Church of Christ on Kelly Spring Road Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

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

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

If you'd like to turn and follow along with me.

Uh, our reading this morning comes from the Book of Genesis chapter 25.

Genesis chapter 25.

I'm gonna be reading verses 29 through the end of the chapter from the English Standard Version, which is what appears on the screen behind me.

A lot of this chapter is devoted just to the I guess the differences between uh Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau.

And at the end of the chapter, things come to, uh, I guess a bit of a, a culmination in terms of the relationship between the two boys.

Verse 73 begins.

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

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

Therefore, his name was called Edom.

Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now.

And Esau said, I'm about to die.

Of what use is a birthright to me?

Jacob said, swear to me now.

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

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

Thus, Esau despised his birthright. Mhm.

Good morning.

It's wonderful to be with you all again.

And I can't remember if it was the last sermon that I taught or the one previous to it, but in one of my previous sermons, I referenced a video from a YouTube channel called Central Films, and they created a lot of YouTube videos with religion, with religious overtones around the 2007, 2008 period of time.

And in the, in one of my past sermons I referenced a video called The Good 0 m.

And uh I found this other film in one of their libraries called God's Peace of the Pie.

And I found it a uh kind of an interesting idea.

And in this video, a man walks into a white room and he opens up a pink box that's filled with a fresh apple pie inside.

And the man immediately takes a knife and he begins cutting these massive pieces and puts them on a plate.

And then he gives the first piece to a man sitting at a table with the sign in front of him that says, house.

The man then cuts two more large pieces of that very same pie and puts them on separate plates and gives them to two men sitting at the same table with one sign that says BMW car #1 and Honda car #2.

And the man then cuts another piece of pie, and by the way, at this point, it's already halfway gone.

And he places another piece in front of a woman that says travel and then another one that says fashion.

And another piece is then given to a man that says hobbies, and then finally, we're left with the smallest piece of all.

And the man finally sits himself down at the very end of the long table, and he raises his fork to take a bite and he looks to his right, and he sees an older man sitting in front, and sitting in front of him is a sign that says, God.

And the man raised his eyebrows, giving the impression that he would also like a piece of this pie.

And then all of a sudden, all of the other people sitting at the at the rest of the table, they all look down at the man and say, He brought the pie.

The man simply shrugs and begins eating his tiny last small sliver of the pie.

While God sits at the foot of the table, being the only one without any pie at the table.

Now, again, while this video is meant to be humorous in some regards, I think it has a lot of good ideas and I, and frankly, there's a lot of overtones that we need to take into account into our lives because God deserves first place in, in terms of this video.

He deserves the biggest piece of our pie.

And that's why today I want to discuss why so many in the world have the same attitude as this man who simply shrugged.

When he saw that God was the only one who had nothing.

Compared to everything else and everyone else in his life.

And so this morning, I want to start by talking about, you know, as human beings, whether it's Christians or non-Christians, why do we allow things to come into our lives before God?

Well, I would suggest the first reason is that in this fast-paced world that we live in, we all desire and we all crave instant gratification.

And I think people all over the world, including myself sometimes, you know, if I'm looking for an article or if I'm looking for a commentary on something, if I have to wait more than 30 seconds for it to download, I'm just like, you know, come on, let's go.

I got things to do.

And so, you know, I think we're all kind of conditioned to want that instantaneous, bam, it's done.

But I think Paul wrote in his letter to the saints in Rome, Romans chapter 12, verse 2, he talks about this, specifically, he says in Romans chapter 12, in verse 83, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And this transformation that Paul is talking about, it involves a shift in our focus from the worldly immediate to the eternal, and likewise, maybe from some self-indulgence to maybe some self-denial.

And we even see later on in the New Testament, Paul is writing to the saints in Colossi, where he informed that they must put away their worldly desires.

And this includes, of course, instant gratification.

Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5, put to death.

Therefore, what is earthly to you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.

Which is idolatry.

And all of these sins that are up on the screen, they are all as a result of instant gratification.

But by aligning our will and with our desires with God's will, and trusting in His timing, we can all overcome the illusion of immediate gratification.

And experience the true fulfillment that comes.

From a life devoted to Christ instead of immediate gratification.

Secondly, I would suggest that many in the world only have faith in themselves, rather.

And God Because you know many people will tell you that the pro you know, they, they say well I don't have faith.

Faith, faith is for religious people.

I don't, I don't have faith.

Well, I don't think that's the case.

Many of you may know this gentleman I'm about to put up on the screen.

His name is Cliff Netchell.

I hope I pronounced that last name right, but he's an evangelist here in the US and what he does is he goes around to college campuses and he allows young people to kind of encase him and basically just ask him questions or present arguments that they believe disproves the Bible.

And while I haven't always been able to agree with every response that he's given these young people, I respect what he's doing and being able to go out here and give the responses that he does to these questions.

But during one of these visits, a young man asked a question that I thought was actually kind of interesting.

The young man asked Mr. Cliff, he said, how can, how can you have faith in a spiritual being that you can't prove exists?

And he goes on to say, well, you know, Mr. Cliff, I can't do this because I live my life based on believing in things that I can test and prove with proof, undeniable proof.

And I love uh Mr. Cliff in the video, he kind of takes a pause and he goes, OK, I don't think that's true.

And Mr. Cliff responds by saying, do you go to the campus cafeteria with your chemistry set?

To test to see if the food is poisoned.

No, of course, you don't.

You have faith that your food is not poisoned.

You don't rely on undeniable proof for everything in your life.

In this way of thinking hinges on what you're willing to put your faith in.

And Mr. Cliff is precisely correct on this matter because the problem isn't that the world doesn't have a concept of faith.

It's that they're more willing to put faith in mankind, and they're willing to put more faith in themselves.

Then they are God, the Creator of the universe.

Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 6 tells us, trust in the Lord with all your hearts and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.

Now, this passage doesn't say what happens to those who lean on their own understanding, but if we look at the opposite of basically, he will make straight your paths, the only opposite to that is being led into destruction.

And that's what will happen to us if we try to lean on our own understanding rather than God's.

And finally, I think that many people have idols in their lives, whether they realize it or not.

And early on in Israel's history, God commanded the people directly not to have any uh carved items or gods or idols to worship, as he is a jealous God.

But I think the term idol carries its meaning throughout the rest of the scriptures, but I think that today, Whenever we think of an idol, we don't think of a carved image and I personally don't know anybody who has a golden calf sitting in their living room that they bow down to, but I do know people who put the job ahead of the Lord.

I know people who put the material wealth, their cars, their boats.

I had a divorce And I know people who put their spouses.

Their family members or even their children head of the Lord.

And Jesus spoke about this directly in Luke 14 verses 25 to 26, whenever he said, if anyone comes to me in verse 26, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes.

Even his own life.

He cannot be my disciple.

And of course, Jesus was not saying that we should hate anyone, especially our members of our family or our extended family as we actually have strict Commands and responsibilities towards our family members.

Husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church.

We're commanded to love our children, to train our children.

And we even have responsibilities to our family members outside of our immediate family units.

But what Jesus was saying is that nothing, no relationship can come before our relationship and our servitude to Him.

You know, I remember distinctly, whenever Kaylee and I began dating, I told her specifically, I'm going to put God before you so that I can put you first.

And most people will hear that in the world and go, that doesn't make sense.

But to those of us who understand what it means to have a relationship with Christ and understand what it means to put it first.

That allows you to have room to put your spouse first in terms of our physical relationships.

In going over instant gratification, the, you know, the faith in oneself rather than God and having an idol, I think that there are many instances and examples found in the scriptures that I think it's important that we take a look at because it's one thing to just talk about how it applies to us today, but I think when we look in the scriptures, we can see this actively working with these men were going through it, men and women.

But some examples of instant gratification, you know, thankfully, well, not thankfully, but thankfully for our reading and our understanding, we can go back to the very first book of the Bible and see where Adam and Eve, you know, they succumbed to the immediate temptation of the forbidden fruit in the garden and the desire to be like God, knowing good and evil, and this instant desire for knowledge and power.

led to their expulsion from Paradise.

Genesis chapter 323, verses 4 through 6 is where we set the scene.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows when, excuse me, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.

She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

Likewise, Esau, which was part of our scripture reading this morning, as the eldest son of Isaac, Esau held the birthright, a sacred family honor that included a double portion of his inheritance.

But one day he comes in from hunting and he's famished.

And we see this in uh Genesis 25:29 to 34, and he ends up giving his birthright away.

Starting in verse 29 of Genesis 25.

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

And Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted.

Therefore, his name was called Edom.

Jacob said, sell me your birthright now.

And Esau said, I'm about to die of what use is a birthright to me?

And Jacob said, swear to me now.

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

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

Thus, Esau despised his birthright.

It's sad to see that some of us do the same.

Some of the things that we desire instantly, we would give up something so precious as our souls.

It's hard to see those in the world do that to themselves.

And some examples of those who chose to rely on themselves rather than God.

I think one of the first examples that I thought of was King Saul.

Him being Israel's first king and ruler that God had put into power, Saul rejected God, was rejected by God for his disobedience, which stemmed from his desire for personal glory in his approval of the people of Israel.

And during early on in his rule, uh, during the war against the Amalekites, he partially obeyed God's command by sparing the best livestock and King Agag whenever God had commanded him to destroy everything.

In 1 Samuel 15:73, we're told that Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fattened calves and the lamb, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them.

And all that was despised and worthless.

They devoted to destruction.

And when he was confronted by the prophet Samuel later on in verses 15 to 23 of the same chapter 15, Saul makes excuses, and he lies.

Which leads to God's rejection to him as king over Israel.

In fact, he even says that I regret placing you in this position of power.

Um And I think a little bit later on.

In the scriptures we see maybe an an example that's not as widely known, because I think it's one of the characters in the Bible that, you know, kind of gets glazed over sometimes.

But King Asa of Judah, is what I like to call one of the master negotiators and manipulators of the Old Testament.

And the story of King Asa, like I said, it's not one that's mentioned all that often.

But in the beginning of King Asa's reign, he was actually a good king, who relied on God heavily for the decisions that he would make in the battles that he would win against the Ethiopians, as we'll read later on.

And other nations But sadly, after many years of comfort and peace that the Lord had given Asa and Judah, Assa began to rely on the Lord less and less.

Eventually, we see in chapter 211 of Chronicles that King Israel, King of Israel Basha has begun to build a city that would hinder people from going to and from Judah.

And in response to hearing this news of the city being built that was going to cause Asus so many problems, what he decides to do is, well, I'm going to go to the king of Syria.

And I'm going to strike a deal.

And come to find out this is the exact same king who actually used to be allies with my enemy, and he used to be friends with my father.

But on top of manipulating the king of Syria's lust for wealth, you know, he also reminds them that they had a relationship, that their families had a relationship.

And after King Asa masterfully manipulates uh King Ben Hadad of Syria to go and fight against the nation of Israel up north, So that basically the reason that he was doing that is so that uh the northern nation, the northern nation of Israel wouldn't, would have to stop building the city that was hindering so many people going to and from Judah.

But basically, if we look at this whole story in summary, King Asa outmaneuvered his enemy, King Basha of Israel made a new ally with Syria, and he built two new cities with his enemies' money, which ended up being called Giba and Misbah.

And honestly, that's pretty slick maneuvering if we look at how he kind of wielded and dealed with different nations and different kings in order to get his way and to kind of see everything go his way.

But, you know, we kind of have to look at this as, you know, he didn't consult God as he'd done in the past for the way, how should I handle this God?

You know, he decided to do it on his own and he decided to kind of wheel and deal on his own without relying on God.

And we see in 23 Chronicles chapter 232, verses 27 through 28, we see where the residing prophet during the reign of Asa was named Hamnai.

And when he came to see King Asa, he told Asa just how disappointed God was in his decision to do things on his own terms.

232 Chronicles chapter 83, verses 28 through 22.

And at the time, Hannai, the seer came to Asia, or Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the armies of the king of Syria had escaped you.

We're not the Ethiopians and the Libyans, a huge army with this very many chariots and horsemen.

Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give support to those who, whose heart is blameless toward Him.

You have done foolishly in this.

And from now on, you will have wars.

It's sad to see that such a great once a great man who relied and trusted in God for every victory and decision that he would make.

decided that after many years of peace due to God's victories, And well, God, I don't need you much anymore.

I've got this.

You take a break.

I've got, I can do this myself.

Now, while none of us are going off and fighting other nations and whatnot, I think that this is sometimes something that we lack as a, as a species, as human beings, we often lack to go, well, here's a decision that's before me, let me consult God.

And sometimes we go, well, I think I can do this myself based on the knowledge that I possess.

Whenever oftentimes God has the answer, if not every time.

And I think that there are examples also of those who choose idols over God.

Last week we had a wonderful sermon by a brother Troy on the rich young ruler.

And I loved his perspective on it.

It, it just got me thinking about how, you know, whenever this young man comes up to him and, you know, he asks one of the most important questions that any of us can ask.

How do I attain eternal life?

Because that's the big question, isn't it?

Well, God gives us the answer.

And Matthew, the 23th chapter in verse 21 to 22, we're told, and Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go and sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me.

And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

You know, sometimes, uh, uh, it's understandable why we give this young man a bad rap, cause he didn't make the right choice.

He chose what he had over what he could have had, which was much more precious.

But I think that there's something to be said about this young man, unlike probably many others in his time, he had the gumption to walk up to the Lord and say, What, what should, what do I need to do in order to attain eternal life?

He obviously cared about his spiritual well-being.

But when the rubber met the road and he knew and he was uh brought with what he had to do, he chose to do the opposite.

And you know, I, I think it's a very fair point to make that, you know, Christ never hid the cost of his discipleship, ever.

And I think just to bounce off point off of that is that I think Christ would rather have fewer followers who are ironclad and on fire for Him.

Ready to do whatever is necessary.

Then 100s and millions and trillions of followers.

If there were trillions of people.

who are wishy-washy.

And loose on what they believe in.

In terms of when it comes to their dedication to him.

So I think, you know, after talking about these 3 exa these 3 examples found in scriptures, found in the scriptures, I think it's important that we answer the question, you know, what do we stand to gain today?

What do we stand to gain from putting God first?

Well, I think the first point is that if we profess God, before men that he will profess our name before His Father.

That's Matthew chapter 10 verses 23 to 33.

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father, who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

So only by putting Christ first, will we be able to enter the kingdom of heaven, as we're told in John the 14th chapter, because he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

And secondly, you know, on top of being able to have Christ speak on our behalf and acknowledge us and recognize us on the Day of Judgment, I think that we'll be able to enhance our relationship with Christ while we're here on this earth.

Because like a marriage, you know, if it, if a marriage will fail if Christ is not the head of that relationship, we've seen that time and time again.

In the world But likewise, If Christ is not the head of our life, Then our relationship with God will fail if he is not put first in our lives.

Paul told us in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and verse 3, he said, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a, of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

And finally, If we decide to put God first in our lives, He's going to guide us.

And unfortunately, many in the world, they treat God as the anchor that they throw down only in emergencies, you know, we see that Hollywood is kind of romanticized this idea where, you know, someone's about to die, they're about to fall off a cliff or something, they go, dear God, if you'll get me out of this, I'll, I promise I'll never do this again.

I promise, I, you know, I'll say, I'll be faithful to you.

And then, you know, whenever they get out of it, you know, they've shown before that happened and then after that happened, they had no intention of doing that.

But Hollywood's kind of romanticized this idea of just, you know, whenever you're in dire straits, pray to God, because that's kind of the social thing to do.

So the world sees that as something to do.

But God was never meant to be the anchor that we reach for last.

But rather, he's the compass that we should reach for and follow first.

Because when God is first, we don't drift with culture.

We don't steer by emotions, and we definitely don't navigate by convenience.

But what we do do is we steer by truth.

And so the question isn't, if I decide to put God first in my life, you know, will I face storms?

But the question is, without him, how am I going to know where I'm going?

That should be the question that we ask ourselves.

In the Psalmist King David wrote about how What he felt that the Lord was doing for him.

And I think in the 32nd Psalm, verses 7 to 8, we see that God was David's compass.

Psalm Psalm 32 verses 7 to 8, we're told, you are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

If we're treating God the way that he should be, and we are placing him in the position that he deserves in our lives, this is the kind of feelings that we should have about the Lord.

Because that's what he will do for us.

You need to be cautious As we go throughout the rest of this week, not to be like the man who gave away all of his pie that God brought to the event and ended up getting none of it.

Because everything comes from God.

And this man, he put everything else in his life, his cars, his house, his hobbies, his clothing, he put everything ahead of God.

Leaving him in last place, if any, if any place at all.

Now, I want to preface by saying there's nothing wrong with having a house, a big house, having lots of money, having 2 or 3 cars, having a smartphone, or having nice things in general.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But when one of those things takes place, O God, and it replaces God in our lives.

That's when God has a problem with it.

And as far as God's concerned, anything that takes first place in our lives is an idol, anything.

And God's been very clear, even from the Old Testament, all the way to the New Testament.

He's been very clear about how idols can keep us out of heaven.

And more importantly, how it can keep us from having a relationship with him.

And if you're not a Christian this morning, You have idols in your life that are in that first-place spot.

And maybe until today you haven't realized that you had someone else who deserves that spot more than all of the things that you filled your life with.

Christ deserves that first place spot in your life because unlike everything else and everyone else, He's the only one who went to the cross and could have went to the cross and died, so that you would have the opportunity to gain mercy and forgiveness for your sins.

And until you make that choice, you're separated from him.

But God doesn't want you to remain this way.

He wants you to follow the steps that are laid out in scriptures so that you can become his child.

We have everything here ready this morning to assist you in becoming one of his children and making you a Christian and making your life right with God.

And if you're already a Christian, don't think that you're excluded from this as well.

This isn't just for the unbeliever, this is for the believer as well.

Maybe you have priorities that are confused or been misplaced and disorganized.

Maybe you have a hobby or something that is kind of creep, creeped up in your life that started taking over your devotion to God in the time that you would normally devote to reading and spending time with Him.

If this is the case too, you've been separated from the Lord.

But just like the unbeliever, he does not want you to remain this way.

And if you're subject to the invitation this morning, please come to the front so that we may assist you in any way we can.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Troy Nicholson

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

If you will turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 to 53, at the end of the chapter there.

I'll be reading tonight of the English Standard Version as you're turning, uh, to give some context for us.

So in the 1st 3 chapters of Ephesians, Paul has laid out the gift of new life that we have through Jesus, and we're picking up an argument that he's begun in chapter 4 of what we do with that new life of uh How we walk with Him as Christians in that new life.

And as part of that is how we uh act as Christians in the different roles that we've been given in our life.

So again, Ephesians 5:22 to 33.

Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is Himself its savior.

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

Husbands loved your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the world.

So that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

This evening, I'm not going to be using slides.

Um I want to let you know that so that you didn't think that maybe I had forgotten them.

Some of the earliest uh translations of the scriptures into English contained occasionally some rather idiosyncratic translations or even comments.

For instance, one such New Testament translation known as Beck's Bible.

It was translated by Edmund Beck, and in the 1549 and 1551 editions of the New Testament, translated by Mr. Beck, there was a marginal note in the text, uh, or in the margin, I should say, commenting on 1 Peter 53 and verse 7.

Let me read for your consideration, 1 Peter 3 and verse 7 in the ESV.

Likewise, husbands, 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.

Well, Mr. Beck had a comment in the margin by this verse.

And that comment caused his translation to be called the Wife Beater's Bible.

Because here's the comment that appeared in the, in the margin.

Quote, and if she be not obedient, incidentally, this is early English.

And if she be not obedient and helpful unto him, then may he endeavor to beat the fear of God into her head, that thereby she may be compelled to learn her duty and do it.

And so this evening, my sermon is entitled The Disciplining of Wives.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about what the Bible says about husbands disciplining their wives.

Now, some of you may have had some misgivings about My sermon this evening because of the title that appeared in the announcement slides.

Uh, it's not my intention this evening to preach my opinions about the disciplining of wives, but only what I can find in the scriptures on that subject.

And so what does the Bible say about husbands disciplining their wives?

Nothing Nada, 0, zip.

The Bible doesn't talk about husbands disciplining their wives.

Now, lest anyone think that the sermon is over.

I have more to say about this business of the relationship between husband and wife.

I had to say that because I saw Mike getting ready to get out of his pew and, and go to the back.

The reason I want to talk about this is because I think Beck's comment that, you know, if she doesn't obey, she doesn't submit, you should beat the fear of God into her head, that really does probably represent societal attitudes, not just during his time, but there are a lot of people today who also think that that's what husbands should do if their wives do not submit to them as the head of the family.

If my wife is not submissive to me, then I'll discipline her until she does submit.

Now, it is certainly true, the Bible, as we just read from Ephesians 5, the Bible does teach that wives should be submissive to their husbands.

Now, this evening, as I said, I'm not gonna use slides, and so I'm going to read some passages.

They won't be available on the screen or anything, but I'll try to give uh references more than once so that you can follow along in your Bibles if you like.

And the first reference is from the scripture reading this evening, Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 22.

That's the part of Ephesians 5 that specifically talks to wives and tells them that they are to be submissive to their husbands.

So beginning in verse 153 of Ephesians 5, Paul wrote, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church.

His body and is himself in. Savior.

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

Now, that's not the only passage in the New Testament that tells wives that they should be submissive to their husbands.

In the sister epistle of Colossians, in chapter 3 of Colossians, and verse 18, there's just a verse there, a single verse, wives submit.

To your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Paul would write to Titus in Titus chapter 2 and verse 5, Titus 2 in chapter, chapter 2 and verse 5.

He says to be self-controlled, talking about women, wives, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.

And then finally, a passage over in 1 Peter that we'll look at in more detail, uh, a little bit later.

But in 23 Peter 3, the 1st 6 verses of that chapter deal with the relationship of a wife toward her husband.

Verse 7, we'll address husbands, but we're going to read the 1st 6 verses because Peter says, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands.

So that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

When they see your respectful and pure conduct.

Do not let your adorning the external, braiding of hair and putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a.

Gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children, speaking to the wives, you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

And so just very quickly, the submission of wives to their husbands is not just traditional.

I know that some people think that marriage is just a relationship that evolved for the protection of women, that men are stronger individuals could protect wives, women, and so, uh, marriage became a social contract for the good of the woman.

But we don't need that anymore because we're more civilized.

There should be some question about that, but we're more civilized now and so women have the protection of, of law.

And so some people say, well, that whole relationship of husband and wife and specifically the wife being submissive to her husband, that's just tradition, but not so.

And the submission of wives is not the invention of men to control others.

Nor is it Church of Christ doctrine, as though somehow we have invented this idea that women should be submissive to their husbands.

What we read are the words of God, and God says, this is how the relationship of marriage should work.

Wives need to be submissive to their Husbands.

That really was God's plan for marriage from the beginning.

At least it is clearly stated that way in Genesis chapter 3.

Once man and woman had sinned in the garden, these are the comments that God made to the woman in verse 16 of Genesis 3, he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing.

In pain, you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.

So this is something that goes all the way back to the beginning of mankind's history and to the first marriage.

Now, if you've read carefully or listened carefully, as Ethan read for us from the ESV and Ephesians 133, you realize that that passage is not primarily about marriage.

We use the passage, and we will do so tonight to talk about the relative roles of husbands and wives, but that passage is, as Paul notes in verse uh 32 is not primarily about marriage.

It is about Christ and the church.

And so what Paul's doing is he's using the marital relationship as an illustration of the truth that exists in the relationship between Christ and His church.

Verse 32 of Ephesians 5 reads as follows.

This Mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

And then he says, however, nevertheless, a wife should respect her husband.

Husbands should love their wives.

Marriage is the illustration, a relationship that has existed from the beginning of mankind, that is, as a general relationship.

In verse 23, after Paul has exhorted women to submit to their own husbands, in verse 23, the headship of the husband is affirmed as an explanation.

For the submission of the wife.

Paul writes, the husband is the head of the wife.

That's why she should submit to him because the head is the part of the body that directs the rest of the body.

But it's interesting, hopefully we've all noticed this, that the husband is not commanded to enforce his headship.

I think sometimes when people read Ephesians 5, particularly those who are not being very careful in their studies of the scriptures, they read that for the husbands, and to them, that means that I need to make sure that my wife submits to me.

That's not what Paul says.

Paul is expressing the reason for the submission of the wife.

He just says the husband is the head of the wife.

That's God's plan.

But the husband's not commanded to enforce his headship or to discipline in a punitive way, his wife, if she doesn't submit to him.

Nor is there any implication that he has the right to discipline or punish her if she doesn't submit.

As I said before, the sister epistle of Colossians in Colossians 3, verse 18 is directed to wives to submit unto their husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

But then verse 19 addresses husbands.

Here's what Paul writes in that passage, Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

You're dealing with a relationship in which there's a head and someone's submitting to that head, and so the tendency, or at least perhaps the temptation might be for the husband to be harsh toward his wife because she is responsible by scripture to submit to her head to her husband.

And so Paul tells husbands, don't you be harsh toward your wives who are submitting to you.

I said before that in 83 Peter 3, in the 1st 6 verses, The apostle Peter talks about the submission of wives.

In fact, he even talks about marriages where the husband is not a Christian and the wife is.

But then in verse 7, he turns and addresses husbands, and he says something rather interesting there.

He says, likewise, husbands.

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.

And so, 1 Peter 3:7, is the reason that I can beat Debbie a 100 times out of 100 if we arm wrestle, because I'm stronger, she's the weaker vessel.

No, that's not what Paul's talking about Paul.

Paul wrote everything.

That's what Peter's talking about.

In the context of that verse, the 103st 6 verses of the chapter, Peter is talking about the role of the wife to submit to her. Husband.

So in this relationship, that is an authority relationship, she is the weaker vessel, and she has taken on that role willingly.

She has agreed to submit to her husband as the head.

So Paul turns to the Somebody told me this morning, I think it was Vivi caught it, said this morning, I said, for John so loved the world.

That's John 3:16, but it's God who loved the world.

So there's the correction.

But I'm glad somebody was listening to the sermon.

I think that was toward the second hour of the sermon.

So some people have probably nodded off by then.

Peter turns to the husbands, and he says, live with your wives.

First of all, he says in an understanding way, she is going to submit to you if she's following her role, she's fulfilling her role in marriage.

She's going to submit to you, and you could take advantage of that.

But Paul says, OK. Maybe we should quit while we're behind.

But Peter says, live with your wives in an understanding way, understanding that she has assumed a position of less power, she's submitting to her husband.

And he goes on to say then, since they are showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, and so in two ways, the husband is to accommodate the wife as she submits in this relationship.

Sometimes I say.

And wedding ceremonies that I have the opportunity to conduct.

I say to the husband that when a woman says, yes, I will marry you, she is paying you a huge compliment.

Because if she's going to do what God says she should do as a wife, she's going to submit to you, and you will sometimes make bad decisions.

Sometimes husbands are selfish.

Sometimes husbands are not very wise in the way they treat their wives.

So when a wife says yes, a woman says, I won't marry you, she is saying to the husband, I'm putting my life in your hands.

And that's a huge compliment to the man that she intends to marry.

The wife, Paul says, we're back with Paul.

In Ephesians 25, is commanded to submit.

The husband is not commanded to discipline his wife, he's commanded to love his wife.

Ephesians 25:215, the next section or paragraph in that reading, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

And it's almost as though Paul says, you know, husbands are kind of slow sometimes.

So I'm going to say it again.

So in verse 22, he says, in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

That's the second time he said that husbands should love their wives.

And because some of us are really slow, in the end of that section, verse 213, he says, however, let each one of you love his wife as himself.

And let the wife see that she respects her husband.

28 times in this short passage, Paul tells husbands, love your wives, even love your wives as Christ loved the church.

The men who prepare our minds for the taking of the Lord's Supper do such good jobs of helping us to think about the depth of the love that it took for Jesus to come to this earth, to leave his position in heaven, and to come here and live among us, to take on flesh and blood, to become like us, and to, to have to endure all the things that we endure.

And then to give his life, to humble himself, to give his life on the cross.

And, and men talk about that sometimes to help us understand, appreciate, meditate on what great love was shown for us in the cross.

Paul says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

You know, I've listened to wives occasionally.

who were upset with their husbands, or some women who were not Christians, who were complaining about this submission thing, saying, it seems to me like the husband got the real good side of this deal, and it's the women who are really, uh, you know, getting the short end of the stick.

Not so Because what Paul says is you husbands, you need to love your wives, the way Christ loved the church.

Can you imagine?

What it takes.

To do that The depth of love that was shown in that self-sacrifice.

And that's the love that Christ had for the church.

It was a sacrificial love.

He gave himself up for her.

It was purposeful.

In verses 63 and 26, the next verses here in Ephesians 210, Paul continues.

He gave himself up for her, that here's the purpose that he might sanctify her, make her holy, purify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.

So that verse 28 is also a purpose clause, so that he might present the church to himself.

In splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

Three purpose clauses in which Paul says Christ loved the church so that he could do for them what they couldn't do for themselves.

When we talk about church, obviously, we're talking about many people.

He loved the church in a purposeful way.

In addition to a sacrificial way.

And I think Paul continues in verses 28 and 29, when he says, in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

There's a whole sermon right there about the consequence of a husband loving his wife the way that he should.

If he loves his wife, he's loving himself.

That's probably an illusion.

I'm not going to preach the whole sermon, OK?

It's probably an illusion to the idea that husband and wife are one flesh in this marital relationship.

But I think it is also probably contemplating the consequences of a man loving his wife, the way Christ loved the church.

How will she respond to that?

We'll say more about that a little bit later on.

But he continues in verse 29, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.

Paul says, husbands, men, we nourish and cherish, we take care of our own bodies.

And that's what Christ does for the church.

And so his love is not just sacrificial and purposeful, but it is continual.

He continues to nourish and cherish us.

And I think the parallel is abundantly clear that husbands should nourish and cherish their wives.

I suspect Peter, who wrote First Peter 3, was talking about some of that when he said live with them in an understanding way, showing honor to the weaker vessel.

Well, there might be some husbands out there saying, thinking to yourself, well, what if she doesn't submit?

You know, you're telling me that I can't make her submit.

What if she doesn't submit?

Am I relieved of my responsibility to love her?

I mean, she's not doing her responsibility.

Maybe I'm relieved of my responsibility.

You know the answer to that question, don't you?

My responsibility is the same regardless of whether my wife does what she's supposed to do.

God commanded me as a husband to do certain things, a certain role, and that's my responsibility, regardless if my wife submits.

The word that's used here, the verb that's used to love husbands love your wives.

is a word that in the Greek language talks about a love of moral choice.

It's a love of decision.

There are other words in the Greek language that will talk more about a love that springs from affinity or commonality.

Affection, it is more emotionally driven, but this love.

is really driven by decision, by moral choice.

I like some comments that Vine makes about this word.

These are outside of his regular definitions, but I think they help us understand the type of love that we're talking about.

It's the word agapao if you're interested, but here's Vine's comment.

He says, love can be known only from the actions it prompts.

God's love is seen in the gift of His Son, 1 John 4:103-10.

But obviously, this is not the love of complacency or affection.

That is, it is this love.

It was not drawn out by any excellency in its objects, citing Romans 5 and 8.

We, we, we weren't lovable.

We were enemies of God.

But God chose to love us, for God so loved the world that He gave.

When we were still enemies, Paul says.

In Romans 5.

It was an exercise of the divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause, save that which lies in the nature of God Himself.

Do you understand what he's saying?

God decided to love us because of who he is.

What his character is, not because we were such wonderful people.

And so we drew that love out, uh, because of who we are.

From another source, another place, Vine also comments this way.

He says Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally is not an impulse from the feelings.

It does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered.

Well, it's easy to love the lovable.

It's easy to love the people that we are like, or they have admirable qualities.

We have strong feelings for we, we find it easy to love those people.

But the love that Ephesians 5 is talking about, the love that husbands should show.

is a love that doesn't spring from emotion primarily.

It's not without emotion, and it's not without passion necessarily, but that's not the foundation of that love.

It is a love of moral choice, as, I said, and the husband.

Manifest that love, he pursues that love, seeking the best interest of his wife, because God said so.

Vine continues.

Love seeks the welfare of all, he cites Romans 15:2, and works no ill to any.

Chapter 13 of Romans 8 to 10.

Love seeks opportunity to do good to all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of faith.

Galatians 6 and 10.

That's the same word that Jesus.

Used in the Sermon on the Mount, or at least the account of Matthew, when he said, love your enemies.

It's not a love of affinity.

Hard to have affinity or strong emotional ties, affection for people who are your enemies, who seek to do you harm.

But you can choose to seek the best interest of those people, even as they will not do that for you, and that's key.

Because I began this section of our study by saying, what if the wife doesn't submit?

What if she doesn't do what she's supposed to do?

Does that release me from my responsibility?

And the answer is no.

If she doesn't submit, He loves her anyway. Why?

Because she's so nice to him and she's, no, because that's his responsibility, and he's choosing to do that.

Whether she does her part or not.

The responsibility of love is not dependent on whether the wife is submissive or not.

His love is not the result of her being lovable.

He chooses to love her because it's the right thing to do.

It's what God requires of him.

Someone says, boy, that seems like kind of a cold love, you know, where's the affection?

Where's the closeness?

Those things are not necessarily absent from this love, but they're not the motivation for this love.

They're not the foundation for this love.

Because I have to tell you something, emotions tend to get high and then low.

And sometimes we have strong passions, feelings for someone, and then they do some stupid stuff.

And all of a sudden, we're irritated with them.

Do we stop loving them?

Not if you're loving them with this kind of love.

Because it doesn't depend on their behavior.

And that's a, that's a hard concept, I think for a lot of folks to, to grasp or to at least accept.

Because it just doesn't seem fair.

Well, I would point out that it's not very fair for a wife to have to submit to a husband who's a knucklehead.

This kind of love, it may seem cold, but it is constant, and it's actually stronger.

More durable than love that simply is driven by emotions where today, I really have strong feelings for you and tomorrow I don't.

Because that's the way emotions work.

I want you to think about how these two responsibilities, the responsibility of the wife to submit and the responsibility of the husband to love his wife.

The husband leads.

By force Disciplining his wife, forcing her?

No, he leads by love.

And if he's loving his wife, the way Christ loves the church, she will be encouraged.

To submit to him.

Just as we are encouraged to submit to Christ because we understand from the scriptures, what kind of love Christ has shown for us already.

And what he continues to do for us.

Her submission, the submission of the wife is not burdensome, because of his love.

The nature of his leadership.

He is the loving leader.

I, I fully realized that the title, The Disciplining of Wives was clickbait.

Sorry about that.

Uh, I, I'm gonna apologize.

I'm gonna take it right back.

Because I wanted you to think about these things.

But let's be clear, in case anybody has missed most of the sermon, husbands are not called upon to exercise punitive discipline toward their wives.

And yet I know there are men who do that very thing.

I'm not necessarily talking about Christians, just men in general.

Because they don't understand what loving leadership involves.

What a tremendous responsibility that husbands have.

They're trying to love somebody.

The way that Christ Loved the church.

Paul says, we husbands are to imitate the love of Christ.

And it would be good for us husbands to meditate on what the implications of that kind of love, that depth of love.

We'll have for our daily decisions, our daily conversations, our relationship, our marital relationship.

I said That the submission of the wife is not burdensome.

If she has a husband who loves her the way Christ loves the church.

I, I'll tell you, this is not part of what I wanted to talk about necessarily, but if he loves her that way, even though he is the head, of the wife, he is going to do those things that are in her best interest.

Who wouldn't want to be in a relationship like that?

And that's the invitation for tonight. Christ.

Excuse me, I think I swallowed a frog.

Christ's love is such that I think we are drawn to a relationship with Him.

When we understand the depth of His love and what it uh involved in the plan of salvation, Him coming and living among men, and then dying on the cross, and even now, who can separate us, what can separate us from the love of Christ, Paul would write in the latter part of Romans 8.

If you're not a Christian, that relationship is available to you.

That you could be in a relationship where the love is so deep, so sacrificial and continual and purposeful.

Why would you not want to submit?

Why would you not want to obey someone who cares, will care for you that way?

And so we invite you this evening, if you're not a Christian, to take that step, to submit to the Lord in obedience to the gospel commands to hear, repent, uh, hear, believe, repent, and then confess your faith and then finally be baptized for the remission of your sins.

If we can assist you in that this morning or this evening, we certainly want to do that.

If you'll come to the front as we stand and sing, I encourage you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

This morning's scripture reading will be from Matthew's Gospel in chapter 12, and so for those of you who are in the upcoming Matthew class, uh, thank goodness because this is the 133nd time, uh, that, that lessons are gonna touch on two pretty difficult passages in there.

So the, the Q&A sermon, um, uh, about, about the fulfillment and then now, uh, uh, this portion of Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse 22, and I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.

I believe that's what's on the screen behind me as well.

So, uh, Matthew's Gospel swaps, uh, there's this pattern we see of, of a narrative discourse pattern.

So narrative is talking about the history of events that have happened versus, uh, an extended teaching, and this is in one of the narrative portions.

So beginning in verse 22, uh, the word of God reads, then a demon oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw and all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David?

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, that this man cast out demons.

Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.

How then will his kingdom stand?

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?

Therefore, they will be your judges.

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come up, come upon you.

Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, then indeed, he may plunder the house.

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people.

But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven.

But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age, or in the age to come.

I realized after services had started.

That I had left a slide.

In my slide presentation that I had actually intended to Uh, delete.

And so, I think that was the slide that was going to kick us over 2 hours.

Um, So I suspect most of you were patient enough for me to kick that slide out, so that we would stay closer to an hour and a half.

Well, this morning, I appreciate your presence here.

Uh, as I said before, uh, we Dvorak and Copeland's, uh, really appreciate the kind words that you've offered to us at the passing of Dad, um, and, uh, Your comments about the legacy that he has left behind.

This morning, I want you to uh look at with me a quotation from a book entitled The Closing of the American Mind.

The author of that book is Alan Bloom.

And he's writing about university students.

He's talking about American education, higher education.

Here he says the relativity of truth is not a theoretical insight but a moral postulate, the condition of a free society, or so they see it, speaking of these students, they have all been equipped with this framework early on, and it is the modern replacement.

For the inalienable natural rights that used to be the traditional American grounds for a free society.

He continues, relativism is necessary to openness, and this is the virtue, the only virtue which all primary education for more than 50 years has dedicated itself to inculcating.

And this is the part I really want you to pay attention to.

He says, the true believer is the real danger.

The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past.

Men always thought they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism, and chauvinism.

The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right.

Rather, it is not to think you are right at all.

If you caught the gist of what he is saying.

His main point is that truth is not objective.

The true believer is the real danger.

The one who thinks that he or she knows the truth.

But rather, truth is dependent upon each individual.

Truth is subjective.

Whatever you believe is truth for you.

What I believe is truth for me.

That way of thinking, which is sometimes called ethical relativism, is common in religion as well as other areas of life, politics, economics, whatever.

But, what's the consequence of that kind of thinking for religious faith?

If truth is essentially whatever each individual sees, sees in the Bible, there's really no need to seek to understand the Bible alike.

Whatever you understand in your study of the scriptures is fine for you.

That's true.

Whatever I understand is true, there's really no point in us trying to come to a common understanding of the scriptures.

And frankly, that's what we're doing, is it not in our collective Bible study?

As a, as a church, as groups of individuals in this assembly, we're trying to come to a common understanding of the scriptures, but that becomes unnecessary if truth is subjective and depends only on what you or I think.

Bible study with people who belong to other religious groups is also unnecessary.

You don't need to worry about what your neighbor believes or what he or she practices in terms of religion, because they're practicing their truth.

And in the minds of many people, that's sufficient, that's adequate.

There has been for some time, a movement among religious denominations known as ecumenism.

And a definition for that, that's kind of one of those elusive terms.

Ecumenicalism or ecumenism is the movement and principle of promoting unity, cooperation, and closer relationships among different Christian denominations and traditions, aiming for greater Christian unity worldwide, often rooted in Jesus' prayer, that all may be one, in allusion to John 17:20 to 23.

And so the viewpoint, the understanding that many in the religious world have of the body of Christ, is that it's really uh compiled of different denominations that we're all part of that body, even though we appear to be following different paths, but this path is true, truth for that person or that group, and so it is for other groups as well.

And so unity is achieved.

In ecumenism by minimizing the importance of differences between various groups.

And so unity then is based essentially on the lowest common denominator.

Uh, since we can't agree on how we should all worship, uh, in the same way, what we do is we just all, uh, believe in God.

We believe in Jesus, and as long as we all hold to those same basic common denominators, then we can have unity.

And we ignore the rest of the differences that might exist between us and other groups.

Even among some of our brethren, there have been efforts in the past to minimize doctrinal differences for the sake of unity.

It's sometimes called unity and diversity.

And so we just look for as many of the things that we seem to believe alike and we base our unity on those things and then kind of ignore or push to the side anything that might be different from one another.

Well, this morning, what I'd like to do is talk about the exclusivity of Jesus.

But I'm gonna begin by suggesting that both the word inclusive and the word exclusive both apply to God, both apply to Jesus.

And I want us to not be afraid.

As we talk to others, and as we think about our own faith, our own practice, not to be afraid to affirm the exclusivity of Jesus.

Well, there's a sense, of course, in which Jesus or God, uh, they are inclusive.

And you see that, for instance, in the Bible's affirmation that God's desire is to save all men.

There are passages that are so uh blunt or straightforward, direct about that.

John 3:143, for instance, passage that so many people love to quote, for John so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

The world, I think, encompasses all of humanity.

We talked recently about Calvinism, and we've even in the last year talked about limited atonement, the idea that Jesus only died for some people, some people that God had chosen before the foundation of the world.

But God sent His Son.

To die because he loved the world, not just those whom Calvinists would describe as the elect.

And we see that in other passages, uh, in 1 Timothy 2 verses 3 through 6, we're told that God desires all people to be saved, and that Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all, a payment for the spiritual liberty of those who are in the bondage of sin.

And so these are clear passages that uh Say that God is interested in all men being saved.

Jesus, as the Hebrews writer says in chapter 2, tasted death for all men.

In other words, the benefits of his death are available to all men.

And of course, that beautiful invitation that Jesus gave in Matthew, the 11th chapter, when he said, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, all who labor and are heavy laden.

Paul says in Romans 3 and 23, that's all of us, because we all sin.

And fall short of the glory of God.

And so, these passages illustrate that God really desires to save all of mankind.

And then we see that even clearly, also in the Great Commission, when Jesus sent out his apostles after his resurrection and prior to his ascension.

In Matthew 28, he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, uh, not just Jews.

All nations.

In Luke's record of the same commission, not quite as direct, but Luke records that as the Lord was opening the disciples' minds to understand the scriptures, he said, thus it is written that Christ should suffer and on the 73rd day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the The forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

The global or universal scope of the gospel invitation, I think once again affirms the inclusiveness of God with respect to his redemptive plan.

The idea that truth is subjective, that it depends on the individual is a concept that is foreign to the New Testament scriptures.

Jesus did not subscribe to the view that truth varied from individual to individual.

Jesus didn't teach that truth is relative to each individual.

In fact, listen to this statement carefully.

Every rebuke that Jesus made presupposes that there's some objective or absolute truth.

Think about that.

If somebody's doing something over here, how can Jesus rebuke that person, if in fact that person's following truth for he or she?

Their understanding of truth.

The only sin, I guess that you could really rebuke would be hypocrisy, which incidentally, Jesus did rebuke people for.

But I'm gonna share with you an example.

Uh, from Matthew the 15th chapter of, of a, of a case in which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes, and it illustrates, I think, clearly that Jesus saw truth as an objective thing that all people need to be following in the same way.

You're, you're familiar, perhaps with the story.

If you'll pardon me, I'm gonna go ahead and read it, uh, and emphasize certain points.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders, for they do not wash their hands when they eat.

He answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God?

For the sake of your tradition, for God commanded, now Jesus will, uh, cite some commands with respect to, uh, the way we treat our parents on your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

So Jesus says, you, why do you break the commandment of God?

Then he cites the commandment.

And then he says in verse 5, but you say, well, wait a second.

If truth is relative, it's subjective, then whatever the Pharisees and the scribes believe about how they should behave toward their parents, that's truth for them, right?

That's the way that would work.

Jesus didn't say that Jesus says, you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.

You say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.

So, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.

Does it sound to you?

As though Jesus was telling the Pharisees and the scribes, hey, listen, I'm good with however you see the scriptures.

Whatever you think these commandments about parents mean, you just go ahead and, and practice it the way you see it.

It doesn't seem that way at all.

He says, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

He says of the Pharisees and scribes, you're not honoring me, that is God.

Rather, you just honor with lips and speech, in vain do they worship me, teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men.

And so Jesus did not simply accept the Pharisaical view of these laws, these regulations concerning parents as their truth, that they should practice without hypocrisy.

When Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate when he was being tried by the Roman governor.

He mentioned truth and Pilate perhaps maybe sarcastically asked the question, what is truth?

But it's a good question.

What is truth?

How do we identify truth?

Well, the scriptures identify what is the truth, what is the absolute objective truth that you and I need to follow that we're responsible for.

Jesus in his prayer in John 17 says, sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth.

He's speaking about the disciples, the apostles, but he says, importantly, your word is true.

That's an objective.

body of information that Jesus says is true.

A little bit earlier on the same evening.

As Jesus was talking with his disciples and preparing them for the fact that he was going to be leaving them, he's going to be tried and crucified, and killed, buried, he says to them in John chapter 22, and in verse 25, he says, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Spirit is called by Jesus, the Spirit of truth, because he was going to be the individual who would reveal truth.

What is truth?

Pontius Pilate asked.

Truth is what the Spirit revealed.

And so when we read our New Testament documents, Documents, letters, material written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit.

What we're reading is true.

The apostle Paul said it a little more succinctly, perhaps in Ephesians 29 verse 27, when he said, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

He says something very similar in Colossians 213 verse 214 as well.

We read that verse this morning as we were entering into the beginning of our worship.

So Paul says, the word of truth, and he identifies that then is the gospel.

What you and I are reading in our New Testaments, that's true.

That's objective truth.

And it doesn't depend on how you see it, or how I see it.

It is what it is.

God revealed it in language that we can understand, and that we can follow.

The apostle Paul would sometimes describe that same truth as sound doctrine.

Interesting word, sound.

It's the idea of healthy as opposed to something that is sick or corrupted.

And so he says to Titus in chapter 213 and verse 221, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

And I would suggest to you that So doctrine would imply that maybe there's some doctrine that's not sound, that's not healthy, that's not good, that is in fact, contrary to the truth.

And so Paul writes to 21 Timothy 27, to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, and verse 3, he says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, now stop, just for a moment.

If truth is subjective, Then why would Paul say if anyone teaches a different doctrine?

Because that different doctrine that maybe Douglas would teach or that Caleb would teach, that's truth for them.

But Paul doesn't write that way, does he?

He says, and does not agree with the sound words, healthy words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching that accords with godliness, then he describes that person.

He says he's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving.

I wonder if that was a play on words there.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

If somebody's preaching a different doctrine, Paul tells Timothy, that person's deprived of the truth.

It's unhealthy.

It's not sound doctrine.

Imagine, for instance, that godliness is a means of gain.

God is inclusive as far as his plan is concerned.

His intention was that anyone, all people could participate in the benefits, the spiritual blessings that are afforded by the redemptive plan of God, the death of Jesus Christ.

But there's a sense, of course, in which God is exclusive, Jesus is exclusive.

For instance, and I, I have to apologize to Greg, because Greg got his hope. up.

He thought I was gonna talk about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, or maybe some other tough stuff in Matthew 12, and I wanted just one verse in that whole passage, and this is the verse, whoever is not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

You're welcome, Greg.

So now I'm gonna explain that what Jesus is saying is you're either with me or against me.

There you go.

That's pretty clear though, isn't it?

That's exclusive.

You're with me or you're against me.

It's hard to misunderstand that, uh, in, in any way.

Uh, in the passage that we talked about a little bit earlier regarding the commandment to honor father and mother.

Uh, as that passage continues, the disciples become concerned that the Pharisees and the scribes were offended at what Jesus said to them, and Jesus' response, then in verse 13, is, every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

Jesus didn't say, well, everybody can plant their own plant and it's all good.

They're all equally valid and acceptable to God.

No. If God didn't plant the plant, it's not acceptable.

It's gonna be rooted up.

That's exclusive.

It's not inclusive of just whatever someone might wish to practice.

When he says plants, he's obviously not talking literally there.

In John 14:7, again, that night before Jesus was uh uh uh betrayed, Jesus said to His disciples, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

How many ways are there to the Father?

Just one.

That's exclusive.

You can't just go however or practice whatever you want and say, well, Jesus will accept us regardless of how we live or practice what we believe.

In Matthew the 7th chapter, Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate.

There's a wide gate in a way that's easy.

It leads to destruction.

A lot of people are traveling that road, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

There's a wide gate and there's a narrow gate, and the one that leads to life is narrow, and there's only one that leads to life.

The other one leads to destruction.

He says, Well, this is a pretty simple sermon.

I'm surprised it's taking you this long to teach it.

But we live in a society that doesn't accept this kind of stuff, doesn't accept this viewpoint.

Why, that's, that seems rather narrow-minded and exclusive.

Yes, it is exclusive.

That's my point.

Jesus is exclusive.

The apostles understood that.

In John 6, there's the story of Jesus multiplying food and feeding thousands with a very small original amount.

And then when people followed him for the purpose of getting more of these physical blessings, Jesus begins to teach some things that I, I suspect he realized without any doubt, was going to be uh offensive.

or difficult for people to understand and, and to accept.

You're going to have to eat my body, my flesh and drink my blood.

Of course, he's speaking figuratively, but to the Jews, thinking literally, that was disgusting.

It was off-putting.

But the disciples, many of the, the, the people who have been following Jesus, they left, they stopped following him.

And Jesus then turned to his 12, and he said, Do you want to go away as well?

Listen to Simon Peter's response.

He says, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Peter understood there was just one way to go to eternal life, to receive eternal life, is through Jesus.

That's exclusive, and the apostles apparently understood that.

Well, I don't know how the time went by, but 2 hours passes so quickly.

Sometimes when you talk to people about the truth, and about following the truth and that Jesus is exclusive, You're gonna get people who are gonna say, well, you just think that you're right and everyone else is wrong.

The truth of the matter is it's not a question of whether you and I are right.

The point I'm making is that the word of God is right.

That's truth.

And if I follow that truth, Then I'm entering through the narrow gate and I'm following on the difficult way, the one that leads to life.

That's the point that I wish to make this morning.

The Hebrews writer said in chapter 5 and verse 9, and being made perfect, speaking of Jesus, he became the source of eternal salvation to whom?

To all who obey Him.

How many people did Jesus die for?

He died for all.

He tasted death for all men.

How many people did God love that He sent His Son, the world?

But then when you begin talking about those who are going to be saved, the Bible begins to get exclusive.

And says there's a condition.

Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

We can be right, only as long as we are walking in truth.

We don't do our neighbors any favor by pretending that virtually everyone is going to be saved.

Now, that's, that, that makes it easy to talk to people.

Oh, yeah, you, you believe what you want to believe, I'll believe what I want to believe, and we'll just kind of leave each other alone.

We don't have to have any kind of stress or tension.

We don't have to talk about differences.

And people are speeding.

Into eternity.

Lost Because they don't realize that Jesus, when it comes to salvation is exclusive.

And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few?

And Jesus said, as we quoted from Matthew 7:13-14, strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

How many people are gonna be lost?

Many people.

How many people are going to be saved?

Few. That's exclusive.

And you and I, I hope, will be among the few.

Who will enjoy life.

Now, I don't believe that means we're not, should not worry about others.

It's a few, we don't have to worry about others.

I don't know what few means.

Except that I mean, it means it's less than the many.

We've quoted the Sermon on the Mount a couple of times.

I want to share one other quotation with you.

Because there's gonna be some real exclusivity on the Day of Judgment, and it's gonna be a surprise to some people.

Jesus, I think, is talking clearly about the Day of Final judgment, Matthew 7:21-23.

He says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

There will be people, Jesus says, who believe that they are on the right path.

And Jesus is going to say, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

They're going to be some surprises on the Day of Judgment, but we don't have to be surprised.

If we'll read our Bibles, the truth, and understand that there's one way and it's through Jesus Christ, and it's in obedience to Jesus Christ.

Then on the day of judgment, we don't have to be surprised.

We don't have to be dismayed.

It's not enough to claim Jesus as our Lord, as these people in Matthew 7 are pictured as saying, to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must do the will of the Father in heaven.

My question for you this morning is, are you doing that?

Are you doing the will of the Father in heaven?

If you're not a Christian, this morning, we want you to become one.

Gospel invitation is for all those who are weary and heavy laden.

And if you're laden with sin, There's forgiveness in Christ.

There's forgiveness for anyone who will submit to the will of the Lord.

You've seen it, see it on the screen, the plan that is laid out in Scripture for how one becomes a Christian, how it is that we have our sins forgiven.

And if you need to respond to that plan of God, and we want to encourage you to respond to the truth this morning, we'll assist you in becoming a New Testament Christian.

Let's 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.)

Dante, and I can't pronounce his last name.

was the author of a work called The Divine Comedy.

And one part of that work was called the Inferno or Inferno.

And in that part of the Divine Comedy, Dante describes an imaginary trip.

Through the various levels of hell, led by the prophet Virgil, the Roman prophet, Virgil.

A lot of people don't realize that they actually believe what they believe about hell based on what Dante wrote, that there are different levels of hell.

He actually uh suggested nine concentric circles.

That constituted different degrees of punishment.

And the lower you went into the earth, The worst things were in terms of punishment with Satan being at the very bottom of this.

Area called hell.

I think that appeals to some people.

That hell is going to be a place where some people are going to be punished much more severely than others, that their suffering will reflect the evil that they engaged in in this life.

After all, it seems pretty clear that some people just seem to be more evil or more inclined to evil behavior than others.

And so the question arises, is that going to be reflected in eternity by their placement in hell?

Will there be different degrees of punishment?

This evening I'm going to engage in a question and answer, a sermon most of you are familiar with the format.

It's not a new thing, but if you're visiting with us this evening, please be advised that from time to time I take questions that are submitted to me or something I may run across that somebody else has asked.

And I choose some of those to answer in a sermon like this evening.

We'll do multiple questions.

We're going to do 2 questions this evening, answer 93, and those questions are not necessarily related.

In fact, the questions tonight are not related to one another in terms of, of their topic.

So the two questions that I have prepared for this evening are, first of all, one that has to deal with the passage that Clark read for us just a few moments ago in Matthew chapter 2.

It has to do with Jesus the Nazarene.

The other question, as we've already introduced, has to do with whether or not there are degrees of punishment in hell.

So the first question, and it is in quotes because this is the question as I received it, can you explain?

Matthew 2:23, since we don't read of any prophet prophesying this, now you may have noticed in chapter 2 of Matthew at the very bottom of that reading this verse, and this is the verse in question, and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Well, of what importance is this verse?

And what difference does it make if we can put our fingers on a prophet who predicted that very thing?

Well, it's the fact that Matthew's Gospel, in his Gospel, Matthew is very concerned with connecting Jesus to Old Testament prophecy, showing that Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

That's very important, because fulfilled prophecy, Old Testament prophecy is probably the strongest evidence for the inspiration of the scriptures.

And so if you come across Uh, fulfillment of a prophecy, and you can't find the prophecy in the Old Testament, then that weakens the case of the Gospel of Matthew or any other, uh, writer, inspired writer that you might, uh, find.

So as we look at this particular verse, let me suggest some relevant points that we need to think about.

First of all, Matthew 2:23 is not talking about the Nazarite vow.

I've run into people over the years who confuse the idea of the Nazarite vow with Jesus being a Nazarene.

Jesus being a Nazarene simply means that he was raised or lived in the small village in northern Galilee called Nazareth.

The Nazarite vow is described in number 6, and it was a vow in which someone would dedicate themselves to God's service.

There were certain restrictions.

You had to abstain from products of the vine.

You didn't cut your hair.

There was a procedure for this vow, and the vow could be a temporary thing.

It could be a very short vow, or sometimes there were individuals who were Nazarites.

They had taken this kind of vow for their entire lives.

In Judges 13th chapter, you've got an example of just such an individual in Samson.

So Jesus grew up in Nazareth, and so he would be called a Nazarene.

And what we see in the scriptures, at least as much as Nazarene is uh mentioned, is that the residents or the inhabitants of Nazareth were not very highly regarded by other Jews, and particularly Jews who lived in the South in Judea.

Judea was the center of religious orthodoxy.

And Galilee was called Galilee of the Gentiles.

And so the opinion of Jewish leaders in Judea was that the people in Galilee had been overly influenced by the Gentiles, and so they scoffed at a prophet who might come from Galilee and in particular, a small insignificant village like Nazareth.

You see that in the text in John chapter 1, where Jesus is beginning to assemble some of his special disciples.

And we're told in John 23:45 that Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law, and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Now, if he left Nazareth out, Nathaniel might have been interested, but when he says, we found Jesus of Nazareth, Nathaniel's response is, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

This is an insignificant village in Galilee, and Philip says to him, Come and see.

The fact of the matter is, Jesus was despised at times because of where he came from, because of his humble beginnings.

But the Old Testament prophets prophesized that in some cases, over 700 years before Jesus was born.

For instance, I'll give you a couple of examples.

You could probably multiply these examples in your Old Testament.

Isaiah in chapter 53, in a chapter in which he talks about Jesus as the suffering servant of God, he says in verse 3, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Now, that's a general statement about Jesus, and I I think Jesus was despised by the Jewish people, at least the rulers, for more than one reason, but part of it was his humble beginning and the fact that he came from this insignificant village called Nazareth.

And so Isaiah had predicted long before Jesus was born that he would be despised and rejected.

The Psalm of the Cross, Psalm 22, also describes the individual of the Psalm as being despised.

Take a look at verse 6 on the screen, but I am a worm, the psalmist writes, and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

The Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah.

They were waiting for God's anointed, that special King who would restore fortunes to the nation of Israel, but they weren't expecting Jesus.

They weren't expecting someone who would come in a humble way, someone who wasn't educated by the rabbis, someone who didn't come to Jerusalem and set up a kingdom on a physical throne, raise an army, and throw off the oppression of the Romans.

And so they despised him.

And when Pilate said, What shall I do with your king, they said, we have no king but Caesar.

They rejected Jesus, and so he was crucified.

So, what about Matthew's comment in Matthew 223?

Well, here's my answer to the question.

I believe that Matthew was probably referencing what seems to be a common theme among the prophets.

Notice when Matthew says in verse 23 of chapter 2, that it was prophesized by the prophets.

He's not talking about a specific prophet, he's talking about the prophets in general.

And that was a theme that the, the anointed one, the Messiah would be despised.

By his people.

Jesus was despised and rejected, and partly because he came from this insignificant village called Nazareth.

And so, saying he was a Nazarene was saying, well, he comes from a no, no important place.

Well, that's the first question.

We got that under our belt.

Let's go to the second question.

And the question is, will there be degrees of punishment in hell?

That may seem that idea that some people are going to be punished much more severely than others might seem appropriate and even reasonable because of a couple of things.

First of all, In our judicial system, Criminals are not all punished the same with the same severity.

If you jaywalk and you get a ticket, and you have to appear in court, you're not going to be handled the same way as the person who's murdered his neighbor and is charged with killing someone.

And so even in our judicial system, we see different degrees of punishment.

Someone may have to do a couple of years in prison and then they're on probation, or maybe they'll just be fined, and then somebody else may spend the rest of their lives in prison.

And we don't have a problem with that because We see the difference in the crime, the seriousness of the crimes that they had committed.

And when we go back to the law of Moses, we see that same principle illustrated in the law.

In fact, in Leviticus, the 23th chapter, There are regulations given so that punishment is commensurate with the crime that it's being that's being punished.

And so the law said if anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done, it shall be done to him.

Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

Now in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus quotes this.

But he corrects a misapplication of this law.

It appears, at least as near as I can tell, that what the Jews had done is they've taken this law that was designed to make sure that punishment was reasonable for whatever the crime was.

They've taken that law and they were using it for vengeance for retire.

Retaliation as though they were justified.

You injure my eye.

I have the right to injure your eye.

In other words, a pound of flesh, I can take my revenge on you for whatever injury you commit against me.

But that wasn't the point of the law in the beginning.

It was designed to make sure that punishment was not overly severe for whatever infraction had been committed.

But we see that not all crimes, not all injuries were punished in the same way.

Some would be more serious, even life for life, if we were to read a little bit earlier in that same text.

Well, in our judicial system, our judicial system, punishment, the severity of punishment for even, you know, across the board people who are guilty depends on the severity of the crime, the seriousness of the crime.

We don't treat theft the same way we treat murder, or at least the law doesn't.

So, in the New Testament, in the Bible, Are there some sins that are more serious than other sins?

What if there are, would that not suggest that perhaps punishment, there'll be degrees of punishment?

Mike, uh, Eisen has preached a couple of sermons over in the last year, dealing with lesser sins.

And Mike's point in those sermons, and I think, uh, a, a good point to make is that all sin is, is serious, that we don't look at some sins and say, well, that's not important, and then this sin over here, this is important.

So the question then, are some sins more serious than others?

My answer is no, and yes.

So I'm securely on the fence here.

No, I want to show you that there's a sense in which all sin is equally serious, but I also want to show you that there's a sense in which some sins are more serious than others.

And so let's begin by simply looking at some passages that help to define what sin is.

In First John 3 and verse 4, the writer John says, Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness.

Sin is lawlessness, or the King James Version said sin is the transgression of the law.

You violate God's law, that's what sin is.

It might be that you are doing something that's.

Inhibited you violate the law or it might also be that you are not doing something that you should do.

That's a violation of law also, essentially by omission, but it is still a violation of God's law.

That's what sin is.

It doesn't make any difference what law is being violated sin is.

Lawlessness, as John writes, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

So James suggests that I can't say, well, you know, I didn't murder anybody.

I gossiped about my neighbor, but But I didn't murder him.

And so that's a less serious sin.

He says, no, if you gossip about your neighbor, I'm using an illustration, James doesn't do this, but his point is that if I violate God's law, even in something that may not seem as serious to me, I am a Lawbreaker.

I'm guilty essentially of violating the law, whether I've done it in one point or multiple points.

But I'm a lawbreaker, and I suffer the same risk of eternal condemnation as a result.

And yet, While sin seems to be divined across the board, just as the violation of God's law, there are some passages that do seem to suggest that some sins are serious, more serious than others.

Let me give you some passages along that line.

In John the 19th chapter, as Jesus is conversing with Pontius Pililate, the Roman governor prior to his, his crucifixion, He tells Pilate, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.

Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

I don't know how to understand that, except to say that there's some sin, and then there's sin that's a greater sin.

Sin, that seems to me some things are more serious than others.

We'll talk about the sins in which that's true here in just a few moments.

In Matthew the 5th chapter verse 19, again, the words of Jesus, therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments.

Now, if all sin is equally serious, how is it that you get a least of the commandments?

Does that not suggest that there are some commandments that seem to be more important than others, at least in some sense?

And teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says.

But the point I want to make is that Jesus talks about one of the least of these commandments.

Continuing along the same line of thinking in Matthew 23 in that uh rebuke that Jesus offers the Pharisees and scribes.

He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, in verse 23, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected, what does he say?

The weightier matters of the law.

The implication is that there are some things that are weightier.

There are things that are more important than other things.

Justice and mercy and faithfulness.

Jesus gives some examples.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

Jesus, I want you to notice this, Jesus does not say that it's inconsequential, the smaller details of the law.

He doesn't say to the Pharisees, you didn't need to be doing your, your tithing.

You just need to take care of justice and mercy and faithfulness.

He says, these, the, the weightier matters of the law, you ought to have done those without neglecting the others.

Their problem was they were all consumed with these small details of tithing garden herbs, not major crops.

And they were neglecting the things that Jesus called weightier matters of the law.

Well, we understand, of course, that sins vary in terms of temporal consequences, and that may be the sense in which some sins can be said to be more serious than others.

Gossip and murder are both sins, right?

Even if you want to talk about gossip as being a lesser sin, and that's probably not a good way to talk about it, the difference is that they have different consequences, temporal consequences.

We don't look at the gossip the same way we look at the murderer.

They carry different consequences.

And furthermore, some sins appear to violate more fundamental principles.

And I, I think that's the point of Matthew 23 and verse 23.

That's why Jesus describes justice and mercy and faithfulness as the weightier things of the law or matters of the law, because they're fundamental to so many other responsibilities that we have as Christians.

And so, are some sins more serious than others?

No, in the sense that any sin, if we continue in it, can condemn us, can cause us to be lost eternally.

But are there some sins that have greater temporal consequences?

And the answer is absolutely.

There are some things that we can do in the way of sin that may have lifelong consequences.

The inequity of sin, meaning that not all sins have the same temporal consequences, may result in a difference in judgment, whether it's stricter or more merciful without necessitating a difference in punishment.

I want to talk to you about some passages that are sometimes marshaled to support the idea that there are degrees of punishment in hell.

And, and one of them, I, I, I guess before I even uh talk about the first one, I want to suggest to you, I think there's a confusion in the minds of, of some folks between degrees of punishment and severity of judgment.

And I'm going to suggest to you that God is going to judge individuals on more than one basis than simply the standard of the gospel.

That is the, the standard.

We're going to be judged by the law that we have been given, and that's the new covenant.

But there are other factors, as we'll see from passages here in just a moment.

There are other factors that enter into the divine judgment.

I believe that sometimes people confuse those things with degrees of punishment.

James the 53rd chapter verse 1.

James says, not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

So, that passage is not really talking about degrees of punishment.

It's talking about the severity of judgment, that those who will take upon themselves to teach others what they should do are going to receive, what does James say, a stricter judgment.

They're going to be held to a higher level of compliance with the standard that they preach.

Here's another passage that I think also talks about the fact that judgment is going to involve more than just simply a standard that is applied equally and across the board to everyone in the same way.

James says in James chapter 2 and verse 13, for judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

And so I believe there are some other factors that come into the final judgment, in addition to the standard that all of us will be measured against.

So, let's take a look at another passage that is sometimes spoken of as though it talks about degrees of punishment.

It is in Matthew 23th chapter, Jesus is the speaker here.

And the text says he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.

Woe to you, Krazin.

Woe to you, Betheda, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

And you, Copernum, will be, will you be exalted to heaven?

You will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.

Jesus is comparing.

The reaction of people in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

And he's chiding, he's criticizing these New Testament cities, Corrazin, Betheda, Capernaum.

Because they had greater opportunity than these Old Testament cities of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom had had.

Jesus is comparing their opportunities.

And so, he says, uh, of Tyrant Sidon, uh, it would be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for them than for these people who were in these cities where Jesus had come and done his many mighty works.

And so one of the things that obviously enters into judgment is opportunity.

Because Jesus says in the judgment, it's gonna be more tolerable for those cities that have less opportunity than for those who had more or greater opportunity and didn't respond properly.

And that ought to scare you.

It ought to scare you because when it comes to opportunity to know God's word, we are a generation.

Excelled by none other.

We have the full word of God in printed form delivered to us.

We have access to digital means to study the Word of God like people have never had the opportunity to do before.

And what that says.

Is that God's going to require more from us.

Because we have greater opportunity.

Then say someone 24 years ago.

Or 29 years ago.

Who in many cases have limited access to scripture.

I don't know how God's going to figure that out.

That's not my task.

That, that's God's task.

But what Jesus says here is that there's a difference in these two groups of cities based on their opportunity.

To see truth and to respond positively to it.

This text is not about punishment.

Not primarily.

It's about opportunity.

It's about judgment.

And that's why he says it'll be more bearable on the day of judgment.

It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment.

When people are judged by their behavior in this world.

Another passage that I think is probably the strongest passage that you'll find in the New Testament scriptures to support an idea of degrees of punishment is in Luke the 29th chapter.

In verse 22, Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?

And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful, and that servant.

who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.

But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.

Verses 22 and 23 are often cited to suggest that if this is talking about the final judgment, there's going to be severe beating and a light beating, or in other words, there'll be more severe punishment.

And a lesser degree of punishment.

You might conclude at first blush when you're looking at this passage that this passage is teaching the different levels or degrees and punishment in hell.

But I think the point of this passage is actually summarized in the last verse here, verse 22 in the last sentence.

Jesus says, everyone to whom much was given of Him, much will be required.

And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

This passage has to do with what will be required, what will be asked of individuals.

This passage is not talking primarily about punishment in terms of the final punishment.

It's talking about.

Judgment It's talking about what God's going to require of those who have greater illumination.

Two servants.

One knows the will, doesn't do it, he's going to be punished.

The other servant doesn't know the will, but has done some things against the will of the master.

He's also punished, but The difference in the punishments has to do with the amount of illumination or knowledge that these two servants have.

Again, That should scare us.

That should scare us because we have greater illumination.

In the word of God than many, many generations before us.

We have the opportunity to study in depth.

Like people in the past, in many cases did not even have the, the opportunity to do, much less the will.

Greater knowledge brings stricter judgment.

That's the point of this passage.

The one who has greater knowledge is going to be asked more in the judgment.

He's going to be more is going to be required of him.

So the final judgment is not just about whether we followed the covenant, the standard, that's true.

That's the standard that will be used, God's law, Christ's covenant.

But other things that are going to be involved are opportunity.

Illumination Even your ability.

Those who have been granted significant ability, the ability to, to understand and to teach.

James says, They're going to receive a stricter judgment.

Because they have a higher level of opportunity and illumination.

And so Jesus is going to judge on the basis of more than one factor.

And I think these passages that are sometimes cited to talk about degrees of punishment have much more to do.

With the question of how we're going to be judged.

Let me make some final observations here.

In light of the arguments that are sometimes made from these parables like the one that we just looked at in Luke 21, it's probably good for us to emphasize that not all the details of a parable are intended to represent something spiritual.

In fact, I've read from various sources that typically parables, not true of all parables, I think the parable of the prodigal son is an exception, but typically parables.

Teach one major point.

Not every detail is intended to have some sort of spiritual significance.

Secondly, Paul suggested just one wage for sin.

Did you catch that in Romans 29 verse 23?

The wages of sin is spiritual death.

Spiritual death, that's the wage.

Spiritual death is separation from God.

And of course, the one gift for the righteous, eternal life.

In Matthew 25 and 41, in the midst of that.

Scene of final judgment where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.

In verse 41, he will say to those on the left, Depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

No distinction made between this individual and that individual.

They're all consigned to the same punishment.

In verse 46, likewise, those who are sheep who are on the right, and these will go away into eternal punishment, verse 46, with the righteous into eternal life.

So here's my answer to the question.

It does seem to me that there's confusion in the minds of some regarding uh severity of judgment and degrees of punishment, and the very fact that some sins are described as greater than others appears to me to be a reference to a stricter judgment rather than levels of punishment.

And so I believe that all sins are going to be punished the same way based on things like passages like Matthew 13:41-46.

I don't believe that there'll be degrees of punishment in general or even for specific sins.

And someone says, well, that doesn't seem fair.

That didn't seem fair at all.

You've got people who are mass murderers, people who've been responsible for the deaths of millions, political leaders who purge their populace in various ways, versus someone over here who lived a good life, did a lot of good things, wasn't a Christian necessarily, or certainly not a New Testament Christian, and you're saying that both of those individuals are going to get the same punishment.

I believe that's what the, the New Testament teaches.

And I think when we look at that and say, well, that doesn't seem fair.

I think we're missing the point about sin.

The foundation point about sin, as we suggested earlier from 1 John 3:4, is that it's lawlessness.

Those two individuals, while we might say, well, this guy lived a better life than this guy.

Both of them lived in rebellion to God.

That's the essence of sin, is that it's lawlessness.

It's the failure to submit to divine law.

And we understand by what the New Testament teaches regarding punishment that God considers sin very, very seriously.

There is no such thing as a lesser sin.

Good point that Mike has made in his sermons.

Let me ask you a question.

How, how will these things or understanding these matters affect our spiritual lives?

Is this just, uh, you know, not all that important, whether there's degrees or, uh, not degrees.

If I labor diligently in the Lord's service and managed by the grace of God to enter heaven, I'll tell you what, I don't think I'll be disappointed in any way.

It won't make any difference to me if there are degrees of reward.

I don't think there are, but if there are, uh, it won't make any difference.

Heaven is described as glory and honor and peace and life.

On the other hand, I don't think that anyone will have to descend to the 9th circle to the very bottom of Dante's hell, this imaginary view of hell, in order to experience the misery of eternal punishment.

I don't believe anybody is going to say in eternal punishment, Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not on level 9.

I'm only on level 2.

Because the real burden of hell is separation from God.

I know hell is described as a place of fire, it's described as a place of torment, it's described as a base, place of darkness, and the reason is God is light and he's not there.

The real burden of hell is being separated from God for eternity.

I really appreciated the comments that John made about approaching the throne of God.

Because I think his comments relate not just to when we come to worship and we have the opportunity to speak to God in prayer and we sing to God and we come into his presence, but it also says something about the value of eternal life, union with God, being with God for eternity.

No more problems.

No more sickness, no death.

No difficulties.

In Romans chapter 2, Paul describes what life will be like for those who are welcomed into heaven.

In verse 5 of Romans 2, he says, but because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works, to those who by patience and well-doing, seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.

For those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

Are these important questions?

Well, there's a sense in which the issue of levels of hell or degrees of punishment won't make any difference if you find yourself on the goat's side.

Won't make any difference.

You'll find out.

I'll find out if that's where I end up.

Because it won't make any difference if you're on level 1 or level 9.

It's going to be an eternity of torment and separation from God.

And so tonight, our encouragement to anyone who's not part of God's spiritual family, who's not obeyed the gospel, been baptized in Christ for the remission of sins, we want you to be a part of that group that God will.

Invited to heaven.

To enjoy eternal life.

Communion with God, fellowship with God in His presence for all of eternity.

You need to take care of that this evening.

We certainly want to encourage you, please don't put it off, and we stand and sing to invite you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

A little over a week ago.

A close friend of mine and Debbie's passed away.

His wife had died a number of years ago before she passed.

They had been married 70 years.

When Debbie and I were first married, This couple.

It was very good to us.

And when I heard of his passing, I guess it was a week ago, this last Tuesday.

I began to remember some of the things uh that this couple had done for us when we were first married.

They were like surrogate parents to us, very good to us.

And they had a service up in New York and then there was a service yesterday in another state, graveside service.

But it got me to thinking about the fact That even though we Remember people in funerals.

Our lives are just a blip on the history of mankind.

And the fact of the matter is that after we're gone, after we have passed away, It won't be very long before, at least in general, Our lives won't even be remembered.

I wonder how many of us remember our great, great grandparents or even know their names.

Do you know the names of those who were 4 generations before you in the past?

What do you know about their lives, if you even know their names?

And that illustrates the point of the writer of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, who said, for of the wise, as of the fool, there's no enduring remembrance.

Seeing that in the days to come, all will have been long forgotten.

How the wise dies just like the fool.

I think the New King James Version says, how does the wise die?

Just like the fool.

That even though we remembered for a time, And that's really the purpose of funerals.

We're soon forgotten in the history of mankind.

Funerals are occasions for remembering the life of someone who has died and to show our respect for that person.

In fact, the word eulogy, we talk about a funeral eulogy.

Someone stands up and talks about the person who has passed away.

That word means good words.

And so the funeral eulogy is an opportunity to remember and to extol the good things about a person and the life that that person lived.

I asked Jacob to read the passage that he read because it is essentially a funeral eulogy.

In fact, uh, the version he read even used that terminology.

It was a lamentation.

About the death of Saul and David's close friend, Saul's son, Jonathan.

They've been killed in battle by the Philistines.

And when David hears about that, he laments their death.

There's several things interesting.

David had already shown the signs, the cultural signs of mourning, the tearing of clothes, and weeping and, and fasting, David and his men.

But then he says Uh, as he talks about their deaths, he eulogizes Saul and Jonathan, which I think is interesting because David had been fleeing from King Saul.

And yet, when Saul dies, David has good things to say about uh Saul.

He praised both Jonathan and Saul.

Funerals are also good occasions for reflection.

I don't know if you've attended a funeral recently.

Some of us probably have, maybe many of us, or maybe you've attended a number of funerals in recent years, but they're good occasions for us to think about ourselves.

Funerals are for the living.

They're not for the dead.

The dead know nothing of that service or the eulogy that is spoken.

About the deceased person.

Funerals are for the living.

And as much as some people might find funerals uncomfortable or even just avoid them, there are benefits to attending funerals.

I want to spend a little bit of time taking a deeper look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verses 13 through 4.

The ecclesiastical writer Solomon wrote some things in this passage that seem a little counterintuitive to me.

For instance, he says, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.

Well, why would we prefer to mourn as opposed to enjoy a feast?

But he goes on to say that sorrow is better than laughter.

For my sadness of face, the heart is made glad.

We'll look at the second part of verse 3 in just a little bit later.

But sorrow is better than laughter.

Which one of us wants to sorrow would prefer to sorrow as opposed to laughing and enjoying?

The writer, I think, is making the point that the house of feasting and laughter or mirth doesn't, they don't help us discern the important things of life as much as, say, for instance, sorrow and the house of mourning do.

One commentator made this observation, speaking about this passage, he said, verses 2 to 4 are straightforward and make a simple point.

There's much to be gained by sober reflection on death.

Those who do so, realize that the same end awaits them and their hearts are turned from folly.

Herein the carpe diem of the teacher.

Teacher here is a reference to Solomon as he describes himself.

Herein the seize the day of the teacher differs from that of the libertine, for whom death is either a subject to be avoided or an incentive to party all the more furiously.

And so the writers of the commentary says, this passage is telling us it's good for us to think about things that are important.

At a funeral Couple of versions that I think are interesting as they Uh, give a different translation of the second half of verse 3.

For by sadness of face, the heart is made glad, seems again counterintuitive.

But in the net Bible, the translation is because sober reflection is good for the heart, and that's, that's eminently understandable.

And in the NLT, always a paragon of translational accuracy, for sadness has a refining influence on us.

And I think those two translations help us clearly see what the author is trying to say here in Ecclesiastes.

It's good for us to think about certain things when we are faced with the death of another.

As I said before, funerals are for the living.

They're part of the grieving process.

And so in an effort to comfort mourners, there is the desire in the eulogy to find something good about the deceased, something good to point out about that person's life.

Even in cases where an individual has pretty much wasted their life.

I've heard funeral addresses that focused on some minuscule part or detail of their life that people could say was good.

My so and so really love pizza.

You know, he would eat pizza every week.

You would see him down at the pizza shop all the time.

He supported the pizza industry and people will go on about when that happens, you know, they're seeking hard to find something good in this person's life.

And then by contrast, there are others.

Whereas you begin to hear about their life and what they did with the time they had here on earth, you realize that they made good use of their time, that they were a blessing to others, and that they were serving God.

Sometimes learn some interesting things about the deceased, as we hear the eulogy.

Several years ago, one of my preaching colleagues died of cancer.

And I knew him some, he wasn't a real close friend, but I knew him.

He was local.

In the funeral, I realized that he had multiple degrees, bachelor's degrees.

I forget all the different subjects that he had gone back and gotten a degree, a four-year degree, a bachelor's degree in all these subjects.

He never talked about that.

And there are a lot of things that sometimes we don't know about people's lives until the time that we hear somebody else summarizing their life.

Well, this morning, what I'd like to do is I'd like to talk about some thoughts that run through my mind sometimes when I attend a funeral or even hear about someone's passing.

The first one that I would suggest to you is that the impact that people's lives have on those around them varies considerably.

A number of years ago when I was living in the Cincinnati area, I got a phone call from a local funeral home.

As a favor to the funeral home, they wanted me to come and do a funeral for a woman that I didn't know.

Her name was Mary She was an older woman.

She had passed away.

She didn't apparently belong to any church, and the funeral director had called me to ask if I would step in and give a eulogy of this woman.

So I, I didn't know her, but I had some things that I could prepare and say.

And when I got to the funeral, It was a very sad occasion, not just because of the passing of somebody.

But this woman apparently had no family left.

And very few friends because I don't think there were 15 people there at the funeral.

In contrast, I've gone to other funerals where there's only standing room.

Somebody's life has touched so many people that the funeral home is full, full to capacity, even more, because of the connections that people had with this particular individual.

There's a king in the Old Testament.

2 Chronicles 21, tells the story of his reign.

His name was Jehoram.

He was the son of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat was king of the southern kingdom, a good king, but his son Jehoram was of a different stripe.

Once he came to the throne, His father had died, he came to the throne.

He killed, he murdered all of his brothers to consolidate his power, and he murdered a number of other princes in the nation of Judah.

He ruled for only 8 years, and the text of 233 Chronicles 21:20 says something interesting and sad at the same time.

And he departed.

He died with no one's regret.

They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

The estimation of people of this king was so low that nobody even was upset that he died.

Nobody regretted that he was gone.

They didn't bury him with the honor that typically would have been shown to kings.

They buried him someplace else rather than in the tombs of the kings.

So when I go to a funeral and I hear.

Uh, the eulogy and I'm looking at the number of people that are there, it causes me to think about what impact my life will have or has had on others.

And I think that's a good question for all of us.

What impact will your life have on others?

At the point that we pass from this life into eternity.

Well, the second thought that I think we have is that we're reminded of our own mortality.

It's hard to go to a funeral without thinking about the fact that at some point, I'm going to be the guest of honor at one of these occasions.

In the text of Ecclesiastes 7.

The writer says it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this, the house of mourning is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart.

Funerals are for the living.

And the funeral should impress us as the living that we are rapidly moving toward the same end as the individual for whom we are showing respect at the funeral.

I don't know about you, but I think probably all of us to some extent, maybe uh to a great extent, we tend to think that the sun's gonna come up tomorrow for us and for everybody else as well.

When you go to bed at night, do you think about the possibility that you may not rise for another day, that you may be, have lived your last day on this earth.

We tend to make plans and we think about what we're going to do this week or tomorrow or whatever.

And I don't think we dwell on the fact that our lives are very brief.

We don't think about our mortality, but when you go to a funeral, we are reminded that each of us has an appointment with death.

Funerals and age, I think, cause us to think more about our mortality than we would otherwise.

In 21 Peter chapter 23 and verse 21, Peter says, we don't really belong here.

He describes his readers as sojourners and exiles, sojourners, people who are not settling down.

They're on their way to some other place.

And that's what we are.

We're sojourners.

We're exiles in the sense that we don't belong here.

In James the 227th chapter, James wrote that our life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.

He's talking about the brevity of our life.

Not only do we not belong here, but we're not going to be here for long.

Our lives are fleeting.

Job would say in chapter 27 and verse 21, man who is born of a woman.

is few of days and full of trouble.

I'm not emphasizing the full of trouble.

I'm emphasizing the few of days that our lives, even if we manage to reach uh such advanced ages as, say, for instance, Tim or, or, or Mike or others in the congregation, still, our life is like a mist, and it passes so quickly.

In the 43th Psalm.

The writer says, so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

I don't believe that the writer of the Psalm, Moses, supposedly, that Moses was saying, let's see if I can figure out how many days I, I'm gonna live.

I can calculate what, how long my life is going to be.

He's saying, we need to remember that our life is short, comparatively speaking.

Even if we live to an older age, still, we are rapidly moving toward the end.

I think there's a difference between being morbid and being aware of one's mortality, and I'm not encouraging us to be morbid so that we live our lives constantly in the fear of death or constantly thinking about and talking about death.

But I think we also need to recognize our mortality and realize that we are speeding toward eternity.

And that will affect the way we live and the decisions that we make.

Another thing that I think about sometimes is, as I go to a funeral and I sit in the auditorium or the chapel.

I wonder what did this person do with his or her life.

What did they accomplish?

What kind of life did they live?

As I've already said, funeral eulogies often summarize the life of the deceased person, and typically they will emphasize whatever positive achievements or good works that you can find.

I've actually said in funerals where I wondered if I was at the right funeral.

Because what was being said didn't seem to match the person that I knew who was in the casket at the front of the room.

But that's what eulogies do.

They often try to emphasize, even to the point of exaggeration, good things.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote about the futility of earthly achievements in life under the sun.

He talks about life under the sun.

He's considering the things apart from eternity, and he describes all of the accomplishments, uh, or all the good things that we can enjoy in this life as being essentially vanity and a grasping after the wind.

The writer of Ecclesiastes is not saying that we shouldn't try to do good works.

He's not saying that it's just totally futile for us to try to accomplish things.

But in the final analysis, all of that isn't going to mean anything.

I like what Jesus said in Matthew 24th chapter and verse 24 along these lines.

He said, what, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

So if I come into the funeral and it's the funeral of a multi-millionaire, I guarantee you people will talk about that.

Oh, he was a great businessman.

He accomplished this.

He's got great wealth and he's fantastic in terms of making money.

The real question is, do you really live a successful life?

Or did you just accumulate a lot of things that he had to leave behind when he left?

In Ecclesiastes 2100, a passage that we talked about recently.

In chapter 12 and verse 13, the writer says, the end of the matter, all has been heard.

Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

It is a great comfort when you go to a funeral, and after they're done talking about whatever good things somebody has done and, and the way the kind of friend they were and all of that, if they can say, and that individual, this, this person who's died.

was a child of God.

That this person was a Christian.

Because that's really the purpose of God, the purpose of man is to serve God, fear Him and keep His commandments.

And then finally, I ask the question sometimes in my own mind, does this person have any hope?

I've preached a number of funerals over the years for people that I'm fairly convinced that there wasn't much hope, if any hope.

Sometimes there were people I didn't even know.

They had so little connection with religion that I was asked by a family member or a funeral director to preach a funeral for someone who had no use for God during their life.

The final judgment, of course, is going to take into account the thoughts and the intents of the heart, and that's information that we don't have about others.

And so I'm not suggesting that by asking this question, this person have hope, that we can pass judgment on or that we can be certain about what the eternal destiny of someone might be.

In Romans, the 2nd chapter in verse 16, God is going to judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews the 4th chapter, we're told that nothing is hidden from God.

That the Word of God gets down to the very inside of man, down to the marrow inside his bones.

And if you notice in verse 13, it moves from the Word of God as though it were some sort of inanimate object or message to talk about God Himself.

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give account.

There are people who live and die with secrets that in some cases, people don't know for a long time afterwards, but nothing's hidden from God.

But I sometimes ask the question in my own mind, did this person have any hope?

And what the scriptures tell us is that our eternal destiny is determined in this life.

There's a passage that I have frequently quoted, but I want to pull out something specific in this verse.

It's in 43 Corinthians, the 5th chapter and verse 10.

Paul says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each 1 may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

And often we emphasize that Jesus is going to be the judge, we're going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that it's going to be an individual thing.

I'm going to have to give an account of myself.

But did you notice that we'll have, we'll receive what is due for what he has done when in the body.

And so my eternal destiny is determined by what I do while I am here living in this body.

Does this person have hope?

Well, hope is found in Christ Jesus.

First Peter 1 says that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

When we are baptized into Christ, it's described by Jesus in John 3 as a new birth.

And we're born into a living hope, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, that is kept, some versions say reserved for you in heaven.

In Colossians 1 verse 27, Paul wrote to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

What a terrible thing it is to go to a funeral.

And to know that this was a person who lived his or her life in rebellion to God.

That they serve themselves, they served Satan their entire lives.

And they ended their life.

They left this vale of tears.

To meet God in eternity.

Totally unprepared.

No hope.

In Ecclesiastes 7:1.

The text that we've been looking at begins this way.

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.

And it may seem as though the writer of Ecclesiastes is talking about a different subject, or maybe it's just not clear how that relates to the verses that we've looked at, verses 23, and 4.

I want to suggest to you a possible explanation or connection between verse one and the other verses of the text.

We know that bodies in ancient times were prepared for burial, often with ointments.

Things that would camouflage or try to overcome the smell of decomposition that would occur once the body had been buried.

And I wonder if that's not what's being talked about here with precious ointment.

that a good name is more important than being prepared at your death with precious ointment, so that you smell nice.

But she didn't live well.

A good name is better than even precious ointment.

Which is better, to be buried so that you smell well or that you have a good name?

You know, on the day of birth, everything's to be determined.

Have you looked into the eyes of a baby and wondered, what is this child going to do?

What, what kind of life is this child going to have?

What kind of things are they going to accomplish?

It's the beginning, it's the start, and everything is fresh and new and can be changed one way or the other.

But on the day of death.

Everything's fixed And if you have a good name, in other words, if you've lived well.

That's Fixed.

There's no changing and no losing that.

Like we could while we're still living.

And so the writer ends this particular text in verse 4 by saying, the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

There are some people who don't want to think about these kinds of things.

They don't want to think about death.

They don't want to think about their mortality.

They don't want to think about whether they are prepared for eternity.

They will fill their lives with mirth, with things that are inconsequential.

But the text says the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and we can learn some things from funerals.

We all have an appointment with death, that is providing the Lord doesn't return before our passing.

Each of us is headed down the same road as those individuals that we've gone to, to show our respect and love for in funerals.

We all have that same appointment.

And so the question that we asked this morning are some of the same questions that I've posed to you.

How are we living our lives?

Are we living our lives in a way that when my life is over, I will have accomplished what's really important.

Or am I chasing after things that really don't matter?

Jared Davis had a really good talk on Wednesday about treasure, and the idea of chasing after treasures that, that are temporary that you can't take with you.

I think that fits very well with the message that I'm suggesting to you this morning.

What are you doing with your precious life?

Do you have hope?

Are you ready for the end of life that can come for any of us at any time?

We just don't know.

If you're not ready, if you don't have hope in Christ, because you've not been baptized into Christ, then certainly this morning, you have the opportunity to prepare yourself, so that if you live another, let's be generous, 100 years, or if you just live until the rest of today, you're ready, and you have a future in eternity with God.

If we can assist you this morning in obeying the gospel, and we want to encourage you to come forward and we'll assist you as we stand and sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ian Boike

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

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

Reading from Ezekiel 18:53, Ezekiel 18:520.

This is the New King James Version.

But if a man is just and does what is lawful and right, if he has not eaten on the mountains, nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, nor defiled his neighbor's wife, nor approached a woman during her impurity, If he has not oppressed anyone, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has not robbed, has robbed no one by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and covered the naked with clothing, if he has not exacted usury, nor taken any increase, but has withdrawn his hand from iniquity and executed true judgment between man and man, If he has walked in my statutes and kept my judgments faithfully, he is just, He shall surely live, says the Lord God.

If he begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood, who does any of these things, and, and does none of those duties, but has eaten on the mountains or defiled his neighbor's wife, if he has oppressed the poor and needy, robbed by violence, nor restored the pledge, lifted his eyes to the idols, or committed abomination, If he has exacted usury or taken an increase, shall he then live?

He shall not live.

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

His blood shall be upon him.

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

Who has withdrawn his hands, hand from the poor and not received usury or increase, but has executed my judgments and walked in my statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father.

He shall surely live.

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

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

Because the son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all of my statutes and observed them.

He shall surely live.

The soul who sins shall die.

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

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

Good evening.

It's wonderful to be back with you.

It's wonderful to see you all out, including our visitors.

And I know that there's plenty of us here who were alive during the early days of YouTube around 2008, as that is most of us here, but in 2008, there was a video released on YouTube called The Good 0 m.

And in this short film, there's a line of people, both old and young, and dressed in what seems to be like hospital gowns, and they're waiting to step onto this scale, and it kind of looks like a, uh, kind of looks like a weight scale.

And this fake machine, what it does is it decides whether or not you're good enough to go to heaven or not.

And like I said, it looks like a weight scale with the left side being the side of you're not good enough or you're not justified and the right side, which means you are good enough or you are justified.

And standing beside this machine that there's, there's two men in white suits and from what I can gather in the video, they represent angels.

And one of the two men say, next, and an older man steps forward and he awaits instruction.

And the angel says, folder, please, and the old man hands over his personal folder and it's filled with many pages.

The angel then begins to look through the pages and goes, OK, some lying, some stealing, and, oh, OK, some acts of kindness as well. Good.

And the older man replied, Well, I, I tried to live a good life.

And the angel replied, well, let's just see how good of a life.

The Angel then motions the older man to step onto the scale, and as soon as he steps on the scale, it instantly goes to the left, the not justified side.

Then they hand the older man back his folder and tell him to go sit down in the waiting area.

Then a young woman steps forward after they say next again and exclaims, you know, I admit I did some pretty bad things, but I also did some good things too, you know, to help even it out.

And the young woman that gives an example, she kind of tells on herself a little bit.

I don't know if I would do this in front of an angel, but says, she goes on to say, well, I cheated on a test in high school, but then I picked up trash in the park afterwards, you know, to help even it out.

Because that makes it better, right?

To which the angel raises his eyebrow and goes, hmm, OK, well, let's find out.

Motions to, for her to step on the scale just like the first gentleman, and of course, it goes right to the left side, not justified, and she was handed her folder back as well and told to go sit down.

And then we have the next man who comes up forward, comes forward very eagerly.

He's excited to be up there.

And he hands up his folder without even being asked, and he says, you know, I've dedicated my whole life to making the world a better place.

You know, I dug wells in Africa.

I donated blood every single month, and I even ran an orphanage in India.

You know, I, God, I wish, I, guys, I wish I could have just done more, you know, that's my only regret in life is I, I wish I could have done more.

And this man's arrow also went to the left, not justified, and he was told to sit back down.

And after this, man, a couple more people came up with their folders and there was a woman who said, well, my mom went to church.

Nope, not justified.

Then an older man steps up and says, well, I was baptized as a baby.

Nope, not, not justified either.

And finally, the last man steps up who was in line and he hands his folder to the angels.

And because of the weight of his folder, the angel goes, My, my, somebody has been busy.

Somebody's done a lot with their life.

But he doesn't seem all that upset.

And then the angel says, all right, well, let's just get this over with.

Go ahead and step on the scale.

Let's see how you do.

The man goes to step forward and then a man wearing a t-shirt that says Jesus on it, representing Christ, steps forward and puts his hand forward and goes, no.

And the angel exclaims, Oh, sir, I'm, I'm sorry.

I, I had no idea this guy was with you.

And Jesus hands him a folder that says, Child of God on the inside.

Then the angel says, well, go ahead and step up on the scale.

The man steps forward.

And Jesus, of course, being who he is.

was justified Enable To go into heaven.

And then Jesus then takes the folder from this man, he throws it in the garbage, and then Jesus wraps his arms around the man, he leads him to the other side of the room.

And then all the unjustified people who are sitting in the waiting room with their folders still, so they begin to shout, that isn't fair.

I was better than that guy.

I did less worse stuff than him.

I was a better person than him.

The angel then turns and smiles and says, well, that's why it's called grace.

And whenever I watched this video for the first time, It, it gave me a lot to think about.

Because while this video is not an exact depiction of what the judgment Day is going to look like, as I believe, you know, angels might wear different colored suits than white, of course, I'm kidding.

In fact, whenever many of you go and watch this video, if you do, you're going to find that there's many aspects of it, even of stuff that I've said that are not 32nd cousins to what will actually happen on the Day of Judgment.

But I think that this video gives us something to think about.

It gives us a, a simple message that it's trying to convey.

And that's without the blood of Christ, without Jesus, we are unable to have our sins taken away and forgiven.

And that's why I'm so glad that you all are here this evening because I want to take a few moments where we open up our Bibles and we talk and I want to talk about the false notion that many people have in the world, especially around the New Year, where they say, you know, this year is a New Year's resolution, I, I wanted, I just want to be a better person.

You know, I want to be more generous.

I want to do more.

Essentially saying is, you know, having the mindset of as long as I'm a good person.

I get to go to heaven.

And that is an extremely dangerous mindset that I think we need to unravel, unravel this evening.

And typically whenever, you know, we go through a Bible study or a sermon, you know, why do we need Christ is typically the last question that we ask is we go through a topic and then we, at the very end, well, you know, why do we need Christ?

But the what, but in the direction that we're gonna be going this evening, I think that's the first question that we need to ask ourselves is why do we need Christ?

Well, first I've established just as a baseline of truth is that, you know, we're, we're all imperfect.

There is nobody here, or even in the world that is perfect.

We all sin.

Romans 3:23.

Paul tells us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And Paul even three verses early, he applies it to the old law and stating in uh Romans 3:93, for by works of the law, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So without Christ's death on the cross, we would be unable to gain forgiveness for our sins.

In Hebrews chapter 9, the Hebrews writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 9, starting in verse 11, going through 14, we're told, but when Christ appeared as the high priest of good things that have come, Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctified for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from the dead works to serve the living God.

And then in Hebrews 10 verse 4, he kind of sums it up by basically saying, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats.

To take away sins.

So we've established we without Christ, we can never hope to gain forgiveness for our sins that we're going to bring into our lives due to our imperfection.

And I want to make a point very clear before I'll go ahead and put up my next point up on the screen, but I think it's important for us to know that, you know, while our imperfections are not always the cause of difficult times in our lives, sometimes things just happen.

Sometimes people suffer, they can often be the source.

But thankfully, whenever those times happen, the Lord gives us hope during those difficult times.

In Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13, Paul is telling the church and the saints in Philippi that Christ had given him hope in all of his difficulties during his ministry.

And if you just do, you know, a rough glance over the Book of Acts or any of his, any of his epistles, You come to find this man.

He lived a very hard life.

Christ even says in the beginning in Acts, in Acts chapter 9, we'll, um, we'll be using him as an example earlier, uh, later on.

But Christ says, you know, he's gonna have to suffer for me.

But in Philippians 23:13, Paul gives the simple statement of I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

And Jesus even went a step further.

He even exclaimed that he wishes that all would come to him for relief.

And Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 to 30, he says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.

And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

And finally this evening, the last reason that I think I want to discuss and why we need Christ is that Christ is our only access to salvation.

And John chapter 15, in verse 5, Jesus refers to himself as the vine.

Where he's talking to his disciples and he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in it, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

And Jesus is telling his disciples plainly, that without me, you're unable to do anything, just as branches can't survive without the vine, you can't survive without me spiritually.

Meaning that there's no way for us to attain heaven unless we have a relationship with Christ.

In 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 5 to 103.

Paul tells us, for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Christ will stand as our advocate, if and only if we are worthy of his defense.

And now that we've kind of set a basic or just kind of a basic overview of why we need Christ, I think it's important to look at two men in the New Testament who are close together in the scriptures in terms of time.

Who are similar in both that they were living their lives in a way that they perceived were good.

And I think the first man that deserves our attention is Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.

And I'm gonna be reading Acts chapter 10 verses 1 through 5, where we kind of get a kind of a good overview, at least from God's standpoint to who this man is.

In Acts chapter 10 verses 1 through 5.

We're told at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.

About the 9th hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision, an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius, and he stared at him in terror and said, what is it, Lord?

And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

And now send men to Joppa and bring one sign.

Who was called Peter.

I want to take a moment to emphasize what this angel has just told this man.

This man's not a Jew.

But he's living his life in fear of God.

With a healthy fear of God.

Almost to the point where where God sends an angel to essentially pat him on the back.

Cornelius, great job.

I see what you're doing.

Keep it up.

And then he gives him a direct command, send men to go to Joppa and bring one Simon who was called Peter.

He doesn't tell him why.

Normally, you think, well, why, why should I do that?

I'm living a good life.

I just got a pat on the back from God.

Why do I need this guy named Peter?

Well, if you flip over a couple of pages and we're in chapter 11.

In verses 13 to 14, we're told exactly why.

In Acts chapter 11, verses 13 to 14, Peter tells us, and he told us that he had seen an angel, that being Cornelius, stand in his house and say, send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter.

He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved.

You and all your household.

So even though Cornelius was living a morally upright life, enough so for God to send one of his personal messengers down to say, What you've been doing is, is memorial before God.

You still need Christ.

You still need the gospel taught to you in order to be saved.

He had a good moral foundation, but he needed the gospel.

And I said that we would talk about Saul, and now we're going to, because even though, even though Saul likewise thought he was living a good life, he thought he was living his life in a way that would help him attain heaven, he was mistaken.

Severely mistaken.

And he needed Jesus.

He knew he needed Christ, but he didn't know he needed Jesus.

In Acts chapter 9, In verses 1 through 31, we kind of see a scene unfold, where in the beginning, we're told that Saul had been ravaging the church, he'd been ripping Christian men and women out of their homes.

Putting them before the high priests and the other Jewish leaders and putting them to death, throwing them into prison.

Doing horrible atrocities against.

The brothers and sisters of the church.

And while doing this, Saul, well, he thought he was doing everything the right way.

He didn't even know he was lost.

He didn't even know he was doing the wrong thing until Christ met him on the way to Damascus.

And even, even the Lord Himself gets pushed back from Ananias because of Saul's reputation in the land.

You know, God, do you not, do you, do you know who this guy is, right?

What he's doing to your people?

And you want me to go speak to him.

Even though many could not see past Saul's horrible background, His past sins, just the way he was living his life regardless of the way he thought he was living his life.

Christ saw something and saw that no one else could have.

And that was his intense and zealous desire to serve the Lord.

And so even though Cornelius was living a morally upright life, God even commends him on it.

And even though Saul was living his life in his eyes, the best that he could for God, they still needed Christ, they still needed Jesus before they could be saved.

And I think after looking at these two men, it's safe to say that no matter how good you are, how good you think you are, we're not justified without Christ.

And at the very beginning of our study, I referenced that video on YouTube from 2008, where people kind of offered various excuses as to why they should be considered justified and allowed into heaven, allowed access to God's kingdom.

And I believe that looking at a couple of these misconceptions and these excuses will help us understand what the scriptures say about our spiritual condition.

And that's how I want to close out this evening.

And the first misconception that was given to us was, well, it evens out, right?

And I think her even her exact words was, well, I've done a lot of bad things, but I've done good things too, you know, to even it out because it evens out, right?

It's her exact words, and I'm sure many of us have heard others say stuff like that before too.

And we know how this illustration ends, but it's crucial that we understand that the scriptures speak directly about this attitude.

In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13 through 9, we're told, for by grace, you have been saved through faith.

And this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no 1 may boast.

And there's no amount of good deeds that can buy us a relationship with Christ.

Jesus even tells us in John chapter 14 and verse 6 that he is the only access to heaven.

He is the only way for us to attain eternal life.

John 14:6, Jesus said to him, I'm the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father, except through me.

So it's not my works or even righteous works, deeds of the law, or anything else, but the grace of Christ.

That will allow us to attain heaven.

And I think I would be remiss this evening if I didn't make the statement that Satan knows this better than all of us.

I've used this illustration before, but I think it's such a powerful one that I think we all need to take to heart.

I know I've told you guys about this, uh, Time Changer film about the professor who uh wrote a series of different religious texts and went and built a time machine and goes 100 years into the future to see the effects of his religious writings.

And in this film, he's sitting at a round table with a bunch of other religious scholars, and they're having a conversation kinda, kinda like the one we're having right now.

And Professor Morin, the main character, I believe he's the one with the, uh, the glasses on the screen.

He says Satan is not against good morals.

He is opposed to Jesus Christ.

A man can have good morals his entire life, yet you and I know he will go to hell when he dies.

It is Jesus Christ that everyone needs.

And the devil knows this better than all of us.

He goes on to say, Satan's goal is to remove the name of Christ from his commands.

And when we do this, people are deceived into believing that if they live a good life, they will receive God's approval and attain heaven.

Doesn't this sound like the people from the illustration earlier?

It does to me And the young man who said, I dedicated my whole life.

To making the world a better place.

So Doug Wells in Africa gave blood and ran an orphanage.

Not justified And if our if our mindset is like this fictitious young man, this actor.

who thought he had done enough by himself, then Satan would be satisfied with that.

Satan will be 100% satisfied with that mindset.

If we have it.

In the last two of the uh excuses, I think they're so closely tied together that we can, we can talk about them at the same time.

The young woman said, my mom went to church.

And the older man said, Well, I was baptized as a baby.

I just come out and say it, we are not saved by the righteousness of others.

Every single person in this building, your relationship has to be your own when it comes to Christ.

Because there's no such thing as a familial transfer of justification for the forgiveness of sins.

There's not Your brother McKee From the scripture reading read as Ezekiel 18.

And I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but just a snippet from it.

In Ezekiel 133.

And for, and starting in verse 5 to 13, we kind of see kind of a split here where God is speaking to Ezekiel and kind of gives us two hypotheticals.

In verses 5 through 25, he gives us, you know, we have a father, or if a man, who starts out as a man, where a man, he's living his life the right way and then we kind of flip and we talk about his son in verses 29 to 22.

And then starting in verse 210, if a man is righteous and does what is right, if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman during her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppose oppress anyone.

But restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withhold his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully.

He is righteous.

He shall surely live, declares the Lord God.

And then starting in verse 21, we're going to be talking about his son who decides to live his life differently.

In verse 21, if he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things, though he himself did none of these things, who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor's wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, and does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, and commits abomination, lends it interest, and takes profit.

Shall he then live?

He shall not live.

He has done these abominations.

He shall surely die.

His blood shall be upon himself.

And then skipping forward, just a few verses, probably on the same page.

Ezekiel 13 and 21 where Ezekiel sums it up.

Or God sums it up, and he says, the soul who sins shall die, the son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.

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

The scriptures teach that we're going to have to give an account.

There is no, my dad or my mom.

It is you standing before God, and we're told that in Romans chapter 22 by Paul, Romans chapter 21 to 12.

Paul tells us, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account to himself, to God.

We should all be thankful.

I know I'm thankful.

That when at the end of the day, it's gonna be, it comes down to how I lived my life, not how somebody else across the world lived theirs, on whether or not I'm able to gain justification from Christ.

And as we go through the rest of this week, I know that we all have very busy lives and it seems like in our country, it's just go, go, go, go, go, go, go all the time.

I want us to slow down this week and I want us to each give some thought to the condition of our souls.

Because as we've established this evening, without Christ, No one can be justified.

None of us will be justified without Christ.

And Christians especially need to understand this because our salvation hinges on Christ's mercy.

And not our good deeds.

And I know I've mentioned it already, but the young man in the illustration who proudly stated, I've dedicated my whole life to making the world a better place, sadly, he doesn't have any idea just how far he is from Christ.

Especially ending his statement with, my only regret is I wish I could have done.

More And there are many like this fictitious young man who attempt to rely on his own or his or her own good deeds to get to heaven.

In Titus, the 3rd chapter, verses 4 through 7, Titus tells us, but when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

But according to His mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

That having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, I want to pause for a moment.

Because I think that In in preaching a sermon on being saved by grace.

I think that we need to also take the opportunity this evening to understand that in Titus 3 verses 4 through 23, when, when he says in the beginning, you know, not by works of verse 5, not by the works of righteousness that we have done, or at the very end that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs.

Titus had been saying that he's not throwing obedience out the window and looking at all the Christians saying, don't worry about obeying God, future Christians.

God's grace has got you.

You're good.

Don't worry about following his commands.

In fact, if we look at the Hebrews writer, Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 9, He commands that we should be obedient to Christ.

Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 9.

He tells us, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to who?

To all who obey him.

And I'll say this also, a form of obedience is doing good works.

As we're told in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 by Paul.

Paul tells us, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, for which God prepared beforehand.

That we should walk in.

But an understanding that obedience plays its own part.

At the end of the day, when it's all said and done, we need to understand that we are saved by Christ's grace and not our own works.

And every time that we come together, every week, we like to we like to extend an invitation to anyone who would desire to bring the gospel into their life.

And I hope we all understand that the people in the good old meter video, they're just actors.

I don't know if they believed what they were doing, you know, if they were just acting.

But I do hope that someday.

Every single one of us gets to experience and receive the grace and attain.

Eternal life.

I hope that for all of us.

In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 13, Peter tells us, therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And if you're not a Christian, Jesus will be there.

But he'll be there as your judge and not your advocate.

It's a clear distinction that we need to understand.

And 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1, John tells us, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, We still, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Christ wants you to make that change in your life so that he can go from being your judge, To your advocate.

And if you're a Christian this evening, Maybe you have a sin in your life that's keeping you separated from the fallen.

Maybe that's your situation.

But thankfully due to Christ's sacrifice on the cross, He allows you to obtain forgiveness for your sins as well.

If you're willing.

To plead for his forgiveness, will he cleanse you of them.

And if you're subject to the invitation this evening, and you're ready to walk in a newness of life, And to gain an advocate for the judgment.

Please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Allen Dvorak

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

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

Scripture this morning will be Matthew chapter 23 verses 1 through 14.

I'll be reading from the English Standard Version.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

He answered them.

And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God commanded, honor your father and your mother.

Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God.

He need not honor his father.

So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God, you hypocrites.

Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrines, the commandments of men.

And he called the people to him and said to them, hear and understand, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.

This defiles a person.

Then the disciples came and said to him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

He answered, every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.

Let them alone.

They are blind gods, and if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

Debbie and I have decided to march boldly into the 21st century.

We have become online orders of fast food.

It's a big step for us.

You can't go up to the counter and tell people what you want, there's something wrong, but we have managed now to Uh Make that step into the wonderful world of technology.

Debbie and I go typically on Sunday evenings, not always, but a lot of times on Sunday evenings, we go to Taco Bell.

And uh now, you can actually, yeah, some of you are saying, well, now we know what's wrong with you.

That's Taco Bell.

Uh, I understand every Taco Bell meal probably shortens your life by at least 1015 minutes, but I enjoy the food, so we go.

Debbie does as well.

So now, I check in with my phone so I can get points, bonus points.

And then every once in a while you can get a reward and you have to do that online.

And so when you begin to make your order, they ask you a ton of questions.

If you order a taco, they want to know, do you want soft shell or hard shell?

If you order a taco with sauce, they've got a whole list of sauces you have to choose, but you can make that taco exactly the way you want it.

Same thing with the burrito as you're ordering your food.

Well, I'm probably going to reveal more than I should, but we also like to go to Freddie's.

Freddie's has some of the best burgers you can find anywhere around, but I despise their fries.

Little skinny fries.

That just take too long to eat.

And so Debbie will get her meal and she gets fries, but I always substitute.

The fries With onion rings because I like onion rings.

And so I can pretty much get the meal the way that I want it.

They'll ask you, do you want everything on it?

Well, you can customize your sandwich.

You can take the pickle off and, or ketchup and mustard or whatever.

So, basically, you can just have it your way.

The way that Burger King uh created that meme and became known as a brand name, have it your way.

And so now in all of the fast food restaurant, restaurants, I guess, you can basically customize your food so that it suits your tastes.

Well, I'm not here to talk to you about Freddie's or Taco Bell or fast food in general, but I wanted to talk about those things because that's the way that people think a lot of times about religion.

That what you need to do is, as newspapers often will print on their religion page if you even get a newspaper anymore.

At, attend the church of your choice.

And the idea is that one church is as good as another.

And so you just need to find the flavor that suits you.

And so, if you happen to like more formal and traditional works, worship services, you might decide that you uh will be a part of the Roman Catholic Church, maybe the Greek Orthodox or Presbyterian or one of the uh mainline uh groups like that.

On the other hand, if you like more spontaneous service, less ritual, you might choose to worship with some of the charismatic or Pentecostal groups because that's characteristic of their services.

If you like short sermons, you'll not come here.

No, that's not what I meant to say.

If you like short sermons and lots of fellowship, there are a plethora of churches that you can attend.

A lot of churches place great emphasis on fellowship, although what they mean by that is social activities, eating together, uh, social activities for recreation, enjoyment, that sort of thing.

And a lot of folks treat churches just like fast food restaurants.

You find the one that matches your preferences.

Debbie and I Went to the ancient site of Ephesus several years ago.

And just as you begin the tour of the ruins of Ephesus, there's a shop there that says genuine fake watches.

Genuine fake watches.

So you don't get the real thing.

You get something that kind of looks like the real thing, probably doesn't work like the real thing.

It's a genuine fake.

But this morning, what I want to talk to you about is the real thing.

I want to talk to you about the one true church and how we can recognize that church.

When you're talking to people about their religion.

What you'll find and what I have found is that many will tell you, 00, I, I already belong to a church, and often they are quite satisfied with their membership in this group, whatever group it is.

And as you talk to them and you learn more about the group that they're with, you begin to realize that they're not part of the one true church.

And you're faced with a dilemma.

How do you talk to someone and indicate to them that you believe their soul is in danger without offending them or alienating them?

And there's a very important principle that's difficult sometimes to get across to folks, but it's this.

One's personal satisfaction or comfort level doesn't guarantee divine approval.

I may be very happy where I am in terms of membership in some church, but that doesn't mean that God's pleased with the group that I have become a part of.

If you want a really good example of evidence that that principle is true, you just need to look at the life of Saul of Tarsus.

Later in life, after he had been selected as one of the Lord's apostles, he'd been converted to Christ and selected as an apostle, and he's being challenged about his beliefs, he would say in Acts 23:1, I've lived to this day in all good conscience.

Of course, the high priest thought that was blasphemous or it was at least worthy of a slap across the face.

But what Paul was saying was, I did what I thought was right, even though For some time in his youth, he was a persecutor of the church.

An injurious man, he says, a blasphemer.

He persecuted Jesus Christ by persecuting those who were his disciples.

And yet, Paul was very comfortable with his role in life, very satisfied with what he was doing.

He was the bright and shining star of Judaism in terms of its persecution of the Lord's Church.

But he was in danger of being lost forever.

Only through the Lord's intervention.

Was he able to see the truth?

Well, sometimes, as you talk to people about the church, the Lord's Church, you'll get a question something like this, do you think that your church is the only right church?

Now, sometimes what we'll do is we'll say, well, it's not my church, but that's not really the issue here, is it?

The point that they're making is, what makes you better than anyone else?

What makes the church that you belong to different from any other church?

Well, the truth is that it's not about me or you.

It has everything to do with what the scriptures teach about the Lord and His church.

And that's what I try to say to people when they say, well, do you think that your church is the only right church?

Well, the question is not really what I think.

The question is what do the scriptures say about the Lord's Church.

The idea that we can choose the church that suits us is based on the premise that God is found in all churches.

That really doesn't make any difference, the flavor of the church that you attend or belong to, as long as you go to church, and that's the admonition that you'll hear from a lot.

You need to go to church.

Where you go is not particularly important.

Because, as I've just suggested, God's found in all the churches is kind of the idea.

The truth of the matter is that in the 1st century, there was one church.

Now I'm using the church at this point in the universal sense to talk about all the disciples as a, as a group.

But Jesus, of course, promised during his ministry only to build one church.

He says to Peter, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will build my church singular.

That's one of the questions in the Bible drill class.

How many churches did Jesus build?

And the grasshopper height children can tell you one church, but that's not a concept that's Accepted or understood by a lot of people who are very much involved in religion.

Later, the apostle Paul would write that there was only one church.

He says in Ephesians 4:93, there's one body and one spirit.

One body, one spirit, one hope.

But we understand that earlier in the same epistle, Paul described the church as the body.

So when he says there's one body, what he's saying is there's one church.

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 22. 23.

The church, which is his body.

He says a very similar thing in Colossians 1 and verse 18, identifies the body as the church.

How many bodies?

One body.

And Jesus is the savior of that one body.

And so it becomes very clear that if we want to be saved, if we want to be a part of the group of people who are saved, the Lord's Church, then we need to be a part of his church, the church that he is going to save.

He is the savior of that body.

Well, some folks might actually respond, but it seems like in the New Testament, there are lots of churches.

There was a church at Thessalonica.

There was another church at Philippi.

In fact, Paul writes to multiple churches.

How can you say that there's only one church when the New Testament talks about churches, plural.

Each of those congregations, and that's how the word is being used in our conversation now, is a group of Christians in a specific area who have gathered together to work and to worship together to encourage one another.

There are a congregation of saints.

All of the Christians together make up the Lord's Church, not all the congregation, all of the Christians together make up the many members of the one body, as was mentioned earlier today.

That's for you, Josh.

You've heard it again.

Um, just pounding the message.

And so these congregations are called churches.

They're groups of people who meet in a specific place.

But all of them.

We're following the same doctrine, the same gospel.

In fact, Paul in Galatians 1:6 chides the Galatians, because they were deserting the gospel that they had been taught and turning to another gospel, although Paul says there is no other gospel.

There's only one gospel.

In Galatians 1:6, he says, I'm 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, he says, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Now listen carefully to what he says next.

He even repeats himself when he 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 a curse.

Paul says, as we have said before, so now I say again, He repeats something because it's so important for us to grasp.

If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be a cursed.

Does it seem to any of us that Paul is saying that if you like, you can, uh, you can follow a gospel that suits you better than the gospel that the apostles preached.

That's not at all what he's saying.

He's saying, You bring curses on yourself.

If you turn away from the gospel or preach uh, a different gospel than what the apostles preached.

This would be a good time to know that that's why we have so many churches today, not congregations I'm talking about.

I'm talking about churches that are very different from one another.

They wear different names, they have different organizations, and they follow different doctrines, gospels.

Paul said There's only one gospel.

In Ephesians chapter 33, verses 3 through 5, Paul would also say there's one faith.

And that's what bound together all these disciples in the 1st century, even though they were meeting some in Corinth, some in Thessalonica, and other cities, but what they were doing is they were all following the same gospel.

Some have said, well, but what about John 26?

What about this passage where Jesus talks about himself as the vine and branches bearing fruit because of their connection to the vine?

Not very long ago, in fact, just very recently, as I was making some preparations for uh the, the class on Roman Catholicism, I read the comment that the vine is Jesus Christ and all of us in the various Churches are branches.

The churches are the branches in this vine, but that's not what the text says.

It's an allusion to something that Jesus taught, but it's not a careful study of what Jesus actually said.

He was talking in the context.

To his apostles.

This is part of the chapter 29 through 23 section, where Jesus is with his apostles and giving them uh uh some really good teaching, a lot of instructions, and he says that they are the Branches.

And it's obvious as you read through the passage that Jesus is not referring to many churches.

There wasn't any church at that point.

The church wasn't established until after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

And there certainly weren't any denominations back then.

So when Jesus says, I'm the vine, and you are the branches, and he's in the midst of his disciples, his apostles, who is he indicating are the branches?

Well, that would be the disciples, not many churches.

I use this illustration.

In the church, in the class about Roman Catholicism, that's a 217 model Ford Model T. If you have one, don't sell it because its value is just gonna keep going up.

Now, as you look at that car, And you think about Phil Davis's Tesla out in the parking lot.

Do you see any differences?

What about the tires?

What about the, the cab, the interior?

What about the headlights?

What about the body style?

Well, those are such terrible, such tremendous differences, I should say.

There's no difficulty distinguishing between a modern Tesla.

Or the Camry that I drive.

And this 22 Ford Model T. There are distinguishing characteristics of the Model T. I think there are some folks in this congregation.

If we got the team together, we might get Jared uh Davis and uh Jacob Brewer and uh maybe Ed Holder who's been involved in some stuff like this.

Uh, David Williams probably could do most of this.

Uh, we could get some folks together and they could make the parts.

That make up a vehicle like this.

And if they did that and put all these parts together, you would not describe it as a 29 Model T, would you?

You call it a 173 Model T because it has all the characteristics.

Regardless of when it was built, it has the characteristics that identify it as a 217 Model T. Well, that's what I want to say about the church.

The fact that this church, this congregation was begun in 217, does not indicate that it is a 211 church.

It is the Lord's Church, a congregation of the Lord's people, because we are following the same pattern.

That we find in the New Testament that identifies or contains the distinguishing characteristics.

Of the Lord's Church.

I'm gonna suggest some of those important features.

This is not a comprehensive list, but it'll give you uh the flavor of what I'm trying to say, if you'll pardon the pun.

The name That early disciples wore both as individuals and as collective groups.

As individuals, they were called Christians.

Among other things, they were called brethren.

But you can't find any Baptists, Christians.

You can't find any Catholic Christians, you can't find any Presbyterian Christians or Methodist Christians, or Pentecostal Christians for that matter.

The disciples were called brethren, saints.

They were called Christians at Antioch, according to Acts 11 and verse 26.

And as groups, when Paul wanted to describe a number of them, he just called them churches of Christ.

That makes good sense since they belong to Christ.

Their worship was distinctive.

In 1 Corinthians, the 11th chapter, what we find is that the Corinthian church had begun to twist the pattern and so Paul corrects their practice.

And it's interesting to note that as he does so, he says, I delivered to you what I received from the Lord, and then he goes back to the institution of the Lord's Supper by the Lord with his disciples on the night of his betrayal.

So Paul clearly expects the Corinthians to follow the same pattern that had been set in the beginning.

We see that in 1 Corinthians 16 to 173 as well.

When funds needed to be collected for needy brethren and Judea, appreciated the good comments this morning.

Paul says, as I gave order to other churches, so the Corinthian church should do.

There wasn't one pattern or one way of doing it in one place and something completely, no, Paul says, this is the way you raise funds for those things that the church can legitimately be involved in.

The organization of the church is distinctive.

Today, you can go to different churches and you'll find all kinds of different organizations and hierarchies of authority.

But in the New Testament, we see in Acts 14:23, That Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey as they're returning back to Antioch, they appoint elders plural in every church.

Each church was to have a plurality of elders, shepherds who oversaw that congregation.

Paul addresses the Philippians in his epistle to them and Addresses it to all the saints with the overseers, plural, and deacons.

So that was the way the early church was organized.

The mission of the church.

Just in general, the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth.

Churches have adopted all kinds of missions, some of which obviously benefit people in physical ways, but the mission of the church in general is to teach and follow the gospel.

Even the doctrine that we teach is uh determined.

There's a pattern for that.

We've already mentioned Galatians 1:6 through 9.

I won't mention it, uh, read it again, but in Colossians 3:17, Paul says, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord.

That would apply to us as individuals, but likewise, when we're acting as a collective group, And so Paul, excuse me, the apostle John would say in 2 John verse 9, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

There's a doctrine, there's a teaching that we're intended to remain following, and so, we don't have the right to uh choose to have it our own way.

You know, every once in a while.

You'll see or hear perhaps of a group.

That just started in a location, maybe a foreign country.

Sometimes they're in prisons because people read the scriptures.

And they recognize the pattern.

And instances like that, examples of that are evidence that when people read the scriptures, they don't have to consult some creed, they don't have to have some sort of lineage from another congregation.

They recognize the pattern, and they begin to follow it, and when they do, they are the Lord's people.

Regardless of where they are.

Now, when you begin talking to people about the one true church, you're going to meet some emotional arguments.

Some people say, well, now, you make it sound like all these other people don't, don't believe in Jesus.

All the members uh of the, these churches, they believe in Jesus.

Well, I'm not gonna question anybody's motivation or their heart.

But I will say this, that believing in Jesus, accepting him as the Son of God, which is the faith that we confess.

involves not just some sort of mental assent to a fact, but it means acknowledging his authority to direct us, as Colossians 3:17 says, in all that we say and do.

So when someone says, well, I believe in Jesus, are you listening to him?

Is he the vine and you're one of the branches?

That's an argument that sometimes people make.

Members of all churches believe in Jesus, or sometimes people say, well, you're, you're expecting all of us to agree on the Bible, but all men are never going to agree on the Bible.

I'll go a step further and I will say, all men will never agree on anything.

It wouldn't even have to be related to religion.

You pick your subject, and you'll find people who disagree about things.

But God's truth is not determined.

By a majority of people agreeing to it.

It's determined.

By the Holy Spirit inspiring men who wrote that truth down, and we have that in our Bibles.

And so it really doesn't make any difference.

How many people agree that the New Testament is true or how many people can recognize the pattern of the New Testament, although I think it's relatively easy if you're not prejudiced against the pattern.

The pattern remains the same.

The truth is this is the truth regardless of how many of us accept it or don't.

And then one that I've heard more than some of these others is I can't believe that God is worried about such details as whether or not we use instrumental music and worship.

And my answer to that is, how do you know what God is worried about, or what concerns God, or what God says is important?

How would you know that?

Apart from consulting the Word of God, His will for us.

And when I go into the Old Testament and even into the New Testament, I see that God at times punished people for what seemed like innocuous movements or changes to what his instructions were.

And what that says to me is that God is very concerned.

That I not say, well, I know what God says, but I'm going to do this.

Instead, I understand that God expects me to follow His will.

As he has given it to us.

God is going to root up every plant which he's not planted.

And Jesus planted, built, established only one church.

So, what does that say about every religious group that doesn't meet the identifying marks or characteristics that we've looked at in the previous uh few minutes?

It means that they're not the Lord's Church.

Any more than a Tesla is not a Model T. Because they have different characteristics.

And so all those plants, all those groups that are not following the pattern that you find for the Lord's Church, What does Jesus say?

So they're going to be rooted up.

The main characteristic.

Of denominations is frankly division.

Jesus in his prayer of John 17.

prayed to the Father, his will, his wish that all the disciples, his disciples would be one.

But the distinguishing characteristic of our religious landscape.

His division It's division into all kinds of different groups, all doing their own thing, having it their own way.

But what God expects from us.

is to do it his way, to follow his pattern.

Even in the first century, there were people who were dividing from one another.

First Corinthians chapter one, Paul rebukes the Corinthians because some of the Corinthians were calling themselves after Paul, some after Cephas, some after Apollo.

And Paul's comment is, Paul wasn't crucified for you.

He didn't die for you on the cross.

What should you call yourself?

Well, the disciples were called Christians, as we're told in Acts 11.

The denominations divide.

People by distinguishing names that come from The people who established the church or some particular organization of the church or their doctrine.

And they make man-made creeds that distinguish one from the other, organizational structures that distinguish one from the other.

Division is the main characteristic of denominationalism.

I like to hunt.

Not particularly good at it.

Part of the reason is I have some eye things.

That make it difficult for me to use a scope.

So I think the best thing for me to do.

It is just when I go to sight my rifle in, I'm just going to shoot.

And wherever that bullet hits, I'm gonna run out there and I'm going to draw a target around that bullet hole.

And I'll tell you what, it won't be any time at all.

I'll be considered a sharpshooter.

Because I always hit the middle of the target.

He says, well, that's crazy.

You can't do that.

That's right.

That wouldn't be of much value, would it?

And yet, isn't that what people are doing when they say, well, you know what, I'm gonna find a church that suits me.

Rather than trying to follow the pattern that the Lord gave, I'm going to go someplace that makes me feel good or satisfies me, and I'll just draw the pattern, so to speak, divine approval around that particular group.

See, I'm right on the target, right on the money.

But choosing the church that fits me is backward.

Instead, I need to change myself so that I fit with the Lord's people as described in the New Testament.

I'm going to say something that may Perhaps Tread on some folks' toes.

But I think some Christians have the same problem.

That they want things their way.

Well, I'm going to move my membership to a group that better fits my way of thinking.

Or someone says, I'm going to attend the congregation where they're not so picky about my lifestyle.

Now, I freely admit there are probably situations where one would need to find another congregation to worship with.

Congregations sometimes get away from the pattern.

And if you can't bring people back to the pattern, then you need to find a group that is following the pattern.

But if a congregation is following the pattern, Then maybe the problem is not the congregation.

Maybe the problem is me.

Maybe I need to be changing to fit the pattern, rather than trying to find a congregation that suits me.

Because a lot of times what that means is somebody's rebuked me or I'm not fitting in with what this church teaches and so I'm gonna go find some other congregation.

That will suit me better.

The Bible speaks of only one universal church.

Jesus said, I'll establish my church, and the scriptures clearly identify that church.

They give such identifiable characteristics as name and worship, organization, Doctrine, etc.

And Jesus is the savior.

of his church.

You want to be a part of that church, the church that's described in the New Testament.

He's going to be the savior of his church.

All other religious groups are going to be rooted up.

Now when it comes to seeking salvation, Forgiveness of sins, nothing changes.

A lot of people want to have it their way.

But the truth is, all of us have to submit to and respect Christ's authority, as it's been expressed in the New Testament.

Jesus told his apostles, he who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned.

You and I don't have a right to change that.

That's the Lord's entrance requirement.

And those that did that on the day of Pentecost, the text says they were added to the rest of the disciples, added to the church.

This isn't Burger King, can have it your own way.

If you want salvation, if you want forgiveness of sins, you have to follow the Lord's way.

You have to follow His teaching, his pattern.

And if that's your desire this morning, if we can assist you in becoming a part of the one true church.

And to enjoy forgiveness of sins, then we want to encourage you to do that this morning as you have opportunity, and we encourage you as we stand and sin.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun PM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Ethan Adams