Chardon church of Christ

It's Not a Talent Contest

It’s Not a Talent Contest 
Matthew 25:14-30 

INTRO:
Good evening. It is good to see each of you that have returned this evening. We are going to continue our studies on the parables of Jesus. This will be the last one of this series. It has not been an exhaustive coverage of all the parables of Jesus, but it gives us the idea.

I hope we have learned some things and have been challenged about some. One thing we need to always remember is that it is about context, context, context. If you get that, right then half the battle is won.

There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus really was and still is ‘The Master Teacher’. If you remember back to last Lord’s Day evening Jesus shared with His disciples, ‘The parable of the ten virgins’. These virgins were pictured as waiting for the Lord’s arrival.
We saw that we, as Christians, need to be watchful and ready for His arrival. In the parable which we are going to look at today, which is ‘The parable of the talents’, we are going to see that the servants in this parable are pictured as working for their Lord.

‘The parable of the ten virgins’ stresses the duty of constant alertness and ‘The parable of the talents’ stresses the duty of faithful service. When we place them together as they should be, they both teach Christians that as we watch, we must not be idle.
In short the best way to be ready for Jesus’ return is to be busy in the Master’s business.

If you would open your bibles to Matthew 25 this will be our text for this evening. Before we begin I would like to tell you a story told to me by a preacher from England about a learning experience from his youth. He said; “when I was young, my parents would occasionally go out and leave me in charge of the house. My dad would give me £5 to buy fish and chips for my supper. One time I decided to have a party and so I invited some my friends around and we started drinking, dancing and just generally being silly.
As the night went on I knew my parents would get home about 1:00 am, so around 12:30 my friends and I picked up the house, to make it look like nothing had ever happened.
My friends left and I went to bed, only to be woken up with a friendly slap to the face from my father. Of course playing ignorant I asked, “Why did you do that?”.
He said, “I know you had a party and I don’t mind but you forgot to empty the ashtrays.”
I had been entrusted with my parent’s home and the money they gave me was to buy my supper from the chip shop, not to buy beer.” The preacher said; “He never mentioned the beer but I got the point.”

I recalled this story of his when looking at this parable. In a similar way Jesus tells us in this parable that the master entrusted His property and His money to His servants.

There is a similar parable which Jesus shares in Luke 19:11-27. We need to keep that in mind because some people see ‘The unprofitable servant’ in Matthew’s account as the main character.

They believe that the unprofitable servant represents the Scribes and the Pharisees and other Jews who wouldn’t run the risk of giving full pledge of allegiance to the Christ. There is possibly some truth to this view, but what we need to ask ourselves is; to whom was Jesus speaking to in Matthew’s account?

If we go all the way back to Matthew 24:3 we find the answer. “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.” “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”[para] Matthew tells us quite clearly that the only people present with Jesus were His disciples.

In Luke’s account Jesus is speaking with the Scribes, Pharisees and other Jews who are listening, but not in Matthew’s account. What’s the point? The point is simply that Jesus is speaking to His disciples and the focus of attention is not on Jewish leaders but upon the 3 scenes of the parable.

I. Here is scene number 1...the gifts. Matthew 25:14-15 – “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.”
A. Jesus says before the master went on his journey. He called all his servants in and gave each of them a definite sum of money.
1. The 1st thing we notice is the amount of money varied. It varied not because of favoritism but because of ability. We notice in each case the unit of money involved was a talent.
2. As we know a talent in Biblical times was no small sum of money. It wasn’t £5 to go and buy fish and chips. In the time of Jesus a talent was worth a lot more.
3. Remember that these servants were not only placed in charge of their master’s money, they were also in charge of their master’s property, but the point is that each man received something. Not a single servant was left out; each one was left with something in their pockets.
B. Folks, God still works that way today even in a congregation this small. Not a single person responsible to God is left out in the divine distribution of gifts. Every one of us receives something. In fact I would say every one of us receives much, even the one talent man received the large sum.
C. Remember when we looked at ‘The parable of the two sons’? What did Jesus say the father called the two sons to do? Matthew 21:28-30 tells us that the father said to both sons, “Son, go, work today in my vineyard.”
1. He called them to work. Why? Because there was work to be done. God calls us the same way. We are told to go work in His vineyard. Why? Same reason, because there is work to be done.
2. God has work for us all to do and God gives us enough capital to accomplish the work which He intends for every one of us to accomplish.
3. 2 Peter 1:3 – “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,” Peter tells us that we have everything we need, and not just for life but for godliness too.
D. Like I mentioned earlier each servant was given a different amount according to their abilities.
E. We read in 1 Corinthians 12:14-21 something I’m sure we have heard; “14. For in fact the body is not one member but many. 15. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,'' is it therefore not of the body? 16. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,'' is it therefore not of the body? 17. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20. But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you''; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you.''”
1. The point is that God knows we are not all the foot, or the eye, or the ears. It is sad in today’s church that so many want to be the mouth, but that is not how God has set it up. He gave us different gifts and He doesn’t expect us to use a gift which we don’t possess.
2. Even in our natural abilities, we’re different. Some people are born with strong and active bodies, while others enter into the world in poor health. A few people are gifted with superior intellect and others are not so intellectual.
3. It’s the exact same with our spiritual gifts. A young man may grow quite rapidly into a Christian leader in a small congregation, but if you take that same young man and place him in a large congregation, he may not grow as fast because he may feel he is not needed as much.
4. Aren’t you glad that we are part of a small congregation and we know that we are much needed? Aren’t you glad you are part of a congregation who wants to promote and encourage the use of our talents? I know I am.
F. It is sad when you hear “they will not give me anything to do”. I know we appreciate when someone wants to be busily employed in the work of the Lord (or they say they do). But I wonder, is the lack of an assignment a reason for inactivity? What happened to initiative?
1. There are always opportunities to serve and I understand that sometimes the opportunities may not be as desirable or as many as others have.
2. Not all fields at any one moment are glowing with a golden harvest. In other words, there are some fields where the ground needs preparing. There are some fields that are waiting for the sowing. Remember when Jesus taught ‘The parable of the Sower,’ He says in Matthew 13:8 “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”[para] Every farmer knows and we need to realize, that not all fields when sown are capable of producing the same crop.
II. Scene number 2... Let’s look at the way the talents were used in the parable. What was the result of the master’s confidence in His servants? To what use did they put His money while He was away? Matthew 25:16-18 – “16. "Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17. "And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18. "But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money.”[NKJV]
A. The servants who received the larger amounts of money went to work immediately. They invested their money in profitable enterprises and succeeded in doubling their fortunes. I think we would be mistaken to assume that these men weren’t tempted to do something else with their talents.
1. We certainly are not told but temptations flow around us all the time like the waters of some great river. While the big ones are easy to spot and avoid leaving us unharmed, sometimes a little significant incident may cause our down fall simply because we are not looking for it.
2. How many times have we been in a hurry, maybe tired or hungry and have decided to take a shortcut to accomplish the task before us? That little shortcut may cause us to stumble.
3. Again, we are not told but temptations come to us all and I am sure they came to these men as well. I would suggest it is a mistake to put their success down to just pure luck. They were successful because they worked, they took their responsibility as something active, not just to preserve but to improve. Not taking the easiest way.
B. Let’s look at the third man in the parable. We know that he failed his duty. Matthew 25:18 says, “He dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.”[para] I doubt he deliberately set out to fail. He probably left his master’s presence with the firm intension to justify the confidence that had been placed in him. Why then did the third man fail?
C. There are a few possibilities I would suggest. The 1st is this: he failed because he didn’t have faith in himself. We all have talents from God but how many of us feel as though our talent is small and insignificant? Perhaps the one talent man was unsure of his abilities and when he compared his gift with the larger gifts, he was afraid that he couldn’t do as much as them, and so in not wanting to do the least - he did nothing.
1. If that’s any of us this evening and we’re thinking well, if I can’t have a leading part, I’m just not going to do anything at all. If you think your gift is small and not that necessary - then think again! If you think your gift doesn’t deserve much honor then I beg you to think again!
2. Paul clearly tells us otherwise in 1 Corinthians 12:22-25 – “22. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24. but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25. that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.”
3. You see folks, when it comes to serving the Lord it’s all about recognizing the different talents that each of us have and we all have different talents. No gift is greater then any other gift in the Lord’s eyes. In imperfect human sight maybe, but in God’s eyes my gift is not greater than yours and your gift is not greater than mine.
4. I do recognize there are some things I do well and some tasks where I am far less capable. There is no shame in recognizing we can’t do certain jobs for the Lord, but there is shame if we know we have a talent and we don’t use it, just bury it in the ground.
D. Perhaps another reason why the man failed was because he didn’t have the courage to work. Jesus calls him in Matthew 25:26 - “You wicked and lazy servant!” Was he afraid to work? Isn’t this the cause of most failures in life? If a person doesn’t work, if a person isn’t willing to pay the price in hard labor, they will never be crowned with success.
1. Proverbs 10:4 – “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”[para]
2. This was true thousands of years ago and it is just as true today. It is true in the physical sense, and it’s also true in the spiritual sense. Hebrews 6:10-12 – “10. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12. that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
i. Would we think that Abraham would have become the father of all nations, if he didn’t follow God’s instructions?
ii. Would the walls of Jericho have fallen if the Israelites just went around the city once?
3. God has no room for laziness because He has given each of us a gift to use in His kingdom. If we just bury those gifts in our hearts then God’s work won’t get done as His will wants it done.
E. Maybe another reason why this fellow failed was because he didn’t have enough faith in his master. Maybe he thought he just got a bad deal. Matthew 25:24 tells us that this guy “Knew that his master was a hard man.”
1. It amazes me how many people look at God in that way. In spite of all God and done and continues to do for us, all the Love He has shown; doesn’t it seem many people have a picture of God as a hard man in their minds?
2. It amazes me how many people see God as this stern power that is either making unreasonable demands or someone who is pushing people around to get His own way. Yet, if this were true wouldn’t that be all the more reason why we should all strive to use the talents He has given us?
3. We know this is not true because that’s not a clear picture of God. God loves us and extends His arms to us in mercy. When He gives us a task, He gives us the means to accomplish the task. He is not going to give us a task we are not able to do.
F. Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,” God has more power then we can imagine and He will help us. All we have to do is ask Him for it, because according to Paul that power is already at work within us.
III. The final scene I want for us to look at is the consequences of using and not using our talents. When the master came home it was time for reckoning. Matthew 25:19-23 – “19. "After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20. "So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.' 21. "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.' 22. "He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.' 23. "His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'”
A. Jesus says the same thing was said to the man with the 5 talents and the man with the 2 talents. Their reward was to be two-fold, they were made ruler over many things and they were admitted into the joy of their Lord.
1. This meant they were granted an extended and more dignified office certainly something on this earthly side we can relate to.
2. The second part of being admitted into the joy of their Lord indicates participation in the fullness of joy which the Lord’s presence ensures as we find in Psalm 16:11 – “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
B. We know that an inheritance awaits all Christians who work and do His will. Peter tells us about it in 1 Peter 1:3-5 – “3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4. to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5. who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
1. That is the very reason why we keep going, even though we go through all kinds of trials in our lives. Read on in 1 Peter 1:6-9 – “6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7. that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8. whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9. receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls.”
2. That’s why we faithfully work for our Lord. It is because we have a goal and because of our faith in our Lord - we want to reach that goal. What is that goal? Not just an inheritance which will never fade or spoil, we will receive the most important thing of all, the salvation of our souls.
C. Is that not why you’re a Christian? You want to go to heaven.
1. Please remember that we don’t work hard for our reward, we work hard because of our reward.
2. Ephesians 2:8-9 – “8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9. not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
IV. Now let’s continue in that final scene and take a look at the man with one talent in the parable. Matthew 25:24-28 – “24. "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25. 'And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' 26. "But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27. 'Therefore you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28. 'Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.”
A. Wow, he was forbidden to come in and take part in his master’s happiness and everything he had was taken from him. Some folks would say this is a picture of a harsh master. I don’t think it is. I think it is the inevitable consequence of doing nothing.
1. Too many people question God about the way He deals with people. We hear questions like this all the time. Why would a loving, caring God send someone to hell?
2. God doesn’t do that. People choose to go there. Why would God send someone into hell because they haven’t totally obeyed all His commandments but have just served Him in their own way all their lives?
3. Questions like this are not new. In Romans 9 when Paul is describing how God does things the way He wants to do things and people are questioning.
4. Paul says in Romans 9:21 – “Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” Paul says that our creator has the right to use our life for His purpose. You’ve all heard the saying, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.” It is a law of life that we will lose what we fail to use. In the spiritual realms every gift given by God must be put to work or else it will be taken from us.
5. Matthew 25:29 – “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

CONCLUSION:
Why were two profitable and one unprofitable? The answer lies not in the fact that the two from the beginning were more gifted. With all they were given they still could have been lazy and buried their talents. It wasn’t because they were brilliant or because they had a knack for business that they were commended.

They were commended simply because they had been faithful in the service of their absent Lord. Both men with what they possessed had done his best. We too when the day of reckoning comes and we turn to our eternal home, it may well be that some will come with an arm full of trophies. It may well be that some will come with only a few trophies, but you need to come with something. Nobody can come empty handed having done nothing.

Folks, this is a stern warning for us because He’s speaking about people who profess to follow His ways here. These men were already servants of their master.

People, as Joshua says, need to choose who they will serve. What we choose while it is yet today is going to reflect on us on Judgment Day. The undertaker can’t do anything spectacular when we die. We each have to make that choice today.

He told the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:12, “’I tell you the truth, I don't know you.’”
He told the goats on His left in Matthew 25:41, “’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
He said about the wicked, lazy servant in Matthew 25:30, “Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

I for one don’t want to hear those words coming from the Father’s lips. I would rather hear the words He spoke to these servants who used their talents well, in Matthew 25:21, “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!’”
You have to decide what He is going to say to you. Remember it’s not a talent contest.
It’s about reaching our goal, the salvation of our souls. It’s about using the talents which God has blessed us with to reach others until the day He returns to take us home.

If you haven’t obeyed His commands, then you’re not prepared and you need to get prepared. You need to study His word and do what His word tells every one of us to do. You need to repent, turn from the ways of the world, turn to God and follow His ways. You’re here this evening, which tells me you have some belief in God.

You also need to believe the Bible when it says that Christ is who He claims to be, which is the Savior of the world. You need to confess that Jesus is Lord and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. After you’ve obeyed His commands, then you continue to obey His commands, which is called faithfulness, it’s then that you are starting the preparation process. You are doing what God requires you to do in preparation for His return.

Invitation: ???

Reference Sermon
Mike Glover

Christmas

Christmas

INTRO: Good morning. I want to welcome everyone here today. It's great to see families and friends who are all wrapped up in each other and getting along. The spirit of giving and goodwill is always a welcome sight. I like to see the beautiful lights that we often see at this time of the year. They certainly put us in a mood to celebrate and that’s what we do. I enjoy the festivities at this time of the year. There is a secular side of Christmas. It's a national holiday, a civic holiday. It's a time of reunion with loved ones and friends that perhaps we haven't seen in a long time. Some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard is Christmas music and I will be enjoying that. I have some favorites; you may have some favorites too.

I do have a bit of a quibble with one thing though. The religion of Christ should not be thought of as being “a time of the Year thing”. But that's often the way it is thought of. We talk about the season, the Christmas season. Christ, Christianity is an “all the time thing”. Every day the Christian should be rejoicing that Jesus Christ came into the world and so today I'm rejoicing. I expect to rejoice again tomorrow, and I expect to rejoice in the heat of the summer as I did last summer. The question under consideration is; are Christians authorized to celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday?

It’s universal to call December 25th Christmas which is made up of two words, Christ and Mass. Mass is a religious rite. Thus from its name it is a religious event recognizing the coming of Christ into the world. However, Scriptures don’t give us the actual date of the event. Galatians 4:10-11 – “10. You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.” While Paul referring to Jewish celebrations which had passed away with the old law it would seem to indicate the danger of observing any special day not authorized by the Lord.

Christmas has changed over the years and is a cultural as well as religious celebration around the world. Christmas now is a mix of pre-Christian (i.e. pagan), Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath, Christmas music and caroling, lighting a Christingle, viewing a Nativity play, an exchange of Christmas cards, special church services, a special meal, pulling Christmas crackers and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world. [Wilipedia]

I. Historical background of Christmas - Before the 5th century there was no general consensus as to the date of the birth of Jesus. It had been observed in at least six different months on various days in each month. This confusion led Roman church authorities in the year of 440 AD to set a definite date for celebrating the birth of our Lord. December 25th was selected because it fell on the old Roman feast day of the birth of Sol, the Sun god. It is said that their reasoning was because Malachi 4:2 – “But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.” And other verses. However, it was purely due to competition to get people to the churches.
A. After all since Jesus is the light of the world. And if you have a celebration taking place culturally, and it’s in terms of other religions which celebrate to encourage the coming of light; then it would seem that if you accommodated those particular things together, you could make it easier for people to be converted to Christianity. You meld together with their physical and cultural celebrations.
1. When we look at the origin of Christmas as a celebration of Jesus’ birth, it doesn't have its origin in the Bible or in the teachings of the Apostles, or the practice of the first century church.
2. The history of Christmas didn’t begin with Christ. The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, has been celebrated in one form or another for millennia. Northern Europeans called it ‘Jul’, a term remembered in the English word Yule, which now means Christmas, in ancient Rome it was the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or ‘the birthday of the unconquered Sun’. Through sacrifices and feasting, pagans celebrated the beginning of the Sun’s revival.
3. The celebration of Jesus’ birth was observed primarily by the Roman church. We can see that the celebration of Christmas did not have it’s origins with God, it had it’s origins with men and many have opposed it. This is illustrated in both British and American history.
B. British opposition - In the UK Christmas was banned and even today there are those who want to see it banned again, but as someone once said, ‘it’s political correctness gone mad’, some local councils even try to ban the use of the word Christmas. This is nothing new because back in the 17th century, this was actually true.
1. The English parliament under Oliver Cromwell, and the Massachusetts Puritans, both tried to ban the celebration of Christmas, in England because it was ‘popish’ and pagan, in America, because the 25th of December was viewed as an arbitrarily selected date (which it was), rather than the true anniversary of Christ’s birth.
2. Also because Christmas was celebrated with drinking, eating, dancing and having fun, things that did not go down well with 17th century Puritans generally.
C. American opposition - The first Christmas spent in America by the Mayflower Pilgrims was devoted to hard labor such as cutting down trees, in order to avoid any frivolity on the day called Christmas. They argued that nothing in the Scriptures mentioned having a good time. To Robert Brown and his associates, it was nothing more than a ‘Popish frivolity’ and the ‘dreadful work of Satan’ in their midst.
1. In 1659 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the colonial legislature made Christmas illegal. ‘Whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas, shall pay for every offense five shillings.’ One judge loudly proclaimed that people who made mince pie or plum pudding over the holiday period would surely be ‘Cursed by God for all eternity.’
2. Because of its association with pagan festivals the Pilgrims outlawed the color green. Pilgrim preachers used their pulpits to denounce holly and ivy and Christmas trees as ‘seditious badges’ which were always to be looked upon as signs of the devil at work.
3. This stern prohibition proved to be extremely unpopular and caused widespread discontent so by 1681 Christmas could again be celebrated without dire consequences in Massachusetts. Yet the Pilgrim chill on the holiday persisted for another 175 years. Children in that area of New England were made to attend school on Christmas day.
4. That law lasted until 1856. Many people in other colonies disagreed; their holiday festivities began well before December 25th and lasted until January 6th. These were Virginians and Dutch Burghers; they believed there should be a mixture of religion and revelry.
II. 25th December is a Jewish celebration - Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights and it remembers the rededication of the second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The feast was begun by Judas Maccabeus 164 B.C. to commemorate the cleansing and rededication of the temple after the defilement through pagan worship under Antiochus Epiphanes. Hanukkah is the Hebrew and Aramaic word for ‘dedication’. The feast is mentioned in John 10:22. Hanukkah lasts for eight days and starts on the 25th of Kislev, the month in the Jewish calendar that occurs at about the same time as December. Because the Jewish calendar is lunar, it uses the moon for its dates; Kislev can happen from late November to late December.
III. Today - I suppose if you came out of the denominational world and you had a practice of celebrating Christmas in some way before you came to the Lord's church then you've no doubt found that we take a rather unique, a different approach for the most part, at least as I speak about what the Lord’s Church conviction is. I’m sure you'd understand my tendency to do that.
1. Today most religious bodies that consider themselves to be followers of Jesus fervently celebrate and adhere to the aspect of celebration of the birthday of Jesus on December 25th. There are among Christian’s different opinions about this and different convictions. I don't in any way want to try to disrupt that. I'm fully convinced that the celebration of Christmas should not disrupt congregations or cause divisions among God's people.
2. We would certainly agree though that all of us are affected by the celebration of Christmas as a religious holiday in this country. It is so well entrenched in our culture and the elements are so much a part of our everyday life, that it's likely to stay, and its here with all of its influences.
3. Our religious neighbors as I mentioned celebrate it and they invite us to participate, they want us to be a part of that celebration. Often because of the secular aspect, the commercialism, they express a desire to put ‘Christ back into Christmas’.
4. I find that a very fascinating perspective that as Christians we're standing opposed to something that puts Christ into something. At least in regard to putting Christ into Christmas, because when we look at what the Bible teaches, the Bible doesn't say anything about Christ being in a religious celebration of Christmas. It's hard to put Jesus back into it from a Biblical perspective. I say all of that to get us to recognize the type of circumstance that we're in, in relationship to the people around us. I think Christians ought to be very careful about that.
5. I say that because I think if we really are serious about being a light to the world and preaching the gospel to others, and having an influence on others, while we can not compromise the truth, yet we should not go around beating people on the head with our personal convictions about religious holidays. I think sometimes that that's the approach that's taken and we shoo people away before we ever get them to where we can teach the Biblical principles by which they could understand what the Bible teaches about this subject and where our convictions lie.
IV. The Bible does emphasize the birth of Christ - In all, the New Testament devotes 100 verses to the coming of Christ and we cannot overlook the fact that the birth of Jesus is one of the most significant events in the history of the world. It’s one of the most profound thoughts in the Bible and we cannot in our human limitations begin to comprehend the significance of what took place.
A. We cannot imagine what it was like when Jesus left the Father, the Holy Spirit, the angels and all the grandeur and glory of heaven to come to this world and become a fully human infant with an infant mind. John wrote in John 1:14 - “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
B. So simple, yet so profound. How majestic must have been that heavenly scene when the Father, the Holy Spirit and all the angelic hosts of heaven said goodbye to the Word. What a scene it must have been to watch Him pass through the portals of glory to come into this world by way of a virgin.
C. God becoming human is one of the most amazing events in history. Angels announced His birth but only to some shepherds. The shepherds came to worship him, and later did some Magi. Yet, for the most part this event went unannounced, it occurred under the most humble circumstances, in a manger, to two poor young people.
D. How amazing that God would trust two young people with the care and raising of the Son of God. We today stand amazed and with Mary we cry out, ‘How can this be?’ Oh, the power and Divine love of God Almighty toward mankind.
E. Yet the Bible doesn't say much about Christmas. In fact the bible says nothing about Christmas as a celebration of the birthday of Jesus. We'll look at it from the perspective of the principles that are found in the Bible and while doing so look at the historical aspect of the event that Christmas is considered to represent.
V. How are Christians to observe this great and powerful event? I will start by suggesting we accept the Biblical story exactly as it’s told without any additions and subtractions. Since no date of birth is given then obviously the Lord didn’t intend for us to set aside a day to celebrate. To celebrate December 25th is without Scriptural evidence, we simply don’t know the date. There is no problem to talk about, read about, or even sing about His birth as long as we don’t teach it’s a command we must observe. It’s appropriate to talk about the Lord’s birth anytime. We can do this without implying we believe in the ‘immaculate conception of Mary,’ ‘the bodily assumption’ of Mary to heaven, or that ‘three wise men’ came to worship Him.
A. Certainly not knowing the date of someone’s birth doesn't mean you can't celebrate or commemorate their birth on a day in which they were not born. That doesn't make the aspect of Christmas illegitimate from that standpoint, but the Christmas story as it's presented in the religious world, sometimes can be rather misleading and provide for us a picture that's not really accurate from the standpoint of what the Bible teaches. That's what we ought to draw people to; what the Bible actually teaches about the birthday of Jesus. Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 2 are records of biblical accounts of Jesus’ birth.
B. Many of the traditions that are associated with the Christmas holidays originated in paganism. I think that is important for us in terms of looking at the facts. To understand that point because it's possible for individuals to actually participate in traditional things, to do things that others have done, their parents the grandparents have done, without really knowing the origin of them. We realize that is not necessarily always a bad thing because traditions themselves are not inherently bad.
1. But if we go along without finding out what those traditions are related to, then it's possible for us to either misinterpret the way that we are doing the tradition or why we're doing it or it might very well lead us into honoring something that God did not intend us to honor.
2. We look at the traditions that are associated with the celebration of Christmas and we recognize that most if not all of them had their origin in the same way that the celebration of Christmas did and that is in the development of false religion.
3. We have many traditions that we follow culturally and secularly but understanding where they came from helps us to sort things out and recognize whether or not these things could possibly engage us in something that would not be what God would want us to do.
C. Lighting - The lights go back to the celebration of the winter solstice and the idea of the lighting up of the world. On the solstice the pagans would burn bonfires out in the fields in order to help the sun god to wake up and to give him strength so that the days would be getting longer and the sun would reverse its course in the sky.
D. Christmas trees – Some say the Christmas tree had its origin in Germany. English missionaries replaced the sacrifices to the Norse gods and Odin's sacred oak, with a fir tree and then decorated that tree making it a tribute to the birth of the Christ child.
1. A preacher in England related that a few years ago, a brother in the Lord and his family came for dinner on Boxing Day. He said; “we sat and chatted and enjoyed a lovely meal prepared by my wife. Everything was nice and went well and my wife and I thought it was an enjoyable evening.”
2. “However just as they were leaving the brother said to me, ‘it’s unscriptural to have that Christmas tree in your home’, to which I replied, ‘we don’t worship the tree.’ I found it interesting that they waited until they had finished eating before they mentioned the tree was offensive to them.”
3. Anyway the preacher said, “it was Jeremiah 10 that was used to tell us that we shouldn’t have Christmas trees in our homes, but a closer look at the passage shows that it has nothing to do with Christmas trees and everything to do with idol worship.” Jeremiah 10:6-10 – “6. Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord (You are great, and Your name is great in might), 7. who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due, for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. Listen to the next verse. 8. But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. 9. Silver is beaten into plates; it is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalsmith; blue and purple are their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men. 10. But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide His indignation.” Now if you revere the Christmas tree or the ornaments on it, that is idol worship.
4. Idol worship was a clear violation of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:3-6, but there is no connection between the worship of idols and the use of Christmas trees. I can erect a Christmas tree without any thought that I am raising up some pagan symbol to honor some pagan god as it was originally done. To me it’s merely a decoration and custom, nothing more. It’s a holiday, a time of joy, giving of gifts, good cheer and reaching out to those less fortunate.
i. I doubt there are many people that decorate a tree and put it in their house thinking that they're doing it as a sacrifice to Odin. That's just not part of their thinking. Probably they're not decorating that tree as a tribute to the Christ child anymore either.
ii. For example, we don’t look at the days of the week as the pagans did. To pagans Sunday referred to the pagan god Sun. Monday was ‘Moon day.’ Tuesday was Tiw’s day, the Anglo-Saxon god of war. Wednesday was ‘Wooden’s day’ the chief god of the Anglo-Saxons. Saturday refers to Saturn, the god of Agriculture.
iii. When we say these words today it never crosses our minds that we are saying the names of certain pagan gods. These words no longer have any such meaning.
E. Almost any teaching in the Bible people can have some error associated to it. When we talk about the Bible doctrine of faith, we do not mean and we try not to leave the impression that we believe in faith only. If we speak on baptism we try not to leave the impression we believe in sprinkling. When we talk, read or sing about Christ’s birth, we try not to leave the impression it occurred on December 25th.
1. In Romans 14, Paul argues the general proposition that there will be different levels of knowledge among brethren and that, to a certain extent; these must be accommodated for the sake of Christian unity. For example, some, out of conviction, choose not to eat meats, others see nothing wrong with such a practice. Romans 14:5-6 – “5. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.”
2. Romans 14:10 – “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”
F. No man is to create a law in areas of convenience and then demand that all others submit. If an obvious act of sin isn’t the issue, then peace must prevail. Is it necessary for us to reject everything that has a pagan or false religion background because it has that background? There are some who take this position, and that's their reason why a Christian can have nothing to do with anything that has to do with Christmas.
1. Or even with the secular elements of Christmas, because of the background of those things, which started in Paganism. We just mentioned several things that historically are connected with pagan roots and false religion. When a person participates in those things are they necessarily giving honor to that which brought about its origin?
2. The person who takes that position will have a very difficult time with consistency. In the sense that - if that is true for one thing, then it must also be true for all of those things in our life that have those same roots. Even with the word holiday. You know we're supposed to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas anymore? The word holiday is derived from the term holy day. Using their logic every time you use that word you're giving honor to its origin so every time you say holiday you are saying Holy Day.
3. Birthdays - Think about the celebration of birthdays. In ancient Egypt, the birthdays of the Pharaohs were considered ‘holy’ days, with no work being done. When we give our spouses birthday presents or throw a party for our children on their birthday, does this mean that we have compromised our faith?
4. Valentine’s Day - February 14th is the date that most people make an extra effort to love and be loved, this usually consists in the giving of flowers, a card and possibly going out for a nice romantic dinner. When people do this are we seriously saying that they are involved with and submitting to the Roman Catholic named Saint Valentine? Of course not. It is a made up day anyway.
5. Remembering the dead - When our loved ones pass away and we go to the cemetery to visit their resting place, most people usually leave some flowers. Again, when people do this, are we seriously saying that they are practicing what the Hindu’s practice?
6. Church weddings - Everyone loves a good wedding, and the place for which people get married is more important to some than to others. People who can afford it would like nothing less than a big old wedding in a church building. Again, when people get married in any church building, are we seriously saying that they believe that marriage is a church sacrament; which is what some teach?
G. Common sense needs to rule, it’s a shame that common sense isn’t so common. We all know that what people practiced years ago may still be practiced today, but have a totally different meaning and that’s because over a period of time, practices change, and their meanings change, and every practice has a different meaning to different people.

CONCLUSION:
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting that we compromise the truth, but what I am saying is that we need to be careful not to make spiritual laws for others where none exist. Christians are commanded not to allow those things that are traditions of men to dictate their worship to God. I don't believe that the church should join in the religious celebration of Christmas. That's probably something you have observed if you worship with us or if you're a member here or maybe you've seen church assemblies in other places where it is something that is manifestly absent.

We might wonder then, can the individual Christian observe Christmas as a secular or cultural holiday? It's something I think that can be answered by different Christians in different ways. But one thing is certain I think. I believe we would all agree that the Christmas celebration has both religious and non-religious elements. People are simply decorating a tree because it is a Christmas tree and because it's that time of year. Just because they do something does not necessarily tie them back in their thinking or even in the thinking of others to the origin of that tradition.

We’re commanded to observe the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on every first day of the week. We have been given a memorial to help us remember His suffering on the cross. At the same time, I am thankful for His birth and I rejoice that the Word became flesh. Without His taking on our sinful nature, the flesh, I would have no hope. I never want to forget this.
We haven’t been commanded to observe any specific day as the birthday of Jesus. No memorial has been left to remind us of His birth, but we have been given abundant information about His birth thus the Lord expects to know about it and the events that surrounded it.

We offer the invitation at this time. If you're subject to the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand and sing the song selected.

Ready Or Not, Here He Comes

Ready Or Not Here He Comes 
Matthew 25:1-13 

INTRO:
Good evening. It is good to see each of you that have returned this evening. We are going to continue our studies on the parables of Jesus. Before we begin I would like to tell you a story.
This story is about two neighbors who were talking in the back garden over the fence. The first one of them said, “I went to a wedding this weekend, but I don't think the marriage will last.” Her friend asked, “Why do you think it won’t last?” The first one said, “Well, when the groom said ‘I do, the bride said, ‘don’t use that tone of voice with me.’”

I guess the point of the story is that relationships will last only if both parties look out for each other and treat each other right.

Tonight we will look at a parable from Matthew 25. In Matthew 25 we find a series of parables from Jesus on the subject of preparedness. We find “The parable of the Ten Virgins” verses 1-13, which we are going to look at tonight. In verses 14-30 we find “The parable of the Talents”, which we are going to look at next time. Finally in verses 31-46 we find “The parable of the Sheep and goats”.

In Matthew chapters 24 and 25 Jesus talked to His disciples about a time which was coming, when the city of Jerusalem would be totally destroyed and He talks about His final coming, His return, the first event being a type of the second. In Matthew 24:4-5 Jesus warns them, “4. ... "Take heed that no one deceives you. 5. "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.” Then He says in Matthew 24:13-14 “13. "But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14. "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

In verses 37-39 of Matthew 24 He talks about; “37. "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38. "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39. "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away... ”

He talked about “Two men will be in the field”, and “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left,” in verses 40-41.
Jesus also spoke of “Faithful and wise servants who did their duty while their master was away.” He also spoke of “Evil servants who were thinking that their master was delayed and so because of this delay they were careless and positively wicked in their conduct.” Jesus says that when He does come “These evil servants will be punished”.

In short He’s telling them that He would arrive unexpectedly and He would find many people who weren’t prepared for it.

On December 26, the day after Christmas, 2004 the whole world was shaken by the events of a Tsunami. It was devastating. People’s homes were wiped out and many people lost their lives. It was a disaster on a global scale, to such an extent that people are still years later trying to put their lives back together. Waves, some 100 ft high, killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.

I don’t know if you were aware of this but a lot of the countries affected by the Tsunami were warned years before to have some sort of warning system built, so that the people could have some sort of chance to be prepared. Sadly as we saw on our television screens, these countries didn’t take that advice.

Jesus isn’t talking about a Tsunami coming. He’s talking about His coming, but this time it isn’t to dwell among us like He did before, this time He’s coming to destroy this earth and everything on it. It’s not going to be a global disaster, it’s going to be a time of Universal Judgment, where souls will either live with Him forever or be destroyed with the devil and his angels in hell.

I. Let’s read the parable together. Matthew 25:1-13 - “1. "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2. "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3. "Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4. "but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5. "But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6. "And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!' 7. "Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8. "And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' 9. "But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.' 10. "And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. 11. "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' 12. "But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.' 13. "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
A. When we were younger we used to play a game called “Hide and Seek”. I remember I thought it was great fun. The idea was that some of our friends would run and hide somewhere and whoever was “it”, would cover their eyes and count to some number, I think it was 50 and then shout out in a loud voice, “Here I come, ready or not!” Then the person would go off hunting for their friends.
B. In a sense that’s what Jesus says to His followers. He says, “Ready or not I am coming!” Jesus isn’t now talking about how His followers were to be prepared for the “Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70”. He’s telling the whole world to be ready because He is coming back sometime in the future.
II. What I want to do this evening is to see if we can learn some lessons about ways in which we can be ready for His return. Jesus is going to share with us 3 things, which, “We cannot do.”
A. The 1st thing we cannot do is this; “We cannot neglect preparation and be ready at His coming.” Jesus wastes no time in getting straight to the point after sharing this parable. He says in Verse 13, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”. The key word in that verse is the word “Watch.” What does it mean to watch?
B. In what way are Christians to watch for Christ’s return? It certainly doesn’t mean what His disciples were doing in Acts 1:7-10 when Luke tells us that “7. And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'' 9. Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,”.
1. What did the two men say? Acts 1:11 – “Men of Galilee,” they said, ‘why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
2. I think that is one of the most unfair questions in the Bible. You see “watching” doesn’t mean intently looking up into the sky 24 hours a day, every day waiting for a first glimpse of His glorious appearance.
3. It also doesn’t mean that we are to talk about nothing else but His coming. Christians must “watch” with more than their eyes and their tongues.
4. That’s what Paul meant when He said in Colossians 3:1-2 – “1. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
C. To “watch” is to have some forethought of the future. It means to take some prior precautions, to make some preliminary preparation, and to continue in that preparation. Why is this preparation so important? Look back at our parable, this was the very thing the foolish virgins failed to do.
III. Matthew 25:1-3 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.”[para]
A. Verse 8 tells us that after the bridegroom arrived, “The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”[para] In other words they had their lamps, and they began to wait eagerly, but they didn’t have enough oil.
1. It never entered their minds that the bridegroom might delay and it’s because of this that Jesus called them “foolish”. We notice they weren’t ungodly or immoral. They weren’t even hypocrites. They were simply foolish because they didn’t allow for the possibility of delay.
2. In short, when the bridegroom returned they were unprepared. One of the most inescapable lessons from life is the necessity of being prepared. Practically everything that is done requires preparation.
B. This is true of reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s true of buying and selling, sowing, and reaping. There are certain things in life, which cannot be done at the last minute.
C. If you ever go on vacation or take a trip you will understand just how much preparation is needed before you go. Preparation is essential for knowledge.
1. Just ask Mark and he will tell you that if only the students studied and worked as hard throughout the whole year as they do the night before final exams, they would all ace the exams. In other words the time of examination is not the time to make preparation.
2. When the foolish virgins realized they didn’t have enough oil, they asked the wise virgins for some of theirs. Their answer is in Matthew 25:9-10, “’No,’ they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’”[para]
D. Folks, it is necessary for everyone to make their own preparations for the greatest examination and the greatest journey in life. On Judgment Day it will be too late to make up for any previous neglect of preparation, just as we know it would be foolish of us to think that we can buy oil after the shops are closed.
IV. That brings me to the 2nd thing we cannot do. “We cannot borrow our way out of this neglect.” When I read this parable I can’t help but sympathize with the foolish virgins. I mean, they are in a tough spot even if it is their own making. We might wonder, why didn’t the wise virgins give to the foolish virgins?
A. Were they just being heartless to refuse to share their oil with others at a time of distress? The answer is quite simple; you cannot borrow something, which must be bought.
1. Our characters are like that. Our characters cannot be loaned from person to person. It is something that must be developed individually. We cannot pass our character on to someone else when we die.
2. How many times do we hear people calling upon the faith of another person? You hear people say these things all the time. A gospel preacher said that his granddad was an elder of the church for 45 years. His mother was a godly woman who spent her whole life teaching Sunday school and giving to the needy. He said; “My dad was a deacon, and his dad was a deacon and my great granddad was a deacon before him.” He said that people talk about this as though he inherited some of their faith.
3. Folks, what Jesus is teaching us here, is that obedience to God is another thing that cannot be borrowed.
B. Hebrews 9:27 – “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”
1. Romans 14:10-12 – “10. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11. For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.'' 12. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”
2. You see each one is accountable individually. We live our own life, develop our own character, work out our own salvation and we each have a personal relationship with Christ and God the Father.
C. The husband can’t stand for his wife and the wife can’t stand for her husband. You can’t appeal to God on Judgment Day that your mother went to church for 50 years. You can’t say, “My father was a great man of faith.”
1. Can people be an influence, a guiding light, a great example for others? Of course they can and we are called to do so.
2. All the faith and dedication in the world on the part of parents isn’t enough for their children. All the hope and enthusiasm of a child cannot suffice for an indifferent parent. I hope and pray that our kids become Christians one day. I hope and pray that they will understand just exactly what being a follower of Christ means.
3. As a parent I realize that they can’t stand before God on the basis of my faith. They can’t go to heaven and say to God, “My daddy was a preacher”. They have to have their own faith. They need to make decisions about what to do with God’s commandments. I can’t make them understand. I can’t make them do right.
D. That’s because God requires personal submission to His commands. Your submission to God is your submission. Your faith needs to be your faith. You see it takes courage to become a Christian. It takes even more courage to stay faithful to God’s commands. Courage is not limited to the battlefield or when the Browns play the Steelers. Courage is not limited to bravely catching a thief in your house.
1. The real tests of courage are much deeper and much quieter. They are the inner tests, like remaining faithful when nobody's looking, like enduring pain when the room is empty, like standing alone when you’re misunderstood.
2. Those are the inner strengths and courage.
V. Let’s look at the 3rd thing we cannot do. “We cannot recall lost opportunities.”
Matthew 25:10 – “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.” What a sad picture this is, isn’t it?
A. When the bridegroom came, the foolish maidens were out trying to buy oil for their lamps. On returning they found that the marriage feast had already begun and the door was shut.
1. They missed their one chance. They didn’t seize their one great moment.
2. Folks, every day brings us opportunities that we must not neglect. Opportunities to help others are all around us. These opportunities are not just in India or Africa. They are right here on our doorstep.
3. Today may very well be a day when we have an opportunity to enter an open door to do good.
B. Galatians 6:10 – “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” If we fail to go through that door when it is open, it may soon be shut.
1. It will shut us out from the joy of serving and shut us in with a selfish heart.
2. The truth of the parable is that the failure of the foolish virgins was final. Jesus says in verses 11-12 – “11. "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' 12. "But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'” The door was shut and it was shut forever. How much those girls desired to enter. How long they had looked forward to the wedding! They were near to the reception, so near in fact that they could hear the inexpressible joy inside and yet they were so far away.
VI. Centuries have passed after this parable was told by Jesus and taught by many, and the question always arises, “When will Jesus come again?”
A. It was a sad picture back then, when thousands of people lost their lives in Jerusalem because they didn’t take Jesus’ advice, and it’s also a sad picture, which is still to come.
1. We shouldn’t be asking the question, “When will Jesus come again?” That’s the wrong question. The real question we should be asking ourselves is, “Are our lamps trimmed and burning?”
2. That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 25:13 – “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”,
B. Jesus will return folks and we know that because He said so. We know that there are some religious groups who use His coming as a form of scare mongering trying to get people into becoming followers of their ways.
1. There’s no denying the truth. He is coming and many religious groups have tried time and time again to predict His coming and time and time again they have been made to look foolish, but still they go on predicting.
2. As we just read Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”.
3. Nobody knows when He is going to return, so it’s not even worth the effort to try and figure out when He is coming back. That’s not the question of the Bible. The question of the Bible is, are we ready?
C. If you are ready, then you will be willing to be patient and you will be willing and ready to stand firm until He does return.
1. James 5:7-8 – “7. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
VII. When you go on a vacation or a long trip that takes many days, after awhile you find yourself missing things about the place where you live. Missing family, friends, your brothers and sisters here in Chardon. You get uneasy and you feel uncomfortable, homesick. Let me ask you, do you ever get homesick?
A. Paul did and he talked about it in Philippians 1:20-23 – “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” [para]
1. I wonder, do we ever get homesick like Paul did for heaven? Paul goes on to say in Philippians 3:20 – “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”[para]
2. The world began with the Word of God and when Christ returns this present world will end with the Word of God. That’s the truth and that’s a promise. It’s not my promise. It’s God promise.
B. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 – “14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” Those are words of both encouragement and warning. I pray that we do a better job of listening then those who lost their lives when Jerusalem fell.

CONCLUSION:
I’ll wind this up with a story you may have heard about the day when Forrest Gump dies and goes to Heaven and he is at the Pearly Gates, met by Peter himself. Remember this is a story.
Peter says, “Well, Forrest, it’s certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you but I must inform you that the place is filling up fast, and we’ve been administering an entrance quiz for everyone.
The quiz is short and you have to pass before you can get into heaven”.
Peter then asks him the 1st question.
“Forest how many days of the week begin with the letter T?
Forrest says, “How many days in the week begin with the letter “T”?
That one's easy.
That’d be Today and Tomorrow.”
Peter’s eyes open wide and he exclaims, “Forrest, that's not what I was thinking, but I’ll give you credit for that answer.”
He says “Here is your 2nd question.”
“How many seconds are there in a year?”
“Now that one’s harder,” says Forrest, “But I guess the only answer can be twelve.”
Astounded, Peter says, “Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how did you come up with twelve seconds in a year?”
“Shucks, there’s got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, and March 2nd.”
Peter interrupts him and says, “Hold it, I see where you're going with this, and I’ll have to give you credit for that one, too. Let’s go on with the next and final question.”
“Can you tell me God’s first name?”
“Sure” Forrest replied, “Its Andy.”
“Andy!” Peter raised his eyebrow, “Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name of Andy as the first name of God?”
“That was the easiest one of all,” Forrest replied. “Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own.”
Peter opens the Pearly Gates and said, “Run, Forrest, run.”

Many, many people have their own ideas about what Judgment Day will be like. God isn’t going to give us a quiz like that... but there will be an examination. We all know that any examination needs preparation. It’s entirely up to each of us how much preparation we’re willing to put in.

2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” There is really only one way to be sure that we are ready for the Day of Judgment when Christ returns and that is to be ready every day.

If you’re a Christian this evening, I don’t know how much oil you’ve got left burning in your lamp, it’s not for me to judge. If your oil is running a little low then maybe you need to ask God to help you. Or as the children’s song says, “Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning, give me oil in my lamp I pray, give me oil in my lamp keep me burning, burning, burning, keep me burning to the end of day.”

If you haven’t obeyed His commands, then you’re not prepared and you need to get prepared. You need to study His word and do what His word tells every one of us to do. You need to repent, turn from the ways of the world and turn to God and follow His ways. You’re here this evening, which tells me you have some belief in God.

You also need to believe the Bible where it says that Christ is who He claims to be, which is the Savior of the world. You need to confess that Jesus is Lord and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. After you’ve obeyed His commands and you continue to obey His commands, which is called faithfulness, it’s then that you are starting the preparation process. You are doing what God requires you to do in preparation for His return.

Invitation: ???

Reference Sermon
Mike Glover

Prophecies Of The Christ In Isaiah

Prophecies Of The Christ In Isaiah
Isaiah 7:14

INTRO:
Good morning: It is good to see everybody 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. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

Over the past few weeks we have looked at the gospel of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament. Our examination of the gospel was from the Psalms and we also looked at shadows of the Christ from the Law of Moses, from Genesis Exodus and Leviticus. We have seen a sample of what Christ meant when He said; “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” You should have a hand out that has more references.

As I said we should realize that these prophecies in Isaiah were given somewhere between seven hundred and seven hundred and fifty years before the events in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are many reasons why we believe the Bible is the word of God. There are many reasons why we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. One of the primary, foundational reasons why we believe the Bible is the word of God is the prophecies found within the Bible that were fulfill later on in history. One of the primary reasons why we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God is because there were prophecies about the Christ and Jesus fulfilled them all.

We have glimpsed the Law and the Psalms and what we will be doing this morning is looking at prophecies from the prophet Isaiah. What we can find contained within this one book, is the full picture of the gospel of Christ laid out for us many, many years before the events happened.

I. Let us begin with a prophecy that you're probably very familiar with Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” When the Christ was going to come into this world He was going to be born in a very unique fashion. He was going to be born of a virgin. This was going to be the sign from God - that this individual is indeed the Christ, the Messiah.
A. We find this mentioned again over in Isaiah 9:6-7 where it says: “6. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
1. In the text we have a prophecy about the Christ, the Messiah, the King and how the government is going to be laid upon His shoulders. There are some points that we should note:
2. He is going to be a child.
3. He’s going to be a son, but notice what the son is going to be called... everlasting father, mighty God.
4. Back in Isaiah 7:14 the meaning of the word Immanuel is literally “God with us”. The Christ is going to be God with us, everlasting father, mighty God.
5. It also says that He is going to have a kingdom that is going to be forever.
6. Notice too that in verse seven “of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end”.
7. This government, this kingdom is going to stand forever and He is going to be upon the throne of David in this kingdom.
B. Let’s turn to the New Testament books. I want us to look at how the birth of Christ is introduced in Luke 1:26-33 - “26. Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27. to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!'' 29. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 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; (notice the next phrase) and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. That is the fulfillment of the text we read back in Isaiah 9 33. "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.''” Again, Isaiah Chapter 9.
C. Let us continue in Luke 1:34 – “Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?''” She is a virgin Isaiah says in 7:14.
1. What we see in Luke is about the birth of the Christ to the Virgin Mary and the Christ is to be the one who is going to reign over the kingdom that is going to stand forever.
2. Understand that the kingdom is indeed the church today, and that it will continue all the way to when the Lord comes again.
II. When you study Isaiah, and I encourage everyone to do so, I suspect that you will find in Isaiah 53 what will become your favorite prophesy of the entire Bible. For the rest of the lesson what I would like to do is take this entire chapter and break it down starting in verse three.
A. It says about the Christ, who is going to come into the world; “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.”
1. Solomon was the son of David and since the Christ was described as the son of David many of the Jews were expecting the Christ would be like Solomon... and his kingdom like the kingdom of Solomon.
2. They’re expecting to come with him all the pomp and all the majesty of a great earthly king. Everybody was going to go: All right, here comes the Christ. Everybody loves Him, he is David’s son... but that's not the way it was prophesied.
3. The prophecy says he was going to be despised. The Christ was going to be rejected.
i. We find in John 1:11 – “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”
ii. When Christ came into the world he was rejected.
4. It was the leaders of his people, the Jews, the chief priest, the scribes and the Pharisees that were the ones that conspired to kill Him. They were the ones that tried Him in the Sanhedrin court and found him worthy of death. He came to his own, those that knew or should have known. Yet, they despised him and they rejected him just like the prophecy said they would.
III. In Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not his mouth.”
A. When the suffering servant was going be brought before trial he was not going to open his mouth.
1. He was not going to give any defense for himself at all. He was going to let happen what was going to happen.
2. He was going to allow these people's intentions for him to be realized and like a lamb being led to the slaughter he was going to allow it and go through the procedure without fighting it.
B. We find this fulfilled in Matthew 26. “62. And the high priest arose and said to Him, "Do You answer nothing? What is it that these men testify against You?'' 63. But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God that You tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.'' This is Jesus before the Sanhedrin and this He answered. 64. Jesus said to him, "It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.''” Jesus answer was not to fight or argue but to move the process along for He knew it would never have occurred to that Satan-blinded court that His words were true and not blasphemous.
1. Look with me at Daniel 7:13-14 - “13. "I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. 14. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.”
2. Jesus was taken to Pilate who found no fault in Him. Then Pilate, after finding out Jesus was from Galilee, sent Him to Herod. In Luke 23:8-9 we read; “8. Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. 9. Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.”
3. Jesus is sent back to Pilate and we find in Mark 15:3-5 – “3. And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. 4. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, "Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!'' 5. But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled.”
i. When Jesus was before the Sanhedrin He said nothing.
ii. When Jesus was before Herod He said nothing.
iii. When Jesus was before Pilate and they’re accusing him Jesus says nothing.
4. Isaiah 53 says He is going to go like a sheep to the slaughter. No resistance. He says nothing.
IV. Back in Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
A. The Christ is going to be wounded, He is going to be bruised, and He is going to be whipped.
1. In the New Testament in Matthew 26:67 – “67. Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, 68. saying, "Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?''”
2. Then in Matthew 27:26 – “26. Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.”
3. Finally Matthew 27:30 – “Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.”
i. He was bruised.
ii. He was beaten.
iii. He was scourged.
4. The Jews believed that if someone was to be punished it had to be done according to law of Moses with 39 stripes, 40 stripes save one, hence Paul’s reference in 2 Corinthians 11:24.
5. When the Roman soldiers scourged someone they could care less about the Jewish concept. The scourging the Romans delivered was much more traumatic, even to the point of being fatal. The flagellum was a much more torturous instrument then the whip used by the Jews, the lashes were delivered without any compassion or consideration for the victim’s health, and Roman law imposed no limit to the number of lashes inflicted at scourging.
6. This Roman instrument, called in Latin a flagellum, used to deliver this form of punishment, was much different from the bull whip that is more common in our culture. It was instead more like the old British cat o’ nine tails, except that the flagellum was not designed merely to bruise or leave welts on the victim. The flagellum was a whip with several (at least three) thongs or strands, each perhaps as much as three feet long, and the strands were weighted with lead balls or pieces of bone. This instrument was designed to lacerate. When they scourged an individual they would take them and tie them taunt with their hands extended and the body and legs extended on a post.
7. The blood would pour out and the idea was to beat the person as close to death as they could and just leave them barely alive. Every lash that came upon His body, He allowed.
B. Jesus said back in the Gospel of John no one was going to take His life from Him but He was going to lay it down of Himself. Everything that He went through, He permitted to occur. He went as a lamb to the slaughter, no resistance whatsoever.
1. He was giving Himself for me and for you.
2. Every lash of the whip, every moment of the beating was for me so that I could be healed of my sins.
3. Everything that He's allowing to happen to Him is because He loves us and He wants us healed of our sins.
V. Isaiah 53:8 says; “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.” .
A. The first thing we look at in the beginning of verse 8 is He was taken from prison and from judgment . We find that His judgment was taken away in John 18:38 – “Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?'' And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all.”
1. That was Pilate’s verdict. Pilate, when he comes out to the Jews says; I find no fault in Him.
2. In John 19:4 – “Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.''” Here for the second time is his verdict, I find no fault in him...not guilty.
3. John 19:12 – “From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.''”
B. When we get John 19:16 - “So he delivered Him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.”
1. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
2. His judgment, his verdict, was I find no fault in him.
3. This man who was said to be not guilty, not guilty, was taken and crucified.
4. The writer of Acts puts it this way Acts 8:32-33 – referring to scripture; “32. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so He opened not His mouth. 33. In His humiliation His justice was taken away. And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.''”
5. The verdict of Jesus' Roman judge was one of innocence; but the Savior’s meekness and humiliation had no effect on the mob demanding his crucifixion; therefore, Pilate took away his judgment of innocence and ordered Jesus crucified.
C. We read earlier for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
VI. It says in Isaiah 53:11-12 – “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. 12. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
A. The text here tells us the Christ is going to die. Not only is He going to be beaten. Not only is He going to be whipped and scourged He is going to die. He's going to pour out his soul unto death.
1. When we look at Matthew 27:50 it simply says; “Jesus, when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit.” They hung Him on the cross for more then six hours. He poured out his soul unto death completely giving Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.
2. Why did He do it? Isaiah 53:6 says; “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.”
3. This again is why Jesus is beaten, why He is scourged, why He is cut off from the land of the living. It's because of us.
4. It's by His stripes we are healed. It's what we have done that is wrong, not Him. His judgment was “not guilty”. We're the ones who have, in our stubborn pride, turned away from God and sinned. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
B. Continuing in Isaiah 53:8 it says; “...for the transgressions of My people He was stricken.”
1. Continuing in verse 10; “...When You make His soul an offering for sin,...”.
2. Then in verse 11; “... for he shall bear their iniquities”.
3. And in verse 12; “He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
C. Over and over again, God is explaining through Isaiah why the Christ, why the Messiah, why His Son, was going to be scourged, and crucified, and poured out to the point of death...the death of the cross. It was for our sins. It was for our iniquities so that we could be spiritually healed.
VII. Look back to Isaiah 53:9 – “And they made His grave with the wicked but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.”
A. We're dealing with the Christ. He had done no violence, had done nothing wrong, He had done nothing worthy of this punishment. Then in honor He is going to be buried.
1. In those times if you were a criminal they didn't take you to the cemetery. They didn’t give you a nice burial. Sometimes they left you to rot on the cross let the birds eat your flesh and then threw the bones in the trash.
2. Other times they made you dig great big pits and then would throw you in there with the other dead bodies.
3. That is not the way the Christ was buried. He was not going to be left hanging on a cross for the birds to eat his flesh. They were not going to take His body and throw it in the pit with another bunch of trash or other dead bodies and animals.
B. He was given a burial of honor because He had done no violence nor was any deceit in His mouth. We find this fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-61 – “57. Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. 59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60. and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.”
1. Mark 15:43 gives a little more detail; “Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
2. He made His grave with the rich because He had done no violence. It was fulfilled when he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
VIII. Isaiah doesn't stop there. In verse 10 it says; “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.”
A. In Isaiah we're dealing with after the individual has poured out his soul to death. Again we learn in the text that his soul is going to be an offering for sin, but after he’s given himself to the point of death.
1. Then Isaiah says after that, after he’s dead, after he's buried, then it says the Lord will see his seed. He shall prologue His Days.
2. We asked this before, how is the pleasure of the Lord going to prosper in the hands of someone who is dead?
3. It is going to be by the dead individual, raised from the dead and his days now being prolonged. This is a prophecy of the resurrection.
B. We can read how Paul describes this in his letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 1:19-20 – “19. and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20. which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,”
1. The Christ was raised from the dead and He is now sitting in heaven itself at the right hand of God.
2. If we continue at that location in Ephesians it says; “21. far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23. which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
C. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.
1. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and right now He is reigning over the body of Christ, His body, the church, His kingdom.
2. What we find in Isaiah is Christ crucified preached to us from a text that is many, many years before the events happened.
3. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

CONCLUSION:
The reason Jesus fulfilled the prophecies about the Christ is because He is Christ. The point of these lessons was to look at the shadows of Christ from the Law of Moses, the prophecies of Christ from the Psalms, and the prophecies derived from Isaiah.
From all of those texts we can see the mystery of God revealed before the events in history ever happened.

We see Christ crucified where shadows are foretold in a very explicit manner. For those who are not yet Christians the purpose is to bring them to the point of faith where they can see and believe Jesus is the Christ.

As I told you in the introduction one of the primary reasons why I believe personally is because I can read Isaiah 53 and see the fulfillment in the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For those that are a child of God already walking by faith, the purpose of the lesson was to strengthen your faith and when your faith is stronger then your relationship with God would be stronger and you are better armored against the wiles’ of Satan.

If you haven’t become a child of God yet, and you realize now that Jesus is indeed the Christ the one that was prophesied about, that He really is the son of God the one that was prophesied about Isaiah 7:14, you need to put your trust in the Lord and follow him by faith. If you are willing to confess your faith and repent of your sins we'd be glad to assist you as you, by faith, by the gospel are baptized into the body of Christ.

If you are a child of God already and you find that your faith has been weak in your relationship with God, be strengthened in faith by God’s Word and strengthen your relationship. If there is something serious standing between you and your Lord deal with it. Our God is gracious. God is willing to forgive you.

After all He was willing to give His son to die for you. That's why Jesus was scourged so that we could be spiritually healed when we obey the gospel and when we take our sin to him and beg for forgiveness of it. Be healed this morning.

If you subject to the Gospel call in any way let us know while we stand and sing the invitation song.

Invitation song: ???
Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

Prophecies Of The Christ In Isaiah

Attachment:
New Testament Quotations
Isaiah 40:3-5 ........ Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4-6; John 1:23
Isaiah 40:6-8 .........1 Peter 1:24,25
Isaiah 40:13 ..........Romans 11:34; 1 Corinthians 2:16
Isaiah 42:1-4 .........Matthew 12:18-21
Isaiah 42:7 ........... Mark 4:15,16
Isaiah 45:23 ..........Romans 14:11
Isaiah 49:6 ........... Acts 13:47
Isaiah 49:8 ...........2 Corinthians 6:2
Isaiah 52:5 ...........Romans 2:24
Isaiah 52:7 ...........Romans 10:15
Isaiah 52:11 ..........2 Corinthians 6:17
Isaiah 52:15 ..........Romans 15:21
Isaiah 53:1 ........... John 12:28; Romans 10:16
Isaiah 53:4 ...........Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24
Isaiah 53:7,8 .........Acts 8:32,33
Isaiah 53:9 ...........1 Peter 2:22
Isaiah 53:12 .......... Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37
Isaiah 54:1 ...........Galatians 4:27
Isaiah 54:13 .......... John 6:45
Isaiah 55:3 ........... Acts 13:34
Isaiah 56:7 ...........Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46
Isaiah 59:7,8 .........Romans 3:15-17
Isaiah 59:20,21 .......Romans 11:26,27
Isaiah 61:1,2 ......... Luke 4:18,19
Isaiah 62:11 ..........Matthew 21:5
Isaiah 65:1,2 .........Romans 10:20,21
Isaiah 66:1,2 ......... Acts 7:49,50
Isaiah 66:24 .......... Mark 9:44.

The Two Workers

The Two Workers

Matthew 21:28-32

 INTRO:

Good evening.   We are going to continue our studies on the parables of Jesus.

We only have a few left to do.

 

Turn your Bibles to Matthew 21. Let’s set the scene starting in verse 23. Matthew 21:23-27 – “23. Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?'' 24. But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25. "The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?'' And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, `From heaven,' He will say to us, `Why then did you not believe him?' 26. "But if we say, `From men,' we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.'' 27. So they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know.'' And He said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

 

Jesus has been in the temple teaching and the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the scribes question Him because as far as they were concerned they were the only ones that should be teaching anybody.  They asked Jesus what authority do you have to be teaching the people.

 

Jesus then asks them about the baptism of John. Where did John get his authority? They get together and start talking to one another. “If we say it came from God then we're in a hole because we didn't believe him, but if we say that it was from man then the people are going be upset at us because they believe him to be a prophet.”  They were between a rock and a hard place, either answer is going to be bad so they come back and tell Jesus we don't know.

 

The parable we are going to look at today is reveals Jesus as the Master teacher.  Gathered around Jesus was a group of Jews who were seeking His destruction. As we know the Jews always had a problem accepting Jesus’ authority.   Jesus tells them this story and asks them their opinion. As we are going to read in a minute the answer they gave was perfectly correct but what they didn’t understand was the story’s implications. It wasn’t until Jesus had finished that they realized the story was about them. That’s hard to accept. They had accused themselves and so fixed their own punishment. We have already discovered the parables of Jesus not only explain truths but they also expose the heart.

 

We are going to look at “The parable of the two sons”. Let’s go ahead and read it.

Matthew 21:28-32 – “28. "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, `Son, go, work today in my vineyard.' 29. "He answered and said, `I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went. 30. "Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, `I go, sir,' but he did not go. 31. "Which of the two did the will of his father?'' They said to Him, "The first.'' Jesus said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32. "For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”[NKJV]

 

1. What I want to do is break this parable into three focus points this evening. The first focus point I want us to look at is ‘The call’.  Jesus asks the Jewish leaders a question in verse 28, "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, `Son, go, work today in my vineyard.'”
   1. This is about a relationship, father and son. One of the first things that I notice when I read this parable is the direct way the father approaches his sons.   He knows he has the right to ask them both to go and work in his vineyard. This illustration reveals the responsibilities of sons.  He speaks to both sons in the kindest of terms and says, “Son go work today.” Jesus says in Matthew 21:30 – “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.”[para]
   2. In this way God as the Father gently calls all men and women. That’s because God is ever seeking workers. It’s God who takes the initiative to bring the inactive and indifferent world into His vineyard. That’s what Jesus meant when He says in John 6:44 – “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
   3. It is God who draws people to the Savior.   We might wonder how He does this.  It is not through a weird dream, not through a fascinating vision, not through a Ouija board, not through a crystal ball. It doesn’t work that way. Then what is His drawing power? Read on in verse 45 of John 6, John 6:45 – “It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
   4. God draws people to the Savior through teaching. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 – “to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” People are brought near to the fountain of grace when they learn and receive and submit to the Gospel of Christ.
      1. A long time ago when Dr. David Livingstone was working in Africa, a group of friends wrote a letter to him.   They wrote in the letter, “We would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?”
      2. According to a member of his family, Dr. Livingston sent this message in reply, “If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
   5. The father in the parable asked each of his sons to work. He didn’t say it was easy work, but they were called to work. Listen, folks, God’s call goes out to the entire world. It’s as worldwide as human flesh. It’s as all-pervading as human needs.
      1. God’s call went out in the time of John and this parable is about the two different groups of people and their reactions.   The religious leaders did not accept it.  They didn't accept John. They didn't accept Christ. But the common people did it. In this we see the two sons, the common people, and the religious leaders.  Jesus is making a contrast between them.  Parables are designed to drive home points and this one is straightforward.
      2. God summons each and every one of us to preach the Gospel to all nations. Not a single soul is to be left out, the call is universal and individual.  When you read your Bible you will find that He calls me and He calls you… one by one. He wants all His children to enter His vineyard and when a person refuses to go in, they are flatly refusing to acknowledge His authority.
2. Does God call us to become Christians, and then we just sit around and enjoy the blessings of a Christian life? No! Of course He doesn’t. That’s the second focus point: ‘The call from God is a call to work.’
   1. A preacher was once asked by his friend, whom he met while on vacation, “How many members do you have in your congregation?” The preacher replied, “One thousand.” His friend said, “Really! and how many of them are active?” The preacher replied, “All of them.” He said, “Around two hundred of them are active for the Lord, the balance are active for the devil.”
   2. We ought to consider in which category we are. More importantly where are we in the Lord’s sight?  Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 – “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” If we are for Jesus -- then we will work for Jesus. When God calls us it’s not to rest and take it easy. The father’s desire is for his children to work. That’s why he called them.
   3. In Tennyson’s poem “The Lotos eaters” he tells the story of a visit to an enchanting land where it was ‘always afternoon’. ‘It’s there that the sailors ate of an unusual lotus plant. After tasting its sweet fruit, all they wanted to do was sleep and dream and live with half shut eyes. They had lost all desire to return to their homeland and were perfectly content to recline on the hills with their dreams’.
   4. Unfortunately there are those people in Christ’s kingdom who are like that. I wonder; are we like that? You see some people don’t realize what being a Christian demands.   They have not had their eyes open nor seen the clearly described cost of serving. They have entered the Lord’s church like people running to a shelter to escape a storm. When they are inside they just stand around and watch it rain.
      1. It is true that there’s a certain measure of safety and security in the church. But the church, like a vineyard, is a place of work. All those inside the vineyard should engage in its program of work. Many Christians only spend about 15 or 20 minutes a week working for the Lord.
      2. I notice the father’s call had a sense of urgency about it. He says in verse 28, “Son, go, work today in my vineyard.” Not tomorrow, not next week, today, in other words there was work which needed to be done, and it needed to be that day.
      3. Christ’s call is for men and women who will work for Him today. That is after all—all the time that there is. It is our one chance, our opportunity to serve. 2 Corinthians 6:2 – “For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.'' Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  If we hold back and put off, if we wait until tomorrow to do the work of today, the chances are the work won’t get done. Then in effect, we are like the son who bluntly said to his father in verse 29, “I will not.”
3. That brings us to the third focus point: “The workers.” Let’s look at the 2nd son first.  Notice how polite and respectful he replies to his father’s request. Matthew 21:30 - “I go, sir”.  Although his brother might refuse his father, he wouldn’t. He would go. How courteous he is, how sure of success he is. But why then did he fail his father? Matthew 21:30 says, “… but he did not go.”
   1. It’s not that he deliberately deceived his father.  He’s not worked out some plot of intrigue by which he hoped to bankrupt his father. He may not have even being trying to purposely lie to his father.
      1. He failed his father because in his father’s presence he probably intended to go, but in his father’s absence he found that the doing of the task was more difficult than saying the words.
      2. There is a difference between saying and doing.  We struggle with that sometimes.   We promise and then do not deliver. James 1:22-25 – “22. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24. for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work,— he will be blessed in what he does.”
   2. This son represents a large host of Christ-would-be-followers who profess much but practice little. Many people pledge their loyalty to the Master and then they fall down on their pledge. They praise love—but don’t practice love. It’s like a profession without practice, a promise without performance. When people have this type of attitude, they become an enemy to the cause of Christ.  
   3. If these people are in a congregation it shows. Anyone coming into that congregation is going to see promise without performance.
      1. Gandhi was born a Hindu but studied many other religions.   He spent some time in South Africa and he wrote in his autobiography “… I came in contact with another Christian family. At their suggestion I attended the Wesleyan church every Sunday. For these days I also had their standing invitation to dinner.
      2. The church did not make a favorable impression on me. The sermons seemed to be uninspiring. The congregation did not strike me as being particularly religious. They were not an assembly of devout souls; they appeared rather to be worldly-minded people, going to church for recreation and in conformity to custom.
      3. Here, at times, I would involuntarily doze. I was ashamed, but some of my neighbors, who were in no better case, lightened the shame. I could not go on long like this, and soon gave up attending the service.”
   4. This was not a congregation of the saints but it points out what the observer saw. What do people think when they come to Chardon to worship God?  Do they see people trying their best to glorify God and serve Him with all of their hearts, minds and soul? Or do they see a bunch of people who just like hanging out together like some social club?
   5. It is not enough to have an outward form of righteousness if you are not really born again.  The world is full of religious people like that.   Jesus said in Matthew 7:21 - "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
4. Let’s look at the 1st son. The first son refused his father and rudely said in verse 29 “I will not go.”  This son offered no reason or no excuse, he simply wasn’t going. Isn’t the world full of people like this? When the Father calls them to enter His kingdom, they bluntly refuse to enter. They say things like, “I won’t have anything to do with any kind of church!”
   1. It seems to me they think that they can excuse themselves of their sins. In fact they speak freely of their sins as though a frank confession of their sins can serve as a substitute for their behavior. A person is no less a sinner when they admit they are not a saint.
   2. However the 1st son made a change for the better. He remembered his ugly mood and the blatant discourtesy he had shown his father. How many of you have heard the expression, “Oh they must have got out on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” When people say that phrase, it’s usually used as an excuse for someone who is grumpy or in a bad mood. The idea is if you get off to a bad start in the morning, the rest of the day will be the same.
   3. The 1st son began his day badly but that didn’t mean he had to carry on the rest of the day with the same attitude. He saw no reason to continue in the wrong, so what did he do? He repented.  What did his repentance consist of? Not just a twinge of sorrow, he could have grieved much without repenting.  He repented only when he changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard.
5. Jesus goes on to say in verse 29 that, “He answered and said, `I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went.”  It’s at this point that Jesus asks the Jews in verse 31, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” It was an easy question and it was an exposing question.
   1. Out of all the questions Jesus could have asked them, He asked them the most important question of all, “Which one did the will of their father?” According to verse 31, they said “The first,” and answered correctly.  
      1. All else is of no consequence, no matter how good the intentions, no matter how many the promises, the simple fact is that one son did and one son did not.
      2. Fine words can never take the place of fine deeds and it’s now that Jesus tells them they have just condemned themselves.
      3. Jesus could have asked for example; ’which of the two sons was a good son to his father?’ Neither of them is particularly impressive though are they? Instead He asks ’which of these two did the will of his father?’ and it is clear enough that this has to be the first son.
   2. He says in Matthew 21:31-32 – “… "Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. "For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.”
   3. As we think about this we realize what an insult this must have been to the Jewish leaders!   Imagine the anger and rage in their hearts as Jesus tells them that these so-called unclean people, the people that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law despised were now in a better spiritual condition than they were. Can you imagine that? They must have been fuming. No wonder they wanted to kill Him and get Him out of the way.
      1. The meaning of this parable is crystal clear. The first son who refused to work but later decided to work represents the tax collectors and prostitutes. All their lives by their wicked deeds they had been saying “No” to God, but when Jesus comes along they could no longer continue in their sin and instead pressed on to enter the kingdom.
      2. The second son represents the leaders of the Jews. They were always making the pretense of serving God but when Jesus came along they didn’t accept Him as the tax collectors and prostitutes did. They despised Jesus’ teachings and they hated Him so much they would eventually crucify Him on a cross.
      3. They had rejected John the baptizer and they had rejected Jesus as the Christ and wouldn’t accept His authority. The tax collectors and sinners had turned from their ways but the Jewish authorities had made no amends and had cast aside the heavenly kingdom.
   4. Let’s pause there for a moment, because this is something we should consider. The truth is that most people think that being a Christian is all about what you think. To them Christianity is a philosophy of life - a series of beliefs about life, death and the universe.   I suspect that if we ask the average person in the church what it is that makes them a Christian, they will also answer in terms of their beliefs.
      1. A preacher wrote that when he talked with people and invited them to church some of the standard responses were; ’I don’t believe in any of that’, or ’I used to believe that stuff when I was a kid but now I believe in science.’
      2. The preacher went on to say; “the most depressing response I ever get when I invite people to church is the one that goes ’Yeah, I believe all that, I just don’t go to church any more.”  He said; “At least the first two responses, which say ’I don’t think the same way you do’, sort of admits that if they did think the same way I did, that it would make some difference in the way they lived.”
      3. He continued; “This last response suggests not only that Christianity is about what you think, but that it is only about what you think.   What you believe need make no difference to the way you live.”  
      4. That response is like the approach taken by the second son. He thinks that helping his father is very important. He believes in the value of work.   He believes that when your father calls you to action you should answer immediately ’yes sir’. He just doesn’t go on and do anything about it.
      5. What makes a person a Christian is not a matter of what comes out of our mouths, the words we speak.   The parable suggests that God is less concerned with what we say then He is about what we do.
      6. Christianity is about belief, love, and obedience.   Obedience not in lip service but in real service, doing the will of the Father because He loves us and we love Him. Because of that love our lives are changed and we show that change by what we do.
   5. Along those lines a preacher said that he had been invited over for dinner by a family and they listened carefully while he told them about God and the Bible. Eventually he reached the point of explaining the steps of salvation and the need for baptism. Then he said; “Now you will be a follower of Jesus Christ and God will add you to His church”. “We talked about what this meant - about how God called us to serve Him with our whole lives.... Then something finally clicked and the father said - ’you don’t mean that we have to go to church do you?’ ’Well’, I said, ’that’d be a start’.”
      1. We don’t have this problem in other areas of life. I don’t think anyone ever attempts to join a soccer team unless they want to play soccer. I can’t imagine that anyone would go to the trouble signing up, going to practice, and doing all the work involved only to say; “you don’t mean I have to play a game do you? I only joined because I liked wearing the jersey!”
      2. People struggle with commitment and that is why in many groups there is a temptation for man to come up with a “list” of things that are “expected” of the members of the church community, a creed.   At the minimum this is a disservice not only to God but to people.
      3. Some will say to such a list; “that’s a bit much isn’t it?” Others will say, “Ok I’ve done those, I’m done now.”   Then there are those that will never grow beyond thinking that is all there is.

 CONCLUSION:

A parable is like a window.  We look through the parable and see things in a different way, and then at some point we catch our own reflection off the glass.  We wouldn’t be honest here if we didn’t see a little of ourselves reflected in the second son. We are the persons who are saying all the right things, yet failing to do what we are called to do.

As Christians we are called to work. What is Jesus going to be looking for when He returns? What does He expect His fellow servants to be doing?

Luke 12:35-40 – “35. "Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36. "and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37. "Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38. "And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39. "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.''” “Be dressed, ready for service and keep your lamps burning.”

 

If as a Christian we find we are struggling to find ways to serve Him then let’s be encouraged to talk to someone about it. I would like encourage each of us to pray about ways in which we can serve Him.  Many have reduced it to Sunday Morning.   We need to consider the rest of the week.  

 

There are many ways we can serve, many feet we can wash as we see the needs. Perhaps you recall the name Fanny J Crosby.   She was made blind by an early childhood illness, yet she wrote more then 8 thousand hymns over her lifetime under scores of noms de plume. Hymns like; “Blessed Assurance”, Jesus is Tenderly Calling You Home”, “Praise Him, Praise Him”, “Rescue the Perishing”, and “To God Be The Glory”.  

 

Crosby described her hymn-writing process thus: 'It may seem a little old-fashioned, always to begin one’s work with prayer, but I never undertake a hymn without first asking the good Lord to be my inspiration.' Her capacity for work was incredible and could often compose six or seven hymns a day.   Her poems and hymns were composed entirely in her mind and she worked on as many as twelve hymns at once before dictating them to a transcriber.

 

Not many of us will ever compose a hymn but Jesus tells us, “He expects His servants to be ready for service and already be serving.” From the minute we put Christ on in baptism, we declared to the world that we choose His will to be done in our life. We were called to work because there is work to be done folks, lots of work and it starts with the day.

 

If you’re not a Christian this evening then Jesus asks you “Are you willing to do the Father’s will?” Maybe you have said, “No” quite bluntly to Jesus in the past.

Just because you got out of bed on the wrong side a few times in your life doesn’t mean you have to carry on the rest of your life with the same attitude.  You can repent today and change your mind about the way your life is going.  You can start saying yes to Jesus today.

 

Fanny Crosby understood what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

That’s where she got the inspiration for the hymn called, “Jesus is tenderly calling thee home.”

Listen to the words of first stanza of the song.

“Jesus is tenderly calling thee home, calling today, calling today.

Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam farther and farther away.”

Look at the words of the last stanza.

“Jesus is pleading, O list to His voice: hear Him today, Hear Him today.

They who believe on His name shall rejoice, quickly arise and obey.”

 

Folks Christ is still calling us this day.  Maybe we’re struggling to follow His will.   Maybe we don’t understand what His will is.   Maybe there are those who want to serve God but are not sure how to do that.

 

If that is you then talk to somebody.   Pray about it. Pick up your Bible and read. Attend Bible class. Don’t sit back and twiddle your thumbs.   There’s always work to do and lots of it.

 

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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: # 600 – Jesus Is Tenderly Calling

Reference Sermon by: Mike Glover

 

Christ In The Psalms

Christ In The Psalms

Psalms

INTRO:

Good morning.   It is good to see everybody here this morning. I would like to continue our look at the Psalms and this time I want to examine in more detail how the Psalms are connected to Christ.

 

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. If I’m wrong, I will stand corrected.

 

We have used this reference before in Luke 24:44-45 The scripture 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…”

 

After Jesus rose from the dead, He was speaking to His apostles and His disciples in our text, explaining to them that what had been written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets and psalms had to be fulfilled.

 

In a previous lesson we looked at the foreshadowing of the Christ in the Law of Moses and over the last two weeks we had an in-depth study of Psalm 22.   These things show to me the value of the Old Testament in increasing our faith.   Yes, we may have accepted Christ as our savior, we believe and we obey, but we also know that we are to continue to study, as Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:13, and are reminded in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”  The study of the scripture increases our faith and this faith is needed to help us in our walk as Christians, showing others the way to go and to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:16 tells us we are to be “taking up the shield of faith”.  

 

Our faith that the Bible is the Word of God is increased because of the prophecies. You can read of events that were prophesied about hundreds and thousands of years before they came to pass and then see the fulfillment of them in history.  Our faith that Jesus actually is the Christ, the Son of God, is increased as we see He fulfills the prophecies about the Christ.   The Old Testament helps us in our understanding of God and just how powerful and magnificent He is.

 

When we were looking at Psalm 22, we also looked at Isaiah 53 as a cross reference with it.   There really is a whole lot more in Old Testament scripture about the Christ and I will only touch some.   There are around two hundred prophecies of the Christ in Psalms.    I encourage you, as you read through the Old Testament, to keep the New Testament in mind and look at the connections.

 

What I want to do this morning is to look at some selected prophecies in the Book of Psalms. Some of these prophecies the New Testament talks about and some of them you are probably quite familiar with.  Some you may have never heard of are a bit more obscure and can be easily missed in reading.

 

1. The Birth Of The Christ - In Psalm 2:6-7 it says; “6. "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.'' 7. "I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ` `You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”    This is talking about God setting His king over His holy hill, Zion and it goes on to say, “you are my son”. It is talking about the Christ and here we learn that the Christ is the Son and God says “I have begotten you”. God Himself upon the occasion of Jesus' baptism made it clear enough who this Son is, Matthew 3:17.  
   1. This is dealing with who the Christ is and at the core of Christianity is the question - who is Jesus.   In Matthew 16 Jesus asks His disciples "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?'' Then he asks them; "But who do you say that I am?''
      1. Everybody sooner or later must face that question, “Who is Jesus” and we're going to have to come to an answer.  
      2. What we should see is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; He is the king of the kingdom.   We believe that and we have all these witnesses, these prophecies about the Christ and who He is and the nature of the Christ, fulfilled in Jesus.
   2. Another prophecy about the nature of the Christ is found in Psalm 110:1 – “The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.''” If you're familiar with the scriptures you may remember this verse from Matthew 22:42ff where Jesus is talking to the Jews there and says; “"What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?'' They said to Him, "The Son of David.''”  Then Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 in asking “43…. "How then does David in the Spirit call Him `Lord,' saying: 44. `The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool'' '? 45. "If David then calls Him `Lord,' how is He his Son?''” The point is He's not son of David, He's the son of God.
2. The Crucifixion Of The Christ - In Psalm 41:9 we read; “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”  This is a prophecy of Judas Iscariot and we read from Matthew 26:14-16 – “14. Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15. and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?'' And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. 16. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” We see the fulfillment of Psalm 41:9 in Judas Iscariot.  
   1. In Psalm 109:25-27 – “25. I also have become a reproach to them; When they look at me, they shake their heads. (Now when we read that particular verse I hope we remember the lesson from last week because this particular phrase is also found in Psalm 22 about how He is a reproach, and about when they see him they shake their head at him) and He says; Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy, 27. That they may know that this is Your hand That You, Lord, have done it!” In our lesson on Psalm 22 last week we pointed out that God allowed Jesus to die.
      1. Remember that when we got to the last part of Psalm 22 we pointed out that God heard Jesus’ cry, He heard His prayer and He answered His prayer.  
      2. However God allowed Him to die, it was the will of God for Him to die on the cross.   Where it was that we see God delivering him—is in the resurrection.  
   2. The resurrection, according to Romans 1:3-4 is the ultimate miracle declaring Jesus to be the son of God with power. “His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4. and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,”
      1. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is the miracle we look at and realize He really is the son of God because God raised Him from the dead, declaring him to be the son of God with power.
      2. What is happening here at Calvary, if we look at the very last part of Psalm 109:27 is the will of God. God has done this, that they may know that this is Your hand.  
      3. Christ crucified and the resurrection of the Christ, is the hand of God and the will of God for mankind so that our sins can be forgiven and so that we can overcome death and have the hope of the resurrection.
   3. Let’s go now to Psalm 118:20-24. “20. This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter. 21. I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation. 22. The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 23. This was the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24. This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
      1. The builders the verse is talking about are the leaders of the Jewish nation, the high priest, the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, these individuals rejected the Christ but He became the chief cornerstone, the foundation of the church upon which the church is built.  It says this was the Lord's doing
      2. Going back, if you remember the very last prophecy we looked at where it said, that you may know that the Lord has done this. Here again it emphasizes this is the Lord's doing.  God is doing this, God sent Jesus, the Christ; God brought Him into this world. It was the will of God for him to be crucified.
      3. Notice the very last part of this. This was the Lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
      4. I suspect some of us when we see this last verse think; “I know this verse, it's on the wall in my house”. This is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad, is one of my favorite verses.   When I read it, I think of the day before me, but what we see this morning is that in the context of the text, the day being discussed is the day of Calvary and the crucifixion of the Christ. This is the day the Lord has made. This is from God. This is the hand of God for the sins of mankind.
   4. Continuing now in Psalm 69:21 - “They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
      1. We find the gall in Mathew 27:34 then we read “they gave me vinegar to drink” and this particular prophesy is fulfilled in Matthew 27:48 – “Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave it to Him to drink.”
      2. Remember when we looked in Psalm 22, how does it begin? My God my God why have you forsaken me. Well here's another prophecy that you may not be familiar with Psalm 31:5 – “Into Your hand I commit my spirit…” Recall this is the last thing Jesus said before He died.  
      3. In the beginning of Psalm 22 is what He says about feeling betrayed because He's feeling like the Lord is not hearing Him the Lord is denying him, that the Lord is not going to answer.   But when we get down to the middle of Psalm 22, He recognizes He has answered, He does hear.  
      4. God heard His prayer and then here in the close of the crucifixion of the Christ, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”,  God heard His prayer and God raised Him from the dead. We need to understand the answer given by God is the resurrection of the Christ.
   5. In Psalm 34:20 – “He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.” We find the fulfillment of this in John 19:33 – “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”
      1. Pilate was amazed to hear that Jesus was already dead but when we read Isaiah 52 it talks about how He was marred more than anyone.   We talked about this in the lesson last week that when Jesus was scourged, they marred Him more than anyone.
      2. There's no telling how much blood He had lost before he even got to the cross.   We know He died after about six hours. Normally whenever someone was going to be crucified to make them die quickly they would break the legs so they can no longer push themselves up but when they came to Jesus they did not break his legs because he was already dead, prophesied about in Psalm 34:20.
   6. Psalm 69:9 – “Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,” because zeal for your house has eaten me up. This particular prophecy is often talked about when discussing Jesus driving the money changers and those that buy and sell out of the temple.  
      1. But the last part of this verse is not talked about in conjunction with those texts because the last part of the verse says; “And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.” We will see in the verses we're about to read is the reason the Christ is dying, is for our sins, not for anything that He has done but because of what we have done.  
      2. Psalm 65:2-3 “2. O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come. 3. Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.” The one to whom we pray, is going to be the one who is going to be providing what is necessary for the atonement of our sins.
      3. That's what the Lord's Supper is all about, how God gave the sacrifice at Calvary for our sins, for our transgressions, he's the one who provides the sacrifice of the Atonement.  
   7. Going to Psalm 49:7-8 – “7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him 8. For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever.” We should take a moment and consider those words; for the redemption of their soul is costly.  
      1. There's nobody out there that you know that can redeem and pay the price for your soul.    Because the redemption of your soul is costly.   How costly?   You could take all the gold and all the silver and all the earth and everything on it and you could not purchase one human being's soul. God has no use for any of those things, they are all His anyway.
      2. What was the cost for the redemption of the soul of humanity?   The blood of the Christ is the only thing that can redeem the human soul, for the redemption of their souls is costly.
      3. Another Psalm 107:1-2 - “1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,”  Christ is the one that paid the price to redeem us from the enemy, Satan.   He came to destroy the works of the devil through His crucifixion, His resurrection and His ascension; these aspects of the gospel are a victory over the enemy, over Satan.   And that is the one who He redeemed us from with His blood.
3. The Resurrection Of The Christ – We have looked at the crucifixion in Psalms now let’s look at the resurrection and remember this is recorded a thousand years before it happens. Let’s start by reading Psalm 49:15 – “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me.” Then in Psalm 16:9-11 - “9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. 10. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
   1. We read in the New Testament that when Jesus prayed at the very close of the crucifixion; Father into your hands I commit my spirit, three days later He rose from the dead.   God heard His prayer, God answered His prayer and the answer is the resurrection because in the resurrection He conquered death, He conquered the one who has the power over death, that being Satan and has freed us now from bondage to Satan, sin, and death.
   2. Peter speaking by the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:31-33 is quoting from these verses in Psalms when he says; “31. he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32. "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33. "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,”
   3. In Romans 1:4 – Paul says in his introduction “3. concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4. and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,” The resurrection is God’s answer to Jesus’ prayer; into your hands I commit my spirit.
4. The Ascension And Glorifying Of The Christ – A lot of times when we talk about the core of the gospel we talk about the death, burial and resurrection. We need to realize the ascension, glorifying and reigning of the Christ is a major part of the gospel as well.  In Psalm 91, you may recognize this part in verses 11 through 16, Psalm 91:11-16 – “11. For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. 12. They shall bear you up in their hands, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. ” Ok, the first part here you realize you have heard before.   Indeed, you have, this is what Satan was quoting to Jesus when he was tempting Jesus to throw Himself down from the Temple Mount, from the top of the temple.  
   1. Let’s go a little bit further in the verse that Satan does not quote. A little further down in verse 13, it talks about the lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.   It reads; “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.”
      1. I can not help whenever I read this phrase “the serpent you shall trample under foot”, remembering the very first prophecy back in Genesis chapter 3 when the curses are being given.    God tells the serpent; “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.” So, the very first prophecy about the Christ in Genesis 3 is about the Christ trampling the serpent under foot.
      2. I find it interesting here that you find the same concept in Psalm 91 where you have Satan quoting this text and the future is going to be Christ who destroys the work of the devil.
   2. As we go further in the same text; “14. Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high,” We are talking about the Christ here again, being delivered from death, the resurrection and being set on high, His ascension into heaven to be at the right hand of God.
   3. Continuing; “because he has known My name. 15. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”    This goes back to Psalm 22, God heard, and He answered. The Christ is going to be delivered, the Christ is going to be honored, and the Christ is going to be set on high
   4. Now Psalm 68:18-19 – “18. You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; (this particular verse is quoted in Ephesians) You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious, That the Lord God might dwell there. 19. Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!”  This particular verse again quoted over in Ephesians 4:8, is talking about Jesus ascending on high.  When he ascended into heaven, He conquered death and was the one who had the power over death as shown when He rose from the dead.   When he ascended into heaven scripture tells us in the Book of Revelation He has the keys to Hades and death.  
   5. Turning to Psalm 110:1 - “The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” This particular verse shows up most often in the New Testament.   Think about all those verses in the New Testament that are talking about Jesus being at the right hand of God.  
      1. This concept of Jesus being in the right hand of God we find in Acts 2 and all the way through the rest of the New Testament.  
      2. Jesus has ascended into heaven, He's sitting at the right hand of God, He's reigning now and the last enemy, talked about over in First Corinthians 15, the last enemy that's going to be destroyed is death.
   6. Let us continue in Psalm 110:4 – “The Lord has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” If we go to the book of Hebrews 7:17 – “For He testifies: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
      1. In Hebrews 9:12 and following we find an important aspect of the Ascension of Christ. After He ascended to heaven, He went into the presence of God with his blood.  In Hebrews we find He functions now as our high priest in things pertaining to God and our sin.  
      2. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He was set at the right hand of God. Can we think of anything higher than being at the right hand of God? The way it's put over in Matthew 28 is he's been given all authority in heaven and on Earth.   The only one higher than the Christ is God the Father Himself.
      3. Jesus is now in heaven functioning as our high priest and from Hebrews 7:24-25 – “24. But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.”
      4. When we're going to God, and I don’t believe that a day goes by anymore that I don't pray for forgiveness of sin, every time we are going to God and praying for forgiveness, we are going to the mediator, we're going to our intercessor, we are going through our high priest to God, seeking that forgiveness.
      5. Jesus is the intercessor, He is the mediator, He is our high priest in heaven itself after the order of Melchizedek, fulfilling the prophecy here and Psalm 110:4.
   7. Next let’s look at Psalm 45:17 – “I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.” Another verse, Psalm 72:17 – “His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed.”   Here we see that all generations are going to remember His name and all nations are going to praise Him and bless Him.  
      1. Acts 4:12 – “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Whose name are we talking about here, we're talking about the name of Jesus.   There's only one name given under heaven by which we can be saved.
      2. Philippians 2:9-10 – “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,”
   8. We are coming back to the original question we opened with; “who is Jesus”. As we go through the Old Testament prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, about the Christ, about His birth, about His crucifixion, about His resurrection and now about His ascension and His glorification, we find our answer.
5. The Kingdom Of The Christ – Psalm 89 is where we look next.   Psalm 89:3-4 – “3. "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: 4. `Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.'” If you don't know this is the Davidic Covenant, which was made by God to David and we find it in Second Samuel Chapter 7.  
   1. This psalm begins with the reiteration and restatement of the Davidic Covenant. Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations. What we find here is that Psalm 89 is a messianic Psalm.
   2. Now looking at the middle of this messianic Psalm, Psalm 89, starting with verse 26.  Psalm 89:26-29 – “26. He shall cry to Me, `You are my Father,” In the New Testament we find Jesus calling God, “Father”, in many places.
      1. “My God, and the rock of my salvation.' 27. Also I will make him My firstborn,” Speaking about the Christ He is going to be God's first born.
      2. “The highest of the kings of the earth.” There is nobody higher. “28. My mercy I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall stand firm with him. 29. His seed also I will make to endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven.”
      3. In John 5:18 – “Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Because He called God His Father the Jews sought to kill Him. That's exactly what was prophesied about Him back in Psalm 89 He should cry to me You are my father.
      4. What about I will make him My firstborn? Turn to Colossians 1:18 – “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” In fact, we find Hebrews chapter 12 where the church is called the Church of the first born.
   3. He is the first born from the dead. Jesus is the first one to rise from the dead never to die again.   If you don't know this concept of the first born, it is a phrase in reference to family. In the Hebrew family at the top of the family was the father and the second in the family, as far as authority, was the first born male.   In the family unit God is the father Jesus is the first born.    
      1. As far as authority in the universe Jesus is number two, number one is the Father. Jesus is at the right hand of God.  
      2. He has all preeminence as the text says here. He is the head of the body of the church. There's nobody higher than him.
   4. Now going to Psalm 145:11-13 – “11. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power, 12. To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. 13. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.”
      1. This is talking about the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. The Kingdom stands forever and the king, the Christ (which means anointed one) reigns forever.   He's the king of the kingdom, we are the kingdom.
      2. The church is the kingdom, and Jesus is the head of the church. He is the head of the body. He's the king of the kingdom. The kingdom came into being on Pentecost and it will continue for all eternity with Jesus, its king, at the right hand of God.

CONCLUSION:

Studying the Old Testament should strengthen our faith. Our faith that Jesus really is the Christ; He really is the son of God. He really did die on the cross, it was prophesied about and He did it.   It was the will of God the Father for Him to do it, and He was obedient to death, even the death of the cross.  

 

God heard Jesus prayer on the cross when He said “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”.   He was heard, He was answered, and the answer was three days later when God raised him from the dead.   He prophesied He was going to do it and He did it.  When He rose from the dead as I told you from Hebrews chapter 2, we learn that it is through this resurrection He conquered death and conquered the one who has the power over death, that being Satan, and has freed us from bondage to Satan, sin, and death.

 

He has redeemed us from the enemy with the power of His blood.   It was all prophesied about a thousand years before it ever happened.   That's not coincidence.   It is God’s plan.

 

We all need our faith strengthened, those who are Children of God and those who have not yet accepted Christ as their savior.

 

Jesus is at the right hand of God right now, our high priest, our intercessor, our advocate.   There's no other name given among men by which we may be saved.   He has pre-eminence in the universe and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess.  You need to figure it out. Who is Jesus? Look at the prophecies and His fulfillment of the prophecies, look at the miracles that He did.   Hopefully, they will lead you to the conclusion He really is the Christ. Your faith will become stronger.

 

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.

 

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon by: Wayne Fancher

 

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