesn't carry through with that promise, he's not a just God.

And so that's why I say the characteristic of God that he's a just God requires that sin not be ignored, but that in fact it be dealt with.

And the other quality is His holiness.

If you look at uh Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 4 in the Song of Moses that he records there, He wrote, The Rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

There are other passages that talk about the holiness of God and the consequence for God's special people.

For instance, in Leviticus the 19th chapter, verse 2, speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.

And Leviticus 11:14 is quoted in 103 Peter 1:17, as I recall, I'm sorry, 15.

Where God says, Peter writes, quoting from Leviticus 11, you be holy, for I am holy.

God is holy.

He is.

As First John 1:5 will say, he is light and in him is no darkness at all.

I think that's a concept that's a little difficult for us to wrap our heads around because We ourselves and everybody who surrounds us.

It's not that way Each of us eventually sins, we all fall short of God's law.

There's darkness in us in the sense that darkness represents wickedness, evil or sin.

But God is absolutely holy, no darkness, no sin, no wickedness.

That's just different from everything that we see around us, and even in ourselves.

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.

And as John would continue.

In verse one, God will not have fellowship with, He will not have union with darkness, because he is light.

In the sense of His Holiness.

Sin separates us from God.

That's one of the consequences.

That's a temporal consequence.

We'll say more about things later, other things later, other consequences.

But David felt that separation, I think keenly.

When he was separated from God after his sin with Bathsheba, appreciated the reading that Leo did of Psalm 32, verses 3 and 4 says, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

David felt intensely.

His separation from God.

No, I don't believe because God was uh afflicting him physically.

I suppose that's a possibility, but I'm not sure that's what he's saying here.

I think David felt this way because he knew what the effect of sin is.

That it stood between him and the god.

that he worshiped and served.

Psalm 313, likewise, talks about an individual who's living in sin.

David writes, there's no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, there's no health in my bones because of my sin.

My iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden.

They are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness.

I'm utterly bowed down and prostrate all the day.

I go about mourning, for my sides are filled with burning, and there's no soundness in my flesh.

I'm feeble and crushed.

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

David knew If he had sinned And that that sin had separated him from his God.

And so he talks about how he feels about that separation.

So, the seriousness of sin is seen in the consequence that it separates us from God, from the God who is all light and goodness.

And of great love and grace.

And we are separated from him by our sins.

Secondly, the seriousness of sin is seen in its punishment, both temporal and eternal.

In Romans, the first chapter, verse 18, we looked at this passage a little bit earlier as we looked at the word ungodliness.

Paul wrote, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress, suppress the truth.

God's wrath is expressed against ungodliness and unrighteousness.

And we see that In God's book Genesis 6.

God looks at the world and the thoughts of men are only evil continually.

Noah and his family are the only exception, it appears in all of humanity, and God wipes the earth clean with a flood, a global flood.

Not long after Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.

The city of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Babylonians, not because the Babylonians happen to be stronger than the Jews, but because God punished a people who refused to follow His will, who sinned against His covenant time and time again and would not return.

And you see a replay of that same judgment in 8070 when the Romans would come and destroy the city of Jerusalem following the death and ascension of Jesus.

God's wrath against sin is seen in those temporal judgments and many other stories, uh, indications, examples that we could show in the Old Testament and New.

But there's a more serious punishment.

And that is eternal death.

Death again in the term, in terms of separation.

In 210 Thessalonians 210, Paul is writing to a congregation of Christians who are relatively new.

They had been converted by the preaching of Paul and others.

On the 223nd missionary journey, Paul has had to leave Thessalonica.

He comes to Corinth eventually, and he writes back to this new church.

They're being persecuted and he wants to encourage them to stand firm.

And so he reminds them that God is going to provide rest for them.

But he says, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at, look at verse 21.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his mind.

The word that's translated destruction, there is not a word that refers to annihilation.

You just cease to exist.

That's what some groups teach.

It is a word that talks about ruin.

Destruction in that sense.

And the future of those who sin against God and do not receive forgiveness, is that they're going to be separated, ruined.

eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord for how long?

For eternity.

In Matthew, the 220th, 210th chapter, there's a story there of Jesus as he describes the final judgment in terms of sheep and goats, everybody standing before the Lord.

And he says to the goats on his left, he says, depart from me, you cursed, verse 23, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

And these, he says then in verse 22, will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

How serious is sin?

Punishment for sin is eternal destruction is eternal punishment.

Let that sink in.

That's hard for us to wrap our heads around the concept of eternity because everything around us is temporal.

It's temporary.

Finally, the seriousness of sin is seen in the solution that God sought for sin.

The cost of redemption.

Redemption is the principle or the idea of the paying of a ransom price.

You, you would, in the first century, if you were redeeming a slave, you, you paid the price for him to be freed from his slavery.

When men sin, when we live in sin, we are in the bondage of sin, as the Bible describes that.

What God did is he paid the price for our freedom.

Freedom through the forgiveness of our sins, the removal of the guilt that comes with the commission of sin.

And that price, that ransom price for our freedom from sin was the life of Jesus.

That's what the cross is all about.

The cross is not about punishment.

It's about redemption.

It's about a sin sacrifice.

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many that we could be freed from the forgiveness, from the bondage of sin by forgiveness.

Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter 237 and verse 22 that Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present age.

Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22 is a very important verse.

It tells us that remission of sins, forgiveness of sins requires the shedding of blood, the, the giving of a life, and that's what Jesus did on the cross.

John says it this way, and this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

I want you to think about the fact.

That the Creator, God the Son, instrumental in creation.

That he came to this earth.

And his own creation put him to death.

Think about God in the flesh.

And what man did to him.

Many of us have pets And as pet owners, unless of course you own a cat, as pet owners we control our pets, right?

We feed them, take them out, uh, we take them to the vet or do all the things that they need.

What if you were the pet?

What if you became the pet?

What if you became dependent upon the very one?

That in the past you had taken care of and had complete power over.

Now you're beginning to understand what Jesus did.

God Comes down in human flesh.

And is vilely treated.

By the very ones who are his creation.

And this is love, not that we have loved God.

But that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.

There needed to be a life given.

We couldn't do that for ourselves.

Jesus did it for us.

He was propitiation in that sense.

In Ephesians chapter one.

The apostle Paul says in him, speaking of Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, which he lavished, uh, excuse me, according to the riches of His grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.

He lavished his grace upon us.

His tender mercies in the gift of Christ.

That's how we know the seriousness of sin, that God was willing to do what we've just described.

Because we are sinners, and that was the only way that he could restore us to fellowship, union with Him.

Well, the expression ain't no big thing.

You know, people say stuff like that when they say, well, it's not important.

I'm not worried about it.

And it may be that we don't make that kind of a comment about sin.

We wouldn't say those very things.

But I wonder if sometimes we don't indicate by our attitude or our actions.

That very concept, oh, that's no big thing.

When we're rebuked for sin, is our reaction more like Jehoiakim's, ah, just burned the scroll.

Don't worry about it.

Or is it more like Josiah, who tore his clothes?

humbled himself before the Lord.

I'm going to give you one illustration for the sake of time.

And it has to do with the Lord's Supper.

We understand from New Testament teaching that on the first day of the week, disciples are to gathered together and they are to participate in a memorial and a proclamation of the Lord's death.

We see the example in Acts 20 and 7 of the disciples that Trohaz along with Paul and his companions coming together on the first day of the week, and they were observing the Lord's Supper.

In fact, in that text, chapter 20 and verse 7 of Acts, it's clear that that's the purpose for which those disciples had come together.

When they gathered, the disciples gathered to break bread.

We gather and do other things, but the purpose for our gathering on Sunday morning.

At this congregation, that's the time that we've sat.

is to partake of the Lord's Supper.

And yet sometimes.

People act as though if they just missed Sunday morning and don't take the Lord's supper, that is kind of a trivial thing.

Don't worry about it.

Oh, they'll always be next Sunday, and I'll be back next Sunday.

And so people make excuses for why they can't be here.

It's too much trouble.

Whatever Just missed the church service, no big deal.

Is it no big thing to fail to observe the Lord's Supper?

When we take the Lord's supper, we are commemorating the most important event in human history.

There's nothing else that even comes close.

It was a seminal event in the sense of God's redemptive plan.

Without that, everything else falls apart.

Oh, well, there's always next Sunday.

Don't worry about the fact that I wasn't here.

I didn't take the Lord's supper. Really?

No big thing.

If you have the opportunity to be here on Sunday morning and to partake of the Lord's Supper, and you don't avail yourself of that opportunity, friends, that's sin.

Because that's what the Lord requires of us as, as much as we're able to do.

I understand there are times when people can't be here by reason of sickness.

I understand that.

We travel.

I'm just saying to you, don't consider the Lord's supper and being here on Sunday morning as some sort of trivial, don't worry about it, it's no big thing, concept.

Because what we're talking about is sin.

What about other sins that maybe we commit?

Do we mentally separate sins into big sins and little sins?

Mike has talked about that in a couple or 373 sermons over the last several months.

Because we have a tendency sometimes to think about some sins as big sins, important things, or I would never do that, and then we minimize other sins.

And we act as though it's not really all that important.

But I really don't see in the New Testament where some sins will cause you to be separated from God.

And then there are other sins that are just so trivial, so unimportant that they don't matter.

Are some sins hardly worth worrying about?

I do want to be clear that I'm not saying that every person who sins has some sort of cavalier attitude towards sin.

The Bible says in Romans 3:23, for all that sinned and fall short of the glory of God, we're all sinners in the sense that we occasionally commit sin, even Christians.

First John 1 and verse 10 says, if we say we're not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

I'm not talking about the fact that people sin, I'm talking about the attitude that we have toward our own sins.

How does it affect us?

Jehoiakim. Don't worry about it.

Josiah tore his clothes, humbled himself before God.

was concerned about what was going to happen.

Let me say again, I'm not saying that every person who sins has a cavalier attitude towards sin, but some people do.

Hopefully not us.

Proverbs, I've been spending a lot of time in Proverbs over the last couple of weeks.

Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool.

Proverbs chapter 10 verse 23, 1st part of the verse.

Fool mock at sin.

On television, and particularly this is true of comedians, stand-up comedians, they love to laugh at sin sin is not a laughing matter.

It's a serious matter.

And people are going to be tormented for eternity because They thought sin was just a big joke.

They thought it didn't matter that God somehow is going to just forget about it like some sort of indulgent grandparent.

That's not the truth.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

And so may I suggest to you this morning that sin As a violation of the will of our Creator is a serious thing, and God will pursue justice because he is holy.

And he expects that of us.

We need to understand the seriousness of sin lest we end up.

In the midst of the group who's traveling the Broadway that leads to destruction.

Because many of them don't think sin is very important at all.

As we've already suggested earlier, eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord.

is the penalty for sin.

The second death, as Revelation 20 calls it.

Hebrews 10:31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

When you look at the way God expressed his wrath against, in a temporal sense, against the wickedness of people in the, in past history, it's good for us.

To recognize the fearfulness of falling into the hands of God.

But the Bible also says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The same God who says I will punish wickedness is the same God.

Who sent his son.

To die on the cross.

As a ransom for our sins.

In Acts 2, when the the Jews that were gathered there in the temple on the day of Pentecost heard these apostles preaching.

They were cut to the heart, Luke says in verse 37 of Acts 2, and they asked the question, Brothers, what shall we do?

Here were people who realized the seriousness of their sins.

And the answer of Peter was repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That's the exact same invitation.

That's the exact same command.

It's the exact same gospel that we preach today.

And for those who understand the seriousness of their situation, if they're still living in sin.

God provides that plan.

for forgiveness, for eternal life.

If you need to respond to the gospel this morning, Please understand that you have the opportunity now to do that.

We don't know how much more opportunity we'll have.

Sin is serious.

It really needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

If we can assist you this morning in obeying the gospel, we're going to stand and sing an invitation song in just a moment to encourage you.

If you'll come to the front, we'll assist you in obeying the gospel or if you need the prayers of the congregation here.

Then we'll pray with you.

We stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

If you'd like to turn to Psalm 27.

Psalm 27.

The Psalm of David.

I'll be reading from the New King James.

The Lord is my light.

And my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

Though war may rise against me.

In this, I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I see that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle.

He shall hide me.

He shall set me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me.

Therefore, I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle.

I will sing.

Yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Here, oh Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me.

When you said, seek my face, my heart said to you, your face, Lord, I will seek.

Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my help.

Do you leave me?

Nor you do not leave me, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me.

Then the Lord will take care of me.

Teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies.

Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me and such as breathe out violence.

I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord.

As has already been said, we are so grateful for those of you who are visiting with us this morning.

I've noticed as people were coming in, some familiar faces from other places and uh we're always glad to have you with us and some from the communities around, and we are grateful that you've come our way and that you've chosen to worship with us this morning.

I want to encourage you to open your Bibles.

Uh, as we study together from God's word.

I want to begin this morning by asking the simple question, if you could have anything in the world, anything, What would be the one thing that you would want?

Just one thing, but what would it be?

Would it be financial security?

A lot of people are chasing after that.

That's the big thing for them.

I want to make sure that I have enough for the rest of my life or long life.

I want to live to be whatever age.

Or good health.

The one thing I want is I want to enjoy my days.

I want good health.

Or maybe you just need better hair.

And so maybe that's the one thing.

King David answered that question.

I suppose our answers would depend on the context in which the question was asked.

But in Psalm 27, the Psalm that Ralph just read for us, David answers that question for himself.

One thing he writes, have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

Now, as king of the physical nation of Israel, David had a number of other desires, I'm sure.

I'm sure he wanted or wished for military success, economic prosperity for the nation, for the people that he governed.

Uh, I'm sure he wished for a successor to the throne, one of his sons to sit in his place when he was gone.

But I think what David is saying in Psalm 27, in fact, he makes several requests in Psalm 27 as you follow along in the reading, but what he's saying in verse 6003 is, this is the most important thing.

This is what I really need most of all, and that is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

I think there are times probably in the lives of most of us, if we've lived very long when we find ourselves under a determined attack by unrighteous people.

It could occur in all sorts of circumstances and or relationships, but sooner or later, we find there are people who really just don't like us.

They resent us for what we stand for, or in some way, they just are selfish enough that they want to gain an advantage over us.

And it's sometimes because of the circumstances may seem that uh we're going to be overwhelmed by evil.

People will lie about us to gain some advantage over us in business and other relationships.

And in such circumstances, Psalm 27 is a good psalm to read.

Trevor Longman in his commentary on this Psalm, made this comment.

He said, Psalm 27 is a lament with a strong undercurrent of trust that God will take care of the psalmist when trouble comes.

The tone is confident, not desperate, but still, the psalmist is aware that he is in danger and needs God's presence and guidance to weather the storm.

I think that's a pretty good summary of Psalm 27, and it's my intention this morning to look at the 27th Psalm and to see the confidence of the psalmist as he writes about his relationship with God.

Another individual wrote that this Psalm suggests that God's presence will sustain, save, and satisfy those who call out to Him and indeed wait on Him.

And so this morning, I want to provide some background information to Psalm 27, authorship and structure, that sort of thing.

And I want to talk about the main objective of the psalmist and his counsel to his readers.

The title this morning, Wait for the Lord is actually taken from the ESV.

Our song that we sing, The Lord Is My Light, is taken from the New King James Version, I believe.

It's Wait on the Lord.

There's no difference in the meaning there, but that's the reason for the title.

I began a series of psalms fairly recently, and the first lesson in that series was simply uh an introduction to the Psalms, so that we'd have some background for the Psalms as a collection uh before we began talking about specific psalms.

And one of the things that we noted in that sermon is that if you look in your Bible, it's very likely.

That the translation you're using divides the Psalms into 5 books.

We don't normally think of the Book of Psalms as being 5 books of Psalms, but Psalm 27 is in the book one collection of those Psalms.

Many would suggest that there's a trilogy here that really worked together well, 26, 60003, and 28.

Those Psalms seem to work together well, but I'm not going to talk about all three of them.

We're just going to talk this morning about Psalm 27.

In your Bibles, you may uh have noted that the author is listed as David or some versions will just say of David.

The superscription is typically considered to be ancient and accurate, that is, the little titles that you'll see in your translation above the actual text of the Psalm.

Virtually all the manuscripts that are available of the Psalms include those inscriptions, and as I said, they are typically considered by Bible scholars to be accurate.

There's really no reason to doubt this one, although, With Davidic Psalms, it is sometimes difficult for us to connect the, the things that are said in the Psalm with some sort of specific event in David's life.

Now, there are some psalms where it's pretty obvious, uh, that David is talking.

Talking about some event that is recorded in the historical books of the Old Testament, but Psalm 27 is not one of those.

He speaks in rather general terms, particularly in the beginning of the Psalm about some of the things that he is facing.

When you look at the Psalms, and try to classify them according to their type or category, the broadest classifications are that Psalms tend to be either psalms of praise or psalms of lament.

And of course, there are subcategories or subdivisions in each of those uh types of categories, but I'm going to suggest to you that Psalm 27 is a lament.

David talks about his enemies.

He talks about those who are trying to destroy him.

Excuse me.

Even though he also expresses comfort, uh, in this song, his confidence in the Lord, but I believe the song probably belongs to the lament category.

And within that category, there are individual laments where the author of a song The Psalm is specifically meaning lamenting his situation, but there are also some psalms where the lament is of a community or national nature, where the writer is talking about what's happening to the people of God as a nation as a whole.

One commentator by the name of Boyce made this comment.

He said, Psalm 27 is one of the best known and most comforting psalms in the Psalter.

But it is hard to know whether it is chiefly a psalm of confidence written against the black or dark black background of David's many enemies, or chiefly a lament in which David cries out for help against implacable foes.

The reason for the confusion is obvious.

He goes on to say, the first half of the Psalm, the 1st 6 verses, exudes confidence.

The second half is a very moving prayer.

So there seems to be some elements of both praise and lament, but I'm going to suggest to you that this is primarily a lament song.

Sometimes when you're studying books or even passages within books of the Bible, it's helpful to look at the structure of the passage.

Sometimes structure has a tendency to help us understand the message.

I could give you illustrations from the New Testament.

But I'm just going to say that in this particular Psalm, structure will help us understand the message.

But there are different ways of looking at the structure or the divisions of a passage.

If you've looked in your Bible, you probably have noticed in the Uh, the Psalms that your Bible translation often will divide the Psalm into paragraphs.

There'll be a little extra space between certain verses to indicate that the translators think that there's some sort of a change of thought from one verse to the next verse.

And so, for instance, in the ESB, You'll see that the divisions are as I put them here on the screen.

And to be honest with you, I'm not very impressed with the ESB's structure divisions.

It's not very helpful to say the first six verses are all a separate paragraph.

They do group some of the second half.

Of the Psalm verses 7 through 14.

The New King James Version does a little better job and groups the 303st 3 verses, which seem to me clearly to be together, a unit as one division, and then they divide some others.

45, and 6 are divided, and yet I think again.

belong together.

The New American Standard Bible divides the Psalm into 4 sections, and that's the way we're going to approach it this morning in our study.

And there are different ways of dividing even in that sense.

For instance, uh, one particular commentator divides it into two sections, and he does that on the basis of pronouns.

Did you notice?

That in the beginning of the Psalm, the psalmist is talking about God.

But then beginning in verse 7, he begins talking to God.

There's a change from third person.

Oh, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

That's about the Lord.

And then he says, teach me your way, for instance, in verse 11, but that change of pronouns to the second Second person singular is in the second half of the Psalm, and so some have suggested that's kind of a natural division in the Psalm here and Waltner, this particular commentator, even divides it into 4 sections, the two major sections into 2 sections, uh, minor sections apiece, and I'm going to follow that same division, although I like the way that voice.

categorizes or describes each of these sections.

And so that's what we'll do is we examine the text, we're gonna look at the soul's confidence in the first three verses, the soul's desire, David writes about his desire, his desire to live all his days in the house of the Lord, the Lord's prayer, and the soul's prayer rather, in verses 7 to 0003, and then finally, the soul's prescription in verses 13 and 14.

So let's spend some time talking about these different sections.

It's interesting that in verse one, and we're not going to necessarily talk about every verse individually in detail, but verse one is interesting because it's a good example of Hebrew parallelism.

The two statements that are made there are very similar.

The second one tends to reinforce the first.

Both of them contain rhetorical questions.

Since the Lord is my light and my salvation is the sense of the, this first sentence, whom shall I fear?

If the Lord is my light and my salvation, there's no reason to fear anyone.

If the Lord is the stronghold or the refuge or the strength of my life, those are different uh translations by various uh translators, of whom shall I be afraid?

And so he basically says the same thing twice.

The second phrase or part, essentially reinforcing the first, that's Hebrew parallelism.

You know, it's interesting that this may be the only place in the Old Testament where the Lord is light.

Light is often associated with God, but this is kind of a unique statement.

And what it does is it reminds us of some other statements in the New Testament that perhaps suggest the fulfillment of Jesus of this same quality.

Do you remember in John's prologue in his Gospel, that he begins in verse 8 by saying, he was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

John the Baptist wasn't the light, but Jesus was the light who came into the world.

And so he says to his disciples in John 14, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

Darkness is often associated in the scriptures with disorder and confusion, and, and eventually evil.

Wicked deeds, Jesus says in John 3, are done in the dark and the light exposes them.

Light gives direction.

It provides guidance to those who receive it.

And so, uh, when the writer says, when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, My adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

Though an army in camp against me, my heart shall not fear.

The war rise against me, yet I will be confident.

I'm not sure that David is talking about any specific battle that he faced.

There were several occasions where he fought against great odds.

I think he's just saying in general that I can be confident because God is on my side.

And that probably reminds you, as it did me, of Romans the 8th chapter.

At the end of Romans 8 and verses 37 to 39, the apostle Paul talks about the fact that if God is for us, then who can be against us?

He says in verse 143, knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am 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.

That pretty much covers the bases, doesn't it?

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If the Lord is my light and my salvation, if he's my stronghold, then who should I fear in this life?

Well, the second section, the soul's desire begins with the passage that we introduced uh in the very beginning of our study.

David says, one thing if I asked of the Lord that I may seek after, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

Now, I understand, and you do as well, I suspect that the word house can sometimes mean household.

It can refer to all the people who might live in the same house or in the same clan, so to speak.

The household of Abraham was a huge household, but I'm persuaded in this passage that David is actually talking about the place where people went to worship.

God, the house of the Lord, because he mentions several words that seem to imply the same thing.

He talks about the house in verse 4, and verse 4, he also mentions the temple, in verse 5, the shelter, and then the tent in verse 5, and also in verse 6.

I think we tend to emphasize, I hope it's clear to all of us, that God's presence isn't confined to this building, that this is where we come to meet God.

And so when we leave here, you know, God can't see what's going on.

When we go to our homes, you know, God's not watching because, you know, he lives in the building.

That that's a, that's a, an erroneous concept, that idea that God's presence is everywhere.

One of the Psalms that we will talk about is Psalm 139, where David makes that observation that you can't escape from the presence of God.

But in the Old Testament, the tabernacle, and then later the temple functioned in a rather specific way with respect to the presence of God.

The actual sanctuary of the tabernacle was surrounded by a courtyard, a curtained courtyard, and in that sanctuary, that tent, there were two rooms, the holy place and the most holy place.

And probably many of us are aware that when you went in, and incidentally, you didn't go in unless you were the high priest, when you went into the most holy place, there was the Ark of the Covenant with the cherubim above it.

And that's where the Shakinah of God, the glory of God came down and met with man.

So there was a sense in which the presence of God was connected to the place where the people would worship.

And so, when David says that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, what he's saying is, I want to be in the presence of God.

And he associated the presence of God with the place of worship.

The temple hadn't been built yet.

Solomon, his son, David's son, would build the temple later on.

But there was a tent that was used for worship, and that's where David saw the presence of God and wanted to be in God's presence, as he says, all the days of my life.

Now, I'm gonna take these verses of this section, and I'm gonna rearrange them because I think there's a relationship here between the three verses that we need to see.

He says in verse 1, that this is what he seeks, this business of, uh, dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

But then in verse 5 and 6, at least the first part of the verse, he talks about the consequence of that.

I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to choir in his temple, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble.

He'll conceal me under the cover of his tent, and my head shall be lifted above my enemies all around me.

God is going to protect me.

He's going to shelter me.

He's going to keep me.

And then David talks about his response to that.

And so he says in the latter part of verse 163, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

And so, David says, this is what I want because this is the consequence of that, and this is my response to being in God's presence and receiving His protection and shelter.

Well, the third section in this Psalm is verses 7 through 12.

And as I said before, there's a shift to second person direct address, verse 7, hear, oh Lord, when I cry aloud from the beginning of the Psalms, uh, the, the Psalm in verse 213 where it's third person.

The prayer that David makes in verse 2600 is now developed into a prayer for those blessings which only the Lord can give.

This section here is what convinces me that this is a lament more so than just a Psalm of praise.

And maybe the key verses, verse 26000.

You know, it's interesting, I did some research.

I could not find any place in scripture that indicated that David's parents had forsaken him.

You may recall that when Saul was trying to kill David, after David had been anointed and, and Saul was jealous of David's, the praise that David was receiving, that David took his parents to another nation.

To keep them safe.

And so it was David who took his parents away, not his parents forsaking David.

And so, if you read in some other versions.

You'll see that the translators.

Translate verse 230 as a hypothetical statement.

That the psalmist, David is not saying, my parents have forsaken me, but rather what he's saying, if you will, uh, let us use the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation, even if my father and mother abandoned me, the Lord cares for me.

I think this is the lesser to the greater in a sense argument because we typically think of our parents as being those who would care the most for us, who would be the least likely to desert us.

I understand there are exceptions to that.

But that relationship between parents and child, that's such a, a, a strong relationship.

And David says if this version and the new international version as well, If these versions are translating correctly, then what David is saying is, even if my parents abandoned me, God won't abandon me.

And I tend to think that that's probably the sense of verse 2000.

But there's something else interesting about this section.

And again, it focuses on verse 214.

What do you expect from your parents?

What is it that we look for as children, particularly from our parents?

Well, we seek 6000 things.

And it's interesting that in this section, verses 227 through 24, David affirms that God provides all three of these things or 22 things, depending on how you count them.

The first one is that we seek acceptance from our parents, and that we want to be heard.

David would say in verses 7 through 9, hear, oh Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me.

You have said, seek my face.

My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek?

Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away.

In anger, oh, you who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not, oh God of my salvation.

I want you to accept me.

I want you to hear my prayers, what David is saying.

We seek guidance from our parents, or at least we should.

In verse 11, David says, teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me on in a level path because of my enemies.

And we seek protection from our parents, especially as younger children, we, we depend upon them to take care of us, to protect us, to care for us.

And so, David says in verse 12, give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.

And so all of the things.

that we would normally associate with the relationship between parent and child, David says, that's what I want from God.

That's what God provides.

In verse 12.

That's an interesting version.

It may.

be able to be connected to something that happened to David in his life.

David's son Absalom was responsible for the murder of his firstborn, Amnon.

Amnon should have been punished for the sexual assault that he perpetrated against his half-sister, Tamar.

David didn't do that.

Absalom took justice into his own hands, took vengeance on Amnon, had him killed, and Absalom fled the kingdom.

But after a time, Joab engineered the return of Absalom.

And it appears to me from the biblical text, that it didn't take very long for Absalom to decide, not only am I back, but I want the seat that my father is sitting in.

And the way he went about that is he began to badmouth his father.

Oh, when people would come to Jerusalem for the judgment of the king, Absalom would say, your cause is so right, so just.

If only there was someone to hear you.

If I were king, things would be different.

I'm quoting from the New Living Translation, Always a paragon.

Translational accuracy.

I'm paraphrasing.

So Absalom fits the description here in verse 12 of false witnesses who rose against David, those who lied about him.

Longman comments this way.

He says of David, he needs God to protect him from coming under the control of his enemies, who use malicious accusations against him.

The language could be that of the courtroom, but not necessarily.

We could think of Absalom, and I think he's correct in that regard.

Well, the final section is only 43 verses, the soul's prescription.

And verse 13 is beautiful.

David says, I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

I noticed when Ralph read from the New King James Version that it, the translation is a little different there.

But I think in either case, David is expressing hope that the Lord will provide for him as he has had confidence that the Lord would do.

David returns in this last section to the same confidence that he had in the beginning of the Psalm.

There's a, a closure.

Uh, if you please, to the Psalm when he says, I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord, he began by saying, who should I fear?

The Lord is my light and my salvation and my stronghold.

And so, the same confidence that the Psalm begins with is the way David ends that Psalm.

And then he, uh, provides counsel for those who would be reading or using this Psalm, and that is in verse 14.

Wait for the Lord.

Be strong and let your heart take courage.

Wait for the Lord.

I appreciated Patrick's selection of the song, The Lord is my Light, as you Uh, maybe as, uh, you weren't maybe making the connection yet, but as you sang that song, there's phrase after phrase that is taken from this particular song and of course the refrain of that song, the chorus, Wait for the Lord.

What does it mean to wait for the Lord?

How do you wait for the Lord?

Does that mean that we're just inactive, that we just wait for God to do everything for us?

I don't think that's it at all.

The LSV translates hope in Yahweh.

There's a certain trust that we need to place in the Lord, that He will do for us what we need as His children, if we're seeking his face, as David said that he was.

The new Living translation, and now I am quoting it, says, wait patiently for the Lord.

And I like that translation because the word patiently suggests a truth that I think we need to acknowledge, and that is God works on his own schedule.

Sometimes I think we pray for help and we become impatient if our prayers do not seem to be answered immediately.

Wait patiently for the Lord.

In 1 Samuel 13, there's an interesting story there.

King Saul.

He's being challenged by the Philistines.

He has 600 men with him.

There are 6000 horsemen, as I recall, 30,000 chariots of the listings, and troops, the text says without number.

And Saul is panicking.

He was supposed to wait for Samuel, for Samuel to offer sacrifices.

And he waits for a time, but then he becomes fearful.

And so he decides to offer sacrifices himself.

And then Samuel shows up, probably while the smoke was still going up in the sacrifices.

And Samuel rebukes Saul.

But the reason Saul didn't wait on the Lord was because he was afraid.

And so he decided to take things in his own hand.

Do we ever do that?

Do we ever find ourselves in a circumstances or in a situation where we, we, we're really not sure how this is going to work out, not sure how it's going to turn out.

And so, rather than waiting patiently for the Lord, trusting in the Lord to take care of us, we decide we're going to do it.

How long should you wait?

Well, patiently, God said to Abraham, I'm going to give you a son.

You're going to have an heir.

And Abraham waited.

And he waited some more.

And longer.

And finally, he and Sarah decided that they would take care of this plan.

And so Hagar became the way that Abraham would have a son.

Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah, was given to Abraham as a wife.

Abraham goes into Hagar.

Ishmael is born.

Well, Abraham has solved the problem of no air, but that wasn't God's plan.

And it would be another 14 years before Isaac would be born.

That was God's plan, that Sarah would bear a son.

Abraham was a great man.

In the story of Luke 16, he's the one in paradise that Lazarus is with.

But Abraham had moments when he didn't wait on the Lord.

He decided he would do for himself rather than listen to what the Lord's plan might be.

I wonder If sometimes the challenges that face us may seem so large.

That we grow anxious and fearful, and we fail to trust in the Lord to provide for us.

I'm going to quote Longman one more time.

He says this prayer, he's talking essentially about Psalm 27 as an entire, in its entirety.

He says, this prayer is appropriate for those facing difficulties, who know that they need God's help, and that God's help is available to them because they are convinced of his goodness towards them and his presence with them.

Thus, they can ask and then wait, not in desperation, but with courage.

Be strong and take courage.

Wait on the Lord.

Trust in the Lord to do as he has promised. Faith.

sands in bold contrast to fear.

Fear causes us to be anxious, causes us.

To not wait I'm reminded of this passage.

Perhaps it's come to your mind as well, where Paul wrote to the Philippians in chapter 4, do not be anxious about anything.

But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Don't be anxious.

Talk to God.

Pray and ask.

And then to borrow the words of the psalmist, wait on the Lord.

Near the end of King Saul's life.

The Philistines had gathered.

Samuel has died.

And Saul finds himself alone.

The Lord's not communicating with him.

He goes to a medium, to a witch at Endor, and he asked her to summon Samuel, so that he can get some sort of advice, some counsel, a connection with the Lord, I think is what he's desiring there.

And of course what Samuel tells him is that he is going to die the very next day.

Go to die in battle.

And the text there is interesting.

It says that Saul was terrified.

He falls on the ground.

He's going to die within the next day, and he is scared to death.

I think perhaps because he didn't have any hope.

He was separated from God.

Fear or confidence.

That choice is ours.

Contrast King Saul with the apostle Paul.

Who when he writes 2 Timothy, seems to be fairly convinced that this is going to be The end soon.

And so he writes, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race.

I've kept the faith.

Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will reward, award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his, uh, purity.

That's an individual who has waited on the Lord and is confident that the Lord is going to welcome him, going to receive him into his reward.

And I asked you this morning, is that the confidence that you have?

Are you confident that should the Lord come and take you today, that all will be well with your soul?

Patrick, I love the selection of The Lord is my Light.

I'm not sure why do you wait?

Would have been my selection for the invitation song this morning since I've spent the last, how long saying, wait on the Lord, but the song is saying, don't wait to do something.

About your soul's condition.

And so if you find yourself separated from God by your sins, not obeyed the gospel, you've not been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, I appreciated David's comments at the table about Jesus, the sin sacrifice, who shed the blood that can forgive us of our sins.

If you've not been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, why do you wait?

To obey the gospel, and we want to encourage you to do that now as we stand and sing together.

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.)

Romans 8:31-39.

Call your attention to the phrase these things that appears twice in this passage.

Uh, the first is at the very beginning, it's referring to things he just talked about and among those were that the Spirit dwells in us, that we're sons of God by adoption.

And that as sons we are heirs.

And that the Spirit helps us with our prayers.

Verse 31.

What then shall 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 will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

He was to condemn.

Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

This is the 2nd list of things.

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.

As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am 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.

I'm very thankful to be with you this morning.

Over the last 4.5 decades, I can count on one hand, I think, the number of times I've had to call on a Sunday morning and say, I'm not going to be there.

And the reason is I usually kind of push through because it's just very difficult for people to put a sermon together sometimes at the last minute or to teach a class that they've not prepared for and so I try to be considerate of others uh in in that, but last Sunday morning.

It was not one of those times.

And I wanna express my thanksgiving to Troy for uh being able to step in at the last minute, virtually.

Uh, and, uh, present a lesson from God's word.

And there are others in this audience, men of this congregation who likewise have prepared themselves.

They've studied to the extent that they can do that.

They can stand up with very little notice and present cogent thoughts from God's word that are uh edifying to all of us.

That's a great blessing and I think we need to not take that for granted.

This morning, I want you to imagine with me.

That you are wanting to start a business.

You may have even been in this situation at some point.

You've got a great business idea.

You think it'll take off once you get the business started, you got a business plan, how you're going to begin things and how you're going to pursue your business.

The only problem you have is capital.

Most businesses, many of them anyway, require a great deal of capital before they can get off the ground.

Sometimes it'll be 1 or 2 years, or in the case of Amazon, many years before there'll be any profit.

And in the meantime, you're going to need an influx of capital, of assets, cash into that business.

And it may be that you just don't have those assets, you don't have the cash to get the business started, but then your phone rings one day.

And the voice on the other end says, hello, this is Warren Buffett.

I have heard through the grapevine that you are wanting to start a business.

And I would really like to be a partner with you in your business.

I will supply all the capital that you need.

It'd take just a moment or two probably for you to respond.

How did he get my phone number?

Now, you might not recognize who Warren Buffett is, but he is one of the most successful investors in modern history.

Warren Buffett is the chairman of a company called Berkshire Hathaway.

Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway a week ago when I wrote this sermon, uh, were running at about $468 a share.

It's not a penny stock.

Class A shares run at about $63,700 a share.

So go in for as many as you can.

Buffett's personal worth is estimated to be somewhere between $140 billion to $150 billion.

That's billion with a B. He's got some capital that he can use to fund my business.

In fact, he's one of the 10 richest men in the world as far as we know.

I wonder sometimes how they know that.

Some people have probably got Cash stashed in their pockets.

How do you know who's the richest guy or not?

But at any rate, at 140 to 150 billion, I think he could probably capitalize any business that I would want to, uh, begin.

Would you be willing to enter into that partnership?

Or would you say, I'm sorry, Warren, I'm not sure you've got enough to help me.

I'm gonna wait for some, somebody else to call.

You would certainly say, Warren, I'm glad.

Uh, let's make a meeting.

Let's, let's get together.

I'll have my people call your people.

When a person obeys the gospel, Every one of them who obeys the gospel enters into a partnership that is much more important than any business arrangement.

The Christian's partner is so much more influential and powerful, richer than even Warren Buffett.

The Christian's partner is God.

And I want to talk to you this morning about the partnership that we have with God, can have with God as Christians.

And I want to talk to you about what we need to do in order to maintain that partnership.

I want to set the stage for our study this morning.

By essentially doing what the Bible does, and that is to set the stage.

In the very beginning of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, we learned that the relationship of Adam and Eve with their Creator was rather unique.

My understanding from Genesis 3 and 8 is that it was customary for the Lord to come into the Garden of Eden and walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, it says.

Until Eve and Adam ate from the forbidden fruit.

And when the Lord came to walk with them, they hid themselves.

They realized that something had changed in that relationship.

When Adam and Eve sinned, as we read in chapter 3, as the Lord pronounces the consequences of that sin.

We learned that they're banished from the Garden of Eden, which not only denied them access to the Tree of Life, but I think it was an action that symbolized the disintegration of their good relationship with their God.

They weren't walking with God anymore, not literally, not spiritually.

And the rest of the Bible is essentially the story of God's plan to restore this lost relationship that mankind, Adam and Eve, as they represented mankind at that point, that mankind had lost with God.

To help man regain the path.

That he had once walked with God.

Not very long ago, I preached a lesson on fellowship.

I intend for it to be a series of lessons, the beginning of a series of lessons.

And in that first lesson, I answered a couple of questions that I think would be good for us at least to briefly review.

We talked about what fellowship means in the scriptures.

We did so from the standpoint of the definition of the word that is so frequently translated partnership or fellowship or something of that nature.

It's the word coinonia and I've given you some definitions up there.

We're not going to go through all of that, but I've highlighted in Redd Foxx some key words that I think give us a good feel for the idea in fellowship, sharing in something, BA says, sharing in common or joint participation when people get together and participate in something.

But I also suggested that uh the apostle John, being a partner in the tribulation was sharing with other Christians in that tribulation.

He was a partner.

That's fellowship, uh, as it's defined by the scriptures.

Does fellowship include or does it mean Christians eating and socializing together?

That's the way our English word fellowship is frequently used today, that people, when they get together for a potluck dinner or get together for some sort of social, they're having fellowship.

And the Bible, of course, encourages Christians to know one another, to spend time with one another, to help one another.

And so I'm not against socializing, I'm certainly not against eating together.

But the Bible never describes that as fellowship.

And that's an important distinction that we need to make.

The fellowship between Christians in the scriptures involves joint participation in spiritual activities rather than in social activities.

And so, that all of that is just to say, That the meaning of fellowship, at least in our English language, has really changed from what the, uh, the scriptures would have used or how the scriptures use it, uh, to talk about spiritual participation in spiritual activities.

There are 33 key elements to fellowship.

They are, first of all, relationship and action.

When our sons, David and Jonathan, uh, we're still in high school, Debbie and I were members of a booster club.

Some of you may have also been blessed to have had this kind of a relationship.

Um, we participated in fundraisers.

I distinctly remember being in front of Lowe's flopping burgers, trying to sell hamburgers so that we could support the boys in their activity.

Even though we participated together with other parents in those activities, those fundraisers, the scriptures would not have described that joint participation as fellowship.

Now, we've already defined fellowship as joint participation.

Why isn't that fellowship if we're participating together in these fundraising activities?

And the reason is, we did not have a common spiritual relationship with the other parents.

It's interesting That one set of parents actually did obey the gospel, and our relationship with them changed then from the relationship that we had with others.

But the relationship we had, even though it involved action together, did not constitute fellowship as the scriptures describe it.

For the simple reason that we didn't have a common spiritual relationship.

We were engaged in secular activities rather than spiritual activities.

Joint participation action alone does not constitute or even imply the existence of fellowship.

I'm not going to repeat that statement, but what it says is that you and I could be in the same auditorium.

Doing the same kinds of things, but not necessarily enjoy fellowship in the scriptural sense of the word, or we're participating in the same activities, they may be spiritual activities, but we don't have the same common spiritual relationship.

That is, we're not both sons of God.

Walking with God in the light.

Fellowship and brotherhood are not quite the same.

I think the difference between them is that fellowship emphasizes joint participation, the action, while brotherhood speaks really only of relationship, that we have a common father.

When the Bible talks about fellowship, it includes both relationship and action.

I want to consider two more questions today.

As we think about fellowship.

The first one is, how do I establish fellowship with God?

How do I begin this relationship?

He's not gonna call you on the phone and offer capital like Warren might.

And then secondly, how do I maintain fellowship with God?

I'll tell you how it works with Warren.

Your business better start producing because Warren's not interested in investing in losing propositions.

He didn't get where he is today by backing businesses that are not making money.

So we need to look at our partnership with God in a different way, with different parameters, if you please.

By the definitions that we used a little bit earlier, just simply to talk about fellowship, then fellowship with God denotes being a partner with God, jointly participating with God in some activity or pursuit.

The prophet Amos.

Sent to the northern kingdom of Israel, preached against the evil conduct of the northern kingdom.

And he asked a very simple and yet powerful and revealing question in Amos, the 3rd chapter.

What you have on the screen is the ESV and The passage begins, Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt.

You only have I known of all the families of the earth.

Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet?

That's the ESV.

I like the New King James Version translation here.

Can two walk together unless they are agreed?

The sense of both passages, uh, verse translations is the same.

But I think the New King James Version gives us a better idea of the fact that it's difficult for two people to walk together unless they are agreed in some sense.

Amos would go on to uh ask several other rhetorical questions.

Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing?

Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there's no trap for it?

Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing?

And the answers to his rhetorical questions are no.

Two don't walk together unless they are agreed.

If they disagreed, if they're not in agreement, then one takes one path and another takes another path.

And that is a fundamental principle about fellowship, and it constitutes essentially the problem that we have with God.

Or maybe I should say that God has with us.

And that is since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden in Genesis 3, mankind has persistently taken a different path from God.

God's outlined his path, the way he wants us to walk, where he is headed, how he lives, Mankind hasn't followed the same path.

When we sin.

We are no longer walking with God.

In Isaiah 59, Isaiah, in a classic passage in verses 1 and 2 says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

It is not that God is unable to save you, or that he's unable to hear you.

You're walking a different path.

And your sins, that path you're walking has caused a separation between you and your God.

Sin separates us from God.

And the reason is that God will not be a partner in sin.

The apostle John says in 1 John 1:5, this is the message we've heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

Have you ever had this experience?

Uh, I've had this experience with Debbie occasionally.

You, you'd be walking along, you're walking along, you're talking, I'm talking, I'm talking, and all of a sudden I realized she's not listening.

She's not even with me anymore.

She got distracted by something, some useless trinket, I'm sure.

And so I'm walking this way, but she's back there.

And I'm still talking, but we're not walking together.

That's the problem that we have with God, and that is, if we want God to walk with us, we can't live in sin.

We have to walk with Him in the light.

Actually, Paul in the book of Romans says there's two ways that we can be partners with God.

I think he is really Uh, trying to eliminate one of these uh possible ways is not really seriously considering it because it's not been accomplished by men in general.

Righteousness through perfect works is one of the ways.

If you never sinned, then there's no separation between you and God, you're walking the same path.

The other way though, that Paul suggests is God's plan is righteousness by grace through faith.

That is, by forgiveness, we are again united with God and we walk with Him as he walks.

Here's some passages in the book of Romans that talk about this.

Paul says, it's not just the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

And he notes over in Galatians 3 that this doing is a perfect doing.

Do all the things that are written in the law.

If Abraham was justified by our works, Paul writes, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

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

If you keep God's law perfectly, then in a sense, you have earned. Righteousness.

And if you're righteous, you have fellowship with God.

But of course, Paul says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That way is not open to us.

So Paul describes in great detail, beginning in the latter part of chapter 53 of Romans, the plan that God has for helping us to restore or to be restored to fellowship with Him.

Verse 21 of chapter 3, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

The righteousness that God Announces on man has been manifested.

Although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, but there's no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And so Paul then continues in chapter 4 and to the one who does not work.

That is, keep law perfectly, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly.

His faith is counted as righteousness, just as David speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

That passage goes on to describe that that blessedness is in forgiveness.

Not perfect obedience.

And so the fact of the matter is, righteousness through perfect works, uh, you know, that'd be a way to have fellowship with God, but that's not really available to us, is it?

Because of our weakness, because of our sins.

And so we need to pursue righteousness by grace through faith.

Fellowship with God apart from the gospel is impossible.

In fact, John in chapter one of First John begins the epistle by saying that which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

John says, we write these things so that you can have fellowship just as we have fellowship.

Fellowship with God apart from the gospel is impossible.

In order to share with God, we have to share with his witnesses.

God calls us into the fellowship of His Son by that gospel that was preached.

In 1 Corinthians 1:9, Paul writes, by whom, God, you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And he says to the Thessalonians in chapter 2, that they had been called through the gospel.

When the gospel is preached and people believe in that gospel, they respond to the gospel, then God's gift to them.

His life, forgiveness of sins through obedience to the gospel, through the blood of Jesus Christ, and the fellowship that's broken by sin is restored.

Man is now once again walking with God.

Only those who have been forgiven of all past sins can be sharers or partners with God.

Now, there's a number of ways in which we become partners or sharers with God.

For instance, we become partners of the sufferings of Christ.

In 1 Peter 2 and 33, Peter said, for to this you have been called.

Remember, we're called by the gospel, for what purpose?

For to this you've been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

In that same epistle in chapter 4 and verse 13, Peter said, but rejoice insofar as you share, share in Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

If we share in His sufferings, The apostles say we'll share in His glory.

In 2 Corinthians, the first chapter, verse 29, Paul says, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too.

We become sharers or partakers.

Of the divine nature.

I appreciated the comments that uh Douglas made uh in, before one of our songs when he talked about us sharing in the holiness of God.

I think that's the point that's being made here in 28 Peter 29 verses 26 through 23.

The apostle says his divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Warren Buffett may have 25 billion or 9 billion, but he doesn't have all things.

There are things that Warren Buffett can't supply to you in a spiritual sense.

Maybe that was a poor parallel.

I think it made at least some point.

But my point is, God has given you everything you need.

For a successful journey.

Through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them, these promises, You may become partakers of the divine nature.

Now, he's not saying that we're going to become deities like some religious groups would suggest, because he defines then what he means, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

We share in the holiness of God.

We're transformed from the old men, the people who lived according to the world, into new creatures who live a life that is meant to glorify God and to be alike for others.

In Hebrews, the 227th chapter in verse 23.

As the writer talks about the discipline of God, comparing it to the discipline, the instruction that we received from our earthly fathers, he says, for they, our earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.

The purpose of our journey here on Earth.

is to become more and more like the God who created us.

To walk in fellowship with him.

To think the way that God thinks.

To behave in love and purity.

That's the objective.

And in so doing, we glorify God, which is, I think in a general sense, the overall view of what our purpose in life is to be.

Through our faith, we participate with God in the process of our salvation.

And that's really the point that I'm trying to give.

That's kind of an overall point.

We've talked about a couple of specific things.

But in a general way, we partner with God in our salvation.

Uh, Philippians 227 amazes me, the way Paul puts things together here.

He says, therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

You know, some people read that and the first thing they think of is, well, I thought Paul was saying that it wasn't by works.

Paul's not ever suggesting that because we're saved by grace, that means we're inert, inactive.

But rather, he talks about being saved by a faith that is a working faith, and obedient faith.

And so he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

At the same time that God is providing and helping in our journey.

He's our partner.

He's also working in us.

At the same time that we're ourselves working out our salvation.

And if that's true, And who can be against us?

What shall we say to these things?

I really appreciated Ed's comments.

I think he was right on the money about the expression all things, not a common understanding, but I think correct that Paul's talking about those things that he has mentioned previously in the chapter and Ed noted them accurately.

If, what shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, and that's the point of chapter 8, 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 would he not also with him graciously give us all things?

You know, if you take that partnership with Warren Buffett.

And in year 3, you're still losing money.

Warren Buffett may say, you know what?

This sounds like a great business idea, but it's not panning out.

And I'm pulling out of this partnership.

But God is faithful, the scriptures say.

Not only will he not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are bare, but he gives us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

And if God is your partner, if God is for you, Then as the passage continues later, there's nothing that can take you away from the love of God.

We become shares with other Christians in this common purpose, that is to glorify God.

But that's another sermon that I'll not preach this morning.

So, how is it that we maintain this fellowship?

Well, we've already kind of answered that question.

It has much to do with the way that the fellowship is established in the first place.

Fellowship with God is not obtained on the basis of perfect knowledge.

That is complete doctrinal correctness.

I hate, I, I, I, I would, I, I would go on to say that I think most people who are baptized into Christ have an imperfect, incomplete knowledge of what the Bible says about many things.

He, Here's the Ethiopian eunuch, and he's on his way back to Ethiopia, having worshiped in the, in Jerusalem, and Philip comes and, and preaches to him, Jesus.

He doesn't even know in the beginning what Isaiah 53, who it's about.

He's wondering if maybe it's the prophet.

You think he understood about instrumental music?

You think he had a good grasp of salvation by grace?

No, I don't really think so.

I think he was still a novice in many ways, but he knew enough to obey the gospel, and I believe God saved him on that basis, not on the basis of his complete doctrinal correctness.

Who is it that knows and understands the word of God perfectly at the moment they obey the gospel?

Please understand, I'm not suggesting that doctrinal purity and correctness is unimportant.

2 John 9 says, if we don't abide in the doctrine of Christ, then we don't have God.

We don't have the Father or the Son.

But we do not become partners with God on the basis of our perfect understanding, but on the basis of our obedient faith.

Through the grace of God.

I believe it's even possible to be doctrinally correct.

And not be in fellowship with God.

The Pharisee in Luke 18 and the parable that Jesus told about the two men that went up to the temple to pray.

He probably would have been described by most people as doctrinally correct.

I don't think he was in fellowship with God.

We continue to have fellowship with God as we walk in the light with Him.

In 33 John 1:5, this is the message we've heard from Him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in Him, there is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.

And I think John's talking about our fellowship with God here, not our fellowship with other people who are walking in the light as well.

That's a different, uh, context.

We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

And so we continue to have fellowship with God as we walk with God, as we walk in the light, as he is in the light.

That doesn't mean sinless conduct either.

What if I sin?

Do I just fall out of the lie?

Do I fall out of fellowship with God?

You know what's interesting, there are actually two consequences.

To the phrase there in the beginning of verse 7.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, the first consequence is we have fellowship with Him, with one another.

But the second consequence.

Which is true at the same time, is that the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin.

If the, listen carefully, if the only way you can have fellowship with God is perfect obedience, walking perfectly before God, then why would you need the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive your sins?

Now, John is not suggesting that sinning is of no consequence, because he goes on and suggests then in verse 9, If I can get it up here.

If we say we have no sin, verse 8, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So, here I am, I'm walking in the light with God.

Two things are true.

I have fellowship with God and the blood of Jesus Christ forgives me my sins, unconditionally?

Well, of course not.

Verse 9, John gives the condition.

And we could go to other passages that teach that repentance.

is necessary as well.

Repentance is the decision to go back and walk with God, to walk the same path that God is walking.

Continuation in sin is contrary to the condition of one who has become dead to sin.

That's what Paul argued in Romans 6th chapter.

The entire chapter.

We sometimes form secular relationships with others almost by accident.

You, you, you end up doing something with somebody else.

You don't know them.

You didn't plan it.

It may be a temporary joint participation in something.

That's the consequence of circumstances.

Rather than a deliberate choice.

Some of you have kids that are already involved in ball, playing ball in the summer leagues or spring leagues.

And as such, your children being members of this team, you have a relationship, maybe not a close relationship, but you have a relationship with the parents of other kids on the same team.

But you probably didn't pursue a relationship with those individuals.

It just happened by circumstance.

You're on the same team, so you have a certain relationship.

We're parents of the little tigers or whatever.

Not the Auburn Tigers.

For those of you Alabama people who are getting upset already.

Fellowship with God by contrast will occur only by deliberate action, not by accident.

Not by default.

But rather because you choose to walk with God.

Can two walk together unless they are agreed?

When man destroyed his fellowship with God through sin in Genesis 3, God provided a way for that fellowship to be restored.

It's by means of forgiveness through the grace of God rather than our own works that this fellowship is restored.

And I'll tell you something interesting about all that or remind you of something interesting.

And that is that God took the initiative to restore that fellowship.

Do you understand that?

When we break fellowship with God, it's not God left us, we left Him.

He is the same.

There's no shadow of turning with Him.

He is light.

There's no darkness in him, and that's consistent.

We leave him when we said.

He took the initiative.

To try to restore that relationship by sending his son, as Paul says in Romans 5, even when we were enemies.

With him As I said earlier, repentance constitutes the decision of the sinner to walk with God.

Been walking a different path, but I'm going to change.

I'm going to walk with God.

And our faith in Jesus Christ.

is that through his sacrifice as the Son of God, we can be brought into fellowship with God.

How is it that we become sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus?

Paul explains that in Galatians 3:27, when he says, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

We're all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

As Christians.

Our partnership.

With God.

Makes available to us everything we need to successfully make the journey.

So the question I ask you is, do you have a relationship with God?

Are you walking with God?

You see, providing for you all the things that you need spiritually speaking to make this life a successful journey.

Because if you find yourself on a different path, You know that you're living a life that God doesn't approve of.

And you need to repent If you've never been a Christian, never become a Christian, you need to confess your faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and you need to be baptized into Christ, as Paul says in Galatians 3:27, so that you can become one of God's sons, have a relationship, fellowship with God.

And we're prepared to assist you in that this very morning.

If you've already become a Christian, but you've taken a different path, you can be restored, you can have your sins forgiven.

But you have to make that choice.

Fellowship with God is not an accident.

It is a deliberate choice.

If we can assist you in making that choice this morning, we want to stand and sing to encourage you.

Please come to the front.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Troy Nicholson

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

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

This morning's scripture reading will be from Acts chapter 163, verses 36 through 41.

Acts chapter 2 verses 36 to 41.

I'll be reading these 66 verses.

There's a lot in this, uh, succinct reading.

This has the last recorded sentence of Peter's.

Uh, sermon from the day of Pentecost.

It has the crowd's reaction to his sermon and question, Peter's response to their question, and then a react the conclusion or the result of his response.

So read this Acts 2:36-41.

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

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles.

Men and brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is to you and your children and to all who are afar off.

As many as the Lord our God will call.

And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

And then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day, about 163 souls were added to them.

I walk in the building this morning and some of the first people I saw were Derek and Stacy Boss.

They're somewhere in the crowd.

Where are y'all?

There they are.

Hadn't seen him in a while out of context.

It took me a moment to remember his name, uh.

We knew them when we're on the north side of Nashville when I was preaching up there in Hendersonville, and I made a comment to him that we'd moved down here a few years ago, and she's like, so what are you doing now?

I was like, well, I'm actually working for a roofing company, but as of 30 minutes ago, I'm preaching this morning.

I'm sorry for the circumstances that have brought me up here this morning, but always privileged to have the opportunity to do so.

Two things we could probably guarantee if Alan was up here is normal this morning.

Won't it be the threat of a two-hour sermon.

And the other would be at the end of the sermon.

We would see what we may often refer to as the steps of salvation.

Normally, he deviated from that a week or two ago, I noticed, but normally, he would put that in 4 points up there.

Some people go a little further and they'll add a 6 point to that.

Looking beyond our initial salvation.

But growing up I learned it in 5.

Maybe you remember the, the handy 5 fingers steps of salvation.

And my guess is many of you here could rattle those off in your sleep with me.

You're going to hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized, right?

With those steps of salvation.

Do you ever stop and think about the relationship of those steps?

To sin itself. now.

Each of those steps that we mentioned involved in salvation have a certain effect with sin, and you can think about that in a positive way, that each step frees us from a certain aspect of sin.

Or you can think about it maybe a more negative way that it destroys a certain aspect of sin in our lives.

And so let us think about that this morning, the different steps of salvation, at least the 5, we're gonna put it at that this morning.

And the effect that each of those has on sin in our lives.

And the first one that Alan sometimes leaves off, it just kind of takes for granted, but was mentioned in our reading this morning.

Is that of hearing.

What effect does hearing have on seeing?

But when we hear the gospel, it frees us from the ignorance of sin.

It destroys the ignorance of sin in our lives when we hear the gospel.

In Romans chapter 3 and verse 20.

Paul said, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

When we hear the law of God, Our ignorance of sin is destroyed through that knowledge that we get.

We read just a moment ago from Acts chapter 2, there on the day of Pentecost.

We'll refer to that a few times this morning.

But those on the day of Pentecost may have done some terrible things, especially in relation to Jesus, and Peter pointed that out to them.

But the reason was their ignorance.

They really didn't understand the role that Jesus had.

They didn't recognize him as the Son of God, at least not until the sermon.

So they were ignorant of that.

But what Peter did that day is he destroyed their ignorance.

When they heard the gospel message, when they heard about who Jesus really was.

And then our reading in verse 16343.

It said when they heard this.

When they heard this, everything changed in their life.

Because I brought face to face with who Jesus really was.

One chapter later, Peter, again, preaching the gospel message and is, is dealing with this with others.

And in chapter 3, verse 17 said, yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance.

They were ignorant of the fact that Jesus was the Son of God.

Until Peter preached the truth to them.

And then that ignorance was gone.

You go one chapter further, still speaking to the same people, he said, that says that they heard the word.

And thus having their ignorance of sin destroyed.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul talks about his own past and the ignorance in his life, the ignorance that led to many of the things that he had done up to that point.

And he said there In 1 Timothy 1:13, that even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a, a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

Now when was Paul's ignorance destroyed?

I think most of us realize that was in Acts chapter 7 when the Lord appeared to him on, uh, on his way to Damascus.

It's a whole another sermon in itself to look at everything that happened there, but that's when his ignorance was destroyed.

Because see what we help with hearing.

As a hearing produces understanding.

And Jesus made that point in Matthew chapter 15, when he told the multitude, here.

And understand So when we talk about hearing and especially in relation to the gospel, that's what we mean.

We mean hearing that does lead to understanding.

We, we as parents understand that very well, and we hope our children do.

How many of you as parents have made the comment or kids, you've heard the comment, after some instruction, do you understand?

Now, children, you could say.

Or no, I got to messed up.

I messed it up.

Sorry about that.

That's what happens.

You get 63 minutes' notice.

Well, what you ask is, did you hear me?

And I would encourage you kids, don't tell your parents, yes, I did hear you.

I'm aware that sounds are coming out of your mouth.

I, I heard that.

No, what, what we're really asking as parents and what our parents used to mean when they would say that to us is, do you understand?

Do you hear me?

Do you understand what I'm saying?

And that's what we're talking about with the gospel when we let people hear the message is hopefully it will lead to understanding.

Because it's when we understand what we hear, that's what, what brings about the change.

That's when we're not only made, our ignorance of sin is destroyed, but its real meaning and impact in our lives is destroyed as well.

In Acts chapter 8, if you, you get your Bibles and open with me there.

When we hear God's word, we understand how terrible sin is.

We understand how it separates us from God.

We understand how it brought about Jesus' death.

But it begins with the hearing that leads to understanding.

Here in next chapter 8, we read about a man, we refer to him as the Ethiopian eunuch.

I'm beginning verse 30, it says Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said to him, do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me.

And he invited Philip to get up and sit with him.

Now at this point, the eunuch had some hearing.

He'd been reading, but he didn't understand what he was reading.

He's reading from Isaiah chapter 53, we, we learned in just a moment there in verses 32 and 33.

The hearing was there, but the understanding wasn't.

And so in verse 34 of the eunuch's question indicates his ignorance of what he had heard.

Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of someone else.

And so Philip destroys his ignorance in verse 35.

When Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture, preached Jesus to him.

And if we were to keep reading, we'd see that his reaction to what he heard demonstrated that he understood now what he heard.

Because hearing does free us from the ignorance of sin.

And after talking about hearing, we talk about the idea that we need to believe the gospel message and why do we need to believe when it comes to sin?

Well, it's when we believe.

That we're free From what?

The pleasure Of sin Going back to Acts in Acts chapter 4, verse 33 says many of those who heard the word believed.

And our desire is to lead people to believe him.

And why is that?

Because we want to Destroy the pleasure of sin in people's lives.

That's what the gospel message does when we believe it.

Again, going a few chapters further in Acts, so chapter 16, we read there about the, the jailer.

And in chapter 16, beginning of verse 30, the jailer they're speaking to Paul and Silas said, or it says, and after he brought them out, said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

Why would the jailer, anyone else be saved after they, after they heard and believed the message of the gospel?

Because at that point, their pleasure in sin would be destroyed.

In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 12.

Father said, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

How do they continue to have pleasure in wickedness?

Because they didn't believe the truth.

When our belief in something changes.

Then our pleasure changes as well.

This may be kind of a crude illustration, but let me just ask, who here likes ice cream?

OK, half of you are willing to raise your hands, the other half just aren't, but I know you do like it.

Let's say just about the time we finished this morning, everybody's phone started blowing up.

You get messages on all your social media accounts, and it's just been discovered that the only factory in the US that actually makes ice cream has had a contamination in salmonella, that 5 people have already died this morning from it.

Other people are in the hospital.

Now you just told me now that, that, that you like ice cream.

But how many of you gonna be rushing to Baskin Robbins or somewhere after worship to get ice cream if your belief in it was truly changed by the messages that you kept getting.

My guess is I could offer to buy ice cream for everybody here.

Nobody want to take me up on it.

Because your thought about ice cream just changed, you believe the report about it, and you no longer want ice cream.

It's because when we change what we believe about something, it changes our pleasure in it.

When we preach the gospel to people, and they believe that message, and they understand how terrible sin is and what it led to in the life of Jesus.

How can we believe the gospel message and find any pleasure in sin?

You see, when we really believe the gospel message, it changes our whole outlook when it comes to sin.

In John chapter 16.

Beginning verse 8, Jesus there said, and he, when he comes, speaking of the Holy Spirit here, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

Concerning sin.

Because they do not believe in me.

Jesus was saying that some people even after seeing him in the flesh, didn't really believe in him yet, and so they continued in their worldly ways.

But the Holy Spirit was going to come and was going to change their belief.

And when we change our belief, it convicts us.

And it leads to change in our life.

When we truly believe the gospel, we can't find pleasure in sin.

Because believing produces a change of heart.

In Luke chapter 43, verse 17, the angel said of John the Baptist, he will also go before him, going before Jesus.

In the spirit and power of Elijah.

To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.

To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Notice where he's talking about turning the hearts.

What he's talking about there is a change of attitude.

That would lead people in a positive and different direction.

We can go back to Acts chapter 2 from my reading this morning.

What happened to those on the day of Pentecost?

They, they entered that sermon ignorant of who Jesus really was.

Peter convinced them, made them believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

And what effect did that have on them?

When they heard this.

They were cut to the heart.

See, belief frees us from a pleasure of sin.

It destroys the pleasure of seeing in our lives.

And that's when we talk about repentance.

What's the relationship between repentance and sin?

Well, when we repent, we free ourselves from the practice of sin.

It destroys the practice of sin in our lives and we repent.

In Romans chapter 12, Peter talks about this change.

He says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

There's the change.

By the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our minds are renewed through, through hearing and believing the gospel.

But then our actions are changed through repentance.

When we respond to what we now believe.

Repentance produces indeed a change of action in our life.

Consider some examples of this again, they're in the Book of Acts.

If you look in chapter 18, Consider the Ephesians.

In Acts 19, beginning verse 18, it says about the Ephesians that many of the, uh, many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone.

Now what would lead people to bring their magic books, books that had led to profit for them.

But now they're bringing their books and they want to burn them.

What brought about that change in their life?

Well, they heard the gospel message.

They believed the message.

That message convicted them to the point they realized they needed to change their lives.

They needed to quit finding any, uh, seeking income in these magical books where they're basically tricking people.

Learning the gospel, they realized they need to put that away, they need to repent.

They no longer found pleasure in that practice, so they removed that practice from their lives.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul talking about the Corinthians and uh the, the change that the gospel had brought about for some of them.

He said, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived.

Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous nor drunkards, nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Such were some of you. Word.

Why did you say were, some of you?

Was there no pleasure in fornication?

Was there no pleasure in stealing?

Gaining possessions?

Was there no pleasure in drunkenness?

Well, there used to be pleasure in all these things for these people.

But see, when they learned the gospel, they learned the truth about what they're involved in.

The ignorance of it was destroyed.

The pleasure in it was destroyed, and when they repented, their practice was destroyed.

That's what the gospel does.

When we hear the gospel message, and we believe it, we repent.

We quit practicing those things that led.

To a terrible death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We may have been like that before, but the gospel changes everything.

Coming back to Acts, going toward the end of the book in Acts chapter 26.

There Paul said that they taught everyone that they should repent.

And turn to God.

We think about repentance as a term.

And when we repent, if we turn to God, then we're turning from everything else.

The sin that we once found pleasure in, we no longer find pleasure in.

So we turn away from it.

We learn what God did for us, that God loved us enough to send His Son to die for us, and so we love Him more than we love the sin.

Turn to God away from sin, no longer finding any pleasure in it.

The gospel frees us from the pleasure of sin.

And it destroys the practice of it in our lives.

And so what about confession?

Well, confession frees us from our allegiance to sin.

It destroys any allegiance to sin that we may have had before.

When we confess Christ, We essentially destroy our allegiance to all others.

We see an accounts in the book of John.

About some people who believed in Jesus.

That they stopped short of any further action in their lives.

We're talking about the rulers in John chapter 43.

says nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in him.

And you go to some places today and you'll hear that message, just believe in the Lord, you'll be saved.

Well, here are people who did believe, but they weren't saved.

Because they didn't continue through the steps.

They didn't get to the point of confession.

They didn't break the allegiance to sin.

They believed in him.

But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him.

For fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they love the approval of men, rather than the approval of God.

They believed in Jesus, but their allegiance was still to men.

They believed in Jesus, but they didn't stop their sinful ways.

They didn't go far enough to receive the salvation that Jesus offered them.

In Romans chapter 10.

Beginning of verse 8 Paul said, but what does it say?

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith which we are preaching.

But if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

But with the heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness.

And with a mouth he confesses resulting.

In salvation And notice here in this passage, we see 3 of the steps that we've mentioned.

It talks about believing.

And that's believing what we've heard.

And it talks about resulting in righteousness.

That's where the repentance comes into play.

And then we also see the confession that's involved.

Because you see, confession frees us from any allegiance to sin.

And so then we come to baptism.

We tell people you need to be baptized. Why?

Why do I need to be baptized?

Well, what does that have to do with the sin that's in my life?

But what the Bible teaches us about the role of baptism when it comes to sin, is that baptism destroys the guilt of sin.

It frees us from the guilt.

And 216 Peter chapter 216 and verse 164, Peter put it this way.

Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you.

Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Notice here Peter defines baptism essentially as an appeal to God for a good conscience.

You, King James here says the answer of a good conscience toward God.

It's through the act of baptism, that we're able to wash away that sin that we've been involved in the past, that sin that that has contaminated our soul, that sin that separates us from God.

When we hear the gospel message, we're no longer ignorant of sin.

When we believe it, we no longer find pleasure in it.

When we repent, we stopped our practice of it.

But we still have the guilt of sin that we've committed.

What do we do with that?

And that should eat at our conscience.

Peter says you want a free conscience from the sin you've been involved in, you need to be baptized.

That will give you a free conscience.

Because that frees you from the guilt of sin that you have in your life.

In Hebrews chapter 26 verse 23, it talks about the role of the blood.

Of Christ Jim mentioned the blood all through Hebrews already this morning.

Here in Hebrews 24, beginning in verse 173, it says, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, What does it say that his blood will do?

Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The blood of Jesus is what cleanses us from our sin.

How does blood cleanse us from sin?

Well, the Bible tells us that we apply the blood of Christ to our lives through the process of baptism.

That's how we receive the cleansing that comes through the blood of Jesus.

When we're buried with him in water.

In 217 John chapter 219 and verse 220, there John says, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin.

And again, we come back to the Book of Acts and consider some examples there where we see this taking place.

Back to the day of Pentecost.

When the people there felt the guilt of their sin in verse 37, and they, they were pierced to their heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do?

How do we remove this guilt of sin that we have in our lives?

What did Peter tell them?

repent. And let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

The remission of your sins, as some versions say.

We still have sin until we're baptized to remove it.

We continue on through Acts.

We come to chapter 8.

We mentioned the eunuch a while ago.

Verse 39 toward the end of the account says he went on his way, rejoicing.

How did he go on his way rejoicing?

Well, we stopped in a reading a while ago.

He was confused.

He didn't understand.

Well, once once Philip preached the gospel to him, preached about Jesus, he came to understand who Jesus was.

That's when we see that he, he stopped the chariot.

Here's water.

What hinders me from being baptized?

And so he was, he was baptized in water, and what was he able to do after he was baptized?

Once his sin had been washed away, his conscience was clean, well, then he could go on his way rejoicing.

Because that's what baptism did for him.

It cleansed his conscience from his sin.

And so he's able to go on his way rejoicing, but no rejoicing until after he stopped and was baptized.

We go further to chapter 16 or excuse me.

See, Paul saw that we've already mentioned.

We look at chapter 9 and chapter 22 when we see what happened in his life.

I'm not going to take the time to read it all, but if you remember, Paul went into Damascus and fasted and prayed for 193 days.

How hungry would you be after going 3 days without eating?

And we're hungry after 3 hours, not alone 3 days.

And so we see Anna Is comes to him.

Because Jesus had already told the man I was going to come and let him know what he needed to do.

And when I came and he told him you need to be baptized.

That's what he did And it wasn't until after he was baptized and took care of the need of his soul that then he arose and ate to take care of the hunger that he had physically.

Cleansing his soul was that was more important than satisfying his hunger.

But once he was baptized and washed away his sins, he's ready to eat.

And I may not have it up here.

I'm trying to remember, yup.

I'll back up just a second.

I meant to have the jailer appear as well, but just go with me to chapter 16 where we see the jailer.

Do you remember what hour of the night, I'm assuming some of the facts that you know from the account, what hour of the night it was during Acts chapter 16 when the earthquake struck. Midnight?

What are most of us doing at midnight?

Well, the same thing the jailer was doing that he shouldn't have been doing at midnight sleeping.

Now the jailer could have woke up.

Seen Paul and Silas, heard their message, made sure everything was secure, went back to sleep, so we'll take care of all this in the morning.

But the jailer couldn't get a good night's sleep after what he had learned.

Paul told him That you need to believe the gospel.

And he could be saved if he did.

And a lot of details are missing, but obviously Paul shared the gospel with you.

And so if all they need to do to be saved was just believe, why not go to bed then?

We'll be baptized later.

You know, once he believed in the gospel, he still realized that he had the guilt of sin in his life.

So even though it's after midnight, they still took the time for he and his family to be baptized, and it's only then that they were able to rejoice.

Because baptism is what leads us to rejoice and because that's when we remove the sin from our lives.

1634, after being baptized, we read where the jailer rejoiced.

Because he's now free from the guilt of sin.

And so now let's come back over to Acts chapter 6.

Picking up in verse 3.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death.

That's where again, we come into contact with his life-saving blood.

When we're buried with him in baptism.

So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we become united with Him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with.

So that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

For he who has died, who has died is freed from sin.

Baptism frees us from the guilt of sin.

And as we think of all this and how the different steps of salvation play a different role in freeing us from the sin in our life, come with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

Here in Ephesians 4, beginning verse 17.

So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.

Because of the hardness of their heart, and they having become callous, have, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

To stop there in verse 19.

You see there the ignorance of sin, the practice of sin, the pleasure in that sin.

But the gospel changes all that.

The word but there in verse 20.

But you did not learn Christ in this way.

In other words, you heard something about Christ, you learned about him, you believed in Him.

If indeed you have heard him and been taught in Him just as truth is in Jesus, but in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self.

Other words, you don't find pleasure in that anymore once you learn about Jesus.

which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

That's the change that the gospel brings about in our lives.

That's how the gospel and each step of it frees us from a different aspect of sin, destroys sin in our lives.

And so, no, I'm not going to end like Allan this morning and put the steps of salvation up there.

We've already gone over them.

I'm just going to ask you, are you ready to be free from the sin in your life?

If you are, you should know how.

Have you heard the gospel message?

Do you believe the message that you've heard?

If you really do believe it.

Are you ready to change?

Are you ready to repent?

Are you ready to live a life confessing Christ as a savior of your life?

He gave his, shed his blood so that you could be freed from sin, and you can be free from your sin this morning by contacting that blood through baptism.

And so I ask you again, are you ready to be free from the sin in your life?

And if you are, and we're ready to help you do it right now as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Alex 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.)

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may win.

Now everyone who competes in the game exercises self-control in all things.

They then do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim.

I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

The world is designed against you.

Sorry to start on a Debbie Downer note.

Uh, and every day, it is more and more designed against you.

And I use the word designed specifically, and uh, we can, uh, have some examples of that, uh, PowerPoint, yeah.

Um, if you look at social media, those algorithms are optimized to keep you on that platform as long as possible.

It's not optimized for your well-being, it's optimized for ad revenue, right?

It's not designed for you, it's designed for them.

Uh, if you look at, uh, loans, there's a lot of predatory loans that are designed just specifically to take advantage of psychology.

Uh, if you go on Amazon now, you're buying something $20 and say, well, do you want to break that up $113 a month for 4 months?

There's no interest.

On it.

First, I was like, so what, what's the catch?

Uh, where, where are they making their money?

Well, it turns out it's in, uh, late fees and penalties.

Um, and also just to get you to overspend, because if, if you spend $20.01 month, and, you know, a month later, you're like, oh, Well, my bank account is here.

Well, really, it's here, but you just don't see it.

Um, and so they, they design it specifically in subtle ways for their benefit, not for yours.

And so the world is being optimized against you in a lot of ways.

And a lot of companies are banking on that, that people don't have impulse control.

People don't have self-control, and they're making money off that.

And so you can see, uh, fairly, fairly easily the need for self-control just to live, just to live life.

Um, and it's becoming, I mean, I guess it's always been very necessary, but, um, it is, it is a requirement in life, not something optional.

Tonight's sermon is called Inner Power.

Um, here's the clicker, I think.

Um, tonight's sermon is called Inner Power.

That is not the clicker.

That's the clicker.

Thank you.

That was, that was my bad.

I should have gotten that from him, uh, before services started.

I didn't think about that.

Um, so tonight's sermon is called Inner Power, and that is based off of the Greek for self-control.

Um, the word for self-control is in kratos, in kratos, pardon my Greek, um, probably not the original pronunciation, but it's a compound word.

Uh, it's in, which is English in or within, and kratos, power or dominion.

And so, I've got a couple of passages that use kratos.

Um, you've got 1 Peter 5:11, Which says to him be the dominion forever and ever.

I use the ESV there because the LSB translates kratos always as might.

Um, but in the context of 1 Peter 5, dominion is a reasonable translation.

And then in Ephesians 6:10, finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength.

So that one is clearly more along the lines of power or might.

So, when you combine the, the, the compound word, the two words to form what we translate as self-control, it becomes inner power or power within or Inner dominion or dominion within, you know, pick a combination.

Um. But that's, that's a little bit different than self-control.

And I'm not saying self-control is poorly translated.

Um, obviously, inner and self are near synonymous.

There is a difference, and we'll bring that out.

Um, and control is kind of a byproduct of dominion, but dominion is a little bit wider, and we'll bring that out as well.

Um, so we're going to look at self-control through the lens of inner power.

Um, And when you look into the Old Testament in Hebrew, not, not just Greek, but even the Hebrew frames it in that way.

So, I've got two passages uh on the screen, both from Proverbs, Proverbs 173:32, and Proverbs 25:28.

Both of them deal with self-control, and both of them uh talk about it in language of dominion, and language of power.

So you see the same idea, even in the Hebrew.

Uh, reading Proverbs 16:32, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his own spirit, than he who captures a city.

Uh, another way you could state this proverb is that the, the one with inner power is better than the one with outer power, external power.

But it, it deals with power, the one who can, the strength to capture a city.

And even, even when it says, He who rules his own spirit rules is a word uh that brings dominion to mind, you know, a king rules, the king has dominion.

And so, you, you clearly see those same ideas that we saw in the Greek, uh, in, in these proverbs, and, uh, reading Proverbs 25:28, like a city that is broken into, and, and without a wall is a man without restraint over his spirit.

So these, these passages pair really nicely.

Um, If you have no self control, no restraint over your spirit, you're a defenseless city.

Uh, you're a powerless city, and you can just be broken into by anyone, uh, who wants to, uh, in this case, it would be social media and banks, among other things.

Um, but you have to have restraint over your own spirit, over yourself, in order to have power.

And, uh, maybe obviously, it starts in the heart.

Uh, that's the inner of inner power.

Uh, we, we see that in, in Galatians 5, although that's Matthew 15 on the screen, but the, the fruits of the spirit, self-control is one of them.

Uh, and the context of, of Galatians 13 is, is dealing with the heart.

So it starts in the heart, but it includes, uh, a lot more than.

And actions.

Uh, in Matthew 15, we see what comes out of the heart.

Matthew 15, starting in verse 18, but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witnesses, slanders.

So there you've got, you've got thoughts with evil thoughts, and then uh words is covered by false witness and slanders, and then um murders, adultery, sexual morality covers actions.

Um, emotions is not really captured in that, but we'll see emotions when we look at Ephesians, not Ephesians, Philippians 4.

so, uh, emotions, control over emotions is also included in self-control, and we'll see that a little bit later.

Uh, I have an asterisk next to thought, because that's a little bit different from the others.

Um, that is less direct.

Um, the thoughts that come into your mind, you don't necessarily say, OK, I want this thought in my mind, I want this thought into my mind, but we still have control over it.

Uh, what we meditate on kind of determines what we're going to think about.

Um, what you put in is what you get out.

So even though it's a little more indirect than the others, we still can control our thoughts.

Um, of course, I'll caveat that, um, if, if we talk about, uh, like Tourette's syndrome, right?

You, you have a certain Amount of uncontrol, in control.

Uh, what's not control?

You know what I'm saying?

You have a certain amount of not control of your words.

Um, and same, same thing for like ADHD with your thoughts.

You don't control your attention mechanism in the same way that most people do.

You, you lack control of that.

But there's still things you do, and you still control, you still control the majority of your thoughts, uh, even there.

So, There's really, there's really no, um.

I guess excuse or or reason, um, but I put a little caveat there.

Uh, and also, it is both in a positive and negative sense.

So, the examples I put at the start were both in the negative sense.

They were both, uh, you know, don't do these things.

But we also have to direct our life, not just restrained from evil, but we have to do good.

And you see that in James 4:17, therefore, to the one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it to him, it is sin.

So we, we need to be actively doing right, not just avoiding wrong.

Um, and in 1 Corinthians 9:25, now everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.

Um, And when you're, when you're a runner, it's not just focused on what you don't do, it's what you, you're, you're, you're mainly focused on what you should do.

And so we see it in, in both a positive and a negative, uh, thing.

A lot of times when we talk about self-control, it is Um, a lot of times we focus on actions, and a lot of times the, the negative side of actions.

It, it's like, well, self-control is not doing this action or doing that action, but it's really a lot more encompassing of everything about yourself, both, both positive and negative.

So it's, uh, exercising self-control in all things, to borrow the, the language of 23 Corinthians 9:25.

And to define it just a little further, I, I like to look at The, um, the opposite of something.

So if you're going to study, if you're going to study patience, you want to look at anger too.

If you're going to study hope, you want to look at worry.

It, it, it helps kind of frame the study.

And I, uh, as I was thinking about what the opposite of self control is, or what the opposite of inner power is, uh, excuses, uh, seem to line up perfectly.

So I think excuses are the antithesis of self-control.

And you can see that with Moses' excuses.

Uh, I'll read from Exodus 4 starting verse 10.

Then Moses said to Yahweh, please, Lord, I have never been a man of words, neither recently nor in time past, nor since you have spoken to your slave, for I am one with a hard mouth and a hard tongue.

And Yahweh said to him, who made, who has made man's mouth, or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind?

Is it not I, Yahweh?

So you can see Moses, he's making an excuse.

God has called him and said, go do this.

And Moses saying, oh, I, I can't.

Uh, and he's removing the power and dominion away from him.

Uh, I, I, I, I can't because I'm not a good speaker, you know, go find somebody else.

And notably, he's not considering God's power.

He's only thinking of his own perceived capabilities.

Uh, Which is what, what God corrects and God's response.

When God says, well, who made man's mouth?

If I give you this task, I will give you the capacity to do it.

A few months ago, I was uh teaching my son, Alan Caleb, uh, not to make excuses.

Uh, he would be saying, oh, I can't, I can't.

And one of, one of the points I, I made to him was that if I'm telling you to do it, I'll be there with you.

I'll make sure that you can.

If you're struggling with it, but you're trying, I'll assist you.

I'll boost you.

I'll make sure that you can do it.

That, that's my relationship as, as a father with my son.

And we have that relationship with God the Father.

If he says to do it, There is no, I can't.

If we have, if we struggle with and we're trying, he will make it possible for us.

He will give us the ability.

And so we don't, we don't have to rely only on our strength, but also on, on the power of God.

Uh, the self control can be the self part of self control can be a little bit deceptive, because it almost sounds like it has to come from us.

But it comes from God, too.

If we, if we say, Uh, oh, I, I can't, I can't evangelize because, um, I, I just get, I get nervous around people, I get social anxiety, um, or I, I can't evangelize because I, I just, I just don't know enough.

Or I'm not, I'm a very persuasive speaker, you know, that's considering our own weaknesses, not considering the strength of God.

Uh, the apostles prayed for boldness.

When they, when they evangelized, they looked for God's help.

So instead of making an excuse of, well, I, I get nervous when I talk to people, pray for boldness.

And do what God has commanded.

Instead of saying, I, I don't know enough.

Use the people that God has put in your life to help you with that, to help you increase in knowledge and to help you study with people.

Or I'm not a very persuasive speaker.

That's fine.

The Word of God is plenty powerful on its own.

Just give people the Word of God.

There is no excuse that stands up when you consider God's power.

And so the first application of, of self-control tonight is to stop making excuses.

Because anything God has said to do, you are able.

Uh, I didn't put 1 Corinthians 10:13 up on the screen, but that would be an application as well.

Uh, if there is a temptation, God provides a way out.

And so there's never a situation in which you say, uh, I just, I can't, I don't have the power to do it.

God will make it so you do.

So, how do we grow in self-control?

How do we increase our inner power or dominion over ourselves?

Well, I, I really appreciated the, uh, the comments, uh, before the reading by, by Mason.

He did a great job.

Uh, and he touched on the, the points that I want to bring out of this passage.

Because the athlete practices.

Uh, when you think about a runner, you think of someone who's doing 5Ks, maybe, maybe 3 times a week or 223 times a week, but it's not, well, I ran maybe 1 time a week.

Um, but it's not someone who is, who's just like, well, you know, I ran once, you know, 3 years ago, or, or in my case, uh, 12 or 15 years ago.

It's been a while.

Um, But it's the, the athlete is not someone who says, I, I did it once, so I'm ready, I'm ready to win the prize.

No, the, the athlete is someone who, who has their eye on the prize.

Uh, and they are practicing daily.

Uh, they are exercising self-control in all things.

The runner is watching his diet.

He's, he's being careful to live, uh, live life in such a way as to, as to be the best runner, uh, he or she can be.

And so, uh, you, you see the, the, the growing in capability through, through practice.

And that phrase in, in verse 27, I discipline my body, disciplining our bodies is not about punishment.

And it wasn't like Paul was saying, oh, Bad Paul, no, it's that he's teaching his body through the practice, right?

And, and verse 27, uh, contrasts with, with the previous section, you know, it says, but, so the, the, the opposite is found in the verse right before, um, And that's the other thing about an athlete.

An athlete is purposeful.

Uh, in, in verse 26, I ran, I run in such a way as not without aim.

I box in such a way as not beating the air.

They do it, uh, they do it with purpose, not aimlessly.

And in verse 25, uh, it shows the motivation for the runner, for the athlete, uh, to receive a crown.

And so if we're gonna, if we're gonna have self-control.

Uh, if we're going to direct our life, we have to have a direction.

Uh, to direct, right?

That's purpose.

And we're going to see that in several other passages as we, as we go.

Um, Titus 2, starting in verse 423, says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.

Instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desire, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

Uh, so, verse 12, you see, uh, you see the self-control, the restraint, uh, in the first part of 12, and then the, the direction in the, the second.

Uh, picking up back in 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, uh, you see that, you see the self-control, verse 213, and you see the purpose in, in verse 211, the, the direction, you know, the, the, the eye on the prize is that blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our, of our Lord.

But it's grace that teaches us that.

And that was a little hard for me to wrap my head around.

How does, how does grace teach us self-control?

Well, 217 Peter 21 is a kind of a parallel structure.

It's a little easier for me to wrap my head around, at least.

Um, so, 22 Peter, uh, 222 Peter, 123 Peter 212, starting in verse 22, uh, this isn't looking at grace, this is looking at judgment, but it, it's parallel.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of person ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens burning will be destroyed, and the elements will be melt, uh, will melt with intense heat.

So, 220 Peter 3 again, you see the purpose in verse 12, um, But it's a little easier to understand is you are, you are dwelling on, on judgment, you're thinking about it, meditating on it, and it changes the way you live.

So thinking about everything will be destroyed.

OK, examine yourself, how should I live?

Judgment teaches us, it instructs us in that way to live with godliness.

And so that's, that's the way I interpret.

Uh, Titus, to, uh, that we meditate on the grace of God.

And when we, when we think about the grace of God, we say, OK. Salvation has appeared.

I can be without sin.

I can have a relationship with God.

And because of that, I'm going to deny ungodliness, and I'm going to pursue righteousness.

And so dwelling on the grace, uh gives us that purposeful motivation that is required to direct your life, required for self-control.

If we look in Philippians 4, I'll start reading in verse 6.

We read, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is dignified, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, and if, if anything worthy of praise, consider these things.

So once again, we see that same principle that the heart changes with meditation.

What you put in is what you get out.

That's how we control this, this patches, this passage is how we control ourselves to the level of our, of our thoughts and our emotions.

You see, you say, you see anxiety, that's an emotion.

And we can control that.

We can say, I'm not going to be anxious.

I'm going to.

Give it to God.

I'm gonna, um, to borrow the point that I made on the excuses slide, uh, use God's power.

Let cast my care upon him, uh, to, to quote 1 Peter 5.

And so, when, uh, when we concentrate on good things, when we concentrate what, what is on what is right and pure and lovely, What comes into our mind more easily and more frequently are things that are right, and pure and lovely.

And that, that's how you control your thoughts and your emotions.

You do have to be careful sometimes, uh, with news, because it can be easy to, because news is gonna, uh, focus on negative things, things that are unjust, and things that are wrong with the world, because That's what gets people engaged.

And that drives the ad revenue.

And it's not designed to inform you, it's designed for money.

Um, go back to the introduction, right?

Um, and so you, you have to be careful to not, not take in too much, because that can make you anxious.

Um, you know, make sure that you are consuming, um, Things that are pure and lovely and right and a good report to control your thoughts.

Continuing on in Philippians 23, just a couple of verses down, starting in verse 11, uh, we read, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in abundance.

In any and all things, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Paul learned to control his emotions, contentment, under any circumstance, whether, whether things are going well, or, or if he's suffering.

Uh, he was able to control his emotions.

Well, how?

You see it in verse 13, I can do all things through him.

Uh, I think other versions say Christ, but you can grab that from the Uh, verses before verse 11, uh, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Once again, we see power coming from God.

You could rephrase verse 13 to say, borrowing from, um, Verse 11, I can be content in whatever circumstances I'm in, through Christ, who empowers me, who gives me power.

So that inner power comes from Christ there.

So self-control doesn't come exclusively from self.

I know, I'm kind of hitting that point kind of hard, but um the, the way we translate uh self-control can really narrow our scope of, of what it is.

Now Paul is, Paul is a good example of self-control.

But Jesus is the ultimate example of self-control.

And I can't think of any better example than Jesus on the cross.

Because you look at, I mean, we talked about the purpose needed for self-control.

And you see that purpose-driven mindset in Christ, that he is the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, that he came to seek and save the lost, even in, even in the prayer, uh, with his disciples in John 17, he's focused on Uh, in verses 1 and 2, he's talking about giving them eternal life.

He's got his eyes on the prize.

Just, just like the athlete.

But that is what gives him the, the self-control.

And you see him.

You see him looking to God for strength.

And, in Luke 22, uh, starting in verse 42, uh, Jesus is praying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.

Now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him, giving him that inner power.

And after that point, you see, uh, even, even though he was, he was distressed, this going to the cross is not an easy thing.

He is, he is sweating drops of blood.

But after that, he's a lot calmer.

God has given him, the Father has given him strength.

And when you look at that inner strength that Jesus has, we, uh, Troy this morning, talked about the agony that he was in, that, uh, they pierced him with nails.

The, the pain and the torture that he endured.

And that whole time, at any instant, he could have called 12 legions of angels.

He could have stopped it in an instant.

But he had the inner strength, the inner power to keep going, to provide us salvation and grace.

And when you look at him on the cross, And he's being tortured and mocked and humiliated.

And yet, he has the inner strength to love his enemies and to say, Father, forgive them.

I don't know a better example of inner strength.

That is unbelievable power to me.

The fact that Jesus could endure that for our sake.

And so we are called to be crucified with Him.

That's Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And so when we think about self-control and that inner power.

Think about Christ living in you.

It's not self, it's Christ.

And I know self-control is about controlling yourself, dominion over yourself, not saying we have dominion over Christ.

But that power comes from Christ.

Our purpose is no longer our own purpose.

Our purpose, everything we do after we are baptized, it's all about Christ.

Every word is to glorify and every action is to bring others to Him.

It's all about Christ.

I no longer live.

And if you Uh, if you don't have that relationship with Christ, If your, if your purpose.

Uh, if you see that you need forgiveness from sins, You can make that your purpose.

You can say, I'm gonna go to Christ.

Because just as the grace of God instructs us, uh, in, in self-control, we look at the grace of God and say, I want I want to be free from my sins, slave to Christ, but free from sin.

I want a relationship with God.

I want an incorruptible crown and eternal life that comes when you, when you become part of Christ, when Christ lives in you.

And we're told to crucify ourselves.

That's not, that's not literal.

That is, that is to say that we, we take up our cross and we follow him and we, we do as he does, that we, we no longer walk in our, our worldly passions, but we dedicate ourselves to God in every way.

And the way that we begin that walk is laid out in the scriptures.

We have to believe that he is the Son of God, that there is only one way to the Father, and that's through him.

We have to confess that he is the Son of God, and to repent, to change, and say, no more sin.

And to be baptized, immersed in water for the remission of sins, and to continue Christ living in us daily.

Or if you have, or if you've fallen from that, if you have already been baptized part of Christ, And And you have fallen.

If you need help.

Christ can give you power.

Christ, Christ can help you in your daily walk.

And if you need help, we are also here to help you.

In fact, We have an invitation song and an invitation to say, come to the fort, come forward, uh, so that we can help you.

And we extend that invitation now, if you need our help to make your life right, come forward, as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

From Galatians chapter 1, verses 6 through 12.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again.

If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be a curse.

For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

Or am I trying to please men?

If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel, for I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Um It is indeed a privilege to be a part of the Lord's Church.

If you're visiting with us today, we hope that you also have a relationship with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but if not, we want to encourage you to think seriously about obeying the gospel, about becoming a New Testament Christian.

Gary kind of anticipated uh my early comments by suggesting that everything that we do here this day has been mandated, has been according to the pattern that we see in the New Testament, the way that early Christians worshiped together when they assembled.

And not just our worship, but also the organization of this congregation with its elders and deacons is also according to the pattern that we find in the New Testament.

The two statements that you see on the board, on the screen are taken from our website, and they encourage people to consider the fact that we need to follow the pattern, the model, the example of the early Christians as we find it in our New Testament.

I suspect That that concept, the idea of following a pattern.

seems odd to many religious people in our modern world.

In fact, our attachment to the practices of the first century church, I know is sometimes characterized as backward or primitive.

Much like the Amish not using electricity or abstaining from the use of modern conveniences.

After all, we are nearly 2000 years removed from the death of Jesus Christ and the beginning of His church.

We are far removed from the location of the events, most of them that are recorded in the New Testament and even the time of those events as chronicled by the gospel writers and others.

We live in a different culture.

In an age of digital communication and mechanized transportation.

And so, people reason surely things have changed so much from the first century that adhering to first century practices is frankly impractical and unnecessary.

But this morning, I want to affirm that we do in fact need to follow the pattern of the New Testament.

As we sang just a few moments ago, a song that is taken from Colossians 23:17.

Whatever we do in word and deed, we need to do all in the name of the Lord, that is by his authority.

And I wanna defend the idea from the scriptures this morning.

That following the pattern of the New Testament is what God intends.

It's required by scripture.

In order to do that, I want to.

Give some background to the situation that we see today in the religious world.

You can drive from your house to this building unless you live as close as the Calverts do, but if you have to drive any distance at all, you're gonna pass some church buildings, and there'll be this building with their name on the building and there'll be some other group over there and, and the communities are full of different religious groups.

That's one of the consequences of what we sometimes call the reformation movement.

There was a time when the Roman Catholic Church had such authority and influence that other groups, including, I believe, New Testament Christians were kind of outliers.

But men like Martin Luther, Ulrich, Zlingly, John Calvin and John Knox.

These men were individuals who opposed the Roman Catholic Church.

And that was a brave thing for them to do, but unfortunately, out of the reformation movement, Sprang a number of new religious groups, denominations, sometimes they're called.

For instance, the Lutheran Church and the Presbyterian Church.

Later on, the Anabaptists, who are the precursors of the Baptist churches, and as well the Methodist Church as it came out over time from the Church of England, an offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church.

And of course, over time, many other groups came into being as these groups and others like them fragmented again and again until we have the situation that we have today with religious groups everywhere of different stripes and doctrines.

Many of those who came to North America did so in the pursuit of religious freedom, those who came early on to settle on the eastern seaboard.

The reformers in Europe had opposed the authority and the various doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and sometimes even the denominations were authoritative and so people were struggling to practice their religion freely.

The beginning of denominations resulted in a lot of division among religious people, both in the colonies and then later once uh this nation came into being.

There was a movement which began in the first half of the 18th century, the early 1700s, called the Great Awakening.

It was a time of revival and renewed interest in spiritual things in America.

In the years following the Revolutionary War with England, We saw a marked decline in religion in America.

There was a spirit of revivalism again that began in the late 1700s, in the 1790s, which has been called by some the Second Great Awakening.

We, at least among our brotherhood, we have referred to it frequently as the restoration movement.

Several individuals across the colonies and even further west began to try to restore the first century church.

Churches of Christ appeared in this country during the Restoration movement.

Please understand, observe that I didn't say that the Church of Christ began during the Reformation movement.

That's a misconception that many people have, but the fact of the matter is, Christ Church has existed from the first century.

In various places as the gospel moved around the globe.

And there were churches of Christ in Europe prior to the Reformation movement in America.

When Daniel saw his vision in Daniel chapter 2 of the, the image.

He was told the interpretation indicated that the kingdom that would be set up in the times of the Roman kings would never be destroyed.

And so, the Church of Christ has existed from the first century on to the present.

It didn't originate in the United States during the Reformation and Restoration movement.

I want to mention just a few names of those who were involved in the restoration movement as prominent leaders and uh influencers.

Uh, some of those You may recognize, but I'm not interested necessarily in detailing all of their lives or the things that they did, their beliefs, but there is one thing that I want you to see that is common to all of these individuals, and I'll mention it, point it out as we finish this list.

James O'Kelly was an individual who lived in the middle of the 18th century.

He belonged originally to the Wesleyan Society, which was an outgrowth of the Methodist Church.

Eventually, uh, he would, uh, that group would become the Methodist Episcopal Church.

But O'Kelly saw problems with the church government in that group and so he left that group.

Two other individuals by the name of Abner Jones and Elias Smith were Baptist preachers in the United States in America.

Elias Smith opposed the Calvinism that was being taught in Baptist churches.

We spent some time last year in a series of sermons talking about Calvinism, pointing out that the Bible doesn't teach the major precepts of Calvinism.

Elias Smith influenced Abner Jones, and both of those men came to the conclusion that all the systems of denominations and the creeds ought to be rejected, and they proclaimed the Bible as their only creed, which we sang about a little bit earlier in one of the songs that Gary selected, a very good uh series of selections.

By 1807, these two men had established 14 congregations in the New England area in an attempt to follow the New Testament pattern.

They left the Baptists.

Barton W. Stone is another individual during this period of time.

He was an ordained preacher in the Presbyterian Church, but he also questioned the Calvinistic doctrines of the Presbyterian Church and withdrew himself from that group.

Thomas Campbell is a word, a name that we probably have heard before, uh, toward the end of the 133, excuse me, 1700s, came to America from Ireland in 1807.

He was a member of the Secedar Presbyterian Church.

Church, a splinter group of the Presbyterian Church.

He came to America and he wanted to unite believers, and they made him leave the Secedar Presbyterian Church because you can't do that when every group has its own creed, its own beliefs.

And so he left that group separating from the Presbyterians, desiring to unite all believers on the basis of scripture only.

He's the one who coined the expression, where the scriptures speak, we speak, where the scriptures are silent, we are silent, which is a good Uh, axiom to live by in religious terms.

His son, Alexander Campbell, followed him from Ireland a couple of years later.

He was also a secedar Presbyterian, but upon coming to America, he discovered that he had come to many of the same conclusions that his father had.

And so, uh, he left the Presbyterian Church.

All of these men have something in common.

They came from different religious groups, but what they had in common was they left those groups because they saw problems with Calvinism and the creeds that these churches uh had adopted.

They also were upset about the disunity that they saw among religious people here in America, and they had every right to be.

That's not the Lord's intention that we be in the situation, in fact, that we're in this year, in, in this time in the religious world.

Jesus says in John 17, And I'm no longer in the world, but they are in the world, speaking of his apostles, and I'm coming to you, Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.

Not that all the apostles would become one person, but that they would be united in purpose, in intent.

And then he drops, uh, if we drop down to verse 24 he continues by talking not just about the apostles, but also about Thus, about disciples, people who would believe in Christ as a result of the preaching of the apostles.

Verse 21 I do not ask for these only, the apostles, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

And so these men that we looked at just a few moments ago, and I'm oversimplifying the whole movement.

I, I apologize for that, but by reason of time, I just wanted you to get a summary.

They left these denominations, because what they discovered is that these denominations were not teaching what the Bible teaches.

They weren't worshiping, they weren't organized, they weren't teaching according to the pattern of the New Testament.

The New Testament teaches.

Very clearly that we must not deviate from the gospel that was originally preached by the apostles and prophets in the first century.

The passage that was read by Kevin just a few moments ago in Galatians 24 is very clear.

In fact, one of the most severe passages in terms of the consequences of departing from the one gospel.

Paul says there are some who are a deserting cross.

and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, there's just one gospel.

And then he says in verse 21, but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach you a gospel, contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

And he repeats himself.

He says it a second time, don't preach, don't follow any other gospel.

I'm gonna present some other passages for your consideration, but I want you to understand, this is just a smattering of verses from the New Testament that could be assembled to make the same point that we need to adhere to the pattern, to the doctrine of the gospel.

In 21 Corinthians 22:93, Paul says, uh, oh, but as God has distributed to each one as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk, and so I ordain in all the churches.

Paul says, I taught the same thing in all the churches.

He didn't teach one thing at Ephesus, and another thing at Corinth and something else at Antioch, but just one gospel.

In the fourth chapter of that same epistle, He says, that is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Could it be any clearer that we need to stay with the New Testament doctrine?

He writes to Titus in chapter 29 and verse 24, that Titus needs to teach what accords with sound doctrine, which indicates that there's doctrine that is unsound, but Paul had instructed Titus.

He says much the same thing in 22000 Timothy 2 and verse 2.

While, while writing to Timothy, he says, and what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust the faithful men who will be able to teach others also, there's a chain here in this verse.

Paul says, what I have taught you, you need to To entrust to faithful men, who will then be able to teach others.

Paul intended that the original gospel that he had spoken to Timothy needed to be conveyed to others.

It was to continue to be taught the same gospel.

We also sang a song that alluded to 1 Peter 4 and verse 11, whoever speaks, let him speak or let, as one who speaks the oracles of God.

I started to quote the New King James Version.

And so these passages, like I say, are just a small sample of the passages that we could put together, but these are sufficient, I think, for us to understand that God intends for us to follow that New Testament doctrine.

We don't change the gospel.

We don't teach anything that's not sound doctrine, but instead, we continue to preach the same gospel that the apostles and prophets spoke in the first century.

The apostles also warned that there would be some who would stray from the truth, as we suggested already from Galatians 1, there were some who were deserting Christ, turning to a different gospel.

But there are other warnings of the same problem in the New Testament.

In 43 Timothy 1:3, Paul says, uh, that he had left Paul, uh, Timothy rather at Ephesus.

Listen, so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

Does anybody have the right then or today, to teach something other than what the New Testament teaches?

I think the answer to that is pretty clear.

In 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1.

Now, the Spirit expressly says that in latter times, later times, Some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

They'll be religious people who will not follow the doctrine of the New Testament, not follow the pattern.

They'll even teach teachings or doctrines of demons.

In the sixth chapter of that same epistle, Paul says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching that accords with godliness, what's the consequence?

He's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

People today seem to think that if they can come up with some new doctrine or some different gospel, that somehow they're manifesting their intelligence.

The fact of the matter is, Paul says, if you teach some other doctrine, you understand nothing.

You're puffed up with conceit.

What we need to do, and others need to do is humble ourselves, follow that same gospel, that New Testament gospel.

Paul warned the elders at, of the, of the church at Ephesus when he met with them at Meliss.

He said, there's going to be problems.

They're going to be people who are going to prey upon the flock like ravenous wolves, even from among you, he says, speaking to these elders, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples from them.

We don't need to be twisting, changing things.

Someone says, well, it's kind of boring when someone just reads from the, the New Testament.

Well, that's the gospel.

That's the sound doctrine.

That's what we're supposed to be following.

And so that's the way that we understand the pattern.

In First John 4:1, the apostle John says, don't believe every spirit, test the spirits.

John understood that there would be people who would come and they would teach things that were false.

And we see that today.

It's been a long time since the first century, but all through that history, there have been those who decided they wanted to teach something different.

There are groups that don't even respect the New Testament or the Bible as the word of God.

And then you've got all of these different groups teaching different doctrines.

John said, don't believe every spirit, test the spirit.

How do you know?

Well, John gives them a specific test, he says, to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world and he continues by talking about those who would deny the, the humanity or the deity of Jesus Christ.

You know how you test the spirits?

You compare them with the one gospel.

You compare them with what was taught and practiced in the 1st century by those early Christians.

John again in his 2nd general letter says everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

We need to abide in the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Whoever abides in that teaching has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, Well, that's OK. Don't worry about it.

No, John says, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

Don't support false teaching, false doctrine.

Abide in the doctrine of Christ.

And one final passage in Hebrews 13 and verse 9.

The Hebrews author says, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings.

For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them.

I think the Hebrews author has in mind a specific strange teaching, probably having to do with Judaism.

But the principle is, don't be led away by diverse and strange teachings.

Stay with the New Testament gospel.

So the question Is it really that important that we follow some supposedly outdated practices from the first century?

Absolutely. Yes These passages illustrate clearly that God intends for us to follow the same pattern, to follow the same doctrine that those early Christians did.

It's not some quirkiness of the Church of Christ that we follow the pattern of the New Testament.

It's clearly God's intention that we follow the teaching of those early Christians.

Jesus said to his disciples during his lifetime on this earth, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

We live in a world of change.

I've talked to Debbie many times as we kind of talk about some of the things that have changed just in our lifetime, in the time that we've been married for decades, all the things that have happened, computers and cellphones and all uh vehicles with 4 wheels and stuff like that, you know.

Everything has changed and it's changing, it seems all the time faster.

And I believe sometimes we get in our minds this concept that that's the same way it should be with religion, that, that we need to change with the times and we need to adapt to a a a a world that has different technology and No, no, not at all.

The apostles taught that there was one gospel.

And it was clearly their teaching that that one gospel was to continue to be followed until the Lord comes back.

You know, it's interesting.

That despite all the changes in our lives, we wear different clothes than people used to wear.

We have different means of communication, different means of transportation, but there are some things that have not changed.

And you know what they are.

It is still the case.

That all of us fall short.

Of the glory of God.

We've sinned.

It is still the case that we need a savior.

It is still the case that there's only one name under heaven.

By which you and I can be saved.

It is still the case that the gospel.

Is God's power and salvation.

The salvation, excuse me, the sacrifice of Jesus has not become any less effective or necessary than it was in the first century.

And so we follow, we preach the same gospel plan of salvation.

That was preached in the first century.

And as we read through the book of Acts, we see how people who believe that message about Jesus being the Son of God, uh, a risen Savior.

They acted on their faith.

They repented of their sins.

They confessed that faith that they had about Jesus being the Son of God, the risen savior, and they were baptized.

Buried with Christ and water that they could rise out of the waters of baptism to become new creatures, Christians, people who belong to Jesus Christ, bought by the blood of the Lamb.

This morning, if you're not a Christian, if you do not have that relationship.

The process for you to uh become a Christian is the very same as you can read about in the Book of Acts and I provided scriptures on the screen so that you can see, this is the New Testament plan.

And we want to encourage you to take the opportunity that you have this morning.

To become a Christian, to obey the gospel just like people did almost 2000 years ago when that gospel was first preached.

If we can assist you in doing that this morning or we can study with you further so that you can see what the truth of the gospel is, then we want to encourage you.

If you come to the front, we'll help you with your needs as we stand and sing to encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Good evening.

The scripture reading this evening will be from Acts 15:36-163.

I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.

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 it 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 the Lord.

And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

It's good to see you this evening.

It's my pleasure to be able to talk with you about God's word.

I want to begin this evening by talking about Luke's record in the Book of Acts of some of the early Christians and two Christians in particular.

I think you would be hard pressed to find anybody.

In the book of Acts, who is more impressive than Paul and his first journey companion, Barnabas.

And yet, They had a sharp disagreement, as the scripture reading just reminded you over the question of whether John Mark should accompany them on the 2nd preaching trip.

You probably recall that John Mark had started with Paul and Barnabas on the 1st preaching journey, but that he had returned to Jerusalem before the trip was over, and Paul didn't want to take Mark with them.

Barnabas, on the other hand, who seems to have been related to John Mark, wanted to include him in their travel.

I say sharp disagreement.

To mean that both men were strongly committed to their opinion.

And they were unable to resolve their difference of opinion, and that's what it was.

It was an opinion.

The text says that Barnabas wanted, Paul thought best.

This is not a question of right and wrong.

I don't think even Paul would have characterized it that way.

This is two men of sterling character, devoted to the Lord.

Who had a disagreement, a sharp, strong disagreement about whether John Marks should be included on this second journey.

And they were unable to resolve their difference of opinion and so they separated, they parted ways and one went one direction, another went another.

I'm not wanting to introduce the sermon this evening with an example of two people who couldn't resolve their conflict when I'm going to preach about managing conflict.

But what I want you to see from that example is that even men of the caliber of Paul and Barnabas could reach an impasse in a disagreement and so would manage that conflict.

By going separate ways in their evangelism efforts.

I almost changed the sermon title from managing conflict to resolving conflict because sometimes people talk about managing conflict, but they don't necessarily mean resolving it, they just mean keeping it tamped down and that's not really what we're talking about tonight.

But I think you can also use the expression managing conflict to include the resolution of disagreements and conflict between individuals.

Paul and Barnabas didn't resolve their conflict, but they didn't manage it, and they did so by separating from one another.

The elders have talked recently about possibly teaching an entire 13 lesson Bible study session on managing conflict.

And that may not happen, but even if it does, what you get tonight is just a taste of what these 13 lessons might talk about.

So tonight, I want to note some common causes of conflict between brethren and discuss some principles that I think are useful in the managing of conflict.

I really appreciated Travis's selection of songs.

In those songs, we sang about some of the very things that, that I'm going to talk about tonight in terms of basic principles and managing conflict.

We could just almost dispense with the sermon.

I said almost Because I'm gonna go ahead and preach it, even though Travis, as Mike likes to say, foot stomped some of the points that I'm going to make this evening.

I appreciate the selection.

The bumper car picture that you see on the screen is intended to say that almost any time you get two people who spend any significant time together.

They're gonna bump into each other.

There are going to be differences of opinion.

They're going to be, uh, perhaps conflicts or differences in thinking.

And so this lesson is not.

intended to deal with any specific situation either here or anywhere else.

But to say that all of us, I think, myself included, can benefit from learning about how better to manage conflict, to resolve differences with others.

Well, the reason we're going to have conflicts is because we're not mental clones.

We have different opinions.

We have different ways of thinking about things.

And so we're not just all robots who look exactly the same and act exactly the same and have the same programming.

I could do more of the robot thing if you want.

We have a lot of variety in the way that we approach things and the opinions that we have based on our past history, those things, and people who have influenced us.

Regardless of the relationship that you're talking about, whether you want to talk about marriage or relationships with co-workers in the workplace, whether you're talking about relationships between brethren, there will be disagreements, conflict, and differences are inevitable.

Someone quipped one time, if a man says he's never had an argument with his wife, he's apt to lie about other things too.

To suggest that when you have a relationship where people are spending a lot of time together, sooner or later, it's kind of like one of those laws of the universe.

There's going to be some friction.

We're going to bump into each other.

And if you're going to have successful relationships, if we're going to continue in our relationships, then we need to be versed in how to manage conflict.

Conflict It's a word that has a broad range of meaning depending on the context in which it's used.

We talk about wars as conflicts, particularly if wars have not been declared, declared.

But on the other hand, conflict may be just as trivial or innocuous as a difference of opinion over some small matter.

Just a difference of whether we should get a yap yap dog or whether we should get a Rottweiler dog.

That could generate tension and disagreement or conflict.

And so I'm just saying that when I talk about conflict, I'm not necessarily talking about people who are frankly just chewing on each other's faces.

Sometimes, we have conflict or tension, disagreements over things that are relatively small.

And I want to suggest to you that conflict, differences in, in thinking, opinions can actually be a good thing.

Now, that might not seem so, we kind of tend to think conflict is always a negative thing.

But when two people have a difference of opinion and they resolve that difference of opinion, it can lead to growth on the part of one or both and a greater level of understanding of each for the other.

So, may I say to you that conflict doesn't have to be a negative thing.

It's inevitable and it can be a problem.

It can cause lots of problems, but it doesn't have to be a negative thing.

Well, I want to talk to you about some common causes of conflict, and I fully realize you'll probably note as we go through these, uh, that the, these are just some common causes.

This is not a comprehensive list.

You'll, you'll think of other reasons that people sometimes have differences, uh, between them or, or they have some sort of conflict, but I'm gonna suggest to you 6 this evening.

And we're not gonna talk about each one in great detail.

I won't give any more than 30 minutes to each of them.

And so, we'll just look at these 6 briefly and you can add some to the list if you'd like.

Sin committed against another can create conflict and differences between people.

Doctrinal differences when brethren and these two causes focus more narrowly on us as Christians, as members of the Lord's Church, but doctrinal differences can sometimes create huge conflict and tension between brethren.

Sometimes conflict is just the result of misunderstandings, poor communication by maybe one person or more.

Power struggles, we'll say more about that, but it's, I think, probably fairly obvious how that could cause tension and conflict.

Differing values.

Not necessarily right or wrong values, but just different uh priorities placed on uh certain things.

Uh, sometimes that's related to limited resources.

Again, we'll talk more about that.

Then finally, the last one I'm going to talk about is personality differences.

Sometimes people just kind of tend to rub each other the wrong way because they have different personalities, they approach things differently, and so sometimes that can cause conflict.

If you've ever watched a boxing.

About You know that before the bout begins, the referee will get the two fighters into the ring.

He's got them close together facing each other, and he gives them instructions.

He'll say things like, no low blows, no kidney punches, no rabbit punches.

Protect yourself at all times.

He's telling them how to fight.

If you'll pardon the fact that that's not a.

A, a, a real true parallel.

There's a sense in which it might be good if individuals.

who experience conflict were reminded of some basic instructions, some basic principles to manage their conflict.

So let's go through these 6 and say a little bit about each of them as we talk about responding to conflict.

Caused by these things.

The first one here, sin committed to another.

The Bible tells us exactly how we are to deal with sin when someone has committed sin against us.

I appreciated the prayers today, both uh Greg's prayer this morning and the prayer, uh, this evening by David, uh, mentioning this business of being willing to forgive.

But the Bible says in Matthew 18, beginning in verse 43, that if somebody has sinned against me, I am to go and tell him his fault, identify his sin.

If he listens to you, Jesus says, you have gained your brother.

Jesus will continue in verses 16 and following to talk about what happens if he doesn't listen to you, if he doesn't repent and ask for forgiveness.

And uh we could go into all of that.

But I want you to look also at Luke 17 3 and 4, where Jesus says, pay attention to yourselves.

If your brother sins, Rebuke him.

Same thing as Matthew 18:15.

And if he sins against you 7 times in the day and turns to you 7 times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

We are to be forgiving like our Heavenly Father is forgiving.

Matthew 18th chapter later, we'll talk about that very thing.

But it's not just the one who has been sinned against.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that if you take your gift to the altar, speaking to his Jewish audience, you take your gift to the altar in the temple, and they remember that your brother has something against you, what should you do?

Jesus says, leave your gift there.

before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

These passages talk about What the person who has been sinned against should do.

And the person who has sinned, what he should do or she should do.

And I want to emphasize.

That in both cases, the Lord says, you go directly to the person involved.

As opposed to what sometimes people do where they'll talk to this one and that one and somebody else, or sometimes they'll kind of hold a grudge and not say anything.

They just kind of uh tamp down this, this sin and not worry about it.

But Jesus says, if someone sinned against you, you go rebuke him.

And if you realize that somebody has something against you, you go to him.

You ought to see two people who are meeting in the middle.

That I think is the way we respond to conflict that is generated by sin between individuals.

You know, it's interesting, we talked about Paul and Barnabas and the disagreement they had over John Mark, but if you go back to the beginning of Acts 43, You find that Paul and Barnabas are up worshiping, working with the church in Antioch of Syria.

And there were some teachers who came from Jerusalem.

who are coming up and teaching Gentiles that they needed to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.

And the text says there in chapter 15 verses 1 and 2.

that Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them.

There was conflict here, conflict over what the truth is concerning Gentiles.

Do they have to become Jews in order to be saved, or can they be saved as Gentiles without being circumcised or for that matter, keeping the old law?

Well, you probably remember that in Acts 15, what happens is that the decision is made that some there in Antioch will travel down to Jerusalem, and they'll consult with the apostles and the elders of the church there.

Please understand that what they're doing is they're consulting individuals who are guided by the Holy Spirit.

In essence, what Paul and Barnabas and some others do is they go to Jerusalem to talk about what the Holy Spirit says is the answer to this question.

Verse 7 says, and after there had been much debate, I think sometimes we kind of run past that.

Because we want to talk about what Peter said, what Paul and Barnabas related, and then later on what James says, as he cites the prophets, uh, prophet of the Old Testament.

But there had already been conflict, there had been disagreement, debate about what the truth is concerning requirements for Gentile Christians.

Well, what did they do?

They consulted the Word of God.

When there are differences in understanding the scriptures and doctrine, then we need to go back to the word, consult what the Holy Spirit said, and we have the Holy Spirit's revelation in its completion in our Bibles.

And that's how we need to resolve doctrinal differences.

Much more can be said, but I would at this point, tackle the issue.

What's the disagreement that's involved?

Tackle the issue, not the person who's opposing you with a different view of what the scriptures say.

Well, in the 3rd place.

Misunderstandings often caused by poor communication.

And the answer to that is good communication.

Shall we move on?

Well, what, what is involved in good communication?

Let me suggest several things to you.

I'm gonna suggest uh just uh 4 of them.

First of all, good communication involves both sending, talking, and receiving, listening.

Sometimes what happens when people have a disagreement is one person will just basically talk over the other person.

I just keep talking.

I don't give you a chance to say anything as though by not allowing you to express yourself, somehow I've won this disagreement.

I've won this conflict.

The other side of that uh pole.

is some will submerge conflict by not talking at all.

stonewalling or the silent treatment.

There's a conflict sometimes in marriages.

There's a conflict, there's a disagreement of opinions.

It may be something trivial, and one spouse just shuts up, won't talk about it.

And you can't resolve conflict that way.

What happens is that disagreement, that conflict just gets submerged.

But don't fool yourself, it's still there.

And it has a bad way of popping up when you least want it to or expect it to.

It becomes a problem later on in some other conflict or issue.

There needs to be listening with the intent of trying to understand the other side of this difference, of this conflict.

I believe that's why 1 Peter verse 3 and verse chapter 53 and verse 7 says, likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way.

One of the ways that we understand each other, that we come to know each other is by communication, by talking and listening, and husbands need to listen to their wives so that they can understand the needs that they have, so that they can understand the perspective of their wives.

Men and women approach things differently.

Now there's a revelation, isn't it?

That we don't all think exactly the same way in terms of the two genders.

And so husbands, particularly because they are the head of the wife, Peter says, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel.

Since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

I'm going to suggest to you that we need to avoid certain kinds of language.

Avoid sarcasm.

Mockery, insult, insults, demeaning language.

Attacking the person rather than the problem just destroys trust.

That's from the University of Arkansas study and I think they are right on in terms of good communication should avoid these things.

We can reduce defensiveness in whoever it is that we're having some sort of difference with by avoiding I, you always statements and substituting instead I statements.

In other words, this is the way I feel about it as opposed to saying, well, now you always.

Because it's seldom always.

Usually, there are exceptions, but what that does is it raises a defensive barrier wall that is not good for reducing conflict and tension.

And then finally, the fourth thing, calmness promotes better communication.

It's hard to communicate well when we're angry.

And so I think that's why maybe James says in James 1:19, Know this, my beloved brothers, that every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

And so we need to be careful about responding in anger.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians in chapter 27 and verse 230, be angry and do not sin.

Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

There's a time, excuse me, there's a time and place where anger is probably appropriate.

Even the Lord gets angry and has gotten angry in times past.

We read about it in the scriptures.

But God's anger is not a selfish anger.

It's not a random anger.

But Paul says don't hold that anger because anger that is nursed has a tendency to turn into malice.

Power struggles.

Sinful pride.

And selfishness often lead to, it must be my way, kind of thinking.

There's a passage in Philippians 212 that would actually help us in several of these causes of conflict or tension.

In Philippians 216 verses 24 through 24, Paul says, so if there's any counsel, encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, And he's not asking if there are any.

He's Piling up these reasons why we need to complete my joy, he says, by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord, and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

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

And so sinful pride, conceit, and selfishness, the opposite of uh being interested in the interest of others, those things create tension, they create differences, and Paul says we need to avoid those things, don't behave from those motivations.

Over in 103 Corinthians in chapter 210.

As he describes the character of love, how love behaves, he says, love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It doesn't insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful.

That's a passage that would apply not only to this particular point or cause, but some of the others that we've already talked about.

I find it interesting.

That elders in their qualifications are not to be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

The word arrogant there is translated in the New King James Version as not self-willed.

Elders are not to be the kind of people who have to have their own way, but rather they're the kind of people who can uh yield to others, work with others.

Well, that kind of introduces the next call that I wanted to talk about and that's just differing values.

Values may be a reference, can be a reference to right and wrong, and I don't think we ought to compromise truth, I don't think we ought to compromise on right and wrong.

But values can also refer to priorities or opinions about what is important, what is better.

Paul thought best not to take John Mark.

He was expressing An opinion about what was the best thing.

Barnabas disagreed with that.

So we're not talking necessarily about questions of right and wrong.

And in those kinds of areas, Paul says that we need to be submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I want to make two observations about that verse, that short verse.

The first one is, the next verse, verse 4.

is addressed to wives, and it talks about the responsibility of wives to submit to their husbands, but there is no verb in verse 25.

I think I've mentioned this before, it is a verb that is borrowed.

Wives, submit to your own husbands.

That submit verb is borrowed from verse 21.

And so if someone says, well, I don't see why it seems unfair for wives to have to submit to husbands.

Listen, verse 21 says we all should be submitting to one another in various ways that we can.

We need to be looking out at the interests of others and not just our own interest.

I think that's the concept of verse 21, the idea of submitting to one another.

And then the second thing about this verse, he says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Why should I submit to you?

Because I reverence Christ, and that's what he wants me to do.

Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.

And we need to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

It talks about our motivation.

Again, don't compromise on truth.

I don't think we have the right to do that, but compromise is a good thing in matters of opinion, and it often can resolve conflict and differences between people.

And then last of all, personality differences.

I read to you from Philippians chapter 2, just a few moments ago, but I want you to look at this passage from Philippians 4 because Paul gives us another example of two sisters who seem to be having some conflict, who seem to be having disagreements, and Paul says, I entreat Yodia and I entreat Sintake to agree in the Lord.

To agree is to have the same mind, to think the same way, at least that seems to be the implication of the word that's translated agree there.

Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement, the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

Couple of observations.

First of all, we don't really know precisely.

What was causing the disagreement between these two women?

Paul doesn't identify that, but I would suggest to you that they weren't agreeing with each other, and Paul says, I'm entreating you to do that.

And secondly, he asks somebody else whom he calls a true companion.

Some people would even suggest that that word there is literally a name.

I don't know if that's true or not.

Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women.

And that suggests that sometimes when two people are having a disagreement and they can't come together, they can't seem to resolve the conflict, sometimes what they need is a third person, like Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 533, a wise person in the, among the flock of Christians who can help people resolve differences between themselves.

And so Paul enlisted here in verse 3, the help of another person.

Personality differences.

We're not talking about right and wrong.

And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:7, as he describes the character of love, he says, love bears all things.

You ever known someone who's just annoying?

This would be a bad time for any of you to say amen and look at me.

But sometimes we just don't seem to see things the same way.

We don't approach things the same way, and maybe there's, there are habits or idiosyncrasies in somebody that just rub us the wrong way.

Love bears all things.

Believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Paul doesn't explain what he means by each of these phrases, but I would suggest to you that there are times when we need to bear with other people.

Even though we may not appreciate the way that they approach things or even their particular personality may be very different from our own.

Well, I don't know if I spent 30 minutes on each of those, but I want to conclude by saying, And incidentally, I had this chart all laid out and I realized that graphic may be interpreted as jumping to conclusions, and that's not the point of this sermon, OK?

What I intended by the chart graphic was we are jumping to the conclusion of the sermon.

And for that, I'm sure you're grateful.

Conflicts have the potential to separate people, to pull people apart.

Conflicts in marriage, if they're not resolved, and depending on the severity of the tension or conflict, or disagreement, marriages can become cold and stale and you end up with two people who are living together, but they're just roommates.

They're not husband and wife, really.

And, or marriage can be characterized by constant arguments and avoidance of each other.

Conflict has the potential to turn the workplace into a place of tension and where people are unproductive.

And conflicts can create a divided congregation.

So and so doesn't get along with so and so, and that person doesn't get along with this person, and there are people over here who can't seem to get along.

What happens is we really don't work together.

We don't have unity in a congregation because we're not managing conflicts maybe very well.

If you read the bulletin article today, then you'll understand what I'm saying next.

You gotta wanna have peace with others.

Paul said in Romans 12, beginning in verse 16, Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible.

So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Now sometimes we can't live peaceably.

There are things where we're not going to be able to resolve that conflict, and Paul and Barnabas separated, went different ways because they couldn't come to an agreement on this matter even of opinion.

But as much as it depends on me, I need to live peaceably with all.

I think sometimes it takes very little effort to create conflict.

It takes deliberate effort to resolve or to manage conflict.

So, here's some points that I'd like for you to remember, take away from this sermon.

Conflict is inevitable.

But conflict doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

When two people have different opinions about something and they share their opinions with each other, sometimes what happens is both of them grow in their understanding of the other person.

Sometimes they both grow generally in terms of spiritual things.

Conflict doesn't have to be a negative thing.

Respect others.

Did you see that theme kind of running through all of these causes of conflict, the way that we deal with others, we need to respect them.

We need to practice good communication skills.

Listen to what others are saying.

It's very tempting when someone's expressing something different than what you think or what you believe.

It's very tempting to try to interrupt, to try to get your point in instead of letting someone say what they need to say, and then calmly responding with your opinion or view.

Try to understand others.

That's what communication is all about.

Don't put up communication barriers by the way that you speak.

And of course, stay calm.

Avoid sinful pride and selfishness.

Those always cause.

Conflict and tension.

And then as we began with address indirectly rather than indirectly, by indirectly, I mean, we talk about it with this one and that one and go to some other congregation, we talk about things here at KSR we, we're constantly Not talking to the people, the person who's actually involved in this matter.

And so that's, that's an important thing for resolving conflict.

James says in James 4:4, that friendship with the world is enmity with God.

We have conflict with God when we try to be friends with the world.

And the reason is, we're walking a different path than God is walking.

He is light, and we are walking in darkness.

In fact, we were all enemies at some point in our lives, if we're responsible for God.

Paul would write in Romans 5:10 that God reconciled us to the death of his son while we were yet enemies.

But what God wants is to bring peace between us and Him.

To resolve this problem of sin.

In fact, Isaiah says in Isaiah 53 and 5, that through the death of Jesus Christ, we can have peace.

And that's what we've been talking about tonight.

We've been talking primarily about peace, resolving conflict between people.

But we also need to be concerned about having peace with our God, our Creator.

This evening, if you don't have peace, if you are estranged from God because of your sins.

And we want to encourage you to take advantage of the offer that the Lord makes.

That the death of his son, the blood that was shed, can wash you clean from your sins, and you can be in fellowship with God and communion with Him, walking in the light even as he is in the light.

If you need to obey the gospel this evening, culminating in burial and baptism for the remission of your sins, then we want to encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity that you have.

We stand and sing to encourage you.