Chardon church of Christ

Facing the Facts

Facing the Facts of Reality  

Luke 14  

INTRO:

Good evening.   I’d like to start this evening with a story.   It’s a bit out of date, in the 1950’s but it is about little Johnny.   First grade actually. The teacher told the class they would start each day with the pledge of allegiance and instructed them to put their right hands over their hearts and repeat after her.

 

She looked around the room as she started the recitation, "I pledge allegiance to the flag”, when her eyes fell upon Little Johnny and she saw Johnny’s hand over his backside.

"Johnny” he said, “I will not continue until you put your hand over your heart."

 

Little Johnny replied, "It is over my heart." After several attempts to get little Johnny to put his hand over his heart, the teacher asked, "Why do you think that is your heart?"

 

"Because every time my Grandma comes to visit, she picks me up, pats me here, and says, 'bless your little heart,' and my Grandma wouldn't lie!"

 

I guess the point of the story is that when it comes to our hearts many people pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ but their actions don’t back up their allegiance.

 

I believe one of the marks of a great leader is to state very clearly the conditions that must be met by those who follow him.  You can’t join the army and just expect to do your own thing. You must do what the commanding officer asks of you.

 

You wouldn’t accept a job until you’ve had a job interview to find out exactly what the terms and conditions of your employment are.   If you didn’t agree with them then you wouldn’t take the job.

 

Jesus is a great leader.   He very clearly lays out the conditions that must be met by anyone who wants to follow Him.  I suppose this sermon will not be very uplifting but I hope it will be challenging.   Something we need to hear from time to time.   I will be using the NKJ for most of the verses I quote tonight but a few will be paraphrased.

 

1. Turn your Bibles with me to Luke 14 and while you’re doing that let me set the scene.   Great multitudes of people had been following Jesus and many people were excited about Him.  Some of them thought that as the Messiah He would drive out the Roman oppressors.   Others in the crowd were fascinated with His strange teachings and His mighty works and many others were just curious.
   26. To this motley crowd of people Jesus says in verse 26-27, Luke 14:26-27 – “26. "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27. "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”  
       1. Jesus tells the crowd that if you want to follow Me, then here is condition number one: “Hate your father, mother, wife and kids and even your own life.”
       2. Before we get into the parable we need to look at what Jesus means when He tells the crowd to hate their families and their lives. We need to understand just what Jesus is looking for from His followers.  Did Jesus literally mean that we should hate our families and our own lives? If we believe that He meant these words to be taken literally then we have some problems with other scriptures.  We know that Jesus doesn’t contradict Himself.
       3. That problem usually lies in our understanding of what we are reading.  Jesus didn’t seek to crush the tender relationships of human friendships and love.
          1. He taught His followers in Matthew 5:43-48 to “Love even their enemies.”
          2. In Mark 7:9-13 He taught His followers to “Honor their parents”.

• On the cross He committed the care of His mother to a trusted friend in John 19:26-27.

1. In Matthew 5:21-26 He spoke against anger and hatred of one’s brother and said that it was a kind of murder.
2. He gathered little children in His arms and blessed them in Mark 10:13-16.

4. His whole life and His teachings made it quite clear that people were to be loved. Jesus isn’t contradicting Himself. The problem is how we understand what He means by the word we translate as “Hate”.
5. The Biblical use of this word becomes clearer when it is recalled that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah (Genesis 29:30), and that the next verse says that "The Lord saw that Leah was hated."
6. The concept we translate as “hate” here is void of the sentiments usually associated with that word today and means to “love less”.
7. It doesn’t mean that we are to love our relatives with a diminished love, because this would be opposed to the heart and soul of Christianity.
   1. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.”[para]
   2. 1 Peter 1:22 says, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.”[para]
8. It is true that we may love the Lord too little, but we cannot love any human being too much.  We will never love the Lord more by loving our human friends less.

1. Yet there is a sense in which “hate” is appropriate.   What does Jesus mean when He says that “We are to hate our own life?” In what sense are we to hate ourselves? In what sense are we to hate our relatives and friends?
   1. You may have heard this story before.   There was a man who prayed to God one morning and said: "Father, I haven't sinned today, and so far, I haven't shouted at my children and so far I haven't upset my wife, and I thank you for that Father, but Father I'm going to need all of the forgiveness you can give me now, because it's time for me to get out of bed."
   2. I suggest that’s what Jesus is talking about.   It is being aware of sin in our own lives and in the lives of those around us… of our friends and family.  A Christian must hate whatever is in himself that is low and base, he must hate everything which is greedy and selfish.  Anything, which drags him away from Christ and robs him of his real self and true values.
   3. A Christian ought to love their relatives and friends as they love themselves and hate them like they hates themselves.  In other words whatever is in friends and family, which is pure and right we are to love.  Whatever is in them, which is unclean and self-indulgent, we are to hate.  That’s why Jesus said that the second greatest commandment was to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Notice that is the second commandment.
2. Remember when Jesus was telling the disciples that the Son of Man must suffer? He says He must be rejected, and be killed, then after three days He will be resurrected? The Bible says in Mark 8:32-33 – “32. He spoke this word openly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” What’s the point? The point is this. Even a person’s friend can stand between that person and their Lord. If that is the case a choice needs to be made. A choice between the natural affection of friends or family and devotion to their Savior Jesus Christ. There needs to be a choice made.
   1. Sadly that’s where many a Christian falls, the point where friends and family put us in the position of a choice. Sometimes it happens daily.  Come out to the tavern with us tonight. We will have a good laugh along with a few drinks!
   2. Don’t bother about church this week.   Sunday morning is the only day I can come and visit you!
   3. Wednesday night is just a study night.   You don’t really need to go to that!
   4. We are faced with choices every day and the way to deal with those choices is to ask our self a simple question.  Which choice considers the things of God?  Which choice considers the things of men?  Too many Christians choose wrongly.  
   5. Unfortunately this often is the first step in loving God less and eventually becomes why they abandon the faith. Then you never see them anymore, but the true followers of Christ will always be and must be ready to treat their dearest friends and even family… as the wrong choice.
3. That’s what Jesus means when He asks His followers to hate their families and friends. It is in loving them less by rejecting the demands they put upon us to love God less.  In Luke 14 Jesus goes on to share some other conditions, which first must be met before a person can become a follower of Christ.   These parables should be very familiar with all of us because I know that most of us use these Scriptures a lot when we are studying with people who are thinking about becoming Christians.   People need to be aware that there is a cost involved for becoming a disciple of Christ.
   1. Jesus is uncompromisingly honest with this.   We have trouble with open honesty if we think it may be hurtful and I think this is where we mess up sometimes.   We try to say only the nice things. Jesus doesn’t muck around with it. He’s straight to the point.
      1. He is going to spell out what’s required of everyone who wants to become a Christian.  If there was someone here who is not a Christian today then I would beg of them to listen closely to Jesus words.
      2. To those who are a Christian today and think you’re being obedient, I would suggest that you also listen closely and reflect on the commitment that you made when you declared allegiance to Jesus Christ.
   2. Luke 14:28-33 – “28. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it 29. "lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, 30. "saying, `This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31. "Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32. "Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33. "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”
      1. When a person goes to join the military they will find most recruiting officers don’t tell them everything at first.  They usually keep back the difficult and dangerous things in order to enlist people into their service branch. The army recruiter told me I would be great as a helicopter pilot.   He did not tell me the life expectancy of a helicopter pilot in Nam.
      2. But with Jesus He wanted no one to come to Him under any false illusions.  He didn’t want to mislead anyone.   People are going to face up to the task or not follow Him at all.
   3. The first illustration Jesus uses is that of a man who wanted to build a tower.
      1. Probably this is a vineyard tower, though we are not told.   It was the more common type of tower at the time. We know the tower was the main guard against anyone who might come in and strip the vineyard in harvest time.
      2. Jesus asks in Luke 14:28, “Before a man goes ahead and builds a tower will he not first sit down and work out how much it is going to cost him?”[para]  He says, “Think about it!”    If he began work on it but couldn’t finish it then he would be the laughingstock of the whole town.
      3. Jesus was a carpenter and He probably would have seen this type of thing many times in Nazareth.
   4. The other illustration, which Jesus gives, is that of a king who is contemplating going to war.   Before he engages in any form of warfare calculates the odds and the risks involved.  
      1. Is he able to stand against twenty thousand men with his ten thousand?  Are his soldiers well trained for battle? Will he have an advantage with an element of surprise?
      2. He has to calculate these things in his head.  If he is unprepared for battle then he will send out a delegation and ask for peace.
      3. Jesus says listen, “If you desire to be My follower you must see beforehand the hard and painful struggle that awaits you.” “You need to be prepared to make the sacrifices required of you no matter the cost.” Those who undertake to follow the savior should do so in full view of the enormous cost of it.  They must bid farewell to the dearest earthly ties as they stand, mortify the lusts of the flesh, set their affections on heavenly things, and subordinate all earthly prospects to the will of the Master.
      4. All of the details of this parable and the one following are inert factors. They simply enforce the one idea that it is folly to undertake the serious business of becoming a disciple of Christ, without counting the cost in this life and recognizing… that there is an even greater cost in not following Christ.

• Before anyone becomes a Christian they need to ask themselves several questions.
  1. Am I willing to deny myself?  When a person becomes a Christian and starts to walk the Christian life, it is the end of self.  Self-denial is the first condition of discipleship.  Matthew 16:24 – “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
     1. In some religious groups, there is a time just before Easter and Good Friday, which they call “Lent”.
     2. The churches years ago once provided for a 40-day fast (excluding Sundays), which was an imitation of Jesus' fasting in the wilderness.  One meal a day was allowed in the evening, but meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden, and then as the years went by these rules became gradually relaxed.
     3. Let me make it clear, Jesus doesn’t mean a temporary denial of self.  He’s not talking about a time where everyone gives up things they don’t usually like anyway.
     4. He’s not talking about a sacrifice of certain pleasures for a week or two in order that some good cause might be supported. He’s talking about a denial, which involves the rest of your Christian life.
     5. To deny oneself means to no longer live to please self.  Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”[NKJV]
     6. In Colossians 3:5-10 we see and I paraphrase – “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
  2. That is what every person needs to do who sincerely seeks Him. Let me tell you folks this is not easy. There are some difficult things for us to stick to.  When it comes to death and putting anything to death, it is never easy.
     1. We need to ask - are we willing to do that?  Are we willing to put to death all the impurities, all the ungodliness, which lives in us and then follow Christ? Remember Paul is writing to Christians. Many Christians today still struggle with sins.
     2. S. Lewis once said, “The Christian way is different.”
     3. Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want a portion of your time and a portion of your money and a portion of your work, I want you.”   I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. Half measures aren’t any good.  Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked, I want the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead.  In fact, I will give you myself, my will then become yours.”
     4. That is what Christ requires of us all. To deny self is; in every moment and in every way to say “No” to self and “Yes” to Jesus.  
  3. The second question that we need to ask our self is; Am I willing to abide by His teachings?  Along with this question should come another question; Do I believe in my mind that Jesus is who He claimed to be?
     1. Matthew 2:2 tells us He was born to be a king and in John 18:36 He told Pilate that He is a king.  He professed to be the Christ, the messiah foretold in the Old Testament in Mark 14:61-62 and John 4:25-26.
     2. He said He was the world’s light in John 8:25-26.   He said that He could supply living water in John 4:10.  He also said that He is the bread of life in John 6:35, the way, the truth and the life in John 14:6.
     3. In short Jesus Christ claimed to be the Savior of the world.  In a world, which is so full of doubt let me tell you these claims are true.
  4. Folks, a commitment to Jesus means a commitment to living by His teachings.  John 8:31 “Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”.[para]   It means continuing in the words of Jesus because this is a vital part of the cost that needs to be counted.
     1. Jesus asks us today, “You say you want to follow me, but are you willing to do what I say?”   “Are you willing to be guided solely by my teachings?”  Forget about other religious teachings.
     2. “Instead of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, are you prepared to turn the other cheek or go the second mile?” “Will you love those who hate you?” “When men persecute you, will you pray for them?”
     3. “Are you ready to exchange earthly treasures for heavenly treasures?”  “Without any reservations or any strings attached, are you really willing to put My kingdom first?”
     4. These are some of the awesome questions that separate the multitudes.  These are the questions that Jesus asks to try the souls of men and women.
  5. The third question we need to ask our self is this.   Am I willing to follow Him to the end?  There are many people who want to follow Jesus provided the way is easy and pleasant, but when the going gets hard and the road stretches long, they give it all up.  
     1. The first parable we read presents a distinct possibility for every Christian.   A Christian may start out with a spurt but never finish the race. Jesus knew that could happen, didn’t He?
        1. Matthew 7:13-14 - "13. "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14. "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” [NKJV]
        2. Jesus never said that the Christian race was going to be a sprint.   He said it is going to be difficult.  The Christian journey lasts until this life ends.
     2. We don’t become a Christian and then a couple of months or years later decide to count the cost again and give up.  Why?  Why would that be a bad choice?
        1. 2 Peter 2:21 - “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”[para]
        2. Peter is talking about people who were Christians but after a few miles down the road they gave up. They didn’t just give up Christ. They turned their backs on Christ.
        3. That’s why we need to understand these words of Jesus before we become a Christian.  If you ever wondered why Jesus’ words seem so serious, it is because following Him is a serious business.  In every department of life it is always better to be honest with yourself and face the facts.
     3. Every worthwhile endeavor in this life is going to mean work; it is going to be tough. There are those that say life is not fair, this person started with advantages another person did not have, we need to pass a law.   Folks, this is one race where we all have the same starting place, this old sinful world.   No law of man is going to make it any different. Again, with anything worthwhile there are times it is going to be tough.   There are times where long hours are necessary.   There are times when we need to say, “No” to friends who want to go out for a meal.    There are times we will need to say “No” to family.   We know and understand that there are going to be sacrifices.
        1. A young man may have his heart set on becoming a great athlete.
        2. He may envision himself wearing an Olympic gold medal around his neck, but unless he is willing to pay the price for excellence, no honors or gold medals will ever be his.
        3. Everyone who wants to achieve anything in life must be aware of the sacrifices that need to be made.
     4. God wants us to be aware of those sacrifices even before we commit our lives to Christ.   He will ask of us many things but there are some things that God won’t ask of us.
        1. God won't ask what kind of car you drove. -- He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.
        2. God won't ask the size of your house. -- He will ask how many people you welcomed into your house.
        3. God won't ask how many clothes you have in your closet and what the brand names are. -- He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.
        4. God won't ask what your highest salary was. -- He'll ask if you compromise your character to obtain it.
        5. God won't ask you what your job title was. -- He'll ask you if you performed your job to the best of your ability.
        6. God won't ask how many friends you had. -- He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.
        7. God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived. -- He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.
        8. God won't ask the color of your skin. -- He'll ask about the content of your character.
     5. Don’t get Jesus wrong here, in these parables, He’s not trying to dampen people’s enthusiasm.  He’s saying that the hard facts of the Christian life must be faced.  You need to be aware of these things.
        1. In John 16:33 He told His disciples that, “In this world you will have trouble.” But Jesus goes on to say in that verse, “But take heart! I have overcome the world."
        2. Jesus isn’t saying that it’s better not to begin, He’s not saying that.  He’s saying it is better to begin with a clear view of the path ahead.

 

CONCLUSION:

There is no greater challenge for any of mankind that compares to the challenge of living the life of a Christian.  There’s no challenge that exceeds the thrill of the Christian way of living.

To the one who is not a Christian yet I would ask, will you say, “No” to self and “Yes” to Jesus?  Are you willing to deny yourself and live for Jesus?  Are you willing to live by His teachings and follow His words and reject the words of men?  Are you willing to follow Jesus to the very end of your life?

 

These are serious questions and you are surrounded by Christians who have already made that decision.  If you want to know more about what it means to follow Christ and counting the cost then please just ask any Christian here about that.   They will be happy to share with you some of the sacrifices they had to make—and continue to make to follow Him.

 

Then there is the other side of the ledger. Have you counted the cost if you do not become a disciple of Christ?   Are you willing to be one of the lost for eternity just to satisfy yourself in the pleasures of this world?   Pleasures that are so fleeting; satisfying a friends request when you should be with God’s people? Bowing to pressures of the family instead of serving God? Facing the facts of reality is never easy but following Jesus will be the best choice you’ll ever make.

 

The invitation is there, if you need help in any way let us know while we stand and sing the invitation song.

 

Invitation: # 480 – Have You Counted the Cost

 

Reference Sermon

Mike Glover

 

Psalm 22 - Part 2

Psalm 22 – Part 2 

Psalm 22 

 

INTRO:

Good morning. The sermon this morning is a continuation of the series of lessons that we've been doing from the Book of Psalms.    Last week we looked at the first half of Psalm 22.   Let’s do a little bit of review on that before we continue.   Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Psalms, chapter 22 and as a reminder if you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it.

 

We saw that the chapter starts with the words “My God my God why have you forsaken me” and we found that those are the exact words that Jesus spoke from the cross.   It was the ninth hour, that's around 3 pm, toward the close of the crucifixion.   After this statement He only said maybe three or four more things but at least two.

 

We know that He said “it is finished” and then “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”.   Hearing the words “My God my God why have you forsaken me” would have led the thoughts of those present back to Psalm 22.   In Psalm 22 we have a greater insight into what He is thinking, what He is hearing, what He's seeing and how He's feeling.

 

He says; “Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?”  “O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Who inhabit the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.”

 

In Psalm 22 we see what the Christ is experiencing, sensing and He is aware that the sins of the world are on Him. He is feeling forsaken by everyone including God.

 

God is allowing Him to go through this, but the Christ realizes the children of Israel in the past, when they cried unto God, when they prayed to God, God delivered them.

He says about himself in verse six; “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people.”  

 

We also found a primary cross reference to Psalm 22 in the suffering servant passages of Isaiah Chapters 42-53.   God wanted this to be clear to people then and now so these prophecies contain explicit detail and not just from one prophet but from two.

 

Our faith, and why we believe the Bible is from God is strengthened as we see this prophecy in the Psalm, given a thousand years before the Christ and then Isaiah 53 given seven hundred and fifty years before the Christ. They tie in together and what we read in verse 6 ties into Isaiah 53:3 about the Christ being despised and rejected by men.

 

At Verse seven; “7. All those who see Me laugh Me to scorn; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8. "He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!''”    We read in Matthew 27:39 – “And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads” and in Matthew 27:43 – “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him”

The exact same quote being said to Jesus exactly the way it’s described in the Psalm where they’re shaking and wagging their head saying; let Him deliver Him.

 

Dropping down now to verse nine; “But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust when I was on My mother's breasts.   I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God.   Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help.”  

 

We talked about the reason the Christ was born into this world, the reason He came was to die on the cross and to destroy the works of Satan.   This was going to be done by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.

 

Going on now to verse eleven; “ Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help.   Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.   They gape at Me with their mouths, As a raging and roaring lion.”

In this text we are seeing how Christ is surrounded by the enemy.   There are those around the cross reveling in His death. They're mocking Him; they're ridiculing Him; the priests, scribes, Pharisees, the Romans and even those being crucified with Him. He was surrounded by the enemy and alone.

 

At verse 14; “ I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me.   My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.” Verses 14 and 15 for me are the most moving accounts of the crucifixion of the Christ because this is the crucifixion from His viewpoint. He's telling us what He is experiencing while He's being crucified.

 

Verse 16 says; “For dogs have surrounded Me; The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;” God gives us enough so we can understand, not acres of gory details, but amazing detail so we can comprehend.   As we said last week, crucifixion as a means of capital punishment was not even in the world when this prophecy was given.

 

We looked at verses 17 and 18; “ I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.   They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”   We pointed out this is exactly what the soldiers did with the clothing of Jesus in order to see who was going to get it, they cast lots.

 

Verses 19-21; “But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.   Save Me from the lion's mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! ...” We pointed out the metaphors that He's using describing the crowd as the bulls, the lions and the dogs. He was requesting God to deliver Him from the ones that are surrounding Him.

 

1. In the beginning of Psalm 22 is “my God my God why have you forsaken me”. Is God hearing me? Is God going to deliver me? Then in the close of verse twenty-one the Psalm takes a turn. “… You have answered Me.” God did hear the Christ, God did hear His pleas.   God did not despise this man for being nailed to the cross and He heard Christ’s prayer and He answered.   What we're going to be doing now is looking at the rest of Psalm 22 and that is God's answer to the plea of the Christ on the cross.   As the Text says at the close of verse twenty-one, you have answered me.
   1. In Psalm 22:22 – “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the congregation I will praise You.” This text from Psalm 22:22 is found in the New Testament and I think it's extremely important to see where it is in the New Testament. It's in the book of Hebrews.
      1. Turn to Hebrews 2:10-12 – “10. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12. saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise to You.''”
      2. We find that Hebrews 2:12 is quoting from Psalm 22:22. When it says in the text I will declare to them… He is speaking now to the church as brethren.   He calls us brethren.
      3. As we read through the rest of the text in Hebrews 2 it talks about how Jesus had to come in the form of flesh and blood.   That was necessary in order for Him to call us His brethren because we are flesh and blood.
      4. Look with me now the rest of Hebrews 2 – and I will paraphrase “13 And again,“I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
      5. He had to die on the cross for our sins so He could be buried and then rise from the dead, conquering death and the one who had the power of death, that being Satan, and then free us from bondage to Satan, sin, and death.
      6. He says God has answered Him and then He talks about singing praises in the assembly, declaring God to the brethren.
      7. We are God’s answer. We are brethren with Christ because He came in the form of flesh and blood to die on the cross.  That was the will of God.
   2. As we continue please take note of the different groups of people that are mentioned throughout the closing part of this Psalm.   Going back to Psalm 22:23 – “You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!” First of all we see all the descendants of Jacob and all the offspring of Israel.
      1. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the cross reference to this is found over in Isaiah. Again right in the middle of the suffering servant prophecies, Isaiah 45:24-25 – “He shall say, `Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory.'”
      2. When we study the Christ, especially in Isaiah, one of the main things we will see is that through the Christ - all of Israel is going to be able to be restored to God, those that are in Israel and those that are in Judah.   Those who were faithful are now able to be brought back to God through the Christ.
   3. Psalm 22:24 – “For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted… ” Let’s stop right there.   We’re talking about God here; God has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. The afflicted one is the Christ who was nailed to the cross.
      1. The afflicted one is the one that the people despised.
      2. God did not despise Him. It was the people who despise Him.
      3. God did not despise Him because He was nailed to the cross.
      4. To the contrary it says here; “…Nor has He hidden His face from Him;…”
      5. It says next; “But when He cried to Him, He heard.”
   4. That's an important point we need to see in this verse.   Remember how the Psalm began, “My God my God why have you forsaken me”. God did not forsake Him. God heard what He was saying. God saw what He was doing. God was pleased with what was happening because it was the sacrifice for the sins of mankind.   He cried unto God and God heard Him, even though He was despised by the people, even though He was being crucified, God heard Him.
   5. In Luke 23:46 – “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, `into Your hands I commit My spirit.' '' And having said this, He breathed His last.” The difference between My God my God why have you forsaken me and Father, into your hands I commit my spirit should be clear to us.   The last statement of Jesus is a statement of absolute trust.  He knows He is about to die.  He spirit is about to enter the spirit realm and He has absolute trust that God will raise Him from the dead.
      1. We see in the answer of God, Christ’s ascension, and the beginning of the kingdom of Christ on the earth.
      2. All of this is God answering His prayer. God heard. God answered. We and all the rest of mankind that are in the kingdom are the answer.
   6. Going over to Isaiah 53:10 – “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”
      1. Here it is telling about the Christ being crucified and it pleased the Lord for this to happen when He put Him to grief.  
      2. Isaiah says; when you make his soul an offering for sin.   The reason the Christ went through everything He went through on the cross, was an offering for the sin of mankind.  It is through the power of the blood of the Christ that all our sins are to be forgiven.
   7. Then it says; He says he shall see his seed. Stop right there and think about that. After the Christ has made His soul an offering for sin, it says God the Father will be seeing His seed.   Now His seed are those that are coming from him.   Who is that?   We are the children of God through Christ.   We are the seed.
   8. Next it says; He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. After this individual was put to death, God is going to prolong His days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
      1. How is the pleasure the Lord going to prosper in the hands of a dead man? Because He's not going to stay dead.   He's going to rise from the dead and ascend into heaven and be the Christ at the right hand of God Almighty.
      2. Isaiah 53:11 – “He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. by His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.” When He prayed to God on the cross - Father in your hands I commit my spirit - God heard His prayer and God answered His prayer.   God raised Him from the dead. God ascended Him into heaven.   God set Him in His right hand. God gave Him the kingdom. God indeed answered his prayer.
   9. Going back to Psalms 22:25-26 – “25. My praise shall be of You in the great congregation; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. 26. The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!” Earlier I said that I want us to see the different groupings of people that are mentioned.
      1. We've already talked about all of Israel and all of Jacob. Now we're talking about how the poor are going to eat and be satisfied and those who are seeking Him will praise the Lord.
      2. Let’s look at Isaiah 61 verse 1 before we go the New Testament. Isaiah 61:1 is another prophecy about the Christ. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;”
         1. The anointed one is the meaning of the word Christ.   Anointed for what purpose?   To preach good tidings to the poor.
         2. “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”
         3. Whenever John the Baptist sent messengers to Jesus to know if He is the Christ, Jesus sent the messengers back with the message telling John; “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” Luke 7:22
         4. In the first century many of those that responded to the gospel were the poor.   A whole lot of the Kingdom is going to be those that are poor.
      3. It says in verse 27: “All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lord,…”
         1. We've had all Israel, and then we've got the poor, and not just them but all the ends of the world.  
         2. Then there’s a very important phrase here in the close at verse twenty-seven.   “… And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You.”
         3. When you see that phrase, all the families of the nations, if you are familiar with the Old Testament a red flag should start waving. I've read that phrase before about “all the families of the nations”.  Indeed, you have.
      4. It's the Abrahamic covenant.   It is the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3.
         1. If you will recall there were three promises God made Abraham, the land promise, the nation promise, but there was a third promise.
         2. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
         3. What we see in the gospel is the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ and the beginning of the kingdom.   It first starts with the Jews being part of the kingdom and then finally the Gentiles… all the world.
         4. Everybody can come and worship God through the Christ; everybody can be restored to God through the Christ. Not just the Jews but the Gentiles as well. All the families of the earth can come and worship before you.
         5. What we find here is the prophesy of the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant in Christ crucified.
      5. Let’s look at another cross reference verse from Isaiah, Isaiah 49:6 – “Indeed He says, `It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.' ''”
         1. First he says It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; It talks about Israel, then it says the suffering servant is going to be a light to the Gentiles and God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, that is the rest of the world.
         2. The suffering servant of Isaiah is going to give himself as a living sacrifice for the sins of mankind, for the tribes of Jacob, for the ones of Israel, and also for the Gentiles, to the ends of the Earth.   God's salvation is for everybody in the world through the Christ.

• Next let’s look at Psalm 22:28 – “For the kingdom is the Lord's, And He rules over the nations.” When we see this phrase about the kingdom and ruling over the nations it should bring into our mind what we call the Davidic covenant.   This is the promise that God makes with King David in Second Samuel 7:16 – “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”
  1. This is a promise of a kingdom that is going to stand forever and a king that is going to reign forever.   The answering of Christ’s prayers on the cross was the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant that through Him all the families the Earth are going to be blessed, and also the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant because now through the Christ the kingdom is going to be established.
     1. The Kingdom is going to begin in Jerusalem beginning with the Jews and then the Gentiles to the ends of the earth.
     2. Look at what the angel told Mary in Luke 1:31-33 – “31. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32. "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33. "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.''”
     3. God will give Him the throne of His father David, that is the Davidic covenant, and of His kingdom there will be no end.   Back in Psalm 22 it talks about the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and then the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, both fulfillments through the Christ who was crucified.
     4. Then we see it is talking about His kingdom and how He will reign, He is reigning over all the nations.
  2. Psalm 22:29 says; “All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive.” It's not just going to be the poor that are going to be able to enjoy the benefits of the Christ and His kingdom but also the prosperous of the earth.  
     1. They too will be allowed to eat and worship.   All those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him.
     2. Notice the next phrase. Even he who cannot keep himself alive.
     3. By now we realize the scope of those that are going to be able to be saved because of the Christ.
        1. We've got the poor.
        2. We've got all those of Israel… all those of Jacob.

• We've got all the families of the Earth to the ends of the world.

1. We've got all the prosperous of the earth.
2. We've got even all those who go down to the dust…even those that are dead.
3. Even those that cannot keep themselves alive, those that are going to die.

4. We have been given to understand now the full scope, the full extent of His kingdom.   It is going to be everywhere even in the spirit realm.

1. Look at another verse from Isaiah 49:7 – “Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors, to the Servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel; and He has chosen You.''”
   1. Again, it talks about the one who is despised, the kings of the nations abhor and the servant of rulers. Here is the prophecy that secular Israel will despise and reject the Son of God. The rulers of that day will look upon Him with the same disdain with which they looked upon any servant. We recall from earlier that in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 He’s despised.
   2. Now Isaiah goes on; Kings shall see and arise, princes shall worship. Who's going to worship the Christ? The poor, the prosperous and even Kings and princes.
2. Isaiah 45:22-23 – “22. "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! Salvation is not just for the Jews it’s to all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. 23. I have sworn by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.”
   1. In Romans 14:11 we find; “For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.''” The writer here is quoting from the book of Isaiah.
   2. Let’s look at Philippians 2:9-11 – “9. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
   3. This is what God has done for the Christ in His answer. God has highly exalted Him and given Him in a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow… those in heaven and on the earth.
   4. Notice the next phrase - and those under the earth.  Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
   5. We see that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
3. Remember we pointed out in the beginning of this sermon about Hebrews 2:14-15
   1. He had to be made like his brethren.   He had to be in the form of flesh and blood.
   2. He had to die on the cross so that He could go to the spirit realm and rise from the dead.
   3. When he rose from the dead, He conquered death and the one who had the power over death…Satan.
   4. He freed mankind, freed us from bondage to Satan, sin and death.
   5. Every knee shall bow in heaven, on earth and even those that are dead.  
   6. Every knee shall bow to the ends of the earth and in every realm of existence.
   7. He is the Christ, the only Christ, the only king of kings, the only Lord of Lords—Jesus our king.   Every knee shall bow.
4. Going back now to Psalms 22:30-31 – “30. A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation, 31. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.”
   1. Let’s think about the seed earlier from over in Isaiah 53:10 – “He shall see His seed”.  
      1. There is His seed, His posterity and again that's us.  That's the church. Those are the ones that have been adopted to be children of God through Jesus Christ.
      2. We are his posterity and we will serve him.   Not only that, we will recount of the Lord to the next generation.   Not only to those that are our children but even to those who will be born, we're going to tell them what the Christ did at Calvary.
      3. This is going to continue to be told to generation after generation of mankind until the Lord comes again.   Christ crucified and His gospel and His kingdom will continue all the way to the close of this age.   The kingdom is forever and so is the king.
   2. In reading Matthew 28:18-20 we see; “18. Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20. "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'' Amen.” What we are doing right now is proclaiming to this generation what the Lord did at Calvary.
      1. Proclaiming what God has done for mankind through Christ who gave himself as a living sacrifice for our sins.
      2. The one who went through the torturing death of the crucifixion did it so that our sins could be forgiven.
      3. When He cried out to the Lord, God heard.   God answered and the last part of Psalm 22 is the answer.
   3. Let’s summarize it quickly.
      1. The poor shall eat and be satisfied.
      2. All the descendants of Jacob, all the offspring of Israel, all the ends of the world, shall remember and turn to the Lord.
      3. All the families of the nations shall worship before you.
      4. All the prosperous of the earth shall eat and worship.
      5. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before Him.
      6. Every knee shall bow every tongue shall confess Jesus is the Christ.

 

CONCLUSION:

For us as individuals the question is this.  When are you going to bow the knee? When are you going to confess?

 

Those that are His kingdom, those who will be with Him forever in heaven, the children of God, His seed, His offspring, those are the ones that bow the knee and confess on this side of eternity.  Before we die and our spirit descends to the spirit realm, we obey the gospel.

 

But every knee shall bow every tongue shall confess. I want to encourage everyone to get right with God while you can. Become a citizen of His kingdom while you can. Recognize Jesus as your King.

 

If you're already in Christ and the sin between you and your God please deal with it.

You can be reconciled and come back to God through Christ and only through Christ.

Be reconciled to him now. Come back to him now. Be restored to your God through the Christ now, while you have the opportunity.

 

The invitation is available, if you're subject of the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand and sing the song that has been selected.

 

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

The Chief Seats

The Chief Seats  

Luke 14:7-11

INTRO:
Good evening. I’d like to start this evening with a story about a man and his wife who were sitting at home in the evening wondering what to do. Have you ever done that? They called another couple to see what they were doing. Their friend said, "Oh, we're just drinking coffee and talking." As the woman hung up the phone, she demanded, "Why don't we ever do that? They're just drinking coffee and talking." Her husband said, "So make a pot of coffee." They sat with their freshly brewed coffee, just staring at each other in silence. After ten minutes the man said, "Well, call them back, and find out what they're talking about."

I guess the point is that table talk is something we all do when we are around the dinner table but there’s nothing worse than eating a meal with nothing to talk about.

Turn your Bibles to Luke 14. We are going to look at “The parable of the chief seats”, but first of course we need to set the stage.
Luke 14:1-3 – “1. Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. 2. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. 3. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?''” Since many of us are older we know the term “dropsy” but in case you don’t it is an old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water. Called Edema today, it is more prominent in the lower legs and feet toward the end of the day as a result of pooling of fluid from the upright position. The Greek word for this is “hydrops”. Edema is typically a symptom of a problem elsewhere in the body.

It sounds like Jesus was doing a bit of table talk as He ate in the house of a prominent Pharisee. They were having a Sabbath meal and from the very beginning the Pharisees had been watching Jesus to see what He would do. As usual Jesus astounded them, He healed this man who was suffering from dropsy—on the Sabbath.

As we know the customs which were observed around the dinner table were quite different from today. The Greeks and the Romans ate their meals in the reclining position either on the floor or on low couches, drawn up against low tables. The tables were U-shaped which allowed the servants to serve food around the table more easily.
At the head of the table was placed the honored guest and with the Jews this was reserved for the rabbis.

The other guests were seated around the table in descending order of importance.
On most occasions the exact hour of the meal was never announced, so some guests came in earlier and others would come in later. It is likely the Pharisees had this down to a T. They would have this timed perfectly, especially those who were in prominent positions. Scholars tell us they would time their arrival so that they could make an unsuspicious entrance and in the presence of everyone else, they would receive the chief seats.

Scripture tells us of several times when Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath. Simon’s wife’s mother, Luke 4:38, the man with the withered hand, Luke 6:6, the woman crippled 18 years, Luke 13:14, the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, John 5:9, the man born blind, John 9:14, the man with a possession in the synagogue at Capernaum, Mark 1:21 and now here Jesus is, in a position to see a man afflicted by dropsy, in a Pharisee’s house on the Sabbath.

I suspect this was not an accident. Certainly, we are not told. I believe though the Pharisees had every reason to believe that if confronted with the opportunity Jesus would surely heal on any Sabbath day; therefore, they contrived the incident before us. The invitation for Jesus to have a Sabbath meal, the appearance of a man with dropsy, and the presence of many distinguished guests, has to me, the earmarks of a carefully laid plan among the Pharisees to trap Jesus.

I. Jesus knows what is in the hearts of people. I think the scene in the build up to the parable is amusing. Jesus points out to the Pharisees and the experts in the Law this man with dropsy. Then He tries to reason with them. He asks them in Luke 14:3 – “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” They did not bring the topic up, Jesus did. He was not answering their words but their thoughts. If they said, "Yes," they had no case; if they said, "No," they would have spoken a lie, for the law did not condemn acts of mercy.
A. Luke 14:4 – “But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go.” Jesus had silenced them then went ahead and healed the man with dropsy.
B. Let’s read on, in Luke 14:5-6 “5. Then He answered them, saying, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?'' 6. And they could not answer Him regarding these things.”
1. Jesus has now asked two questions and received no answers. He totally silenced the critics.
2. I think this is an amusing scene because at this feast Jesus attended, the Pharisees were scrutinizing Jesus’ every move. They were observing Him but at the same time He was observing them. I think that’s quite funny.
3. Jesus was watching them slyly maneuvering around the table for the place of honor.
C. It’s after observing them, the Bible says in Luke 14:7 – “So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them:”,
1. Jesus is about to rebuke the Pharisees and the experts in the Law because of their bad table manners. He is also going to point out to them that they are in danger when it comes to their spiritual condition.
2. This is not a parable which tells a story, but it is a parable in the sense that it is to be interpreted figuratively. It’s a parable in the true sense of the word because it is a comparison that teaches about right relationships in the kingdom of God. Now let’s hear what Jesus tells them.
II. Luke 14:8-11 – “8. "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; 9. "and he who invited you and him come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10. "But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. 11. "For whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.''”
A. Jesus is teaching them about humility, real humility. They were almost playing musical chairs, looking for the best seat in the house. Jesus says in Luke 14:11 - “whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
1. Jesus has used this phrase repeatedly in the New Testament. For example in Matthew 23 when Jesus is speaking to the crowds and His disciples about the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees who were displaying false humility He tells them at the end of verse 3, “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.” Then in verse 12, He says to them – “And whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
2. Again, in Luke 18:9-13 when Jesus is teaching about self-righteousness and the two men who went up to the temple to pray. We know that story. One guy said, “Look at me, look at how much better I am then other men.” The tax collector said, “God have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus goes on to say in verse 14 – “for everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'”
B. That teaching didn’t stop when Jesus went back to heaven. It was carried on and taught to the early church. Paul taught it to the Philippian church in Philippians 2:3-4 – “3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”,
1. James taught it to the church that was scattered in James 4:10 – “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
2. Peter taught it to the young men in the church in 1 Peter 5:5-6 – “5. Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'' 6. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,”
C. Folks, this lesson still stands as true today as it did when Jesus first uttered those words. It stands against everything the world teaches about becoming great. It goes against the grain. Jesus says if you want to go up into His kingdom then you need to learn how to go down into service.
1. The principle of humility is obvious and clear, but it isn’t always easy to find that path. How do we begin on that path to true humility? Where is the starting point of true humility?
2. I heard about a guy who wanted God to humble him, so he went out on the sidewalks of a busy city center and placed a sandwich board over his neck advertising a slogan, which said, “Nobody does humility like me.”
3. That may not be the idea, but the place to begin humility is with self. Not so much in public places where many people can see how humble we are or rather want to show that we are, but away from the rush of things. In quiet places of uninterrupted solitude, where a person needs to submit to the rigor of self-evaluation.
D. Because when we think about it there are many things that should keep us humble. For example, our physical and bodily weaknesses should keep us humble.
1. Psalm 103:13-16 – “13. As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him. 14. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15. As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.” What’s he telling us?
2. Let me put it this way. A person can be an architect or an astronomer, they can be a soldier or a politician, but no person is as mighty as they would like to be. There are paths a person can’t go. There are cliffs and mountains that they can’t scale. There are galaxies they can’t subdue. There are galaxies that they never knew existed.
3. Because mankind lives their days amid suffering and tears, we don’t know how to ward off pain. We’re unable to defend ourselves against certain diseases.
4. We can’t disguise the inevitable marks of old age, even though some try with plastic surgery. We can’t bribe away death. When you think about it death alone is enough to keep us all humble.
5. You know when you think about our bodies they can so quickly get out of balance. Our body systems can be easily disturbed and so quickly break down, sometimes without any notice, all these things show us how insecure life really is. When we dare to remember these things, selfish pride will soon vanish away.
E. Another thing, which should keep us humble, is our mental limitations. For centuries mankind has been accumulating facts and perfecting methods. If you gathered all the knowledge mankind has together and placed it into a storehouse, it would still be infinitely smaller in comparison to all the things mankind doesn’t know yet.
1. It was not very long ago that we discovered what is called the water cycle. (various as: 1508, 1582, 1674, 1957, or?) Job knew about this before we did. Job 36:26-29 – “26. "Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered. 27. For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, 28. Which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. 29. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, the thunder from His canopy?” What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the water cycle.
2. Many textbooks say it was discovered about 60 years ago. If those writers read the Bible they would have known the right answer already.
3. Advancements in technology and scientific breakthroughs come painfully slow. No one is more aware of this than the scholar. A real scholar in whatever field they specialize in, is continually shamed by their ignorance.
F. The learned Socrates was not the best loved person in Athens in his time. I heard that his favorite pastime was to go through the city of Athens looking for wise men and then he would corner them, drill them with unanswerable questions, and then leave them in the oblivion of their ignorance.
1. If Socrates was the wisest man in Athens at that time, it was only for the reason, he stated; “That he alone knew that he knew nothing at all.” If Socrates thought that, the wisest man of his time, what should we be thinking?
i. A man named Will Rogers once said that, “We are all ignorant, we’re just ignorant of different things.” Think about it!
ii. A man may be able to speak ten different languages, but he may not know how to change a fuse in his car.
iii. A woman may be an international authority on the literary classics, but she may not be able to drive a car.
iv. An expert in machines, computers and technology may not be able to spell a simple three-syllable word correctly.
2. The simple truth is that life has grown to such proportions that no one is able to be a master of all the arts. No one can master all of the sciences. The smallness of our knowledge ought to be enough to keep us humble before the Lord.
III. Another example of what should keep us humble is our weaknesses and failures. Thomas Carlyle once said, “It is in general more profitable to reckon up our defects than to boast of our attainments.” Nowhere are our defects more obvious to us than in our moral conduct. Christian’s should be aware of their sins.
A. The apostle Paul was very much aware of his sin. He said in Romans 7:21-24 – “21. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul found it a constant thing that when he wanted to do good, evil is right there with him. He delighted in God's law yet saw another law within him, waging war against the law of his mind and making him a prisoner of the sin that came in his actions.
B. When you think about Paul, he was so aware of this that when he looked at someone else, he didn’t condemn them, he looked at himself.
1. 1 Timothy 1:15 – “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”
2. Francis of Assisi who continually helped the poor, pointed to himself and said, “Nowhere is there a more wretched, a more miserable, a poorer creature than I.”
C. Let us ask ourselves, when was the last time I examined myself? When’s the last time I stopped looking down at others and took a good long look in the mirror? If we did that, what would we see?
1. Do you see a person who is very religious and very proud of the religious things you do?
2. Do you see a person who says to them self, “You know what, I’m not a murderer, I never miss worship, I don’t get drunk, I don’t gossip!”
3. Folks, an honest examination of ourselves will bring us face to face with who we are. When we see ourselves clearly, we will come away from the mirror seeing just how small we really are.
4. And when we struggle to see our self clearly, I would suggest praying from Psalm 139 especially verses 23-24 where the text says, “23. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24. And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
IV. How many of us, I wonder, would be willing, right now, to face God in Judgment on the terms of our own natural goodness and based on the works which we have done in His name? The grand total of all our goodness and all our generosity and all our good deeds is shamefully small.
A. This fact should also make us conscious of our necessity of humility. You see folks, when a person meets Jesus Christ and places his life next to Jesus’ life the marked difference is huge.
1. We will always come to guilt and grief. Turn your Bibles to Luke 22:24-27. I think this is quite a sad story.
2. Luke 22:24-27 – “24. But there was also rivalry among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. 25. And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.' 26. "But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. 27. "For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”
3. On the last night Jesus was going to be with them a quarrel broke out among His disciples. We don’t know how their argument started but since Jesus gathered His group to eat the Passover, which was the most important Jewish observation, it is quite likely that the strife was over the seating arrangements.
4. That’s a strong possibility and what a sad picture it is. In the last hours of Jesus’ life, His own disciples are acting just like the Pharisees squabbling over the seats of distinction.
B. Jesus put an end to the dispute by asking them in verse 27; “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”
1. According to John 13 what did Jesus do? Jesus washed their feet. What did they do? I imagine they sat there dumbfounded, that they sat there utterly disgraced, not believing that they could act so selfishly. The people in Jesus’ day didn’t believe that a man who pushes himself would be lower. The people in Jesus’ day didn’t believe that a man who lowers himself would in the end be victorious.
2. Things haven’t changed today. The world still doesn’t believe it today, but what we need to remember is this. We do not listen to the words of the world; we listen to the words of Jesus.
C. Let me say this too, Jesus practiced what He preached to the Pharisees in Luke 14. When you think about His life, He had such humble beginnings and such a humble end.
1. Luke 2:7 tells us that “He slept in a manger.”
2. When He died according Philippians 2:8 “He humbled Himself and became obedient to death on a cross.”
3. When He was buried, Mark 27:57-60 tells us “He was buried in a borrowed tomb.” Neither at His birth nor at His death could He find a lowlier place.
D. When we think about Christ’s life and by that measure our own life, we see that His death was truly shameful for us. Not for Him but for us.
V. Let me ask, do we want to be great in the kingdom of God? If we do, we need to start from the bottom up. Whose feet would we be willing to wash today? Will we help wash the feet of a sister who has a debt needing to be paid, with prayers and an offering of money? Will we wash the feet of a brother who is struggling as a Christian and needs someone who will just listen to him with their ears? Will we wash the feet of the church by serving in ways that are needed? Will we wash the feet of our visitors by helping them feel welcomed?
A. I mean there are people’s feet all around us, all the time. They represent the needs that are there. If God was willing to come down to earth in the form of Jesus Christ and wash people’s feet, then surely we should too.
B. Mark 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” He came to serve and in Philippi when a girl who had a future telling spirit in her was following Paul and Silas, she said in Acts 16:17 "These men are servants of the Most High God.” Jesus served. His apostles served. The church served. Folks, we should be serving too. Christians must serve.
C. Paul tells us something of serving in Romans 12:6-8 – “6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7. or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8. he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

CONCLUSION:
This is what I want us to think about as we close. Everyone here can serve. If you are a Christian who is already doing that then keep doing it. God bless you for great is your reward in heaven.

If you are not a Christian and you want to serve God, the way to do that is to serve Him with your obedience to His will.

Listen, you can get involved with church work and you can donate thousands of dollars to the church, but if you haven’t been obedient to His words, then all your good deeds are in vain and a waste of time.

I would hate to see that happen to anyone. I would hate for anyone to get to the Judgment thinking that they are saved by doing all these good things just to find out they aren’t.

Getting involved with church life doesn’t make you a Christian. Coming to worship every week doesn’t make you a Christian. Being christened when you were a baby doesn’t make you a Christian.

John 14:21 – “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” The question we should ask our self is; do I love Jesus?

Jesus commands everyone in Mark 16:16 – “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” He says to Christians in Matthew 28:19-20 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” .”

If you ever want to become a Christian, you need to obey Jesus. It’s as simple as that, and that will lead to your immersion and then you need to continue to obey Him.
After all the only ones which go with Him into eternal life are those He describes in Matthew 25, where He says to them in verse 21, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”

Humility, serving...you can’t take the two apart, they are inseparable.
Let me leave you with Peter’s inspired words from 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
The invitation is there, if you need help in any way let us know while we stand and sing the invitation song.

Psalm 22 - Part 1

Psalm 22 – Part 1  
Luke 24:44-45, Psalm 22

INTRO:
Good morning. It is good to see everybody that is here this morning. I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it.

Our text for this morning in Luke is very short, Luke 24:44-45 which says; “44. Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.'' 45. And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Then Christ goes on to say; “Thus it is written...” Luke tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead He was speaking to His apostles and His disciples, explaining to them that what had been written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, and psalms, had to be fulfilled.

Last week we took a step back from our look at the Psalms and looked instead at the Law of Moses. Now I want to look at the Psalms and the prophecies about the Christ that we find there. The Psalms were received from the Holy Spirit about a thousand years before the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. In the sermon this morning what I'm going to be doing is preaching Christ crucified from the Psalms.

1 Corinthians 1:23 says; “23. but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” I have a question for you. What do you consider the most moving account of the crucifixion of the Christ... Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John?

I would answer none of the above. For me the most moving account of the crucifixion of the Christ was written many years before the Christ was crucified in Psalms Chapter 22. The 22nd Psalm really is in two parts. We will look at the first part today and the Lord willing look at the second part next week.

I. Turn with me now to Psalm 22:1 – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?” “My God my God why have you forsaken me.” Psalm 22 opens with this statement. We find the same statement being made by Jesus when He is on the cross recorded in Matthew 27:46 – “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?'' that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?''”
A. There are I believe seven different statements that Jesus says while He's on the cross. This was about the ninth hour. Jesus had been on the cross around six hours. Luke 23:34 records what may be the first thing He said; “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
1. Then while He was still strong enough and even those that were crucified with Him were still strong enough, He was able to talk to the thief on the cross. Jesus tells the thief, “today you will be with me in paradise”
2. The more time that goes by as a person hangs on the cross the more difficult talking becomes. Next scripture records Him saying; “woman behold your son” and then “behold your mother”[para]
B. We are told it is the ninth hour, which is around 3 pm. We are now looking at the close of the crucifixion. The last four statements that Jesus says from the cross are made from this point on. I believe this is probably the very first thing Jesus said in the close the crucifixion and whenever those in the audience heard this, I guarantee you the high priest, priests, Levites, Scribes and Pharisees knew what He said, they knew the scripture. They knew it well.
1. I strongly suspect that when they're hearing this from the cross their mind took them to this particular prophecy because the entire prophecy, the entire psalm is about the Christ and His Kingdom.
2. There are many reasons that I believe the Bible is from God and Jesus Christ is the Son of God but my belief, my faith is strengthened because of the prophecies.
3. We should note that Psalm 22 was given by the Holy Spirit to King David and in this Psalm we have an extremely detailed prophecy about the crucifixion of the Christ given a thousand years before it happens.
4. It is an exquisite detail in prophecy and what we're seeing in Psalm 22 is what the Christ saw from the cross. What the Christ heard from the cross. What the Christ said from the cross. What the Christ thought from the cross. What the Christ felt.
5. In Psalm 22 we are given the crucifixion of the Christ from the viewpoint of the one being crucified.
C. The statement here My God my God why have you forsaken me is said in the close of the crucifixion. There are three others that come after that. I thirst. It is finished. Finally, the last statement Father into your hands I commit my spirit.
1. The first of these is a question but notice the last statement is a prayer of absolute confidence.
2. Sometime people ask the question, “Why is He saying this?” Is He saying this just to get people to think about the Psalm? Or is He actually feeling this and conscious of it?
3. At this point I want to recommend to you that you look at Psalm 22 in conjunction with the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion and study them together.
II. Let’s look again in Psalm 22:1-2 – “... Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2. O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.” That's the continuation of the verse. He's feeling He's not being heard and He's crying to God.
A. Why is it, that He might be feeling that God is not hearing him? The first thing that comes to my mind is He's been on a cross for six hours. He's being crucified.
1. He's been tortured now for six hours and is coming to the close of His life.
2. Isaiah 53:6 - tells us; “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” On the cross all the sins of mankind are being laid on Christ.
3. Second Corinthians 5:21 – “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” At this moment Jesus is experiencing what's happening. The sins of the world, all mankind, are on him. .
B. Before I go any further in the lesson there's something we need to do. We need to slow down and really nail down a very important point here.
1. Why this is happening. Why this man is going through what He's going through.
2. I'll tell you why. I blew it, I’ve sinned, I deserved to go to hell. It is the same for all of us. We have sinned; we deserve to go to hell.
3. That is not what God wants, He loves us, and God doesn’t want us to go to hell. He didn’t want us to be lost so much He was willing to allow His son to go through all of this for us. Jesus was willing to go through everything that He went through because He loves us, and He wants to redeem us.
4. The reason we take the Lord's Supper, to remember this event every week, is so that we can hear God crying out to us loudly, I love you.
5. If we don't get anything from the sermon this morning get this. God loves you. He knows each of us individually; this God who knows the name of every star in the universe certainly can know us. He loves us and He's made the redemption sacrifice at Calvary so our sins can be forgiven.
III. Getting back to Psalm 22 we look at Psalm 22:3-5 – “3. But You are holy, Who inhabit the praises of Israel. 4. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. 5. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.” Here we see the confidence that is shown because God delivered the children of Israel.
A. When they trusted in God and when they cried to God, God heard them, God delivered them.
1. We see in the context of the prophesy, He's wondering; but I'm not delivered. Why have you forsaken me? Are you going to deliver me? Are you going to hear me?
2. Verse 6 says; “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people.”
3. I’m going to digress for a moment. The primary cross-reference to Psalm 22 is the suffering servant passages of Isaiah which we have looked at before. Isaiah 53 is the prophecy of the suffering of Christ, the suffering servant.
4. Those passages of the suffering servant don't start in Isaiah 53 verse 1. The prophecy begins back in Isaiah 42 and then interweaves through Isaiah and you find it showing up again in Chapters 45, 49, 52 and then it culminates in chapter 53. The primary cross reference then to Psalms 22 is Isaiah 42 - 53.
5. I hope to look at Isaiah with you at some point. Isaiah is one of the main books of prophecies about the Christ. Yet in the Old Testament, Psalms has more prophecies about the Christ, then Isaiah.
B. Let’s go back to verse 6 now. Notice if you will the phrase, He's a reproach of men, He's despised of the people. Now look at Isaiah 53:3 – “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” Of Jesus John wrote; “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”
1. Jesus is on the cross, surrounded by the high priest, the priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees, the leaders of Israel. The people around Him are mocking Him, ridiculing Him.
2. He came into His own and His own rejected him. He is despised. Those around Him at the cross are despising Him. They're rejecting Him.
IV. Now Psalm 22:7-8 – “7. All those who see Me laugh Me to scorn; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8. "He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!''” Look at the detail of the prophecy! It says they shake the head and notice what they say, He trusted in the Lord let Him rescue Him, let Him deliver Him.
A. That’s the prophecy, now look with me at Matthew 27:39 – “And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads” and in verse 43 – “"He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.' ''”
B. We see the detail of the prophecy, the exact words My God my God why have you forsaken me. We see the exact detail in the people wagging their heads and saying of Him; He trusted in God let Him deliver Him.
C. That's exactly what was prophesied a thousand years before it was said.
V. Let’s go back to Psalm 22:9-10 – “9. But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust when I was on My mother's breasts. 10. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God.”
A. What kind of relationship did the Christ have with God the Father? From the very beginning He is the son of God. Scripture says how He trusted in God from the very beginning, from the womb.
B. The cross reference to that is Isaiah 49:5 – “The Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him (for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength),”
C. Jesus understood from the very beginning who he was and what the purpose for His coming was. He was born into the world to die. The crucifixion is the reason He came into the world. His purpose in coming here was to destroy the works of the devil, that being sin and death. To form a way over that which is separating us from God, He came to destroy, and to save. He understood this from the very beginning.
VI. Psalm 22:11-13 – “11. Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. 12. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. 13. They gape at Me with their mouths, As a raging and roaring lion.”
A. Focus for a moment on the bulls and the lion. What he's describing here is the crowd surrounding him.
1. We must remember most of those around the cross are the enemies. They're loving the crucifixion of the Christ. They're reveling in it.
2. We saw earlier the high priest, priests, Pharisees, Scribes, then there's the crowd and the Romans soldiers and the ones that there crucified with Him one to the right and one to the left.
3. Everybody around Him, He seeing them, He's hearing them and all around Him are the enemy. He cries out to God to deliver him.
B. In verse 16 – “For dogs have surrounded Me; The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;” Here the third animal is described as dogs. Remember that, bulls, lions, and dogs.
1. He's surrounded by a congregation of wickedness and notice what He says here; they pierced my hands and my feet. This is one of the most amazing prophecies.
2. You have a man being put to death by having his hands and his feet pierced. What is so amazing to me is that scholars tell us that at the point in time Psalms were written crucifixion doesn't even exist in mankind. It was the Medo-Persians who came up with crucifixion and then after centuries the Romans took it and perfected it.
3. This was the most humiliating, torturing form of capital punishment that they had. The way they would kill somebody in crucifixion was by nailing them to a piece of wood, they would nail them in different positions but usually when they were nailed upright they would nail your hands to a cross beam and then nail your feet to the upright.
4. Every time you breathed you had to pull yourself up by the spikes driven through your hands and feet. Every time Jesus took a breath for those six hours He had to pull and push up by those spikes just to exhale and inhale and then let down again. The amazing detail of the prophecy a thousand years before the event of the crucifixion took place and before there was even crucifixion in the world. This is the way the Christ is going to die.
C. His hands and feet are pierced and in verse 17 – “I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.” His arms are stretched out and you could see His bones. How painful that was and at the same time He is surrounded by the congregation of the wicked. Everybody’s staring at Him making fun of Him and ridiculing Him.
D. John 19:15-16 – “15. But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!'' Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?'' The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!'' 16. So he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.” Crucifixion is the means of a slow, torturing death.
VII. Psalm 22:19-21 – “19. But You, O Lord, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! 20. Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. 21. Save Me from the lion's mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me.” I told you earlier to remember the bull, the lion, and the dog? Here they are again. He’s asking for deliverance from the dog, lion, and the bull, from the crowd that is surrounding him.
A. Going back now to Psalm 22:14-15 – “14. I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.” All his bones are out of joint, He has been pulling Himself up with His arms and pushing Himself up with His legs that are out of joint, nailed to wood, to get another breath. He goes through this over and over and over and over again. Why?
1. Because I sin and you sin, He is going through this so that our sins could be forgiven. He went through all this and yet He could have called legions of angels at any time. He could have stopped the whole thing, but He did not.
2. He was faithful to the point of being obedient to the death of the cross because He loves us and does not want us to go to hell. He loves you.
3. Please listen. If you get nothing else out of this sermon, get this. This is a story of love.
B. Isaiah 52:13-15 says about the Christ; “13. Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14. Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; 15. So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider.” In verse 14 what we're talking about is the degree to which the body of Christ was scourged and beaten and crucified.
1. He was scourged by the Roman soldiers before He was crucified.
2. When they would scourge you, they would strap your hands to a post and stretch out your body.
3. Then they would take a whip with stones and metal at the end of the straps and they would beat your back and your legs.
4. Really what is behind this all, behind the crucifixion of the Christ, driving all of this - was Satan, thinking he's going to destroy the Christ.
5. The Roman soldiers scourged him, and Isaiah described it in verse 14 when he wrote; His visage was marred more than any man. They mutilated His body and then nailed Him to the cross. Every strike that came upon His body was so I could be healed, and you could be healed.
6. I regret that it took such a sacrifice. I'm ashamed of my sins but all I know to say to Jesus and to God; is thank you for being willing to make the sacrifice.
7. I don't know about you, but I find myself loving somebody I've never seen. I've never seen Jesus never seen God, but I love Him because I believe it’s true.
C. Psalm 22:15 says My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws. The pain that Jesus experienced is only stated in two words in John 19:28 – “after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!''”
1. That's the only two words that are even uttered that give you any idea the degree of the pain He's going through.
2. It's only in Psalm 22 that we find out actually what He felt like, what He was experiencing, what He was seeing and hearing, what was going on around him, even what He was thinking. Psalm 22:15 - You have brought Me to the dust of death.
3. This it the way it's put in Isaiah 53:8 – “He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.” In Psalm 22; you brought me to the dust of death, in Isaiah 53; he was cut off from the land of the living.
4. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the Christ in Psalm 22 was going to die. The reason He's going to die is not for anything He’s done wrong, it is for the sins of mankind that the Christ is going to die on the cross.
D. Now Psalm 22:18 – “They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” Again, we recognize the amazing details here! Prophecy says they are going to take His clothes and cast dice for them to see who's going to get them.
1. That's exactly what they did with the clothes of Jesus. Matthew 27:35 – “Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: "They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.''”
2. These prophecies in Psalm 22 are given so many years before, yet they are given in exquisite detail of the exact words coming from the mouth of the Christ, of the exact words coming from the mouths of those who were ridiculing and mocking the Christ. The details of what He's seeing, the details of what He's hearing, the details of His experience.

CONCLUSION: As I said the first half of Psalm 22 is all about the crucifixion of the Christ, the pinnacle event in the history of mankind. We've probably heard sermons about the first half of Psalm 22 a number of times, but we do not often consider the last half of the chapter and what it is telling us. If we do not consider it, reading it to see what is being said, we're missing out because the last half has to do with—He's heard me. God has heard me, and God is answering.

The Psalm began with “My God my God why have you forsaken me” but it concludes with; you have heard me, and you have answered, and the answer is you.

God willing, next week we will look at this last part of Psalm 22. It has an important message for us and is something we need to understand.

The answer is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. The answer is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The answer is all mankind returning to God through Christ.

It is why He came, why He was born as a man. It was His purpose from the womb to die on the cross. This event as described in Psalms was prophesied a thousand years before it happened, and in Isaiah 750 years before it happened.

In the text in Isaiah, the suffering servant in Isaiah 52, and Psalm 22 are cross-references to each other. Isn't that amazing? They're both written about the same future event.

Jesus said; all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. That is what we are examining in these lessons.

Understanding the Old Testament will strengthen our faith that the Bible is from God, strengthen our faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Our study of scripture reveals to us the plan that God has for us, has had since before the world was made.

It is why we love God and Jesus so much as we see in this Psalm everything He went through for you and me.

If there's anybody here this morning who is not in Christ, your sin is still separating you from your God. God does not want you to stay in that condition. The Christ who died for you does not want you to be lost. He wants you to turn to him. He wants you to be reconciled to God.

That means the sins must be forgiven. The purpose of the crucifixion was so your sins could be forgiven but now you must obey the gospel. You need to come to understand and believe that Jesus actually is the Christ. The reason He fulfills all the prophecies about the Christ is because He is the Christ.

If you have come to that point of faith and you realize that what happened at Calvary was done for you. He truly was crucified. He was buried and he truly rose from the dead. If you believe this about Jesus come forward and confess that faith and motivated by your faith make the commitment of repentance to follow the word of God by faith in your life. If you're willing to do that we'd be glad to assist you and baptize you into the one body, the kingdom. You'll be baptized into the one body, the church, the kingdom, for the remission of your sins. Your sins can be forgiven by the power of the blood of Christ that was shed on that cross for you.

If you're a child of God and you realize there is sin standing between you and your God deal with it, go straight into it and deal with it. Confess the sin to God, repent of it and turn from it. The blood of the Christ is there for you.
Every sin we are forgiven of is going to be forgiven by the power of the blood of the Christ. If you need to return home to the Father, we will pray for you, we will pray with you, we will do the best we can to encourage you and strengthen you. If you are subject to the gospel call in any way let us know as we stand and sing the song that has been selected.
Invitation song: ??? Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

The Rich Fool

The Rich Fool  

Luke 12:13-21

INTRO:
Good evening. I’ll start this evening with a story. One Friday near the end of work four employees from different departments rushed to use the photocopier at the same time. The person from accounts payable said, "We have to get our bills paid, so I should go first." Accounts receivables said, "If we don't get our receivables collected, you won't have the money to pay the bills." The product manager said, "Unless I get these sales posted, there won't be any receivables to collect to pay the bills, so I should go first." The last person said she was from payroll and everyone swiftly cleared a path to the copier.

I guess the point of the story is when it comes to priorities, some things are more important than others. Pleases turn your Bibles to Luke 12. We are going to look at “The parable of the rich fool,” this evening and Jesus is going to teach us about just how forgetful we can be sometimes, especially if our priorities are all wrong.

In Luke 11 Jesus is preaching one of the fieriest sermons He ever preached. In Luke 11:14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. Some of those in the crowd accused Him of using the devil’s power to do it. Then in Luke 11:29 He preached to the multitudes and called them a wicked generation because they were always looking for miraculous signs.

Next in Luke 11:37-38 Jesus was invited to a Pharisees house for dinner but He didn’t wash His hands and the Pharisee marveled about that. Jesus told the Pharisee that they were cleaning the outside of the cup and not caring about the inside. He called them, “foolish people”. In verse 45 “One of the experts in the law said to Him when you say these things, you insult us also."[para]

In verse 50 Jesus tells them that this generation was going to be held accountable for the death of the prophets since the beginning of time, which set the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law to fuming.

In the next chapter at verse 1, Luke 12:1 Jesus speaks to His disciples and tells them to look out for those people, those leaders. There are a lot of people listening in on the conversation that Jesus is having and it’s in Luke 12:13 where we pick up the story.

I. Luke 12:13-15 – “13. Then one from the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.'' 14. But He said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?'' 15. And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.''”
A. Have you ever been having a conversation with someone when someone else jumps in and totally changes the subject? That’s what this guy does. Jesus had been speaking about vital truths of divine providence. He had been speaking about vital truths of confession. He had been speaking about the Holy Spirit and while Jesus was talking with His disciples this man spoke up and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
B. This was totally out of order; this was not the place and time. Now what does this tell us about the man? Well this tells me that he wasn’t interested in spiritual things, his whole heart was absorbed with his present life. Jesus said to this individual, "Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?''
C. Jesus bluntly refused to answer this man’s blunt request. Jesus didn’t want anything to do with a quarrel over family property.
1. The Jewish Law was specific enough about this kind of thing. Deuteronomy 21:15-21 – “15. "If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, 16. "then it shall be, on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, who is truly the firstborn. 17. "But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his. 18. "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19. "then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20. "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' 21. "Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil person from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.”
2. The Law said that the firstborn son was to receive a double portion (i.e. two-thirds) of the inheritance and the remainder was to be divided among the other sons, this Law left no room for debate.
3. Now this man who spoke to Jesus seems to have been the younger brother. He speaks to Jesus to try and get Him on his side in order to get an equal share of the inheritance. In other words, he knew the Law, but he wanted more than his rightful share.
D. I think that if I were ever asked to choose a song, which summed up the society we live in today, I would choose the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” Folks, what follows in the next verses are a severe warning against covetousness. First Jesus says in Luke 12:15 – “Take heed and beware of covetousness...” “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed." This warning covers any and all forms of covetousness.
1. A businessman, who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal, went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed $100 into the other man's hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed, "And now, Lord, now that I have your undivided attention...."
2. Christians too can fall for the temptation of covetousness. But what is covetousness? It’s not simply a desire for property. For example, a person can have an excessive and unrestrained desire for food; someone might say that they are hungry all the time. Just as some people are hungry for food some other people may be hungry for gain. In others words some people that have want more and more.
3. I heard this about some past lottery winners. One of them won 1 million dollars and the other won 6 million dollars. The story was told by a repo man who had the assignment of repossessing a Cadillac from the $1 million winner. He learned that when the annual lottery check arrived, she quickly spent it partying, leaving her without enough to make her car payments. He said after the winner came back from a party one night, he drove her car away while she slept.
4. Of the $6 million winner she was a hairdresser and when she had won, she invested her money in successful businesses. In an interview she said that, “she still plays the lottery”. There are people who will never be satisfied with what they have. Anyone who desires anything in that way is a perfect example of what covetousness is, it’s an excessive desire for gain.
E. After warning against covetousness, Jesus states the reason for the warning. He says in Luke 12:15 – “... for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” [NKJV]
1. What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying that life is more than things. He’s saying that the success of a person’s work cannot be measured in terms of what he has been able to accumulate.
2. If we are still confused about what Jesus means, it’s now that He shares “The parable of the rich fool” to illustrate the meaning.
II. Luke 12:16-21 – “16. Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17. "And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' 18. "So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19. 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'' ' 20. "But God said to him, 'You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' 21. "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.''”
A. Everyday of our lives we see evidence of covetousness all around us. Certainly, we recognize the sins of adultery, drunkenness and dishonesty which are even frowned upon by secular society; but covetousness rides right through society and is pretty much ignored.
1. Even among self-professed Christians it is so widespread that it is scarcely recognized for what it is.
2. And what is it? It is a sin. Even in the assembly there are individual members who are in such hot pursuit of their own interests that they find very little time and energy left for the Lord. We really need to listen to what Jesus is teaching us today.
B. Here was a man who in the world’s eyes was a great success, yet God called him a fool. But why? What was wrong in his life? How did he miss the way? How did he act like a fool? Well this man was a fool because of the important things he forgot. That’s what I want to look at and consider.
III. I would suggest he forgot 5 things and the 1st thing he forgot was other people. He thought of no one except himself. This is the first thing that leaps out at you when you read the parable. 6 times he uses the word “I” in the parable. 5 times he uses the word “My” in the parable. This man was all about self, everything he did, he did for himself.
A. Perhaps other people never even entered his mind, not once did he remember those people who worked for him. Luke 13:17 says, “He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'” Think about it, maybe the farmer across the field was saying to himself, “What can I do, for I don’t have any bread to feed my children.”
1. If he didn’t have enough barns, there were other places he could have put it. You might ask where, where could he have put it? James 1:27 – “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
2. That’s where he could have put his crops. He could have put it at the feet of the homeless, he could have put it in the houses of the widows, or he could have put it in the mouths of the orphans and infants.
3. But oh-no, this rich fool didn’t think about those things, all he could think about was his own little world where there was no room for anyone except himself.
B. The 2nd thing that he forgot was that man is more than what he owns. You see he looked on life in terms of the physical things only. It’s here that he makes a tragic mistake, like much of the world makes today. He didn’t distinguish between what a man has and what a man is.
1. It’s not always easy to make a definite distinction because many of us, even those who have been brought up in the church, still count a person fortunate if he enjoys a long run of prosperity. The Bible says in Mark 10:23 – “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”
2. 1 Timothy 6:9-10 – “9. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” In other words, a person’s life is not the same as their business.
3. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 – “17. Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19. storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” You see it’s more important to be rich in good deeds than it is to just to be rich in goods.
C. That brings me to the 3rd thing he forgot. He forgot the source of real happiness. He had a false conception of life and because of that; he had a false conception of happiness. He thought he could be happy by indulging himself.
1. Here is another man like this; he is described in Ecclesiastes 2:3-10 – “3. I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6. I made myself waterpools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 7. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. 9. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor.”
2. This man searched in his heart and what conclusion did he come to? Ecclesiastes 2:11 – “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. there was no profit under the sun.”
3. Folks, happiness is not found in things. Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t buy a sense of usefulness. It can’t buy a clear conscience; it can’t buy a mind content with God and man. Or as the Beetles once sang, “Money can’t buy me love.” These are the real riches and without them no one can be really happy.
D. The 4th thing he forgot, and this was his biggest blunder, he forgot God. He didn’t take God into account at all. There was nothing wrong with him wanting to tear down his barns and build bigger ones because as we know a good farmer must have foresight. But his fatal mistake was that in all his well-laid plans, he didn’t spare one thought for God. Sadly, this is also a common failing in many Christians.
1. James 4:13-15 – “13. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit''; 14. whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.''”
2. Folks, if we ever leave God out of our plans, then we should not be surprised our plans end in ruin.
E. That brings me to the final thing he forgot, he forgot about death. He thought he was going to live a long life. Luke 12:19 says, “And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' Then God says to him in Luke 12:20 - “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”
1. He only had one more day left to live and like him, we deceive ourselves constantly by thinking that we too have plenty of time to live. We put off until tomorrow and the truth of the matter is that we don’t even know if there will be a tomorrow.
2. Satan’s lie is not, “You will not die” but what he does say to us is, “You will not die soon.”
IV. Let’s turn to Psalms again for a moment, Psalm 90:9-10 where it says; “9. For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. 10. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
A. In the height of this man’s prosperity and self-satisfaction, God appeared to the rich man and required his life. How much did he leave? He left it all. No wonder he’s a fool. He spent his whole life striving for the things he had to leave behind. He neglected the true values of life that he could have taken with him.
B. Matthew 6:19-21 – “19. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20. "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Many people may have a good title while they are here on earth, whether it be the Queen, or the President, whether it is Lord such and such or the Speaker of the House. But when they get to heaven their title stays behind.
C. You know the story about the rich man and Lazarus. The story about a rich guy who lived in a great big mansion and outside near the gate was a beggar named Lazarus. For years he begged at the rich man’s gates, but the rich man did nothing about it. Now he wasn’t unkind to the guy, he never had him thrown in prison or moved away. But one night his soul slipped out from him and all his wealth, all his ease and all his self-indulgences were gone.
1. Why was the rich man condemned? In Matthew 25:41-46 when Jesus is talking about the great division on judgment day. “41. "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42. 'for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43. 'I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' 44. "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' 45. "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46. "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.''”
2. The rich man lost his chance, Lazarus was right there in front of him and yet he did nothing about it. The rich fool in the parable forgot about many things and Satan whispered in his ear, “These are not important.” Satan is still doing it today, whispering in people’s ears, “Just look after yourself because nobody else cares about you.”
3. Let me tell you folks, God cares and He cared enough to send His only son, whom He loves, Jesus Christ, to give His life and die a horrific death on a wooden cross, so that you and I don’t have to be condemned. Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
V. Turn your Bible to Matthew 5 where Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount. He says beginning in verse 3-12, “3. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11. "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12. "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Now notice that Jesus finished by saying, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”
A. Let me share with you something I read called the devil’s beatitudes. 1. Blessed are those who are too tired, too busy, too distracted to spend an hour or two once a week with their fellow Christians -- they are my best workers. 2. Blessed are the touchy that stop going to church -- they are my missionaries who help the unchurched stay that way. 3. Blessed are the troublemakers -- they shall be called my children. 4. Blessed are the complainers -- I'm all ears to them. 5. Blessed are those who are bored with the preacher's mannerisms and mistakes -- for they get nothing out of his sermons. 6. Blessed are those who gossip -- for they shall cause strife and divisions that please me. 7. Blessed are those who are easily offended -- for they will soon get angry and quit. 8. Blessed are those who do not give their offering to carry on God's work -- for they are my helpers. 9. Blessed are those who profess to love God but hate their brother and sister -- for they shall be with me forever. 10. Blessed are you, who, when you hear this think it is about other people and not yourself -- because I've got you too!
B. Do we see the difference? If we listen to Satan, we will end up being with him in eternal damnation. But if we listen to Jesus and do what He asks of us, we will have eternal life, the crown of glory, treasures stored where nobody or nothing can touch them. Or as He says to His disciples in Luke 12:33-34 – “33. "Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. 34. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
CONCLUSION:
Each of us needs to ask ourselves, and more then once, where’s my heart at? Is it set on being rich in good deeds to others for the Lord? Or is it set on getting rich with good things for myself?

What are we going to do with our crop when the barn gets full? Are we going to build another barn? Or are we going to look at the barns that are empty around us?

There was a little greeting card with a picture of Winnie the Pooh, his honey pot, some bees and some flowers and the card said; “When I try to remember, I forget.”

When we remember our purpose as a church, we will never forget our purpose as individual Christians. Because the minute we forget about God, that’s when we forget our purpose. That’s when we forget about other people, that’s when we forget that a person is more than what they own. That’s when we forget the source of real happiness, that’s when we forget God and that’s when we forget about death.

If you’re a Christian this evening who has or is beginning to forget your purpose, then read your Bible, talk to God in prayer or just speak to someone about it and allow them to pray for you and with you.

If you’re not a Christian this evening, and you’re tired of chasing after material things, or maybe you think life is meaningless. Or maybe your just looking for a purpose or some meaning to life, then please, just ask any member of the church here and we would be happy to share with you the reason why we believe there is a reason for life and how God has got a purpose for every individual in this life.

God bless, and thanks for taking the time to grow in your understanding of God’s Word.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God; and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.
Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

Invitation song: # ???
Reference Sermon by: Mike Glover

Shadows of The Coming Christ In The Law Of Moses

Shadows of The Coming Christ In The Law Of Moses  
Hebrews 10:1

INTRO:
Good morning. I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it. Our text for this morning is very short, Hebrews 10:1 which says; “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.”

Today I want to step back from our look at the Psalms and look back at the Law of Moses. I plan to continue in the Psalms next week but for today let’s look at some things in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.

It says in our text that within the law there was a shadow of good things to come.
We know what a shadow is. If I look at my shadow on the ground, I know that's not the real me. You can only tell a few things about me from the shadow. Not a lot, but you can tell a little bit about me.

What we are going to do this morning is look at the Law of Moses in Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus and see contained within the Law of Moses there were shadows of the coming of the Christ.

They were exactly what the Christ was going to do in His relationship with us and His sacrifice for our salvation. Some of the things we will be looking at are in line of what we would call a prophecy, where it is foretelling future events. Some of the things we will look at are just dealing with what happened in history. While looking at these historic events we are going to examine how they were foreshadowing the death of the Christ. Because we are looking at the foreshadowing, we will not only be looking at the Old Testament, but we will be coming back to the New Testament frequently.

The first scripture we will look at is Genesis 3:15 and it is actually a prophecy. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Here is the prophecy that God is pronouncing upon Satan. He is telling him there will come a point in time when the seed of the offspring of the woman is going to bruise your head.

In Romans 16:20 – “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” In this text when it refers to Satan being defeated it refers to him being crushed under foot. When sin came into the world God prophesies right away how sin is going to be dealt with. Sin will be dealt with through the offspring of a woman.

I. Now let’s get into the shadows in Genesis. Beginning at chapter 12 in verses two through three, we see where God makes a covenant with Abraham. Genesis 12:2-3 “2. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.''” Contained within this covenant are the promises that God makes Abraham.
He says I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you and make your name great.
You shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you and I will curse them who curse you.
At the close of verse three it says in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
A. Another part of this is Genesis 12:7 – “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land.'' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
1. Here are the three promises God makes Abraham.
2. There is the land promise in verse seven, and in verse two God promises He will make a great nation of Abram’s descendants.
3. Then there is the key promise for you and me that through his seed all the families of the Earth are going to be blessed.
B. I’m sure you recall that in Genesis 22 there is a very major event in the life of Abraham where he is being tested by God. Genesis 22:2 “And He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” This is not a prophecy; it is a historical event that happened. But this event that happened is a foreshadowing of what God is going to do with His son, His only son, whom He loves, on the mountains of Moriah when He gives His only son as a sacrifice.
1. We read in verses 7 and 8 when Abraham and Isaac are going up the mountains of Moriah that Isaac is questioning his father. He said; here's the wood here's the fire where's the sacrifice?[para]. Abraham replies; “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.'' And the two of them went together.”
2. Here we see one of the primary messages in the entire word of God - and that is that God will provide. In verse 14 Abraham ventured to give this location the name – “The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided.''”
3. This is a foreshadowing of how God is the one to provide the lamb to be sacrificed for us. In chapter 22 after Abraham shows he is willing to obey God, notice what God reiterates in verses 16-18. Genesis 22:16-18 – “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17. "in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18. "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.''”
4. I notice that when Abraham was faithful and obeyed the command of God, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God does not repeat the land promise. Nor does He repeat the great nation promise. He repeats the third promise that “through your seed, because you have done this, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”.
C. This is a true event that happened in history. What is it the foreshadowing of? We need to look at another place in scripture for some more information to help us understand. Second Chronicles 3:1 “Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” This is the only other verse in the Old Testament that refers to the mountains of Moriah. The threshing floor of Orman (also rendered as Araunah) is purchased by David as recorded in Second Samuel 24:16-25, and there David built an altar to God. The reason David built the altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings there was because of his sin.
1. Then in John Chapter 3:16 we're getting down to the reality of the shadow. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Shadow was take your son, your only son. The reality is God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.
2. The reality in John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Do you remember what Abraham said to Isaac? God will provide for Himself the lamb. God provided the lamb, who is Jesus.
3. Second Corinthians 5:18 puts it this way; “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”.
4. The event that happened there on Mount Moriah with Abraham and Isaac, the very core of the whole message is, the Lord will provide. The Lord is the one who has provided the lamb that was without blemish. The Lord is the one who provided the sacrifice on Mount Moriah that was made for our redemption from sin.
D. Galatians 3:8 referring back to Genesis; “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed.''” That is the promise God reiterated to Abraham over in Genesis 22 after Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son.
1. Then in verse 26 the Galatians letter continues; “26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
2. All families of the Earth are going to be blessed. It does not matter if you are a physical descendant of Abraham or not. It does not matter if you are a Jew or Gentile; that does not matter anymore. You're all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Anyone who has faith in Christ and is baptized into Christ will be a Christian, be saved and a child of God. The writer continues and he says; if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to (what?) the promise. The blessing he's talking about is now all of us have the opportunity to become children of God and be saved.
II. The next shadow we're going to look at in the Law of Moses is from the book Exodus. In the text we’re dealing with the time period when the children of Israel have been in Egypt for over 400 years and have been enslaved by the Egyptians.
A. In Exodus 6:6 the Lord is telling Moses what to do and He tells him; “Therefore say to the children of Israel: 'I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.” What God is going to do for Israel, physical Israel, and this is physical history, He is going to rescue them from bondage. God is going to pull them out of Egyptian bondage and slavery and redeem them.
B. We read of the plagues God sent upon the Egyptians. The next to the last plague was three days of darkness followed by the last plague, the death of the first born. To prevent this last plague from coming upon the children of Israel, God commanded the children of Israel to do something didn’t He? He told them take the blood of the lamb and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel.
1. In Exodus 12:5-7 He says; “5. 'Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6. 'Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7. 'And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” God told them the exact time of the day and the exact time of the year do this. This is where you have the beginning of what we call the Feast of the Passover.
2. It says in verse 13 “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” As I said this is where we get the word Passover. When God saw the blood He would pass over them. If you were going to pick the main times of the year the children of Israel should celebrate, I would say Passover was the big one.
3. There were three times in the year when the children of Israel were supposed to come to Jerusalem, the Feast of the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of the tabernacles but I would say the really big one, the really important one was the Passover. What is significant in the Passover is a lamb without blemish is being sacrificed. This is a shadow—a shadow of what God was going to do.
C. In First Peter 1:18-19 it says; “18. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19. but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” The reason they had to have a lamb that was without blemish because it was a shadow of the perfect sinless Christ who was going to be giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins to redeem us.
1. The children of Israel were safe from Egyptian bondage and redeemed from Egyptian slavery. We are redeemed from Satan, sin, and death and saved from bondage to that sin and death by the sacrifice of the lamb without blemish, Jesus the Christ.
2. Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 26:2 – “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified” Back in Genesis we learned that God told Abram to go to Mount Moriah. That was going to be the location, the place where the Christ was going to be crucified. The Passover was to happen at a time designated by God and now we know this was the time when the Christ will be crucified. One is the location of the crucifixion the other is the time of the crucifixion.
3. That's why you find in First Corinthians 5:7 it says; “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” You remember what God said of the Passover when I see the blood I will pass over you. They avoided the plague of death, physical death, with the blood of a lamb. We avoid the wrath of God and spiritual death, being forever separated from God, by the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. He is our Passover who was sacrificed for us.
D. The Hebrew writer puts it this way in Hebrews 2:14-15 – “14. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15. and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The event that happened in history was a shadow of what was going to happen in the future with the Christ. The event was when the children of Israel were taken out of Egyptian bondage and slavery. What that event was foreshadowing is when you and I were going to be freed from slavery and bondage. We were enslaved to Satan, sin and death.
E. The reason the Christ came, the reason the Christ died, and was buried, and arose from the dead, was so He could conquer the one who had the power over death, the one to which we were in bondage, and then free us from bondage to Satan, sin, and death. We are going to conquer death. We are going to rise from the dead ourselves. We will be with God forever in heaven. This is the very heart, the very core of Christianity.
III. Then you have Leviticus. Leviticus is not one of those books that people really read just for fun. It's kind of difficult reading and I suspect part of that is because we're not Levitical priests. If you were a Levitical priest who was doing the job of a priest, this is an extremely important book to you. The first 16 chapters of the book of Leviticus are dealing with approaching God through sacrifice. The last part of Leviticus deals with maintaining your relationship with God through sanctification.
A. In the 16th chapter we read about the Day of Atonement, the most important day in the entire year for the children of Israel. This was when the high priest would first offer sacrifice for his sins, and then he would go into the holy of holies. The chief priest was to go by himself no one else could go in there. Only the chief priest could go into the holy of holies the most holy place and there he offered the sacrifice for the sins of the people. He did this once a year, every year.
1. We find in Leviticus 16:15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.” This is not a prophecy. It is an event. These are things that happened in history but what is taking place here is a foreshadowing of what Christ was going to do for us when He took His blood into heaven.
2. The Hebrew writer in Hebrews 9:12 wrote; “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” The writer stresses two points here about the superiority of the high priesthood of Christ. First, the sacrifice was by a more perfect medium; His own blood.
3. Jesus did not take the blood of bulls and goats because it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats can actually take away sin. What He took was His own blood and He entered the true holy place in the presence of God. The Hebrew author elaborates in the next two verses. “13. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14. how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
4. Second, that in a more exalted place of offering, that is heaven, Christ offered His own blood, not repeatedly, but once for all. In Hebrews 9:23-25 – “23. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25. not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another”
B. The High Priest going into the holy of holies, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, with the blood of the goat and the blood of the bull, to offer the sacrifice for the sins of the people was a shadow; a shadow of the true event. The true event was not going to take place in the temple in Jerusalem or in the holy of holies in the temple in Jerusalem or with the blood of bulls and goats. The true event of which this in Leviticus is a shadow, was when the Christ went into the holy place, heaven itself, in the presence of God, with His blood. There He offered it as a sacrifice for our sins.
C. Again in Hebrews let’s look at Hebrews 8:1-2 – “1. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2. a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” The true Tabernacle the true temple is not in Jerusalem it is in heaven and that is where our High Priest is seated and serving at this very moment.

CONCLUSION:
What we’ve done in the sermon this morning is we have looked at shadows. There are a lot more shadows that are in the Old Testament that we have not looked at.

For instance, I very briefly mentioned how there were three days of darkness before the plague of the death of the first born. In the crucifixion of the Christ there are three hours of darkness before the death of the first born.

In Exodus we find that in the third month after the Passover Israel became a nation at Mt. Sinai, the fulfillment of the promise of them becoming a nation. We find that this is also when the kingdom of the Christ began. The third month after Passover is when the covenant was given in Jerusalem, and the kingdom of our Lord began on Earth.

There are multitudes of shadows. Shadows not prophecies. Prophecies are foretelling of future events. Specifically telling what is going to happen. A shadow is when an event happens in history and that event is a foreshadowing of the mystery of God that is ultimately going to be revealed in Christ crucified.
On Mount Moriah, where God provides the lamb to Abram—to when He gave His son, His only son as a living sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
In Exodus and the Passover lamb—to the time of the sacrifice of the Christ when the Lamb who is without blemish was going to give His blood so the wrath of God will pass over us and we would be free from the bondage of sin.
As the high priest in Leviticus went into the holy of holies each year, our High Priest went into heaven itself. He took His blood into the presence of God, a sacrifice by which our sins can be forgiven.

We have an advantage over the Jews of Biblical times because we have the complete Bible. Yet they had an advantage over us in knowing the scriptures of the Old Testament. Paul tells Timothy in Second Timothy 3:16-17 – “16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We learn from the New Testament how we are to be saved, what we learn from the Old Testament strengthens our faith.

Next week we will go back to the Psalms and study about Christ in the Psalms. At some future time, Lord willing, we will also take a look at Christ crucified in the Book of Isaiah. When we look at the birth, ministry, death, burial and the resurrection of Jesus we come to realize He is the Christ and this is what it's all about. Our understanding and our faith are strengthened because of what we learn from scripture.

One more thing, in verse 14 of Hebrews 9 it says “how much more shall the blood of Christ... purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
The utility of the human conscience is similar to that of a watch. The utility of a watch is determined by its synchronization with the correct time, not determined by the watch, but by the moment of the sun's passing over a certain meridian; and like the watch, a man's conscience can have many things wrong with it. The conscience can be evil
(Hebrews 10:22), seared (1 Timothy 4:2), defiled (Titus 1:15), ignorant (1 Timothy
1:13), and choked with dead works (Hebrews 9:14). Despite the things that may go wrong with it, there is a moral authority in the conscience. "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things" (1 John 3:20). It is in the superiority of the new covenant that God has provided a way by which man's conscience can be truly cleansed, and the basis of that cleansing is shown in this verse. It is by means of the blood of Christ.

How does the spirit of man come in contact with the blood of Christ? It is not a literal contact. So, there must be some accommodation in scripture that enables the sinful soul to know that they have in fact touched the blood of Christ. Let us remember that the only means of obtaining a clean conscience is found in the blood of Christ and that there can be no cleansing apart from that blood.

The metaphorical nature of the spiritual truth would lead us to expect some metaphorical explanation of it, and we are not disappointed. Note the
following two views: Take the view that Christ's blood is in his body. To find contact with the blood, one would have to enter the body of Christ; and how can this be done? Three times scriptures declare that people are baptized into Christ, that is, into His body (Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27). Or take the view that Christ's blood was in His death when it was shed. How does one enter the death of Christ? The scriptural answer is, "All we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death" (Romans 6:3). In view of these things, who can doubt that Christian baptism is in some wondrous way related to the believer's contact with the blood of Christ and with its consequent cleansing of the conscience? If such is not the case, how could the apostle Peter have related baptism to the cleansing of the conscience in the manner of these words referring to the saving of eight souls from the flood, " There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, " (1 Peter 3:21)?

It should be a matter of the greatest concern to all people to know the manner in which a person’s conscience may be cleansed from dead works. A good conscience becomes reality upon one's obeying the gospel of Christ through faith, repentance and baptism, and rising to walk in newness of life. Without a doubt, this fact underlies the reason that baptism was solemnly enjoined by the Savior upon the occasions of His giving the great commission as related by Mark and Matthew.

If there's anybody here this morning who is not yet a child of God and you have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, consider as we read in Galatians the third chapter – “24. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
If you would openly confess your faith, we would be glad to assist you and baptize you into Christ for the remission of your sins.

If you’re a child of God already and your faith has been weak to where you have gone astray, if there is sin between you and God, I would like to encourage you to deal with it.
God is gracious; God is willing to forgive you.
We as your brothers and sisters in Christ will pray for you, pray with you and do the very best we can to encourage you.

If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way, you are invited to come forward and make your need known while we stand and sing the song of invitation.

Invitation song: # ???
Reference Sermon by: Wayne Fancher

The Unmerciful Servant

The Unmerciful Servant 
Matthew 18:23-35

Good evening. The scripture I’d like us to look at tonight is Matthew 18:23-35. You will certainly recognize this, and I’ll be referring to it and the surrounding verses.

I’d like to start off tonight with some quips I ran across recently. You may have heard some of these.
There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us.—Edward Wallis Hoch.

Criticism is the one thing most of us think is more blessed to give than to receive.—Society of Automotive Engineers Journal

"The stones that critics hurl with harsh intent
A man may use to build his monument."—Arthur Gutterman

If you are criticized, you have either done something worthwhile, or refrained from doing something foolish. So congratulations!

INTRO: Most of us are quite good at giving criticism, in fact when it comes to fault finding most of us are experts, aren’t we? Please turn your Bibles to Matthew 18. Jesus has been talking with His disciples about right relationships and He said to them in Matthew 18:15-16 - “Moreover if your brother sins (some translations use the word trespass) against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” [NKJ]

I. Peter’s question. As usual Peter needed to clear up some things in his head. We owe a very great deal to the fact that Peter had a quick tongue. Again and again, he rushed into speech and Jesus used the opportunity for great teaching. He asks Jesus in verse 21, " Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” What Peter is asking is, “Lord what I really want to know is, how often I should forgive my brother, as many as seven times, is that enough?”
a. In Peter’s mind, he probably thought this showed he was willing to forgive more than most people would. He probably thought he was being very generous. You see folks; many Rabbis’ taught that a man was to be forgiven 3 times, but no more than 3.
i. This thinking was not without merit. In the opening chapters of Amos there is a series of condemnations on the various nations for three transgressions and for four (Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13; Amos 2:1,4,6).
ii. From this it was deduced that God's forgiveness extends to three offences and that He visits the sinner with punishment at the fourth.
iii. From this, in their zeal to set rules, and thinking that a man could be no more gracious than God, Rabbis’ taught forgiveness was limited to three times.
b. Peter doubled this and added one. Perhaps thinking this would illustrate how far he was willing to go to forgive.
c. Peter was certainly willing to forgive, but he made the mistake of measuring himself by human standards rather than by divine standards. Jesus answers Peter in verse 22, He says, “...I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
d. In other words, Jesus says, “Peter, you shouldn’t just forgive your brother seven times, but seventy times that.” Please don’t misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. He’s not saying, “You forgive someone 70 times 7 and when you get to 70 times 7 + 1 that’s it, you don’t have to forgive them anymore.” He’s not saying that, what He is saying is that a person should always be ready to forgive, it’s not a matter of counting; it’s a matter of conduct.

II. We are going to look at “The parable of the unmerciful servant”. Jesus is going to teach us some things about relationships, and He is going to reveal more truths about the kingdom of God. Our Scripture reading is Matthew 18:23-35 and we’re going to try and understand what Jesus is teaching His disciples.
III. The first thing He teaches them is “The nature of human judgment.” Human judgment is always condemning. Let’s look at the actions of the unmerciful servant first.
a. He’s just had all his debts cleared by the master and it says in Matthew 18:28-30 - " But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!' "So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' "And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.”
i. This poor guy who only owed him 100 denarii was grabbed by the throat. This was nothing less than pure heartlessness. You see during these times in Greek and Roman culture it was common practice for a debtor to be taken by the throat and brought before the court to stand trial. This debtor was going to be made to pay his debt.
ii. What the unmerciful servant was doing was demanding payment, in other words he was saying, “Pay me what you owe me!” I suppose in the unmerciful servant’s mind he’s probably thinking, “Honest people pay their debts.” But what a short memory he has, hasn’t he?
iii. It was only moments ago that he had a debt of “ten thousand talents” cancelled, yet the text tells us that even though his fellow servant begged and pleaded with him, he didn’t listen and had him thrown into prison. The unmerciful servant expected from his fellow servant what he didn’t expect from himself. This is key, it is very easy for us to see other people’s faults and failures, but we’re so slow when we look at our own. In our human judgment when we judge people, we also condemn them.
b. Let me tell you a story of two prominent preachers that were getting together to have dinner. When the one arrived at the other’s door, he was met by his friend who was smoking a large Panama cigar. Surprised the first preacher said, “How can you, a preacher of the word, stand there, and smoke that cigar?” The second preacher poked the first in his stomach, and said, “The same way you, as a preacher of the word, can stand there with your big belly.”
i. What do we see in the lives of our fellow Christians? Do we see mistakes, which we call sins in other people’s lives, but they are only called faults when they are in ours? Do we see what is selfishness in others, but it is just mischief in ourselves? Do we see what is harshness in others, but it is just openness in ourselves?
ii. Even we as Christians often expect much more of others than we do of ourselves. We expect others to take the lead; we expect others to set the example. We expect others to do the work and we’re quick to criticize if they do not.
c. What did Jesus say about having condemning judgment? Matthew 7:1-5 - “Judge not, that you be not judged. "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck out of your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.” As Scripture tells us we are indeed to judge, but judge what and judge how must be understood.
i. For example, before we go judging and condemning others, we need to take a closer look at ourselves. I know there are those who might say “I’m not judging I’m just inspecting the fruit.” We need to be very careful of the conclusion we draw from our inspection.
ii. We must look at our own life and see where we are in our relationship with God. Or in the words of Jesus when He’s speaking to those who claimed that a woman had been caught in the act of adultery in John 8:7, “Let you who have no sin throw the first stone.”[para] If only we were as gentle and as understanding and as kind to others as we are to ourselves.

IV. Divine Forgiveness. The second thing Jesus is teaching here is that when it comes to the divine nature of forgiveness, God is merciful and just. Matthew 18:23-27 - "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. "The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' "Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”
a. It’s obvious that the king in this parable is God, the debt stands for sin and the servant stands for all of mankind. The first thing that strikes us about the King is His mercy. The King didn’t hold His mercy back from His servant who owed the debt. That’s the kind of God we have, a merciful God.
b. Psalm 130:7 says, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.” [NIV] Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” [NAS] Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” [ESV]
c. You see folks, God is willing to forgive all our sins. Isn’t He wonderful, isn’t He great? Isn’t He a truly awesome God? Although He is merciful to us, He is also just in forgiveness. The heart of this parable is that God will not forgive us our sins unless we freely forgive others.
d. What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? Matthew 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”[NIV] What’s He saying? He’s saying that forgiving others is truly a Christian grace. The Law of Moses didn’t obligate a person to forgive his fellow man; forgiveness of enemies wasn’t regarded as a virtue in Israel. But Jesus comes along and says, “Forgiveness is a duty.”
i. Let me ask you; have you ever seen your fellow brother or sister involved in a sin? If you have, what do you do about it? Do you just leave them to it, because you don’t think it’s your responsibility to say anything to them? What then if their sin is against you? What do you do about that?
ii. Let’s ask Jesus and see what He says, Luke 17:3-4 -, “So watch yourselves. "If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them." [NIV] Jesus says, “If someone sins and they repent, then it’s a Christian’s duty to forgive that person.”
iii. You need to be careful not to get involved with their sin too, but if they have truly repented and are seeking forgiveness from you, you can’t hold their sin against them. That’s another key, holding a grudge, holding their sin against them will stop that person from learning from their mistakes and stop them growing into the likeness of Christ.
e. Ephesians 4:32 - “... be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” [KJ] There’s not an offence that is so great which your brother or sister can commit against you that you cannot forgive. I’m not saying it will be easy all the time. It can be very difficult, but what I am saying is that you need to forgive them because we are to forgive each other just as God forgave us.
i. Let me ask this, does God forgive with a grudge? Absolutely not! 1 John 1:9 - “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [KJ] Does this mean that a sin we see is to be ignored or overlooked? Of course not, the person who sins is to be rebuked and the person who repents is to be forgiven. Justice occurs when there is true repentance.
ii. God doesn’t pass over sins lightly and neither should we. Remember that the man who has no pity for his fellow man will not get pity from God. What else did Jesus say concerning forgiveness? Matthew 6:12 - “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” That text was never meant to be simply rehearsed week in and week out, that text was meant to be understood and lived by. God forgives as we have forgiven others.
iii. In other words, we must forgive others before we can be forgiven. Think about it! If we address God with hatred and bitterness in our hearts, if we pray to God knowing that we are at odds with our brother or sister. What we are doing is making it impossible for Him to forgive our sins.
f. Robert Louis Stevenson used to pray the Lord’s Prayer every day at home at his family worship. One day he was about to pray “The Lord’s Prayer” when he stopped and said, “I can’t pray that prayer today.” If you read most accounts of Stevenson’s life he was an avowed atheist. He admitted to his parents that he had rejected Christianity by age 23 and had obtained membership into the LJR League (Liberty, Justice, Reverence) whose motto reads; “Disregard everything our parents have taught us.”
i. Yet in a small book of prayers that he wrote we find this;
ii. For Grace
iii. By Robert Louis Stevenson
iv. Grant that we here before Thee may be set
v. free from the fear of vicissitude and the fear of
vi. death, may finish what remains before us of
vii. our course without dishonor to ourselves or
viii. hurt to others, and, when the day comes, may die
ix. in peace. Deliver us from fear and favor: from
x. mean hopes and cheap pleasures. Have mercy on
xi. each in his deficiency; let him be not cast down;
xii. support the stumbling on the way, and give at
xiii. last rest to the weary.
g. Folks, there are times just like what Stevenson experienced, when we need to be on our guard against empty phrases in our prayers. We need to be extra careful when we say, “Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.” We need to engage our hearts, our minds when we are praying to God. In our relationship with our God, rote prayer, for that matter rote anything in worship is of no value, because other than our mouths moving, we are not there. It is only lip service.
i. We have all heard or read of Siamese twins being born joined in some part of their bodies. Surgeons most times can successfully separate them, and they go on to live healthy lives. Sometimes doctors can’t do anything, and they are born joined, and stay together for the rest of their lives, inseparable. Folks Jesus says that when it comes to forgiveness, God’s forgiveness of a person and that person’s forgiveness of others are inseparable.
ii. I recall a story I read about a man talking to John Wesley one time and he said, “John, I never forgive.” Wesley looked at him and said, “Then I hope sir, that you never sin.”

V. Debtors to God. The last thing I’d like to look at in this parable is that all men are debtors to God. I will borrow a story here from my UK friends. This takes place at a country church somewhere in England. One day they got a “special guest” at their service. An elder came up to the preacher and said, “Now be careful what you say today, you don’t want to offend the Prime Minister.” Well, the preacher got up, started his sermon, and in it said; “If anyone, including the Prime Minister, doesn’t repent of his sins, he will be condemned to hell.”
a. Folks, I tell that story to make the point that it does not matter who you are or where you’re from, you are a debtor to God, and you need to know it. Romans 3:23 - “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Or as Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53:6 - “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”
b. Man’s relationship to God is one of debtor to creditor. We owe much more than we can ever pay. Jesus deliberately chose the two sums of money mentioned in the parable, because both amounts are extreme.
i. In Matthew 18:28 -, Jesus said that, “The servant owed his fellow servant 100 denarii.” According to the [NAS]. A denarii was a Roman coin, which was worth a small amount and I’m told the total debt was around $10.
ii. Jesus said in Matthew 18:24 - , that “The unmerciful servant owed the king ten thousand talents.” Folks, it’s hard for me to imagine just how large amount of money that was. The talent is worth around $850 in today’s terms, so that meant that 10,000 talents would be worth around $8,500,000. This was a staggering amount of money; it was an unimaginable amount of money.
iii. When you read history of this period, it was more than the total budget of the ordinary province. The total revenue of the province which contained Idumaea, Judaea and Samaria was only 600 talents; the total revenue of even a province like Galilee was only 300 talents. Here was a debt which was greater than a king's ransom. What’s the point Jesus is making? The point is simply this, neither guy could pay! So it is folks—with our obligation. How much do we owe Him?
c. Some people believe that they owe Him nothing and yet they breathe in His air, they enjoy His sunshine and rain, but they never give Him a passing glance or an thought in return. There are people who acknowledge that they owe the Lord something, but there are others who confess that they owe much. This parable of Jesus screams out and says to each and every one of us, “You owe the Lord much more than you can ever pay.”

VI. Payment. What can we give to God? Shall we give Him some animal sacrifice? Psalm 50:9-10 - “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” We can’t give Him animals because He owns the animals. Or shall we give Him our life-long service? Luke 17:10 - “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"
a. If our debt to God is enormous and if we really have nothing with which to release our obligation, then salvation truly is of divine grace and not of mortal merit. We all are debtors because none of us has anything to offer God.
b. I don’t know if you have noticed but this parable has many contrasts.
i. For example, there is a contrast between Peter’s number and the Lord’s number. Peter was willing to forgive seven times, but the Lord said to forgive infinitely.
ii. There is another contrast in the two debts. One was almost a silly sum of money, the other was unpayable. Likewise, the wrongs done to us and the injuries we receive from our fellow servants are amazingly small in comparison with the magnitude of our sins against God.
iii. Lastly there is a contrast of the creditors. The mighty king forgave but the lowly servant would not. If God is willing to forgive the more, then surely, we should be willing to forgive the less.

CONCLUSION.
Consider this. The servant got into trouble after he was forgiven, have you been forgiven? If you have, what are you going to do with your forgiveness? Are you going to hold grudges against your fellow brother or sister? Or will you forgive them as God forgave you?

If you’re not a Christian tonight, then you need to realize that you have a debt to be paid. You can’t pay it yourself; you need someone to wash your debt away. Paul says to the Christians at Corinth, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

The people around you tonight were once like that, they were all debtors to God, but they were washed in the blood of the lamb. They heard God’s word, repented of their sins, confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins and their debts have been paid. They didn’t pay for it themselves; they accepted the payment that Jesus offered God through His death on a cross. The precious blood of Christ pays for our debt.
Folks, He paid my debt and He paid yours and He’s waiting to pay for others. We need to take these words home with us and think about them deeply. “He paid a debt, He did not owe, I owed a debt, I could not pay; I needed someone to wash my sins away. And now I sing a brand-new song, “Amazing Grace”, Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.”

If anyone here is subject to the gospel call, please come forward while we stand and sing. “Amazing Grace” #257.

A Lesson From Psalm 19

 

 

A Lesson From Psalm 19
Psalms 19

INTRO:
Good morning. This morning I’m going to continue our look at the Psalms. Our text is Psalm 19. This is a magnificent psalm and has two natural divisions. Verses 1-6 describe the glory of God as seen in the heavenly bodies. And verses 7-14 are about the excellence of the revelation of God in the Law. Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm it is, "The World Book and the Word Book".

I want to encourage you to take out your Bibles and look at the scriptures I mention. If you have any questions about anything I say, I’ll be glad to talk to you about it.

I. Let’s start with verses 1 through 6. Psalms 19:1-6 – “1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. 2. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. 3. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. 4. Their message has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, 5. Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. 6. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.” [para] The text tells us how the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows His handiwork. It talks about how it is speaking to us. It reveals knowledge and speaks to all languages. That is, it doesn't matter where you are in history, or what country you come from. It doesn't matter what language you speak. Creation speaks your language.
A. It is speaking to all mankind and it is telling us something about the creator. It is telling us and declaring to us the glory of God. The firmament is showing His handy work with the understanding that God made it.
1. If you are one of the lucky people who have been in the country far, far away from cities and lights, and on a clear night looking up at the night sky, you can better appreciate what the psalmist is saying. In my time in North Dakota going to remote missile sites I experienced this many times. Pictures of stars are wonderful, amazing even, but seeing the real thing yourself is so much more. On a clear night you can see the Milky Way with its hundreds of billions of stars. In Psalm 147:4-5 it says; “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”
2. We see in the firmament His handiwork. Whenever we look at our solar system, our galaxy and the universe beyond, what we need to understand is there is an intelligent being that created it all. Then when we understand how many stars are actually out there, and see the text tells us here He knows every single star, not just in our galaxy but in the universe, knows every single star and He has given every single star a name that He calls it by, it is overwhelming.
3. These days many of us live in cities and towns where the impact of the immensity of the universe is not seen. However with telescopes we can see the expanse above us in greater detail and this too gives us an appreciation of our creator. Our galaxy is the Milky Way but there are other galaxies out there. There are some beautiful pictures of these other galaxies, photographs taken by the Hubble telescope and others.
4. In modern times we've come to realize how many galaxies there are actually out there. Astronomers estimated a few years ago there are around 100 billion galaxies. We're in a galaxy with between one hundred and fifty and two hundred fifty billion stars and there are a hundred billion galaxies out there. God created every single one of them and every single star. He knows every single star and gives it a name. What kind of being has the power to create the universe? Let that sink in. That is God. The heavens declare His glory. The firmament shows His handiwork.
B. The day speaks to us, and night reveals knowledge. There is no place and no language where their voice is not heard. Their message has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. There is a phrase repeated in Genesis “... and God saw that it was good” In Genesis 1:10 the phrase is used in reference to the dry land and the sea. In verse 12 it is in reference to the plants, in verse 18 in reference to the sunlight and the moonlight, in verse 21 in reference to the sea creatures and birds, and in verse 25 in reference to the animal life.
1. God appreciates beauty and has given us that appreciation. The day and the night reveal it to us. Psalm 50:1-2 “1. The Mighty One, God the Lord, Has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. 2. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.” God shows us a beauty which in many cases is unnecessary. What God has selected for us tells us He knows about beauty on all levels. The sound of a waterfall, the soft colors of a rainbow, these all speak to us of God.
2. Proverbs 8:1 “Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice?” In verse 5 wisdom continues; “O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.” [KJV] Verse 22 tells us that wisdom was involved before the beginning, before the earth ever was. Verse 35, wisdom still speaking says; “For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains favor from the Lord;”
3. Who created the sun? Who created this earth? Who made us the right distance from the sun? Who gave us the moon and everything we have in our solar system, our galaxy and our universe? God!
4. He created it all and is speaking to us if we will just open our eyes and our ears. Yes, unfortunately there are people around us who say, “I don't see any reason to believe in God.” They say I've don’t have enough information to believe or even know there's a God. They have their eyes closed and their ears stopped. They are not facing the reality of what they’re seeing in front of them.
C. Romans 1:20 – “ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,” Think of the tremendous variations there are in plants. Plants that do so many things for us, provide food, shelter, medicine, they release oxygen, provide beauty, inspiration, they show us life. Consider the seeds, all the information, and the sequencing of it to grow a new plant is stored right there. Seeds have been found that were thousands of years old and when they were provided the right conditions they germinate and produced plants.
1. In the plants around us God has given us beauty for the senses. The eye delights in the riot of colors in flowers, the nostrils take in the heady fragrances of perfumes and the ear receives the gentle sound of the breeze in the leaves.
2. Perhaps you have experienced seeing some wonder of nature, a roaring waterfall perhaps, or mountain covered with flowers. God knows beauty and He has blessed us with it in abundance. The wonder of the natural world that God has provided us is something each one of us should take the opportunity at some point our life to experience and explore.
D. God has given us a wonderful creation full of beauty in sight, sound, smell and touch. But He has given us more. He has given us a creation to discover. A creation to stimulate the mind. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye are now being explored and new wonders are found. Things we can never actually see but their presence is evident by their effects, sub-atomic particles, black holes. Things in the deepest oceans, the deepest caverns, the deepest space.
1. Enjoy it, seek it out, wonder at it, and let the wonder of the creation reveal to you the power of the creator.
2. Slow down and see the beauty, see the design, see the wonder and understand the power behind it all is God. Hear what it’s saying to you. It is declaring to you the power, the majesty, and the strength of the creator.
3. I remember from school learning about germs, bacteria and viruses and then I remember there was a chapter that was called the simple cell. That is a lie. No cell is simple. When we start going down into it, studying the depths of biology, getting down to the DNA and the different parts of a cell we find the deeper we go the more it becomes complex. The design is everywhere you're looking, it surrounds you.
4. One of the things I have learned in my life is it doesn't matter what level you go to in the study of things, whenever we think we've reached the bottom it's not the bottom. We find more information underneath. As we study and learn it shows design over and over and over and over and over again at a level we can't comprehend.
E. Going back to Romans “even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse”
1. There is no excuse for atheists. There is no excuse for agnosticism, absolutely zero, none. They have their eyes closed to reality and yes closed to common sense. Every house was built by someone.
2. Look at this building. Common sense. Somebody made it. You are a far more complex creation than anything any human beings ever thought about making.
3. Yet people will say there's no God, there's no designer out there, it just looks like design but there's really no design. Don't listen to their foolishness. The number one reality is that God exists. The creator of the universe is real.
F. Yet there are those that deny God unless... Let me illustrate. The world watched in horror as the Allies revealed the atrocities the Nazis had committed in the camps. The world decided things like this ought not to be done.
1. But under what law could the Nazis be tried? They were obeying German law. They were not under the law of any allied power.
2. In the prosecution of the Nuremburg trials, Robert H. Jackson, a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the Nuremburg prosecutors, argued that the Nazis were being tried by a “higher law” which “transcends the provincial and transient” (Warren and Flew 41). A higher law which transcends the “provincial” means it is not merely the law of any geographical area (i.e. America, Russia, Germany, etc.) To say it is a law which transcends “the transient” means it is above any law that has been passed by human beings during a certain period of time. In other words, the Nuremburg prosecutors affirmed that the Nazis were judged by a law which was (is) beyond any geographical area of the Earth and beyond any period in human history.
3. We have heard our President, and others, speak of the evil acts perpetrated against civilization on September 11, 2001, and that those who did such are evildoers. If such acts really are evil (and they are), and if those who did them can rightly be called evildoers (and they can), then there must be an objective reference by which human behavior is evaluated. Justice Jackson stated, “. . . a higher law.” What is this “higher law”? It is the Ultimate Good who is God. Therefore, God exists. If such is not the case, then the horrific acts of September 11 were not acts of evil, and those who did them were not evildoers. Surely no right-thinking person believes such! “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).
II. Now let’s look at verses 7 thru 14 of Psalm 19; Psalm 19:7-14 – “7. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 10. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 11. Moreover by them your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
A. In verse 7 scripture says The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. An amazing thing can be done by the word of God. It can change you—it can change you dramatically. Romans 10:17 says “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
1. We can deduce a creator's existence from the creation. We can deduce a designer's existence from the design. But what is the creator like? What is the designer like? What is God like?
i. We cannot deduce that there is one God from the creation. Left to ourselves mankind is quick to ascribe a god responsible for each of the facets that is observed.
ii. We cannot deduce that God is holy from a rose. The rose shows us something but not everything.
iii. I cannot deduce that God loves me by seeing a sunset.
iv. What we can deduce is there is a powerful force at work, but we do not know its character or its relationship with us.
2. The only way we can truly understand and know God, is for God who has created everything, to reveal Himself to us. He has done this in His word.
i. One of the amazing things about the Word is when we read it, it has the power to change us, to convert our soul and to bring us to the point of faith.
ii. What we're talking about here is faith of who Jesus is, that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God.
3. Every person in the world who has that faith has come to that faith through the Word of God.
i. John 17:17 says; “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.
ii. We are set apart from the world, sanctified, and the way in which this separation takes place—is by the power of the Word of God.
4. As we come to understand God through His word there is a conversion, a converting of the soul which changes us.
i. That's what repentance is all about. I've often mentioned that repentance is linear. It is the continual process of the transformation that is taking place in our life as a Christian.
ii. What is guiding that repentance is our faith in the Word of God. The Word of God is the truth about how to live our life.
iii. It is the Word of God that produces the faith and provides the force to do the changing and the repenting.
B. Next the text says; “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” In Psalm 119:104 we read; “Through Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.” In what way do we understand reality?
1. Someone suggested there are five Big Questions that we consider when trying to understand reality. They are;
i. What am I?
ii. Where did I come from?
iii. What is death?
iv. What is beyond death?
v. How should I live my life to get the most out of it?
2. Without the word of God, we would find it quite difficult to discover any answers that would truly satisfy us. It is through the Word of God that we can come to have understanding that there is a God who created everything.
3. We can take the light of the Bible and shine it all the way back to Genesis and the creation itself.
4. Then we can take the Word of God and come to understand that there is sin in the world and it is sin where death comes from.
5. We learn from the Word of God there is an existence beyond death. There is heaven and there is hell. If we do not deal with sin, we will spend eternity in hell. If we do not come to God through Jesus Christ, we just don’t go to heaven.
6. As we study, we will find the word of God will show us not only where we came from, He will tell us what we are and show us where we are in our relationship with God. God’s word will show us how to get to heaven itself.
7. It gives us understanding about how to live our life. It gives us commandments and instruction on how to live and how to get the most out of this life. How to avoid hell and how to make it to heaven. That’s understanding.
C. It is through the Word of God that we get wisdom and understanding. Going back to Psalm 19 he said; “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” In First Corinthians 13:4-6 you may recall this, in talking of love it says; “4. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;”
1. We just partook of the Lord's Supper a little while ago. I regret that it took the crucifixion of Christ because of my sin, but I certainly am grateful God did it for me.
2. The hope I have of being able to go to heaven and realizing heaven is real, the resurrection is real, eternal life with God is real, and that I can have this through faith in Christ and obedience to God's word by that faith; - folks, that is why we rejoice.
3. The rejoicing in our life is a result of our hope of being with our loved ones again in heaven, of being together with Jesus and in the presence of God the Creator—for all eternity.
4. From the Word of God, we find joy and we are rejoicing because of the hope we have in Christ.
D. Let’s go into the next phrase. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”. If you turn to Psalm 119:105 we read these familiar words; “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” God’s word illuminates our path as we walk in this journey through life. It shows me where I am, it shows the destinations, and it shows how to get to where I want to be. If you can not see where you are walking you will follow the crowd in the broad way, listening to all the guidance of the world. If you study the word of God you will see where you are, be able to find the right way and follow it instead.
E. Next our text says; “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever”. First Peter 1:22-23 says; “22. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23. having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” The Word of God is eternal. You see, the Word of God is like a seed and if we plant that seed in our heart until we leave this world, we will rise to eternal life. Within that seed are all the instructions we need to live and grow to where we will be with God. Our relationship with God is right there in the Bible. This seed of the Word of God will produce the faith; produce the knowledge of the will of God. It endures forever and because it endures forever you will endure forever.
F. In Psalm 19 again – “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” In Second Timothy 3:16-17, again very familiar words; “16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
1. If our concern is about the truth and we want to know the way of righteousness, the way to live our life so that we are pleasing to God, the information is right here in the Bible. The scripture will give you everything we need to know to be instructed in righteousness. No wonder it is to be desired more then the riches of the world.
2. The text continues; “Moreover by them (i.e. God’s words) your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.” We’ve talked about heaven, the great reward, now let's talk about the warning, let's talk about hell.
3. Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” Folks, we are all going to die. That is reality. We are going to be judged by God and we're going to be judged according to what is written in the book.
4. I strongly suspect we probably want to know what's in the book. The books are going to be opened and we're going to be judged by what's written. Study and find out what is in the Word of God and prepare yourself for Judgment Day according to what's written in the book. Next in Revelation 20:15 – “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” We're talking about how rejoicing in the heart has to do with the hope of heaven, and we're warned about hell. I believe it's real, and I don't want to go there.
5. If hell does not bother you, you don't have faith, you don't believe the truth. Come into reality. The Bible is reality. God exists. He created everything. Death is in the world because of Sin. Sin separates you from God and sin must to be dealt with.
III. When we look at Psalm 19, the beginning of it talks about the creation, the middle of it talks about the revelation of God's word. Now let’s look at the last part. 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. 13. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. 14. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” We read earlier that keeping God’s word has great reward. In James 1:21-22 James says; “21. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
A. We understand that God is holy and that we have sinned and sin is separating us from God. We need to have our sins dealt with. Do we know all our sins? The text asks Who can understand their errors?[para] We have secret sins, faults, and we need to be, as he says in the text, cleansed of those sins. The sins have got to be removed.
B. The only way that can be done, look at the very last part of this, Oh Lord my strength and my what? Redeemer
1. The only way we're going to be cleansed of our sins is through the redeemer. Who is the redeemer?
2. God’s word says in Revelation 5:9 – “And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,”
3. The only way we're going to be cleansed of our sins, have any hope of the reward in heaven, and avoid what we're being warned of in hell; is through the Redeemer himself, Jesus the Christ and His blood that was shed at Calvary.
4. We took the Lord's Supper earlier remembering it was about the blood that was shed on Calvary so that our sins could be forgiven. The only way we're going to have any hope of being with God in heaven is through the blood of the redeemer Jesus Christ.
5. In Acts 2:38 - “then Peter said to them repent and let everyone be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[para] So many times we have heard that verse. Never let it wash over your brain, please, like water over a rock. Like water over a thirsty ground—let it sink in. We can have our sins forgiven. Those sins that separate us from God can be washed away by the power of the blood of the Christ

CONCLUSION:
We must come into reality and recognize from the creation we can deduce God's existence. The Bible really is a revelation from God to let us know about Him, about ourselves and our relationship with Him. It shows us how to deal with sin so we can be reconciled to God and have those sins remitted by the power of the blood of the Christ.

In Luke 18:3 – “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!'” That tax collector understood sin as the Pharisee did not. Obeying the Gospel does not mean you will not sin again. That's not reality. A Christian is a realist, we live in reality. We understand that we will sin even though we have obeyed the Gospel. What do we do about those moments when we mess up and sin as Christians? We take the sin to God confessing it to him, repent of it, turn from it and the blood of the Christ will cleanse us.

The blood that was shed at Calvary cleanses us when we obey the gospel and when we go to God in prayer; we need to pray for forgiveness of every sin. If we do that, we will be forgiven by the power of the blood of Christ Our Redeemer who purchased us from Satan's sin and death. That is reality! Are you a realist?

Go out look at the Creation, slowdown let it speak to you. Hear it. It is speaking to you about the glory of God the power of God, His Majesty, His infinite intellect and power.
Go ahead and be amazed at it because when the Creation amazes you, you’re seeing the Creator behind it.

I'm so thankful He's given us this revelation so we can know the truth about Him, the truth about us, and the truth about the way to have our sins forgiven. Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one will come to the Father except through him.

If you're not right with God get right while you can, come to understand the truth about Jesus. Remember the power of the Word of God. It has the power to convert the soul.
Go into it and read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Read about the virgin birth, the miracles. Read about the resurrection and the crucifixion. Read about it for yourself.
Read it, study it and hopefully you'll come to the conclusion He really is the Christ, the son of God.

Then be willing to confess that faith and motivated by your faith show repentance in your life, putting off the old man putting on the new man. That's the process of conversion, transformation, repentance. If you're willing to make that commitment we'd be glad to assist you and baptize you into the one body for the remission of sins.
If you're in Christ already and there is sin between you and God that needs to be dealt with deal with it and deal with it now. The blood of the Christ is there for you.
We will pray for you. We will pray with you and do the best we can to encourage you and strengthen you. If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand and sing the song that has been selected.

Invitation song: 78 (Hark, The Gentle Voice)
Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

Psalms of Blessing in Our Lives

Psalms of Blessing in Our Lives  

Psalms

INTRO:

Good morning.   The weather is cooler, the leaves are changing and summer is past.   It may be just me, but this summer seems to have passed very quickly. I look at the changing of the seasons around here - as a blessing. True, there are things we do not like about them - the too wet Spring, the too hot Summer, the too stormy Autumn and the too cold Winter. Yet that are many things we do like about the change of the seasons as well.

 

Today I’d like to spend some time in the book of Psalms and look at some things from many different Psalms.   As I was going through the Book of Psalms, I came across several verses that had something in common, they're talking about the different blessings that God gives us in our life. The sermon this morning is simply a compilation of these Psalms.

 

Turn with me to Psalm 68:19 – “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!” [NKJV] This Psalm reminds us that we are daily being loaded with blessings and benefits. Every single day of our life God is giving us blessings.   Not just one here and there. The way in which God is blessing us is He's daily loading us with blessings and benefits, one after another, after another.

 

In the fall our minds turn to thoughts of the holidays. This month we will celebrate Thanksgiving, a celebration which was established to remind us to be thankful for all we have. Traditionally in many cultures this time of year, the time of harvests, people celebrate what they have received. It is sad, I think, that the rest of the year they rarely give thought to what they have been blessed with.

 

For those of us in the Kingdom we know that God is always giving us blessings and throughout scripture are reminders to us that we should be thankful for these blessings.

For example, one of the main subjects in the book of Colossians is the importance of making a major part of our prayer and our worship to God – thanksgiving, recognizing the blessings that we have in our life.

 

We should recognize where the blessings are coming from, that they're being given to us by God.   Then we express our gratitude to God for all these blessings that He's giving us in our life.   That being said, now let’s get into the body of the sermon.

 

A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing.  One day after his usual combination complaint-and-asking the blessing, his son, little Johnny, asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”

“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.” Little Johnny paused on this for a moment, then asked, “Does He hear everything we say the rest of the time?”

1. Life - Please turn with me now to Psalm 100:3 – “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
   1. The psalmist is telling us God made us, God created man.   According to Acts 17:28 – it is through God we live and move, that we have our very being and existence.  
      1. This is something we all need to come to understand. We exist because of God.
      2. The Lord said in John 15:4-5 – “4. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Do we understand those words “without me you can do nothing”? The idea here is you cannot even exist without God. It is because of Him that you are alive right now.
      3. For my existence, for the fact that I am alive and that it is because of Him that I am alive, I say, - thank you.
   2. Thank you for creating mankind.
      1. Thank you for giving me life.
      2. Thank you for sustaining my life.
      3. I enjoy being with my brethren, with my wife and with my family. I enjoy being alive. Thank you God.
   3. Now I'm just going to ask perhaps a silly sounding question. What is life?
      1. I'm serious.  Try to answer that question in your mind. What is life?
      2. This is the Britannica’s definition of life, “The process of being alive.” Huh. Ok, Life is the process of being alive. That didn't tell me anything.
      3. Let’s try Merriam-Webster – Life is “the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body.”
         1. So it is the opposite of “dead”.
         2. Then I would have to look at the meanings of vital and functional I suppose.
      4. Let’s try the On-line definition – Life is “the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.” A bit more helpful perhaps.
      5. What they are talking about though, are the manifestations of life.  If you have all these things taking place, then you're alive.
   4. OK, but what is life? The truth of the matter is we must define life by the way it is manifested, yet we know we are alive. I know I am alive. I exist.
      1. I am here and we need to understand it is because of God I am here.
      2. It is because of God we are alive right now.
      3. Every second every moment of our existence is because of Him.   Without Him we can do nothing.   Be sure to thank God for just being alive.
   5. Earth – Now let’s look at Psalm 115:16 – “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; But the earth He has given to the children of men.”
      1. It all begins over in Genesis 1:1 God create the heavens and the earth.
         1. We have the atmosphere above us, the ground beneath our feet and the water to sustain life.
         2. There’s the universe and then there is the spiritual dimension.
         3. All God’s creation, He created the entire universe, He created the spiritual dimension and He created earth.
         4. The psalmist tells us He created Earth for the children of man.  He created it for us.
      2. Isaiah says to us in Isaiah 45:18 – “For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
         1. God created the universe.  God created our solar system, our galaxy, our sun. God created our earth.
         2. Notice that in the verse Isaiah talks about how He created it to be inhabited.
      3. I've been reading in the news they're talking about going to the moon again.   The question comes to mind, why?
         1. They’re talking about going to Mars. Again, the question, why? The moon was not made to be inhabited because it does not naturally support life.
         2. The same with Mars. It was not made to be inhabited.
         3. For centuries many believed that people lived on the moon until they got telescopes strong enough and looked up there.  No there's nobody there. It was not meant to be inhabited.
      4. The earth was created to be inhabited.   It is the right distance from the sun.
         1. If you’re on Venus which is closer to the sun you could not live because Venus was not made or created to be inhabited.
         2. If you're on Mars you're too far from the sun.  It was not created to be inhabited.
         3. We are the right distance from the sun and the moon is the right distance from the earth.
         4. We look at everything that we have around us. The sun, the moon, the atmosphere, the land and the water. Think of all the things that are in balance.   We use oxygen and emit carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide and emit oxygen.
         5. We are alive and this world was made for us.   Everything that is on it is so that we can stay alive and it can be inhabited.
         6. If you were to change any of these things the earth could become uninhabitable.
      5. The earth is the way God made it. He made it for the children of man, and he made it so that it could be inhabited.   Everywhere else we look we see places that we can not live until we learn enough to find a way to survive there.   Even then - when we find ways to survive in those places there is constant danger from the environments.

• Food – The psalmist goes on in Psalm 104:14 – “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth,”
  1. Here we're talking about food. How the plants and the grass are for the food of animals and for the food of people. This past summer we had a watermelon, nice big one. We cut it open and oh it tasted so good.   Apples grow well around here, and we have many varieties.   I love a good apple. All this food that we have God created. It’s wonderful!   All the different varieties of food and all the different kinds of plants that are out there God created for our service, for our use.
  2. Psalm 136:25 says; “Who gives food to all flesh, For His mercy endures forever.” Tomatoes and squash, cucumbers, and zucchini, where does all this food come from? God.
  3. The text in Psalm 147:7-11 – tells us; “7. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, 8. Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains. 9. He gives to the beast its food, And to the young ravens that cry. 10. He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who honor Him, In those who hope in His mercy.” I recall from my youth that when my father was talking to another farmer the conversation usually went something like this;
     1. “Hello.”
     2. “How you're doing?”
     3. “Do you think it is going to rain?”
        1. That's always the second thing. “Do you think it's going to rain?”
        2. The reason that question is asked is because we always need rain.

• We need rain to get the plants going.   We need the rain to make them grow. We need rain to make them fill out at the end.

1. “Yeah, it’s going to rain, and we should have a big harvest this year.”

4. 1 Corinthians 3:6 – “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” Where did this rain come from?   Who created water?   Who created the condensation cycle? Who created all of this? God.

1. In a little while we are going to be dismissed and go have some lunch.   Some of us are probably hungry already and we are planning what we will eat.   Before we indulge in that wonderful meal, I want to encourage us to do something.
   1. Go to God in prayer and in the prayer be sure to acknowledge where your food comes from and thank God for it.   The song we sing, “Count Your Blessings” says “count your many blessings name them one by one.”
   2. We can go through the day so easily when God is loading us daily with blessings.   Here's another one. Enjoy life.
   3. When I was growing up if somebody gives you something and you don’t acknowledge it, that's rude.  Common courtesy is if somebody gives you something you acknowledge the gift, and you say; “thank you for what you have given to me”.   You're acknowledging their kindness.
   4. The mere fact of our existence along all the blessings given us on earth, all this food that we're eating from all the plants that He has created, should make us want to slow down and look at these blessings, count them and be grateful and express our thanks.
2. Physical Healing – Now Psalm 103:2-3 says; “2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3. Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,”
   1. The human body is an amazing thing.   When we get a cut, it starts bleeding.   The body is designed to clot the blood and stop the bleeding.   Not only do we stop bleeding, but our body starts immediately healing.   God made the body to repair itself.    Whether we realize it or not right now our body is repairing itself.   It is in a continual process of healing and repairing.   It's amazing - and God made us that way.
   2. We talked earlier about plants and we said they are for food for the animals and our food, but they're not just for food, many of them are for medicine.
      1. If you ever studied pharmacology and the origin of medicines, you will find a whole lot of them come from plants.
      2. Folks, we have learned that certain plants can be used to keep us well and help us heal.   Much of this has been known for a very long time. Today that knowledge is much greater and it's an amazing and a wonderful time to be alive.
      3. God created all these things in our world around us to help our bodies heal.
      4. He's given us the intellect to be able to learn how to do things and use things to help us stay alive longer.
      5. Whenever we're going to God in prayer recognize the healing that is taking place not only in you but in others around you and be sure to thank God for healing us of our diseases.
   3. Family - Now Psalm 113:9 says; “He grants the barren woman a home, Like a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” Psalm 127:3 says; “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is His reward.”
      1. When a child is born people are excited and thank the Lord because He is blessing them with children and grandchildren.
      2. I’d like us to consider this as well.   You are part of a family; for each of you have a mother and a father. Thank you, God, for our mothers and fathers.   Some of you have siblings. Thank God for those. We may have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles, husbands or wives, and in-laws, extended family.
         1. We need to slowdown.   Recognize the family that we have.
         2. Recognize this. These physical blessings of family are being given to us by God and I know I want to say “thank you” to Him for my family.
      3. Forgiveness Of Sin - Now let’s go back to Psalm 103:2-4. “2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3. Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4. Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,” Here we're talking about a different nature of blessings.   Earlier we've been talking about the physical blessings.   Now we're talking about what is commonly called - spiritual blessings and the forgiveness of sins.
         1. We understand the reason we took the Lord's Supper is because we're commemorating the sacrifice that was made for the forgiveness of sin.
            1. Remember when Jesus was instituting the Lord's Supper - what did He say about the fruit of the vine?   Matthew 26:28 – He said; “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
            2. Anybody here by any chance struggle with sin? Of course.   Anybody here feel totally unworthy of going to heaven? Yeah.
            3. We realize this is the beauty of Christianity; God has made a way for your sins and my sins to be forgiven.   That's the beauty of it all.
            4. The reason that Christ came, and the reason Christ died on the cross, is because God loves us personally, knows us individually.   He knew you and I were going to sin.   There is no way we could be with Him in heaven unless our sins were forgiven.   Let that sink in. He loves you. He knows you.
         2. When we're talking about the greatest blessings of life - the greatest blessings are the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus.
            1. If you're not in Christ you're missing out on all the wonderful blessings but if you are in Christ recognize the cost of the gift.
            2. The cost for your sins to be forgiven, was the death of the son of God on the cross at Calvary.   Focus on that.
            3. The whole purpose of the Lord's Supper is for us to remember and focus on that.   When we take the Lord’s Supper we need to slowdown, slowdown and bring our minds back to Christ crucified and the love that God has for you and me.
            4. Hopefully we will focus on the blood of Christ shed for the remission of sins, the sacrifice of Christ and find ourselves loving God, loving Christ, because of the great love that was shown for us.
            5. At the same time, we recognize how terrible sin really is.   That would hopefully motivate us to repent and strive even more to be like the Christ.

• Prayer - Now I would like us to look at Psalm 102:1-2 – “1. Hear my prayer, O Lord, And let my cry come to You. 2. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my trouble; Incline Your ear to me; In the day that I call, answer me speedily.” What a wonderful spiritual blessing is the blessing of prayer.   As children of God we have the privilege and the honor to be able to go to the throne of the King of Kings, to the throne of God Himself – and the Creator of the universe will listen to us.
  1. Amazing isn’t it? The Creator - God Almighty, who created everything who holds everything together - that creator, will listen to us.
     1. He will listen to our prayers. He will listen to our petitions and our cries for help.  Not only will He listen He will respond.  Brethren let that sink in—the blessing of prayer.
     2. When you go to God in prayer… - and by the way if you're not doing this you need to start. Let me tell you a story a preacher told about the time his wife made a pecan pie for their two three-year-old sons. The preacher said he will never forget it.   He said; “After my wife put the pecan pie in front of them this is actually what they said “oooo”. “What is that?” “I'm not going to eat that.”   Then he said; “These words actually came out of my mouth. “Boys if you don't eat that pecan pie, I'm going to spank you.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth he thought; “that has to be the stupidest thing I've ever said.”
     3. The preacher said; “Here I am threatening to spank my boys because they're refusing to eat pecan pie. Of course, when they finally surrendered and took a bite their eyes lit up and they devoured it.”
     4. I relate this story to make the point that I would feel foolish if I rebuked anyone for not having a prayer life. What I want to do is tell you it’s good, you need to try it.
  2. Take your cares, take your fears, take your problems, take everything that's weighing on you, that's causing you stress, take it all to God and lay it before the throne of the Creator of the Universe.
     1. What an amazing blessing.    The Philippian letter in 4:6-7 tells us – “6. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7. and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
     2. That peace is attainable, but you've got to take it to God in prayer.   You need to cast all your cares before Him and when you're praying - do it with thanksgiving.   Just say - by the way God, thank you for listening to me, thank you for being in my life, for hearing me and answering my prayers.
     3. Every time I go to God in prayer and I’m asking something - my mind always goes back to what God has already blessed me with.   The times He taught me something, the times He kept me safe, the times He gave me physical blessings and the times He gave me spiritual ones.   Always make sure you're acknowledging the blessings and giving thanks for the blessings from God.

• God Is Our Rock – For the last scripture this morning let’s look at Psalm 18:2 – “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
  1. There are times in our life when we're absolutely spent, - spent emotionally and we feel like we’ve got nothing left to give.   Or we're physically wiped out and we feel like all we want to do is sit.   There are times when we're struggling spiritually, and we feel like we're sinking.   I have experienced those things as I believe many of us have.
  2. I’ve got some good news for you. You will find it in Psalm 61:2 – “From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
     1. There's a place where you can go where there is stability.
     2. There's a place where you can go where there's a refuge.
     3. There's a place where you can go and get strength from.
     4. They're all the same place and that place is God. God Himself is the ultimate blessing of all.
  3. In our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, God allows us access to Him. To where we can draw strength from Him. Where whenever we feel like we're sinking we can find “The Rock That's Higher Than I”.
     1. When I think about looking for that rock that’s higher than I am, I don't visualize jumping up on the rock like king of the mountain.   I visualize trying to pull myself up on the rock and then laying there, secure and safe.
     2. Find your way to God. Find your way to the rock. Find your way to the strength of God through Jesus Christ.
     3. If we're not doing this, I don't see how we're surviving. I don't see how folks live without God.   I don't see how we can survive without prayer.   I don't see how we can make it in life without having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and God’s spiritual blessings.   There are sorrows so much greater than the physical.

 

CONCLUSION:

It is obvious that I enjoy food. On my chart at the Cleveland Clinic is written “well nourished”. I’ll tell you I enjoy the physical earth on which we live. Folks, if you like it here too then remember the idiom “you ain't seen nothing yet!”

 

What do you think heaven is going be like?   Yup, that's where we're going. The creator of all we see, all we enjoy will be there and we will be with Him.   Think how much more wonderful that place must be!

 

We see from scriptures that the resurrection is real.  I believe the resurrection is coming, it's a spiritual blessing that's coming, I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

Become conscious of all the blessings that God has daily loading upon you.

The physical blessings we have in being alive on a planet that is so amazing.  The blessings of the food that we eat and enjoy, the healing of our body, the intellect we have to learn and discern the things before us.

 

The blessings of our family, wife, husband, children, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews

Be thankful to God in prayer.

 

If you're not in Christ, you need to get in Christ as quick as you can because that’s where all the spiritual blessings are found.  If you don't know who Jesus is, you need to search it out.   You need to start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Read about the virgin birth.

Read about the miracles.

Read about the resurrection and the crucifixion.

This information is given to us so that we can read about them and conclude that somebody we've never laid eyes on, really is the Christ.   He really is the son of God and that sacrifice really was made so our sins could be forgiven.

 

When you come to this point of faith, if you're not a Christian yet, be willing to openly confess that faith. Then be motivated by that faith to make the commitment of repentance which is to follow the Word of God by faith, in your life putting off the old man putting on the new man.   If you're willing to make that commitment we'd be glad to assist you and baptize you into the one body for the remission of your sins.

 

The power of the blood of the Christ is the way in which all sin is going to be removed, my sins, your sins and we are forgiven.

If you’re a child of God already and you realize there is sin between yourself and your God. Deal with it by taking it to God.  We'll pray for you. We will pray with you.

We'll do the best we can to try to encourage you and strengthen you.

If you are subject to the Gospel call in any way whatsoever, let us know as we stand and sing the song that has been selected.

 

Song before the lesson 68 Count Your Blessings

Invitation song: ?

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

Is Anything Worth Dying For?

Is Anything Worth Dying For?  

Mark 6: 14 – 29

You might recall a few years ago when the U.S. was part of a coalition to invade Iraq and depose of Saddam Hussein. Not all Americans were in favor of that war and I recall seeing some protestors on the news. They interviewed one angry young man and asked him why he opposed the war. His answer was one that I haven’t been able to forget. He said, “Nothing’s worth dying for!”

I disagree. I hope we’re going to see in this message that there ARE things worth dying for. Over the last 10 years, we’ve been shocked by the brutality of ISIS as they have released videos of captured British and American citizens just before they were beheaded. ISIS is trying to use shock tactics to scare us and to enlist other radical Muslims.

But you must understand that this kind of barbaric brutality has been a part of the Roman Empire and the Middle East for centuries. The Romans executed criminals and slaves by crucifixion, but they executed their own citizens in what they considered a more merciful punishment by beheading them. Tradition tells us the Apostle Paul was beheaded in Rome. In Acts 12 we read that Herod Agrippa killed the Apostle James with the sword, which referred to beheading. In our passage tonight, we’re going to read about the drama of the day John the Baptist lost his head for the sake of truth.

Mark 6:14-20. “King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Others said, ‘He is Elijah.’ And still others claimed, ‘He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.’ But when Herod heard this, he said, ‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!’ For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.”

With that background, let’s first examine:

1. THE CHARACTERS

This story has been the subject of hundreds of works of art. In one particular painting we see John the Baptist pointing his bony finger at Herod on the throne. Herod can’t make eye contact. The two women are Herodias and her daughter. Let’s learn a little more about each of these characters.

1. I introduce to you Herod Antipas, an arrogant ruler

The name “Herod” was almost like a family name; it meant “heroic” but there weren’t any heroes in the bunch. It can be confusing because no less than eight Roman rulers used the name Herod. This was Herod Antipater, whose nickname was Antipas. He was one of the sons of the ruler who is often called Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the ruler when the wise men came asking, “Where is the one born King of the Jews.” Herod was a great builder, but he had a great capacity of hatred and violence as well. He attempted to kill the Messiah by ordering that all the male toddlers in Bethlehem be slaughtered.

Herod the Great was paranoid and jealous. He ordered the death of several of his wives and sons. The Jewish rabbis had an inside joke that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than to be Herod’s son. Herod the Great was plotting to murder his son Antipas, when he himself died. So Antipas was named the ruler of four small areas so he was called a Tetrarch. But he always wanted to be called a king. To be more like a king, Antipas married an older Arabian princess, the daughter of King Aretas IV. He married her for the royal connection.

1. I introduce to you Herodias, a wicked woman

Herodias was the Jezebel of the New Testament. Jezebel wanted the head of the prophet Elijah, but she wasn’t successful. Herodias was the granddaughter of Herod the Great. She visited Rome and met her uncle, Philip, the half-brother of Antipas. Philip was a wealthy Roman businessman. Herodias seduced her much-older uncle Philip and they were married.

One day, Antipas left his wife and visited his brother Philip in Rome. Herodias had grown tired of her husband, so she seduced Antipas, her brother-in-law, who was also her uncle.

1. I introduce to you Salome, a victimized daughter

This daughter of Herodias and Philip is not named in the Bible, but Roman historians tell us her name was Salome. The really sad thing about Salome is the word used to describe her indicates that she was a very young teen. It was a word to describe a young girl not yet of marriageable age. And girls often married at age 16 in this time. Her wicked mother used her as her pawn to get to John the Baptist.

1. Finally, I introduce to the true hero of the story, John—God’s faithful prophet

This is John the Baptist, six months older than his cousin Jesus. Like Samson, John had taken a Nazarite vow and had never cut his hair or beard. He was a man of the wilderness and ate locusts and wild honey and wore a camel’s hair garment.

He had baptized Jesus even though he felt unworthy to do so. When they asked John if he was the Messiah he denied it. John’s job was to introduce Jesus and then to move off the scene. In fact in John 3:30, John said about Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

John, publicly preached that it was both illegal and immoral for Herod to be sleeping with his niece and sister-in-law. This public disgrace infuriated Herodias and she demanded that Herod kill him. But Herod recognized that John was a man of God, so to make his wife happy, he arrested John and put him in jail. We know from Roman historians that John was imprisoned in the desert fortress called Marchaerus near Jericho. You can visit the ruins today and still see the remains of the iron rungs in the wall where prisoners were chained. Now that you know the characters it is time to look at :

1. THE ACTION

As I mentioned earlier, this part of the world has always been known for the brutality and violence of the rulers. There are two scenes:

1. Scene One: A birthday party

It was the birthday of Herod Antipas, so he invited in many special guests to the party. Herodias saw this as an opportunity to get what she wanted so she hatched a wicked plan. She knew the wine would be flowing and Herod had a weakness for dancing girls. So she coached her young daughter to perform a sensual, seductive dance.

The Bible says, “When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.’ And he promised her with an oath, ‘Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.’” (Mark 6:22-23) The funny thing about that was that Herod didn’t have a kingdom to give her. He was the man who wanted to be king, but was only a provincial ruler over four districts. He was just bragging in front of his guest.

Salome ran back to her mother and said, “What should I ask for?” She was probably thinking maybe a pony or a doll. But her wicked mother cackled with glee and said, “Tell him you want the head of that preacher, John, on a food platter!”

The Bible says, “At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: ‘I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’” (Mark 6:25) I’m sure Herod sobered up in a hurry. He was in a quandary. He knew John was a man of God, but he had made an oath in front of his guests. I wondered if he tried to negotiate with Salome. “Wouldn’t you rather have horses, chariots, clothes, or jewelry?”

Herod had made an oath in front of his guests. He would lose face if he didn’t keep his promise. So he decided it was better for John to lose his head than for him to lose face.

1. Scene Two: The dungeon

Let’s join John the Baptist in the dungeon. He hears the soldiers approaching and wonders what’s happening. When he sees the sword, he probably realizes what’s going to happen. I wonder what went through his mind as they held his head down and he heard the whoosh of the sword. I wonder if he thought, “Jesus must increase, and I must decrease.”

The Bible says, “So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.” (Mark 6:27-29)

Roman historians write that Herodias’ hatred toward John was so intense that she pulled John’s tongue out and pierced it through with a large sewing needle. It was like she was saying, “Now let me hear you speak against me you ignorant preacher.” But we’re going to see God always has the last word.

III. LIFE LESSONS

There are some life lessons we can learn from the characters in this story.

1. Herod: A guilty conscience is a cruel companion

Months later, when Herod heard about the miracles of Jesus, he was certain it was John the Baptist who had come back to life to haunt him. He would probably wake up in the middle of the night with his pajamas soaked with sweat because of a bad dream about a headless prophet.

God has given every person a conscience to know right from wrong. The reason we often feel guilty about sin is because we ARE guilty. But you don’t have to live with a guilty conscience. The good news is that the Bible says in 1 John 1:9 that if you confess your sins He if faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. You can live a life free of guilt. When you give your life to Jesus, all your sins are forgiven. God has promised He will put our sins behind His back and will remember them no more. He has promised to separate our sins as far as the East is from the West. He had promised to bury our sins in the depth of the sea. He has said, “Though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as snow.”

1. Herodias: Hateful anger spills out and hurts those close to you

The sad story of Herodias is that her rage at John was like a deadly infectious disease that destroyed her husband and daughter. There is a sad principle in effect that our sin not only affects us, it affects those around us. A pregnant woman who injects crack cocaine into her body also endangers the life of her unborn child. A man who smokes like a chimney is affecting his family with the effects of secondhand smoke.

You never really sin personally. Every sin we commit is like a pebble dropped in a pond. The ripples spread out and touch those around us. Her sin had destructive consequences on Antipas and her daughter.

Two years after Jesus was crucified, King Aretas, attacked Antipas, slaughtered his soldiers and conquered his territory. In shame, Antipas and Herodias fled to Rome. Antipas’ jealous nephew, Herod Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, had convinced the Emperor that Antipas was guilty of treason. So Antipas, the man who would be king, was stripped of his titles and property… and was banished into exile in Gaul. The worst part of the punishment was that the wicked Herodias was sent with him, and they both died in obscurity and were buried in unmarked graves.

1. Salome: Be sure, your sins will find you out

In fact, the Bible says exactly that in Numbers 32:23, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.” The story of Herod’s family was fascinating to the Romans. History records that Salome’s life was filled with tragedy. She moved back to Rome where she went through several failed marriages.

According to Roman historians, Salome died tragically when she was vacationing in the Northern Alps. She and her party were crossing a frozen river when the ice cracked. In the efforts to extract her from the frozen water, a jagged piece of ice severed her head from her body.

Salome’s life is a sad reminder of the principle of Galatians 6:7 which says, “Whatever a man (or woman) sows, that he will also reap.”

1. John: There ARE things worth dying for

Remember the war protestor I mentioned at the beginning of this message? He said, “Nothing’s worth dying for.” He was wrong. I can think of several things worth dying for.

First, I believe that FREEDOM is worth dying for. We are enjoying our precious freedom to worship today because there were thousands of men and women who have died fighting for our nation. They realized that freedom isn’t free. It comes at a high cost.

On November 19, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to participate in the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery. Edward Everett gave a two-hour address. Then Lincoln got up and spoke for less than two minutes. He concluded his famous remarks by saying, “…The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here… from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

The second thing I think is worth dying for is our FRIENDS and FAMILY, which are often the same. John the Baptist was a friend of Jesus as well as his cousin. Jesus was willing to die for His friends. He said to the disciples, “Greater love has no man than this—that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Jesus went to the cross to die for us, even though He was a sinless Savior. Chuck Colson told the story of a group of World War II American Prisoners of War who were made to do hard labor in a Japanese prison camp. Each had a shovel and dug all day. They were required to return their shovels each evening.

One evening, twenty prisoners lined up by the guard and the shovels were counted. The guard counted only nineteen shovels. He turned in rage toward the POWs and demanded to know which prisoner had kept his shovel. No one responded. The guard drew his pistol and said he would shoot five American prisoners if the guilty prisoner didn’t confess.

After a moment of tense silence, a nineteen-year-old prisoner stepped forward with his head bowed. The guard pointed his gun at the prisoner’s head and fired. As the young man’s body fell to the ground, the guard warned the others that they must always return their shovels. Then the guard recounted the shovels and found that all twenty were accounted for. He had simply miscounted earlier. The young soldier had died for his friends.

Would you like to have a friend like that? You have one. His name is Jesus. It was not some split-second decision. Jesus planned to die for you from the foundation of the world. He laid down His life for you, His friend.

The final thing that is worth dying for is your FAITH. John the Baptist had pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) But after he was arrested and put in prison John started having some doubts. In Luke 7 we read that John sent word to Jesus to ask Him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” I’m not surprised that this great outdoor prophet had a few doubts when he was restricted in a tiny jail cell chained to the wall. It would have been like putting an eagle in a canary cage, or restricting a great whale to a swimming pool. John began to have a few doubts.

Jesus sent word back to John to tell him that scripture was being fulfilled, miracles were being done, and lives were being changed. If Jesus had only been a man… He might have rebuked John for doubting Him. But on the day that John said the worst thing he ever said about Jesus; Jesus said the BEST thing He ever said about John.

Jesus said John was more than a prophet. He said among men born of women (and that includes most of us), there is NONE GREATER than John.” Wow. Jesus was saying that of all the people in the Old Testament period, John was the greatest—greater than Abraham; greater than Moses; greater than Elijah. But then Jesus said, “There is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28)

John stood for the truth of his faith, and he ended up dying for his faith.

I wonder if John smiled and thought, “Why did I ever doubt?”

CONCLUSION

Freedom, Family, and Faith are at least three things worth dying for. Would you be willing to die for your faith? Warren Wiersbe relates a story from China during the Communist purge of Mao Zedong in 1949. Churches were closed and Christians were arrested and executed. Wiersbe tells the story of a small group of Christians meeting in private. Suddenly the door flies open and three communist soldiers are standing there with weapons drawn. They ordered all the Christians to line up against the far wall to be executed. The soldiers said, “IF you are not a believer you are free to leave.” Some of the group hurried from the room. But a group of faithful followers of Jesus joined hands and stood together waiting to die for Jesus. When the unbelievers left, the soldiers lowered their weapons and said, “We are believers, too, and we wanted to find a group of Christians who are willing to die for their faith. May we join you?”

Here’s rhetorical question: Would you be willing to die for your faith? Here’s a much more practical question: Are you willing to LIVE for your faith seven days a week? I hope your answer to both is YES because there are some things worth dying for.

Sermon Contributor: David Dykes