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Text – John 14:26
When I want to teach someone about the Holy Spirit, I take them to three major places, the first is the fruit of the Spirit, where is that located? Galatians 5. Then I like how Romans 8 really does a nice job of telling us how the Spirit is interacting with our lives and guiding us in the truth.
My favorite though, is Jesus’ introduction of him in John 14-16. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit all over, even in the second verse, so John’s Gospel is obviously not the only place we learn about the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is the main point of this passage, so it is our most useful passage when we want to learn about him. Before we dig into John’s Gospel though, let’s just look at some other verses about the Holy Spirit.
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Numbers 11:28-29 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, "My lord Moses, stop them." But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!"
Judges 6:34 But the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.
Ezekiel 2:2-3 And he said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you." And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Joel 2:29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
Haggai 2:5 My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
Zechariah 7:12-13 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. "As he called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,"
So we see that the Spirit of God in the Old Testament was personal, a protector, a revealer of God’s Word, a maker of prophets, a person, and a massive part of salvation. Here is your first application, that when the Spirit of God lives in someone, that makes them a prophet, not someone who sees the future, but someone who speaks for God. As a Christian anytime you speak about God, Heaven, the afterlife, or morality, you are an official representative of the kingdom and a prophet. Do you absolute best to speak the truth in love and gentleness, never compromising, and always remembering that if the Spirit is with you, you have nothing to fear, nothing even to worry about. My favorite verse is 1 Peter 3:14-15 where it says, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…”
So all that introduction to bring us to John’s Gospel. We’re going to look at five major things, first I want to prove to you that he is a person, then I want to look at the names of the Holy Spirit, then we’ll look at how the Spirit interacts with Christ, then how he impacts unbelievers, then we’ll see how he works in believers.
John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
The Holy Spirit is a he, he is a Person. A.W. Tozer said it beautifully when he said,
“Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. He is not enthusiasm. He is not courage. He is not energy. He is not the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather. Actually, the Holy Spirit is not the personification of anything…he has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and intelligence. He has hearing. He has knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think. He can hear, speak, desire, grieve, and rejoice. He is a Person.”
So is the Spirit a person? Yes!
Now, names, in John’s Gospel he is called three things.
Pneuma Hagion – The Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. This really shows us that the Holy Spirit is part of the godhead, because God alone is holy. Let’s look at a verse about Jesus first, then a verse about the Holy Spirit,
John 6:69 we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.
John 14:24-26 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Pneuma Aletheias – The Spirit of Truth.
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Paraclete – Helper. This word literally means “One who walks with”, it is the title of a lawyer, an advocate, or a counselor, someone who helps you in your struggles.
John 14:15-17 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
These names really tell us what his priorities are. He is concerned with holiness, with truth, and with helping us into each of these. This is neat, because who remembers what God’s ultimate goal is for all of his saints? Let’s read it:
1 Thessalonians 4:3 This is the will of God: Your sanctification.
Sanctification is making you holier, love truth more, and succeed in living a Christlike life, all things which are the will of the Holy Spirit and are literally his job. Speaking of his names and jobs, I wanted to teach this class totally from John’s Gospel, but at this point I have to take you back to the Old Testament so we can see a beautiful prophecy for Christ and that these names for the Holy Spirit aren’t new to the New Testament.
Isaiah 11:1-5 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
So let’s see how he acted in Christ. First of all, have you ever heard us say, “You must be born again to see the kingdom of Heaven.”? Why do we say that? Because Jesus said it in John 3. This is not baptism like some believe, but it is synonymous to when the Holy Spirit gives us new life by dwelling in us. Christ needed not to be born again, because the Holy Spirit already dwelt in him. Since we’ve already stepped out of John’s Gospel, let’s set out again:
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Dude, I think that’s my favorite verse. Or maybe it’s this next one:
John 3:34-35 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
Check this out, this is how John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Christ, because the Father gave the Son the Spirit without measure,
John 1:32-34 And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
The Spirit’s major goal in his existence is to bring glory to the Father through the Son, to show people who Jesus Christ is. This is done mostly through conversion of sinners into saints. It takes nothing for God to crush sinners into eternity, and he will get glory in that for his justice, but God gets far more glory in transforming lives and turning enemies into friends. Let’s look at how the Holy Spirit does this, first in unbelievers.
Our major verse for this is John 16:8, and the verses following that will explain what it means.
John 16:8 When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
This is a fantastic verse to memorize, because it reminds us what all of our preaching should be, showing the world that they are sinners, that God (Father, Son, and Spirit) alone is righteous, and that there are consequences for sin which will either be judged on the last day or were judged on Christ on the cross.
Let’s let the Bible tell us how the Holy Spirit will do this; first sin,
John 16:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;
Any idea why sin might be sin because people don’t believe in Christ as God and Saviour? It’s because he is the standard of righteousness, if there were no measure, then there would be no such thing as good and evil. For example, we couldn’t say, “Murder is bad,” we’d be forced to say, “Murder is different…and I don’t like it.” But because Christ is our absolute measure of righteousness, we can call sin sin, and the Spirit will convict of it.
And, probably more important than that, if there were no sin, then Christ died for nothing, so the Spirit will convict that Christ died for a purpose, to substitute himself for his saints and pay for their sins with his own life.
John 16:10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
Christ again is the measure of righteousness, but at this point his is explaining that he is leaving the planet bodily, but that he won’t leave his saints as orphans and without a guide. He is the light of the world, but with him gone, that title has come to us, and we’re not yet perfect, though we are declared righteous on Christ’s sake. If I were the standard of righteousness, everyone would go to Heaven, but we have the Spirit to convict us concerning righteousness that we must be perfect as our Father and Saviour in Heaven are perfect.
John 16:11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
This is my favorite verse! In Isaiah 53 it says that we esteemed Christ as stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted; that is we thought he was being punished for his own sins, but we see that he had no sins and he was crushed for our iniquities. It looked like he was being judged, but in reality he was laying down his life willingly for our sake. Christ bore our sins to the cross and died for them, our King died for us, and it looked like the end.
But on Sunday morning the ruler of this world, Satan himself, was shown to have no power over Christ, when in the darkness of a sealed tomb the worst sound Satan ever heard started oh so quietly in Christ’s chest; beloved, it was a heartbeat, and it proved Christ was who he said he was, it proved his payment was accepted, it proved our sins were paid for, and it proved that Christ is the true God, not Satan.
The Holy Spirit will convict us that the resurrection is true. The resurrection is the best attested to fact in all of antiquity; the Christian church is a testament to its veracity. All the Roman government had to do to prove it false was produce a body, but Christ is wearing his body now in Heaven, he is alive forevermore.
When these three things, sin, righteousness, and judgment, are proved to be true by the Holy Spirit convincing us, then we can’t do anything except repent and believe in the Resurrected Christ. What do you think we bring to this equation? Is it a little us and a little Christ and a little Spirit and a little pastor that makes us born again? Let’s let Jesus answer that question, his answer makes a lot of people FURIOUS.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.
Our salvation is totally accomplished by him, it says we didn’t help at all. If you want to read John 1:12-13 it says again that we brought nothing, but that it was the will of God to make us born again.
So now, how does he act in us after we’ve been saved and he lives in us? He is first our teacher, the Bible won’t make any sense to you unless the Holy Spirit wants you to be able to understand it:
John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
We see from earlier that with the Spirit in us, we will become prophets, we will have boldness, and we will be transformed to be new people. All of this happens on the inside. The word for Spirit in the Old Testament Hebrew is Ruwach, it is literally the word for wind; Jesus knew this and makes an amazing parallel in John 3, let’s read it.
John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
That’s my favorite verse. Check this out, have you ever seen the wind? Do you believe in wind? How are you going to prove to me that there is such thing as wind? We can hear it, we can feel it, and we can see it do things, like rustle leaves or flap flags. The same with the Spirit, because he’s spirit, we can’t see him, but we see his effects in our lives. If he is indeed sanctifying us, then we should be growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, right?
I can’t paint a picture of the Holy Spirit for you, but I can say look at who I once was and who I am today, I can show you your born-again parents and ask them to tell you their testimony, I can show you a life utterly consumed for Christ, I can show you that the mind set on sin is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. We can’t see the Spirit, but we know he exists because he radically works in our lives, changing us to be more Christlike, and leading us in the truth.
So beloved, trust in Christ, receive his Holy Spirit, set your affections on Heaven, and trust totally in the work of God in your life to transform you. Read the Word of God, written by the Holy Spirit to learn his will for your life, spend your entire efforts glorifying Christ, preaching sin, righteousness, and judgment so that the Holy Spirit will convict of these and cause many to be born again. Know that you are a prophet of God when you speak about his kingdom, so pray for the Holy Spirit to help you memorize Bible verses and bring to your remembrance those verses at the right time. He is your Helper, he lives to help you preach Christ and live a holy life. Finally, let’s take a lesson from him, that though he is totally worthy to be praised, he points all of the glory at the Father through the Son, so let us, who are not worthy to be praised, likewise point all of the glory at the Father through the Son.
Showing posts with label Born-Again. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Born-Again. Show all posts
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
August 15th - Being a Good Person
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New School Year
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Alyssa's friend's infection
There was another prayer request which I can't remember...
Text – Acts 11:24, Romans 15:14-17
One of my favorite things to do is brag on this church and especially our youth and especially this class. The Apostle Paul did likewise with his church at Thessalonica saying that they were his crown of boasting and his joy because they had so thoroughly evangelized Macedonia and stayed firm in the faith and loved one another.
In the past six months or so I’ve bragged about Ian getting into Magnet, Devin preaching a message on Friday night, Kyle being on fire for sharing the gospel, Mycala being such an awesome VBS helper, and Matthew saying one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard from anybody, even adults, when he said basically, and I can’t remember the exact quote, “Christ died on a tree of death to give us access to the tree of life.” There are many others, and if I tried to name them all I’m sure I’d leave someone out.
I wrote our whole lesson plan on a Tuesday morning, on Wednesday I was telling someone about an awesome song I’d heard sung by one of our teenagers on Sunday. I’ll brag on the person I was telling this too as well, his name is Patrick and he is always excited to hear what’s going on at our church and tell me what is going on at his church, I really look forward to talking to him, because he stirs me up for good works. He asked about the song and it led to me telling him how good Hannah’s singing is getting and how sweet and pretty and just an awesome person she is. Afterwards it got me thinking about a passage in scripture that I’ve read several times but never spent too much time on, the reason I started thinking about it was because I didn’t have the faintest urge to tell Patrick, “She’s an absolutely horrible person, but she sure can sing and play the piano.” No, when I brag on you guys it’s always on your love and faith and amazing things you do in the name of Christ. So I changed the lesson plan to look at an amazing verse in the Bible, maybe my favorite.
Let’s read that verse:
Acts 11:24 [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
Does this seem backwards from what we talked about last week? Let’s read some other verses that say what we learned last week,
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Romans 3:12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
Luke 18:17 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
So if that’s true that no-one is good, how then can Barnabas be good? Is he God? No, because in Galatians 2 we see that he at one point was a great sinner. Does he have God in him? Aha, there is our answer, he was full of the Holy Spirit.
What are the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Aha! If we are being sanctified, then we should be able to be labeled a good person. What is the definition of sanctification? Being conformed (changed) closer and closer to an image of Jesus Christ, loving what he loves and hating what he hates and reacting and interacting with the world the same way he would.
Let’s look at another scripture that supports the idea that the Christian has been redeemed from being a bad person to being a good person:
Romans 15:14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
Now, we have to make sure we’re making a distinction between being good and being filled with goodness, with having an innate goodness and having, as Dr. John MacArthur calls it, an alien goodness. Left to ourselves, we are not good, our goodness comes from above. There is no verse that says explicitly we’re good because Christ was good, but there are many scriptures which say basically that,
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 1:15 As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
We are good not because of anything in ourselves, but because Christ has given us his Spirit who is goodness and righteousness.
Romans 8:7-10 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
How do we receive the goodness of Christ? Through faith. What else was Barnabas filled with? Faith. Check out this verse,
Hebrews 11:5 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Now, let’s look at how this goodness plays out. What is the definition of goodness? Is it always being nice and not offending someone or always being upbeat and happy? No, we’ll look at Paul’s example in just a minute, but before we do I want to show you sometimes being nice or happy or positive isn’t the right response,
Proverbs 25:20 Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.
Goodness is reacting rightly to all situations; virtue. Sometimes being nice is not the right response to a situation, check out what Paul kept saying,
Romans 15:14-15 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder,
Sometimes being good requires a direct rebuke, a correction, abrasiveness to smooth out a problem by bringing a person to the truth. In Proverbs it says that an enemy will tell you you’re wonderful when you’re not, but a friend will tell you the truth, James says we may save a person’s soul by confronting them in their sin, namely pride. There was a massive movement in the 20th century, which I’m sure isn’t dead yet, to convince people that they should have massive amounts of self-esteem and consider themselves to be the best person on the planet just waiting to find a place to express themselves. It led to several completely wrecked generations; in fact many teachers have found that the students with the highest self esteem have no interest in learning anything or improving in any way, because they think they’re already perfect.
So let me give you some advice. Ian, you’ve made it into Magnet, which is awesome, but you’re not as smart as you someday will be, Kyle, you’re an awesome evangelist but if you’re at the same level you are now in ten years, I’d be embarrassed, Matthew, you made a totally awesome statement about the Bible, but our effort isn’t finding little jewels of theology but having a firm foundation and a complete knowledge able to instruct others. Hannah, for 13 you are an amazing singer and there were a few times during your song I think you actually sounded better than Christy Nockels, but you’re not there yet and you still need to practice hard to master the gift God has given you.
Christ and his Spirit should be doing the same thing in our lives, because Christ who is full of goodness is always working our sanctification:
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
If God is not exposing and killing sin in your life and driving you towards good, then you ought to wonder if you’re in his grace, and if not then you must make sure you’re trusting in his goodness and not your own, because we bring no goodness to this equation.
Paul then says he is a priest of God preaching the gospel, bringing people (Gentiles) to Christ, the way he concludes the thought is AMAZING.
Romans 15:17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
What an amazing privilege we have entered into in this covenant. Not only has Jesus saved us from Hell and sin and death and ultimately from himself, but he has also saved us from unfruitful and wasted lives, giving us reason to boast. How did he do that? By dying in our place and defeating death, Paul gives one of the most awesome doxologies in the Bible concerning this in
1 Corinthians 15:54-58 "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
So then, who are we proud of? Ourselves or the work that God is doing through us? John the Baptist, who Jesus called the greatest man ever to live, knew that he wasn’t actually the one who would get the glory, here is his response,
John 3:27-30 John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."
So we see that we were once great sinners, but Christ has redeemed us and has given us his Spirit and through that Spirit we can be called good, not us in ourselves, but the Holy Spirit living in us. Now, are you good all the time? Do you sin as a Christian?
The Apostle Paul ran into this same problem, and he writes one of the most amazingly awesome passages in scripture, these are my favorite verses,
Romans 7:13-8:2 Did [the law] which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
So in conclusion, are there any good people apart from Christ? No. But will people think they are good apart from Christ? Proverbs 20:6 says that almost all people will proclaim their own goodness, their own awesomeness, but then it asks, “Where can we find such a person?” Apart from Christ this person doesn’t exist, they are either so self-centered as to make their deceitfulness transparent, or they are doing nice things for people apart from God and pointing them away from Heaven. For example, there are plenty of non-Christian organizations feeding starving people in Africa and India, and they've found that just by feeding people they see a resurgence in births which leads to more mouths to feed and greater infant mortality rates and so many of these organizations stop feeding people all together. Other organizations provide free medical and dental care, which is awesome but it's only a temporal fix, and what they are doing by helping people apart from Christ is telling them to put their trust in men and not in God, which is utterly the most wicked thing they could be doing. I just finished a hugely vitriolic book on Mother Teresa and that woman believed everyone goes to Heaven provided they believe in a god or gods and so she made no effort to introduce people to Jesus. There are no lack of organizations making this world a nice place to go to Hell from.
Apart from the Holy Spirit we are unable to do good for someone’s eternity, but in Christ we are washed, sanctified, and justified, given a holy calling accomplished by Christ working in us. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; so we see a war working in ourselves, desiring to serve Christ with our minds, but locked into sin in our bodies, knowing that ultimately we will have full victory in Heaven, we live a life worthy to be called good by all outsiders so that they will see our deeds in the name of Christ and glorify him on the final day. Let’s conclude with two of my favorite verses,
Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Summit
New School Year
Survey of World Religion
Alyssa's friend's infection
There was another prayer request which I can't remember...
Text – Acts 11:24, Romans 15:14-17
One of my favorite things to do is brag on this church and especially our youth and especially this class. The Apostle Paul did likewise with his church at Thessalonica saying that they were his crown of boasting and his joy because they had so thoroughly evangelized Macedonia and stayed firm in the faith and loved one another.
In the past six months or so I’ve bragged about Ian getting into Magnet, Devin preaching a message on Friday night, Kyle being on fire for sharing the gospel, Mycala being such an awesome VBS helper, and Matthew saying one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard from anybody, even adults, when he said basically, and I can’t remember the exact quote, “Christ died on a tree of death to give us access to the tree of life.” There are many others, and if I tried to name them all I’m sure I’d leave someone out.
I wrote our whole lesson plan on a Tuesday morning, on Wednesday I was telling someone about an awesome song I’d heard sung by one of our teenagers on Sunday. I’ll brag on the person I was telling this too as well, his name is Patrick and he is always excited to hear what’s going on at our church and tell me what is going on at his church, I really look forward to talking to him, because he stirs me up for good works. He asked about the song and it led to me telling him how good Hannah’s singing is getting and how sweet and pretty and just an awesome person she is. Afterwards it got me thinking about a passage in scripture that I’ve read several times but never spent too much time on, the reason I started thinking about it was because I didn’t have the faintest urge to tell Patrick, “She’s an absolutely horrible person, but she sure can sing and play the piano.” No, when I brag on you guys it’s always on your love and faith and amazing things you do in the name of Christ. So I changed the lesson plan to look at an amazing verse in the Bible, maybe my favorite.
Let’s read that verse:
Acts 11:24 [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
Does this seem backwards from what we talked about last week? Let’s read some other verses that say what we learned last week,
Genesis 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Romans 3:12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
Luke 18:17 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
So if that’s true that no-one is good, how then can Barnabas be good? Is he God? No, because in Galatians 2 we see that he at one point was a great sinner. Does he have God in him? Aha, there is our answer, he was full of the Holy Spirit.
What are the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Aha! If we are being sanctified, then we should be able to be labeled a good person. What is the definition of sanctification? Being conformed (changed) closer and closer to an image of Jesus Christ, loving what he loves and hating what he hates and reacting and interacting with the world the same way he would.
Let’s look at another scripture that supports the idea that the Christian has been redeemed from being a bad person to being a good person:
Romans 15:14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.
Now, we have to make sure we’re making a distinction between being good and being filled with goodness, with having an innate goodness and having, as Dr. John MacArthur calls it, an alien goodness. Left to ourselves, we are not good, our goodness comes from above. There is no verse that says explicitly we’re good because Christ was good, but there are many scriptures which say basically that,
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 1:15 As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."
We are good not because of anything in ourselves, but because Christ has given us his Spirit who is goodness and righteousness.
Romans 8:7-10 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
How do we receive the goodness of Christ? Through faith. What else was Barnabas filled with? Faith. Check out this verse,
Hebrews 11:5 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Now, let’s look at how this goodness plays out. What is the definition of goodness? Is it always being nice and not offending someone or always being upbeat and happy? No, we’ll look at Paul’s example in just a minute, but before we do I want to show you sometimes being nice or happy or positive isn’t the right response,
Proverbs 25:20 Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.
Goodness is reacting rightly to all situations; virtue. Sometimes being nice is not the right response to a situation, check out what Paul kept saying,
Romans 15:14-15 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder,
Sometimes being good requires a direct rebuke, a correction, abrasiveness to smooth out a problem by bringing a person to the truth. In Proverbs it says that an enemy will tell you you’re wonderful when you’re not, but a friend will tell you the truth, James says we may save a person’s soul by confronting them in their sin, namely pride. There was a massive movement in the 20th century, which I’m sure isn’t dead yet, to convince people that they should have massive amounts of self-esteem and consider themselves to be the best person on the planet just waiting to find a place to express themselves. It led to several completely wrecked generations; in fact many teachers have found that the students with the highest self esteem have no interest in learning anything or improving in any way, because they think they’re already perfect.
So let me give you some advice. Ian, you’ve made it into Magnet, which is awesome, but you’re not as smart as you someday will be, Kyle, you’re an awesome evangelist but if you’re at the same level you are now in ten years, I’d be embarrassed, Matthew, you made a totally awesome statement about the Bible, but our effort isn’t finding little jewels of theology but having a firm foundation and a complete knowledge able to instruct others. Hannah, for 13 you are an amazing singer and there were a few times during your song I think you actually sounded better than Christy Nockels, but you’re not there yet and you still need to practice hard to master the gift God has given you.
Christ and his Spirit should be doing the same thing in our lives, because Christ who is full of goodness is always working our sanctification:
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
If God is not exposing and killing sin in your life and driving you towards good, then you ought to wonder if you’re in his grace, and if not then you must make sure you’re trusting in his goodness and not your own, because we bring no goodness to this equation.
Paul then says he is a priest of God preaching the gospel, bringing people (Gentiles) to Christ, the way he concludes the thought is AMAZING.
Romans 15:17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.
What an amazing privilege we have entered into in this covenant. Not only has Jesus saved us from Hell and sin and death and ultimately from himself, but he has also saved us from unfruitful and wasted lives, giving us reason to boast. How did he do that? By dying in our place and defeating death, Paul gives one of the most awesome doxologies in the Bible concerning this in
1 Corinthians 15:54-58 "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
So then, who are we proud of? Ourselves or the work that God is doing through us? John the Baptist, who Jesus called the greatest man ever to live, knew that he wasn’t actually the one who would get the glory, here is his response,
John 3:27-30 John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease."
So we see that we were once great sinners, but Christ has redeemed us and has given us his Spirit and through that Spirit we can be called good, not us in ourselves, but the Holy Spirit living in us. Now, are you good all the time? Do you sin as a Christian?
The Apostle Paul ran into this same problem, and he writes one of the most amazingly awesome passages in scripture, these are my favorite verses,
Romans 7:13-8:2 Did [the law] which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
So in conclusion, are there any good people apart from Christ? No. But will people think they are good apart from Christ? Proverbs 20:6 says that almost all people will proclaim their own goodness, their own awesomeness, but then it asks, “Where can we find such a person?” Apart from Christ this person doesn’t exist, they are either so self-centered as to make their deceitfulness transparent, or they are doing nice things for people apart from God and pointing them away from Heaven. For example, there are plenty of non-Christian organizations feeding starving people in Africa and India, and they've found that just by feeding people they see a resurgence in births which leads to more mouths to feed and greater infant mortality rates and so many of these organizations stop feeding people all together. Other organizations provide free medical and dental care, which is awesome but it's only a temporal fix, and what they are doing by helping people apart from Christ is telling them to put their trust in men and not in God, which is utterly the most wicked thing they could be doing. I just finished a hugely vitriolic book on Mother Teresa and that woman believed everyone goes to Heaven provided they believe in a god or gods and so she made no effort to introduce people to Jesus. There are no lack of organizations making this world a nice place to go to Hell from.
Apart from the Holy Spirit we are unable to do good for someone’s eternity, but in Christ we are washed, sanctified, and justified, given a holy calling accomplished by Christ working in us. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; so we see a war working in ourselves, desiring to serve Christ with our minds, but locked into sin in our bodies, knowing that ultimately we will have full victory in Heaven, we live a life worthy to be called good by all outsiders so that they will see our deeds in the name of Christ and glorify him on the final day. Let’s conclude with two of my favorite verses,
Galatians 2:19-20 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
July 25th - Manasseh - Chief of Sinners, Least of Saints
Prayer Requests
Summit
Summit
Geil's hand (multiple) injuries
Donnie's Back
Alyssa's injuries
Kari's dance wins
James' camp and knee
Dave's flying schedule
Hesus & friends witnessing
Students traveling
Hesus & friends witnessing
Students traveling
Hannah teaching next week
Text –2 Chronicles 33:1-13
Today we’re going to look at one of Jesus’ great great great grandfathers. It is truly amazing that Christ’s genealogy contains such wickedness and that he redeemed many of his ancestors. David was an adulterer and murder, Bathsheba was an adulteress, Solomon was a result of that adultery and a great sinner himself, Rahab was a prostitute, Tamar pretended to be a prostitute, Cain killed his brother, Adam was the first sinner, etc, and the beauty of all of these is that Christ paid for their sins on the cross, though they existed long before him.
But even though they were before him, who was greater?
John 8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?"
Matthew 22:42-45 "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, "'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
Christ had a pretty spotty genealogy, it was made up of great sinners, of Jews and Gentiles, of kings and paupers, and yet it did not impact his life or ministry. This is the first lesson I want you to learn before we go any farther. There is a resurgence of a false teaching that you can be cursed for things your ancestors did and that you need to specifically rectify their sin in order to do away with the curse. It’s closer to voodoo than Christianity, but it’s becoming a prominent belief in many churches as they go apostate.
Ezekiel 18:1-4 The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge'? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
In Christianity we have a promise of a complete rebirth into the family of God, that Christ is able to redeem all of our sins and any sins and curses in our genealogy. Christ is utterly bigger than our sins, otherwise how could we possibly expect him to save us from them?
Today we’re going to look at one of Jesus’ grandfathers who is in the running for chiefest of sinners of all time, an utterly evil man, but one with a wonderful outcome. So let’s read the Chronicle of his lifetime;
2 Chronicles 33:1-13 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses." Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
v.1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
A little bit of context here, Manasseh’s father’s name was Hezekiah, he did some very prideful things which Manasseh would have seen. Isaiah came to him and told him he would die, but Hezekiah prayed to God for deliverance and Isaiah then told him he would live. In order to train Manasseh up as a king, he and Hezekiah reigned together for about eleven years. It’s neat to see that while two people were ruling Israel, really Israel only had one king because of their unity, which sort of points to the Trinity a little.
Manasseh lived altogether 67 years; remember that he lived to be pretty old, because that’s going to be important later. He reigned the longest out of any king of Israel except for Jesus Christ who is reigning still.
v.2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
Instead of looking to the history of Israel, Manasseh looked to the history of pagans, forgetting that it was God who gave the land of Israel to the nation of Israel, forgetting that God drove out the pagans whom he was now following.
v.3-5 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
Part of his outright wickedness was that he refused to learn from the lessons of his father, who had torn down idols and tried to bring Israel back to worshipping the true God. There was no pagan deity which Manasseh missed in his idolatry, the Baals are the fake creator and sustainer gods, the Asherahs are for worshipping nature, your translation may say groves which would be trees for worship, and the hosts of heaven are either or both the planets and stars and/or angels. Look where he did it too, besides in all the old places which would be scattered throughout the countryside, he’s also done it in the temple, the very house of God.
In order for this to not just be a history lesson, we have to see that today we have Baals, Asherahs, and host of heaven worship in every false religion, in Oprahanity, in the “Green” movement, and in horoscopes and evolution. This wasn’t just a problem which existed in Manasseh’s day, this is still going on today, and remember that this is evil in the sight of God: abominations of the nations.
There is a test you can easily do to see just how evil a nation has gotten. They may be worshipping money and sex and all be atheists, but if they’re not doing this next step, then they haven’t sunk to the lowest level:
v.6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom
We know from other sources that this was to the god Molech, the god of money and wealth. The ultimate low is when a nation begins to murder its babies. In another place God asks Israel if their sexual sin is worth burning their babies in the fire. Today in America we offer up over 3,000 babies daily to the god of money, sex, and convenience.
The place that this took place was such an evil and disgusting place that later Jesus Christ would use it to paint a visual picture of Hell, Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. Oh how much he must hate it when a nation goes so apostate as to sacrifice its babies.
v.6 and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
I love this verse because for all of the evil that Manasseh did, we see that God is not ignoring it, but that God is provoked to anger and about to act. We know that there is a God in Heaven and we rejoice that he will judge on earth.
To really make the point the Chronicler continues showing how great a sinner that Manasseh was:
v.7-9 And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses." Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
There is a reminder that God blesses nations that honor him, but that he will reject and destroy those who dishonor him. Instead of instantly crushing the nation though, God sent prophets and warnings:
v.10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
Here we see that it wasn’t just Manasseh who was sinning, but the people under him were happily being pagans as well. The Chronicler puts it pretty gently that they paid no attention. Check this out:
Hebrews 11:37-38 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
One of the prophets that went to Manasseh was Isaiah. There is a tiny chance that Isaiah was actually Manasseh’s grandfather on his mother’s side, since Isaiah’s daughter and Manasseh’s mother had the same name, and tradition tells us that not only did Manasseh ignore Isaiah’s call to repent, but he ordered for Isaiah to be arrested. As Isaiah fled he hid inside a hollowed out log, and Manasseh gave the order for the log to be sawn through.
I really, really, really hope you’re getting an idea of how wicked Manasseh was! You’ll be glad at what happens next:
v.11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
Aha! He got what he deserved, the far superior army of Assyria came in and took many sinning Jews from Judah and Jerusalem and took them to Assyria, included in this is Manasseh the king who was taken to Babylon. In a day he fell from being a king to being a prisoner.
My Bible I think may have mistranslated this point that they took him with hooks…I think the Hebrew says they found him among thorns, which is neat because we see Manasseh fled and hid amongst his chosen gods, the Asherah groves, which couldn’t save him. And just as Isaiah died hiding, so did Manasseh get captured. He is very fortunate at this point that he didn’t die, because while Isaiah went to a very good place, Manasseh at this point would have gone to a very bad place.
v.12 When he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
Having realized that his gods couldn’t save him, he seeks the God of history who has consistently been saving people since the beginning, including his fathers and grandfathers. He humbled himself, fell on his face, and begged God for favor. Do you think God will answer? Let’s see.
v.13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
This exceedingly great sinner was forgiven, restored, and saved; he went from being the chief of sinners to the least of saints!
v.13 Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
One of the neatest things about this is that you remember that Manasseh reigned the longest out of any king…well he got saved late in his life. Manasseh’s father Hezekiah had what could for all intents and purposed be called a death-bed conversion, though he got better. The beauty of a grace-based religion is that salvation is available while you still have breath in your lungs. You can be a thief nailed to a cross utterly unable to do anything good and still be saved by trusting in the crucified Messiah who was dying for your sins.
There are precious few examples of people getting saved in their last moments in the Bible. However, they are there, and they are there so that we do not despair for older people and that we have hope in death-bed conversions, but they are rare so that we don’t rely on them. If Christ is so great as the Bible makes him out to be, then we want to come to him as soon as possible, and not like Manasseh who had godly parents and grandparents yet sinned and did much damage to himself and his country because he would not come to God early in his life. I would love for you to go home and read the first sixteen verses of Matthew 20 for a great parable on this topic.
The remainder of the story recounts the partial repentance of Judah, but once again Manasseh’s son would go astray, but this opened the way for Josiah to be one of Judah’s greatest kings, but that’s a story for another day.
So your conclusion is that Christ is able to save even the most evil of people, he paid a magnificent price on the cross for all of our sins, so we must flee to him to receive mercy and forgiveness. The earlier the better, for we are doing no-one any good by seeking life and pleasure anywhere else. Our nation would make Manasseh’s nation blush for the rampant nature of our sins, so I implore you not to partake in the idol worship of America, but see that the Lord is God, and submit yourself humbly to him.
Text –2 Chronicles 33:1-13
Today we’re going to look at one of Jesus’ great great great grandfathers. It is truly amazing that Christ’s genealogy contains such wickedness and that he redeemed many of his ancestors. David was an adulterer and murder, Bathsheba was an adulteress, Solomon was a result of that adultery and a great sinner himself, Rahab was a prostitute, Tamar pretended to be a prostitute, Cain killed his brother, Adam was the first sinner, etc, and the beauty of all of these is that Christ paid for their sins on the cross, though they existed long before him.
But even though they were before him, who was greater?
John 8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?"
Matthew 22:42-45 "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, "'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet'? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
Christ had a pretty spotty genealogy, it was made up of great sinners, of Jews and Gentiles, of kings and paupers, and yet it did not impact his life or ministry. This is the first lesson I want you to learn before we go any farther. There is a resurgence of a false teaching that you can be cursed for things your ancestors did and that you need to specifically rectify their sin in order to do away with the curse. It’s closer to voodoo than Christianity, but it’s becoming a prominent belief in many churches as they go apostate.
Ezekiel 18:1-4 The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge'? As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
In Christianity we have a promise of a complete rebirth into the family of God, that Christ is able to redeem all of our sins and any sins and curses in our genealogy. Christ is utterly bigger than our sins, otherwise how could we possibly expect him to save us from them?
Today we’re going to look at one of Jesus’ grandfathers who is in the running for chiefest of sinners of all time, an utterly evil man, but one with a wonderful outcome. So let’s read the Chronicle of his lifetime;
2 Chronicles 33:1-13 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses." Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
v.1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
A little bit of context here, Manasseh’s father’s name was Hezekiah, he did some very prideful things which Manasseh would have seen. Isaiah came to him and told him he would die, but Hezekiah prayed to God for deliverance and Isaiah then told him he would live. In order to train Manasseh up as a king, he and Hezekiah reigned together for about eleven years. It’s neat to see that while two people were ruling Israel, really Israel only had one king because of their unity, which sort of points to the Trinity a little.
Manasseh lived altogether 67 years; remember that he lived to be pretty old, because that’s going to be important later. He reigned the longest out of any king of Israel except for Jesus Christ who is reigning still.
v.2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.
Instead of looking to the history of Israel, Manasseh looked to the history of pagans, forgetting that it was God who gave the land of Israel to the nation of Israel, forgetting that God drove out the pagans whom he was now following.
v.3-5 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
Part of his outright wickedness was that he refused to learn from the lessons of his father, who had torn down idols and tried to bring Israel back to worshipping the true God. There was no pagan deity which Manasseh missed in his idolatry, the Baals are the fake creator and sustainer gods, the Asherahs are for worshipping nature, your translation may say groves which would be trees for worship, and the hosts of heaven are either or both the planets and stars and/or angels. Look where he did it too, besides in all the old places which would be scattered throughout the countryside, he’s also done it in the temple, the very house of God.
In order for this to not just be a history lesson, we have to see that today we have Baals, Asherahs, and host of heaven worship in every false religion, in Oprahanity, in the “Green” movement, and in horoscopes and evolution. This wasn’t just a problem which existed in Manasseh’s day, this is still going on today, and remember that this is evil in the sight of God: abominations of the nations.
There is a test you can easily do to see just how evil a nation has gotten. They may be worshipping money and sex and all be atheists, but if they’re not doing this next step, then they haven’t sunk to the lowest level:
v.6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom
We know from other sources that this was to the god Molech, the god of money and wealth. The ultimate low is when a nation begins to murder its babies. In another place God asks Israel if their sexual sin is worth burning their babies in the fire. Today in America we offer up over 3,000 babies daily to the god of money, sex, and convenience.
The place that this took place was such an evil and disgusting place that later Jesus Christ would use it to paint a visual picture of Hell, Gehenna, or the Valley of Hinnom. Oh how much he must hate it when a nation goes so apostate as to sacrifice its babies.
v.6 and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
I love this verse because for all of the evil that Manasseh did, we see that God is not ignoring it, but that God is provoked to anger and about to act. We know that there is a God in Heaven and we rejoice that he will judge on earth.
To really make the point the Chronicler continues showing how great a sinner that Manasseh was:
v.7-9 And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses." Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
There is a reminder that God blesses nations that honor him, but that he will reject and destroy those who dishonor him. Instead of instantly crushing the nation though, God sent prophets and warnings:
v.10 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.
Here we see that it wasn’t just Manasseh who was sinning, but the people under him were happily being pagans as well. The Chronicler puts it pretty gently that they paid no attention. Check this out:
Hebrews 11:37-38 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy— wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
One of the prophets that went to Manasseh was Isaiah. There is a tiny chance that Isaiah was actually Manasseh’s grandfather on his mother’s side, since Isaiah’s daughter and Manasseh’s mother had the same name, and tradition tells us that not only did Manasseh ignore Isaiah’s call to repent, but he ordered for Isaiah to be arrested. As Isaiah fled he hid inside a hollowed out log, and Manasseh gave the order for the log to be sawn through.
I really, really, really hope you’re getting an idea of how wicked Manasseh was! You’ll be glad at what happens next:
v.11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
Aha! He got what he deserved, the far superior army of Assyria came in and took many sinning Jews from Judah and Jerusalem and took them to Assyria, included in this is Manasseh the king who was taken to Babylon. In a day he fell from being a king to being a prisoner.
My Bible I think may have mistranslated this point that they took him with hooks…I think the Hebrew says they found him among thorns, which is neat because we see Manasseh fled and hid amongst his chosen gods, the Asherah groves, which couldn’t save him. And just as Isaiah died hiding, so did Manasseh get captured. He is very fortunate at this point that he didn’t die, because while Isaiah went to a very good place, Manasseh at this point would have gone to a very bad place.
v.12 When he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
Having realized that his gods couldn’t save him, he seeks the God of history who has consistently been saving people since the beginning, including his fathers and grandfathers. He humbled himself, fell on his face, and begged God for favor. Do you think God will answer? Let’s see.
v.13 He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
This exceedingly great sinner was forgiven, restored, and saved; he went from being the chief of sinners to the least of saints!
v.13 Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
One of the neatest things about this is that you remember that Manasseh reigned the longest out of any king…well he got saved late in his life. Manasseh’s father Hezekiah had what could for all intents and purposed be called a death-bed conversion, though he got better. The beauty of a grace-based religion is that salvation is available while you still have breath in your lungs. You can be a thief nailed to a cross utterly unable to do anything good and still be saved by trusting in the crucified Messiah who was dying for your sins.
There are precious few examples of people getting saved in their last moments in the Bible. However, they are there, and they are there so that we do not despair for older people and that we have hope in death-bed conversions, but they are rare so that we don’t rely on them. If Christ is so great as the Bible makes him out to be, then we want to come to him as soon as possible, and not like Manasseh who had godly parents and grandparents yet sinned and did much damage to himself and his country because he would not come to God early in his life. I would love for you to go home and read the first sixteen verses of Matthew 20 for a great parable on this topic.
The remainder of the story recounts the partial repentance of Judah, but once again Manasseh’s son would go astray, but this opened the way for Josiah to be one of Judah’s greatest kings, but that’s a story for another day.
So your conclusion is that Christ is able to save even the most evil of people, he paid a magnificent price on the cross for all of our sins, so we must flee to him to receive mercy and forgiveness. The earlier the better, for we are doing no-one any good by seeking life and pleasure anywhere else. Our nation would make Manasseh’s nation blush for the rampant nature of our sins, so I implore you not to partake in the idol worship of America, but see that the Lord is God, and submit yourself humbly to him.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
October 18th - The Pure Milk of the Word
Prayer Requests
Dan + Leon Preaching
Fall Festival Results
Pastor Carey Cash
Dan + Leon Preaching
Fall Festival Results
Pastor Carey Cash
Giles, York, and Miano's in their family losses this week
James' friend Aaron move to Pennsylvania
Text - 1 Peter 2:2-3
Text - 1 Peter 2:2-3
Short Lesson, Hannah did the introduction, and we had missionaries visit from the fifth grade.
The verse we are going to read and look at today is a continuation of chapter one, especially the idea of being born again. So some review, our earthly life mirrors our spiritual life.
Conception – Seed Planted (1 Corinthians 3:5-6)
Gestation – Seed Growth/Danger of no Birth (Galatians 4:19)
Birth – Rebirth (1 Peter 1:3)
Newborn – Spiritual Babes (Hebrews 5:13, 1 Peter 2:2)
Adolescence – Maturing (Hebrews 5:14)
Maturity – Able to Minister to Souls (Hebrews 5:12)
There needs to be a direction to this, if you stop moving towards maturity for any lengthy period of time that is not good, the important thing is that there is a progression. Peter's Epistle mirrors this progression, he starts the letter out by talking about being born again and he concludes talking to the elders. How do we get from being newborns to elders?
1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
What does a baby want when it is first born? Steak? Coca-Cola? Pepperoni Pizza? Or the pure milk from its mom?
Does it have any desire for anything else? Nope, because the milk is what it needs. What happens if you try to give a newborn a potato chip? They don't want it, they know what they need.
So a newly Reborn Christian is told to do what by Peter? Desire the pure spiritual milk. Let me give you a personal example, after I got saved, I had two weeks off from work because I had just returned from the middle-east, where you get to save up all of your weekends, and so I read the Bible from cover to cover in those two weeks. I missed a lot of things, but it gave me a great foundation of Christianity.
This milk contains all sorts of incredible things that most food doesn't have, and is super concentrated. First of all, it is heavy in omega-3, which is a fatty acid that is fantastic for brain-growth. You can eat fish and get this same stuff, but you won't get the same benefit as the baby, because the milk also comes with this stuff called "lipase" which is an enzyme that greatly helps the baby digest the omega-3 so that more of it goes into its brain.
This is just like the Bible, where is the best place to grow your spiritual knowledge? It's from reading straight from God's Word. I can teach it to you, and while I hope you're getting a lot out of this class, I'm certain there is a lot of stuff you're missing too...this is just how our brains work, God wants us to seek him, not somebody talking about him. Similarly, the Bible, when it is interpreted for you by the Holy Spirit will be much more absorbed into your brain.
Next, milk has very specific proteins in it that are perfect for the baby's body to absorb to make stronger bodies and better immune systems. This milk is completely absorbed and used because it is made for the body. On the other hand, cow's milk has protein in it, but it is so hard for your body to get out that what your body gets from cow-milk protein isn't enough to replace the protein it took to get it. It's like me buying a $1 bill from you for $5. You don't drink cow's milk for the protein, but for the vitamins.
That goes straight to the Bible. The Bible contains things that your spiritual life can totally use. On the other hand, you read a book by a great preacher, or hear a great sermon or lesson, and the spiritual truths may be great and true, but the effort the preacher spent to get that truth to you took forever in research and prayer. A preacher should be giving you application along with your truth, these are the reasons we listen to preachers who ought to be exhorting.
Next, milk has huge amounts of sugar in it, that makes it taste good for the baby. This also makes it easier to digest.
In Seminary, they make you read up to three books a week, and while some of these books are really good, when you read the Bible after that, you realize that God's Word is so much sweeter than mans' words.
There is more, according to a Dr. Frank Oski who is a leading pediatrician for Johns Hopkins Medical School, there are at least 400 reasons milk is better than formula or baby food, but those are the really neat ones I thought, plus one more that I think is fantastic. Milk has natural antibacterial agents in it that kills bad germs (not all germs are bad), but doesn't kill babies. While you have to boil bottles and keep baby food sealed, milk is ready to go from the source.
Chapter 1 of First Peter talked about how we are being refined, through trial and obedience, but that we have eternal life. The Bible kills sin and purifies us, but won't kills us...there is an if coming up...
v.3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
None of these promises are for unbelievers, people who have not been born-again, but only for the believer.
So where is Peter telling us to look for spiritual growth? The Bible. Let's see where he got this quote in verse three from.
Hmm, it seems to be the Bible; one of the reasons I picked these Epistles to go through is because they quote the Old Testament like crazy. First Thessalonians didn't quote it a single time, so I felt it would be good to look at an Epistle that quotes and/or alludes to the Old Testament a ridiculous number of times.
Peter is quoting Psalm 34:8, this is an absolutely wonderful Psalm, maybe my favorite, and also maybe Peter's favorite because he quotes it several times and holds close to its themes. The verse here that Peter quotes wasn't just stated, I believe it was an emotional outburst,
Psalm 34:8-11 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
The taste the Lord directly relates to the spiritual milk, what happens if you try to feed a baby something that isn't spiritual milk? He's going to spit it out, because he knows there is something so much better. The same with someone who has seen the perfection of God, the absolute pleasure that comes from knowing him, from resting in his grace and finding refuge in his mercy. Imagine someone came to us and said, "I will give you each a trillion dollars if you will never talk about Jesus ever again or pray or use this money for any Christian endeavor. You can do whatever you want with it, as long as the cause of Christ is not furthered." Our response should be, "Ew, are you serious, that is the last thing in the world I want, because my desire is the Living God, he is what I want." That would be your response if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I believe I started out on the right track, I didn't have Christian books or teachers around to corrupt me or get me caught on something else, I had the pure spiritual milk of the Word. This is one reason I get so defensive when somebody talks about the myth of Free-Will, or say to get saved you "ask Jesus into your heart", or any number of goofy things. We add these manmade things and it takes the sweetness out of the Bible.
I think one of the reasons the Christian church is so caught up in other things is because when someone gets saved, they don't go to the Word, but they go to Sunday School or church or books about how to be a Christian while neglecting the Bible. Look at America, we know that we ought to eat healthy, but we love things that taste good to us, the Bible has never been shown to most Christians to be so sweet and so good and so good for us.
So the application is straightforward. Love this book, read this book, find how great and glorious God is through this book, so that you progress in your Christian life, moving from spiritual rebirth to being an elder, and never stop progressing. Christian teachers, books, and sermons are wonderful, but they are not the Bible. Your main diet should be from this Bible and things on top of it should treats or snacks.
Finally, how many times do you eat a day? Two? Three? Six? What happens if you skip a few days? You get weak, you pass out, you die... How many times do you read your Bible a day? Ever skipped a few days? A few weeks? A few months?
Don't get me wrong, you can't lose your salvation by not reading your Bible, but if you're not subsisting on your Bible, then your spirit probably isn't alive in need of nourishment, but is still dead in sins and transgressions. What do the dead eat? If there is no Bible-input, then it is likely that the spirit is dead, and the need is to be spiritual raised so that you taste that the Lord is good.
The verse we are going to read and look at today is a continuation of chapter one, especially the idea of being born again. So some review, our earthly life mirrors our spiritual life.
Conception – Seed Planted (1 Corinthians 3:5-6)
Gestation – Seed Growth/Danger of no Birth (Galatians 4:19)
Birth – Rebirth (1 Peter 1:3)
Newborn – Spiritual Babes (Hebrews 5:13, 1 Peter 2:2)
Adolescence – Maturing (Hebrews 5:14)
Maturity – Able to Minister to Souls (Hebrews 5:12)
There needs to be a direction to this, if you stop moving towards maturity for any lengthy period of time that is not good, the important thing is that there is a progression. Peter's Epistle mirrors this progression, he starts the letter out by talking about being born again and he concludes talking to the elders. How do we get from being newborns to elders?
1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
What does a baby want when it is first born? Steak? Coca-Cola? Pepperoni Pizza? Or the pure milk from its mom?
Does it have any desire for anything else? Nope, because the milk is what it needs. What happens if you try to give a newborn a potato chip? They don't want it, they know what they need.
So a newly Reborn Christian is told to do what by Peter? Desire the pure spiritual milk. Let me give you a personal example, after I got saved, I had two weeks off from work because I had just returned from the middle-east, where you get to save up all of your weekends, and so I read the Bible from cover to cover in those two weeks. I missed a lot of things, but it gave me a great foundation of Christianity.
This milk contains all sorts of incredible things that most food doesn't have, and is super concentrated. First of all, it is heavy in omega-3, which is a fatty acid that is fantastic for brain-growth. You can eat fish and get this same stuff, but you won't get the same benefit as the baby, because the milk also comes with this stuff called "lipase" which is an enzyme that greatly helps the baby digest the omega-3 so that more of it goes into its brain.
This is just like the Bible, where is the best place to grow your spiritual knowledge? It's from reading straight from God's Word. I can teach it to you, and while I hope you're getting a lot out of this class, I'm certain there is a lot of stuff you're missing too...this is just how our brains work, God wants us to seek him, not somebody talking about him. Similarly, the Bible, when it is interpreted for you by the Holy Spirit will be much more absorbed into your brain.
Next, milk has very specific proteins in it that are perfect for the baby's body to absorb to make stronger bodies and better immune systems. This milk is completely absorbed and used because it is made for the body. On the other hand, cow's milk has protein in it, but it is so hard for your body to get out that what your body gets from cow-milk protein isn't enough to replace the protein it took to get it. It's like me buying a $1 bill from you for $5. You don't drink cow's milk for the protein, but for the vitamins.
That goes straight to the Bible. The Bible contains things that your spiritual life can totally use. On the other hand, you read a book by a great preacher, or hear a great sermon or lesson, and the spiritual truths may be great and true, but the effort the preacher spent to get that truth to you took forever in research and prayer. A preacher should be giving you application along with your truth, these are the reasons we listen to preachers who ought to be exhorting.
Next, milk has huge amounts of sugar in it, that makes it taste good for the baby. This also makes it easier to digest.
In Seminary, they make you read up to three books a week, and while some of these books are really good, when you read the Bible after that, you realize that God's Word is so much sweeter than mans' words.
There is more, according to a Dr. Frank Oski who is a leading pediatrician for Johns Hopkins Medical School, there are at least 400 reasons milk is better than formula or baby food, but those are the really neat ones I thought, plus one more that I think is fantastic. Milk has natural antibacterial agents in it that kills bad germs (not all germs are bad), but doesn't kill babies. While you have to boil bottles and keep baby food sealed, milk is ready to go from the source.
Chapter 1 of First Peter talked about how we are being refined, through trial and obedience, but that we have eternal life. The Bible kills sin and purifies us, but won't kills us...there is an if coming up...
v.3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
None of these promises are for unbelievers, people who have not been born-again, but only for the believer.
So where is Peter telling us to look for spiritual growth? The Bible. Let's see where he got this quote in verse three from.
Hmm, it seems to be the Bible; one of the reasons I picked these Epistles to go through is because they quote the Old Testament like crazy. First Thessalonians didn't quote it a single time, so I felt it would be good to look at an Epistle that quotes and/or alludes to the Old Testament a ridiculous number of times.
Peter is quoting Psalm 34:8, this is an absolutely wonderful Psalm, maybe my favorite, and also maybe Peter's favorite because he quotes it several times and holds close to its themes. The verse here that Peter quotes wasn't just stated, I believe it was an emotional outburst,
Psalm 34:8-11 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
The taste the Lord directly relates to the spiritual milk, what happens if you try to feed a baby something that isn't spiritual milk? He's going to spit it out, because he knows there is something so much better. The same with someone who has seen the perfection of God, the absolute pleasure that comes from knowing him, from resting in his grace and finding refuge in his mercy. Imagine someone came to us and said, "I will give you each a trillion dollars if you will never talk about Jesus ever again or pray or use this money for any Christian endeavor. You can do whatever you want with it, as long as the cause of Christ is not furthered." Our response should be, "Ew, are you serious, that is the last thing in the world I want, because my desire is the Living God, he is what I want." That would be your response if you have tasted that the Lord is good.
I believe I started out on the right track, I didn't have Christian books or teachers around to corrupt me or get me caught on something else, I had the pure spiritual milk of the Word. This is one reason I get so defensive when somebody talks about the myth of Free-Will, or say to get saved you "ask Jesus into your heart", or any number of goofy things. We add these manmade things and it takes the sweetness out of the Bible.
I think one of the reasons the Christian church is so caught up in other things is because when someone gets saved, they don't go to the Word, but they go to Sunday School or church or books about how to be a Christian while neglecting the Bible. Look at America, we know that we ought to eat healthy, but we love things that taste good to us, the Bible has never been shown to most Christians to be so sweet and so good and so good for us.
So the application is straightforward. Love this book, read this book, find how great and glorious God is through this book, so that you progress in your Christian life, moving from spiritual rebirth to being an elder, and never stop progressing. Christian teachers, books, and sermons are wonderful, but they are not the Bible. Your main diet should be from this Bible and things on top of it should treats or snacks.
Finally, how many times do you eat a day? Two? Three? Six? What happens if you skip a few days? You get weak, you pass out, you die... How many times do you read your Bible a day? Ever skipped a few days? A few weeks? A few months?
Don't get me wrong, you can't lose your salvation by not reading your Bible, but if you're not subsisting on your Bible, then your spirit probably isn't alive in need of nourishment, but is still dead in sins and transgressions. What do the dead eat? If there is no Bible-input, then it is likely that the spirit is dead, and the need is to be spiritual raised so that you taste that the Lord is good.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
October 4th - The New Birth
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Fall Festival
Bethany and Canyon's Dentist Appointments
Jeff Duckett City Council
Kennesaw Mountain Game next Friday
Text - 1 Peter 1:22-2:1
I think we’re through the hard part of the epistle, there were so many things smashed into the last ten verses that it was hard to really find a theme and expound on it. It is a beautiful introduction and looking back, I think we would have done better to have just read verses 13-21 and then go onto the rest of the letter which would have explained verses 13-21 better than I did. It’s a lesson learned and I apologize for the disjointed way in which I taught it; I promise there will be a better focus from here on out.
Today we are going to talk about being born-again, a fantastically important topic in the Bible.
1 Peter 1:22-2:1 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
v.22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
This is something that could be read really wrongly if it were taken out of context. It sounds like we can purify our souls through obedience, but we have to look at the next verse that says since you where born-again. The Galatian church was trying to purify themselves through works,
Galatians 3:1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Our purification is begun first of all through being born-again, then afterwards by one of two ways, first through affliction, second through obedience. Either God putting you to the fire, or you putting you to the holiness of God so that we are conformed to his image. For the seventh and eighth graders, do you remember what the names of the two great churches of Revelation were? Smyrna and Philadelphia, how was Smyrna purified? Through persecution, through external purification. How was Philadelphia purified? Through internal purification, by reading the Bible and doing what it says; by loving God and their neighbors. We can purify our hearts after we are born-again by loving earnestly from a purified heart. You cannot purify your heart this way if you have not been born-again and been given a new heart. So lets talk about being born-again.
v.23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God
There is a lot in this passage, but I really want to impress on you how important being born-again is.
I’m going to introduce you to two important men in history, a Rabbi named Nicodemus, and a preacher named George Whitefield. Let’s start with Nicodemus. From extrabiblical history we know that this Rabbi in the First Century was one of the four richest Jews in Jerusalem, he was also a Pharisee and had a great deal of power over people. He came to Jesus to ask him some questions for at least a few other Pharisees; probably Joseph of Arimathea was one of the Pharisees who wanted to know.
So he goes to Jesus and here is what transpires.
John 3:1-13 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
So we’ve got this really smart guy, who probably knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards, and I’m sure he sees the necessity of the New Birth, he just doesn’t understand how he can do it. He asks the great question, probably pretty sarcastically, “do I climb back in my mother’s womb? I don’t think I’m gonna fit” Jesus answered him that a person must be born of the Holy Spirit and of water. Some people have thought that this is referring to both the physical birth and the spiritual birth, but then that would condemn babies who are stillborn, and Job tells us that stillborns go to Heaven. (Job 3:16) What the water is talking about is the New Covenant, when we are washed; Nicodemus would have understood this instantly.
Being born again is an external event from us, when God supernaturally makes us alive spiritually.
John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
We are born of the Spirit by the will of God, and this is when we become children of God. And if you are not born-again, Jesus promises that you can’t go to Heaven. As we leave Nicodemus, lets look at something neat;
John 19:38-39 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
It sounds like Nicodemus got saved, sounds like he was born-again; he helped Joseph to bury Jesus. Not all Pharisees were bad, just like not all people in churches are good, and we can see born-again people doing good things in every manner of church, life, and career.
That brings us to George Whitefield. He lived in the 1700’s, he got saved reading a book on the necessity of the New Birth, which is another way of saying being born-again. So few people were experiencing being born-again that it was popular to say that being born-again meant being baptized or trying to clean yourself up. As Whitefield read the book, it became apparent that something big needed to happen to his soul in order for him to go to Heaven. He sought God in prayer and repentance and finally it happened, he was born-again. He instantly set out to preaching, but nobody would let him preach in their church. So he found a stump in a field and stood on it and preached the hope of reconciliation that is available in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was preaching to coal-miners and when he had finished they had streams of tears down their cheeks where the coal dust had been washed away.
George Whitefield preached for thirty years in America and Britain and multitudes got saved. Whitefield was really the one who birthed the Revolution; Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin helped a little, but without Whitefield, there would be no United States. During his life, George Whitefield preached 18,000 times, and over 1,000 of those sermons were on John 3, specifically John 3:3 that says
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
At the end of his life he was asked, “Why do you preach on being born-again so often?” He answered, “Because you must be.”
Let’s see why it is so important to be born of imperishable seed, of the Holy Spirit, as Peter quotes from Isaiah chapter 40.
v.24-25 for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Everything that is born of flesh is passing away, it will wither, it will fall, it will die, it will not last forever. But the Word of God remains forever, it is imperishable, it is eternal, it is not corrupted by sin. It is what works in your life and makes you born-again. It’s obviously not just this paper and ink, but the Living Christ that it bears witness to, the Spirit of Christ that is sanctifying you, and the Father of Christ who is controlling it all. And in all of this, the Word has to abide in you, it's not a one time thing, but that it lives in you and works in you.
Romans 8:20-23 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Our spirit is alive, but our bodies are dying.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
But we’ll get a new body to match our new spirit;
1 Corinthians 15:47-49 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Now let me share with you an illustration that should really drive home the importance of the New Birth and that it is a real thing, and not just something that is superficial and can happen to you without you or someone else knowing.
On the way to church this morning I decided to get on the free-way…I don’t really know why, it took me sort of out of the way. On my way I got a flat tire, so I pulled over to the side and was changing the tire. I was in a hurry and lost hold of one of the lug-nuts and it rolled out into the freeway. I wasn’t paying attention and ran out and got it, right when I picked it up, I looked up and here comes a semi-truck going eighty-miles an hour and it was too late for me to get out of the way, and it ran me over. Long story short, I made it to church and here I am.
Would you believe this story? Why not? If I had an encounter with a semi-truck, you’d expect there to be some evidence, right? Now, let me ask you this question, which is bigger, a semi-truck, or the Living God who created the universe? (Stolen from Paul Washer)
If you claim to have had an encounter with him, that he has saved you, that he has given you a new heart and made you born-again, there should be some evidence of this. Paul says that old things will pass away, and all things will become new, and we will walk in a manner keeping with our confession. Peter says if we are born again then we must
v.2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
So beloved, you must be born-again. If you are not, then you will perish, but if you are, then you will see the kingdom of Heaven and will have everlasting life. You must be born-again.
Why is being born-again so important?
Next week Peter is going to jump off of this idea of being born-again and what we should do to grow ourselves in the faith. Being born-again mirrors a real life, and while some of you have heard this, a review won’t be a bad thing.
Conception – Seed Planted (1 Corinthians 3:5-6)
Gestation – Seed Growth/Danger of no Birth (Galatians 4:19)
Birth – Rebirth (1 Peter 1:3)
Newborn – Spiritual Babes (Hebrews 5:13, 1 Peter 2:2)
Adolescence – Maturing (Hebrews 5:14)
Maturity – Able to Minister to Souls (Hebrews 5:12)
Homework
Ask two adults, preferably your parents, how they became born-again.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
November 2nd - Service for Men
Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Dave Sloan safe return
Leon in the Yucatan
Election
Text - 1 Thessalonians 2:7-13
A little bit of context, remember that Paul, Silas, and Timothy went into Thessalonica preaching the Gospel free of charge and working themselves to pay for their food and lodging. While they could have charged those at Thessalonica for the Gospel, this passage we will see why they were preaching free of charge.
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
The spiritual life mirrors the physical life, there is a conception in which the seed of faith is planted, followed by gestation, rebirth, infancy, adolescence, and adulthood.
Matthew 13:1-13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
John 3:3-7 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
When you are born again, your flesh is filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a major life-changing event and when it happens, you’ll know. Many Christian churches that are no longer adhering to the Bible have abandoned this language because it doesn’t happen to them and therefore they think it must be symbolic. But being born-again is as extreme and life-changing was when you were born the first time.
You don’t say, “I prayed a prayer and that made me born again.” No, being born again is an act of the Holy Spirit, it cannot be forced by someone.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Godly sorrow, or grief, is the acknowledgement that you’ve sinned against God and that he is justified in sending you to Hell for your transgression because you’ve offended his righteousness and blasphemed his name through your actions. Few people have a godly sorrow.
Worldly grief, or regret, is the acknowledgement that your sin has caused you or someone else sadness and that you’re sorry that your sin has hurt you. This regret is bad in God’s eyes and as it says, it leads to death, not to life. Many people have this wordly sorrow.
A godly sorrow results in what the Apostle John states in one of my favorite verses,
John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
This event is synonymous with the new heart that God promised Israel by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:26-27), where-as the person who hasn’t been born again drinks iniquity like water (Job 15:16), the one born of the Spirit will hunger and thirst after righteousness. (Matthew 5:6)
Let’s look at Jesus’ birth,
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was born of the Spirit before he was born of the flesh. This is one of the reasons that he didn’t have a sin nature and was able to be perfect for his entire life. The biggest reason though was because he was God manifest in the flesh.
After a baby is born what does the mother do? Does she send it to work, or start teaching it immediately, or does she love it, and feed it, and tend to its every need so that it is healthy and happy? New Christians are the same way, someone shouldn’t get saved and then instantly be put in a pastoral position or sent out evangelizing.
1 Timothy 3:6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
Paul realizes the correlation, the likeness, of physical birth to rebirth and compares himself, Silas, and Timothy to moms who took care of the new Christians in the same way a mother would take care of a new baby. This is another reason I think that Paul wrote Hebrews.
Hebrews 5:13-14 …everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
After their initial understanding of the Gospel and basic training on the word of God, they transitioned into teaching them how to live holy, righteous, and pure, both through word and through providing examples for them.
It is a constant struggle for me when preparing these lessons not to go too high for you guys so that it’s out of your reach, but I definitely don’t want to go too low and treat you like babies, because you’re not. If I ever say anything you don’t understand, please don’t hesitate to ask questions. One of our greatest failures in the last century, I believe, is adding the term teenager to our vocabulary. I think there are children, and there are adults, and children should transition into young adults around the age of 12-14 and start to be responsible for themselves. We are also seeking this transition in spirituality.
There should be a point, if it hasn’t happened already, where you are reading your Bible and you realize, “I don’t need Canyon or my parents to explain this to me, I can understand it on my own through the help of the Holy Spirit.” Do you remember when you were learning to ride a bike and you thought your mom or dad was still holding you upright then you realized that they weren’t but that you were doing it on your own? That’s what we’re going for, we want you to be autonomous in your ministry and relationship with God.
Paul states, “we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” We are representatives, ambassadors, for God and our lives should be becoming of his kingdom. We do this in our language, our actions, and our dress. As your spiritual leaders we at Summit are seeking the same things, sometimes it might not seem fair or reasonable, like not letting you dress up as something sinister on Halloween or making you put on a Summit t-shirt because your shirt is too small or has something vulgar on it, but we have our reasons which will hopefully become clear to you as you read your Bibles. Or if you have questions you can always ask, ultimately our goal is the glory of Christ and the sanctification, even salvation, of your soul…not that you can lose your salvation, but if you love the world and things of the world, it shows that you probably have never been saved and are in need of saving.
Continuing on… And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
The Bible is amazing, it is supernatural, it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error for its content. It is the final authority on everything it speaks of, it is not a science book, but when it speaks of science, it is accurate, it’s not a math book, but when it speaks on math, it is accurate, it is not a comprehensive history of Israel or the world, but when it speaks on history, it is accurate.
Who knows why education was so important to the Founding Fathers of the United States of America? They wanted you to be able to read this book. Every book, every chapter, every verse, every word is God breathed and as important as the rest.
It is the source of our knowledge, how God speaks to us, where faith comes from, it is our mission statement, our instructions for life, and a light for our path. Sometimes people will say it has errors in it, and at face value it might seem like there is one, but these errors are always easily harmonized.
For example, Can God create a rock so heavy that he himself cannot lift it?
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