Automated Transcript:
Hope everyone is doing well this evening. It’s good to be able to teach class again and just want to say thank you for all the thoughts, all the prayers, all of the messages for Eddie and I and the family. And for my parents, Grammy, our, our grandmother is doing well as can be expected. They, they don’t expect her to recover from this in any way,
shape or form, but she’s not in pain. She’s not able to move her right side. The stroke did paralyze her right side. She is able to, to eat. We’re, we’re able to feed her. And she is back at home. As of Monday night, we were able to get her home from the hospital. So she’s at her house and she knows she’s at her house.
And that’s helpful for anyone who’s been through this type of situation before not being in the hospital and having let alone in COVID restrictions where there’s limitations on, who could see or so the grandkids have gotten to, or great grandkids have gotten to see her. And so that’s been good, but appreciate your prayers, appreciate your concern. And it means a lot to us and hope all of you are doing well.
We are going to be in Mark chapter four this evening. And so we’re going to get started with that right after a prayer. Let us pray. Our gracious father in heaven. We bound before you grateful for the day that you’ve given to us grateful for the life that we have grateful for all of the things that you do for us on a daily basis,
we ask that you will be with us as we go through this period of study. Be with those who may be traveling in the midst of the winter storms. We pray that they have safety on the road. We pray that you will watch over us as a congregation, as we go through this year and may the things that we do and the things that we accomplish,
be those things, which are right in your sight, but also open the doors of opportunities. In the years ahead, may we always be focused each and every day, individually, and as an assembly on serving you and bringing glory to your name, all this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. So Mark chapter four begins in the midst of the second year of Jesus’ ministry.
It begins with Jesus teaching the multitudes. The multitudes are beginning to follow Jesus. And if you go back in Mark’s account to chapter three, you might recognize an occasion. That is something we just studied about in one of our previous lessons. Then his brothers and his mother came standing outside. They send to him calling him and a multitude was sitting around him.
And they said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you. But he answered them saying, who is my mother or my brothers? And he looked around in a circle at those who sat about him and said, here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of God is my mother and my sister and mother,
excuse me, my brother, my sister and mother Jesus emphasizes that his family are those who do God’s will. And that’s significant because Jesus is making it clear that it is necessary. If you’re going to have a relationship with him to hear the word of God and do it. You remember the wise and the foolish man as Jesus gave it in Matthew chapter seven,
the wise man was the one who heard the word and obeyed it. Who did that? Which he was told. Do you believe that Jesus, his brothers, his sisters had heard the things that Jesus was teaching, perhaps even had heard these things before Jesus was teaching publicly. Perhaps we certainly know that they knew what he was claiming because of discussions we have recorded.
They know who he said he was, they knew what he was teaching, and yet they didn’t act on it. They didn’t believe. And obey. Jesus said, here are my mother and here’s my brothers. And here’s my sisters. Those who do the will of my father in heaven. So it is in Mark’s context. It is in that context that he begins verse one,
chapter four. And again, he began to teach by the sea and a great multitude was gathered to him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Jesus is here by the sea. Most likely the sea of Galilee, Jesus is here by the sea and a great multitude gathers to him.
They’re coming as close as they can. They, everybody wants to hear what’s going on. And so instead of standing on the land and shouting as loud as he could, Jesus uses as he does at other times, natural acoustics. He doesn’t have a PA system. He doesn’t have a microphone. He doesn’t have, you know, 40 speakers blaring up loud,
wet on way, way, high stands. He instead gets in a boat and goes out into the sea and uses the natural acoustics of the sea and the land to be able to amplify his voice so that people could hear him. And so now the whole multitude can hear, and this is what he begins to say. He taught them anything’s verse two by parables and said to them in his teaching,
listen, behold, a sower went out to sow notice first that Jesus tells them to listen. Just the same way we talked about in Matthew chapter seven, where he says, this is the wise man, the one who hears these words of mine, and then does them. Jesus begins first with you have to hear them. A person cannot be acceptable to God unless they first hear the word of God.
They cannot keep the commandments of God unless they first hear the commandments of God. Jesus tells these people to listen. He will close this parable over in verse nine, with he who has ears to hear, let him hear Jesus emphasizes at both ends of this parable, right at the beginning. And right at the end to listen, to hear the things that he is teaching.
But as we all are, as we’ve already pointed out. And as we know that doesn’t mean just, Oh, I want you to listen up. I want you to listen to this. And then I want you to go forget it, do with it, what you will. He wants them to hear. So they might obey, but he knows some of them won’t.
And we’ll get into that a little bit later in the chapter, he says, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it. So this sower goes out. Now this isn’t like the way you and I would would sow seed in a,
in a garden. This isn’t, someone goes out and they plow nice straight rows. And then they go along those rows very carefully, every so far, according to the back of the package, you make sure and space, those seeds out every 12 inches that that’s not this kind of selling. This kind of sowing is one where the sower goes out and goes along the field and broadcasts that seed.
He takes the seed and he scatters it to the wind, as it were every direction the seed gets sown out. So it’s not being dropped very neatly, very carefully in individual locations. It’s being broadcast, it’s being sent out throughout the field. But then also notice that as a result of the nature of the sewing, it just being cast into the field.
There’s some different soils that it lands on. And the first one Jesus describes is the wayside soil in between the fields in the first century as is probably true in most fields today on the outside edge of the fields, there were paths that they would walk instead of walking, you know, right through the field. They, when they’re traveling, they would walk by these waysides.
They would walk on these paths around the fields in between the fields and such. And yet these paths were trodden upon by people. They were trodden upon by animals. They were hard packed ground and seed falling on that soil. Jesus says the birds of the air come and they eat it up because it just sits right there on top of the soil. But then notice what happens.
Verse five, some fell on Stony ground where it did not have much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up, it was scorched. And because it had no root it withered away. The second kind of soil, the Stony soil, the soil that has soil, that’s maybe rich in nutrients at the top,
but beneath it is bedrock. It’s, it’s hard. It’s Rocky soil. This inhibits those roots from growing down in to the ground where they’re going to find those nutrients where they’re going to be able to sustain themselves when the hot sun comes and dries out the ground. One of the things that my boys love to do as Mo many of you know, is in our backyard.
They, they love to dig. And this time of year, we were just out the other day and they wanted to dig in the backyard, been working on a whole, and that’s a whole nother discussion. You should ask my wife about sometime, but they’re working on their whole. And it’s very easy. You put the shovel on the ground and you put a little bit of pressure on it.
And it goes right down in the ground. But sometime around July, if you were to do the same thing and you were to go out into our backyard, which is predominantly clay, and you were to try and put that shovel down in the ground, you’d barely be able to get it in. And if you could get it in, you’d barely be able to get it out.
Why is that? Well, right now in the midst of the, the moist part of the year in the midst of the winter, and when it’s cool, that ground is loose and easy to pull up and easy to work, but come summertime, it’s baked hard as rock and a very different situation arises as far as what the plants can accomplish. So Jesus is that some of this seed ends up on soil.
That’s not thick, not deep dries out. And when the sun comes out in the heat of the, of the year, when the sun comes out, it dries it up because it has no root. So then verse seven, some seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no crop. Another part of the seed is broadcast out by the sower is the seed that lands among the thorny soil.
This soil is soil that maybe has good nutrients in it. It maybe has the ability to produce fruit, but it hasn’t been prepared so that it can be used. This is the soil you’d see around the edges of the field. Maybe somebody plowed the field. Maybe somebody has prepared the field. They’ve dug up all the thorns and the thistles and the bushes that are in the field.
But around the edges, they’re still thorns are still briars. They’re still things around the edge of the field. And some of that seed lands in there and up comes the seed up, comes the plant, but it can’t stay there. It can’t live there because those other bushes w those thorny, those thorns will choke it out. They will consume the nutrients.
They will cause that plant not to live and it will die. So it doesn’t produce a crop. Then an other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that spring of increased and produced some 30 fold, some 60 and some a hundred. Jesus says, then there’s the seed that falls on the soil that it’s, that was prepared for it. And that seed does something entirely different.
That seed produces a harvest. And he said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. But when he was alone, verse 10, those around him with the 12, asked him about the parable. Now we know at many different occasions when Jesus gives a parable, the 12 we’ll come back to him privately and say, explain this to us.
What do you mean by this? And Jesus will oftentimes explain to them the parable, but here you see this. Isn’t just the 12. This is the 12 and others who come together with them. They ask him about the parable. And he said to them, to you, it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. Jesus tells them that the unrevealed things about the kingdom.
So let’s, let’s take a moment and actually go into this. The mystery of the kingdom of God doesn’t mean that which cannot be known. It doesn’t mean that, which we conjure some idea of out. It means that which God previously under the old Testament did not reveal. It was that which he gave some glimpse into some insight into, through the prophets,
through the old Testament, but did not state plainly did not give a full understanding of. And so Jesus says the mystery of God, which was currently being revealed the information, the nature of the function, the reality of the kingdom, which was currently being taught and being revealed by God was held for those who would obey. And yet he said to those who are on the outside,
they will be taught in parables. He says, the mysteries of the kingdom of God is been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to those who are outside, all things come in parables. So that seeing you may see and not perceive and hearing, they may hear and not understand last they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.
This comes from Isaiah chapter six, and I think it would be worth it for us to go back to Isaiah six and get just a little bit of context to what it is Jesus is saying here. So put your, put your ribbon in Mark chapter four, and let’s go to Isaiah chapter six for just a moment. And Isaiah six, I read in verse one in the year that King use I had died.
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. And the train of his robe filled the temple above it stood Serafin. Each one had six wings with two. He covered his face with two. He covered his feet. And with two, he flew and one cried to another INSEAD. Holy Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the post of the doors were shaken by the voice of him who cried out in the house was filled with smoke. Do you remember in the book of revelation where God would do something and as a result, the next thing you see is John saying that the temple of God, the throne room of God would be filled with smoke and everyone would come out well,
here’s this picture, but then notice what happens. So I said, woe is me for, I am on done because I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips, or my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the Serafin flew to me having in his hand, a live coal,
which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. Okay. So keep in mind, the picture is like the tabernacle. You’ve got the throne room of God. You’ve got the temple or pictures like the tabernacle or the temple. You’ve got the temple, you’ve got the Holy place where God dwells and then the alter of burn offering there on the outside.
And so the picture here in, in the vision is as though here’s one of these angels who makes this proclamation or one of these cherubim, they make this proclamation and they go to the alter and they take the coals out of the midst of the fire. And now they’re carrying that coal over to Isaiah. And we read verse six. Then one of the Serafin flew to me having in his hand,
a live coal, which he had taken from the tongues with the altar or from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. Then I also heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said,
here am I send me, okay. So this, this seems like a good, good situation, right? God D is, is seen, God is observed God’s presence, his and his power in his mind and his majesty are observed. And then this angel says to Isaiah, I’ve purified, you, I’ve cleansed your lips. And God says, we need someone to go for us.
And Isaiah says, here I am, send me all of this sounds great. Right? But then we verse nine and he said, go and tell this people keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive, make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand where their heart and return and be healed.
Okay. Does this mean God doesn’t want people to be saved? Does this mean that God doesn’t want people to understand his word and obey it and repent? Hello. This means that there are going to be people who see no value in God who see no value in God’s word who seen no importance and significance in the message of God. And they will hear it and they will neglect it.
They will hear it and they will despise it. They will hear it and they will walk away from it. Now the multitudes had come to hear Jesus, the multitudes of gathered together. But do you imagine that every single one of them had the same level of interest in what Jesus would say? Certainly not. I mean, imagine just, just imagine in your mind,
a group of friends are going in and one friend sees another friend group or his friends preparing to go somewhere. And he says, Hey, where are y’all going? Oh, we’re going here. Jesus of Nazareth. He’s down by he’s down by the seashore. Let’s go hear him. And so this individual who had made no preparation had made no plans to go here.
Jesus goes not because of who Jesus is. Not because of what Jesus taught, but because his friends were going. And so he goes, and he hears Jesus. And when his friends leave, he leaves and it made no impact. It had no lasting value. He didn’t hear with his ears. So as to a way, others might show up like the Pharisees and they would come and they would hear Jesus.
And they would listen to what he said, but they weren’t hearing to obey. They were hearing to find fault. So there are some casual hearers who will hear the word of God. And there are some hearers who will hear the word of God to find fault with the one who speaks the word of God. Neither one of these individuals are hearing to obey in Isaiah’s day.
God says, I’m going to send you with a message, but I know my people, I know Israel. They are dull of hearing. They will hate my message, but you’re going to tell it to them because they will be judged by it. Go back to chapter six of Isaiah. Then I said, Lord, how long? And he answered until the cities are laid waste.
And without inhabitant, the houses are without a man. The land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, but yet a 10th will be in it and will return and be four consuming as a terrible three or as an Oak whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the Holy seed shall be it stump.
God says, I’m going to send my message through you, Isaiah. And they won’t hear it. And I’m going to send my message and they won’t listen, but some of them will, but a 10th, a remnant, a remainder, a stump will remain. They’ll hear and they’ll obey. And so over here in Mark, chapter four, Jesus says the same thing.
Those who were in his inner circle, those who were close to him, those who didn’t just come to hear him when the multitudes were there, but who listened to him in private and who listened to here to obey. He says to you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to those who are on the outside,
all things come in parables. He’s simultaneously revealing truth to those who will hear and concealing truth to those who will not hear, Oh, they could have heard it. They could have understood the truth. They could have dug deeper. They could have put forth an effort, but they weren’t interested in anything that involved effort to obey God. So then he said to them,
verse 13, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables, the sower sows, the word? Okay. So the first item fire here, the sower is sending out the seed and the seed is the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that has,
that was sown in their hearts. So the seed is the word. The sower is the one who declares the word. And Satan here is pictured as the bird. Okay? Then we read verse 16, these likewise, who are the ones sown on Sony’s Stony soil or Stony ground, who, when they hear the word immediately receive it with gladness and they have no root in themselves.
And so endure only for a time afterward when the tribulation or persecution arises for the word sake immediately, they stumble couple of interesting things here in this description about the Stony ground. Number one, he says, when they hear it, they readily hear it immediately. They receive It. Their reception Is quick. And that Sounds like a great thing, But no,
The description he banks about them. There’s no depth to them. And he doesn’t say no depth in their knowledge of the word of God, no depth in their study. Ha no, no, no. He says there’s no depth in themselves. Have you ever met people who are just shallow? They Don’t want to think hard about anything. They don’t want to give a lot of effort to anything.
They don’t want to invest themselves. They want to just smooth, have smooth sailing as they go through life. And whenever disruption comes in this case, Jesus describes it as persecution. They’re going to take the road often traveled. They’re going to take the road that it’s easy. They’re going to depart. They’re going to put aside Christianity because it’s now not smooth.
It’s now not easy Because They have no depth in themselves. Could You take Stony soil And turn it into Good soil? You could, But it would, it would require a change in the very nature of the soil. And it would require a great deal of effort. Does that mean that we shouldn’t ever go through the effort to change and help an individual change themselves so they will hear and become faithful and remain that way.
Now it doesn’t mean that, but it means that you’ll never do it to them without them. You’ll never force someone who is, has no depth in themselves to ever change from that situation, unless they first desire Change. So many people will lay aside the truth for what is convenient. They’ll lay aside the truth for what is easier to do. Okay?
And they’ll walk away from God when the hard times come. But then he also says, These are the ones. Now these are the ones verse 18 sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things entering in, choke the word. And it becomes unfruitful here.
Jesus says the thorny soil, that the seed lands in this soil and it begins to spring up. It gives life, but it doesn’t produce fruit. Why? Because the cares of this world, the things of this world that you notice, that phrase, that Jesus said, he said, the desires for other things take their focus away. It takes their attention away from what is most important.
They allow the things around them, the desires of the world, the, the loss of the world, the, the pleasures of this world, sin of this world to choke out the word of God. You see the reality is we’re either removing the thorns or the thorns or removing the word that those are the only two options either we’re getting rid of the sand or the sin is getting rid of the righteousness in our lives.
And you and I, we have to choose for ourselves. What is the priority? What matters most to us is that the pleasures of this world, is it the things of this world? Is it the sin of this world? Or is it serving God? And so this soil, they here, they begin to grow the, the, the plant,
the seed produces a plant. And yet it produces no fruit because it was choked out by things of less importance. But these are the ones sown verse 20 on good ground. Those who hear the word, accept it. And bear fruit. Some 30 fold, some 60 and some a hundred fold. Jesus says, but there’s good soil out there. There’s soil.
That’s been prepared. That’s ready. That will hear the word. And he wants his word sown in that soil. And that soil not only hears the word changes that seed into a plant, but it produces something. It bears fruit and stuff. Some soils will bear different levels of fruit, but they will all bear fruit. So we need to be mindful.
Yeah. Are we Christians who bear no fruit? Are we bearing no fruit of righteousness? Are we bearing no fruit of, of salvation? Are we bearing no fruit of others being taught the word of God? Are we bearing no fruit? Because we’re too busy with other things. One of these days is a phrase too many people have said about serving God.
I’m going to do that. One of these days, I’m going to learn how to teach a class. One of these days, I’m going to learn how to preach a sermon. One of these days, I’m going to learn how to do personal work and Purdue, a Bible study. He was someone one of these days, I’m going to be more faithful in my attendance.
One of these days, I’m going to, I’m going to change my life and start putting some of these sins behind, behind me one of these days. But that’s not what Jesus said. We’re to be. Jeez, Jesus said, we are to be those who hear the word of God and allow it to flourish in our lives, allow it to grow in our lives and allow it to prove,
produce a yield of exponent and show growth in our lives. But it will never be that way unless we first listen, unless we first listen with a mind to hear, to understand, to meditate on that and then implement those things in our lives. It will not happen when we just simply listen and then forget what we’ve been taught. But then also we read also,
he said to them, verse 21 is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed. Is it not to be set on lampstand? Jesus said, what? What’s the value of a lamp? You bring it into the room. You have, you need light in the room. It’s dark outside. Not in the days of electricity.
They, you don’t flip the light switch on you, light a lamp. You bring the lamp into the room. You’re sitting in the dark. So you bring the lamp into the room and you set it and you put something over it so that it doesn’t shine any light, right? Well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. You don’t bring it in and send it under the bed.
You know what? We need some light in this room. I almost tripped and fell. So I’ll go get the lamp. I light the lamp of come and I bring it and set it under the largest object in the room. No, you put it on a lampstand. You put it where it can do what it was Tended to do shine light For.
There is nothing hidden, which will not be revealed nor has anything been kept secret that should not come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him Hear All through this section. This is all a continual message about the willingness of a person to invest themselves in the word of God, to take that word, that light, that he’s delivering to them and allow it to have an effect,
But they might not do that. Then he said to them, take heed. What you hear with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you and to you who hear more will be given for whoever has to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away from him. Jesus said the one who hears the one who he needs,
what he hears, the one who remembers and meditates on and implements what he hears to him more will be. But to the one who casually came with the multitudes to hear Jesus, and they heard a parable and they went home and they thought about it. And never again, they decided not to do anything about it. They didn’t see any reason why they needed to care or have any concern about it.
They went away and all they received was what they got right there. They had no depth. They had nothing that had continual value for whoever has to him more will be given. But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away. If you don’t use the things you learn about the word of God, if you don’t teach them to others,
if you take it and you learn it and you put it in your mind and then you never review it, you never go back to it. You never repeat it. You never regurgitate it to someone else. You never teach someone what you learn. It won’t stay with you. You’ll learn. Oh, less so. And over and over and over the decades,
you’ll hear the same.<inaudible> over and over and over for decades.<inaudible> never heard that. Never heard that before. Well, maybe you have used it maybe first time, first time you heard it, we don’t need to be vitals to be Bible students. Like we need to be Bible study Bible students that we hear what we hear, give it to someone else.
Someone else give it to someone else. Someone else, someone else there are people. I know people I can tell you tell you the scores scores of every Superbowl, the last 30 last 30 years, they can tell. They can tell you what happened. Highlight super bowl for the last 30 last 30 years. But they can’t buy by movers to you.
They can’t<inaudible> Bible verse to you. They don’t know<inaudible> why<inaudible> and the others and the other, they don’t, they don’t the word of God. I know has value value in their lives, in their lives, 26. And he said, he said,<inaudible> does not know how for the year.<inaudible> when the green, the green<inaudible> harvest as has come kingdom of God.
God is as if on the ground, on the ground and wait and wait. He doesn’t, he doesn’t go out every<inaudible> to make it grow. He doesn’t go out every day, every day and measure and measure to make sure it’s growing. He doesn’t go out every day and more shit forced to grow, to grow. He doesn’t go loud.<inaudible> it will grow.
It will grow. He sells. So see the seed. And then then’s for the harvest or the harvest. The seeds seed has the power to produce the produce. The fruit, not the software, the sower, the sower does fruit. The fruit seed does seed does. So when we sold Marcel ourselves and our opinion, our opinion, we don’t produce,
we don’t produce fruit for God. When we formed<inaudible> I have, in my mind, my parents who have forced their children, their children become Christian, become Christian, maybe knife, guns, guns, but we’re but way they way, they way they delay. They, they<inaudible>, they never inverted them. Them. That’s not that God, what God’s word does.
God’s word we’re in there in there into the heart and the heart. When it oil and deuces is itself itself, it produces its fruit. And then there is a harvest. Our response is to, so our responsibility, our responsibility is to spread the word, the word, the house, the power to save, to save. And we need to learn about the word of God.
When the grain<inaudible> harvest has, has come. And you and I am you. And I need to learn and understand that if we, and if we will. So we, to, we too will re will re harvest a harvest. Paul wrote so off wrote so often about his, his time and his, his, his labor, his loopers to grow some Rose,
something among the churches, the churches to have fruit in those churches, those churches, by teaching them by teaching them. And we need to be about, we need to be about the same need to be. We need to be doing the same thing, the same thing.<inaudible> Can you all hear me? I want to welcome you to our Wednesday night devotional period.
It’s good to see each of you here. And I’ve got a few announcements here that like to get across to the entire congregation. We need to remember our sick Joan sprayer, about the same as I understand, Dorothy Wilson, I was just handed a note which are promptly lost, but the gist of it was that she is suffering from so kidney disease and her heart problems or blood pressure problems are somewhat better.
And I guess he Richardson is doing about the same that’s Sherilyn dad. Barbara Dillard is still recovering from her rotator cuff procedure. And I understand she is doing some better. Elaine sharp that Shirley Shelley Stack’s mother is still dealing with Marsa. And Ken Phillips is also suffering it’s Michael’s friend suffering with the Colvin. And of course you heard Aaron go over with his class about his grandmother she’s home.
And he did a much better job of telling all about how she’s doing, but basically she’s home. And there’s not much they can do for she’s suffered a very severe stroke. And that is leaving them with very few options. She does not want to be doing, she does not want to be resuscitated. So that’s just the way it is. And Donnie Flanigan that’s Diana’s brother lives over in Piper,
tin. He fell and he’s broken his femur. It’s real close to his hip. So he’s going to have a hip replacement in the very near future here. I don’t know either tomorrow or within a day or so nine, and certainly would covet your prayers for him and have a note here, sympathy to the Dutton family at the loss of bill, bill,
and Rhoda used to worship here. And some of you probably probably know him and also keep Francis Redmond in your prayers. She’s doing well. And after the death of Sandra, but things are starting to fall into place for her. And I think we’ll be moving forward with that pretty, pretty quickly here. Song leader tonight is going to be Michael Dale, the devotional Noah Olson,
and Terry Whitley has our closing prayer. Thank you for being, being here. I just have a quick prayer request and announcement. My sister, let me know last night and let my family know last night, that after year of trying to get pregnant, they found out she was pregnant because she had a miscarriage. So she is sure, you know, mentally distraught and asks for prayers of that.
She can get prayers from so she can make it through this because when you try that hard to get pregnant, and then that happens, it can really mess with you. So if you could please keep her in your prayers. Her name is Bethany. If you could Mark song number 931, that will be our song of invitation number 931. And then our song before brother Olson gets up here and gives us this devotional will be number 83.
God is so good. Number 83. God is so God is, so God is good. He’s good to me. He cares for me. He cares for me. He cares for me. He, so to me am so, Oh,<inaudible>,<inaudible> he? So to me he, and<inaudible> he and<inaudible> he and<inaudible> he so good to me.
Good evening. It was a privilege again, to be able to be with you tonight. You want to turn your Bibles over to Matthew chapter five for, but a moment Matthew chapter five, I’ve come to love the sermon on the Mount. And I love Jesus’s sermon, especially in verses three through 12, often called the beatitudes. I like breaking these into two different sections.
The first three would be categorized as the qualities that one must possess before becoming a Christian. And then the last five categorizes or are those qualities that Christians must possess. I want to go through verses six through 12, just for the time we have here. Notice verse number six, firstly, blessing, are they? What you do? Hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled in order for Christians to be faithful unto God.
We have to study. We have to desire the knowledge of God. Amir glance at God’s word is not going to be sufficient in our lives today. We must study second Timothy chapter two in verse 15 tells us to study, to show myself, to proven to God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I must submit my life a life as a Christian to know God’s will I must hunger for this righteous and hunger for that knowledge.
And I will be filled. As we talked about in our lesson, Sunday, Matthew chapter seven, verse number eight, it tells us, we ask for these things. We seek. We are going to get them. If we seek for the knowledge of God, we will find it. If we give diligence, but notice verse number seven, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
If I want to be forgiven by my father in heaven, I must forgive others. I must have a forgiving spirit. Jesus portrayed this in Luke chapter 23 and verse number 34. He says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He is not suggesting that he is going to forgive their sin when there is no repentance. What he’s saying is I have a forgiving spirit and we as Christians need to do the same.
We need to forgive others when they do us wrong. But notice the third in verse number eight, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. This is, you could say basically a Hey clean life fellowship with God. If we are going to be in fellowship with God first, John chapter one, verse number seven tells us that if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ. His son cleanses us from sin. We have to strive to be like he is free from contamination, free from sin as Christians. And we can be called the children of God. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful. And just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
First, John one and verse number nine. But notice verse number nine of Matthew, five, blessed are the peacemakers for, they should be called the children of God as Christians. We need to strive always for peace. First Corinthians chapter 14, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. We can’t. We, we, as Christians should not be striving for division.
We shouldn’t be coralling over things that are really pointless. We should strive for peace and that’s what we need to do as Christians. But notice the last quality that we need to possess in verses 10 through 12 of Matthew, five, but less than are they, which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you,
falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted, they, the prophets, which were before you, when I am faced with persecution, whether that be verbally, or if the time comes there might be physical persecution. I, as we, as Christians have to stand up for Christ, Paul would say in Romans chapter one,
verse 16, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why, why is Paul not ashamed? He continues because is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes his Jew first and also to the Greek. And therefore we, as Christians need to stand up for the gospel, or if we want Christ to confess us before his father, we need to confess him before men.
But perhaps there is one here tonight who has not had these, these qualities and living faithfully as a Christian, perhaps you’ve strayed from the faith. You obey the gospel once before, but not the living faithfully unto unto Christ. Would you come back to God again? I state this many times, but God is ready and willing to forgive. You just have to make that step,
but perhaps you’ve never even obeyed the gospel. And you would desire to, again, as I’ve stayed in verses three through five of Matthew five, there are three qualities that one must possess. He must be poor in spirit, have a humble heart, be willing to come to the knowledge of truth. He must be meek and he must have he mourns.
Why does he more? He repents. He turns from sin and that is what one must do. He must believe that Jesus is the son of God. Be willing to repent of his sins, confess Christ before man, and to be willing to submit to baptism. So you can be added to the church if you’ll be willing to do so. God will add you to his church and you can be called a Christian.
If anyone is subject, why don’t you come as we stand? And as we sing, Yes, lied well, shine and hearts of man, the fruitless deeds of darkness, ah, revealed by Christ.<inaudible> wake up, sleep rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Wake up sleeper rise from the dead and Christ.<inaudible><inaudible>. The fruits of his spirit is,
Oh goodness, Nudie breaks. And<inaudible> give thanks to God and Jesus Christ. Wake up, sleep rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Wake up, sleep rise from the dead and cry.<inaudible> on you. Let us pray our heavenly father. We thank you for another day. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house tonight and hear your word proclaimed Lord.
We ask that you be with the sick, be with Aaron and his family Lord, and just comfort them as only you can Lord, we thank you for Michael and Noah and their devotion Lord in, let us keep supporting them and just give them a desire to serve you. Lord, Lord, as we leave tonight, just be with us and bring us back at the next appointed time.
These things we’re asking your precious name. Amen.