“WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT”
ISAIAH 57
In Isaiah 55:1, God gives an invitation to “every one that thirsteth,” to come and drink from the waters of eternal life. He invites every one to be filled with glorious joy and great strength, and it is all free.
In Isaiah 55:7, God gives an invitation to the wicked to repent and “return unto the Lord.” He promises to graciously show mercy.
In Isaiah 56:1, God gives an invitation to His children to study His word, so with the Savior appeared, they would recognize Him.
But, sadly, they did not study and when Jesus Christ came into the world, they did not recognize Him.
The rest of Isaiah 56 tells us, because Jesus was forsaken, God’s House of worship was forfeited and God’s day of worship was forgotten.
In Isaiah 56:9-12, he reveals that the watchman, who represented the politicians, priests and the prophets of Israel, no longer could see right from wrong. Isaiah compared them to dumb dogs. He said they were blind and ignorant. Rather than giving their life to the things of God, they mainly lived for pleasure and prosperity.
Within 100 years, Judah was taken captive by Babylon and over the next few hundred years the nation of Israel was scattered across the earth.
When Jesus came, He prophesied that Israel would once again be a nation, though many doubted that would or could ever happen. Over 1900 years later it did happen. In 1948
Israel became a nation again.
What happened to Israel over 2,000 years ago has happened to Christian America over the past 200 years later.
The Biblical principles of God’s Word which once governed our homes, our hearts and our homeland are no longer used as the measuring stick by which most Americans and Christians live.
God’s Word is no longer used to form policies in our government and sadly, it is no longer used in forming policies in most churches and homes.
Isaiah 56 introduced us to the Place of Prayer.
Isaiah 57 will introduce us to the Place of Peace.
Isaiah 58 will introduce us to the Place of Power.
Having said all of this, we can now look at Isaiah 57 and understand that Isaiah is speaking of what will mainly transpire in the Last Days, though evidence of this is everywhere today.
I – THE WAYWARD MAN
1 – The Righteous (v 1a)
57:1, The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Because of the waywardness of man’s heart, nations forget God, and reject the righteous man. Why are those who stand for righteousness rejected? Jesus said, “Men loved darkness more then light…” Why? Jesus said because, “…their deeds are evil” (John 3:19).
Jesus was “the light of the world.” He said to those who follow Him, “Ye are the light of the world.”
Without light, rain won’t fall and the water cycle of life will stop. Without light, crops won’t grow and the food chain will die. Without light, men will stumble and sin prevails. In time, everything in darkness dies.
Growing up on a farm, I saw this truth quite often. When I picked up a board or a bucket that had been laying in the field for a short time, the grass underneath it was dead. Oh, it rained, the ground was moist, but the grass was dead, for it received no light.
Sadly, what Isaiah says in verse one this: In the last days, as the men who stand for righteousness slowly die and move off the scene, few will take there place and nobody will really care.
a. A note on the Politicians: There was a day when we had statesmen, like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and others like them in government, who based their lives and beliefs on God’s Holy Word.
Today, we have politicians, who can be bought for a few dollars. We have politicians who totally reject the light of truth and righteousness. They have removed the Christian pillars that this nation once stood on and have placed this nation on sinking sand.
b. A note on the Preachers: There was a day, when preachers in America were righteous. It did not matter if a preacher was a Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian, the preachers preached the whole Bible as the inspired Word of God.
One of the greatest evangelists in America was Charles Finney. He was Presbyterian, but He had the powerful touch of God on Him. Great revivals were stirred across America by his uncompromising preaching.
There was Bob Jones I. He was Methodist. He had preached to over 15 million people before he was 40 years old.
Then there was the famous, Billy Sunday. Baseball player converted to God. He was a Baptist. He preached to 40 million people and preached the same truth that Finney and Jones preached, and I quote, “Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do. Unless you have made a complete surrender and are doing his will it will avail you nothing. If you have reformed a thousand times and have your name on fifty church records it is to no avail.”
Sadly, today, too many preachers are like those Isaiah described in Isaiah 56:9-12. They preached a social gospel; they were concerned with the environment and the poor and the cold, but ceased preaching salvation and repentance.
Today it is the same. Many preachers are afraid to preach the whole Bible. They won’t bark at sin and the world is becoming darker and darker. They can not see that we are living in the last days. Many Christian nations, like Scotland and England have not heeded to the cries of Isaiah’s warning and today, these nations have less than 3% that attend Church. America is on the same road.
Notice the last part of Isaiah 57:1. It hints of the Rapture.
2 – The Rapture (1b) “...none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
Because there was so few living righteously in Judah’s day, the threat of destruction was upon them. Soon Nebuchadnezzar would take them away, but nobody was concerned.
In like manner one day soon God’s children will be taken away as well, but it will be the Lord who will call us home.
How can it be that when God’s children are taken out of this world, no one will really care or take notice?
Two reasons:
1) The lost world will be glad that the Christians are gone.
2) With the increase in the Muslim population and the humanistic teachings of America’s education system and media, to have fewer children in a few years our children will awaken to be run by a Muslim world.
The demographics of the world reveal some shocking news:
There was a day when Americans families had many children. It wasn’t uncommon to have 6 and 8 children and more.
Most of us, the past two generations were told lies, like, you can’t afford to raise them, education is to costly, you won’t have any thing in life and so, most of America have quit having children. That will be a terrible tragedy for the world.
Look at these stats:
History has proven for a culture to continue, it requires a fertility rate of 2.11 children per family.
Historically a culture that dropped to 1.9 has never turned around, though it is possible, it would take 80 to 100 years to turn the culture back.
A culture that dropped to 1.3 makes it impossible to ever reverse. It will die off and another culture will take over.
With that in mind look at these stats about the fertility rate of Europe:
France = 1.8 England = 1.6 Greece = 1.3
Germany = 1.3 Italy = 1.2 Spain = 1.1
The 31 countries in Europe have a 1.38 fertility rate.
The Muslim’s fertility rate is 8.1.
30% of the children in Europe younger than 21 are Muslims.
In 39 years France will be a Muslim country.
In England the Muslim rate has grown so fast, that within 20 years it too will be a Muslim country.
By the year 2025, half of Europe’s children will be Muslim.
Gaddafi said, “We don’t need terrorist or homicide bombers. The 50 million Muslims in Europe will turn it into a Muslim country with a few decades.”
Canada has a 1.6% fertility rate from 2001-2006.
The U.S. from 2001-2006 had a 1.6 fertility rate. With the Latino immigration it was 2.11. In 1970 there were 100,000 Muslims in the U.S. Today there are 9,000,000. In 30 years there will be 50 million Muslims in the United States of America.
This is my prediction to why the world won’t care when the Christians are raptured out. With so many Muslims who want to take over and control the world, and with many governments fighting against the Muslim take over, terrorism with grow tremendously across the world.
Just as the plot on September 11, 2009 was to hit numerous cities throughout America, (it failed), a plot far greater will take place in the near future and it will succeed. Possibly 1,000’s of bombs all over the U.S. and world will take out planes, buses, trains, buildings and even cities. It may even included nuclear weapons.
Now think! If when the rapture takes place, cars crash, planes fall from the sky and chaos reigns across the world, it could easily be blamed on terrorism. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and maybe more will die, and most people wouldn’t care if all the Christians were gone, for they hated righteousness anyway.
Now, for you who know the book of Revelation and Biblical prophecy, what happens after the Church of Jesus Christ is raptured out? The first thing is the antichrist, the man of peace, will come on the scene.
Now, look at Isaiah 57:2, He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
In Revelation 6:2, the first horseman of the apocalyptic rides the white horse of peace, deceiving the world into believing everything is alright, as each person walks in his own uprightness. Note, this is not God’s righteousness but man’s prideful and arrogant way. It is an uprightness that calls evil good and good evil.
That is what people are doing today. From our President and to Supreme Court to our elected officials; liberal politicians, liberal journalist and liberal preachers are walking in their arrogant and prideful uprightness to the damnation of our country.
They believe as they continue to throw out the light of God’s Word and trample under food Godly principles and truths that they will bring peace to this world. How wrong they are.
Paul wrote in First Thessalonians 5:3-5, 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Now, after the Church is removed from this world and the devil takes over, Isaiah hints to a few frightening and amazing happenings that will transpire in this world in verses 3-12.
Understand, when the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation, he gave more indebt details. But, it is clear that Isaiah saw, in visions given to him by God, the future events of the tribulation.
3 – The Rebellion (3-12)
Isaiah is going to reveal vital truths we need to know:
A - We need to quit trying to be politically correct:
Isaiah 57:3, But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
We live in a day in America where we are told to make sure our speech is politically correct. We are told don’t say anything negative about religion or another who may not have the same life style as you.
There is a two-fold hypocrisy about this statement.
1) I find it funny, that, this is not the standard God goes by.
2) I also found out the devil crowd doesn’t live by this standard either. They tell you one thing, but do just the opposite. They can have their freedom of speech and say anything negative or racist or evil about God’s crowd, but let God’s preachers declare that abortion, homosexuality, voter fraud and sin to their attention and they cry “politically incorrect.”
Friend, God calls black, black and He calls white, white. He calls sin, sin and He calls righteousness, righteousness. God doesn’t play by Satan’s rules.
Anyone who knows prophecy knows that in the last days the religions of the world will become so corrupt that they will welcome the devil in their pulpit. God, in His righteousness calls this wicked religion, “the whore.”
Turn to Revelation 17:1-2, And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Most of you know that today, 2009, all the nations of the world have become Babylonian. They have removed God from their culture, creed and constitution.
The “One World Religion” will commit fornication with the “One World Government” in the tribulation time. They will be in bed together. Why? The light of the world was raptured out and there is now, nothing to stop the wickedness of man.
The only thing that prevents this world from erupting into greater sin is the light of the righteous.
B - We need to know that the media in America hates Jesus Christ. 4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Let me say sadly, this was the heart of Israel when Isaiah preached.
Today, in rebellion, the world, through the media and politics and education has lifted up their voices against God, Christianity and righteousness.
Most people have been brained washed by the media. They tell you to be politically correct. They tell you drugs, drunkenness, sex outside the bonds of marriage is OK and at the same time they mock anything righteous and Christian.
I’ll let you in on a small detail of the Nazi annihilation of six million Jews and eight million Gentiles. Most of the preachers in Germany tried to be politically correct to the demise of their country.
I’ll tell you another secret. When God calls for a nation to repent, His preachers, preached to those who were suppose to know God, not the lost.
To preachers who are blind and ignorant, who won’t preach against sin or stand for righteousness I say, “You are doing a great disfavor to the Holy God I serve.” You are destroying the next generation by only preaching half the Bible. Preachers like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, who speak against sin, they are destroying Christianity. They have accepted the political correct agenda, to the death of Christianity.
It is entertaining for the media, talk show host and comedians to mock and make fun of Christians, whether they have fallen or whether they do right. For example, look at how the media and the liberals used their wide mouth and evil tongues to maliciously attempt to destroy the Christian and moral life of Sarah Palin, in the last election.
C – We must know that most worship in America is a false worship. Isaiah 57:5-7 - 5 Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
We would think Isaiah was writing today about sins of America and the world as he describes man’s silly worship of idols and the killing of the unborn, yet there are religious denominations that tell their pastors not to preach on controversial issues like abortion.
In verse five, the taking of the children’s lives were done in secret. How hideous it was. But far worse, today, the taking of the unborn has been justified by the Supreme Court of the United States and is not inn public medical centers, doctor’s offices and hospitals.
How evil the minds of men have become, and yet many churches will never cry from their pulpits that abortion is murder.
In verse six, those guilty of such crime, go back to worship God as if they have done nothing wrong…
6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Do you see what they are doing? They are giving to God worship.
God in amazement says, “Should I receive comfort in these?” God says, “You mock my word, you mock my principles, you maliciously destroy my people, you kill the innocent and you go to worship me and you think I am going to accept your worship?” How blinded man has become.
God mocks man in verse 7 by revealing his proud and haughty heart.
7 Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
Isaiah 57:7 reveals that in the last days, man in his pride will live in all types of sin, yet will continue to go through the act of worship, thinking he is OK. How can man do this? He doesn’t know the Word of God.
D – As true preaches continue to preach truth, many will leave that church and look for a church where they can live in drunkenness, adultery, and all types of sin and feel comfortable.
8 Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered (revealed) thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
Isaiah says to those who should have been God’s people, you left me. You crawled in bed with them. You love their bed not my bed.
God’s intimate bed is one of worship and holiness, righteousness and truth. The bed of false worship brings the world into it. Anything goes and everything is OK in this bed. In this bed man can live as he pleases and do whatever his heart desires. But judgment day is coming. (v 9)
E – Isaiah tells us in the Last Days, the thinking of the political and religious system will be one and the same.
9 “And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes…” but sadly the outcome for both will be hell. Look at the rest of verse 9. “…and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.”
10 Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.
Though the wicked, acts as if he is enjoying the evil of this life, in the Last Days, he will realizes he has gone to far and now there is “no hope.”
But, the wicked are so full of pride and self, they won’t even care.
F – Isaiah reveals the great sin of Israel and the world.
11 And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?
12 I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
God’s people did not fear God. They lived by their own righteousness standard. One day, the books will be opened. There will be no profit, no spiritual gain, only lost. Man will lose his life and soul for eternity.
II – THE WISE MAN
During the last days, there will be many that will still preach truth. Even in the dark days of the Tribulation when people will be tossed about with every wind and doctrine, God will ordain 144,000 to preach truth.
Notice two things about the wise man:
A – His Choice: In the last days the cry of the religious world is change, change, change.
13 When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
Back in 1963 Bob Dylan wrote the song, “Blowing in the Wind.” It was a song of rebellion against the America culture, against the government, against the war. It was about leaving the old principles of truth and making changes. Over the past forty years there have been many changes in America but sadly, most of them have not been for our good.
God’s principles don’t blow in the wind. They have always been true. For the man who places his trust in the Lord, God will give to him a home in heaven for all eternity.
The wise man will stand for truth and the Bible declares that God does not change.
B – His Concern – The wise man’s concern is to lift up Christ.
He cries as Isaiah did in verse 14, And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.
This verse is saying to exalt Jesus Christ. It is saying to all of Israel and all the world who looked upon Jesus as a stumbling block to open their eyes and realizes He is not the stumbling block but the solid rock. He is the corner stone to eternal life. He is the corner stone to our church, our homes and our hearts.
III – THE WORSHIPFUL GOD
Look at verse 15: 15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
a. Contrite Heart: To worship God He wants us to come with a contrite heart. That means to have a repentant and humble heart.
The key to getting out of trouble, to having our burdens lifted and to finding victory is to have a contrite heart.
Then God promises to lift us up on high with Him. The wise man will have a contrite heart and will exalt the high and lofty One, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
b. Comfort - 18-19:
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.
These verses reveal that those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and worship the Lord will find comfort or peace in their soul.
God wants to and desires to show mercy and compassion and forgiveness upon His rebellious people and upon a rebellious nation. God wants man to know His comfort and peace.
The man that comes to the Lord in repentance and faith will have peace.
One person said this about peace: “To have peace, find something bigger than yourself to believe in.”
Another fact says, “Self-centered egotistical people score lowest in any test for measuring happiness.”
“Peace is not in something you can hold or touch or see. It is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ that transcends anything in life.”
In 1555, Nicholas Ridley was a Bishop of the Roman Church and spoke with great anger against the Protestants and stood for the infallibility of the Pope.
But, like Saul, Ridley had a supernatural conversion. He then saw the fallacy of religion and lived his life to preach Jesus Christ as the way to heaven.
He was arrested for his witness for Christ and put in prison to away his death by being burned at the stake. On the night before Ridley’s execution, his brother offered to remain with him in the prison chamber to be of assistance and comfort.
Nicholas declined the offer of his brother and told him, “I mean to go to bed and sleep peacefully, because I know the peace of God, I can rest in the strength of the everlasting arms of the Lord!
Isaiah ends on a negative note. He speaks of the wicked man.
IV – THE WICKED MAN
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
The wicked man is both restless and regretful.
Look in verse 2. There we see a false peace. In this verse a man who has his health and wealth walks in his own integrity and not the Lords.
Look in verse 19 we find true peace. God offers rest and comfort to any one who places their trust in Jesus Christ.
Lastly, in verse 21, the prophet cries, “No peace… to the wicked.”
An old book entitled, “Voices from the Edge of Eternity” by John Miles contains death bed accounts of many who saw into eternity moments before they died.
One account was of an unbeliever. A preacher friend (Rev. C.A. Balch) who had invited him to church and tried to share Christ with him, went to sit with this man in his dying days.
On one occasion the man said, “Warn the world not to live as I have lived and escape my woe.”
Another time when visited by the doctor, the man was groaning and writhing in agony. The doctor said to the man, “Why do you groan so, your disease is not painful?” The man replied it is not my body but my soul that troubles me.”
On the evening of the man’s death, the preacher entered the room. He said there was an awful presence in the room as if we were near the region of the damned.
The dying man cried out, “Oh, God! Deliver me from this awful pit!” The man was not penitent. His word were simply the wailing of a lost soul.
About 11:45 PM, the man cried, “I am in the flames, pull me out, pull me out!” He kept repeating this again and again, as his words became more faint.
At about midnight, the preacher sat next to the man and lean over to hear his dying words. They were, “Pull me out! Pull me out!”
The preacher said, “That experience made such an impression on me, that I will never forget, nor do I wish to ever witness such a sight again.”
The preacher said, “Till this day, I remember those last terrible words, “I am in the flames, pull me out, pull me out.”
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Abraham
ABRAHAM
Isaiah 64:8, But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
The word “father” is used 979 times in the King James Bible. The phrase “our father” is used 52 times. Here is what is very interesting. Only two people in the Old Testament recognized God as “our Father.” King David, for he knew the grace of God and Isaiah. Isaiah was writing down the vision of what would be. At this time in history when Isaiah wrote, Israel was a clay full of rocks. They were neither useable nor pliable. Yet one day, Isaiah knew this would be their attitude.
Go back in time from Isaiah’s day, all the way back to the Flood. After the Flood that took the lives of all the people on the face of the earth but eight, God told Noah to set up a government that was just and one based on His Word.
In just a few generations, the descendants of those who vowed not to ever forget God, forgot God. The stories that were told about Adam and Enoch and Noah were replaced with people seeking signs.
Families began to settle in the fertile valleys by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. A great city was built and a government built known as Babylon.
Nimrod and most of the world sought to build a life without God’s interference.
Then a tower was erected by Nimrod, hoping to reach as high into the heavens as possible, to worship the moon god and other man-made gods. This angered God and He came down and confounded the languages of the people and scattered the people across the face of the earth.
As the people scattered across the earth, many of these moon worshippers traveled south and settled in a Babylonian town named Ur.
THE POTTERY IN SEAGROVE
Keep this story in mind as we move from this event that happened 4,000 years ago to today, to a small town, south of where we, a town called Seagrove, NC. It is known mainly for its pottery. Beautiful works of pottery are on display for all the world to see, and people come from all over to look at and purchase this beautiful pottery.
However, before the pottery can be admired or purchased, the potter must do his work.
1 - The potter first discovers the clay.
He locates a field that will yield the type of clay he can use to produce beautiful earthen vessels. When he finds this field, he purchases it.
2 - The potter then detaches the clay.
The potter removes a piece here and there to make the size of vessel he intends to make. Some vessels are very small and some are very large. The size is up to the potter.
3 - The potter then develops the clay.
The potter squeezes the lump between his fingers and pounds it with his fist in order to soften the clay and make it pliable.
If he detects any impurities, he will remove them or else, the impurities will spoil the finish product.
He then places the clay on the center of his wheel. The wheel is just a flat circular surface with a spindled attached to another wheel. The potter turns the lower wheel with his feet, causing the upper wheel to turn the clay.
As the clay spins the potter moistens his hands and begins to apply pressure to the lump of clay. The clay slowly begins to take shape.
The potter moistens his hands again and again and uses his thumb and fingers to put pressure on the clay so he might make it for his likening.
When the vase is ready, the potter then places it in a oven and turn up the heat. The vase remains in the oven for hours as the potter watches the temperature with an eagle eye.
When the potter sees that the vase is finished, he removes the vessel and shows others his work of grace.
4 – Then, the potter displays the vase. He puts it in public view for all to see. The vase brings glory to the work of the potter.
This process is picture in the life of a man, a moon worshipper, who lived in the fertile crescent valley of the Babylonian Empire, in a town called, Ur. His name was Abraham.
I – GOD DISCOVERED HIS MAN
Genesis 12:1 4 1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
God knows all about us before He ever called us. There is nothing he does not know. He knows our hearts. He knows our hurts. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and He wants to give us all the help we need.
God knew Abraham was a moon worshipper. Abraham was an idolatrous pagan. Though his ancestry could be traced back to Adam, Seth, Noah and Shem, Abraham and Abraham’s family somewhere along the line forgot God…, but God didn’t forget them.
God took the initiative to reach Abraham. Out of the depths of God’s great heart of love, God spoke to the depths of Abraham’s empty, religious heart.
Three ways God reveals Himself to man today:
1 – In heaven? Ps 19:1The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Seeing creation will makes any man know there is a God. (Romans 1:20)
2 – In hearts: Romans 2:14-15 reveals the commandments of God are written in man’s heart. But that is not enough for salvation.
3 – In hearing: “Romans 10:17 reads, So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
ABRAHAM accepted the invitation of God. Hebrews 11: 8-9 reads, “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
One day Abraham was walking in a Babylonian world, worshipping the god of his ancestors, the next day, Abraham was on a journey looking for the city of God.
Abraham searched all his life but never found that city. He did not find it in Babylon. He did not find it in the Jordan valley, nor along the banks of the Nile River.
He discover that the city, which has foundations built by God, is located somewhere beyond the confines of space and in another time dimension.
It is awaiting the day when the Lord shall return for His own. It will be revealed to everyone who dwells on the earth in the Millennium, and shall be inhabited by all who placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
Though many think Abraham was looking for an earthly city and maybe for a long time in his life, he was, one day it dawned on Abraham, the city of God that God has placed in my heart is not earthly. It is heavenly. It was eternal!
It is city where the streets are paved with gold and walls are made of jasper and the gates are created out of beautiful pearls.
A crystal stream of beautiful flowing water reflecting the colors of the foundation and the golden walls of the city run through the center of that massive city.
Strangely, it will have no moon or sun, for the light of that city will come from the presence of Jesus Christ.
Massive bright shining angels are the cities ministers and the saints of God are the cities citizens.
The glorious King who was once crowned with thorns is now crowned with glory.
He shall rule the galactic empires whose vastness is beyond all human comprehension.
I am glad, God discovered me. I am glad he came to where I was, so I might go to where He is. Praise His name.
II – GOD DETACHES HIS MAN
When God speaks to us, He demands that we exercise our faith. The evidence of faith is obedience. Obedience proves that our belief is genuine.
Saving faith is seen, when a person obeys God’s spirit. God’s spirit says to repent and commit your life to Jesus Christ.
Living faith is different. It says you are now a pilgrim and a stranger in this world. Living faith says, “This world is no longer your home. You are not to live like you once lived. You are not to go where you use to go. You are different now. You are heading in a different direction.”
The call of salvation is always followed by the call of separation.
In Genesis, God divided the light from the darkness.
He separated the line of Seth from the line of Cain.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Picture this scenario: One bright sunny morning Abraham walks into the First National Bank of Babylon.
Whenever a man as important and wealthy as Abraham walked into a bank, the staff would roll out the red carpet.
The manger quickly invites Mr. Abraham into his private office to talk. “Well, Mr. Abraham, have you come to deposit more gold today.”
Abraham: “No sir, I have come to close out my account. I will take it all in cash, gold bars or gold coins.”
The bank manger faints back in his chair. His heart begins to race, sweat breaks out all over his body as his hands clutches his polished oak desk. “Close your account?” he whispers, “Mr. Abraham, why? What have we done to displease you?”
Abraham speaks: “Nothing, I am selling out and leaving town.”
Banker: “Well, can we just transfer your account to another one of our banks? We have banks all over Babylonia.”
Abraham: “No, thank you, I’m leaving the country. I’m going abroad.”
“Oh, that is no problem. We can transfer your accounts to one of our affiliated world banks.” The bank manger says hopefully.
Abraham: “No, thank you. I’ll just take it in cash. Here are ten goatskin bags. I have ten camels outside. Just load the bags down with the gold and my men will load the camels.”
Banker: “But, where are you going, Mr. Abraham?”
Abraham: “I haven’t the faintest idea!”
Banker: “I beg your pardon?”
Abraham: “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Banker: “You haven’t any idea? You are leaving town, closing your account and going abroad and you don’t know where you are going?”
Abraham: “That’s right, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my money in cash… No, Mr. manager, I am not crazy.
You see, the other day the God who created the universe and hung the stars in space and gave life to this world spoke to me, and told me to leave my country and go to another one.
I think He was talking about heaven, because He spoke of a city of which, He was the builder and maker.”
“Now, I don’t have any idea where it is. All I know is that, it isn’t here. And for me to get to God’s city, I have to obey God and walk by faith.
I shall be a pilgrim and a stranger the rest of my life. So, if you don’t mind, I will take my money in cash.”
Thus Abraham put feet to his faith. He became a pilgrim and a stranger as far as the world was concerned.
As a stranger, Abraham was away from home; as a pilgrim, he was going home.
So, he could say: “This world is not my home, I’m just passing thru, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.”
III – GOD DEVELOPS HIS MAN
Every day and every minute of our life God in His mercy is developing us.
Abraham enjoyed mountaintop experiences and sometimes he walked through some dark lonesome valleys.
Sometimes he savored victory and others he tasted defeat.
Whether he experienced sunshine or shadow, glorious faith or miserable doubt, Abraham’s story reveals how God mellowed him and matured him.
Look at five aspect of how God develops Abraham:
1 – Blessings:
A. His walk: In Genesis 12:2 God says “I will bless thee.” The idea in the Hebrew is God will make Abraham a very happy man.
But, wait, Abraham left family and friends, and the world he knew for 75 years, to travel the desserts of this world searching for a city he never found. How can that make a man happy?
This world won’t make you happy friend. Abraham learned to live for the eternal, not the temporal.
And if you are to find true happiness, you have to climb the mountain of faith and live for the eternal. Then come what may, you can sing the little Junior Church song, “I found happiness, I found peace of mind, I found the joy of living, perfect love divine.”
B. His Worship:
In Genesis 12:8, Abraham built an altar at Bethel. Bethel means the “house of God.” Here Abraham worshipped God.
Then Abraham discovered two things. There was a famine in the land and there was a foe in the land.
Abraham thought it would be easy. He did not expect to encounter these problems, but God was teaching Abraham this: In the same place where people find their blessings, there are battles.
Two simple examples are these: 1) In your family there are blessings, but there are also battles. Example: Last year my sister had a son get married. He was 21. There was great joy in the family. Today, another son, 24 is dying of pancreatitis.
2) The spiritual life is filled with blessings, but there are also many battles. You robe shoulders with Christians that encourage you and you rub shoulders with some that discourage you. They key is to keep your eye on Christ. Live for the eternal.
2 – Betrayal: Suddenly Egypt looked attractive to this disillusioned pilgrim. When “Worship life” was not all Abraham thought it would be, he headed to Egypt. It wasn’t Babylon after all. No! But it was too much like Babylon. It was still the world. The holy God of creation was still left out.
Lies accompanied Abraham’s reasoning for visiting Egypt (world). There, in Egypt, Abraham lost his testimony. Rather then being a witness and a blessing to Pharaoh, he became a curse.
Abraham paraded his wife as his sister which almost cost Pharaoh his life. When Abraham and Sarah left town, Pharaoh might have said, “If this is an example of a believer, I hope I never meet another.”
3 – Barrenness: God had promised Abraham a seed. Folks, when God promises something, by faith, He will deliver. But, when years passed in Abraham’s life, with no prospect of a son and Sarah was getting older, Abraham resorted to a worldly means of having a child.
He went into Sarah’s Egyptian handmaid, Hagar. She bares a son and as a result, we find that God did not speak to Abraham for 13 years. (13 being the number of rebellion)
Abraham had to learn that the answer to barrenness is not to be found in worldly methods. When barrenness comes to a church, three direction may be taken: 1) Some Churches bring in the world to attract the world. 2) Some do nothing and they die. 3) Some, pray, seek the Lord, draw near to God, clean up their lives and in time God visits them. Those that do not seek the Lord and repent, God in time writes Ichabod over its door.
Barrenness in the church is part of spiritual growth. It is to tell a people to pray more and worship deeper. It is not a time to use the world’s methods to draw a crowd.
4 – Brethren: Abraham had a nephew named Lot. Lot was called righteous Lot. But, he was a worldly believer. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it was so. Lot sets his eyes on Sodom. He thought he could go there and be a witness.
But, in order to pull a people out of the world, you have to get out of it first. You cannot lift a barrel if you are standing in it and Lot was standing in Sodom.
Even after Lot was taken into deeper captivity and Abraham delivered Lot, Lot still stayed in Sodom, thinking, I can make a difference. He didn’t. He did not influence the world by being in the world. Just the opposite happened, the world influenced his family and took their lives. Lot lost his family. He lost his wife. He lost his testimony and he lost everything he had.
Christian, we are living in a time where a lot of our brethren are justifying living in the world. It isn’t right. In the long run, they will lose greatly. I admonish you by the example of Abraham, walk after God. You are a pilgrim! Set your sights on glory!
5 – Backsliding: After Abraham’s disastrous experience in Egypt, he must have said, I will never do that again. I’ve learned my lesson. But, he did it again when he met Abimelech, king of the Philistines (Gen 20). Abraham told the same old lie and God came to Abimelech and said, “You are a dead man if you touch Abraham’s wife.”
Christian, learn a truth. Though our spirit is saved by grace, our “heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” The reason I beg you to read the Bible, be faithful to church and don’t let the sun go down on your wrath is, within your heart and mine, is a volcano that can erupt at any time.
In life you are going to deal with blessings, betrayal, barrenness, brethren and backsliding. You are going to make friends and you are going to make enemies. That is life!
When you look at Abraham’s life, one thing is said about him that is said of few people. Abraham was the “Friend of God” (James 2:23).
God has few friends but millions of servants. Among the servants are shining seraphims, chanting cherubims, angels and archangels without number, who hang on God’s every word, and rush to do His bidding.
God has many children as well. Every blood-bought child of Adam’s ruined race has been ransomed and is a child of God.
But, it is possible to be a child and still not have a friend.
A child can be rebellious and wayward, riding roughshod over everything his parents hold dear.
But, when that child gets saved, the first thing he wants to do is make things right with mom and dad, then the church. He wants to re-establish spiritual friendships.
God wants friends. He does not have many friends on earth, but Abraham was one of those rare individuals. “But,” you say, “Abraham made mistakes.” Yes, he did. Abraham made some big mistakes, but the key was Abraham sought to do the will of God.
Jesus gave us a key verse in showing our friendship to God. He said in John 15: 14, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
But, how do we know that Abraham was God’s friend. What was it that really proved his friendship? That question takes us to the last thought.
IV – GOD DISPLAYS HIS MAN
God put his man on display. One day God ask Abraham for the best he had. God ask Abraham to give to Him, the love of his life and Abraham gave it to God.
Abraham took his son and laid him on an altar, as a burnt sacrifice for God. Are you God’s friend? Will lay your “all” on His altar?
When we think of Calvary we often think of the sacrifice and love of the Son of God, but we only see half the picture.
In Genesis 22, we see the sacrificial heart the Father, himself in the life of Abraham.
As Isaac was the love of Abraham’s heart, Jesus was the love of the Father’s heart.
As Isaac was the apple of Abraham’s eye, Jesus was the apple of God’s eye.
The Father journeyed with the Son all the way to Calvary. Whose heart do you think was pierced the most on Moriah, when Abraham raised that knife in the air, Isaac’s or Abraham’s? I believe it was Abraham’s.
Oh, the anguish, the pain, he must have felt, to take the innocent life of his son who had done no wrong. But, wait! The angel of the Lord stayed the hand of Abraham. A ram was caught in the thicket. The ram took the place of Isaac and Isaac went free. Praise the Lord!
But, 2,000 years ago when God walked with His Son, Jesus, to Calvary, there was no ram caught in the thicket. This was the real deal. This was the fulfillment of the shadow. This was where the rubber truly met the road.
God watched as wicked men raised their piercing instruments in the air and pierced the body of his precious son, again and again and again. How the heart of God was have bled with tears.
God put Abraham on display when Abraham went atop Mount Moriah to offer his son.
God put His heart on display when He walk upon Golgotha with His Son and watched Him die.
Today, God puts us on display for our children, family, neighbors and friends to watch.
God discovered us, He detached us, and He developed us, so He might display us.
According to Ephesians 2:4-7; God is looking for some pliable clay, that He might detach from this world and mold and make it, into something beautiful.
He wants us to be a vessel for His glory. He wants us to shine for Him and He wants us to be filled with His love and His life.
Will we be pliable in the master’s hand?
Like Abraham, God call upon to surrender all.
Judson Venter, wrote: (Page 394)
“All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow:
Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender, Make me Savior wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit – Truly know that Thou are mine.
All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessings fall on me.
Chorus: I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Isaiah 64:8, But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
The word “father” is used 979 times in the King James Bible. The phrase “our father” is used 52 times. Here is what is very interesting. Only two people in the Old Testament recognized God as “our Father.” King David, for he knew the grace of God and Isaiah. Isaiah was writing down the vision of what would be. At this time in history when Isaiah wrote, Israel was a clay full of rocks. They were neither useable nor pliable. Yet one day, Isaiah knew this would be their attitude.
Go back in time from Isaiah’s day, all the way back to the Flood. After the Flood that took the lives of all the people on the face of the earth but eight, God told Noah to set up a government that was just and one based on His Word.
In just a few generations, the descendants of those who vowed not to ever forget God, forgot God. The stories that were told about Adam and Enoch and Noah were replaced with people seeking signs.
Families began to settle in the fertile valleys by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. A great city was built and a government built known as Babylon.
Nimrod and most of the world sought to build a life without God’s interference.
Then a tower was erected by Nimrod, hoping to reach as high into the heavens as possible, to worship the moon god and other man-made gods. This angered God and He came down and confounded the languages of the people and scattered the people across the face of the earth.
As the people scattered across the earth, many of these moon worshippers traveled south and settled in a Babylonian town named Ur.
THE POTTERY IN SEAGROVE
Keep this story in mind as we move from this event that happened 4,000 years ago to today, to a small town, south of where we, a town called Seagrove, NC. It is known mainly for its pottery. Beautiful works of pottery are on display for all the world to see, and people come from all over to look at and purchase this beautiful pottery.
However, before the pottery can be admired or purchased, the potter must do his work.
1 - The potter first discovers the clay.
He locates a field that will yield the type of clay he can use to produce beautiful earthen vessels. When he finds this field, he purchases it.
2 - The potter then detaches the clay.
The potter removes a piece here and there to make the size of vessel he intends to make. Some vessels are very small and some are very large. The size is up to the potter.
3 - The potter then develops the clay.
The potter squeezes the lump between his fingers and pounds it with his fist in order to soften the clay and make it pliable.
If he detects any impurities, he will remove them or else, the impurities will spoil the finish product.
He then places the clay on the center of his wheel. The wheel is just a flat circular surface with a spindled attached to another wheel. The potter turns the lower wheel with his feet, causing the upper wheel to turn the clay.
As the clay spins the potter moistens his hands and begins to apply pressure to the lump of clay. The clay slowly begins to take shape.
The potter moistens his hands again and again and uses his thumb and fingers to put pressure on the clay so he might make it for his likening.
When the vase is ready, the potter then places it in a oven and turn up the heat. The vase remains in the oven for hours as the potter watches the temperature with an eagle eye.
When the potter sees that the vase is finished, he removes the vessel and shows others his work of grace.
4 – Then, the potter displays the vase. He puts it in public view for all to see. The vase brings glory to the work of the potter.
This process is picture in the life of a man, a moon worshipper, who lived in the fertile crescent valley of the Babylonian Empire, in a town called, Ur. His name was Abraham.
I – GOD DISCOVERED HIS MAN
Genesis 12:1 4 1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
God knows all about us before He ever called us. There is nothing he does not know. He knows our hearts. He knows our hurts. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and He wants to give us all the help we need.
God knew Abraham was a moon worshipper. Abraham was an idolatrous pagan. Though his ancestry could be traced back to Adam, Seth, Noah and Shem, Abraham and Abraham’s family somewhere along the line forgot God…, but God didn’t forget them.
God took the initiative to reach Abraham. Out of the depths of God’s great heart of love, God spoke to the depths of Abraham’s empty, religious heart.
Three ways God reveals Himself to man today:
1 – In heaven? Ps 19:1The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Seeing creation will makes any man know there is a God. (Romans 1:20)
2 – In hearts: Romans 2:14-15 reveals the commandments of God are written in man’s heart. But that is not enough for salvation.
3 – In hearing: “Romans 10:17 reads, So then, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
ABRAHAM accepted the invitation of God. Hebrews 11: 8-9 reads, “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
One day Abraham was walking in a Babylonian world, worshipping the god of his ancestors, the next day, Abraham was on a journey looking for the city of God.
Abraham searched all his life but never found that city. He did not find it in Babylon. He did not find it in the Jordan valley, nor along the banks of the Nile River.
He discover that the city, which has foundations built by God, is located somewhere beyond the confines of space and in another time dimension.
It is awaiting the day when the Lord shall return for His own. It will be revealed to everyone who dwells on the earth in the Millennium, and shall be inhabited by all who placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
Though many think Abraham was looking for an earthly city and maybe for a long time in his life, he was, one day it dawned on Abraham, the city of God that God has placed in my heart is not earthly. It is heavenly. It was eternal!
It is city where the streets are paved with gold and walls are made of jasper and the gates are created out of beautiful pearls.
A crystal stream of beautiful flowing water reflecting the colors of the foundation and the golden walls of the city run through the center of that massive city.
Strangely, it will have no moon or sun, for the light of that city will come from the presence of Jesus Christ.
Massive bright shining angels are the cities ministers and the saints of God are the cities citizens.
The glorious King who was once crowned with thorns is now crowned with glory.
He shall rule the galactic empires whose vastness is beyond all human comprehension.
I am glad, God discovered me. I am glad he came to where I was, so I might go to where He is. Praise His name.
II – GOD DETACHES HIS MAN
When God speaks to us, He demands that we exercise our faith. The evidence of faith is obedience. Obedience proves that our belief is genuine.
Saving faith is seen, when a person obeys God’s spirit. God’s spirit says to repent and commit your life to Jesus Christ.
Living faith is different. It says you are now a pilgrim and a stranger in this world. Living faith says, “This world is no longer your home. You are not to live like you once lived. You are not to go where you use to go. You are different now. You are heading in a different direction.”
The call of salvation is always followed by the call of separation.
In Genesis, God divided the light from the darkness.
He separated the line of Seth from the line of Cain.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Picture this scenario: One bright sunny morning Abraham walks into the First National Bank of Babylon.
Whenever a man as important and wealthy as Abraham walked into a bank, the staff would roll out the red carpet.
The manger quickly invites Mr. Abraham into his private office to talk. “Well, Mr. Abraham, have you come to deposit more gold today.”
Abraham: “No sir, I have come to close out my account. I will take it all in cash, gold bars or gold coins.”
The bank manger faints back in his chair. His heart begins to race, sweat breaks out all over his body as his hands clutches his polished oak desk. “Close your account?” he whispers, “Mr. Abraham, why? What have we done to displease you?”
Abraham speaks: “Nothing, I am selling out and leaving town.”
Banker: “Well, can we just transfer your account to another one of our banks? We have banks all over Babylonia.”
Abraham: “No, thank you, I’m leaving the country. I’m going abroad.”
“Oh, that is no problem. We can transfer your accounts to one of our affiliated world banks.” The bank manger says hopefully.
Abraham: “No, thank you. I’ll just take it in cash. Here are ten goatskin bags. I have ten camels outside. Just load the bags down with the gold and my men will load the camels.”
Banker: “But, where are you going, Mr. Abraham?”
Abraham: “I haven’t the faintest idea!”
Banker: “I beg your pardon?”
Abraham: “I haven’t the faintest idea.”
Banker: “You haven’t any idea? You are leaving town, closing your account and going abroad and you don’t know where you are going?”
Abraham: “That’s right, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my money in cash… No, Mr. manager, I am not crazy.
You see, the other day the God who created the universe and hung the stars in space and gave life to this world spoke to me, and told me to leave my country and go to another one.
I think He was talking about heaven, because He spoke of a city of which, He was the builder and maker.”
“Now, I don’t have any idea where it is. All I know is that, it isn’t here. And for me to get to God’s city, I have to obey God and walk by faith.
I shall be a pilgrim and a stranger the rest of my life. So, if you don’t mind, I will take my money in cash.”
Thus Abraham put feet to his faith. He became a pilgrim and a stranger as far as the world was concerned.
As a stranger, Abraham was away from home; as a pilgrim, he was going home.
So, he could say: “This world is not my home, I’m just passing thru, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.”
III – GOD DEVELOPS HIS MAN
Every day and every minute of our life God in His mercy is developing us.
Abraham enjoyed mountaintop experiences and sometimes he walked through some dark lonesome valleys.
Sometimes he savored victory and others he tasted defeat.
Whether he experienced sunshine or shadow, glorious faith or miserable doubt, Abraham’s story reveals how God mellowed him and matured him.
Look at five aspect of how God develops Abraham:
1 – Blessings:
A. His walk: In Genesis 12:2 God says “I will bless thee.” The idea in the Hebrew is God will make Abraham a very happy man.
But, wait, Abraham left family and friends, and the world he knew for 75 years, to travel the desserts of this world searching for a city he never found. How can that make a man happy?
This world won’t make you happy friend. Abraham learned to live for the eternal, not the temporal.
And if you are to find true happiness, you have to climb the mountain of faith and live for the eternal. Then come what may, you can sing the little Junior Church song, “I found happiness, I found peace of mind, I found the joy of living, perfect love divine.”
B. His Worship:
In Genesis 12:8, Abraham built an altar at Bethel. Bethel means the “house of God.” Here Abraham worshipped God.
Then Abraham discovered two things. There was a famine in the land and there was a foe in the land.
Abraham thought it would be easy. He did not expect to encounter these problems, but God was teaching Abraham this: In the same place where people find their blessings, there are battles.
Two simple examples are these: 1) In your family there are blessings, but there are also battles. Example: Last year my sister had a son get married. He was 21. There was great joy in the family. Today, another son, 24 is dying of pancreatitis.
2) The spiritual life is filled with blessings, but there are also many battles. You robe shoulders with Christians that encourage you and you rub shoulders with some that discourage you. They key is to keep your eye on Christ. Live for the eternal.
2 – Betrayal: Suddenly Egypt looked attractive to this disillusioned pilgrim. When “Worship life” was not all Abraham thought it would be, he headed to Egypt. It wasn’t Babylon after all. No! But it was too much like Babylon. It was still the world. The holy God of creation was still left out.
Lies accompanied Abraham’s reasoning for visiting Egypt (world). There, in Egypt, Abraham lost his testimony. Rather then being a witness and a blessing to Pharaoh, he became a curse.
Abraham paraded his wife as his sister which almost cost Pharaoh his life. When Abraham and Sarah left town, Pharaoh might have said, “If this is an example of a believer, I hope I never meet another.”
3 – Barrenness: God had promised Abraham a seed. Folks, when God promises something, by faith, He will deliver. But, when years passed in Abraham’s life, with no prospect of a son and Sarah was getting older, Abraham resorted to a worldly means of having a child.
He went into Sarah’s Egyptian handmaid, Hagar. She bares a son and as a result, we find that God did not speak to Abraham for 13 years. (13 being the number of rebellion)
Abraham had to learn that the answer to barrenness is not to be found in worldly methods. When barrenness comes to a church, three direction may be taken: 1) Some Churches bring in the world to attract the world. 2) Some do nothing and they die. 3) Some, pray, seek the Lord, draw near to God, clean up their lives and in time God visits them. Those that do not seek the Lord and repent, God in time writes Ichabod over its door.
Barrenness in the church is part of spiritual growth. It is to tell a people to pray more and worship deeper. It is not a time to use the world’s methods to draw a crowd.
4 – Brethren: Abraham had a nephew named Lot. Lot was called righteous Lot. But, he was a worldly believer. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but it was so. Lot sets his eyes on Sodom. He thought he could go there and be a witness.
But, in order to pull a people out of the world, you have to get out of it first. You cannot lift a barrel if you are standing in it and Lot was standing in Sodom.
Even after Lot was taken into deeper captivity and Abraham delivered Lot, Lot still stayed in Sodom, thinking, I can make a difference. He didn’t. He did not influence the world by being in the world. Just the opposite happened, the world influenced his family and took their lives. Lot lost his family. He lost his wife. He lost his testimony and he lost everything he had.
Christian, we are living in a time where a lot of our brethren are justifying living in the world. It isn’t right. In the long run, they will lose greatly. I admonish you by the example of Abraham, walk after God. You are a pilgrim! Set your sights on glory!
5 – Backsliding: After Abraham’s disastrous experience in Egypt, he must have said, I will never do that again. I’ve learned my lesson. But, he did it again when he met Abimelech, king of the Philistines (Gen 20). Abraham told the same old lie and God came to Abimelech and said, “You are a dead man if you touch Abraham’s wife.”
Christian, learn a truth. Though our spirit is saved by grace, our “heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” The reason I beg you to read the Bible, be faithful to church and don’t let the sun go down on your wrath is, within your heart and mine, is a volcano that can erupt at any time.
In life you are going to deal with blessings, betrayal, barrenness, brethren and backsliding. You are going to make friends and you are going to make enemies. That is life!
When you look at Abraham’s life, one thing is said about him that is said of few people. Abraham was the “Friend of God” (James 2:23).
God has few friends but millions of servants. Among the servants are shining seraphims, chanting cherubims, angels and archangels without number, who hang on God’s every word, and rush to do His bidding.
God has many children as well. Every blood-bought child of Adam’s ruined race has been ransomed and is a child of God.
But, it is possible to be a child and still not have a friend.
A child can be rebellious and wayward, riding roughshod over everything his parents hold dear.
But, when that child gets saved, the first thing he wants to do is make things right with mom and dad, then the church. He wants to re-establish spiritual friendships.
God wants friends. He does not have many friends on earth, but Abraham was one of those rare individuals. “But,” you say, “Abraham made mistakes.” Yes, he did. Abraham made some big mistakes, but the key was Abraham sought to do the will of God.
Jesus gave us a key verse in showing our friendship to God. He said in John 15: 14, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
But, how do we know that Abraham was God’s friend. What was it that really proved his friendship? That question takes us to the last thought.
IV – GOD DISPLAYS HIS MAN
God put his man on display. One day God ask Abraham for the best he had. God ask Abraham to give to Him, the love of his life and Abraham gave it to God.
Abraham took his son and laid him on an altar, as a burnt sacrifice for God. Are you God’s friend? Will lay your “all” on His altar?
When we think of Calvary we often think of the sacrifice and love of the Son of God, but we only see half the picture.
In Genesis 22, we see the sacrificial heart the Father, himself in the life of Abraham.
As Isaac was the love of Abraham’s heart, Jesus was the love of the Father’s heart.
As Isaac was the apple of Abraham’s eye, Jesus was the apple of God’s eye.
The Father journeyed with the Son all the way to Calvary. Whose heart do you think was pierced the most on Moriah, when Abraham raised that knife in the air, Isaac’s or Abraham’s? I believe it was Abraham’s.
Oh, the anguish, the pain, he must have felt, to take the innocent life of his son who had done no wrong. But, wait! The angel of the Lord stayed the hand of Abraham. A ram was caught in the thicket. The ram took the place of Isaac and Isaac went free. Praise the Lord!
But, 2,000 years ago when God walked with His Son, Jesus, to Calvary, there was no ram caught in the thicket. This was the real deal. This was the fulfillment of the shadow. This was where the rubber truly met the road.
God watched as wicked men raised their piercing instruments in the air and pierced the body of his precious son, again and again and again. How the heart of God was have bled with tears.
God put Abraham on display when Abraham went atop Mount Moriah to offer his son.
God put His heart on display when He walk upon Golgotha with His Son and watched Him die.
Today, God puts us on display for our children, family, neighbors and friends to watch.
God discovered us, He detached us, and He developed us, so He might display us.
According to Ephesians 2:4-7; God is looking for some pliable clay, that He might detach from this world and mold and make it, into something beautiful.
He wants us to be a vessel for His glory. He wants us to shine for Him and He wants us to be filled with His love and His life.
Will we be pliable in the master’s hand?
Like Abraham, God call upon to surrender all.
Judson Venter, wrote: (Page 394)
“All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow:
Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender, Make me Savior wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit – Truly know that Thou are mine.
All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessings fall on me.
Chorus: I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Monday, March 16, 2009
WEDDING VOWS RENEWED
RENEWAL OF THE WEDDING VOWS
Matthew 19:5 …For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
We have gathered here tonight to celebrate the Renewal of Marriage Vows between ¬¬¬¬_______and ______________.
Many of you may have wed, when you were not true believers and therefore, you may not have understood fully what marriage was all about.
Some of you may have forgotten the grand significance in marriage. So I ask if you will please take to heart the true meaning of the marriage vows.
*I want to ask the congregation to do something, if you are not already doing this. I would like to ask that husbands and wives to sit together.
I want you widows to know that God says for you to “trust in Him” in Jeremiah 49:11. He will take care of you. He will be a father to the fatherless and a judge to the widow, Psalms 68:5 tells us.
For the youth, what you hear tonight, if you decided to be obedient to God’s Word will make your future marriage a success or a failure.
For all single folks here tonight, this is as much a spiritual covenant as a married covenant. Listen closely.
The ceremony tonight is not just for Andy and Jennifer. It is for every person that wants a greater understanding of the spiritual relationship you can have with the Lord and each other.
As this song is sung, will you sit next to your mate if you have one here tonight? If not think upon the Lord.
YOURS FOREVER
When the sun is shining bright, I’’ be yours forever.
When you face the darkest night, we will face it together.
Through the good times, I’ll be there, clinging warmly to your hand;
When there’s no one else to care, I’ll be there to understand.
Chorus:
Yours forever, only yours; I’ll be yours forever.
Yours forever only yours; God has brought us together.
On the wings of love you came, Then you taught me how to fly.
Through the years it will be the same; I’ll be yours for ever.
[2nd – …and ever; I’ll be yours forever, forever]
When I look into your eyes, I can see us together.
There will be no sad goodbyes as our love blossoms sweeter.
There’s a place inside my heart I know only you can fill.
Until death we’ll never part; You’re the keeper of my heart.
Chorus:
-Many folks have a wonderful, loving and joyful marriage in oneness and harmony with God.
--Some folks live together but the love and joy is gone. They live in the same house but their hearts are not nit together.
---Sadly, some folks just have a difficult relationship.
So, I ask tonight, if you will rethink what God says about the Biblical marriage vows?
*********
THE WEDDING CEREMONY
A wedding ceremony that is not directly related to the Lord Jesus Christ loses its real significance.
It loses its significance to the couple getting married as well as to those who have gathered to form the covenant.
The traditions of the Christians wedding come from the Christian Bible. It is taken from the Jewish wedding ceremonies in the day of Christ.
Any Jewish couple that observed the life of Christ would have seen the covenant of marriage in the very life of Jesus Christ.
Ten Thoughts about a True Christian Wedding and Commitment
1. The Bridegroom initiated the relationship and the engagement or betrothal period. He left his father’s house and went to the house of the prospective bride.
a. Spiritually, Christ left heaven to gain a bride on earth – Eph 5:25-28.
b. Physically, a man is to initiate the relationship.
c. He is ready for marriage when he is able to provide spiritually, financially and physically for a wife.
d. He then leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife.
2. The father of the woman then negotiated with the bridegroom the price that must be paid to secure the bride.
a. Spiritually, Jesus sacrificed His life and paid with His blood to secure a wife, the Church as His bride.
b. Physically, a man must be willing to give his life for his wife. He forsakes all others for her.
3. When the bridegroom paid the purchase price, the marriage covenant was thereby established. At that point, the man and woman were regarded as husband and wife, even though no physical union had taken place.
a. Spiritually, the consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church is yet future. Consummation means to bring something to a satisfying conclusion or completion.
Though we are betrothed to the Lord in Salvation, the joy and bliss in that relationship has not yet begun.
b. Physically, the consummation of marriage between a man and a woman is more than physical.
It is first spiritual. One must learn discipline and have a good relationship with the Lord.
It is second soulish. A couple must have common loves, such as love for Christ, the Church, the Bible, raising children and bring glory to God.
Third, it is physical. Though satisfying, the physical will be the enjoyment drawn from the spiritual and soulish relationship.
4. The couple drank from a cup sealing their love one for another. Though they lived apart for a time period, they were faithful one to another.
a. Spiritually, we are apart from our Lord today, but we are to be faithful to Him.
Every time we partake of communion, we are to reconfirm that intimate relationship and longed for desire to be one with the Him.
b. Physically, couples would be wise to weekly, reestablish a time, to be alone and reconfirm their love one to another. A date night or a walk together, alone is needed, by both for security and the reassurance of love.
5. After the marriage covenant was in effect, the groom went back to his father’s house. He remained there for a period of time, preparing for his wife.
a. Spiritually, Jesus went to the Father to prepare a mansion for His bride (John 14:1-3).
b. Physically, a man may meet a girl at an early age, but maturity is seen when that man, prepares for his future by getting an education or developing a skill to take care of his bride.
6. During the separation period, the bride gathered her wardrobe. She beautified herself and planned and prepared for married life according to the scriptures.
The groom made accommodations in his father’s house for his bride.
a. Spiritually, the Church is to purify and beautify herself for her coming bridegroom. She has been given pastors and teachers and evangelist and gifts to perfect the bride. (John 14:2; Eph 4:11-13). We should all be faithful to Church of Jesus Christ.
b. Physically, the bride is to beautify herself for her husband, daily. She should know what the Scriptures say about how to be a loving wife.
c. Physically, the groom is to discipline his life financially, spiritually and physically and give security to his wife.
7. The separation ended when the groom and his wedding party left the father’s house. He usually left at night and made his way to the house of the bride.
a. Spiritually, Christ promised to return for His own with an angelic host (John 14:3). No one knows the exact hour.
b. Physically, the husband shows his love for his mate, by making a public showing of his bride to his friends. (This is why Christians should have a public wedding ceremony or showing).
8. The bride was ready and expecting her groom to come, but she did not know when. As the groom neared, his coming was preceded by a shout or the sound of a trumpet.
a. Spiritually, when Christ comes, the Bible declares his coming will be preceded by a shout (2 Thessalonians 4:16). Though the Church does not know the day or the hour, we are to live in expectation of His return any moment.
b. Physically, the wife should live in anticipation to see her husband come home each day. She should prepare her life for and around him.
c. Physically the husband desire at the end of each day is to be should be sure his wife is safe and secure in her life and heart.
9. The groom received the bride with her female attendants and returned to his father’s house.
a. Spiritually, Christ will take His church home and she shall be His testimony of His power and grace.
Spiritually, the bride of Christ is going to leave this old world, for that is what she has been looking forward to, since the day she fell in love with Christ. She will witness to the world for the 1,000 year millennium of our Lord Jesus Christ’s grace and goodness.
b. Physically, the bride, when married, leaves her old world. She leaves her parents, her family and her friends.
c. Her life is a witness to the world of her husband’s goodness to her.
10. The marriage is finally consummated by physical union for the first time in the privacy of the bridal chamber.
a. Spiritually, our consummation with our Lord is spiritual. We will experience, behold, taste of, hear and see and touch a world we have never known before. We will sense the height of love.
Paul said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard what the Lord has for those who love Him.”
b. Physically, as a virtuous married couple enjoys a union beyond all other beauties in this world, the Church will see, enjoy and experience love and joy and ecstasy like she has never known.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This may be the first time many of you have heard a message like this. So, I ask, “Do you want to make have a Christian marriage? Will you make such a commitment?” If you have previously or you would like to renew you marriage afresh, I ask if the husbands will initiative the act, like Christ. Husbands, will you extend your hand to your wife. Wives, if you desire this commitment, place your hand willingly in your husband’s hand?
WORDS OF MARRIAGE
If you _MAN___ want your marriage to be a Christian marriage…
Will you give yourself to WIFE first and foremost?
You must love her as you love God.
You must talk to her as you talk to God with gentleness and kindness.
You must live to serve her and make her a queen.
You must be willing to die for her.
She must never come second to anyone or anything.
You must give her your heart. You must give her your best. Do you vow to do so, Andy?
If you WIFE want your marriage to be beautiful beyond belief, you must give yourself first and foremost to HUSBAND.
You must love him with all your heart.
You must be willing to forgive the past and live a new life together.
You must talk to him as you talk to God.
You must make him your king and live to make him happy.
He must never come second. You must give your best to him.
Do you vow to do so, WIFE?
CONGREGATION, the vows you heard tonight are Christian vows.
If you want a Christian marriage with Christ or each other, if you want to make those Christian vows real, then, join with Husband and Wife, and, repeat these words in your heart.
I am sorry if I have not been the mate that I should have been.
From this day forward I want to live a life that pleases God.
I re-confirm the love covenant with God and my mate, (if that applies to you).
I promise to love, honor and cherish my mate as the Lord wants me to.
I promise to give myself to my mate only and to no one else.
I am committed to making my marriage work till the day I die or till the day Jesus comes.
If as a widow or a single person, if you want to refresh your vows with the Lord, close your eyes and tell Him, you love Him, and promise to spend time with Him in His word.
Ask Him to be your husband and judge. Ask Him to take care of you.
If as a couple you want to make your vows afresh, tell Christ in your heart that you desire to do so.
If you are a youth and you understand what I have presented tonight and you want to truly marry this way one day, tell Christ in your heart.
Look this way for a moment:
Though, this may have felt romantic to some of you, and though it may have seemed emotional to others, marriage is act of faith.
Marriage is for companionship. It is for pleasure. It is for completeness. It is for fruitfulness. It is for protection. But, mainly marriage is a picture to of Christ’s great love for the Church and the Church’s great love for Christ.
Christ leads and the Church submits. This is the testimony you give to your children and family and to this lost world of the great love Jesus had for the Church.
For love is giving and forgiving. It is serving and sacrificing.
It is at its best when both partners live for the other and they expect nothing in return.
As marriage is a commitment for life for better or worse, so is your commitment to God.
As marriage is for richer or poorer, in life, sometimes you may have much and sometimes, you may have little.
If your love for God and your marriage vows are Christian, riches or poverty cannot stop true love.
A marriage is a commitment in a time of health and a time of sickness.
If in a time of health, you can run and play and travel, rejoice. But, if the times comes when the one you have committed your life to, can no longer physically do the things, they once did, it is time for you to take care of the one you committed your life to.
That is what the Lord promised to do for you when he saved you. He will never go back on His promises. He will never leave you or forsake you.
God is committed to you! Be committed to God. Be committed to your mate! Be committed to Christ! Be committed to your family! Be committed to your Church! Be committed to righteousness!
Lastly, as this song is sung, if you, with all your heart would like to recommit your lives one to the other, as this song is sung stand together during this song and remaining standing until prayer is over
Whither thou goest, I will go. Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Thy people will be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go!
For as in that story, long ago, The same sweet love story, now is so,
Thy people shall be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go!
Whither thou goest I will go, Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge,
Thy people will be my people my love, Whither thou goest I will go. . .
For as in that story long ago, The same sweet love story now is so,
Thy people shall be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go
Matthew 19:5 …For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
We have gathered here tonight to celebrate the Renewal of Marriage Vows between ¬¬¬¬_______and ______________.
Many of you may have wed, when you were not true believers and therefore, you may not have understood fully what marriage was all about.
Some of you may have forgotten the grand significance in marriage. So I ask if you will please take to heart the true meaning of the marriage vows.
*I want to ask the congregation to do something, if you are not already doing this. I would like to ask that husbands and wives to sit together.
I want you widows to know that God says for you to “trust in Him” in Jeremiah 49:11. He will take care of you. He will be a father to the fatherless and a judge to the widow, Psalms 68:5 tells us.
For the youth, what you hear tonight, if you decided to be obedient to God’s Word will make your future marriage a success or a failure.
For all single folks here tonight, this is as much a spiritual covenant as a married covenant. Listen closely.
The ceremony tonight is not just for Andy and Jennifer. It is for every person that wants a greater understanding of the spiritual relationship you can have with the Lord and each other.
As this song is sung, will you sit next to your mate if you have one here tonight? If not think upon the Lord.
YOURS FOREVER
When the sun is shining bright, I’’ be yours forever.
When you face the darkest night, we will face it together.
Through the good times, I’ll be there, clinging warmly to your hand;
When there’s no one else to care, I’ll be there to understand.
Chorus:
Yours forever, only yours; I’ll be yours forever.
Yours forever only yours; God has brought us together.
On the wings of love you came, Then you taught me how to fly.
Through the years it will be the same; I’ll be yours for ever.
[2nd – …and ever; I’ll be yours forever, forever]
When I look into your eyes, I can see us together.
There will be no sad goodbyes as our love blossoms sweeter.
There’s a place inside my heart I know only you can fill.
Until death we’ll never part; You’re the keeper of my heart.
Chorus:
-Many folks have a wonderful, loving and joyful marriage in oneness and harmony with God.
--Some folks live together but the love and joy is gone. They live in the same house but their hearts are not nit together.
---Sadly, some folks just have a difficult relationship.
So, I ask tonight, if you will rethink what God says about the Biblical marriage vows?
*********
THE WEDDING CEREMONY
A wedding ceremony that is not directly related to the Lord Jesus Christ loses its real significance.
It loses its significance to the couple getting married as well as to those who have gathered to form the covenant.
The traditions of the Christians wedding come from the Christian Bible. It is taken from the Jewish wedding ceremonies in the day of Christ.
Any Jewish couple that observed the life of Christ would have seen the covenant of marriage in the very life of Jesus Christ.
Ten Thoughts about a True Christian Wedding and Commitment
1. The Bridegroom initiated the relationship and the engagement or betrothal period. He left his father’s house and went to the house of the prospective bride.
a. Spiritually, Christ left heaven to gain a bride on earth – Eph 5:25-28.
b. Physically, a man is to initiate the relationship.
c. He is ready for marriage when he is able to provide spiritually, financially and physically for a wife.
d. He then leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife.
2. The father of the woman then negotiated with the bridegroom the price that must be paid to secure the bride.
a. Spiritually, Jesus sacrificed His life and paid with His blood to secure a wife, the Church as His bride.
b. Physically, a man must be willing to give his life for his wife. He forsakes all others for her.
3. When the bridegroom paid the purchase price, the marriage covenant was thereby established. At that point, the man and woman were regarded as husband and wife, even though no physical union had taken place.
a. Spiritually, the consummation of the marriage between Christ and the Church is yet future. Consummation means to bring something to a satisfying conclusion or completion.
Though we are betrothed to the Lord in Salvation, the joy and bliss in that relationship has not yet begun.
b. Physically, the consummation of marriage between a man and a woman is more than physical.
It is first spiritual. One must learn discipline and have a good relationship with the Lord.
It is second soulish. A couple must have common loves, such as love for Christ, the Church, the Bible, raising children and bring glory to God.
Third, it is physical. Though satisfying, the physical will be the enjoyment drawn from the spiritual and soulish relationship.
4. The couple drank from a cup sealing their love one for another. Though they lived apart for a time period, they were faithful one to another.
a. Spiritually, we are apart from our Lord today, but we are to be faithful to Him.
Every time we partake of communion, we are to reconfirm that intimate relationship and longed for desire to be one with the Him.
b. Physically, couples would be wise to weekly, reestablish a time, to be alone and reconfirm their love one to another. A date night or a walk together, alone is needed, by both for security and the reassurance of love.
5. After the marriage covenant was in effect, the groom went back to his father’s house. He remained there for a period of time, preparing for his wife.
a. Spiritually, Jesus went to the Father to prepare a mansion for His bride (John 14:1-3).
b. Physically, a man may meet a girl at an early age, but maturity is seen when that man, prepares for his future by getting an education or developing a skill to take care of his bride.
6. During the separation period, the bride gathered her wardrobe. She beautified herself and planned and prepared for married life according to the scriptures.
The groom made accommodations in his father’s house for his bride.
a. Spiritually, the Church is to purify and beautify herself for her coming bridegroom. She has been given pastors and teachers and evangelist and gifts to perfect the bride. (John 14:2; Eph 4:11-13). We should all be faithful to Church of Jesus Christ.
b. Physically, the bride is to beautify herself for her husband, daily. She should know what the Scriptures say about how to be a loving wife.
c. Physically, the groom is to discipline his life financially, spiritually and physically and give security to his wife.
7. The separation ended when the groom and his wedding party left the father’s house. He usually left at night and made his way to the house of the bride.
a. Spiritually, Christ promised to return for His own with an angelic host (John 14:3). No one knows the exact hour.
b. Physically, the husband shows his love for his mate, by making a public showing of his bride to his friends. (This is why Christians should have a public wedding ceremony or showing).
8. The bride was ready and expecting her groom to come, but she did not know when. As the groom neared, his coming was preceded by a shout or the sound of a trumpet.
a. Spiritually, when Christ comes, the Bible declares his coming will be preceded by a shout (2 Thessalonians 4:16). Though the Church does not know the day or the hour, we are to live in expectation of His return any moment.
b. Physically, the wife should live in anticipation to see her husband come home each day. She should prepare her life for and around him.
c. Physically the husband desire at the end of each day is to be should be sure his wife is safe and secure in her life and heart.
9. The groom received the bride with her female attendants and returned to his father’s house.
a. Spiritually, Christ will take His church home and she shall be His testimony of His power and grace.
Spiritually, the bride of Christ is going to leave this old world, for that is what she has been looking forward to, since the day she fell in love with Christ. She will witness to the world for the 1,000 year millennium of our Lord Jesus Christ’s grace and goodness.
b. Physically, the bride, when married, leaves her old world. She leaves her parents, her family and her friends.
c. Her life is a witness to the world of her husband’s goodness to her.
10. The marriage is finally consummated by physical union for the first time in the privacy of the bridal chamber.
a. Spiritually, our consummation with our Lord is spiritual. We will experience, behold, taste of, hear and see and touch a world we have never known before. We will sense the height of love.
Paul said, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard what the Lord has for those who love Him.”
b. Physically, as a virtuous married couple enjoys a union beyond all other beauties in this world, the Church will see, enjoy and experience love and joy and ecstasy like she has never known.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
This may be the first time many of you have heard a message like this. So, I ask, “Do you want to make have a Christian marriage? Will you make such a commitment?” If you have previously or you would like to renew you marriage afresh, I ask if the husbands will initiative the act, like Christ. Husbands, will you extend your hand to your wife. Wives, if you desire this commitment, place your hand willingly in your husband’s hand?
WORDS OF MARRIAGE
If you _MAN___ want your marriage to be a Christian marriage…
Will you give yourself to WIFE first and foremost?
You must love her as you love God.
You must talk to her as you talk to God with gentleness and kindness.
You must live to serve her and make her a queen.
You must be willing to die for her.
She must never come second to anyone or anything.
You must give her your heart. You must give her your best. Do you vow to do so, Andy?
If you WIFE want your marriage to be beautiful beyond belief, you must give yourself first and foremost to HUSBAND.
You must love him with all your heart.
You must be willing to forgive the past and live a new life together.
You must talk to him as you talk to God.
You must make him your king and live to make him happy.
He must never come second. You must give your best to him.
Do you vow to do so, WIFE?
CONGREGATION, the vows you heard tonight are Christian vows.
If you want a Christian marriage with Christ or each other, if you want to make those Christian vows real, then, join with Husband and Wife, and, repeat these words in your heart.
I am sorry if I have not been the mate that I should have been.
From this day forward I want to live a life that pleases God.
I re-confirm the love covenant with God and my mate, (if that applies to you).
I promise to love, honor and cherish my mate as the Lord wants me to.
I promise to give myself to my mate only and to no one else.
I am committed to making my marriage work till the day I die or till the day Jesus comes.
If as a widow or a single person, if you want to refresh your vows with the Lord, close your eyes and tell Him, you love Him, and promise to spend time with Him in His word.
Ask Him to be your husband and judge. Ask Him to take care of you.
If as a couple you want to make your vows afresh, tell Christ in your heart that you desire to do so.
If you are a youth and you understand what I have presented tonight and you want to truly marry this way one day, tell Christ in your heart.
Look this way for a moment:
Though, this may have felt romantic to some of you, and though it may have seemed emotional to others, marriage is act of faith.
Marriage is for companionship. It is for pleasure. It is for completeness. It is for fruitfulness. It is for protection. But, mainly marriage is a picture to of Christ’s great love for the Church and the Church’s great love for Christ.
Christ leads and the Church submits. This is the testimony you give to your children and family and to this lost world of the great love Jesus had for the Church.
For love is giving and forgiving. It is serving and sacrificing.
It is at its best when both partners live for the other and they expect nothing in return.
As marriage is a commitment for life for better or worse, so is your commitment to God.
As marriage is for richer or poorer, in life, sometimes you may have much and sometimes, you may have little.
If your love for God and your marriage vows are Christian, riches or poverty cannot stop true love.
A marriage is a commitment in a time of health and a time of sickness.
If in a time of health, you can run and play and travel, rejoice. But, if the times comes when the one you have committed your life to, can no longer physically do the things, they once did, it is time for you to take care of the one you committed your life to.
That is what the Lord promised to do for you when he saved you. He will never go back on His promises. He will never leave you or forsake you.
God is committed to you! Be committed to God. Be committed to your mate! Be committed to Christ! Be committed to your family! Be committed to your Church! Be committed to righteousness!
Lastly, as this song is sung, if you, with all your heart would like to recommit your lives one to the other, as this song is sung stand together during this song and remaining standing until prayer is over
Whither thou goest, I will go. Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge.
Thy people will be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go!
For as in that story, long ago, The same sweet love story, now is so,
Thy people shall be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go!
Whither thou goest I will go, Wherever thou lodgest, I will lodge,
Thy people will be my people my love, Whither thou goest I will go. . .
For as in that story long ago, The same sweet love story now is so,
Thy people shall be my people my love, Whither thou goest, I will go
Isaiah 50 - MESSIAH
THE RIGHTEOUS REDEEMER’S RELATIONSHIP TO MAN
THE GARDEN
Everybody likes to receive a gift, especially an expensive gift. In the beginning, God gave a very expensive gift to the first couple that He would wed. God gave them a perfect world. He placed them in a perfect environment and gave them dominion over this earth.
Their life consisted of caring for the magnificent Garden of Eden and fellowshipping with God. How hard could that be?
Well, it proved to be harder than this spiritual couple knew. Temptation came and that beautiful three-way relationship died.
Since that time it seems to be pretty difficult for many folks to find the key to build and enjoy that three-way relationship that brings the sweet fellowship that Adam and Eve knew.
Some folks find it in life and some folks don’t seem to ever find it. But it is available. It is offered to any couple that will seek God’s face.
In Isaiah 50:1, that once beautiful relationship between God and His chosen nation had ceased to be. The wife, Israel, had forgotten how to make it work and seemingly didn’t care to even try.
HOSEA
Some people have asked, “How bad was their relationship?” God paints the picture of His relationship to Israel and Israel’s relationship to Him, in a book in the Bible, the Book of Hosea.
Hosea was a prophet that married a woman named Gomer. He loved her greatly, and for a while everything seemed great. She was fruitful and gave Hosea three children.
Then one day Gomer became unfaithful to Hosea, but Hosea forgave her, but then, she played the harlot again and again.
She finally left Hosea and lived as an adulterous wife with another man to whom she was not married. The man she was living with grew tired of her and sold her on the auction block. Hosea went to the auction and bought her back and took her home. At first, she seemed grateful and thankful, but she slowly forgot her husband’s mercy and she returned to her old ways.
Hosea, in his love was a picture of God’s love. He went and knocked at the door of the house where Gomer was living in sin. He heard she was in need. He took money or what is called money in those days, “wine and corn” and said to the man, who had his wife, “If she needs anything more, let me know.”
That is how God loved Israel and that is how God loved this world. For a very long time,, God in his mercy and tolerance has been reaching out to forgive and to renew that relationship with man.
But, Israel could not understand God’s love, for this type of love had died within the heart of Israel. Rather, they complained and blamed God for their problems in life.
So God sent His son into the world to demonstrate just how great His love was for us. If you would like to know that love better, read the Gospel of John and visit CALVARY.
In Isaiah 50 God seems to say two things:
1 - Remember what I have done: (Isaiah 50:2-3).
2 - Realize what I will do: (Isaiah 50:4-8).
1 - Remember what God has done: (Isaiah 50:2-3).
In verses 1-4, God is speaking as Jehovah, the eternal God.
In verses 5-9, God is speaking as Jesus, as the Son of man.
Isaiah 50:2-3 2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
He asks His people four questions. All of them should have made Israel hang their heads in shame, repent and humbly ask God’s forgiveness, so that a sweet and loving relationship could be re-established.
A – PERSON - The first two questions are about God’s PERSON:
Isaiah 50:2, Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?
First we see the past:
THE CONFRONTATION ON MOUNT CARMEL
The Battle on Mount Carmel pictures this truth. Over 800 years earlier when Elijah was on Mount Carmel? He challenged the children of Israel to serve God. The majority of the prophets of Israel were false prophets. They were called prophets of Baal or Babylon. They did not know the true God of Heaven. He challenged these prophets of Israel to a duel unto the death.
The prophets of Baal built an altar and Elijah built an altar. They were to both pray and ask their God to send fire from heaven.
The God who answered with fire from heaven would be the true God. But, before the prayer battle began, Elijah challenged Israel.
We read in First Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
The outcome of the battle was that Elijah’s God, who is our Lord, sent down fire from heaven and the prophets of Baal were slain.
You would think with such a miracle that the people would fall down and worship God. Sadly, they did not. Rather, Jezebel, the queen of Israel, vouched to kill Elijah.
Lots of folks are like Israel, today. They won’t say anything against God, but they won’t say anything for God either.
Christian, always be ready to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, He stood up for you on Calvary.
It is good to stand up for Jesus in church, but where it really counts is when we walk outside the doors of the church.
Illustration: I remember reading a story about a soldier during the Civil War of the States. He could not make up his mind, whose side he wanted to be on. So He put on a Confederate shirt and Union pants. Well, when the battle began, the Confederate army shot him in the pants and the Union army shot him in the shirt.
It is important that we take a stand for the Lord.
THE CONFRONTATION IN JERUSALEM
Now, we see prophecy:
Eight-hundred years later, Jesus came and called Israel to make Him their God. Jesus went into a synagogue and read Isaiah 61:1, which is recorded in Luke 4:18-19. It was His inauguration speech.
It says this: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He was voted in by the majority vote of God.
The religious leaders became angry. They thrust Jesus out of town. That means they grabbed Him and push and shove Him out of the city. They were going to throw him off a cliff to kill him, but the Bible says that Jesus escaped out of their sight. (Luke 4).
From that day forward Israel sought for a time to take the life of Jesus Christ as Jezebel sought to take the life of Elijah.
Jesus, inviting people to, “Come and follow Him.”
He said in Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He said in Matthew 18:11, Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”
He said in Matthew 19:21, Jesus said, “…come and follow me.”
Sadly, the Jewish nation as a whole rejected Christ’s invitation.
Three and a half years later Jesus was taken before Pilate and falsely accused.
800 years earlier when fire fell from heaven they refused to follow God. And when Jesus came, they refused to follow Him.
B - PROTECTION - Notice the third and fourth question in verse 2: Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? This question is about His PROTECTION.
Keep in mind the fact that Israel had fallen into captivity and they blamed God. When in reality, they were bitter at God.
If they would, but, repent and come back and renew their relationship, they could experience the blessings again. The next move was Israel’s.
1) So, God reminds Israel of His Power over the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 50:2 …behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
Israel’s days in Egypt grew dark and dismal. They were forced into slavery. They were inhumanely beaten and God, by His mighty hand, redeemed them through the blood of a sacrificial lamb. That was only one illustration of God delivering Israel a thousand times from their enemies.
The mighty nation of Egypt, which was once like the Garden of Eden, was made a wilderness (v 2). God dried up the waters, the fish died and outside of the major cities men will died of thirst. Egypt has 390,000 square miles but the entire population today lives in 15,000 square miles along the Nile and that includes the delta.
I’ve been to Egypt twice. The land is mostly desert and destitute accept for the few cities next to the Nile, like Cairo and Alexandria.
The Nile is very dirty and the land very unkempt. What use to be a haven on earth, is one of the dirtiest countries in the world today.
God was saying, see what I can do. I can make a country prosperous or I can curse it with poverty.
Application: The problem with America’s woes today is not the fault of this administration or the last administration. It is the fault of a people who have turned their back on God and need to come back.
2) He reminds them of His power over the hearts of men. In Moses’ day, God sent darkness over the city and the people dressed in sackcloth and begged for forgiveness.
Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering
God was hinting to Israel, that if they would show some humility and come back to Him that He would redeem them.
But, their blindness was greater than the darkness that covered Egypt for three days.
II – REALIZES WHAT HE WILL DO
As Jehovah was speaking in Isaiah 50:1-3, Jesus is speaking in Isaiah 50:4-9.
In the first three verses God the Father is speaking, attempting to rekindle the flame in the hearts of His children, but they would not let Him. They had grown cold, indifferent and bitter. They had crossed the line of no return. The covenant was broken.
Now a new covenant would be pictured. The Redeemer of mankind is being revealed. He who is actually speaking in the next few verses is Jesus Christ.
A – WE SEE HIS CHARACTER:
In these few verses are seeds of prophecy that will blossom in the New Testament Gospels to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.
4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Christ speaks of two things here: 1) Humanity 2) Humility
Thus, it is clear that Jesus Christ is speaking here and He reveals a truth, that had to be known, if the Messiah was to be accepted. He reveals Jesus’ human character traits. First, He reveals that God will become a man!
1. HUMANITY
a. We first see that Jesus grew in wisdom. Verse 4 reveals that the Christ was born a baby, a human being.
One of the most difficult doctrinal conclusions our forefathers discussed was this: Was Jesus God or man? They concluded He was the God-man. He was 100% God and 100% man.
--As a man He was born of a woman, as God He had no earthly father.
--As man He was tempted in the wilderness, as God He walked on the Sea of Galilee.
--As man He was born in a stable, as God He was transfigured before the disciples.
And in this verse we see that Jesus as a man had to grow in statue and wisdom. He had to learn to speak Hebrew and Greek.
Whereas we normally think that Christ knew everything from a baby up, He did not. He was an obedient son who learned and grew mentally and physically.
Proof is revealed in two passages:
In Hebrews 5:8 we read, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”
This is difficult for some folks to grasp, but understand that only deity can limit Himself and that is what God did when he became human.
He limited his divine abilities so he might experience every test and trial in life, just like you. That is why Hebrews 4:15 reads, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Another poof is found in Luke 2. Jesus was in Jerusalem with His parents for a feast. The family and many others packed up to go back to Nazareth. They traveled for a day and realized that Jesus was not with them. When they returned Jesus, at the age of 12, was teaching the scholars in the Temple.
When his family ask Him what was he was doing, He said to His parents in Luke 2:49, “…How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
First of all we see Jesus as a 12 year old boy. He was knowledgeable, wise and mature.
Then Joseph and Mary told him to come home with them and the Bible says in Luke 2:51 “…He…was subject unto them.” Verse 52 reads, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
In the life of Christ from a child to 30 years of age, when He was not doing the work of a carpenter, He was studying the Word of God for the ministry which he would soon begin.
The Bible never says Jesus grew in knowledge, but He grew in wisdom. The Bible says, “Knowledge puffs up.” What we know in our head will only make us proud and cause us to draw the wrong conclusions.
Wisdom is the ability to see life from God’s perspective.
It is seeing how God wants us to live and then follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus proved His Worthiness: Jesus not only proved His righteousness by the wisdom He learned, but he proved it by the worthy life He lived.
Jesus was never rebellious. He never, one time spoke, or showed rebellion to His parents or to His God or to any authority.
That is what He meant in verse 5: The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Not only was Jesus not rebellious as a child to his earthly parents, but He was completely obedient to God.
When Jesus studied the Scriptures and saw the shadow of the cross in His life, He did not rebel, but He willingly surrendered to the will of God.
When He read Isaiah 53 and knew that He would be led to His death as a lamb to the slaughter, He never turned back. He never even flinched. Thus, we see His humanity.
Application: I’m glad I couldn’t see the future. I would have run away like Elijah in some dark cave. But, God’s grace is sufficient, one day at a time.
I thought of William Borden, the heir to the wealthy Borden industry. If he knew he would die on the mission field at age 25, would he had gone? I thought of David Braniard, missionary to the Indians in America, would he have gone, had he known he would hae died at age 29. Jesus knew He would die at the hands of who He came to die for and he was completely obedient to God.
2 – HUMILITY
Isaiah 50:6 reads, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Jesus knew that they would beat him physically. He knew that men would pluck off the hair on his face. He knew they would spit upon His lovely brow, which was the greatest humility that could be cast on a man in those days.
He knew that He would be rejected by those He loved. He knew they would reject His life and His word and nail Him to the old wooden cross, but He was obedient to the will of God.
Application: Do you know Second Timothy 3:12? “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
Do you know that if you live as Christ wants you to you are going to suffer? You may suffer for your own mistakes, we all do, but you will suffer also just because you are a Christian. Prepare to accept some suffering and rebuke and rejection in this world.
Dean Speicher, a Christian man and the former Superintendent of the Planetarium and Air-Space Museum wrote: “Encouragement to 'Do Right Anyway.'” He wrote…
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest anyway.
The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
What you spent years building, may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may turn against you if you help them. Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
Matt 5: 43-44, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
What kept Christ obedient all His life? It was His faith. Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Jesus studied and He foresaw His lot in life. He believed God and by faith, He set His face like a flint to go to Calvary. That meant that He would never turn back. By faith, He did right.
Application: Christians, I concluded this world is not my home. I know in the last days, fewer and fewer people will want my Jesus. I may have to stand alone on truth, salvation and righteousness. I know I will live in a very compromising society. But, by faith I have decided to stand as true to the Lord as I possibly can.
B- THE CHALLENGE OF CHRIST
8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
The Lord seems to be saying “Who is on the My side, stand up!” Jesus said you are either for me or against me. We are either an ally with Christ or an adversary of Christ.
1 –Allies of Christ, the Church, and the Christian
Christ knew there will be a great physical and spiritual battle in His life and He knew there will be a great spiritual battle in your life.
Be on His team.
Francis Havergal wrote this poem in 1877.
1. Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King?
Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring?
Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who for Him will go?
By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
2. Jesus, Thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem,
But with Thine own lifeblood, for Thy diadem;
With Thy blessing filling each who comes to Thee,
Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free.
By Thy grand redemption, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
3. Chosen to be soldiers, in an alien land,
Chosen, called, and faithful, for our Captain’s band;
In the service royal, let us not grow cold,
Let us be right loyal, noble, true and bold.
Master, Thou wilt keep us, by Thy grace divine,
Always on the Lord’s side—Savior, always Thine!
In Psalms 22, we see many aspects of that great battle of the cross and it deals with relationships to the righteous redeemer:
A - Jesus’ relationship to the Father: The Father was a ally.
In verse one Jesus knows that the sins of the world will be laid on his body and something will happen that has never happened in eternity pass nor will ever happen again. He prayed, “Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
When Christ was in the garden, he prayed with such intensity that he sweat as it were great drops of blood. This was what was in Christ’s heart. He was not asking God to take away the cross. Jesus knew He had to go to the cross and pay for the sins of the world.
What was in the cup? Spittle, yes; scourging, yes; mockery, yes; hate, yes, death, yes, but more. The wrath of God was in that cup. Someone had to take the righteous indignation of God, and Jesus did. But, I believe there was one more thing.
Jesus knew this scripture and He knew that something would happen on the cross that never happened in eternity pass nor would happen in eternity future. He knew that God would have to turn His back on His son on the cross.
Habakkuk 1:13 reads, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:
Look at the words of Jesus in Psalms 22:1. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
2 – Adversary of Christ
A - Jesus’ relationship to the demons:
In Psalms 22:12 Jesus speaks of the bulls of Bashan which represent the demons of hell encompassing the cross. “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.”
These bulls would surround their prey. One would leave the formation of the heard and at full speed thrust his horns into their prey and back up again into formation. Then another bull would thrust out in vicious anger and another and another until the prey was dead.
Though you and I saw the nails and the scourge and the crown of thorns, the blood and the wooden cross, we did not see the demons of hell railing on and mocking Christ with vicious, hideous demonic cries and vengeance when the Father had turned His back.
b - Jesus’ relationship to the Gentiles:
Psalms 22:16 speaks of the Gentiles that rejected Him. “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”
The assembly of the wicked pictured the Jews, who in secret manipulated the Roman governor to crucify Christ, even though it was the Romans Gentiles that pierced His hands and His feet.
C - Jesus’ relationship to Satan:
Psalms 22:21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
You better believe that Satan wasn’t drink lemonade in some oasis in Baghdad. He to was at the cross, with all of us evil, using every ounce of devilish power he had to stop Jesus Christ from having victory. Only Satan in his ignorance did not realizes that three days later, Christ would walk out of hell, walk out of the grave and throw off death and rise again.
D - Jesus’ relationship to the Meek:
Psalms 22: 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Ps 149;4 says God …will beauty the meek with salvation.
Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Thus, salvation is for the man who will yield his life completely to Christ.
E – Jesus’ relationship in the Millennium:
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
For 1,000 years the Lord’s relationship to the world will be wonderful. All will bow before Him. All will sing praised to Him. All will worship Him as Lord and God.
THE GARDEN
Everybody likes to receive a gift, especially an expensive gift. In the beginning, God gave a very expensive gift to the first couple that He would wed. God gave them a perfect world. He placed them in a perfect environment and gave them dominion over this earth.
Their life consisted of caring for the magnificent Garden of Eden and fellowshipping with God. How hard could that be?
Well, it proved to be harder than this spiritual couple knew. Temptation came and that beautiful three-way relationship died.
Since that time it seems to be pretty difficult for many folks to find the key to build and enjoy that three-way relationship that brings the sweet fellowship that Adam and Eve knew.
Some folks find it in life and some folks don’t seem to ever find it. But it is available. It is offered to any couple that will seek God’s face.
In Isaiah 50:1, that once beautiful relationship between God and His chosen nation had ceased to be. The wife, Israel, had forgotten how to make it work and seemingly didn’t care to even try.
HOSEA
Some people have asked, “How bad was their relationship?” God paints the picture of His relationship to Israel and Israel’s relationship to Him, in a book in the Bible, the Book of Hosea.
Hosea was a prophet that married a woman named Gomer. He loved her greatly, and for a while everything seemed great. She was fruitful and gave Hosea three children.
Then one day Gomer became unfaithful to Hosea, but Hosea forgave her, but then, she played the harlot again and again.
She finally left Hosea and lived as an adulterous wife with another man to whom she was not married. The man she was living with grew tired of her and sold her on the auction block. Hosea went to the auction and bought her back and took her home. At first, she seemed grateful and thankful, but she slowly forgot her husband’s mercy and she returned to her old ways.
Hosea, in his love was a picture of God’s love. He went and knocked at the door of the house where Gomer was living in sin. He heard she was in need. He took money or what is called money in those days, “wine and corn” and said to the man, who had his wife, “If she needs anything more, let me know.”
That is how God loved Israel and that is how God loved this world. For a very long time,, God in his mercy and tolerance has been reaching out to forgive and to renew that relationship with man.
But, Israel could not understand God’s love, for this type of love had died within the heart of Israel. Rather, they complained and blamed God for their problems in life.
So God sent His son into the world to demonstrate just how great His love was for us. If you would like to know that love better, read the Gospel of John and visit CALVARY.
In Isaiah 50 God seems to say two things:
1 - Remember what I have done: (Isaiah 50:2-3).
2 - Realize what I will do: (Isaiah 50:4-8).
1 - Remember what God has done: (Isaiah 50:2-3).
In verses 1-4, God is speaking as Jehovah, the eternal God.
In verses 5-9, God is speaking as Jesus, as the Son of man.
Isaiah 50:2-3 2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
He asks His people four questions. All of them should have made Israel hang their heads in shame, repent and humbly ask God’s forgiveness, so that a sweet and loving relationship could be re-established.
A – PERSON - The first two questions are about God’s PERSON:
Isaiah 50:2, Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?
First we see the past:
THE CONFRONTATION ON MOUNT CARMEL
The Battle on Mount Carmel pictures this truth. Over 800 years earlier when Elijah was on Mount Carmel? He challenged the children of Israel to serve God. The majority of the prophets of Israel were false prophets. They were called prophets of Baal or Babylon. They did not know the true God of Heaven. He challenged these prophets of Israel to a duel unto the death.
The prophets of Baal built an altar and Elijah built an altar. They were to both pray and ask their God to send fire from heaven.
The God who answered with fire from heaven would be the true God. But, before the prayer battle began, Elijah challenged Israel.
We read in First Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”
The outcome of the battle was that Elijah’s God, who is our Lord, sent down fire from heaven and the prophets of Baal were slain.
You would think with such a miracle that the people would fall down and worship God. Sadly, they did not. Rather, Jezebel, the queen of Israel, vouched to kill Elijah.
Lots of folks are like Israel, today. They won’t say anything against God, but they won’t say anything for God either.
Christian, always be ready to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, He stood up for you on Calvary.
It is good to stand up for Jesus in church, but where it really counts is when we walk outside the doors of the church.
Illustration: I remember reading a story about a soldier during the Civil War of the States. He could not make up his mind, whose side he wanted to be on. So He put on a Confederate shirt and Union pants. Well, when the battle began, the Confederate army shot him in the pants and the Union army shot him in the shirt.
It is important that we take a stand for the Lord.
THE CONFRONTATION IN JERUSALEM
Now, we see prophecy:
Eight-hundred years later, Jesus came and called Israel to make Him their God. Jesus went into a synagogue and read Isaiah 61:1, which is recorded in Luke 4:18-19. It was His inauguration speech.
It says this: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He was voted in by the majority vote of God.
The religious leaders became angry. They thrust Jesus out of town. That means they grabbed Him and push and shove Him out of the city. They were going to throw him off a cliff to kill him, but the Bible says that Jesus escaped out of their sight. (Luke 4).
From that day forward Israel sought for a time to take the life of Jesus Christ as Jezebel sought to take the life of Elijah.
Jesus, inviting people to, “Come and follow Him.”
He said in Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He said in Matthew 18:11, Jesus said, “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”
He said in Matthew 19:21, Jesus said, “…come and follow me.”
Sadly, the Jewish nation as a whole rejected Christ’s invitation.
Three and a half years later Jesus was taken before Pilate and falsely accused.
800 years earlier when fire fell from heaven they refused to follow God. And when Jesus came, they refused to follow Him.
B - PROTECTION - Notice the third and fourth question in verse 2: Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? This question is about His PROTECTION.
Keep in mind the fact that Israel had fallen into captivity and they blamed God. When in reality, they were bitter at God.
If they would, but, repent and come back and renew their relationship, they could experience the blessings again. The next move was Israel’s.
1) So, God reminds Israel of His Power over the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 50:2 …behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
Israel’s days in Egypt grew dark and dismal. They were forced into slavery. They were inhumanely beaten and God, by His mighty hand, redeemed them through the blood of a sacrificial lamb. That was only one illustration of God delivering Israel a thousand times from their enemies.
The mighty nation of Egypt, which was once like the Garden of Eden, was made a wilderness (v 2). God dried up the waters, the fish died and outside of the major cities men will died of thirst. Egypt has 390,000 square miles but the entire population today lives in 15,000 square miles along the Nile and that includes the delta.
I’ve been to Egypt twice. The land is mostly desert and destitute accept for the few cities next to the Nile, like Cairo and Alexandria.
The Nile is very dirty and the land very unkempt. What use to be a haven on earth, is one of the dirtiest countries in the world today.
God was saying, see what I can do. I can make a country prosperous or I can curse it with poverty.
Application: The problem with America’s woes today is not the fault of this administration or the last administration. It is the fault of a people who have turned their back on God and need to come back.
2) He reminds them of His power over the hearts of men. In Moses’ day, God sent darkness over the city and the people dressed in sackcloth and begged for forgiveness.
Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering
God was hinting to Israel, that if they would show some humility and come back to Him that He would redeem them.
But, their blindness was greater than the darkness that covered Egypt for three days.
II – REALIZES WHAT HE WILL DO
As Jehovah was speaking in Isaiah 50:1-3, Jesus is speaking in Isaiah 50:4-9.
In the first three verses God the Father is speaking, attempting to rekindle the flame in the hearts of His children, but they would not let Him. They had grown cold, indifferent and bitter. They had crossed the line of no return. The covenant was broken.
Now a new covenant would be pictured. The Redeemer of mankind is being revealed. He who is actually speaking in the next few verses is Jesus Christ.
A – WE SEE HIS CHARACTER:
In these few verses are seeds of prophecy that will blossom in the New Testament Gospels to prove that Jesus was the Messiah.
4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Christ speaks of two things here: 1) Humanity 2) Humility
Thus, it is clear that Jesus Christ is speaking here and He reveals a truth, that had to be known, if the Messiah was to be accepted. He reveals Jesus’ human character traits. First, He reveals that God will become a man!
1. HUMANITY
a. We first see that Jesus grew in wisdom. Verse 4 reveals that the Christ was born a baby, a human being.
One of the most difficult doctrinal conclusions our forefathers discussed was this: Was Jesus God or man? They concluded He was the God-man. He was 100% God and 100% man.
--As a man He was born of a woman, as God He had no earthly father.
--As man He was tempted in the wilderness, as God He walked on the Sea of Galilee.
--As man He was born in a stable, as God He was transfigured before the disciples.
And in this verse we see that Jesus as a man had to grow in statue and wisdom. He had to learn to speak Hebrew and Greek.
Whereas we normally think that Christ knew everything from a baby up, He did not. He was an obedient son who learned and grew mentally and physically.
Proof is revealed in two passages:
In Hebrews 5:8 we read, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;”
This is difficult for some folks to grasp, but understand that only deity can limit Himself and that is what God did when he became human.
He limited his divine abilities so he might experience every test and trial in life, just like you. That is why Hebrews 4:15 reads, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Another poof is found in Luke 2. Jesus was in Jerusalem with His parents for a feast. The family and many others packed up to go back to Nazareth. They traveled for a day and realized that Jesus was not with them. When they returned Jesus, at the age of 12, was teaching the scholars in the Temple.
When his family ask Him what was he was doing, He said to His parents in Luke 2:49, “…How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
First of all we see Jesus as a 12 year old boy. He was knowledgeable, wise and mature.
Then Joseph and Mary told him to come home with them and the Bible says in Luke 2:51 “…He…was subject unto them.” Verse 52 reads, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”
In the life of Christ from a child to 30 years of age, when He was not doing the work of a carpenter, He was studying the Word of God for the ministry which he would soon begin.
The Bible never says Jesus grew in knowledge, but He grew in wisdom. The Bible says, “Knowledge puffs up.” What we know in our head will only make us proud and cause us to draw the wrong conclusions.
Wisdom is the ability to see life from God’s perspective.
It is seeing how God wants us to live and then follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus proved His Worthiness: Jesus not only proved His righteousness by the wisdom He learned, but he proved it by the worthy life He lived.
Jesus was never rebellious. He never, one time spoke, or showed rebellion to His parents or to His God or to any authority.
That is what He meant in verse 5: The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Not only was Jesus not rebellious as a child to his earthly parents, but He was completely obedient to God.
When Jesus studied the Scriptures and saw the shadow of the cross in His life, He did not rebel, but He willingly surrendered to the will of God.
When He read Isaiah 53 and knew that He would be led to His death as a lamb to the slaughter, He never turned back. He never even flinched. Thus, we see His humanity.
Application: I’m glad I couldn’t see the future. I would have run away like Elijah in some dark cave. But, God’s grace is sufficient, one day at a time.
I thought of William Borden, the heir to the wealthy Borden industry. If he knew he would die on the mission field at age 25, would he had gone? I thought of David Braniard, missionary to the Indians in America, would he have gone, had he known he would hae died at age 29. Jesus knew He would die at the hands of who He came to die for and he was completely obedient to God.
2 – HUMILITY
Isaiah 50:6 reads, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Jesus knew that they would beat him physically. He knew that men would pluck off the hair on his face. He knew they would spit upon His lovely brow, which was the greatest humility that could be cast on a man in those days.
He knew that He would be rejected by those He loved. He knew they would reject His life and His word and nail Him to the old wooden cross, but He was obedient to the will of God.
Application: Do you know Second Timothy 3:12? “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
Do you know that if you live as Christ wants you to you are going to suffer? You may suffer for your own mistakes, we all do, but you will suffer also just because you are a Christian. Prepare to accept some suffering and rebuke and rejection in this world.
Dean Speicher, a Christian man and the former Superintendent of the Planetarium and Air-Space Museum wrote: “Encouragement to 'Do Right Anyway.'” He wrote…
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest anyway.
The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
What you spent years building, may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may turn against you if you help them. Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
Matt 5: 43-44, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
What kept Christ obedient all His life? It was His faith. Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Jesus studied and He foresaw His lot in life. He believed God and by faith, He set His face like a flint to go to Calvary. That meant that He would never turn back. By faith, He did right.
Application: Christians, I concluded this world is not my home. I know in the last days, fewer and fewer people will want my Jesus. I may have to stand alone on truth, salvation and righteousness. I know I will live in a very compromising society. But, by faith I have decided to stand as true to the Lord as I possibly can.
B- THE CHALLENGE OF CHRIST
8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
The Lord seems to be saying “Who is on the My side, stand up!” Jesus said you are either for me or against me. We are either an ally with Christ or an adversary of Christ.
1 –Allies of Christ, the Church, and the Christian
Christ knew there will be a great physical and spiritual battle in His life and He knew there will be a great spiritual battle in your life.
Be on His team.
Francis Havergal wrote this poem in 1877.
1. Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King?
Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring?
Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe?
Who is on the Lord’s side? Who for Him will go?
By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
2. Jesus, Thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem,
But with Thine own lifeblood, for Thy diadem;
With Thy blessing filling each who comes to Thee,
Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free.
By Thy grand redemption, by Thy grace divine,
We are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!
3. Chosen to be soldiers, in an alien land,
Chosen, called, and faithful, for our Captain’s band;
In the service royal, let us not grow cold,
Let us be right loyal, noble, true and bold.
Master, Thou wilt keep us, by Thy grace divine,
Always on the Lord’s side—Savior, always Thine!
In Psalms 22, we see many aspects of that great battle of the cross and it deals with relationships to the righteous redeemer:
A - Jesus’ relationship to the Father: The Father was a ally.
In verse one Jesus knows that the sins of the world will be laid on his body and something will happen that has never happened in eternity pass nor will ever happen again. He prayed, “Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
When Christ was in the garden, he prayed with such intensity that he sweat as it were great drops of blood. This was what was in Christ’s heart. He was not asking God to take away the cross. Jesus knew He had to go to the cross and pay for the sins of the world.
What was in the cup? Spittle, yes; scourging, yes; mockery, yes; hate, yes, death, yes, but more. The wrath of God was in that cup. Someone had to take the righteous indignation of God, and Jesus did. But, I believe there was one more thing.
Jesus knew this scripture and He knew that something would happen on the cross that never happened in eternity pass nor would happen in eternity future. He knew that God would have to turn His back on His son on the cross.
Habakkuk 1:13 reads, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:
Look at the words of Jesus in Psalms 22:1. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
2 – Adversary of Christ
A - Jesus’ relationship to the demons:
In Psalms 22:12 Jesus speaks of the bulls of Bashan which represent the demons of hell encompassing the cross. “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.”
These bulls would surround their prey. One would leave the formation of the heard and at full speed thrust his horns into their prey and back up again into formation. Then another bull would thrust out in vicious anger and another and another until the prey was dead.
Though you and I saw the nails and the scourge and the crown of thorns, the blood and the wooden cross, we did not see the demons of hell railing on and mocking Christ with vicious, hideous demonic cries and vengeance when the Father had turned His back.
b - Jesus’ relationship to the Gentiles:
Psalms 22:16 speaks of the Gentiles that rejected Him. “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”
The assembly of the wicked pictured the Jews, who in secret manipulated the Roman governor to crucify Christ, even though it was the Romans Gentiles that pierced His hands and His feet.
C - Jesus’ relationship to Satan:
Psalms 22:21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
You better believe that Satan wasn’t drink lemonade in some oasis in Baghdad. He to was at the cross, with all of us evil, using every ounce of devilish power he had to stop Jesus Christ from having victory. Only Satan in his ignorance did not realizes that three days later, Christ would walk out of hell, walk out of the grave and throw off death and rise again.
D - Jesus’ relationship to the Meek:
Psalms 22: 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Ps 149;4 says God …will beauty the meek with salvation.
Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Thus, salvation is for the man who will yield his life completely to Christ.
E – Jesus’ relationship in the Millennium:
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD'S: and he is the governor among the nations.
For 1,000 years the Lord’s relationship to the world will be wonderful. All will bow before Him. All will sing praised to Him. All will worship Him as Lord and God.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Whole Story of Salvation
A Message of Love
I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Many people heard the words on Valentine’s Day, “I love you.” They are beautiful word, but what they truly, truly mean is what is important.
“I love you” means I will die for you. I will lay down my life for you. I will give up every thing I have for you. I will be patience with you. I will be kind and gentle with you. I will be tolerant of you.”
“I love you” means spit in my face and I won’t spit back. Slap me and I will turn the other cheek. Take a dagger and thrust it through my hand and I will stretch out the other hand. Hang me on a cross and you will hear me cry, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Too many people who say, “I love you,” truly, truly don’t understand the meaning. What “I love you,” means too many is: You please me. You meet my needs. You give me what I want. You satisfy me. You keep me from being lonely. You are always there when I need you. You pay the bills. You take care of my wants.
In Ephesians 5:25, God’s word talks about a husbands love this way: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
A husband’s love should be spiritual love and leadership love. A husband should set the tone for love in his home. The wife who is under God’s authority will reciprocate that love.
The love God showed man was agape love. He gave expecting nothing in return. He served and went the extra mile. He loved and loved to please the Father.
His love was so powerful that it turned the world upside down and it shook up a man by the name of Nicodemus.
AN EXPOSITION OF JOHN 3:1-21
[OUTLINE: THE CONNECTION / THE CONVERSATION / THE CONVERSION]
I – THE CONNECTION 1-2A
3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night,
Nicodemus was a consecrated Pharisee.
• A Pharisee was a very religious and pious man.
• He fasted twice a week.
• He gave his tithes and more to God’s work.
• He memorized Scriptures.
• He had great knowledge of the Word of God.
• He wasn’t just a Pharisee but a ruler of the Jews.
• He was not just religious but political.
Nicodemus today would have been a renowned religious figure. He might have been a mixture of Baptist and Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran, Catholic and Protestant. Plus, he had a little bit of a republican and democratic alike in him.
Some say he was one of the wealthiest and maybe highest respected men in Israel.
Nicodemus was a curious person. What stirred his curiosity?
• He heard of a man that some said was virgin born.
• He heard that the Messiah of Israel had come into the world.
• He heard of many miracles that this man from Galilee performed.
• He heard that Jesus had fed 5,000.
• He had healed the sick and made the blind to see.
• One night when most people were at home with their families, Nicodemus just had to personally, one on one, talk with Jesus, so he sought Him out.
II -THE CONVERSATION – 2B –
Nicodemus Speaks - 2b …said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
• Nicodemus immediately acknowledges that there was something miraculous about Jesus Christ.
• He knew that God was instrumental in everything that Jesus did.
• He acknowledges that He was a great teacher.
• He admits that he believes in miracles the miracles of Jesus.
Jesus Speaks - He discerns Nicodemus spiritual need and gets right to the point:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus gives a physical analogy to a great spiritual truth.
• He compares the new birth to a physical birth:
• For a baby to be born there must be a love relationship.
• During that love relationship, seeds are sown.
• Those seeds take root and grow over a period of time.
• Through travail and labor and pain, new life comes forth.
The spiritual birth comes to pass the same way.
• Seeds of scripture are sown in one’s heart and life.
• A love relationship must form.
• A desire to know God and to please God fills one’s heart.
• For some people it takes weeks, for others maybe years.
• Then through prayer and travail, a person rejects the comfort womb of the world he/she is living in and is birth into the kingdom of God by God’s spirit.
This analogy was too deep for one of the most spiritual men of Israel to understand.
Nicodemus’ question: 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
That seems like a silly question, but Nicodemus understood Jesus to say a man had to be born twice. But, he did not understand the spiritual birth.
Today, many folks think just like Nicodemus. They hear words like you need to be saved, born again or you need to believe and they say what does all of that mean?
• Some believe if they join the church and have their name put on the church role they will go to heaven. The Bible never teaches this.
• Some believe if they are baptized they will go to heaven. Even though a person should follow the Lord in Baptism, water baptism does not wash away a person’s sins.
• Some believe if they turn over a good life, they will make it to the other side.
I’ve known alcoholics to quit drinking and drug users to give up drugs, but the question is have they been born again?
• The false teaching the past man years has been, pray the sinners prayer and you will go to heaven. I believe a person should pray the sinner’s prayer, but outside the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the travail of repentance and one’s belief or commitment to Christ, a prayer is only words.
Jesus’ Quote: Now, Jesus continues the conversation:
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
• Water: Is Jesus talking about physical water here? Of course not! The voice of God is compared to mighty waters.
In Revelation 1:15 John tells us that the voice of Jesus is like the sound of many waters.
Jesus was the living Word, the Bible is God’s written word.
The “water” represents the word of God.
Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
The water is God’s Word. Seeds are sown from God’s Word. Those seeds must reveal truth.
-God’s Word reveals to man the sinfulness of his heart.
-God’s Word reveals to man the lovingness of God.
-God’s Word reveals the only way of Salvation.
• Spirit: The Spirit of God brings conviction, sorrow, travail and repentance.
Jesus says in verse 6 and 7: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Jesus gives another analogy in dealing with the Spirit.
As the flesh of a mother and father produces their fleshly offspring with fleshly desires, so the Holy Spirit of God produces spiritual off spring with spiritual desires. As you were born physically, so you must be born spiritually.
Key to salvation: Now notice the work of God’s Spirit. He is mysterious. He comes into a person’s life when God’s word is preached. Notice verse 8.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
• Pneuma: The analogy is wind. The Greek word is pneuma. It is interpreted not only wind I the Bible but also spirit.
As wind just blows and you can’t tell if it comes from the sea or the mountains at times, so God’s spirit in God’s time blows into your life. So, a man can’t get saved when he chooses, but when God’s spirit convicts and draws.
• Pentecost: On the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God blew into the upper room. He worked, moved and convicted men of sin.
-After the seeds of God’s word were sown, the spirit of God brought conviction.
-Under the conviction of the Spirit the people on the day of Pentecost cried, “What must we do?”
The same wind blew into the Roman jail cell one night in Philippi, and the Philippian Jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?”
Thus, when a person comes to Christ it is a willing desire to do so.
It is under the mighty working of God’s Spirit that a person’s eyes are open and it is at this time, they cry out to God for salvation and their life is made new.
Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Next we see an honest question: 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Nicodemus was honest with Jesus. He said, I don’t understand.
-A lot of people go to hell because they will not be honest with God.
-They can not remember the conviction of the Lord.
-They cannot remember a conversion.
-They still live today, as they lived 20 years ago or 5 years ago.
-They are too proud to stay on their knees until they have truly surrendered their lives to God.
Jesus gives Nicodemus a humble quote in verse 10:
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
-Most people would be offended by this statement.
-Most people would not admit that they were lost.
-They would hold onto their church membership, their religion, their water baptism or their good works.
-But, Nicodemus had something good going for him. He was humble and meek and wanted to know absolutely for sure the way to heaven.
JESUS’S SERMON
Look at Jesus’ sermon to Nicodemus. It was not just for Nicodemus but for every person who would read the Bible.
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Jesus told Nicodemus, you lack understanding:
Jesus, in using the word “we” was referring to the nation of Israel. The Jews said, “We have the answer, we know the scriptures, we are God chosen people, but then Jesus shocks Nicodemus by saying, “You won’t receive our witness.
Why did Jesus say, “our witness?” He was the Messiah that was prophesied about and promised by Moses and David and Isaiah and all the prophets of the Old Testament.
Nicodemus, like most of the religious Pharisees of that day, were religious and lost.
Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus of his lack of knowledge.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus says, I used a physical birth analogy, to reveal to you what it means to go to heaven, but you don’t believe it.
Seeds must be sown, love must develop and conviction or travail must take place. You must repent and be converted. Then you will be born into God’s kingdom.
Jesus was saying, If I give you three or four steps to follow, you will try to enter heaven intellectually.
Salvation is not an intellectual decision. It is a spiritual conversion. It is a change heart, mind and life.
III – CONVERSION:
Now Jesus reveals His resurrection:
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that he would die and rise again.
He then reveals the cross.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
The story of the serpent was a shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel was guilty of many sins. On one occasion they were complaining about how bad things were, but that wasn’t new, they did that all the time. God sent deadly serpents into their camp. Many were bitten and many died.
Moses implored God what to do to stop the poison from killing the people. God said make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole and whoever looks at the serpent by faith will be healed or delivered from the poison of the serpents.
• That story pictures man’s natural ungrateful and selfish heart.
• Man has been bitten with the poison of the serpent, Satan.
• We are all filled with sin.
• The brass serpent pictured judgment. Rather than God, putting us on the cross, God put His Son on that cross.
• The brass represents the judgment God put on His son.
• Jesus died in our place.
• When a person by faith and I mean sincere dedicatory faith looks to Jesus and puts his trust and faith in him, he is close to Salvation.
-Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that his religion wasn’t good enough.
-He revealed to Nicodemus the conviction of the spirit.
-Now, He reveals faith, trust and belief.
Commitment:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus said whosoever believeth in Him. The word “believe” in Jesus’ day is equivalent with commitment today.
Belief in Jesus is not a simple head knowledge that Jesus died was buried and rose again.
If you remember, Agrippa believed all Paul preached about the resurrection Christ and Agrippa said, “Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian.” But he would not commit his life to Jesus Christ. He would not repent. He would not unashamedly stand for Christ.
Here is a picture of God’s commitment to man:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is LOVE!
• Salvation is not just a belief.
• The whole story reveals one must humbly seek the Lord.
• One must understand salvation.
• One must be convicted or drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
• Then finally, one must believe or commit their life to Christ.
2 – Concern:
God not only shows His Commitment, but, His Concern.
Here is God’s great concern for mankind: Here is God’s promise to those who will believe. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
God never wanted anyone to miss heaven. God does not want to condemn anyone to hell. God wants people to be saved from their sin. God wants the whole world to go to heaven. That is God’s concern.
3 - Condemnation
Know the truth about a person being condemned.
Some folks have said, won’t God let anybody into heaven?
Doesn’t God love enough to just forgive us even if we don’t ask?
Won’t he just take everybody to heaven whether they believe or not?
Verse 18 reads, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Why doesn’t everyone trust Jesus Christ?
Jacob Mesier, 5 years old, came to me last week after a service and said to be with great compassion, “Preacher, I don’t understand it. God holds the world in this hand and he holds the sun in the other hand and he loves everybody… and I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t love Him? Well, Jacob, the answer is found in the next verse.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Sadly, many folks have chosen to live a life for themselves. They love the world. They enjoy being with unsaved people more that believers. They love the lights of the world of the light of God.
They simply don’t realize who God is, what God has done or why they are here. And therefore they are blinded to where they are going.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When a person comes to Christ, he sees his deeds of sin and then comes to the light where God then fashions us to be like Him.
A believer isn’t perfect, but he has a hunger and desire to please the Lord. He knows he should be walking in the light.
Have you been born again!
I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Many people heard the words on Valentine’s Day, “I love you.” They are beautiful word, but what they truly, truly mean is what is important.
“I love you” means I will die for you. I will lay down my life for you. I will give up every thing I have for you. I will be patience with you. I will be kind and gentle with you. I will be tolerant of you.”
“I love you” means spit in my face and I won’t spit back. Slap me and I will turn the other cheek. Take a dagger and thrust it through my hand and I will stretch out the other hand. Hang me on a cross and you will hear me cry, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Too many people who say, “I love you,” truly, truly don’t understand the meaning. What “I love you,” means too many is: You please me. You meet my needs. You give me what I want. You satisfy me. You keep me from being lonely. You are always there when I need you. You pay the bills. You take care of my wants.
In Ephesians 5:25, God’s word talks about a husbands love this way: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
A husband’s love should be spiritual love and leadership love. A husband should set the tone for love in his home. The wife who is under God’s authority will reciprocate that love.
The love God showed man was agape love. He gave expecting nothing in return. He served and went the extra mile. He loved and loved to please the Father.
His love was so powerful that it turned the world upside down and it shook up a man by the name of Nicodemus.
AN EXPOSITION OF JOHN 3:1-21
[OUTLINE: THE CONNECTION / THE CONVERSATION / THE CONVERSION]
I – THE CONNECTION 1-2A
3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night,
Nicodemus was a consecrated Pharisee.
• A Pharisee was a very religious and pious man.
• He fasted twice a week.
• He gave his tithes and more to God’s work.
• He memorized Scriptures.
• He had great knowledge of the Word of God.
• He wasn’t just a Pharisee but a ruler of the Jews.
• He was not just religious but political.
Nicodemus today would have been a renowned religious figure. He might have been a mixture of Baptist and Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran, Catholic and Protestant. Plus, he had a little bit of a republican and democratic alike in him.
Some say he was one of the wealthiest and maybe highest respected men in Israel.
Nicodemus was a curious person. What stirred his curiosity?
• He heard of a man that some said was virgin born.
• He heard that the Messiah of Israel had come into the world.
• He heard of many miracles that this man from Galilee performed.
• He heard that Jesus had fed 5,000.
• He had healed the sick and made the blind to see.
• One night when most people were at home with their families, Nicodemus just had to personally, one on one, talk with Jesus, so he sought Him out.
II -THE CONVERSATION – 2B –
Nicodemus Speaks - 2b …said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
• Nicodemus immediately acknowledges that there was something miraculous about Jesus Christ.
• He knew that God was instrumental in everything that Jesus did.
• He acknowledges that He was a great teacher.
• He admits that he believes in miracles the miracles of Jesus.
Jesus Speaks - He discerns Nicodemus spiritual need and gets right to the point:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus gives a physical analogy to a great spiritual truth.
• He compares the new birth to a physical birth:
• For a baby to be born there must be a love relationship.
• During that love relationship, seeds are sown.
• Those seeds take root and grow over a period of time.
• Through travail and labor and pain, new life comes forth.
The spiritual birth comes to pass the same way.
• Seeds of scripture are sown in one’s heart and life.
• A love relationship must form.
• A desire to know God and to please God fills one’s heart.
• For some people it takes weeks, for others maybe years.
• Then through prayer and travail, a person rejects the comfort womb of the world he/she is living in and is birth into the kingdom of God by God’s spirit.
This analogy was too deep for one of the most spiritual men of Israel to understand.
Nicodemus’ question: 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
That seems like a silly question, but Nicodemus understood Jesus to say a man had to be born twice. But, he did not understand the spiritual birth.
Today, many folks think just like Nicodemus. They hear words like you need to be saved, born again or you need to believe and they say what does all of that mean?
• Some believe if they join the church and have their name put on the church role they will go to heaven. The Bible never teaches this.
• Some believe if they are baptized they will go to heaven. Even though a person should follow the Lord in Baptism, water baptism does not wash away a person’s sins.
• Some believe if they turn over a good life, they will make it to the other side.
I’ve known alcoholics to quit drinking and drug users to give up drugs, but the question is have they been born again?
• The false teaching the past man years has been, pray the sinners prayer and you will go to heaven. I believe a person should pray the sinner’s prayer, but outside the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the travail of repentance and one’s belief or commitment to Christ, a prayer is only words.
Jesus’ Quote: Now, Jesus continues the conversation:
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
• Water: Is Jesus talking about physical water here? Of course not! The voice of God is compared to mighty waters.
In Revelation 1:15 John tells us that the voice of Jesus is like the sound of many waters.
Jesus was the living Word, the Bible is God’s written word.
The “water” represents the word of God.
Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
The water is God’s Word. Seeds are sown from God’s Word. Those seeds must reveal truth.
-God’s Word reveals to man the sinfulness of his heart.
-God’s Word reveals to man the lovingness of God.
-God’s Word reveals the only way of Salvation.
• Spirit: The Spirit of God brings conviction, sorrow, travail and repentance.
Jesus says in verse 6 and 7: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Jesus gives another analogy in dealing with the Spirit.
As the flesh of a mother and father produces their fleshly offspring with fleshly desires, so the Holy Spirit of God produces spiritual off spring with spiritual desires. As you were born physically, so you must be born spiritually.
Key to salvation: Now notice the work of God’s Spirit. He is mysterious. He comes into a person’s life when God’s word is preached. Notice verse 8.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
• Pneuma: The analogy is wind. The Greek word is pneuma. It is interpreted not only wind I the Bible but also spirit.
As wind just blows and you can’t tell if it comes from the sea or the mountains at times, so God’s spirit in God’s time blows into your life. So, a man can’t get saved when he chooses, but when God’s spirit convicts and draws.
• Pentecost: On the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God blew into the upper room. He worked, moved and convicted men of sin.
-After the seeds of God’s word were sown, the spirit of God brought conviction.
-Under the conviction of the Spirit the people on the day of Pentecost cried, “What must we do?”
The same wind blew into the Roman jail cell one night in Philippi, and the Philippian Jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?”
Thus, when a person comes to Christ it is a willing desire to do so.
It is under the mighty working of God’s Spirit that a person’s eyes are open and it is at this time, they cry out to God for salvation and their life is made new.
Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Next we see an honest question: 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Nicodemus was honest with Jesus. He said, I don’t understand.
-A lot of people go to hell because they will not be honest with God.
-They can not remember the conviction of the Lord.
-They cannot remember a conversion.
-They still live today, as they lived 20 years ago or 5 years ago.
-They are too proud to stay on their knees until they have truly surrendered their lives to God.
Jesus gives Nicodemus a humble quote in verse 10:
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
-Most people would be offended by this statement.
-Most people would not admit that they were lost.
-They would hold onto their church membership, their religion, their water baptism or their good works.
-But, Nicodemus had something good going for him. He was humble and meek and wanted to know absolutely for sure the way to heaven.
JESUS’S SERMON
Look at Jesus’ sermon to Nicodemus. It was not just for Nicodemus but for every person who would read the Bible.
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Jesus told Nicodemus, you lack understanding:
Jesus, in using the word “we” was referring to the nation of Israel. The Jews said, “We have the answer, we know the scriptures, we are God chosen people, but then Jesus shocks Nicodemus by saying, “You won’t receive our witness.
Why did Jesus say, “our witness?” He was the Messiah that was prophesied about and promised by Moses and David and Isaiah and all the prophets of the Old Testament.
Nicodemus, like most of the religious Pharisees of that day, were religious and lost.
Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus of his lack of knowledge.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus says, I used a physical birth analogy, to reveal to you what it means to go to heaven, but you don’t believe it.
Seeds must be sown, love must develop and conviction or travail must take place. You must repent and be converted. Then you will be born into God’s kingdom.
Jesus was saying, If I give you three or four steps to follow, you will try to enter heaven intellectually.
Salvation is not an intellectual decision. It is a spiritual conversion. It is a change heart, mind and life.
III – CONVERSION:
Now Jesus reveals His resurrection:
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that he would die and rise again.
He then reveals the cross.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
The story of the serpent was a shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel was guilty of many sins. On one occasion they were complaining about how bad things were, but that wasn’t new, they did that all the time. God sent deadly serpents into their camp. Many were bitten and many died.
Moses implored God what to do to stop the poison from killing the people. God said make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole and whoever looks at the serpent by faith will be healed or delivered from the poison of the serpents.
• That story pictures man’s natural ungrateful and selfish heart.
• Man has been bitten with the poison of the serpent, Satan.
• We are all filled with sin.
• The brass serpent pictured judgment. Rather than God, putting us on the cross, God put His Son on that cross.
• The brass represents the judgment God put on His son.
• Jesus died in our place.
• When a person by faith and I mean sincere dedicatory faith looks to Jesus and puts his trust and faith in him, he is close to Salvation.
-Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that his religion wasn’t good enough.
-He revealed to Nicodemus the conviction of the spirit.
-Now, He reveals faith, trust and belief.
Commitment:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus said whosoever believeth in Him. The word “believe” in Jesus’ day is equivalent with commitment today.
Belief in Jesus is not a simple head knowledge that Jesus died was buried and rose again.
If you remember, Agrippa believed all Paul preached about the resurrection Christ and Agrippa said, “Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian.” But he would not commit his life to Jesus Christ. He would not repent. He would not unashamedly stand for Christ.
Here is a picture of God’s commitment to man:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is LOVE!
• Salvation is not just a belief.
• The whole story reveals one must humbly seek the Lord.
• One must understand salvation.
• One must be convicted or drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
• Then finally, one must believe or commit their life to Christ.
2 – Concern:
God not only shows His Commitment, but, His Concern.
Here is God’s great concern for mankind: Here is God’s promise to those who will believe. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
God never wanted anyone to miss heaven. God does not want to condemn anyone to hell. God wants people to be saved from their sin. God wants the whole world to go to heaven. That is God’s concern.
3 - Condemnation
Know the truth about a person being condemned.
Some folks have said, won’t God let anybody into heaven?
Doesn’t God love enough to just forgive us even if we don’t ask?
Won’t he just take everybody to heaven whether they believe or not?
Verse 18 reads, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Why doesn’t everyone trust Jesus Christ?
Jacob Mesier, 5 years old, came to me last week after a service and said to be with great compassion, “Preacher, I don’t understand it. God holds the world in this hand and he holds the sun in the other hand and he loves everybody… and I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t love Him? Well, Jacob, the answer is found in the next verse.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Sadly, many folks have chosen to live a life for themselves. They love the world. They enjoy being with unsaved people more that believers. They love the lights of the world of the light of God.
They simply don’t realize who God is, what God has done or why they are here. And therefore they are blinded to where they are going.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When a person comes to Christ, he sees his deeds of sin and then comes to the light where God then fashions us to be like Him.
A believer isn’t perfect, but he has a hunger and desire to please the Lord. He knows he should be walking in the light.
Have you been born again!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Gifts of the Church
THE GIFT OF THE CHURCH
In Romans 12 Paul reveals 7 gifts. Every believer has one of God’s special seven gifts.
I - PERSONAL GIFTS: Romans 12:4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
According to verse 4 each person has a Personal gift. God has given you a special gift that can only be fulfilled and give glory to Him, if it is used as part of the body of Christ.
Now, you may sing, but that isn’t your gift. You may teach but that isn’t your gift. You may serve but that may not be your gift.
-There is a difference in the motivational gifts which is one of the seven mentioned in Romans 12, and the ministry gifts.
-The ministry gifts deal with how you use your motivational gift.
-Then there are the manifestations of your gift.
When you practice and perfect your gift, it is manifested to others. Then, you bring encouragement, enlightenment and even healing to others. And ultimately when these gifts are used properly, you bring glory to God.
II – PERFORMANCE GIFTS: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another
According to verse 5 each person is responsible for the Performance of that gift. I am responsible to practice and perfect my gift will be manifested and minister to my family and church.
III – POWER OF THE GIFTS: 6 Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
According to verse six God gives us Power to use our gift. That power is called grace. Grace comes from humility.
Saving grace is different from daily grace. Daily grace is the power and desire God gives us to do His will and to do it well, but we must abide in Him.
Recognize that every gift is different and God has given each person in His body one main gift even though we are admonished to learn all of the gifts.
AUTOMOBILE
What is most important part of a car? Is it the key, the motor, the wheels, the transmission, the oil, the water or the gasoline? Do you think it would matter if we took a few bolts out of the motor or took off a belt or removed a hose on the engine?
Would it hurt the way the car drove if we took one spark plug out and left it at home? If you know anything about an automobile, you would say, “It won’t work long or at all if you start removing things.”
Understand that the Church is a body of believers and each member has a different gift.
If those gifts is understood and used properly, the church will bring glory to God and the body of believers. If it is not pursued, perfected and practiced, the body of Christ will hurt.
Here are the seven gifts God gives to the Church.
Romans 12: 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
I) THE PROPHET: (Romans 12:6, 9, I Corinthians 14:1,3)
There are many good character traits of the prophet, but the five best character traits are found in the following verses:
Romans 12: 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I Cor 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1. The prophet is called of God to follow Christ’s example of love (1). He is to know the will of the Father. He is to know the word of God and he is to deliver it to the people in love, even if it cost him, his life.
2. His words are to edify (3). Words that edify enlighten or open people’s eyes to truth. They inform and educate people to the “truth” of God’s word and the “times” in which they live.
3. He is to exhort (3). He urges and encourages others to live for God. It may seem to others as if he is pressuring them to live a better life, but the prophet sees and senses God’s holiness and His judgment.
4. He is to comfort by giving truth. For example, in the third century under the rule of Diocletian, many Christians were being slaughtered like cattle. What comfort could a prophet give?
He could give the words of Christ when He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Our comfort is the fact that this world is not our home. This is our work station. This is where we serve. Our place of son-ship is yet future. Christians set your sights on that which is eternal.
5. He is to patience and principled. In 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Paul says to proclaim the word by reproving, rebuking and exhorting, but doing so with longsuffering and doctrine.
A prophet must be patience and tolerant in presenting truth even though many within the church and especially in the last days will not listen or obey.
Many will chose the worldly, entertaining churches rather than those churches that still believe in holy worship and the preaching of all the council of God.
**Many who have the gift of a prophet misuse the gift because they are not abiding in Christ. Here is a list of five misuses.
1. A misuse is when a prophet exposes sin without restoring the offender. They tell someone what they are doing wrong, but lack the longsuffering and doctrine to encourage them to do right.
2. They jump to conclusions without getting all the facts.
3. He has a tendency to overkill when one sins. He wants nothing to do with one who has fallen. The prophet has a hard time separating the sin from the sinner. He tends to reject them both, losing the ability to help that person in the future.
4. Another misuse is the prophet expects immediate results when he reveals truth. He expects immediate repentance.
5. If not careful he can be harsh and condemning.
These character traits hinder the work of Christ. If you are a prophet, meditate on the positive traits of love and longsuffering.
If you have hurt someone with your words, humble your heart before God. Ask forgiveness and go and apology.
II. SERVANT: Romans 12:7a, 10, 11,
7a Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering…
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
There are five good traits for a server who abides in Christ:
1. (7a) The servant is patient. He waits on the right opportunity to serve. Many folks get saved and want to teach, work or serve in some capacity. Paul in his wisdom says, “wait.” Why? A servant needs to learn and grow and discipline his life, less he become discouraged and fall.
2. (10a) A servant is kind, gentle, thoughtful and compassionate towards others, but needs to hear a thank you.
3. (10b) He will sacrifice his own needs to serve others.
4. (11a) He is full of energy. He is willing to help others though weary.
5. (11b) He is fervent or passionate to help others for he knows in serving others, he is serving the Lord.
If a servant fails to spend proper time abiding with the Lord he can misuse this gift. Here are five ways he can do so:
1. He can volunteer to often, to the hurt of his own mate and family.
2. He can overwork himself to the point of physical exhaustion and thereby suffer spiritually.
3. He may serve so much that he neglects God-given priorities like devotionals, family, church.
4. He may become upset with others who will not serve.
5. He may interfere with God’s discipline. A server may want to meet the needs of a person, when God is disciplining that person.
The prophet can see God’s discipline when a servant may not. The servant may continue to reach out to help when God was disciplining.
The servant is admonished to serve others. He feels that in serving others, he is serving Christ. The key to a good server is waiting on the Lord and being under God given authority,
My wife is a server. Over the years she has wanted to do help others outside of the home and she always has.
She wanted to do things for the church and the Lord and she did.
She helped me with the youth groups and ran bus routes and helped me every service in junior church in Florida when our children were young but they were always right there with us.
Then when our children got older, (3,6,7) we began teaching our kids at home. She said, “I feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord?”
I told her, your ministry is first your family and your children. In time you can serve in other ways. She quit teaching piano for 15 years to give her life to teaching her children and completing her husband.
After many years, she went back to teaching piano, which she loved and God allowed her to go back and get her college degree.
In wisdom, she put her service for God first and she was under proper authority. He priority was her husband, her children and her Church.”
Learn what God’s priorities are for you in the Scripture then serve.
III - Teacher: (Romans 12:7b, Ephesians 4:11-16).
“…or he that teacheth, on teaching;”
Listed below are five positive character traits for teachers:
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; The gravile rule applies to the Greek words, pastors and teachers. That rule means that a pastor must be a teacher.
1. The teacher is the interpreter of truth. When he brings a message, he has thoroughly studied every aspect and knows exactly what is right and wrong. (Ephesians 4:12) 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
2. He normally presents truth systematically to unify the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
3. He gathers many facts to prove his point. He compares scripture with scripture so men will not be deceived (Ephesians 4:14). 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
4. He wants statements validated. If he hears something he has never heard before, he wants it to be proved. That is good. He wants spiritual growth (Ephesians 4:15). 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
5. He teaches with love. He senses that, if each person will just learn what he knows, the whole church will function perfectly for God’s glory (Ephesians 4:16). 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
When a teacher buys any item He will see which is the best for the money. If he buys a car, he will check out all the facts of that car. He’ll find out which one will last the longest, which has the best resale value. Then he will examine his family and see if it will be best for them.
Five misuses of this gift come from lack of study and meditation. Those uses are:
1. A teacher can become proud of their knowledge and become puffed up. (1 Cor 8:1)
2. He can miss the spiritual application by looking only at factual evidence and not seeing the spirit’s work.
3. The salvation of a soul and the work of God are spiritual. The teacher can tend to depend on intellectual evidence more than the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. The teacher can get caught up on arguing over minor points, because something hasn’t been sufficiently proved to him.
5. A teacher can begin to separate doctrines and present imbalanced truths.
IV - Exhorter: Romans 12:8a, 12
8a “Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation…”
12 ‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
1. Exhorters seem to always have an encouraging word. They are optimistic about life. They are visionaries. They see that anything is possible and God can take care of everything.
2. The exhorter rejoices in the spiritual growth of others. He desires to give admonition so other will grow for God’s glory (Col 1:28).
3. He sees how to turn problems into benefits (II Cor 1:1-7). When things go wrong, he often sees the profit or advantage.
4. An exhorter seeks to reach everyone. He sees hope in believers with different and difficult problems.
5. An exhorter enjoys sharing truth face to face. He senses that his words can give help and positive response.
The misuses of an exhorter are as followed:
1. An exhorter can start new projects without finishing the last one.
2. He enjoys giving steps of action, but can expect the steps alone to bring about the results. If the person doesn’t respond to those steps he can get upset or disillusioned in people.
3. An exhorter can set goals that are very difficult to reach. Being a visionary, he may suggest that someone do this and that until that person becomes discouraged with to much to do.
4. An exhorter has the tendency to give up on people who won’t respond quickly to his steps of actions.
5. An exhorter has a tendency to keep others waiting, including his wife and family.
We all need to be exhorters and give a kind word… a gentle word… a loving word… a joyful word… an encouraging word to the brethren.
Many evangelists are exhorters. Dr. Walter Burrell is an exhorter. He is a studier of the Bible and has Bible knowledge, but he exhorts you when he teaches and preaches.
V - GIVER: Romans 12:8b, 13
…he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; 13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
1. To give, one must have resources. The giver normally knows how to handle money. He saves and seeks to invest wisely.
2. He is frugal in his own life style. He realizes that God gave him everything he owns and he is willing to share that with others.
3. His giving is simple and his living is simple. He could have much more, but he enjoys giving to others.
4. The giver sees the needs of the saints. He will give what is needed. The giver does not want to be recognizes. He likes to stay in the background.
5. He is very friendly and warm person generally. He likes to give to those in need but does not want to be pressured to do so.
A giver can misuse his gifts these ways:
1. A giver can be so consumed in giving to others that he neglects the needs in his family.
2. A giver can give, wanting people to look to him verses God.
3. A giver, not in fellowship with the Lord, may not recognize God’s prompting and wait to long to help in a need.
4. A giver out of fellowship may begin to store up more and more for himself.
5. A giver may cease giving to people and begin giving only to projects.
A pastor was trying to get his church to give and build so they would not have to borrow money. Many in the church said the only way was to borrow. An old farmer in the church was a giver and was waiting to see if the church would by faith raise the money by the giving of the people or if they would put their faith in the bank. The church had a lengthy discussion and decided to borrow the money. The old farmer sent $250,000 to the IBYC, a Christian organization reaching out to many in the world. The church lost out. Was the giver in fellowship or not? Selah!
VI - Ruler or Organize: Romans 12:8c, 14
…he that ruleth, with diligence; 14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Five good traits of a ruler:
1. A ruler is a ruler or an organizer because of his diligence. He is a go getter. He is industrious. He is a hard worker and diligent. He sees what needs to be done and does it before he is asked.
2. An organizer sees the need in organizing his own personal life first. His house, his shed, his business is arranged properly.
3. He knows that time can be saved and goals reached quicker if everything is organized.
4. (v 14) He blesses with his words as he delegates projects. People feel as if they too are doing a blessed work with the project given them, because of the direction of the organizer.
5. An organizer completes his task quickly. Nehemiah was an organizer. He rebuilt the fallen walls and restored the gates of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.
An organizer is neat and clean. They can greatly serve the Lord. In the Lord’s work, they set days to call people, visit people and help people. He is very neat and organized. A lot of people have organizers in their pockets such as calendars and phones, but that doesn’t make them organized.
The misuses of an organizer are as followed:
1. Viewing people wrongly. He may see them only as a means to accomplish a task, and neglect to bless them by only giving orders.
2. He can show favoritism. If someone else is diligent, he can become more dependent and show favoritism towards that one. Then that person feels overloaded and pressured.
3. When an organizer is not in charge, when asked to do something, they have the tendency to delegate their work to another rather than serve.
4. If things are not done his way, he has the tendency to not get involved at all.
5. An organizer can concentrate so much on a project that he forgets to explain in details or give proper praise when the project is completed.
VII - Mercy: Romans 12:8d, 15
8d …he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
As a mercy spends time in God’s word, he will discover these character traits:
1. A mercy is deeply loyal to a friend and has needs of friendships.
2. A mercy empathizes with hurting people. They are very forgiving, no matter what has happened.
3. A mercy can show great joy when they see another person rejoice or have victory over a problem or issue.
4. A mercy will also show great compassion towards a sinner or one in need.
5. A mercy is very sensitive to loved ones, especially a mate and children.
The mercy sees those with physical needs. They want to reach out to those who are hurting physically, mentally, materially and spiritually.
The misuses of one not in God’s word are as followed:
1. A mercy can hold a grudge if he thinks someone has hurt a friend.
2. A mercy out of fellowship overlooks the sinful lives of those he cares for.
3. A mercy’s misuse is the inability to be firm when discipline is needed.
4. A mercy has a tendency to let her emotions rather than God’s principles control him.
5. A mercy may cut off those they feel are insensitive to people living in sin.
Scenario One: What do Christians do or not do that causes you disappointment? If you say…
1 – …They compromise with the world. You may be a prophet.
2 – …They fail to prove their life to others by how they live. You may be a server.
3 – …They substitute experience for sound doctrine. You may be a teacher.
4 – …They are not growing to spiritual maturity. You may be a exhorter.
5 – …They are not trusting God for their finances. You may be a giver.
6 – …They are not setting any major goals. You may be a organizer.
7 – …They do not show genuine love for each other. You may be a mercy.
Scenario Two: If at a family meal someone dropped a plate of food, what would your response be? What would you say?
1 – “Don’t feel badly. It could have happened to anyone.” (Mercy) His motivation was to relieve your embarrassment.
2 – “Jim, you get the mop. Sue, you pick it up. Mary, you help me fix another desert.” (Organizer) His motivation is to achieve the immediate goal of the group.
3 – “I’ll be happy to buy a new dessert.” (Giver) His motivation is to give to a tangible need.
4 – “Next time, let’s serve the desert with the meal.” (Exhorter) His motivation is to make correction for the future.
5 – “The reason that it fell is that it was too heavy on one side.” (Teacher) His motivation was to examine and discover why it happened.
6 – “Oh, let me help you clean it up.” (Server) His motivation is to fulfill a need.
7 – “That’s what happens when you’re not careful.” (Prophet) His motivation is to correct the problem.
Scenario Three: Each person with one of these gifts visited a sick person in the hospital. This is what they said:
1 – “How can we use what you’re learning here to help others in the future?” (Exhorter)
2 – “Do you have insurance to cover this kind of illness?” (Giver)
3 – “I did some research on your illness and I believe I can explain what’s happening. (Teacher)
4 – “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve assigned your job to four others in the office. (Organizer)
5 – “I can’t begin to tell you how I felt when I learned you were so sick. How do you feel now?” (Mercy)
6 – “Here is a little gift! Now, I brought your mail in, fed your dog, watered your plants and washed your dishes. (Organizer)
7 – “What is God trying to say to you through this illness? Is there some sin you haven’t confessed yet?” (Prophet)
Learn your gift and your mate’s gift. Learn all the gifts and you will be able to detect your children’s gift. Then when you deal with your children you will understand them and they will understand you.
Live your gift and your relationship with your mate will become sweeter than ever.
Learn all these gifts and you will understand the Church.
Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers. He preached to thousands in London each Lord’s Day.
Yet he started his ministry by passing out tracts and teaching a Sunday school class as a teenager. When he began to give short addresses to the Sunday school, God blessed his ministry of the Word.
He was invited to preach in obscure places in the country side, and he used every opportunity to honor the Lord. He was faithful in the small things, and God trusted him with the greater things.
He said, “I am perfectly sure, that, if I had not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands of men and women in large buildings all over the land.
Remember our Lord’s rule, “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
In Romans 12 Paul reveals 7 gifts. Every believer has one of God’s special seven gifts.
I - PERSONAL GIFTS: Romans 12:4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
According to verse 4 each person has a Personal gift. God has given you a special gift that can only be fulfilled and give glory to Him, if it is used as part of the body of Christ.
Now, you may sing, but that isn’t your gift. You may teach but that isn’t your gift. You may serve but that may not be your gift.
-There is a difference in the motivational gifts which is one of the seven mentioned in Romans 12, and the ministry gifts.
-The ministry gifts deal with how you use your motivational gift.
-Then there are the manifestations of your gift.
When you practice and perfect your gift, it is manifested to others. Then, you bring encouragement, enlightenment and even healing to others. And ultimately when these gifts are used properly, you bring glory to God.
II – PERFORMANCE GIFTS: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another
According to verse 5 each person is responsible for the Performance of that gift. I am responsible to practice and perfect my gift will be manifested and minister to my family and church.
III – POWER OF THE GIFTS: 6 Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
According to verse six God gives us Power to use our gift. That power is called grace. Grace comes from humility.
Saving grace is different from daily grace. Daily grace is the power and desire God gives us to do His will and to do it well, but we must abide in Him.
Recognize that every gift is different and God has given each person in His body one main gift even though we are admonished to learn all of the gifts.
AUTOMOBILE
What is most important part of a car? Is it the key, the motor, the wheels, the transmission, the oil, the water or the gasoline? Do you think it would matter if we took a few bolts out of the motor or took off a belt or removed a hose on the engine?
Would it hurt the way the car drove if we took one spark plug out and left it at home? If you know anything about an automobile, you would say, “It won’t work long or at all if you start removing things.”
Understand that the Church is a body of believers and each member has a different gift.
If those gifts is understood and used properly, the church will bring glory to God and the body of believers. If it is not pursued, perfected and practiced, the body of Christ will hurt.
Here are the seven gifts God gives to the Church.
Romans 12: 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
I) THE PROPHET: (Romans 12:6, 9, I Corinthians 14:1,3)
There are many good character traits of the prophet, but the five best character traits are found in the following verses:
Romans 12: 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I Cor 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1. The prophet is called of God to follow Christ’s example of love (1). He is to know the will of the Father. He is to know the word of God and he is to deliver it to the people in love, even if it cost him, his life.
2. His words are to edify (3). Words that edify enlighten or open people’s eyes to truth. They inform and educate people to the “truth” of God’s word and the “times” in which they live.
3. He is to exhort (3). He urges and encourages others to live for God. It may seem to others as if he is pressuring them to live a better life, but the prophet sees and senses God’s holiness and His judgment.
4. He is to comfort by giving truth. For example, in the third century under the rule of Diocletian, many Christians were being slaughtered like cattle. What comfort could a prophet give?
He could give the words of Christ when He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Our comfort is the fact that this world is not our home. This is our work station. This is where we serve. Our place of son-ship is yet future. Christians set your sights on that which is eternal.
5. He is to patience and principled. In 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Paul says to proclaim the word by reproving, rebuking and exhorting, but doing so with longsuffering and doctrine.
A prophet must be patience and tolerant in presenting truth even though many within the church and especially in the last days will not listen or obey.
Many will chose the worldly, entertaining churches rather than those churches that still believe in holy worship and the preaching of all the council of God.
**Many who have the gift of a prophet misuse the gift because they are not abiding in Christ. Here is a list of five misuses.
1. A misuse is when a prophet exposes sin without restoring the offender. They tell someone what they are doing wrong, but lack the longsuffering and doctrine to encourage them to do right.
2. They jump to conclusions without getting all the facts.
3. He has a tendency to overkill when one sins. He wants nothing to do with one who has fallen. The prophet has a hard time separating the sin from the sinner. He tends to reject them both, losing the ability to help that person in the future.
4. Another misuse is the prophet expects immediate results when he reveals truth. He expects immediate repentance.
5. If not careful he can be harsh and condemning.
These character traits hinder the work of Christ. If you are a prophet, meditate on the positive traits of love and longsuffering.
If you have hurt someone with your words, humble your heart before God. Ask forgiveness and go and apology.
II. SERVANT: Romans 12:7a, 10, 11,
7a Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering…
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
There are five good traits for a server who abides in Christ:
1. (7a) The servant is patient. He waits on the right opportunity to serve. Many folks get saved and want to teach, work or serve in some capacity. Paul in his wisdom says, “wait.” Why? A servant needs to learn and grow and discipline his life, less he become discouraged and fall.
2. (10a) A servant is kind, gentle, thoughtful and compassionate towards others, but needs to hear a thank you.
3. (10b) He will sacrifice his own needs to serve others.
4. (11a) He is full of energy. He is willing to help others though weary.
5. (11b) He is fervent or passionate to help others for he knows in serving others, he is serving the Lord.
If a servant fails to spend proper time abiding with the Lord he can misuse this gift. Here are five ways he can do so:
1. He can volunteer to often, to the hurt of his own mate and family.
2. He can overwork himself to the point of physical exhaustion and thereby suffer spiritually.
3. He may serve so much that he neglects God-given priorities like devotionals, family, church.
4. He may become upset with others who will not serve.
5. He may interfere with God’s discipline. A server may want to meet the needs of a person, when God is disciplining that person.
The prophet can see God’s discipline when a servant may not. The servant may continue to reach out to help when God was disciplining.
The servant is admonished to serve others. He feels that in serving others, he is serving Christ. The key to a good server is waiting on the Lord and being under God given authority,
My wife is a server. Over the years she has wanted to do help others outside of the home and she always has.
She wanted to do things for the church and the Lord and she did.
She helped me with the youth groups and ran bus routes and helped me every service in junior church in Florida when our children were young but they were always right there with us.
Then when our children got older, (3,6,7) we began teaching our kids at home. She said, “I feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord?”
I told her, your ministry is first your family and your children. In time you can serve in other ways. She quit teaching piano for 15 years to give her life to teaching her children and completing her husband.
After many years, she went back to teaching piano, which she loved and God allowed her to go back and get her college degree.
In wisdom, she put her service for God first and she was under proper authority. He priority was her husband, her children and her Church.”
Learn what God’s priorities are for you in the Scripture then serve.
III - Teacher: (Romans 12:7b, Ephesians 4:11-16).
“…or he that teacheth, on teaching;”
Listed below are five positive character traits for teachers:
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; The gravile rule applies to the Greek words, pastors and teachers. That rule means that a pastor must be a teacher.
1. The teacher is the interpreter of truth. When he brings a message, he has thoroughly studied every aspect and knows exactly what is right and wrong. (Ephesians 4:12) 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
2. He normally presents truth systematically to unify the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
3. He gathers many facts to prove his point. He compares scripture with scripture so men will not be deceived (Ephesians 4:14). 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
4. He wants statements validated. If he hears something he has never heard before, he wants it to be proved. That is good. He wants spiritual growth (Ephesians 4:15). 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
5. He teaches with love. He senses that, if each person will just learn what he knows, the whole church will function perfectly for God’s glory (Ephesians 4:16). 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
When a teacher buys any item He will see which is the best for the money. If he buys a car, he will check out all the facts of that car. He’ll find out which one will last the longest, which has the best resale value. Then he will examine his family and see if it will be best for them.
Five misuses of this gift come from lack of study and meditation. Those uses are:
1. A teacher can become proud of their knowledge and become puffed up. (1 Cor 8:1)
2. He can miss the spiritual application by looking only at factual evidence and not seeing the spirit’s work.
3. The salvation of a soul and the work of God are spiritual. The teacher can tend to depend on intellectual evidence more than the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. The teacher can get caught up on arguing over minor points, because something hasn’t been sufficiently proved to him.
5. A teacher can begin to separate doctrines and present imbalanced truths.
IV - Exhorter: Romans 12:8a, 12
8a “Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation…”
12 ‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
1. Exhorters seem to always have an encouraging word. They are optimistic about life. They are visionaries. They see that anything is possible and God can take care of everything.
2. The exhorter rejoices in the spiritual growth of others. He desires to give admonition so other will grow for God’s glory (Col 1:28).
3. He sees how to turn problems into benefits (II Cor 1:1-7). When things go wrong, he often sees the profit or advantage.
4. An exhorter seeks to reach everyone. He sees hope in believers with different and difficult problems.
5. An exhorter enjoys sharing truth face to face. He senses that his words can give help and positive response.
The misuses of an exhorter are as followed:
1. An exhorter can start new projects without finishing the last one.
2. He enjoys giving steps of action, but can expect the steps alone to bring about the results. If the person doesn’t respond to those steps he can get upset or disillusioned in people.
3. An exhorter can set goals that are very difficult to reach. Being a visionary, he may suggest that someone do this and that until that person becomes discouraged with to much to do.
4. An exhorter has the tendency to give up on people who won’t respond quickly to his steps of actions.
5. An exhorter has a tendency to keep others waiting, including his wife and family.
We all need to be exhorters and give a kind word… a gentle word… a loving word… a joyful word… an encouraging word to the brethren.
Many evangelists are exhorters. Dr. Walter Burrell is an exhorter. He is a studier of the Bible and has Bible knowledge, but he exhorts you when he teaches and preaches.
V - GIVER: Romans 12:8b, 13
…he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; 13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
1. To give, one must have resources. The giver normally knows how to handle money. He saves and seeks to invest wisely.
2. He is frugal in his own life style. He realizes that God gave him everything he owns and he is willing to share that with others.
3. His giving is simple and his living is simple. He could have much more, but he enjoys giving to others.
4. The giver sees the needs of the saints. He will give what is needed. The giver does not want to be recognizes. He likes to stay in the background.
5. He is very friendly and warm person generally. He likes to give to those in need but does not want to be pressured to do so.
A giver can misuse his gifts these ways:
1. A giver can be so consumed in giving to others that he neglects the needs in his family.
2. A giver can give, wanting people to look to him verses God.
3. A giver, not in fellowship with the Lord, may not recognize God’s prompting and wait to long to help in a need.
4. A giver out of fellowship may begin to store up more and more for himself.
5. A giver may cease giving to people and begin giving only to projects.
A pastor was trying to get his church to give and build so they would not have to borrow money. Many in the church said the only way was to borrow. An old farmer in the church was a giver and was waiting to see if the church would by faith raise the money by the giving of the people or if they would put their faith in the bank. The church had a lengthy discussion and decided to borrow the money. The old farmer sent $250,000 to the IBYC, a Christian organization reaching out to many in the world. The church lost out. Was the giver in fellowship or not? Selah!
VI - Ruler or Organize: Romans 12:8c, 14
…he that ruleth, with diligence; 14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Five good traits of a ruler:
1. A ruler is a ruler or an organizer because of his diligence. He is a go getter. He is industrious. He is a hard worker and diligent. He sees what needs to be done and does it before he is asked.
2. An organizer sees the need in organizing his own personal life first. His house, his shed, his business is arranged properly.
3. He knows that time can be saved and goals reached quicker if everything is organized.
4. (v 14) He blesses with his words as he delegates projects. People feel as if they too are doing a blessed work with the project given them, because of the direction of the organizer.
5. An organizer completes his task quickly. Nehemiah was an organizer. He rebuilt the fallen walls and restored the gates of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.
An organizer is neat and clean. They can greatly serve the Lord. In the Lord’s work, they set days to call people, visit people and help people. He is very neat and organized. A lot of people have organizers in their pockets such as calendars and phones, but that doesn’t make them organized.
The misuses of an organizer are as followed:
1. Viewing people wrongly. He may see them only as a means to accomplish a task, and neglect to bless them by only giving orders.
2. He can show favoritism. If someone else is diligent, he can become more dependent and show favoritism towards that one. Then that person feels overloaded and pressured.
3. When an organizer is not in charge, when asked to do something, they have the tendency to delegate their work to another rather than serve.
4. If things are not done his way, he has the tendency to not get involved at all.
5. An organizer can concentrate so much on a project that he forgets to explain in details or give proper praise when the project is completed.
VII - Mercy: Romans 12:8d, 15
8d …he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
As a mercy spends time in God’s word, he will discover these character traits:
1. A mercy is deeply loyal to a friend and has needs of friendships.
2. A mercy empathizes with hurting people. They are very forgiving, no matter what has happened.
3. A mercy can show great joy when they see another person rejoice or have victory over a problem or issue.
4. A mercy will also show great compassion towards a sinner or one in need.
5. A mercy is very sensitive to loved ones, especially a mate and children.
The mercy sees those with physical needs. They want to reach out to those who are hurting physically, mentally, materially and spiritually.
The misuses of one not in God’s word are as followed:
1. A mercy can hold a grudge if he thinks someone has hurt a friend.
2. A mercy out of fellowship overlooks the sinful lives of those he cares for.
3. A mercy’s misuse is the inability to be firm when discipline is needed.
4. A mercy has a tendency to let her emotions rather than God’s principles control him.
5. A mercy may cut off those they feel are insensitive to people living in sin.
Scenario One: What do Christians do or not do that causes you disappointment? If you say…
1 – …They compromise with the world. You may be a prophet.
2 – …They fail to prove their life to others by how they live. You may be a server.
3 – …They substitute experience for sound doctrine. You may be a teacher.
4 – …They are not growing to spiritual maturity. You may be a exhorter.
5 – …They are not trusting God for their finances. You may be a giver.
6 – …They are not setting any major goals. You may be a organizer.
7 – …They do not show genuine love for each other. You may be a mercy.
Scenario Two: If at a family meal someone dropped a plate of food, what would your response be? What would you say?
1 – “Don’t feel badly. It could have happened to anyone.” (Mercy) His motivation was to relieve your embarrassment.
2 – “Jim, you get the mop. Sue, you pick it up. Mary, you help me fix another desert.” (Organizer) His motivation is to achieve the immediate goal of the group.
3 – “I’ll be happy to buy a new dessert.” (Giver) His motivation is to give to a tangible need.
4 – “Next time, let’s serve the desert with the meal.” (Exhorter) His motivation is to make correction for the future.
5 – “The reason that it fell is that it was too heavy on one side.” (Teacher) His motivation was to examine and discover why it happened.
6 – “Oh, let me help you clean it up.” (Server) His motivation is to fulfill a need.
7 – “That’s what happens when you’re not careful.” (Prophet) His motivation is to correct the problem.
Scenario Three: Each person with one of these gifts visited a sick person in the hospital. This is what they said:
1 – “How can we use what you’re learning here to help others in the future?” (Exhorter)
2 – “Do you have insurance to cover this kind of illness?” (Giver)
3 – “I did some research on your illness and I believe I can explain what’s happening. (Teacher)
4 – “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve assigned your job to four others in the office. (Organizer)
5 – “I can’t begin to tell you how I felt when I learned you were so sick. How do you feel now?” (Mercy)
6 – “Here is a little gift! Now, I brought your mail in, fed your dog, watered your plants and washed your dishes. (Organizer)
7 – “What is God trying to say to you through this illness? Is there some sin you haven’t confessed yet?” (Prophet)
Learn your gift and your mate’s gift. Learn all the gifts and you will be able to detect your children’s gift. Then when you deal with your children you will understand them and they will understand you.
Live your gift and your relationship with your mate will become sweeter than ever.
Learn all these gifts and you will understand the Church.
Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers. He preached to thousands in London each Lord’s Day.
Yet he started his ministry by passing out tracts and teaching a Sunday school class as a teenager. When he began to give short addresses to the Sunday school, God blessed his ministry of the Word.
He was invited to preach in obscure places in the country side, and he used every opportunity to honor the Lord. He was faithful in the small things, and God trusted him with the greater things.
He said, “I am perfectly sure, that, if I had not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands of men and women in large buildings all over the land.
Remember our Lord’s rule, “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Sunday, February 1, 2009
GOD'S GREAT LOVE
GOD’S GREAT LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN
Introduction: As we begin in Isaiah 45 remember that Israel had already been taken into captivity. Inevitably, Judah would fall. Isaiah had been preaching message after message in an attempt to awaken the spirit of the people and to bring them back into fellowship with God.
He preached gloom and doom and in contrast, he preached about the magnificent millennial kingdom.
He told them of God’s love and he told them of their failing heart.
He spoke of true worship and false worship, hoping that some how and someway; there would be some ambers under all the ash of the cold hearth; and these ambers would ignite the seasoned wood of Isaiah’s sermons, and rekindled a fire for God in the hearts of His children.
In chapter 45 Isaiah again reveals many great truths with hopes that God’s people would rebuilt a beautiful relationship with Him.
Know that God will first show a people His great love. He will give them great promises and great blessings.
He will ask for obedience and surrender from those He has so greatly blessed. The obedience is minute compared to the freedom, liberty, might and power and blessings He gives to those who know Him.
God did that to Israel and He did that to America and He does that to every individual that surrender and submit to Him.
Know also that when those people forget the God who created them and saved them, God will call and cry out to them to return.
If they do not, he will have to send chastening. God sent chastening to Israel and He is doing this to America today.
Notice several acts of God’s love and concern He gives to His people and how it relates to us today, but remember this:
Great love can only be appreciated by great faith.
I – God loved Israel and promised them a coming DELIVERER.”
Isaiah 44:28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
1 - The fact that Isaiah says, Cyrus will rebuilt the city is pretty awesome. Why? Because Cyrus had not born yet. He would not be born for 150 years.
Nebuchadnezzar had not been born yet either. Babylon, the nation that would conquer Judah was not even a mighty power when Isaiah wrote these words.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, it was the Assyrians that gave Judah trouble. But, God gave Isaiah these prophetic thoughts. Why? He gave them for two reasons:
a) So, in the future, those who would read and listened to God’s word would know that the prophet Isaiah was a man of God who foretold the future. They would know that the Bible was a book of miracles, yea the inspired book of God.
b) So, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel over 100 years after Isaiah’s writing, the people would know to reverenced and obey, God’s holy Word.
2 --Another interesting fact we find in verse 28 is God calls Cyrus, His shepherd.
God used the Assyrians to destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel and Babylon to destroy the Southern kingdom, Judah, because of their idolatry.
God now, in his love and mercy would raise up Cyrus to be His shepherd, so Israel might begin again.
When Cyrus conquered the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty empire, Babylon, he was considered a great conqueror.
But, within the walls of Babylon, Cyrus would meet a man that conquered him. His name was Daniel.
I believe the testimony of Daniel brought Cyrus to trust in God as the true God and his Savior. Cyrus would do all he could, now, to lead Israel back to Jerusalem, the City of God.
Application: As God took away Israel and Judah’s freedom and prosperity, so they would turn to Him and trust in Him and by faith walk with Him; God is in the process of taking away America’s wealth and freedom, so we will turn back to Him.
Did Israel and Judah turn back to God? About 10% of the people went back to serve the Lord in Jerusalem after Cyrus set them free.
Will America turn back to God after its moral, political and financial collapse? Maybe about 10% will turn back, but the majority of American’s including Christians, I am afraid are trusting in our government, or a religion, or a man, to do for them, what only a relationship with God is capable of doing.
I know what some of you may think. “Give us encouragement, preacher, give us hope for America.” I wish I could, but I see according to the Scriptures what Isaiah saw and Ezekiel saw and Daniel saw. Why?
1) America has thrown God out of their government.
2) America has removed God from the walls of their educational institutions.
3) Most churches today have so much of the world in them, you can’t tell the world from the church and the church from the world.
4) God, Jesus Christ and the truths of the Bible are not longer the center of most Christian’s homes.
5) The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life has consumed the lives of most people. And whenever that happens, God must move for evil and not for good. (You’ll understand that quote later.)
3 - Cyrus was more than a believer. Why would I say that? Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon performed God’s will in taking Israel and Judah into captivity.
But, Cyrus performed God’s pleasure (44:28).
I have a question for you to consider? Do you do God’s will, or do you do God’s pleasure?
What is the difference? To do God’s will is to be an obedient servant. To do God’s pleasure is to be a loving son.
It is one thing to do for others because you know it is right to do right. However it is the act of love to do for others because you love to do right.
Some folks come to church because they know it is right. Some folks read the Bible because they know it is right. Others go to church and read the Bible because they love to do so.
Think: Is it an act of the will or is it an act of love, why I go to church and read the scriptures?
The key to Psalms 37:4 becoming a reality and a promise one can claim, a person’s living for the Lord, must be an act of love. “4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart..”
4 -Isaiah revealed something else in Isaiah 44:28. When Isaiah wrote, these words, the beautiful and magnificent temple of Solomon graced Jerusalem.
Isaiah revealed that the temple would be destroyed completely and it would have to be rebuilt from the foundation up. Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Judah could not believe that God would allow the beautiful Temple to be destroyed, yet He did. Today, people can’t believe that this mighty economic, political Babylonian system that has taken control of this world will be destroyed one day, but it will. John declared so in the book of Revelation.
You may think, Well preacher it seems like everything is doom and gloom. Yes, it is to a lost world. To a world that has thrown God out and chosen to live for self, it is doom and gloom.
But, for God’s children, we have a promise that we will live with Him for eternity. That is our joy and reason for rejoicing.
When the ways and wealth and wonder of this world is our reason for living, we have become the very thing God does not want us to be.
If I owned a book that could foretell the future, would you like a copy? “Well,” you say, “it just tells about nations.” No my friend, it foretells your future. It tells you and me what to do to be blessed of God and it tells those that are ignorance their future on earth and hereafter.
II – God loves His people and promises them FREEDOM.
45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
1 -Cyrus came out of Persia, which is modern day Iran. He was a humble man. Whereas most great rulers, the Caesars, the Pharaohs and the Herods all boasted of their greatness and dominance of the world, Cyrus wrote nothing about his accomplishments, thought he conquered the world.
2– He was called God’s anointed. That title is only given to the Lord. Why did God give it to Cyrus? Because, Cyrus would do partially, what the Lord would do one day completely.
Cyrus would do God’s will. He would deliver Israel from the captivity of Babylon and he would permit Israel to return to the Promise Land.
When Christ returns, He will deliver Israel from the Babylonian world and they will enter a thousand year reign with Christ.
3 – The two leaved gates (45:1) referred to the mighty iron gates of Babylon that imprisoned the people of Judah. Cyrus would open them wide and set God’s people free.
Application: That is what God does for all who surrender to Him. When we surrender to Him in Salvation, He sets us free from sin and death.
When we surrender to Him in life as believers, He sets us free from the sins that hold us on bondage.
He sets us free from the worldly Babylonian system.
He sets our sights for the Promise Land or Heaven.
We begin to build our lives on that which is eternal.
III God in His love, calls us to Himself. (4-5)
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Three amazing thoughts came out of this text.
#1) The omniscience, eternal God of heaven knows your name. He chose you before the foundation of the world. That is an honor and a privilege to think about.
#2) Isaiah foretold the future. God wanted Israel and you and I who are Gentles to think:
If God could foretell the birth of a king and name him Cyrus, and if God could foretell the destruction and rebuilding of His temple and the city of Jerusalem, would the world believe Him, when he foretells of the coming of His Son, and that he would be crucified and rejected?
#3) One day nearly 200 years in the future, Cyrus would read these words. He would stand amazed and he would trust the Lord as his savior.
That is why Ezra records the words of King Cyrus in Ezra 1:2, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
When Cyrus was converted and saw God’s will and He gave the will of God first priority in his life. Are you doing that?
IV – God loves the world and informs the Gentile and Jewish world that He is the light of the world and the ONE true God.
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Verse 21 and 22 God says again, “I am the Lord and there is none else.”
1 – First for all liberal ideology, that teaches the idea that all religions lead to heaven, is destroyed here.
2 – Verse 7, says, “I form the light.” Now, you think, “So what is the big deal?” Whoever ruled the world as king had a big impact on the beliefs of that people. When Nebuchadnezzar ruled, the god he served, the majority of the people served. When Alexander the Great ruled, the Greek gods he served, his people served.
The god of the people of Persia was Mazda. The religion was known as Zoroastrianism, named after its prophet, Zoroaster.
It taught that Mazda was the god of light. So, the Persian people believed in a false god and a false prophet.
Isaiah reveals to Cyrus, who would read this book yet in the future, that “God is Jehovah. He created the Sun and He created darkness.”
Now Cyrus had become a believer and the children of Israel were to be a light to the Persian people (Isa 42:6). Would they?
Had Israel and Judah become too much like Babylon to be the true light to these religious and unsaved people? Had they?
3 -The Zoroastrianism also worshipped the god of evil, Ahriman. That is why Isaiah wrote verse 7 “…I make peace and create evil…”
Evil does not refer to sin and wickedness but sorrow, difficulties or tragedies.
Job’s wife was upset with God over God’s dealings with Job, but God reminds her in Job 2:10 , “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Application: I want you to know that in this world today, there is good and evil.
I also want you to know that God sends or allows both. Don’t say, whenever something good happens it is from God and whenever something bad happens, it is from the devil. That is a false statement.
God sends good and God creates evil or sorrow and difficulties. Why? God is God!
The reason I tell you this is because so many folks believe that everything is relative.
That means that one’s culture dictates what is right and wrong.
For example if your culture accepts polygamy then it is OK.
If your culture accepts homosexuality then it is OK.
If your culture accepts sexual permissiveness, then it is OK.
Relativism mixed with humanism concludes that nothing is really right or wrong, only what you make right or wrong for you.
When Isaiah told Cyrus, “God is the light” he was telling Him right is what God says is right and wrong is what God says is wrong.
John wrote in First John one: 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
V - God says, I love you. Don’t fight against me (v 9).
9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Sadly in all of God’s blessings and promises to Israel and with all of God’s promises for the future, Israel had a tendency to fight against God.
Isaiah says, “Don’t fight with God.” So why did they? They had lost their love for God and shortly thereafter they lost the desire to do His will.
Notice that Isaiah uses an analogy with clay. Clay is different from most soils. Soils don’t have the plasticity that clay has.
You can take most soils and put water with it and form it, but when the water is gone, it simply falls apart, like a sand castle.
Clay has extra minerals added to it that when molded and heated it dries hard and never goes back to it’s original structure as soil will.
Now listen: When we come to Christ, we are compared to clay for God has mixed his Holy Spirit in our lives.
He takes us and molds us and makes us for His glory. If we go back to the original soil, it is obvious; we did not have the right ingredients.
John said it this way in First John 2: 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How many of you believe God knows what is best for you?
Sure, yet many of God’s children fight against Him, when He begins to form them and send evil (calamity and trials) into their lives.
Many folks, rather than surrender to God, they stiffen their necks.
Some say, “I don’t want to do that” or they simply ignore His Word.
Others turn a deft ear, hoping God will go away.
Then some folks say, ‘Well, I will just quit going to church all together.”
I want you to know something. If you are God’s child, God will still have His way with you. He will mold you. He will break you. And if he has to, he will take away everything you have in life to form you.
There is a Greek proverb that says, “The dice of the gods are loaded.” That means, “You are going to lose if you fight against God.”
You are going to lose if you think you can strive with God or ignore God.
I told you God is a God of love but we must trust Him by faith.
I heard a preacher tell a story about a friend. His friend and his wife grew apart. The man did everything he could to reconcile the marriage, but the woman simply did not want it to be reconciled. The preacher’s friend said to him, “When I go to sleep at night, I pray to God that I won’t wake up the next morning.”
You say, “Pastor, you said, God is love.” He is and I don’t understand why things happen to folks, but I know enough about the Bible and my God, to tell you that He loves you and what happens is for His glory.
He cares for you in the light and He cares for you in the night seasons.
Isaiah 44:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Years later, after this pastor’s friend went through the darkness of a broken marriage, his life was renewed. Today he is happy and faithfully serving the Lord.
Was God molding Him? Was God making Him?” I can only say, “God knows!” He is God whether He ever answers another one of my prayers.
A young man was going to a Bible study. He was a good kid. He was a moral kid. He was fifteen years old. On his way to the Bible study, he was killed. Why? Was God molding and making his family for something we can’t see? Was God doing a work in the life of his friends?
All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in life and death.
Sickness entered a family. A young mother of three was struck with cancer. The church prayed, the family prayed. She died. Why? Was God trying to mold and make the children and others? Was God getting the attention of a lost one? All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in sickness and in health.
Will you allow God to have His way with you?
VI – God loves you. That is why he created you.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Notice God said, “I have made the earth.”
I would like to have seen the earth in Genesis 1:1. This earth covered with beautiful green foliage with beautiful birds of all colors taking flight in the sky must have been a magnificent sight.
The blue waters filled with the mighty giants of the sea swimming and playing had to make Adam and Eve stand in awe.
The earth itself was covered in diamonds and rubies and emeralds of splendor and beauty, as grass covers the fields today.
Gold and silver cover the path ways as pavement covers the highways today. God made this earth for man, in His love.
Isaiah reminds man that God created the heavens and he said His hands “stretched out the heavens.”
I have said before that the Bible is as up to date as tomorrow morning’s newspaper and it is.
Here, Isaiah wrote 2700 years ago and he tells us what science would not prove until the twentieth century.
The great Albert Einstein did not even believe the universe expanded. He believed the world to be static.
It was Edward Hubble who proved that the universe was expanding, but how, even he did not know. Hubble changed Einstein’s belief.
If this universe is expanding that means there is no boundary, there is no edge, there is no shore line. There is no sunset. There is no end to the universe.
It is like its creator. As God is eternal so is His universe It will grow for eternity for it is infinite.
Not until the invention of the Hubble Telescope in the twentieth century did man discover that Nebula’s were like incubation centers for new stars. All of the gases within those nebulas produce new stars, and the universe grows and grows and grows by millions of miles a day.
And Isaiah wrote about this 2700 years ago.
Isaiah is saying this, “Can you not trust God?”
Will you not give God your life?
Will you not walk with Him and talk with Him?
Will you not surrender you very will, body, mind and soul to Him.
If you do, He will make you beautiful.
He will fill you with peace and purpose in life.
He will touch you with his love. He will give you abundant life.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden and I will give you rest.”
The master of the universe made you.
He who placed the colors in the rainbow, made you.
He who in creation covered the earth with rubies and diamonds and gems, created you.
He who hung the stars in space and He who created each mighty angelic being also made you.
In man’s original form He was righteous, innocent and glorious.
He was created in the very image of God.
But sin came and your heart and mind was darken by sin. God has made a way of forgiveness and salvation for the sinner. And God has made a way of purpose and peace for the Saint. Will you trust Him with your life? Not part of your life, but all your life. Trust Him!
The Host: God has created billions of angels. In time past, they praised the Lord. They served the Lord. They did the bidding of the Lord.
There was a war in heaven and 1/3 of those angels followed Lucifer in a rebellion against God.
Those fallen beings I believe are demons today. They, like their leader are at war with God. They hate God and they hate God’s creation.
They want you to be like them. You see Satan said, “I will.” That is what Satan’s wants you to say, “I will” not “thy will.”
If he can get us to pursue our will, seek our will, live for our self, then we become part of the collapse of a nation, the failure of a home, and the demise of a life.
God wants us to do His will. If we will let God be the potter and if we will be yielded clay in his hand, then God will be glorified.
The nation of Israel and Judah went down. America is going down. Maybe there is nothing we can do to turn that around, I don’t know!
But, your life can count for God. Your home can count for God. Your have to realizes he loves you and He wants all of you.
The choice is yours!
VII – God loves you and wants to save you.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else
Salvation, eternal life and real life is not found in the discovery of a religion or a country club or a social organization, it is found in looking to God. As you do, you will behold His Son who gave His life on Calvary. You will behold why you are here and what God’s will for your life is. You will find salvation and satisfaction as you come to know the great “I AM.”
Introduction: As we begin in Isaiah 45 remember that Israel had already been taken into captivity. Inevitably, Judah would fall. Isaiah had been preaching message after message in an attempt to awaken the spirit of the people and to bring them back into fellowship with God.
He preached gloom and doom and in contrast, he preached about the magnificent millennial kingdom.
He told them of God’s love and he told them of their failing heart.
He spoke of true worship and false worship, hoping that some how and someway; there would be some ambers under all the ash of the cold hearth; and these ambers would ignite the seasoned wood of Isaiah’s sermons, and rekindled a fire for God in the hearts of His children.
In chapter 45 Isaiah again reveals many great truths with hopes that God’s people would rebuilt a beautiful relationship with Him.
Know that God will first show a people His great love. He will give them great promises and great blessings.
He will ask for obedience and surrender from those He has so greatly blessed. The obedience is minute compared to the freedom, liberty, might and power and blessings He gives to those who know Him.
God did that to Israel and He did that to America and He does that to every individual that surrender and submit to Him.
Know also that when those people forget the God who created them and saved them, God will call and cry out to them to return.
If they do not, he will have to send chastening. God sent chastening to Israel and He is doing this to America today.
Notice several acts of God’s love and concern He gives to His people and how it relates to us today, but remember this:
Great love can only be appreciated by great faith.
I – God loved Israel and promised them a coming DELIVERER.”
Isaiah 44:28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
1 - The fact that Isaiah says, Cyrus will rebuilt the city is pretty awesome. Why? Because Cyrus had not born yet. He would not be born for 150 years.
Nebuchadnezzar had not been born yet either. Babylon, the nation that would conquer Judah was not even a mighty power when Isaiah wrote these words.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, it was the Assyrians that gave Judah trouble. But, God gave Isaiah these prophetic thoughts. Why? He gave them for two reasons:
a) So, in the future, those who would read and listened to God’s word would know that the prophet Isaiah was a man of God who foretold the future. They would know that the Bible was a book of miracles, yea the inspired book of God.
b) So, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel over 100 years after Isaiah’s writing, the people would know to reverenced and obey, God’s holy Word.
2 --Another interesting fact we find in verse 28 is God calls Cyrus, His shepherd.
God used the Assyrians to destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel and Babylon to destroy the Southern kingdom, Judah, because of their idolatry.
God now, in his love and mercy would raise up Cyrus to be His shepherd, so Israel might begin again.
When Cyrus conquered the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty empire, Babylon, he was considered a great conqueror.
But, within the walls of Babylon, Cyrus would meet a man that conquered him. His name was Daniel.
I believe the testimony of Daniel brought Cyrus to trust in God as the true God and his Savior. Cyrus would do all he could, now, to lead Israel back to Jerusalem, the City of God.
Application: As God took away Israel and Judah’s freedom and prosperity, so they would turn to Him and trust in Him and by faith walk with Him; God is in the process of taking away America’s wealth and freedom, so we will turn back to Him.
Did Israel and Judah turn back to God? About 10% of the people went back to serve the Lord in Jerusalem after Cyrus set them free.
Will America turn back to God after its moral, political and financial collapse? Maybe about 10% will turn back, but the majority of American’s including Christians, I am afraid are trusting in our government, or a religion, or a man, to do for them, what only a relationship with God is capable of doing.
I know what some of you may think. “Give us encouragement, preacher, give us hope for America.” I wish I could, but I see according to the Scriptures what Isaiah saw and Ezekiel saw and Daniel saw. Why?
1) America has thrown God out of their government.
2) America has removed God from the walls of their educational institutions.
3) Most churches today have so much of the world in them, you can’t tell the world from the church and the church from the world.
4) God, Jesus Christ and the truths of the Bible are not longer the center of most Christian’s homes.
5) The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life has consumed the lives of most people. And whenever that happens, God must move for evil and not for good. (You’ll understand that quote later.)
3 - Cyrus was more than a believer. Why would I say that? Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon performed God’s will in taking Israel and Judah into captivity.
But, Cyrus performed God’s pleasure (44:28).
I have a question for you to consider? Do you do God’s will, or do you do God’s pleasure?
What is the difference? To do God’s will is to be an obedient servant. To do God’s pleasure is to be a loving son.
It is one thing to do for others because you know it is right to do right. However it is the act of love to do for others because you love to do right.
Some folks come to church because they know it is right. Some folks read the Bible because they know it is right. Others go to church and read the Bible because they love to do so.
Think: Is it an act of the will or is it an act of love, why I go to church and read the scriptures?
The key to Psalms 37:4 becoming a reality and a promise one can claim, a person’s living for the Lord, must be an act of love. “4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart..”
4 -Isaiah revealed something else in Isaiah 44:28. When Isaiah wrote, these words, the beautiful and magnificent temple of Solomon graced Jerusalem.
Isaiah revealed that the temple would be destroyed completely and it would have to be rebuilt from the foundation up. Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Judah could not believe that God would allow the beautiful Temple to be destroyed, yet He did. Today, people can’t believe that this mighty economic, political Babylonian system that has taken control of this world will be destroyed one day, but it will. John declared so in the book of Revelation.
You may think, Well preacher it seems like everything is doom and gloom. Yes, it is to a lost world. To a world that has thrown God out and chosen to live for self, it is doom and gloom.
But, for God’s children, we have a promise that we will live with Him for eternity. That is our joy and reason for rejoicing.
When the ways and wealth and wonder of this world is our reason for living, we have become the very thing God does not want us to be.
If I owned a book that could foretell the future, would you like a copy? “Well,” you say, “it just tells about nations.” No my friend, it foretells your future. It tells you and me what to do to be blessed of God and it tells those that are ignorance their future on earth and hereafter.
II – God loves His people and promises them FREEDOM.
45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
1 -Cyrus came out of Persia, which is modern day Iran. He was a humble man. Whereas most great rulers, the Caesars, the Pharaohs and the Herods all boasted of their greatness and dominance of the world, Cyrus wrote nothing about his accomplishments, thought he conquered the world.
2– He was called God’s anointed. That title is only given to the Lord. Why did God give it to Cyrus? Because, Cyrus would do partially, what the Lord would do one day completely.
Cyrus would do God’s will. He would deliver Israel from the captivity of Babylon and he would permit Israel to return to the Promise Land.
When Christ returns, He will deliver Israel from the Babylonian world and they will enter a thousand year reign with Christ.
3 – The two leaved gates (45:1) referred to the mighty iron gates of Babylon that imprisoned the people of Judah. Cyrus would open them wide and set God’s people free.
Application: That is what God does for all who surrender to Him. When we surrender to Him in Salvation, He sets us free from sin and death.
When we surrender to Him in life as believers, He sets us free from the sins that hold us on bondage.
He sets us free from the worldly Babylonian system.
He sets our sights for the Promise Land or Heaven.
We begin to build our lives on that which is eternal.
III God in His love, calls us to Himself. (4-5)
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Three amazing thoughts came out of this text.
#1) The omniscience, eternal God of heaven knows your name. He chose you before the foundation of the world. That is an honor and a privilege to think about.
#2) Isaiah foretold the future. God wanted Israel and you and I who are Gentles to think:
If God could foretell the birth of a king and name him Cyrus, and if God could foretell the destruction and rebuilding of His temple and the city of Jerusalem, would the world believe Him, when he foretells of the coming of His Son, and that he would be crucified and rejected?
#3) One day nearly 200 years in the future, Cyrus would read these words. He would stand amazed and he would trust the Lord as his savior.
That is why Ezra records the words of King Cyrus in Ezra 1:2, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
When Cyrus was converted and saw God’s will and He gave the will of God first priority in his life. Are you doing that?
IV – God loves the world and informs the Gentile and Jewish world that He is the light of the world and the ONE true God.
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Verse 21 and 22 God says again, “I am the Lord and there is none else.”
1 – First for all liberal ideology, that teaches the idea that all religions lead to heaven, is destroyed here.
2 – Verse 7, says, “I form the light.” Now, you think, “So what is the big deal?” Whoever ruled the world as king had a big impact on the beliefs of that people. When Nebuchadnezzar ruled, the god he served, the majority of the people served. When Alexander the Great ruled, the Greek gods he served, his people served.
The god of the people of Persia was Mazda. The religion was known as Zoroastrianism, named after its prophet, Zoroaster.
It taught that Mazda was the god of light. So, the Persian people believed in a false god and a false prophet.
Isaiah reveals to Cyrus, who would read this book yet in the future, that “God is Jehovah. He created the Sun and He created darkness.”
Now Cyrus had become a believer and the children of Israel were to be a light to the Persian people (Isa 42:6). Would they?
Had Israel and Judah become too much like Babylon to be the true light to these religious and unsaved people? Had they?
3 -The Zoroastrianism also worshipped the god of evil, Ahriman. That is why Isaiah wrote verse 7 “…I make peace and create evil…”
Evil does not refer to sin and wickedness but sorrow, difficulties or tragedies.
Job’s wife was upset with God over God’s dealings with Job, but God reminds her in Job 2:10 , “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Application: I want you to know that in this world today, there is good and evil.
I also want you to know that God sends or allows both. Don’t say, whenever something good happens it is from God and whenever something bad happens, it is from the devil. That is a false statement.
God sends good and God creates evil or sorrow and difficulties. Why? God is God!
The reason I tell you this is because so many folks believe that everything is relative.
That means that one’s culture dictates what is right and wrong.
For example if your culture accepts polygamy then it is OK.
If your culture accepts homosexuality then it is OK.
If your culture accepts sexual permissiveness, then it is OK.
Relativism mixed with humanism concludes that nothing is really right or wrong, only what you make right or wrong for you.
When Isaiah told Cyrus, “God is the light” he was telling Him right is what God says is right and wrong is what God says is wrong.
John wrote in First John one: 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
V - God says, I love you. Don’t fight against me (v 9).
9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Sadly in all of God’s blessings and promises to Israel and with all of God’s promises for the future, Israel had a tendency to fight against God.
Isaiah says, “Don’t fight with God.” So why did they? They had lost their love for God and shortly thereafter they lost the desire to do His will.
Notice that Isaiah uses an analogy with clay. Clay is different from most soils. Soils don’t have the plasticity that clay has.
You can take most soils and put water with it and form it, but when the water is gone, it simply falls apart, like a sand castle.
Clay has extra minerals added to it that when molded and heated it dries hard and never goes back to it’s original structure as soil will.
Now listen: When we come to Christ, we are compared to clay for God has mixed his Holy Spirit in our lives.
He takes us and molds us and makes us for His glory. If we go back to the original soil, it is obvious; we did not have the right ingredients.
John said it this way in First John 2: 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How many of you believe God knows what is best for you?
Sure, yet many of God’s children fight against Him, when He begins to form them and send evil (calamity and trials) into their lives.
Many folks, rather than surrender to God, they stiffen their necks.
Some say, “I don’t want to do that” or they simply ignore His Word.
Others turn a deft ear, hoping God will go away.
Then some folks say, ‘Well, I will just quit going to church all together.”
I want you to know something. If you are God’s child, God will still have His way with you. He will mold you. He will break you. And if he has to, he will take away everything you have in life to form you.
There is a Greek proverb that says, “The dice of the gods are loaded.” That means, “You are going to lose if you fight against God.”
You are going to lose if you think you can strive with God or ignore God.
I told you God is a God of love but we must trust Him by faith.
I heard a preacher tell a story about a friend. His friend and his wife grew apart. The man did everything he could to reconcile the marriage, but the woman simply did not want it to be reconciled. The preacher’s friend said to him, “When I go to sleep at night, I pray to God that I won’t wake up the next morning.”
You say, “Pastor, you said, God is love.” He is and I don’t understand why things happen to folks, but I know enough about the Bible and my God, to tell you that He loves you and what happens is for His glory.
He cares for you in the light and He cares for you in the night seasons.
Isaiah 44:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Years later, after this pastor’s friend went through the darkness of a broken marriage, his life was renewed. Today he is happy and faithfully serving the Lord.
Was God molding Him? Was God making Him?” I can only say, “God knows!” He is God whether He ever answers another one of my prayers.
A young man was going to a Bible study. He was a good kid. He was a moral kid. He was fifteen years old. On his way to the Bible study, he was killed. Why? Was God molding and making his family for something we can’t see? Was God doing a work in the life of his friends?
All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in life and death.
Sickness entered a family. A young mother of three was struck with cancer. The church prayed, the family prayed. She died. Why? Was God trying to mold and make the children and others? Was God getting the attention of a lost one? All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in sickness and in health.
Will you allow God to have His way with you?
VI – God loves you. That is why he created you.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Notice God said, “I have made the earth.”
I would like to have seen the earth in Genesis 1:1. This earth covered with beautiful green foliage with beautiful birds of all colors taking flight in the sky must have been a magnificent sight.
The blue waters filled with the mighty giants of the sea swimming and playing had to make Adam and Eve stand in awe.
The earth itself was covered in diamonds and rubies and emeralds of splendor and beauty, as grass covers the fields today.
Gold and silver cover the path ways as pavement covers the highways today. God made this earth for man, in His love.
Isaiah reminds man that God created the heavens and he said His hands “stretched out the heavens.”
I have said before that the Bible is as up to date as tomorrow morning’s newspaper and it is.
Here, Isaiah wrote 2700 years ago and he tells us what science would not prove until the twentieth century.
The great Albert Einstein did not even believe the universe expanded. He believed the world to be static.
It was Edward Hubble who proved that the universe was expanding, but how, even he did not know. Hubble changed Einstein’s belief.
If this universe is expanding that means there is no boundary, there is no edge, there is no shore line. There is no sunset. There is no end to the universe.
It is like its creator. As God is eternal so is His universe It will grow for eternity for it is infinite.
Not until the invention of the Hubble Telescope in the twentieth century did man discover that Nebula’s were like incubation centers for new stars. All of the gases within those nebulas produce new stars, and the universe grows and grows and grows by millions of miles a day.
And Isaiah wrote about this 2700 years ago.
Isaiah is saying this, “Can you not trust God?”
Will you not give God your life?
Will you not walk with Him and talk with Him?
Will you not surrender you very will, body, mind and soul to Him.
If you do, He will make you beautiful.
He will fill you with peace and purpose in life.
He will touch you with his love. He will give you abundant life.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden and I will give you rest.”
The master of the universe made you.
He who placed the colors in the rainbow, made you.
He who in creation covered the earth with rubies and diamonds and gems, created you.
He who hung the stars in space and He who created each mighty angelic being also made you.
In man’s original form He was righteous, innocent and glorious.
He was created in the very image of God.
But sin came and your heart and mind was darken by sin. God has made a way of forgiveness and salvation for the sinner. And God has made a way of purpose and peace for the Saint. Will you trust Him with your life? Not part of your life, but all your life. Trust Him!
The Host: God has created billions of angels. In time past, they praised the Lord. They served the Lord. They did the bidding of the Lord.
There was a war in heaven and 1/3 of those angels followed Lucifer in a rebellion against God.
Those fallen beings I believe are demons today. They, like their leader are at war with God. They hate God and they hate God’s creation.
They want you to be like them. You see Satan said, “I will.” That is what Satan’s wants you to say, “I will” not “thy will.”
If he can get us to pursue our will, seek our will, live for our self, then we become part of the collapse of a nation, the failure of a home, and the demise of a life.
God wants us to do His will. If we will let God be the potter and if we will be yielded clay in his hand, then God will be glorified.
The nation of Israel and Judah went down. America is going down. Maybe there is nothing we can do to turn that around, I don’t know!
But, your life can count for God. Your home can count for God. Your have to realizes he loves you and He wants all of you.
The choice is yours!
VII – God loves you and wants to save you.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else
Salvation, eternal life and real life is not found in the discovery of a religion or a country club or a social organization, it is found in looking to God. As you do, you will behold His Son who gave His life on Calvary. You will behold why you are here and what God’s will for your life is. You will find salvation and satisfaction as you come to know the great “I AM.”
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