08-05-2020 – Wednesday PM Class – 1 John 2
JOHN-1 John 1 and 2
The Word of Life
- John did not say he was telling about what he had (a) heard, (b) seen, (c) thought of, or (d) touched with his hands. 1 John 1:1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- God is (a) light or (b) darkness. 1 John 1:5 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What if persons claim to be without sin?
If a person has sinned, what should he do? 1 John 1:8-10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - How can an individual know that he knows Jesus? 1 John 2:3-11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Name the condition of a follower of Christ who hates his brother. 1 John 2:9-11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life-comes from ______________________________ 1 John 2:16
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Can a person deny the Son and have the Father? 1 John 2:23 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> All right. We are in first, John chapter two<inaudible> First John chapter two.<inaudible> Let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven. We bow before your throne grateful for the day that you’ve granted to us, the life, the energy and the health that we have to be able to serve you and, uh,
serve in your kingdom to lead lives that are obedient to your commandments and strive to be an example, to those who are around us. We pray for all those who are traveling and all those who are away from us, all who are stuck in their homes for one reason or another, we pray that they have a comfort in good health, and we pray that you will be with them.
During these hard times, we pray that you will be with those who are struggling because of lost jobs and because of lost income because of the situation in our economy today. And we pray that you will help them to endure and to reach out for help when they need help, but also to have the strength and the mindset to look to your word and find wisdom and understanding on how they should handle the day to day struggles of life.
We pray for Christians. The world over that are striving daily to be an influence in your kingdom and outside your kingdom for good for righteousness, for truth, we pray that we might always stand with them and oppose unrighteousness and stand for righteousness and truth. We pray that you will be with us as we go through this period of study, may we apply our minds,
our hearts to the things that John has written here in this letter that was written to the first century, but also speaks volumes to us today. We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory. We thank you for your son who died on the cross for our sins. That has granted us that mercy and that grace through his blood and his atoning sacrifice all this.
We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
John begins with that, which was from the beginning. And we said his reference there is of who of Jesus Christ in the same way he begins in John chapter one in the beginning was the word and his reference. They’re not giving it a masculine now, not giving it a personal now in the sense of a person,
but giving it a, an object. The word he said in the beginning was the word and the word became flesh verse 14 and dwelt among us. And we be held him. Well, he says over here in first John chapter one, that the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear, witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard.
We declare to you this message of eternal life, this word of eternal life, this eternal life in bodied, in the life of Christ. They a witness, they experienced themselves and they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s true. And it was confirmed by miracles. And it was confirmed by the voice that was heard in the mountain. Matthew chapter seven,
or yeah, Matthew chapter 17. There were so many confirmations that even his enemies couldn’t deny what was stated. So he says in chapter two, after he’s talked about fellowship and after he’s talked about sin, and after he’s talked about walking in the light, he says, my little children, and this will be an address, a form of address that John uses throughout his,
of pistols throughout his letters, my little children, Peter they’re at the end of second, Peter used beloved and beloved beloved. Again, John’s, John’s greeting to these Christians is my little children. These things I write to you that you may not sin. Okay? So we’re getting a formula for sinlessness, for sinless perfection, right? No, we’re getting a formula for righteousness.
We’re getting a formula for walking in the light and when we sin and he says, you will. And if you say you, don’t, you’re a liar when you sin a formula for resolving that sin. So he says these things I write to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ.
The righteous, that idea of advocate is that counselor, that one you call to you when you need assistance to stand before the judge, the, the go between, he says, we have an advocate. We would be inadequate to stand before God to stand before his throne and to be there standing by ourselves, uh, in Isaiah chapter. Hm? This one’s off the top of my head.
I think it’s Isaiah chapter one. As a matter of fact, Isaiah chapter one, Isaiah has written to the Jews, these Israelites, and he says in verse 12, when you come to appear before me who has required this from your hand to trample my courts, this is God speaking to Israel and said, saying to them who called you? Who asked you to show up at my Gates?
Who asked you to trample my cords? Now, wait a minute, Lord, you did. I mean, you gave the law of Moses. You set the commandments for how often sacrifices were to be made and how often things were to be sacrificed on a daily basis. He set the commandments. That would be the way they would answer, but he goes on to say,
bring no more feudal sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me, the new moons, the Sabbath, the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure in Nick Woody and the sacred meeting here. These Israelites are striving to appear before God to show up to worship God, to offer sacrifices to God. But what are their lives? Their lives are a NAFA ma to their sacrifices.
And so God says your sacrifices make me sick. He goes on to say this. He says, verse 15. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Spread out your hands. What’s that a, what’s that a figure for prayer? The lifting of, of hands to God in prayer. He says, when you spread out your hands or besieging it,
when you fall down before me, he said, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood. God says, you’re walking through the motions. You’re appearing before me. You’re bringing me sacrifices. You’re praying. But every time you do,
I turn my back on you. Every time I, every time you do, I won’t hear you. I won’t hear you because your actions declare your heart to be in the wrong place. And then he says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil from evil of your doings. From before my eyes sees to do evil, learn to do good,
seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Is it. You want me to hear your prayers? You want me to accept your sacrifices. You want to have a relationship with me, do these things first. Then come talk to me. He goes on to say, come now and let us reason together says the Lord though,
your sins are like Scarlet. They shall be as white as snow though. They are red light Crimson. They shall be as well. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. God says your actions,
your sins represent you to me. You might want to bring me sacrifices. You might want to bring me offerings. You might want to say prayers to me. You want might want to bring actions of adoration to me, but I won’t hear them because your sins stand between me and you. So you go over to Isaiah chapter 58, or sorry, 59 verses one and two.
And Isaiah again, declares that God will not hear them because their sins have separated them from him. John writes over here in first, John, that if they walk in the light, as he is in the light, they have that cleansing of their sins come to continual basis. If they don’t walk in the light, they don’t have fellowship with the father.
So he’s writing to them to tell them you can not sin. It is possible for you to not sin. How do you do that? Well, go on in what he says, he says, we have an advocate for the FA we’re with the father and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
And we’re going to come back to that fault in just a minute. Now, by this, we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, John says the same thing that Isaiah said, because Isaiah said, you want to proclaim your love for me. You want to proclaim, you worship me. You want to proclaim your sacrifices and your prayers to me,
but you won’t obey me. So I won’t hear you. And John says, hereby, do we know if we know him? If we keep his commandments, now there are those who will argue. Well, you know what? That just turns Christianity into a fair, say iCal system of keeping laws. No, it doesn’t. Because the problem the Pharisees had is twofold.
Number one, they wanted to bind the laws on others, but they wouldn’t bind on themselves. And number two, they believed by keeping laws, God owed them something. And that was never true. That’s not what John writes here, but what John writes is you have an advocate with the father, but if you live in darkness, you stand before God without the blood of Christ.
And without an advocate, if you live in darkness, you become like Israel. You become as one who is separated from God. So then he says this. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him. There’s John’s version of what Isaiah just said. Here’s your actions. Here’s your sacrifices.
Here’s your prayers. And God says, they make me sick. Why? Because the reality is you claim to know me, but you won’t keep my commandments. Therefore I know you don’t know me. What did Jesus say? At the end of the sermon on the mountain? He said that there would be those who would say on that day of judgment,
Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And did we not cast out demons in your name? And did we not do many wonderful works in your name? And he would declare to them depart from me. I never knew you. Same thing John say, why? Because you go back to the remainder of what Jesus said. And Jesus said,
if you had known me, you would have been obedient to my father in heaven. So we can claim to love the Lord. We can claim to be the belong to the Lord. We can claim to know the Lord we can claim to have as many of the religious world do. The Lord is our personal savior. But the claim means nothing. If,
when we’re presented with the commandments, we go, Oh no, no, I’m not doing that. Or, well, I understand that’s what it says, but okay. You’ve just set the standard for exactly what John’s talking about. So John says, whoever keeps his word. Truly the love of God is perfected in him. And by this, we know that we are in him.
He who says he abides in him on himself also to walk just as he walked, there’s our standard. There’s our standard. We go back to every single time, our standard, isn’t the person sitting next to us, our standard, isn’t our spouse, our standard isn’t our grandmother or our mother or the most saintly person we’ve ever met. And by all means,
it’s not the preacher. Our standard is the way Christ walked, because notice what he said, he who abides in him odd himself also to walk just as he walked our standard, every single one of us, our own standard for ourselves ought to be Jesus Christ. How do we treat one another? How did Jesus treat others? How should we speak to one another?
How did Jesus speak to others? How do we treat God? How did Jesus treat God? And that’s what John’s trying to get these Christians to understand. Now, the thought that I wanted to go back to back here in verse, um, verse two, I want to spend a great deal of time on it. I just want to mention it.
There are those who believe in Calvinism that will proclaim that the blood of Jesus Christ is so precious and so valuable that it could not, and would not have ever been shed for someone who would not be obedient to God. And so they will interpret passages to speaking about the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ to mean that Christ was sacrificed only for those who were all ready,
going to be saved. And yet John says something incredibly different from that. John says he himself is the propitiation. What is a propitiation? I mean, I know you’ve used that word four times today already, but a purchase price, but specifically an adequate purchase price. We’ll illustrate it this way. Grandparent has a car. There’s a grandchild that needs a car.
Grandparent’s says a grandchild. You can have my car for a hundred dollars. The car is worth $10,000. Was that an adequate price? No, it was the purchase price. It is what goes down on the tax forms, but it was not an adequate price. You and I, according to Romans chapter three and Romans chapter six deserve to die for our sins.
You and I could not pay an adequate price to redeem our own souls, but Jesus did Isaiah chapter 53. He says that he looked on him and as it’s paraphrased there, it was enough. He looked on his suffering. He looked on the suffering of the one who didn’t deserve to die in whom was no guile in whom was no guilt in whom was no sin.
And that sacrifice was enough. So he is the purchase price. That is sufficient. But notice what John says about him. He is the purchase price for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now some will come to the other side of this, or they’ll say, see, universal salvation. Jesus died for everybody.
Therefore, if Jesus died for everybody, then every one’s going to be saved. No that’s complete anathema to the entire context here. The point is Jesus, didn’t die for the Jew. Jesus, didn’t die for the Gentile to the exclusion of the Jew. Every person you meet is a person Jesus died for. And therefore, how are we to treat them?
Because that’s where John, John is leading with this discussion. It is this statement that sets up the next section in John’s message. He says, go back to verse seven brethren. I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which we have had, or which you have had from the beginning, the old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
All right. So he’s going to say, I, I’m not writing a new commandment to you. I’m writing something you’ve already heard, but then he says, again, a new commandment. I write to you. All right, John now, which is it. I don’t write a new commandment to you again. I write a new commandment to you.
Okay? I heard someone express it this way, and I think it’s a good way to understand it. I don’t know that it’s the, it’s the only way to understand it, but it was a good way to understand it. There’s there are some things that we look at as being old. You pull out a garment, that’s 30 years old, you look at it and you know,
it’s, it, it just looks old. It it’s, it’s kind of tattered around the edges. It doesn’t look like the day that it was made. It’s got age on it. And sometimes we look at things that have age on it and we think, well, maybe they’re just not as good as they used to be. Maybe that old idea.
We’ve never heard this in our modern society. Maybe that old constitution and those old bill of rights and those old laws that were written hundreds of years ago are just too old to apply to us today. John says, I write no new commandment to you. I’m not writing anything you haven’t already, but don’t treat it as if it’s just an old commandment.
You can ignore treat it just like it’s as good as new today as it was that day when it was given. So he says, again, a new commandment, which I write to you, which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is passing away. And the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother.
All right. So step back to the propitiation. Jesus died for who? Everyone, the whole world, by the way, John is also the one who wrote for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So John says, he who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now it’s gonna be one of those times where we could be clumsy with the scriptures and ignore the greater context here.
We shouldn’t. We could be like the lawyer who came to Jesus and said, who is my brother or who is my neighbor? And we, to which Jesus replied in the parable of the good Samaritan, the lawyer wanted to hear your neighbor. Is this Jew over here, your neighbor is someone who’s part of the descendants of Abraham. Your neighbor is someone you like,
what Jesus said is your neighbor is anyone and everyone. So John, right? He who says he is in the light and hates his brother. We could come to this passage and say, okay, well, he’s talking about Christians. He’s talking about how we treat other Christians. I don’t think he is. I think if we interpret it that way,
we’re using brother in the wrong context. That’s exactly right. He’s setting the standard. Remember to walk as Christ walked. Okay? And so he says, if he says he is in the light and hates his brother, he is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light. And there is no cause for stumbling in him,
but he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes and turn over to Matthew chapter five. If we go with the interpretation brother, there means Christian brother, by the way, he doesn’t say, he just says your brother. Then I think we miss the same point.
Jesus makes here. And that is the message of the good Samaritan, who is my brother, who is my neighbor, go to verse 43 of Matthew, chapter five. You have heard that. It was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you love your enemies. Bless those who curse. You do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
I want to get too far down the road of politics. And I don’t want to get too far down the road of the situation in our country because I want to stay in first, John chapter two. But this is me talking to me and you all can listen. When was the last time we prayed for someone who is a leftist communist in our country,
trying to destroy our nation. When was the last time we prayed for the people doing what they’re doing in Portland, without it being a prayer of God, put a stop to it. When was the last time we got off of the train of animosity that our country likes to produce in this group versus this group, because it sells ratings and makes a profit and get back to doing what God said.
And that is praying for those who persecute us and despitefully use us. They were burning Bibles in front of the courthouse. You don’t think they intend to send a message. It wasn’t happenstance. The Bibles were there. They brought them there. But when was the last time we go back and go, wait a minute. We look at ourselves first. We judge us by him,
not them. So then he says, this I’m off. I’m off my counseling of myself. Okay. He who loves his brother abides in the light. And there is no cause for stumbling in him, but he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Hate blinds.
You read history. See what hate, especially hate that has been indoctrinated. And in bred for generation after generation will do pull out any newscast from the middle East. And I don’t know how many years people say, well, they’ve been fighting each other for thousands of years. Yes, they have. Why? Because they’ve been teaching each other to hate each other.
For thousands of years, I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake. He steps into a moment that’s very poetic in raw in its form. And you can almost just, you could just pull this section out and put it in Psalms and it wouldn’t be out of place at all. He says, I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
I write to you fathers because you have known him, who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you little children, because you have known the father. I have written to you fathers because you have known him, who is from the beginning. I have written to you young men,
because you are strong in the word of God, abides in you. And you have overcome the wicked one. As he goes through and uses these, these ideas to put in their mind, their own strength. He writes to those who are novices, who are little children. And he writes to those who are young men who are maturing in the faith.
And he writes to those who are fathers, the mature elders in the faith. And he says, you will all have a place. Sometimes the mature ones and the faith. Look at those who are immature in the faith and say they’re worthless. And sometimes the immature ones in the fave, look at the ones who are aged in the faith thing of they’re old.
I don’t understand this yet. John has a way of bringing each one’s abilities and talents and a position in the faith and bringing it forward as a positive. You and I probably of all of us have probably met somebody in our lives who is just, I think one of the easiest ways to put it is just a Barnabas. He’s the type of person or she’s the type of person.
They will always find something positive about the worst person they have ever met. And they’ll tell you about it. They’ll find something good in somebody, in anybody, in everybody, because they look for it. John writes to these Christians and he wants them to understand not only their relationship to God, not only their forgiveness and their state of being forgiven, but he wants them to understand the value that God sees in each of them.
He says, do not love the world. He begins first with their strengths. He begins first with what they’ve done, right? He begins first with the things that they’re doing, right? But then there’s the caution. There’s the other side of it. The commandment do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the father is not in him. So don’t hate your brother or the love of God. Isn’t in. You don’t love the world or the love of God is not into you. He goes on to say for all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes of the pride of life is not of the father,
but is of the world. I don’t know how many times in sermons I’ve heard preachers take that passage and go straight back to Genesis chapter three and introduces to every form of temptation set right before Eve and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Satan had it down from day one. He knew our weaknesses before we did,
but that’s no excuse on our part. He says, do not love the world. Then he says, verse 17, the world is passing away and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. He sets before these Christians a basic opportunity to realize the difference, a basic value proposition. Here’s the value proposition you can love and adore that,
which is passing away and will not last, or you going to love and adore the one in whom you can have eternal life make a choice, but one of them ends in destruction. One of them is temporary and one of them is eternal. One of them involves eternal blessings and involves knowing God and involves the love of God being in your life. And one of them is self focused.
So he says little children, again, continually going back with this message of empathy, little children. It is the last hour. And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming. Even now, many antichrist have come by which we know that it is the last hour all. If we had the time to talk about all of the, uh, amazingly fanciful ideas that have been promoted in the religious world about the antichrist,
most of them from the book of revelation, where by the way, the word antichrist is never found it’s found here, but what does the word mean against Christ? Now? Something very important, always in the context is John defines the antichrist as someone who is by very, the very definition of the word in opposition to Christ. But notice what he says about the antichrist in the singular sense and all the antichrist who had come to that point and were already in the world,
all those who opposed Christ. He’s talking about people who oppose Christ in a very specific context. Notice what we read. They who’s the, they grammatically speaking the antichrist. They went out from us, whoever it is that John’s talking about were those who went out from among Christians. He’s not talking about Russia. He is not talking about the emperor, sitting on the Roman empire,
sitting as, as the emperor of the Roman empire. He’s not talking about Caesar. He’s not, he’s not talking about Mao. He he’s talking about someone who departed from among us. So knows what he says. They went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. Pretty logical argument here.
They departed from our myths opposing Christ and they left us. And yet if they claim to be of us, they’re not. If they claim to be Christians, they’re not because if they were, they wouldn’t have departed. He goes on to say, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us.
He says, here’s what happened. They departed. And they may have had all their own reasons for departing. But what it did was it showed who they really were. It manifested them. It made it obvious who they were. He says, but you have an anointing from the Holy one. And you know, all things I have written to you because you,
uh, excuse me, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. John says you’ve been given the gifts of the Holy spirit. That’s what the anointing is that he’s talking about. You’ve been given this miraculous knowledge from God and revelation from God through the apostles,
through the prophets, through the teachers and preachers and evangelists that the Holy spirit has placed among the Christians. You know the truth. I’m not writing to you because you don’t know that the antichrist aren’t the truth I’m writing to you because you do know it, but I want you to continue in it. He says, who is a liar? By the way,
right here is his definition of an antichrist who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. And if you go over the, the, the only connection I know of between this passage and Matthew chapter 24 is the fact that Jesus said there would be those coming before the destruction of Jerusalem claiming to be the Messiah. Is it possible that John is indicating,
there are those who went out from among the Christians claiming Jesus. Isn’t the Messiah. I am. That’s the only connection I can make between this passage in Matthew chapter 24. But if you talk to a pre millennialist, you can find 800 more, uh, who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is anti Christ in opposition to Christ who denies the father and the son,
whoever denies. The son does not have the father. Either. He who acknowledges the son has the father. Also remember Jesus made it clear. John chapter 17, the father dwells in me and I had well in him. And if you dwell with me, then you dwell with the father. John makes it clear. You can’t have one without the other.
You can’t have Christ without the father. You can’t have the father without Christ. It’s not possible. Therefore led that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning in which you heard from the beginning, if that, which you heard from the beginning of bides in you, you also will abide in the son and in the father. What’s he doing?
Talking about the gospel. He says, if you allow the word of God that you’ve received already to remain in you, then you won’t depart. You won’t believe these false teachers. You won’t go after those claiming to be the Christ. You will stay with Christ. You will abide with him. And this is the promise that he has promised us eternal life.
These things I have written to you concerning those who tried to deceive you, but the anointing, which you have received from him, abides in you, and you do not need than anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie. And just as it has taught you, you will abide in him.
This is one of those passages where we need to always remember number. John is writing to the first century church and not us because this is was one of those passages. Like some of the passages in John 14 and 15 and 16, where Jesus is talking to the apostles that don’t apply to us. They don’t apply to us directly. They will apply to us because we have the inspired word of God written down.
But the Holy spirit, isn’t speaking to us, the Holy spirit, isn’t revealing. God’s word through us. He’s done that already. So the equivalency for us is not an anointing from God that we received by the laying on of the apostles, hands in person, the equivalency for us is getting into this book and understanding what God has already said. We’ll close up the rest of this.
And now little children abide in him that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteous is born of him. That is not the same thing as saying, and this is where we’re going to pick up, uh, in our next class.
That is not the same thing as saying everybody who does good things is righteous. That’s not what said. He said that the one who practices righteousness is of him. And there’s a lot packed into those two words, practice righteousness. We’ll delve into that. Let’s go through the questions that we did not do on Sunday. John did not say he was telling about what he had a heard be seen,
see thought of, or D touched with his hands. See, fought of number two. God is light and a, or B, sorry. God is a light or B darkness, light a number three. What if persons claim to be without sin? They’re a liar. And the truth is not in them. If a person has sin, what should he do?
Confesses sins. To whom context, the God, the context there is God. Okay. How can an individual know that he knows Jesus, keep his commandments. Number five, name the condition of a follower of Christ who hates his brother fallen. He is in darkness. That’s the, that’s the key word. We’re looking for. Everything in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes from the world. Can a person then Nye the son and have the father. No, they cannot. All right. Thank you for your attention.<inaudible> You’re fair. And then keep me straight. I wouldn’t even know I had this tonight. I forget. Is this on?
I guess it is. It’s good to see everyone who’s saving. We’ve enjoyed a wonderful class and here, and I’m sure the young people did as well. Uh, we have a few announcements we’d like to make before we have our devotional or continue to remember Joan Springer, uh she’s at times doing better. And then at times not doing very well. So I’m not sure how to describe that,
but we’ve all been there at some point in time in our lives. One day we feel all right, and the next day we feel lousy, but continue to remember Joan Dorothy Wilson, recovering from her recent ER, visit with very high blood pressure and possible a light, possibly a light stroke. Uh, she will see her doctor next week. So keep, uh,
Northeast in your prayers. And I know Rodale is, uh, he’s going to have an ultrasound or heart valve issue tomorrow. So keep them both in your prayers. Both of them sound like them in pretty spheres condition with those things, uh, Pam shaven. And of course, Sylvia pass are still having problems with their backs. I don’t know that they’re ever really found out if there’s anything they can do.
I haven’t heard from either one I’m saying that they don’t definitely that they can have something done, but I would think, uh, hopefully a doctor could maybe help them out in some way, but some people do not want to go under the knife, but, uh, generally that’s what it takes to take that pressure off of those nerves. Um, nationwide gospel meeting,
uh, college flowers are on the table there in the four year. If you’d like to pick one of those up a month and a man’s business meeting dates have been changed to Monday evening at seven following the second Sunday of the month. So we probably keep an ass in that be coming up pretty soon. Uh, Holly Richardson’s grandfather, uh, I don’t know if you got the email,
he, he passed away from an ATV accident and actually it was, uh, his son found him, um, the next morning, this is what I understand. So, uh, it was Monday morning. So I, I don’t know if you’ve all heard that or not, but we certainly want to remember Holly and her grandfather and the Richardson family,
and this loss to them. Aaron will be helping to host a TV broadcast about the Tennessee primary election tomorrow night from seven to 11:00 PM. You can watch online at ETB, N T v.com. And I probably should put this on the table so you can write that down. Cause I would never remember once I left the building, probably if I wasn’t writing it down right now,
so keep that in mind and we hope that will go well. And if you have a chance, let’s see what Heron has to say about that. Uh, Marie Springer is going to be leading our song services evening and then Aaron would be bringing the devotional. Right. Okay. I figured it probably was since I didn’t see Michael and then a terrier Whitley will be leading us in a closing prayer.
Any other announcements that I might not have had and everything’s okay. Let me repeat that. So everyone can hear lucky Hanks got a good report. He was showing some blood in his urine. He went back and the doctors got with him and they found out that he’s he’s okay now and not having any problems. So we’re certainly thankful for that, but keep a left hand Bader live in your prayers.
I know they’d appreciate it. Uh, I know it’s kind of been difficult for both of them last few months, I guess you would say anything else that I might need, just say, okay, Marie, please put the marker in. You booked a 354, number three, five, four, 353<inaudible> he was praying. He said one day when sin was as dark as it could be.
Jesus came for to be born of a verge and dwelt among men. My example is he living. He loved the dying. He saved me buried. He can read my<inaudible>. He just hit five creative all have one day he’s coming. Oh, blog Dan. One day they let him up was mountain one day. They knew him to die. The tree suffering anguish there’s five,
10 rejected burying our sin. My redeem her is he living. He loved me.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> he just fired<inaudible> one day. Hate is<inaudible><inaudible> one day the trumpet will sound for his calm man. One day, those guys with his glory will shine. Wonderful.<inaudible> Lauria save your, this. Jesus is my<inaudible><inaudible> me.<inaudible> my<inaudible> arising.
He just hit<inaudible><inaudible> Romans chapter five. Paul begins that chapter as we have it with therefore having been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord. Jesus Christ peace in the world is a, probably a hope that’s outside of reality, but peace with God. Isn’t peace with God. Ultimately is the peace that will last beyond this life.
There may come a day where peace is achieved in this world for a short time, but it’s unlikely in a world of sin that peace will ever remain in any permanent form, but peace with God is available through Jesus Christ through whom we also have access by faith into this grace, in which we and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. As we stand in grace,
as we stand in justification, as we stand in hope as Christians, we do so. Not because we’ve earned that position. Not because we’ve merited salvation by doing enough good commandments or acting in a right way enough times, but instead by grace through faith, our faith, which is always in scripture, encapsulating our obedience, our faith and obedience brought together by God’s.
Grace causes us to stand justified before God verse six says for when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely, for a righteous man, will one die yet, perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As we mentioned in the Bible class this evening and the adult class, one of the things that is true is that we could never pay the sacrifice for sin. We could never merit sin, nor could we atone for ourselves yet while we were still sinners while we were still unworthy while we were still, without God Christ died for us, the, just for the unjust,
the righteous for the unrighteous. So having said all of that, where do we stand in relationship to the sacrifice of Christ tonight? Do we stand in a place of faith and obedience of grace and hope and justification, or do we stand condemned by the one who would atone for us? Jesus said in John chapter five, that God had committed all judgment into his hand.
And that there was coming a day when those who were in the graves would hear his voice and would come forth some unto everlasting life and some onto damnation. So it’s up to us. What is our relationship to the atoning propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You’re outside the body of Christ this evening. The relationship you have is one that is lacking. The relationship you have is the one that is standing condemned.
But if you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve departed from the truth, if you’ve become like the ones John mentioned in our class this evening that had departed out from the Christians, then you as well stand condemned. Not because you’ve departed out from us, but because you’ve departed from him. But if you’re walking in the light, as he is in the light,
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from your sins on a continual basis. What is your relationship to the sacrifice of Christ? If there’s any way we can aid you in your relationship, why not come forward as we stand? And as we say, I gave my life for<inaudible> and queer come from the dad I gave, I gave my life for the,
what had given for me. I gave, I gave my life for the one had given for me, my father’s house, my glory circle throne. I left<inaudible>. I laughed. I laughed it all. Four D had a laugh dog for me.<inaudible> had a left door for me and I have<inaudible> from my home.<inaudible> I bring, I bring rich gifts to the one,
had a bra for me. I bring, I bring rich gifts. Two D one had a bro.<inaudible> Let us pray. Our heavenly father. We thank you for a beautiful day today, Lord, we thank you, Lord. Your love, your Grace and your kindness and your mercy. Lord Lord, we ask that you be with ones that are sick.
Once they’ve lost, loved ones, Lord, just be with them and comfort them. Lord is only, you can Lord, we thank you for the privilege to be in your house tonight and learn more of your word, Lord, just be with us and what we’re this daily Lord and just forgive us for, we fail. You do these things we ask in your name.
08-02-2020 – 1 John 1-2 (Class) & (Sermon)
CLASS:
JOHN-1 John 1 and 2
The Word of Life
- John did not say he was telling about what he had (a) heard, (b) seen, (c) thought of, or (d) touched with his hands. 1 John 1:1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- God is (a) light or (b) darkness. 1 John 1:5 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What if persons claim to be without sin?
If a person has sinned, what should he do? 1 John 1:8-10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - How can an individual know that he knows Jesus? 1 John 2:3-11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Name the condition of a follower of Christ who hates his brother. 1 John 2:9-11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life-comes from ______________________________ 1 John 2:16
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Can a person deny the Son and have the Father? 1 John 2:23 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Good morning. We are in first John chapter one, let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven. We thank you for this day that you’ve given to us grateful for this life that you’ve blessed us with. We’re mindful of those who are dealing with difficulties in their lives, whether they be physical or emotional or spiritual, pray that you give them the comfort and strength that they need.
Through those hard times, we pray for those who still remain at home. And, uh, we pray that they will continue to have safety and good health. And we are so grateful for their willingness to continue participating in, uh, being a part in this congregation and the worship, uh, that we offer to you on a weekly basis. Lord,
we pray that you help us to be an encouragement to them. And to all those that are around about us, always strive to Put God first to strive, to look to you in a sincerity and in strength and in understanding and willingness to be obedient to you all the rest of our days, we pray for this city and we pray for this area.
We pray for this country that they might make wise decisions that they might make choices that lead to the further into the gospel, that we might be able to teach people and evangelize and spread the gospel throughout the world. And that people will be willing and open to hearing that gospel being obedient to the truth and receiving the salvation of their souls through the obedience of that gospel.
We pray for all the many good works that are going on throughout the brotherhood and especially those that we support here at Collierville. We pray that they remained faithful and steadfast sound in the faith and that they will always have open doors of opportunity and fruitful vineyards in which to labor. We pray that as we go through this time of study, the things that we study will be beneficial to our hearts and our minds.
We might grow closer to you in faith, and a knowledge might grow in grace. And in understanding all this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. John begins this letter. This will be kind of the middle of the letters that John writes by way of length. You’ve got John, you’ve got the book of revelation. You’ve got first, John,
and then second and third, John, that are all that are both just a chapter long. So this one’s kind of in the middle, but it begins with really the assumption that you’ve already read the book of John. If you haven’t read the book of John and you come to first, John, you’re going to wonder why he’s talking about the things he’s talking about because he begins off of the exact same premise of the things,
which he’s already said, which he’s already told them, which they’ve already understood, but he reinforces these things that, which was from the beginning. He says, chapter one, verse one. Oh, and you read that, which was from the beginning. If you’ve read John, you know, the very beginning of John begins in the same place in the beginning was the word.
And the word was with God. And the word was God, same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. That, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life.
You go on there. And John chapter one, and you read that in him was two things. John describes in John chapter. One, two things that were in him, light and life. John chapter first, John chapter one is going to begin by talking about the word of life. And he’s going to go talking about that life for a little bit,
and then he’s going to transition to light. Okay? So the, these have parallel thoughts. He’s bringing these things forward to discuss what he’s going to discuss in this book. Now, a couple of additional details, the passages you need to really, really, really focus on to connect John and first John or John chapter one and John chapters, 14,
15 and 16, because as Jesus speaks to these apostles, they’re in the upper room and he prepares them for what’s coming. He prepares them for his betrayal. He prepares them for his departure. He sets a number of things before them, where he says, for instance, if you love me, keep my commandments. You’re going to have that idea in first,
John, over and over and over again, John chapter 15, he says, you are my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command you again. We’re going to have all of these thoughts brought forward into this book. So he says that, which was from the beginning, which we have heard. John wants to make it clear as he begins this letter,
that he is, he is writing this as a personal eye witness testimony of a man who really did walk the earth. Because by this point in the first century, there were already those who were claiming that Jesus never came in the flesh. There were already those sex and, and others among the Jews and among the, the Christians and those who had kind of departed from the church and departed into waywardness that were already saying things like the flesh is inherently sinful.
And if Christ is, God, God can’t be in the flesh because God can’t have sin. And since sin is inherently sinful, therefore Christ couldn’t come in the flesh. Therefore he was a spirit was not flash. John opposes that premise and opposes everything about it by emphasizing first and foremost that this word, this word of life they heard. Now, if it were just words,
if it were words, plural, not the word. Okay? If he weren’t talking about Christ and we’re just talking about an abstract thing, a gospel message, he might be able to say they heard it. He’d have a harder time saying they saw it. He hadn’t even harder time saying they handled it. His description forms for us, this reality,
he’s talking about not some thing, but someone, he says that, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we’ve seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you. He says, I stand I right here as a witness,
as an eyewitness. And we make this testimony to you for this reason that you are declared to you, that eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that also, or that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son,
Jesus Christ. John says not only was there a person that we witnessed, that we heard that we looked upon that our hands have handled. But in addition to that, he says that that person, that word of life was eternal life manifested to us. God, put on this earth in the form of Jesus Christ, not someone who had existed for a long time,
not someone who like one of the angels who’d, who’d been around from the early beginnings. Not even as the Jehovah’s witnesses claim. The first created being because that’s what they claim. Jesus Christ is the first created being not that he’s not God, no, God manifested eternal life in Jesus Christ. Coming to this earth. He says, we saw the one who was in the beginning.
We saw the one who created everything. We saw the one who upholds all things by the word of his power. If we borrow the language from Hebrews chapter one, he says, we saw him and we touched him and we heard him and we looked upon him and he was manifested to us for this reason that we might have fellowship with the father, go to John chapter 17.
John chapter 17 is Jesus is in the upper room. This is the very last thing that occurs before they leave the upper room. And they go into the garden of guest’s eMoney. Jesus spoke these words and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you. As you have given him authority over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to. As many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Christ form the foundation and the basis for our eternal life. If we don’t know God, the father, and if we don’t know Christ,
the son, we don’t have eternal life. Go back over to chapter 14, chapter 14, verse one, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me, in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not. So I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am there, you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know, Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way Jesus said to him? I am the way the truth and the life,
no one comes to the father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you know, him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father. And it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long?
And yet you have not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does the works,
believe me, that I am in the father and the father in me or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Jesus is he is speaking to the apostles is they are preparing a, as he is preparing them for this end, that is coming of his time on this earth. And his being brought on trial and his being put on the cross and his dying and going into that tomb.
He reminds them, he declares to them. When you know me, you know him, and if you don’t know me, you don’t know him. There is this connection between Christ and the father that they are inseparable. And yet they’re at the end of that passage that we read said, if you can’t get over it and I’m going to, I’m going to paraphrase it.
If you can’t get over the fact that you’re seeing someone in the flesh and understanding he is eternal God in the flesh, then at least believe me for the works that declare what I say to be true. And so Phillip says, show us the father. And he says, you’ve seen him because you’ve seen me. So now let’s go back over to first.
John chapter one, this entire letter is focused around one central theme. Obedience to God brings about a fellowship with God. You can’t have fellowship with God without obedience, but with obedience, you can have not only fellowship with God, but the complete knowledge of your fellowship with God. This book is a rebuke to anyone who claims to be a Christian and says,
I hope I’m saved. They need to go read first. John, if, if someone has the mindset, I’m not really sure that I know they need to go read first, John, because that’s the entire premise of this book is he writes to these Christians. It says not only can, you know, with a complete guarantee, having read this from a personal eyewitness,
that Jesus Christ came to this world, but that when you know him, you know, the father and that when you know the father, you know, you have eternal life and it’s as basic as that, John keeps going back to that over and over and over. We’re going to see it again and again and again. So let’s go into verse three.
He says the eternal life was, uh, which was with the father, was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And we just read in chapter 14, Jesus saying, I dwell in the father and the father dwells in me.
We read in chapter 17, that I’m with a father. And he is with me. We read the rest of chapter 17. We see Jesus drawing forward. That when you do the things, which he says, you have the fellowship with the father that he has. And when an individual who never saw him in person and never came in contact with him in person,
here’s the words that the apostles would teach. They also could have fellowship with the father. Just the same as those who walked with him in person. Just the same as those who heard him in person. Okay? So there’s no separation of fellowship. Oh, I heard Jesus in person. I was with Jesus in person. I have a greater fellowship than you.
Nope. Jesus said the fellowship comes through the gospel. The fellowship comes through the message of eternal life. He says that you may have fellowship with us and that we may have fellowship with God, the father and the son, anytime you’re talking about fellowship in your mind, what you ought to do is picture a triangle because you’re talking about fellowship between two Christians.
The only way those Christians have fellowship is if God is also in fellowship with both of them, if God is not part of the fellowship, it doesn’t matter what kind of relationship those two Christians have. Because if one of them isn’t connected through God, they don’t have a connection to the other person at all points in time for there to be fellowship. God must be part of that equation.
And if at any point you have a Christian over here and a Christian over here. If any point they stop having fellowship with God, the father, and one of them remains in fellowship with God, the father, they’re not in fellowship with one another. Now, whether or not they recognize it or not is a completely different thing. But you, you will hear congregations talk about,
well, we know that brother, his way word, we know that individual, he, he, he is not living right, but we’re just, we’re giving it time. We’re not going to withdraw fellowship from you don’t have any fellowship with him. Not in the biblical sense. Why? Because he stopped fellowshipping with God. The moment he stops fellowshipping with God,
you don’t have any connection to him. Now there’s still responsibilities and commandments for a congregation to be able to show that an individual has fallen away and to be able to, uh, do the things in Mark. One who is, who is way where all of those are necessary. But the reality is the fellowship is gone. The moment that person is no longer in fellowship with God,
because we only have fellowship with one another through God. So as you kind of picture this, this triangle there’s Christ, there’s the father. There’s us. The only way we get to anybody else in our fellowship is through God, the father and Jesus Christ. If we don’t first connect to them, we don’t connect to anyone else. Here’s a good way to explain it or think about it.
Uh, there, there was a day in time, at least as I understand it, where you picked up the phone and the very first thing you connected to was who the operator, without the operator, who could you connect to? No buddy, unless it was a party line, all right, we got to make exceptions for the rural areas. But under that,
excluding the party line under that idea, if you picked up the phone and the operator, wasn’t sitting at their desk, who could you call nobody without the operator, you had no connection to anybody else. God’s the operator. And if someone goes out side, their little house and cuts those phone lines, what are they no longer connected to the operator?
Well, that’s what people do in their spiritual lives. When they depart from the truth. When they go into sin, when they have an idea about themselves, like John will describe here at the end of the chapter, I have no sin. John says, when you reach that point, or when you depart, when you leave fellowship with God, the father it’s as though they cut those lines and the operator may try and get a message through,
but what’s it going to hit every time? Nothing because they’ve cut the lines. So what does a person have to do? If they’ve cut the lines, they got to go fix them. See, unlike the, the telephone example, when you cut the lines in this situation, you’re the only one who can repair them telephone. Company’s not going to come out and fix the lines.
Preacher’s not going to come out and repair the lines for you. It’s not going to happen. Not possible. Preacher might come out and inform you. You have cut lines. You need to fix this. Elders might come out and study with you and say, listen, there’s a problem. And you have to resolve this. But the elders and preacher can’t fix the lines.
The only person who can is the person who cut fellowship with God. Now, if someone says that person over there who has cut fellowship with God, I am still in fellowship with them. The only way they can still be in fellowship with them is if they also cut fellowship with God. Absolutely, absolutely. And so this is where, you know,
we, we, we have things that we, it as we’ve studied scripture and everything, we kind of lump a lot of things together in the word fellowship. But what John is talking about here is the fellowship of eternal life. Okay? He’s talking about a spiritual connection between God, the father that brings eternal life. And here’s another way to illustrate that.
It’s the way Jesus, did you have a vine and through the vine comes eternal life. What happens when you cut the limb from the vine? It dies. Well, what if another limb over there says, well, wait a minute. I’m still in fellowship with that limb. The only place they’re going to be in fellowship is on the burn pile,
but neither one of them will have eternal life flowing through them because they’re no longer connected to the vine. Now, can they be grafted back in all? Absolutely. And Jesus talks about that. Jesus illustrates that. And as a matter of fact, illustrates the Gentiles being grafted in to the vine. And so here, Jesus talks about the Jews who are going to be removed from the vine and an outcast and burn.
And yet the Gentiles are going to be grafted in. But if you don’t have connection to the vine, you don’t have life. So then notice what we read. All these things are, excuse me. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. One of the other ideas, one of the other words that you’re going to see come up and he just start making a list.
Uh, you’re going to see the word love a lot. You’re going to see the word a joy come up. A number of times, you’re going to see the word know, K N O w about 27 times in verse John in five chapters, you’re going to see fellowship and obviously Christ and the father quite often as well, but then notice what he says.
He says, we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you. Yeah, I can’t let that one go. Before we go back over to John chapter 17, because that’s one of those statements. It’s very easy to just kind of read it and, and breeze through it.
But there’s more to it than that. John chapter 17, verse six, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me and they have kept your word verse six. Now they have known that all things which you have given me or from you, or I have given to them,
the words which you have given me, and they have them and have shirt have known Shirley that I came forth from you. And they have believed that you sent me go down to verse 17, uh, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them in the world. And for their sakes,
I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us. When he keeps saying the word one, he means the same thing.
John means by the word fellowship. He says that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. So when John writes these things, he says, we write these things to you, that your joy may be full. And this is the message which we declare to you. It’s the message we received from him because Jesus said,
I took the words that God, the father you gave to me and I gave them to them. And they took the words that Jesus gave to them. And they declared them to somebody else. The moment you take an individual and they take the word that came from the father and they take the word that came from the sun and they take the word that came from the apostles and the prophets.
And they substitute their words for God’s. You cut the vine because it is the truth that was flowing down, that line of communication. And when they substituted their words for the truth, they substituted. The one thing that could save a soul. There are times when baking, cooking, you find you ran out of a supply. You just found out you needed as you read the recipe and you go it’s okay,
because I can substitute that for this. And it will be okay. And sometimes it is. And sometimes the person who eats the first bite goes, something’s not right. Something’s not right. It might be just a little bit off. I mean, it might still be edible, but something’s not right. Texture is wrong. And the consistency is wrong.
The taste something is off. Why? Because the original ingredients, the thing they expected that was made up of those original ingredients, isn’t the anymore it’s been changed. He says, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. Fundamental attribute of God. God is light and no darkness can exist in him.
And we’re not just talking about light in the sense of sunlight. We’re talking about true light. We’re talking about goodness righteousness, that which is pure, that which is Holy God is completely, perfectly pure. Holy righteous, just, and there’s no tainting of him. There’s no. Uh, what was the old country song? 99, 98.3% pure love,
or what? 99.8%. You know, there was an old country. So I don’t remember what it was, um, that, you know, Ronnie Millsap sang it. So one of y’all will rubber hood what it was, but Rodney Millsap sang a song about pure love, but, but he used the statement that nothing was a hundred percent pure in life.
You know, it was the closest that you could get to pure was 90 whatever percent. Okay. And so he just declared his love to be pure love, but it was, you know, 98 point, whatever. Anyway, um, it works better when everybody knows the song. So that’s not God though God’s not 99.9 (999) 999-9999, 9%. Good.
God is a hundred percent good. And zero point infinity evil. This is the message there’s we have declared from him and declare to you that God is lightened in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. One thing to remember as we go through this section is John is talking about a pattern of life.
John is not talking about an individual who has faults and sometimes sins. When he’s talking about walking, he describes walking in the light or walking in darkness that is a continual choosing of a path. And he says, you can’t walk in darkness and have fellowship with light, but he’s going to clarify what he means that he’s not talking about the fact that we will ever be perfect,
that we will ever be 100% pure good in this life. He makes it clear. That’s not what he’s saying. He says, if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son cleanses us from all, or yes, cleanses us from all sin. As we walk in the light, as we daily, make the choice to be obedient to God. As we daily strive to purify ourselves as we daily strive to be Holy as he is Holy first, Peter chapter one, verse 16, John’s saying I’m not declaring to you that you’ll be sinless.
I’m declaring to you that you’ll be washed in the blood of the lamb. You go over to the book of revelation again, John first, John, second, third, John revelation, there. They’re all, they’re all connected. And you see the lamb that was slain. You see the blood of the lamb. You see the saints who die for the name of Christ being handed robes that are washed white in the blood of lamb.
And you see that declaration you overcame. And so you are handed a white robe, something that declares your purity, your holiness. Now he says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Notice again, you have fellowship where in the light you have fellowship in Christ. You have fellowship with the father.
You have fellowship in light, but what if you leave the light? No I’m fellowship anymore. You also in that fellowship have the cleansing of the blood of Christ. If you leave the light, what do you also leave the cleansing of the blood? But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ.
His son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. John, the apostle, the one who was there sitting beside Jesus in the upper room, the one who was there at the foot of the cross, the one who was there, who Jesus declared to him. This is your you’re now the son of my mother.
And she’s now the one who belongs to you, John, the apostle who writes concerning Christ in such a touching and emotional and connected way that he won’t even mention his own name. And John, as an older man, still writes and says, if you say you have no sin, you’re a liar. And the discussion. So he’s not talking. When he says walk in the light about sinless perfection.
He is talking about one who stays in the light. He goes on to say, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is not the idea that as a Christian,
we fade off into darkness and then we get forgiven and we fade back in the light and we fade off in a darkness. We get forgiven. And every single time we make a single error. We go off into darkness. We have, that’s not what this is talking about. As a person who is walking, the light continues to seek God’s forgiveness continues to confess his sins to God,
continues to do what’s right. They don’t ever leave the path of right. They don’t ever go out of the blue light and into the darkness. The person who declares, I have no sin and I have nothing to confess to God. Do you remember the prayer of the Pharisee? Jesus gave the two prayers. The one was from the center and he first and foremost declared himself to be what a sinner and the other was from the Pharisee who declared himself to be everything God wanted him to be.
And which prayer did Jesus say was heard, and which prayer was not the prayer of the center. We don’t need to be confused about who we are and how we struggle. We don’t need to be deceiving ourselves into thinking. I don’t struggle. If you don’t struggle are dead. Congratulations. You’re done with this life. If you’re still breathing, congratulations,
you still have time to struggle. But if you start to convince yourself, you don’t need God. That you’re good enough that you do enough. You need to walk yourself right back to what Jesus said in Luke. When he said, when we’ve done everything we’ve been commanded to, to, we are still unprofitable servants Because the master doesn’t owe us anything,
but he loves to give us righteousness. And there’s another term you’re going to see throughout this book. He is righteousness. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness, which by the way, leaves only what righteousness behind. If all unrighteousness is stripped away by the blood of Christ, continually cleansing us of our sins. As we continue to confess our sins, as we continue to meet God in recognition,
we need God. Then the only thing left behind is the righteousness. I’ve always thought one of the easiest ways to clean the house is just plow the thing under then you’re done. You don’t have to go back and clean it again. If it doesn’t exist, you don’t have to clean it by life has given me a look. They’re like, yeah,
that is kind of how you looked life. But the object of cleaning something is to leave behind the thing that needed to be claimed to leave behind the thing that was important enough to be cleaned and to leave it clean. How many times growing up was I instructed to go clean the bathroom and clean the sink, the mirror only for my mother to walk in and go,
why are there still spots? Why are there, if, if it were clean, the spots would be gone and it would look like a clean mirror. It doesn’t look like a clean mirror. So you didn’t clean it. Oh yes I did. No you didn’t because there’s still spots on it. So our lives, as we go through life and we make choices,
sometimes we’re going to make the wrong one and sometimes we’re going to sin and sometimes we’re going to do it intentionally. But do we have the ability to ask for forgiveness and is God going to say, you know what? Um, I’ve hit my quota seven times seven. That’s all I need. I don’t have to forgive you this time. You remember the Peter asking that?
And Jesus said, how many times? 70 times seven, there’s a, there’s a connection there with God, because seven is the number of perfection. The number for God. If you go read the book of revelation and 10 is the number of completeness, God and completeness, Jesus is telling Peter, when you forgive the way God does, you don’t ask when too many times is too many times.
So start forgiving the way God does. Now. He says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin as, as we’re not going to necessarily stop out a chapter break where we’re out of time. But I want,
I want you to see that what he just said about sinning, confessing, being forgiven is also his statement that says, and that’s why you choose not to sin. I’m writing to you this not so that you just go, Oh great. I can send it as much as I want to, and God will forgive me. But instead so that you go,
I never want to sin, but I know I have forgiveness from a God who is just and faithful. Alright, we’re going to cover the questions on Wednesday as we conclude chapter two, hopefully we’ll see. There’s a lot in chapter two. Um, but thank you for your attention. We’ll cover the questions that class,
I believe it’s time to begin our service and we want to welcome those of you that are visiting with us.
It’s our pleasure to have you here today. If you did not get your communion, it’s back on the tables before you entered the auditorium, or as you enter the auditorium, we encourage you to go back now and pick those up. We do have a few announcements. We want to share with you how we do would like we would like to have our visitors fill out a attendance card if you don’t mind.
And you can either drop that in the what on the table, in the, in the back there, or leave it in the seat or give it to one of us. And we were certainly appreciate that. So we have a record of you being here. If we knew our, remember our sick Dorothy and Rodale Wilson, also Joan Springer, and it was good to see Sylvia pass here.
She’s still having problems with her back. And also Pam shafing is having difficulties with her back. Uh, don’t forget that August nationwide gospel meeting going on, and there are flyers on the table there in the four year. Uh, we would encourage you to pick one of those up. And if you’d like to participate and listening to those sermons, the pantry item for Potter children’s home is great jelly.
And we certainly want to encourage you to bring that in it. If you’re like me, I’ve got to go back and get a few other ones that I kinda missed. And they’ll be here August the 30th to pick up our Cohen cans and the commodities that we’ve gathered here at the church. Building our gospel meeting with Keith Cozort is going to be escaping you for August the 30th through the September the second.
So, uh, keep that in mind and invite your friends and neighbors to come and be here for them. Uh, I have a thing. Thank you. Note from one of the little girls at a Potter children’s home, she said, thank you. Uh, love Olivia. And it’s a real young little girl. If you see, she wrote it in crayon and I’m on a post that on the bulletin board there that we have for Potter,
but all of those young people are very loving. They really appreciate what the church is doing for them. And of course we appreciate what the Potter staff is doing for those children. And we’re glad that we’re part of that and encouraging them as we can. So keep them in your prayers. And I know they would appreciate that. We would like to discuss just a moment about social distancing.
Uh, this is for your safety and we, we certainly hope that you would consider it. It’s not something that we’re going to twist your arm though, but hopefully each one of us knows how important it is when we come into the building. But even before class, we would suggest that you not Lauder in the four year there. And like we always love to do and visit with one another and have that conversation.
And I know that’s going to be hard to do with this congregation because we’re always very loving and want to talk to each other. But if you would just come on in and have a seat for Bible class, and then after Bible classes over, we would encourage you to, uh, go ahead and get your communion and go to your seats for worship service and not Mingo.
Uh, and that’s, it’s all of this is a very difficult and we know that, but for our own safety, uh, we believe that’s the right thing to do. And when services are over, we would encourage you not to hang around too long. And that’s unusual. We always say, stick around, let us see you or visit with you.
Uh, but we’d rather just go ahead and exit the building as soon as possible. And we believe that would be the safest thing for all of us to do. And hopefully we’ll all try to do that. And I know sometimes we’re going to have a very difficult time doing it, but please help us in that way. I order for services. Michael Dale will be directing our songs,
service, uh, terror Sanderson has our opening prayer. The lower supper, Eric Halverson will be leading that. And then Aaron Cozort will be brings the lesson. And then Jay Shafir will have our closing prayer, the center and child worship our opening song this morning. We’ll be number 508, a wonderful savior five zero eight. It’s going to be up here.
All of them are up here today. Oh, wonderful. Savior is Jesus mine. Oh, no wonderful savior to me. He hired as my soul and a cleft in the rock rivers. A pleasure. I see, he heard my song and the cleft of the rock. Nah, shadows, uh, dry, thirsty. And he had it’s my life in that<inaudible> covers me there with his<inaudible>.
Oh, wonderful savior is Jesus. My Lord. He take it’s my burden. Oh, Hey. He holds me up and I shall not be moved. He gave with me string as my dad. Hey,<inaudible> Nash. Uh, dry, thirsty.<inaudible> he high? That’s my life in DASA.<inaudible><inaudible> with this<inaudible> with numberless blessings. Each mom,
any crowns and with is gone nasty. Ah, I see thing in my raps. Oh, glory to God.<inaudible> dry. Thirsty. He<inaudible><inaudible> me with his,<inaudible> nice to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect is wonderful.<inaudible> he? My song of the rock, the shadows dry thirsty. He<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> song.
Your opening. Prayer will be number 801 where no one stands alone. Eight zero one.<inaudible> with my<inaudible> and my<inaudible> and uh,<inaudible> Oh my<inaudible>. Oh,<inaudible><inaudible> A father who art in heaven. We thank you for this beautiful first day of the week and opportunity to, we have to assemble around that table and study that word and sang songs.
Praise until you. We pray that the things that we learned here today will help us to become stronger Christians and to do more service. And I am not in that kingdom here in Collierville. We thanked him for the church here in Collierville. We pray that you would help us to make it grow and a better congregation to serve you. They, we pray that you would be with those that have been mentioned today that are sick and unable to be with us.
We pray that you would strengthen them and be with those that are taking care of them. We talked to you for the teachers here at Collierville with Nike, for Aaron and his family and the other teachers. We pray that they will always strive to teach the truth. We pray that you would be with the leaders of our country and of the world where you pray that you would soften their hearts and give them to wear them to do the things that should be done in this country that are going so badly and wrong,
where you pray that you’d be with each of us and to keep us safe. We pray that you would go through with the further exercise of this day with us, and to help us to understand the things that we do learn here today. You’re standing. We pray in Christ’s name, amen. To prepare our minds for the Lord’s supper will be number 382.
Why did my savior come two or three eight, two? Why dad and my savior come to<inaudible> he<inaudible>. He gave his crash us lie for me, for me, big us. He loved me. So<inaudible> uh, uh,<inaudible> uh<inaudible>. He, uh, helped me, uh<inaudible>. He gave his precious life for me, for me be a<inaudible>.
Jesus comes us<inaudible><inaudible> with him through and<inaudible> B a C a loved me. So he, uh, helped me. So he, uh, me, uh, he<inaudible> his precious life for me, for me, the, uh, he, uh, helped me. So The apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians in his first letter to Corinth that as they assemble on the first day of the week,
they should commemorate the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that same instruction applies to us. So as we prepare to commemorate his death, let us go to our Lord and prayer. God, our father in heaven, we come to you at this time, thanking you for having sent your son Jesus, to live amongst us here on our earth and to teach us.
But most importantly, to sacrifice his body for us, as we prepared to take this bread, which represents his mangled body that hung on that cross help each and every one of us to remember that fact of what he sacrificed and what you sacrificed for us. The center here on earth, we pray this through your son, Jesus name. Amen. Let us continue in prayer.
God, our father in heaven, we come to you thanking you again for your son and for the blood that he shed so that our sins may be washed away. So we may have that opportunity to live with you. Any eternity in heaven, as we prepared to partake of this fruit of the vine help each and every one of us to remember that fact that it represents the blood that he should for us,
the center, we pray this through your son, Jesus name. Amen. We’d also like to take this time as an opportunity to give back God our father in heaven. We thank you for the blessings that we have from you. When we truly understand that each and every one of us, everything that we have is from you and through you and because of you.
And as we prepare to give back a portion of that, that we have been so greatly blessed with. We ask that you help each and every one of us do it with a cheerful heart. We also ask that you help the men of this congregation do when we’re making decisions on how to distribute these funds, that we do it in a manner that is worthy of your name.
And that helps to spread your great name to those amongst this earth that have not had the privilege of knowing you yet. We pray this through your son, Jesus name, amen. Before the lesson will be number 695, none of self and all of the, if you’re able to Stand for this song, please, number 695. Oh, the pain and saw<inaudible> said two GS us.<inaudible> when I<inaudible>.
Yeah, he found me. I be bleeding.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> NA uh, and uh, The scripture reading before, well be Luke six, Luke chapter six, 24 Through 26, Luke chapter six, verses 24 through 26. But woe unto you that are rich for you have received your consolation woe unto you that are full for he shall hunger,
woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep woe unto you. When all men shall speak well of you for, so did their fathers to the false prophets. You may be seated. Good morning. We are going to diverse just a little bit from the, uh, from the study of Zechariah. And we’re going to do a little bit of,
of studying in some other areas. And then we’ll come back to Zachariah thing in two weeks, but, uh, take your Bibles if you will. And open them to the book of Luke, Luke chapter six, this is Luke’s record of many of the things that were also contained in the sermon on the Mount. Some have suggested that this is a parallel account and some have suggested it’s not a parallel account because there are things that Luke can includes in here that,
that Matthew did. And there things, Matthew includes that Luke didn’t. Uh, one thing I know about teachers and preachers is if they’ve said it once, they’ll probably say it again and that we should not imagine that was not true about Jesus, the message that he preached in the sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter five, six, and seven was probably included in bits and pieces in other lessons and other occasions,
and not just a single time where he stated those things. So perhaps Luke is giving a parallel account. Perhaps he is giving a, another occasion where Jesus summarized many of these same ideas, but we begin in verse 24 with a series of woes. As we want to look at this idea, four woes, that destroy selfishness. I appreciate the song that Michael picked out for the song before that we just sang the song before the lesson,
as it describes that transition, it describes that path of an individual who begins their understanding of who Jesus Christ is. And they’re yet still focused entirely on self. They’re still focused entirely on doing what they want, but slowly but surely as time goes on, as they understand more clearly. And ultimately as they reach that true and full understanding of what God has done for us,
they finally remember, and they finally realized, and they finally learn none of cells And all of the Jesus will write or excuse me, will speak to his disciples. And he will say to them as Luke writes, but woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation woe to you who are full for you, shall hunger, woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn And weep these three woes.
We’re going to notice in parallel with one another, instead of taking each one as a single light. And we’re going to notice these three as a single item, and we’re going to draw them together because they carry with them within themselves. A parallel thought when Jesus speaks to the rich, and he says, woe to you, who are rich, does he mean everyone who has any form of wealth?
I don’t believe he does because contextually speaking, that’s not what he means. He is describing the rich person in a view of someone who is rich, that has a connotation and has an understanding with it. It, When he describes those who are full, is Jesus pronouncing a woe upon every individual who has ever sat down to a table and had sufficient food to eat and then ate it.
I hope not Because if so, all of us have experienced a lot of woes in our lives, But no, that’s not it either. Okay. When he pronounces a woe against a person who laughs is he condemning one who stands there in a situation and sees a child do something that is completely absurd and begins to laugh? No, no, he’s not.
As I mentioned, these three are parallel thoughts, one who’s rich, one who’s full and one who Who’s laughing And each one carries with it. A pronouncement of that, Whoa, he says to the one who is rich, you’ll receive no consolation. We’re going to go into that word in just a moment. He says to the one who is full,
you will be hungry. He says to the one who laughs you will mourn Begin with this idea of a Whoa, because what is a Whoa, well, the word, if we just take it from the Greek means grief grief to you is really the expression woe to you, a warning, an exclamation of grief, but it also has a connotation and has a connection to an old Testament idea.
And that was the idea of God taking Israel to the Mount of blessing and cursing. When God took Israel to Mount eval and Mount Garrison and set before them, the law, he said before them, the blessings that came by obeying the law, when they would adhere to him, when they would adhere to his word, when they would obey what he said and love him with all their heart,
with all their soul, with all their strength in all their mind and love their neighbor as their selves, then they’d receive the blessings. And yet when they focused on themselves and when they focused on their loss and when they focused on what they wanted instead of what others needed and when they went away from him and into idolatry, and when they departed from the commandments,
then he said, you’ll receive the curses. Those were the woes. You have this same idea here in Luke, chapter six, notice a few verses before it, he lifted up his eyes, verse 20 and said to his disciples, bless it. Are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Bless it. Are you who hunger now for you shall be filled blessed.
Are you who weep now for you shall laugh. Bless it. Are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man sake, rejoice in that day and leap for joy for indeed, your reward is great in heaven for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets, but Whoa too,
Do you? Ah, So he’s setting not just a, a position of every rich person, every full person, every person who’s ever laughed, but instead a contrast, he setting a contrast Of blessings and cursings of blessings and woes. And As a matter of fact, each one of these blessings has a Whoa. Each one of these items has a positive and a negative.
What we’re focusing on is the negative because in the negative you see exhibited what Jesus is really going after the mindset and the sin behind all of them is selfishness. Notice what we read as we notice a few passages about this first one, woe to you who are rich first and foremost, as we examine this idea of being rich, we want to see it in view of the last part of the wo.
He says woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. That word consolation gives us a little bit of understanding. A little bit of knowledge, a little glimpse into what it is. Jesus is saying. The word consolation means imploring. It means to bring comfort. It is the word para Khalisa<inaudible>, and it’s closely akin to a word<inaudible>,
which is to call beside it is the word that they would use in the noun form for an advocate, a lawyer, when you were in trouble and you needed help, you would call a side, you would call an advocate and he would stand with you before the judge. This is the one who is imploring. You have received your comfort. Jesus says to the one who is rich.
Now the one who has achieved these riches is achieved. This great wealth you have received your comfort. Now there are other passages where in the book of Luke, Jesus will explain this a little bit more. Let’s go over to Luke chapter 12 and Luke chapter 12, we begin in verse 13. Then one from the crowd said to him, teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbiter over you. And he said to them, take heed and build aware of covetousness for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of things. He possesses a man comes out of the crowd and says to Jesus teacher, baster rabbi make a determination in this case because my brother is not sharing the inheritance with me.
But Jesus changes. The focus. Jesus changes the emphasis of what this person wants to the problem in this person’s heart. Because while he has the master teacher in front of him, while he has God in his presence, while he has the opportunity to ask any spiritual thing, he might want to ask, he asks for money. And his concern was for financial things.
So Jesus turns to the crowd. You notice it said in verse 14, he said to him singular, but then verse 15. But he said to them, he’s changed who he’s talking to. He warns them about covetousness. He warns them about a desire for what belongs to another in him saying that, by the way you have him judging the man’s case,
the man came seeking what he claimed belonged to him. But Jesus accused him of desiring what belonged to someone else, because that’s what covetousness is. If the man was desiring only what was rightfully his, that wouldn’t be covetousness, but he desired what belongs to someone else, but then consider as well. He says that a man’s life does not consist in what he possesses.
And then he said a parable, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do since I have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will build, or I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, take your ease, eat, drink, and be marry. A rich man. This man is described as rich before the harvest. This man is described as wealthy before the events that Jesus describes. And yet when this wealthy man sees exponential increase in his wealth,
where is his entire focus? Inward? His entire focus is only himself. Jesus is presenting a view of a man who has no thought for others who has no thought for recognition of others. I imagine let’s ask this question. Do you think the rich man planted all of his vineyards himself? It’s unlikely. Now we’re not told, but let’s just conceive of this.
How does someone generally become rich? They become rich by being able to bring together others and have many workers who go out and produce what it is that becomes theirs. So here is a man who most likely has vineyard workers who most likely has people who work in the field yet is anywhere here in this passage, the thought and the mindset that he is going to restore a greater portion to those who labored to produce what he has.
No, there’s no thought for others, but there’s also no thought. Most importantly, for the one who gave him what he had. And that’s where Jesus triggers in on this individually. But God said to him, verse 20 fool. This night, your soul will be required of you. Then who’s will the, those things be which you have provided.
So as he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Now you turn back over to Luke chapter six and carry together the connotation and the message of Matthew chapter six, where Jesus also talks about money and talks about being rich towards God and laying up treasures, where they belong. Now you have the picture of the rich person. You have a picture of a person who has received their constellation because in their riches,
that was the only thing they desired. Their mind was not on God. Their heart was not set on him. Actually. I want to take you to one other passage. I want you to see one other passage before we come back to Luke chapter six and that’s in Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16, verse one, there was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was sorry.
That’s the wrong, the wrong parable. Let me go to verse 19. There was a certain rich man that’s they were both about a certain rich man. I just grabbed the wrong one. Verse 19. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. Now notice the picture of this rich man. Number one,
he’s rich. Number two, he’s clothed and clothed, abundant lays clothed in his riches. And number three, he’s full we’ve brought over two of the things from the, from chapter six, woe to him who is rich woe to him who is full. All right? I said, all three of these are parallels. Let’s bring them together. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores who was laid at his Gates desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man’s table. Jesus paints a picture here of a man who was laid. He was placed here. Jesus, didn’t say here was a man who came daily to lay at the gate. We find here a man who was placed here by others.
This is a man who has been put aside from society. This is a man who is unwanted and on cared for. This is a man who doesn’t have someone who is a gentle soul. Who’s part of his family who loves him deeply and cares for him and comforts him and takes care of his sores and helps him and binds him up. No, this man has been placed here because just in,
as you see here, the refusal of the rich man to do anything about it, you also see the refusal of anyone else to do anything about it. Notice what we read. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried even in death.
The rich man’s riches paid for luxury Lazarus died. And what do we read about his body? Nothing. When you had an individual who was without possessions, without money who had, who was homeless and they died, then they were quite often just varied in graves that were communal property. You might remember that when Judas threw the money back at the high priest,
they, they refused it. They wouldn’t take it. But then they wa they went and bought the Potter’s field. That was quite often used as a burial place for others who had no burial place. This man went to a common grave. The rich man was buried before we go any further, want to remind us about a man who was homeless. There was a man who walked this earth,
who was homeless. And he ate at other people’s tables and he drank what other people provided. And he slept in other people’s beds and he journeyed around and he had no possessions to speak of. And when he died, he had no tomb. But when he died, Joseph placed him in his tomb because a homeless man walked this earth and his name was Jesus.
So wait a minute. Why would you describe Jesus as a homeless person? Because Jesus did. There was a man who came to Jesus and said, let me be your disciple. Let me follow. After you. Jesus said, foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. We read about Jesus in the house of Peter.
We read about Jesus in the house of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. We read about Jesus in the house of affairsy. We read about Jesus everywhere, but his own house. And why do you think that is? Because he didn’t have one. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And laying at his Gates right outside his door was a man who would have been satisfied with the crumbs that fell from his table.
And some might say, well, he should have asked for them. It’s interesting. We might apply that to Lazarus, but I don’t think we can. I don’t think we can accuse Lazarus of just being too, too ignorant, too lazy to woeful, to even ask for help. Because that picture of desiring is there, here you have Lazarus and he is desiring to be fed.
And one of the things, you know, this isn’t is this isn’t covetousness. This is not Lazarus outside the wall, outside the gate, looking in and wanting everything. The rich man has. No, that’s not what it is. This is a man desiring the least that anyone could give to have enough to survive another day, but he doesn’t receive it.
And he dies. And the rich man dies. So it was the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man died and was buried and being in torment in Hades, he lived at his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water.
And cool. My tongue for, I am tormented tormented in this flame, but Abraham said, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things. There’s your picture of consolation. That is the exact picture that we are to get from Luke chapter six, woe to you who are rich for in this life, you have received your consolation.
Abraham says to him, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things. And likewise Lazarus received evil things. But now he is comforted. There’s your word, constellation as well. And you are tormented. Whoa, do you, who are rich? What are you who are full four? You will receive no consolation in eternity, no comfort.
And you will be hungry, but he says woe to you who laugh for you shall mourn. This is said in stark contrast to the morning described in the previous verses of chapter six, he says again, in verse 20, blessed are, you are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed. Are you who hunger for you will be filled blessed.
Are you who weep now for you shall laugh. These two ideas blessed are you who weep now and bow and woe to you who laugh are set in a context of one time. And we remind ourselves there was a time there was a time in the Roman world. There would be a time in the future of the lives of the Christians, where they would be put into the Coliseum where they would be trotted out with wild animals,
where they would be put in the midst of the games for the enjoyment of those, watching them die. And Jesus would say woe to you, who laugh woe to you who find joy in this life, but you have missed. He Turnell joy. You remember over in first, John, we studied it in the adult Bible class this morning. And first John chapter one,
John would write to these Christians and he would write to them about Christ and he would write to them about fellowship and he would write to them about eternal life. And he would write to them verse four. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. And yet he will write to Christians who are seeing their fellow brethren die. How can their joy be full?
And they’re weeping be simultaneous because their reward is not in this life. And their joy is not in fleeting moments of laughter three parallel ideas. What are you who are rich? What are you who are full woe to you? Who laugh when you ought to be giving to others? The chapter six verse 27, all the way through chapter six, verse 49 has a connotation and a single thought all the way through it do for others.
Do for others. Give do for others. If we had time, we’d go through the entire thing. But Jesus is saying, you’re rich because you’re focused on yourself. You’re full because you’re focused on yourself. You’re laughing because you’re focused on yourself and your reward is all you have right now because there’s coming a day where you are rich will be poor.
You are hungry or full will be hungry. And you who laugh, will mourn. And then we read verse 26 woe to you. When all men speak well of you, Jesus here doesn’t mean you have been a good employee and a good husband and a good father and a good person that your entire life and everyone who meets you and knows. You says that,
man is somebody who is a good man. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about a person who everyone says good things about, and the person is always waiting to hear them. He’s always ready to be told how good he is. He’s always anxious to hear just how much he’s done, just how wonderful he is. Just how much he is appreciated.
And with that comes a willingness to do anything. To hear it. John, in first, John chapter two, warns these Christians about the lust of the eyes, but he also warns them about the pride of life. He says woe to you when all men speak well of you for, so did their fathers to the false prophets. Why were these men false prophets?
Why were these men in the old Testament? Those who would prophesize wrong things would prophesize things that were not from God would prophecy. Things that were unholy and unrighteous because of what it got them turned to Jeremiah chapter five, Jeremiah chapter five beginning in verse 30, we read an astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own power.
And my people love to have it. So, but what will you do in the end? I love it. When God asks an open ended question that makes you understand judgment’s coming. He said the profits, they prophesied falsely, which means they prophesy of themselves. They prophesied their own words. Instead of gods, they promise I falsely and the priests,
the ones who were supposed to be the mediators, the ones who were supposed to stand between God and man, the ones who were supposed to add to seek forgiveness of those who have done wrong and offer sacrifices for those who’ve done wrong. They’re ruling that God give the priests a ruling capacity. No, he gave them a judging capacity, but not a ruling capacity,
but they’re ruling by their own power. No concern for God. No thought for him, no care for him at all. And the people love it. The people want it that way. And these priests and these profits are more than willing to give the people what they want. I turned to Isaiah chapter 30, Isaiah, chapter 30 in verse eight.
Now go write it before them on a tablet and a no, and noted on a stroll that it may be for a time to come forever and ever that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord who say to the seniors, do not see, okay, here we get the picture. Now, boom aware,
Whoa to you. When all men speak good of you. And yet the people speaking are people who won’t hear the word of God. People speaking are people who will not listen to what God has to say. The people speaking and saying good things of you are people who will not tolerate God’s word, but they’ll gladly commend you for yours. He says,
Whoa, to the Sears, or he who say to the Sears, do not see. And to the profits do not prophesied to us. Write things, speak to us, smooth things. Prophesies, deceits, God says, get out of the way. Turn aside from the path because the Holy one of Israel to seize from before us here, we have the picture of one who’s rich because he’s,
self-interested one who’s full. Instead of sharing what he has with someone who needs it. One who is in a position of not only being rich and not only being full, but having no cares. You know, sometimes you’ll laugh when you’ve just had all. You can take, you just laugh instead. But generally speaking, you laugh when you’re not overburdened with care,
you laugh. When you’re not overcome with sorrow, you laugh when you’re in a position where you can. And yet you’re staring at those who are suffering and you’re laughing and they’re weeping. And he says, and woe to you, who all men speak good of you because all you do is tell them that what they’re doing is okay, Jesus condemns this self interested,
rich people, and they’re pocketed self interested profits who won’t dare cross the rich person for fear of being cut off from their riches. But in contrast, he sets the blessings in contrast, he says, bless it. Or you verse 22 when men hate you. And when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil, they won’t even say your name.
They don’t want to hear it for the son of man’s sake. Okay. There was the key because the rich man is interested in himself and will do nothing for someone else for Christ’s sake. And the full person will only see to their own needs and will do nothing for anyone else for Christ’s sake. And the laughing person sees only to their own joy in their own interest,
in their own emotions and will care. Nothing for someone for Christ’s sake and the preacher and teacher and prophet who will prophesize good things to evil people will do it only for himself and not for Christ’s sake. And Jesus says woe to you because you will not give up yourself for God. You will not trade you for him. And he presents us with a choice.
Where are we at? Are we only self-interested? Are we only concerned about ourselves? Are we somewhere in that song that we sang a few minutes ago, more of you and less of me, less of self and more of you, or are we in a position where we’ll say, Oh, I’ll speak the truth. No matter the cost I’ll speak truth to power,
no matter what the cost I’ll be excluded by my family. If it means being obedient to my God, I’ll say what needs to be said. If it’s what needs to be heard, I’ll do everything I can until I have nothing left to do it with. If that’s what’s called upon me to do by my God, I’ll feed and I’ll share and I’ll help.
And I’ll lift and I’ll strengthen as long as I have a breath left in my life for Christ’s sake because I don’t matter anymore. Paul said it this way. Paul said I’ve died, but Christ lives in me. The rich man, the full man, the man who had plenty, the man who laughed the man who would prophesize false things. He was still very much alive.
And he thought he was very much in control, but we better aware because the same thing can happen to a church revelation. Chapter three, John wrote to the church at Laodicea, the spirit writing through John and said, you think that you’re rich and you think that your clothes and you think that you’re well. And you think that you have eyesight and you’re poor and naked and blind and destitute.
We better be careful because it’s not just individuals that can become part of this. Whoa, but congregations too. We need to be careful to be interested in God. Instead of interested in self. If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, you’re outside of the place where salvation is found you’re of the place, where there is comfort and hope and eternity promised to you.
But you can have that. You can change from being in the category of one who has a woe against you to one who has a blessing, because you can die to yourself. You can die to sin and you can be raised to walk in newness of life. You can do that by hearing the word of God and believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
You can do that by repenting of your sins and confessing the name of Christ and being immersed in water, buried in water for the remission of your sins. Having that old person put to death, that new person rising again, no longer interested in that old man and his lust and his desires and his wants, and his hopes for this life, but interested in eternity.
But remember Jesus said, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And he warns people who will be his disciple. Count the cost. No. What? It will cost you to be a disciple of Christ. If you’re here this morning and you’re outside of the body of Christ,
or if you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve become wayward and brought shame and reproach upon the church in a public way, you have the opportunity to be restored. You have need of the invitation. Why not come as we stand in, as we sing,<inaudible> take his yoke boy. He is me.<inaudible><inaudible> heavy Laden Lee<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> The song before the closing prayer will be number 650,
send the light number six, five, zero There’s a car comes ringing or they’re restless wave<inaudible>. There are so close to rescue. There are so close to<inaudible>. We have heard Macedonian<inaudible> and<inaudible> and cries.<inaudible> Heavenly father. We’re indeed grateful for this privilege. We’ve had to assemble and worship. We pray that our worship to you has been in spirit and truth and a sweet savor.
As we prepared to depart, we want to remember those among us that are ailing. We pray your healing hand will be placed upon them. And they once again, maybe restored to their much wanted health. As we also prepared to depart, we ask that you bless each of us, according to our several needs, forgive our sins as we repent and turn from them and bring us all back at the next appointed hour.
It’s in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
2 Peter 3 (Class) – 07-29-2020 – Aaron Cozort
PETER – 2 Peter 3
False Teaching Concerning Second Coming
- By what did God form the heavens and the earth?
How once did God destroy the world?
How will God destroy the heavens and earth on the day of judgment?
2 Peter 3:5-7, 10, 12 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Does God count time as we do? 2 Peter 3:8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- How many people does God want to save? 2 Peter 3:9 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- The Lord’s returning is compared to a _______________ . 2 Peter 3:10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- The knowledge of God’s promises to destroy the heavens and the earth should cause us to live _________________. 2 Peter 3:11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Peter said that ______________ also wrote about salvation. 2 Peter 3:15
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - In what are Christians instructed to grow? 2 Peter 3:18 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bulletin – 30 Vol 7 July 26, 2020
Download the PDF Bulletin
30 Vol 7 July 26, 2020
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2 Peter 1-2 (Class)| Sermon: Zechariah 4 – Grace, grace to it! (Sermon) – 07-26-2020 – Live Stream
Class: PETER – 2 Peter 1 and 2
Knowledge; False Teachers
Class Questions
- How has God given us everything pertaining to life and godliness? 2 Peter 1:3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- (yes or no) Are there qualities which a Christian should add to his faith?
What will be the result? 2 Peter 2:1-7, 11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - How did Peter know the things which he had taught? 2 Peter 2:16 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- In 2 Peter, Peter spoke of his death as (a) soon, (b) distant, or (c) unknown?
2 Peter 1:14 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Where did Peter say that prophecies originated? 2 Peter 1:21 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- According to Peter, who would distort the truth? 2 Peter 2:1-3
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - How can a person become enslaved to sin? 2 Peter 2:19 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sermon: Grace, Grace To It! (Zechariah 4)
Zec 4:1 ¶ Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I said, “I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
3 “Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.”
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
6 So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”‘”
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.”
11 ¶ Then I answered and said to him, “What are these two olive trees-at the right of the lampstand and at its left?”
12 And I further answered and said to him, “What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?”
13 Then he answered me and said, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
14 So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.”
(NKJV)
<inaudible><inaudible> good morning. We are in second Peter chapters one and two. We’re going to have to move a little faster than we did on Wednesday. If we’re going to turn this into a two lesson study instead of a three lesson study, but, uh, I think we can do it. Let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven.
We bound before your throne grateful at this time for all of your many blessings, grateful, grateful for what you do for us on a daily basis, we ask that you watch over us care for us, protect us, help us through the difficult times in life and help us to remember you and not forget you in the good times in life. Help us to always strive to look to you for wisdom and strength,
guidance in our lives, by seeking out those things from your word and from the revelation that you have delivered to us throughout these many years and pray that we might be able to go back to those things, which Peter will tell us we can be assured of. And we might go back to them and use them as the light in our lives. We pray that you will be with those who are struggling with illness,
difficulty, pray that you’ll be with those who are struggling because of loss of jobs or because of other situations they’re encountering Pray that they will be restored back to their desired position in life. In all these areas, we pray for the doctors and the nurses and all those that are enduring the hard times and the many hours involved in helping others. We pray that as they minister to others,
that they will receive comfort and strength from those around them as well. All this, we pray in jesus’ name. Amen. Okay. We’re going to begin with a clarification because sometimes what I say and what I fought, aren’t always the same thing. So we’re just going to make sure we’re all on the same page. Second, Peter chapter one, verse three,
as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. I said on Wednesday night that the idea here is not that God has explained every fact, every detail, but instead that he has given us all things that pertain to eternal life. Well, in a moment of not being clear, what I am, let me define what I mean by that.
God has given us everything. We need to go through this life and be obedient to him and achieve the next life. Okay? So not to say that God has given us everything we need to know about the next life or that the focus of that statement is the next life, but it is this life headed toward that life. Okay? So while we do not have exhaustive knowledge or revelation from God,
we have the same idea here that Jesus gave when he spoke to the apostles and he said the Holy spirit would come and guide them into how much truth, all truth. Okay. That doesn’t mean that the Holy spirit was going to reveal to them algebraic formulas, or how to fly a plane. It means that in the context of the revelation of God and everything necessary for being obedient to God,
they would have every thing they needed, they would have complete truth. And so in this passage, we’re dealing with the same idea here. And by the way, both of them are in the same context of God has delivered that through the knowledge of him. Okay. So I just wanted to clarify that because I was made aware that when we were done,
I wasn’t clear. So, and, and I wasn’t clear, uh, but I thought I was. So for this reason, that’s verse 12. For this reason, I will be negligent to remind you always of these things though, you know, and are established in the present truth. Peter has told them, you need to add to your faith,
these things, and you need to go back and do them again. And you need to be reminded of these things. And I’m going to remind you of these things. And if you do these things, you will never fall. And he says, I won’t be negligent to remind you of this. I won’t be the one who fails to point you back to the foundation of your spiritual life.
As a matter of fact, he says, he said, you need to be established in the present truth. When he says the present truth, he doesn’t mean the truth that we think is accurate. Right now, he’s talking about the old ways present truth. The world will change. The sun will rise and the sun will set. And the world around us will shift.
And the ideas and cultures and everything around us will shift and change throughout our lives. But one thing will never change. Jesus said that not one jot or one tittle would fall from the word of God. All of it would be fulfilled. Jesus said that his word would stand for forever. It is not the truth of the past. It is not the truth of the future.
It is the always present truth. It is truth now. And when now is in the future, or now was in the past, it was still true because it was true before the world was formed. It was true before you and I ever stepped foot on this planet. It was always true. And he says, that’s where your foundation is. How do you make it through the hard times in life?
When everything around you seems to be shifting sand? Well, Jesus said, you put your foundation on a bedrock that always present truth, the word of God. So he says, I’m not going to be negligent to always remind you of these things. Yes, I think it is right. As long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you,
what does he mean by being in a tent, temporary life while I’m in this body? That’s what he’s saying. He says so long as I’m in this flesh and bone, I’m going to keep reminding you. He says, knowing that I short or that shortly, I must put off my tent just as our Lord. Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover,
I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. When did Jesus tell Peter about his death? Anybody remember comm on Mel, John chapter 21, John chapter 21 beginning in verse 18, after Jesus is resurrected. This conversation occurs John chapter 21, verse 18. This is right after Jesus has said to Peter,
three times, do you love me? Feed my sheep? Do you love me? Do you love me the third time? Do you love me? Feed my sheep? Now he said, most assuredly. I say to you, verse 18, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.
Now notice the commentators statement as it were by John this, he spoke signifying what death he would glorify God. Now this isn’t talking about what death Jesus would use to glorify God, because Jesus has already died and been resurrected. This is the death by which Peter would glorify God, this, he spoke, signifying the death that he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this,
he said to him, follow me. So Peter says, the Lord showed me what my demise would be and it’s coming and it’s coming soon. But I have already set in place situations and opportunities and room and people in place to remind you of the same thing. So, so Peter’s already said, listen, I’m going to remind you of these things.
As long as I’m in this life, I’m going to remind you of these things. I’m not going to be negligent to remind you of these things. And when I die, I’m still going to remind you of these things. You know, sometimes I think it’s a shame because we have times and situations in life where we find people didn’t make preparations for the next generation before they died.
That’s one of the things Peter saying is I’ve already made preparations for you, even though I’m still alive because I know my deceases coming. I know the end of my life is, is an earring. And so I want you to know I’ve already set these things in place. I don’t know which other person it probably wasn’t one of the apostles. It was probably someone else.
Maybe it was John Mark. Maybe it was another individual who traveled with Peter, who was associated with Peter. And Peter was telling them when I’m gone, you start writing to them. You start reminding you go visit these churches and you tell them these things again. And again and again. So then he says for, we do not, we did not,
excuse me, follow cunningly, devised fables. When we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He said, when we spoke to you, when we preached the gospel to you and we told you about Christ, we, we weren’t following fables. We weren’t following myths. We weren’t following ideas, handed down generation after generation of mystical things.
No, he said, but we were eye witnesses of his majesty. He’s going to specify exactly what he’s talking about. He says for he received from God, the father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice, which came from heaven.
When we were with him on the Holy mountain, Matthew chapter 17, Matthew chapter 17, beginning in verse one. Now six days after six days, Jesus took Peter James and John. His brother led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light and behold,
Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter answered and said, gee said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make your three Tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah, while he was still speaking behold, a bright cloud, overshadowed them. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him, Peter, in his lack of understanding witnesses Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah, the two individuals from the old Testament that stood for everything that the old Testament was. And Peter, without understanding the significance of what it was, he was saying said, Lord, let us build three Tabernacles,
one for you. And one for, for Moses and one for Elijah and God corrects him. God said, this is my beloved son. Hear him? God says these two. They’re not even in the same category as this one. They’re not the Messiah. He is. They’re not deity in the flesh. He is hear him. So now Peter reminds them of this,
by the way, he’s not telling them something. They haven’t already heard that. They probably already read the book of Matthew and Luke. They knew the account. They knew Peter was there, but he’s reminding them of this. I was there. He’s not only confirming what Matthew wrote and what Pete, what Luke wrote, but he’s reminding them saying, listen,
we know that of which we speak. We heard God’s voice. But then he says, we heard this voice, which came from heaven when we were with him on the Holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heat as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the, and the morning star rises in your hearts.
This idea of, of the, the day star that that’s here, the idea, listen, you’ve got all of these things that you’re unsure of. You have all of this life that you’ve had in the past. All of the things that you thought you knew until you actually came into contact with the word of God. And now God’s word is shining through the darkness and it’s the light in your life.
And you hold onto that light. You won’t always understand everything around you. You own always understand why things happen the way they do, but you focus on that light. It goes right back to that idea of present truth. It’s the one thing you can always know and always trust. So he says, knowing this first understand, first of all, set this as the establishing reality.
When you look at the word of God, knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy spirit. Some people will read verse 20 and then they’ll comment on verse 20 ignoring the fact that it’s right in the middle of a sentence,
do not read verse 20 without verse 21, because 21 is the context for 20. When Peter says no prophecy is of any private interpretation, he’s not talking about how we interpret or understand the prophecy. He’s not saying that they, that we will all reach the exact same conclusion about everything. God says, that’s not the interpretation that he’s using there. He says,
no. Prophecy is of any private interpretation for prophecy came or never came by the will of man. The interpretation he’s talking about is the origination of the prophecy. Well, you and I, we, we often in, in modern terms, we’ll use the word interpretation to talk about one. Who’s trying to understand something. That’s not the way Peter’s using it.
Peter’s saying, where did it originate from? Okay, go to Deuteronomy chapter 13 because these two ideas are tied together. Deuteronomy chapter 13, if there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder in the sign, or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying, let us go after other gods,
which you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord. You’re gone is testing you to know whether you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord, you’re gone and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice.
You shall serve him and hold fast to him. God says, here’s your test. Somebody prophesies something. And then it comes to pass. Well, you don’t automatically believe that he’s a prophet. He may have said something and he may have had some way to know that it was going to come to pass three days from now, someone’s going to write in and tell you about this great thing that happened over here.
And then three days later, somebody rides it and you don’t even realize he paid the guy to wait three days to come and tell you. He said the fact that somebody prophesized something and then it comes to pass isn’t enough. If they then teach you to disobeyed God, if they then tell you things that lead you away from the Lord, instead of to him,
you know their prophecies faults. Now this Is the context of chapter two verse one that we’re headed into. But then he also says this. He says, but that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord, your God, that word, he has spoken there. That phrase carries with it.
The idea he spoke from himself, God, didn’t give this message to him. God, didn’t tell him, go tell them this so that you can teach them this. No, it came from their own private interpretation. They prophesied from themselves, not from God. So God says, you find a prophet who prophesies something and it comes to pass. But then he teaches you to go after falsehood.
You put him to death because he’s not a prophet. He doesn’t belong to me or he wouldn’t be teaching you to turn away from me. Now Peter says the origination of a prophecy. Didn’t originate with men. Hosea. Didn’t wake up one day and think I need to start writing. Jeremiah. Didn’t start out as a young man thinking I need to,
I need to start prophesizing. No, they spoke as the Holy spirit, moved them to speak. Now the Holy spirit used their talents, their ability, their personality in their writing and in their prophesying. But there’s a good example of this towards the end of chapter two that we’re going to get into. But when they spoke as profits, they couldn’t change the message.
When the Holy spirit moved them to speak. And sometimes the Holy spirit moved people who weren’t righteous people to speak. Sometimes he moved individuals who had no intention of being a prophet to speak. Sometimes the Holy spirit moved and donkey to speak and not one single time. Did they get any say on what the message was? God determined the message. And that’s what Peter wants you to have confidence in.
When God said, this is my message. And when God confirmed, this is my son, you now can set in stone. There’s no one who can come to you and deny that truth. Now, then he says, but there were also false prophets among the people. You go back into the old Testament and he’s stringing these things forward from the old Testament.
And he mentions They had false prophets before they’ve had them before, and we’re going to have him today. He knows what he says. He says there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves Swift destruction. He said there were false prophets in the past,
there were false prophets in the old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 13, warns you about those and you better believe there’s false teachers. Now, there, there are some who have a mentality that we shouldn’t speak out against people who are teaching false doctrine. Peter would not fall into that category. He would not be one of those people who would think that, because notice what he’s about to say.
He says, not only have they secretly brought in things that this wasn’t done openly, this wasn’t done with everybody speaking together and communicating and everybody giving their, I know this was done in secret. He said they secretly brought in things and have denied the Lord who bought them notice. First and foremost, he does not suggest these pers, these people were not Christians.
Did the Lord purchase the salvation of anyone who has not been obedient to him. I’m not saying this in the Calvinistic sense where somebody says, Oh, well Lord only spilled his blood for those who would ultimately be a tone. No, what I’m saying is if they were bought, they were bought with a price and they were only bought with a price based upon actually being obedient to God.
That’s called redemption. Here they are. They’ve been obedient to God, but now they’ve turned a side and they’ve started bringing these things in secretly. And they’re denying the Lord. If you turn over to Hebrews chapter six, you’ll read about that. You turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. You’ll read about it again. People who will fully turn their back on God.
And yet these are their teachers. He says many will follow their destructive ways because, uh, because of whom, the way of truth will be blast themed. There’s a little kind of subtle warning here. When you see someone rise up and they begin teaching something different and a whole bunch of people in the church start following them. That should be a warning sign.
Not a Greenlight. That should be a, Hey, wait, Whoa, wait a minute. Why is there suddenly something new that no one else realized and no one else understood. And now everybody thinks it’s all the craze. Peter said, you better pay attention because these things aren’t happening without you being aware of them. If you’re paying attention, he says by covetousness,
they will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has been, or has not been idle. And their destruction does not slumber. He’s talking about teachers in the church. He’s not talking about false prophets. He’s not talking about pagans coming in and telling them they need to be worshiping Astor and, and bale. And no he’s talking about teachers in the church.
And he says to them for if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah. One of eight people of preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemn them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live on godly and delivered righteous lot, who was oppressed by the filled deep conduct of the world for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day, by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then before we get to the conclusion, the then statement, because this is an if then statement go back through that list real quick,
just as a bullet point list and notice who he’s categorized, the angels who sinned the ancient world in the days of Noah Sodom and Gomorrah. Those are his three examples to compare the destruction of false teachers in the church to, if God knew how to bring about destruction on these three groups of people and at the same time, protect righteous lot in the midst of their evil,
then the Lord, Oh wait, then verse nine. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. And he’s talking about false teachers in the church. Yes. This has always been kind of like our higher education is very destructive. I guess the very premise of this in order to get a doctorate in theology,
you kind of have to come up with that thesis. Yup. Yup. Uh, it, it is astounding how, how that works. You know, this whole idea that with higher education, when you hit a doctorate level, you’ve got to put together a thesis and there’s gotta be something, you know, unique about it. You’ve got to put together all the new,
new study, new knowledge and not saying it couldn’t be done the right way, but let’s face it. Most people who are still going through their education at that period in their life, don’t do it the right way. They’re there. They’re looking for something new. And, and, you know, Paul mentioned that if yes, Paul mentioned there in Athens,
what, what was it that the, the astute learners and the astute scholars of Athens were doing on a daily basis, they were looking to always hear something new. They wanted to hear something new. And if you came into town and you said, well, I know something you all haven’t learned yet. You got a platform to speak because they were always looking for something new.
Peter said, what’s been delivered to you. Number one, it’s not changing. Number two. It’s absolutely true. Number three, it’s present truth. It is true now and will always be, and number four, it originated with God and not man, but there will be those among you who will leave it. And for, and notice this whole background.
He said, here, this is the fundamental basic that he said in this context of their motivation, he said, covetousness, the desire for earthly gain will be the motivation for this happening. But then notice he goes on. He says, the Lord knows how to reserve the unjust under punishment and, uh, under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lush of uncleanness and despise authority.
Second foundational principle of these individuals who will become false teachers. Number one, self-interest, that’s what covetousness always ultimately is. It’s selfishness. And number two men who despise authority, you can’t tell me what to do. You can’t tell me what to preach. You. You can’t, you can’t tell me that this means that and this other, you can’t tell me that God said these two things.
These two attributes will bring about false teachers every time. So then he says they are presumptuous. Self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries. Whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. He said, these people, they know no limits. They have no authority. They will not balk out.
And they will even speak evil of those who are above them, where angels. And we’re talking about literally angels here. This is not just the idea of messengers. This is the idea of, of angels. Angels in heaven will rebuke someone, but only through the Lord, you find the occasion. I think it’s over in Jude where Jude speaks about Michael rebuking,
Satan, by the word of the Lord, but not by his word. This idea that they so reverence via Thoratec of God and everyone in whom God has instilled authority. This is the same idea by the way that David had concerning Saul. David said, I won’t lift my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Well, wait a minute. Saul was unrighteous.
Saul was doing things that were wrong. Saul Saul was unhinged, literally. And yet David said, no, no, no, no, God put him there. I’m not speaking against him. God put him there. I’m not taking his life. If God put him there, God knows how to get him out, but not these false teachers. So then he says,
but these, but these like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption and will receive the wages of unrighteousness. As those who count it pleasure to corrals in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you. He pictures these false teachers as dumb animals.
Not that they aren’t powerful, not their, they aren’t cunning in their ability to, to hunt. Now that they’re not those who are deceptive in their ways, but those who ultimately fall prey to men, I mean, let’s face it. There are a lot of powerful creatures that have lived on this earth and which ones of them haven’t ultimately met their demise,
that the cunning of men. And yet Peter says, they think they’re smart. They think they’re coming. They think they’re doing it in secret notice they’ve they figured these things out in secret as if God doesn’t know, but they’re just carrying on the long tradition of the people all the way back in the old Testament who thought we’re going to do this? And God won’t know.
There’s prophecy after prophecy, after prophecy about Israel living that way, we’re going to do this and God will never find out. And every time God says, who do you think I am? That I don’t know? And that I won’t bring you into judgment. And he says, so here, these people are they’re dumb, like brute beasts. Why are they dumb?
Like rubies? Because they haven’t learned the lessons of the past because they aren’t looking to the wisdom of the old Testament and the wisdom of those who have gone before to see their mistakes and correct them in their own lives. They’re too. Self-interested they’re too self willed. They’re too self-absorbed. And so the easiest way to take down a ferocious creature, that’s only worried about himself is use his own self desires to ensnare him.
And that’s what God’s going to do. But then he says this, he said, they’re going to be as those who corrals in the day. What’s that a description of it. They have nothing else to do except evil. Okay. There’s people in, here’s the, here’s the kind of the analogy. There’s the people who corrals at night. You know,
they work all day long. There’s there’s country song after country selling about this. You know, they work all day long. They’re straight laced and everything. The minute five o’clock happens. They’re off nothing but corrals until morning time. And they’re back at the job just like everything’s normal. No, he said, these are those people. These are the people who never stop partying.
It’s party from morning until morning and all the next day, until they drop all they care about is themselves. All they want is the next high. All they want is the next pleasure. And he said, these people’s judgment. Now, remember, he’s talking not about those who corrals during the day, he said their judgments coming. He’s talking about false teachers.
And he says their judgment is going to be just like theirs. They have forsaken or verse 14, having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, enticing, unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are a cursed children, but he was rebuked for his iniquity. A dunk, wait a minute. I have, I have skipped a verse.
All right. So he calls them dumb children, uh, or excuse me, your curse children getting my analogies confused because there’s so many different ones here. He calls them the curse children. And now he’s going to go to that example. I mentioned earlier, he said they have forsaken the right way and have gone astray following the way of bailing. The son of beore who loved the wages of unrighteousness,
but he was rebuked for his iniquity, a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice, restrained the madness of the prophet. You go back in your Bibles to the book of numbers and you will go through and notice the story bailed them is approached by who may lack the King of Moab King of Moab, by the way, kin folks to the Israelites, but didn’t want them there.
Knew what God had told them, knew that they would be coming back, knew what had happened on the way out of Egypt, but he didn’t want them going through their land. BeyLat comes to bail them, bail him as a prophet, tells bail them. I’ll pay you whatever you ask curse the children of Israel. And Balal makes it clear over and over and over again.
Even though he desires the reward, even though he desires to do what Baylock says, desires to achieve these things, he repeats over and over again. I can only speak what the Lord puts in my mouth. And so Baylock will bring bailed them up to a mountain and show him the people of Israel down below. And he’ll ha say, go curse them and he’ll stand up to speak and he’ll bless them instead.
Why? Because that’s what God put in his mouth. No prophecy came by private interpretation. Baylor wanted a curse to come out. And what did he come? What came out instead a blessing. Why? Because the Holy spirit moved him to speak a blessing. So the second time again, Bailey, I tries again, alright, bale them go curse them.
And he stands up to speak after reminding him whatever the Lord puts in my mouth. That’s what I’m going to say. And he stands up to speak and he blesses them again. Baylock is irate. At this point, it happens a third time. And finally Baylock decides he needs a new course of action. But Bay Salem being the dishonest, greedy and self interested person that he was would inform Bay lack.
I can’t curse them for you, but I can tell you how to get them to curse themselves. And Bay lack will send the women of Moab in to bring the men of Israel back to commit fornication and idolatry. And we’ll achieve his goal of cursing Israel through the sin of, Oh, wait a minute. What did Peter call them? Stable souls,
you and I, as members of the church, we have to watch out for other members of the church. Not only for those who are, might become false teachers or be false teachers, we have to watch out for those. But we’ve got to watch out for our brethren who maybe aren’t as knowledgeable and are maybe going to get caught unaware by a false teacher.
And we need to watch out for them and help protect them. That’s by the way, one of the job of elders, one of the very specific jobs of elderships is that they are to stand up and rebuke one who teaches falsehood, not because of that person specifically, but because of everyone else who might be deceived by that falsehood. So then we read,
he said they, he was rebuked for his iniquity, a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are Wells without water clouds carried by a Tempest for whom is reserved. The blackness of darkness forever. Peter holds back no, no description at all for the destruction and the judgment and the punishment of false teachers for when they speak great swelling,
words of emptiness. They allure through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. He said their descriptions, their words, their fancy way of speaking. They’re their imaginative ways of bringing people in contact with their own desires. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but take a moment at some point and look at the styles of worship in the churches around here and ask yourself whoever thought that that was enticing to people,
because it’s the only reason they’re doing it is it’s enticing to people. And it’s described right here. They will convince people to follow their own desires and Euless while convincing them. It’s obedient to God. And that’s the absolute epitome of quote unquote Christianity in America today. Follow what you enjoy. Do what makes you feel good? And that’s spirituality. It’s no surprise that there are preachers and televangelists throughout the world who have one topic.
They’ll never talk about sin that there cannot be any question as to why Joel Olsteen has said, there’s one topic I’ll never preach on sin. It doesn’t fit the message. I’ll just put it that way and it doesn’t fit what the people are there for. Oh, almost made it. He tried. I mean, he’s, he’s back there. He’s just like,
alright, let’s go through the questions. We’ll pick up with the last few verses at the beginning of next class. Question number one. How has God given us everything pertaining to life and godliness, all right. By his divine power, through the knowledge of him, either one of those answers or both of them combined would be the correct answer. Yes or no.
Are there qualities which a Christian should add to his faith? Yes. What will be the result of adding those qualities to your faith righteousness? Um, let’s see entrance to the everlasting kingdom. Yes. All right. So I, my brain is, I was answering it. I didn’t go read the verse. So I put, they would never fall,
but that’s verse 10, verse 11 is the correct one. And that is, uh, the, the four. So, and entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom. So entrance into the kingdom. Uh, how did Peter know the things which he had taught by the way that should be chapter one, verse 16, not chapter two,
verse 16. I witness in second, Peter Peter spoke of his death as a soon, be distant or see on known soon. Number five. Where did Peter say that prophecies originated? Holy spirit. According to Peter who would distort the truth, false prophets or false teachers, either one of those answers be fine. Uh, question number seven. How can a person become enslaved to sin that again,
by following, after his own sinful desires or being overcome through corruption. Okay. We are dismissed.
Good morning. It’s good to see everybody here at Collierville church of Christ. Sunday morning, worship service. I hope everybody’s dealing with the heat real well. It’s normal July. So what can we say? Um, if you’re VeriStor, we’d appreciate it.
If you’d fill out a barrister’s card, by the way, it’s good to see Rebecca back over in that corner. The day she’d been out, down in Florida, most of the summer, but, uh, if you are a visitor, we’d appreciate if you’d fill out a visitor’s card. So we’ll have a record of your attendance. Uh, we want to remind everybody well,
most everybody’s regular here this morning, but by picking up your communion, cert supplied back there, uh, we need to remember. I said the Wilson’s Rodale and Dorothy and Joan Springer. They’re still battling with their illnesses. Pam shaving still down in her back and Sylvia had her MRI, but she probably won’t know anything about that until Thursday when she goes back to the doctor.
So the nation wide gospel meeting flyers are out on for your table. We’ll have a man’s meeting tomorrow night at 6:30 PM here at the building. And we have a card from Jackie Ross. Her brother passed away a few weeks ago and he said, I would like to thank everyone for showing up showing so much love during the past passing of my brother, Maurice Porter.
Thank you for all the cards, prayers, and kindnesses comforting word. And you are the best jacket Ross. Well, Eric just reminded me about the, excuse me. The hand sanitizer that we’re using is not on the FDA recall list. There’s a lot of hand side hand sanitizers AF pair that are, and you can find out about it by going on the FDA recall list on your internet,
uh, Marie will be leaving sang, and Joe has the opening prayer. Mark Phillips has the lower supper. Aaron has the, a sermon and I will have the closing prayer 227 on science, Gloria<inaudible> I heard the song and hear all his first<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> to<inaudible> to<inaudible>. Oh,<inaudible><inaudible> like me.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Right.
Oh God. Our father in heaven. We, they come before your throne realizing that you are God and that all things were made by you. We’re thankful father for your love for us. And for us creating us in your own image. We’re grateful, dear God, that we have the ability to be able to have the cleansing blood of our savior cleanses from all of our sins are mindful father of this day that we have come together to worship you and we pray it will be in his spirit.
And intruth, we’re so thankful for your word that we’ve been able to study this morning, that we might be strengthened in our faith and have a better understanding of your will father. We pray that we will continue to encourage each other as the days go by and remember one another and prayer often, and try to build up the church here and be allied in this community.
We pray father that you give us the strength and understanding of your word, that we might reach out to those in this area with the gospel that they too might come to an understanding of your will and be obedient to it. Father, we’re grateful for all the members that have gathered here today. And we pray that we remember those that are not able to be with us.
We’re thankful that they can see the streaming online and be with us. And that way we’d know that our hearts and minds are looking to them and thinking about them and praying for them as the days go by father. We pray that you be with those that are ELL of this congregation, as well as friends and neighbors of ours. We pray that they might receive the attention.
They need to regain that out. We pray father that you help us to each day be mindful of those that are going through difficult times. And we especially want to remember the children at Potter and the own blood mothers there. We’re so thankful for those that are working in that work and for the instruction that they’re giving you, these young people that they to come to knowledge of your will and be obedient to it.
Father we’re mindful of those and other lands, teaching and preaching your word. We pray your blessings to be upon them, help us to be an encouragement to them that they continue reach those souls and those different areas. Father, we’re so grateful for every blessing that we have in the, we pray that we, as we come together today and sing these songs of praise,
that the words and the songs or tugging our heart strings and that we are trying to have better lives because of what we’re singing to the in praise that we are aware of how we live and conduct ourselves upon this earth. We’re so grateful father for our savior. And we pray father that we live each day. That it’s as if it were our last day,
that we try to be faithful and try to be courageous in this world of sin and try to help those that are living in sin to come to your word and be willing to change their lives and live it. After our savior father, we are grateful for Aaron as he has been teaching and preaching the gospel here, he and his family. We pray you continue to bless him and be with him today.
As he brings a lesson, we pray for all those that are ministers of the gospel and pray that you’d help us to encourage them as we’ve had that privilege and opportunity pray father, that you continue to bless us and worship today. And we pray that we’ll always give you the honor and the glory and the praise forever and ever amen. Number 337, as we prepare our minds for the Lord supper.
Number three, three, seven, And a saw rule was a name for the son of God who can ruin<inaudible> claim.<inaudible> bearing shame, man, golfing rude, and my plate condom. Do you hood you my part and with blood? Hi there<inaudible> and<inaudible>, uh, God was he fall a tone, but can it be had, and<inaudible> lift it up.
Was he to die? It is. And it was his cry now and exalt in high high waters.<inaudible> when he comes our Gloria King, all his Ryan son, Hong to bring then a anew, the song Wells DJing. Hi,<inaudible><inaudible> It’s time now to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for our sins that is pray having it followed.
We’re thankful for this bread that represents jesus’ body. That was nailed to the cross for the sins of mankind. And we pray heavenly father, you please forgive us of our sins. Amen. Let us pray. Having a father. We’re thankful for this fruit of the vine that represents jesus’ blood. That was shed on the cross for the sins of mankind.
And we pray heavenly father, you please forgive us of our sins. These things we ask in Jesus name, amen, separate from the Lord’s table, have an to give. As we As prosper, let us pray. Heavenly father. We’re thankful for the financial gains you have given us through the years. We pray heavenly father, that you will accept a portion of these back to you to continue the work here at Carver church of Christ,
amen, or the lesson we’ll be singing number 129, number 129. I want to say this. We need to pay particular attention to the words of this song, because Aaron will be centered in his lesson around grace this morning. And I thought, well, this is a good way to get our minds thinking in the right direction and help make this song more meaningful to us.
Oh man. Hey saying gray last week. Uh, uh,<inaudible> uh, uh, uh, uh, wasp, blah, but nah, I see<inaudible> my<inaudible> and gray. My fan<inaudible> uh, eh, the, ah, ah,<inaudible><inaudible> I had, Oh man.<inaudible><inaudible> bro. My said, Hey, uh, uh,<inaudible> me.
Oh,<inaudible> 10th a house. Uh<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> God spray is that when wave five big, um, Our song of encouragement be number nine Oh nine. It will be on the overhead overhead. Now, Aaron, good morning. Take your Bibles if you will, and open them to Zechariah. So we continue our studies in this old Testament book,
this bridge between the old prophets and the new Testament we noticed last week, chapter three and chapter three, we noticed Joshua the high priest standing before God. Again, these things are happening in the vision. These things are being seen by Zechariah. God is showing him these things and Joshua stands there. Of course, Joshua, just for keeping everybody up,
up to date, this isn’t the Joshua of the book of Joshua. This is Joshua. Who’s called Jeshua in the book of Ezra here’s Jeshua. He is standing there before God, but he’s closed in filthy rags. He’s closed with all the sin of Israel and his own sin, but he’s also closed with all the iniquity sin and transgression of the priesthood.
That’s come before from Erin on down, it wasn’t in perfect priesthood. It was a priesthood that was not perfect. It was not sinless. It was among the people who departed from God and brought about the Babylonian captivity. This picture of Israel as a soiled garment. And yet God says, I’m going to take away his iniquities. I’m going to make him clean.
And there stands Joshua, the high priest as a representation of the remnant and as a representation of the people and as a representation of the priesthood. But God says, I’m going bring my servant, the branch. I’m going to lay in Israel, the cornerstone. And I’m going to set upon this. Man’s work the capstone and the seven eyes that look for,
look forth from that capstone into all the world. And so we see as we close out, chapter three in that day, says the Lord of hosts. Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree. Now the angel who talked with me, came back and wakened me. This is one of those things that happens in these books that are about visions.
You find it happening over the book of Daniel, Daniel, chapter 18, or chapter eight, verse 18, Daniel’s awake, Daniel seeing visions. And then suddenly we find out Daniel’s asleep. We don’t know why, but the angel wakes up Daniel and shows him something else. Now here, Zechariah says, now the angel returned to me and woke me.
He says, he woke me as a man who was wakened out of his sleep. Zechariah startles awake because the angel has something else to tell him to show him. Did all of these visions happen in Zechariah’s life one right after another, maybe all in one night or did they, were they spanned out over a period of time. We don’t really know concerning all of them,
but what we do know is they’re happening at a time. The first visions are given a specific date. They’re happening at a time where Israel is struggling to complete the temple. Israel is struggling and those in Jerusalem are struggling to build the remainder of the temple. They’ve been set back to work, had guy and Zechariah have prophesied before them. And they’re striving to do what they were sent back to Israel to do.
But they’re under the leadership of two people. Jeshua and<inaudible><inaudible> is not a King. He is a governor. He has been put in this position to lead these people back to build the temple and what God is doing in chapter three is putting his stamp of approval on the high priest. And what he’s going to do in chapter four is put his stamp of approval on the governor and insist that these are his instruments and his men.
So chapter four, Zechariah startled awake. Then he said to me, that is the angel said to him, what do you see? I find this interesting, this, this happens a number of times throughout the vision of the old Testament. This happens at other times when you’re dealing with visions, that the angel comes to the person, having the vision and wants the person who’s having the vision to describe it.
It’s kind of like what teachers do. They will show the student what they’re supposed to be learning, and then ask them, what did you learn? What do you see getting them to bring forth what’s in their mind? And so that’s what the angel does here was Zechariah. He says, what do you see? So I said, I am looking and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it.
And on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Okay? So he begins to describe the vision. He begins to describe what’s before him. And he describes a light Mustang. He describes a lampstand with, with seven lamps. And this is not something that is abnormal for us. Any of us who have had any acquaintance at all with Jewish imagery,
we’re, we’re familiar with the lampstand with seven lamps, but there’s more to it than that. They’re seven lamps with seven pipes. There’s a bowl on top of the lamps. And these seven pipes are going to the seven lamps, but there’s more, he says there are two olive trees by it, one at the rind of the bowl. And the other edits left.
Go back. If you will, with me to the book of Exodus for a moment, it’s interesting that when Zechariah and God through these visions to Zechariah brings forth these things, he doesn’t take Zechariah back to a vision of Solomon’s temple. He doesn’t remind Zechariah of how majestic the place in Jerusalem was that Solomon built. He takes Zechariah in these visions, back to the tabernacle,
back to that tent in the wilderness, back to that place in a, in a, the near the side of a, of a mountain Mount Sinai, they’re in a place of, of death being deserted by others. It’s a place of wilderness. It’s a place where these people have come. They’ve left Egypt. They have the, the spoils of Egypt,
but they have no home. They have no permanent dwelling place in they’re here. And they build this tabernacle. They build it out of the spoils of Egypt. They build it out of the freewill gifts and offerings of the people. The people gave so much. They finally had to tell them we can’t take anymore. God Takes Zechariah back to that. If you notice in Exodus chapter 25,
Verse 31, you shall also make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be of hammered work. It’s shaft, it’s branches, it’s bowls, it’s ornamental knobs and flowers shall be of one piece. And six branches shall come out of its side. Three branches of the lamp stand out of one side and three branches out of the lampstand of the other side,
three bowls shall be made like Allmond blossoms on one brand with an ornamental knob and a flower three bowls made like a almond blossoms on the other branch with an ornamental knob and a flower. And so for the six branches that come out of the lamp, stand on the lampstand itself, four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms each with its ornamental knob and a flower.
And there shall be a nom for under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same and a nom under the third two branches of the same. According to the six branches, then extend from the lampstand, their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece. All of his shall be one hammered piece of pure gold.
You shall make seven lampstands for, uh, for it. And they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it. And it’s WIC tremors and their trays shall be of pure gold. It shall be made of a talent of pure gold with all these utensils and see to it that you make them according to the pattern, which was shown you on the mountain.
God tells Moses and Israel through Moses and the craftsman that were given the ability by God to do these things exactly what he wanted. Exactly what it was to look like. Now, here’s Zechariah is he’s. He’s probably never seen that. Lampstand probably never witnessed these things in real life, but yet here he is. And he’s being told, there it is.
He’s seeing it for himself, but he’s seeing something else with it. He sees the lampstand, but turn to Exodus, chapter 40 Exodus chapter 40 verses 24 and 25. As we’re concluding out the book of Exodus, we read concerning Moses. And of course, Moses isn’t necessarily doing all these things by hand he’s causing them to be done. He put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting across from the table on the South side of the tabernacle.
And he lit the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. So here, the lampstand goes into the tabernacle. It goes into the Holy place and it is there that it is lit for the very first time. And it’s done. Don’t miss this in accordance with the commandments of the Lord. So you step back to chapter 24. And what do you find this great lampstand fashioned with very much,
very much with precision and very much with skill, but very much according to the pattern that God gave, and then you jump forward to the lighting of it. And even the lighting of it is done in precision. According to the commandment of the Lord. Now let’s go back over to the Zechariah. Zechariah sees there in chapter four, the lamp stand solid gold with a bowl on top of it.
Well, what’s the bowl doing? We’re going to find that out in a moment, the bowl is there and there are two olive trees. What we’re going to be prompted to understand is that this lamp never goes out. You see if you have a lamp that is being fed because there’s a bowl and someone, an individual has to come by every so often and fill up the bowl.
Imagine as if, if you were because we’ve all done. This we’ve all been to Cracker barrel before, and they’ve got one of the lamps there on the table. What if there’s no oil in the bottom of the lamp? It goes out. It will sit there and it will burn and it will burn. And it will consume the oil. And when the oil runs out,
the light will go out. But not this lampstand, this lamp stand with its seven lambs never go Out. Why? Because it is being fed by the olive trees as they continue to live. And as they continue to grow, they produce the oil that feeds the lamp. You’re getting a picture of God saying the light is before you. And it never goes out.
Imagine if you would the tabernacle, a tent in a hot deserted place by the side of a mountain and the tents built, and there’s the door to the tabernacle and put yourself in the position of the high priest. The tabernacle has been built. It’s been set up. All of the things are over. It. It looks exactly the way God said it was supposed to look.
And then you open the door and you go inside. And the tent flap shuts behind you. And you’re in pitch darkness. Doesn’t matter what time of the day it is because of the way they were told to build it. There’s no natural light in there. The door shut behind you and there’s darkness, except the lamp. The lamp provides the light.
Now walk with me through this because the tabernacle wasn’t just a tent. The tabernacle was a forecasting of God’s relationship to Israel. It was a sign of something that was to come. It was a type of an antique type. And it was a type of the church, the outer area of the tabernacle, the Holy place, where every priest went in on a daily basis to serve that is the church and the veil that stood before that place.
And the most Holy place, the place where the throne of God was the place where the mercy seat was the place where the arc of the covenant was, will veil that stood between the church and God was torn down. When Jesus died. It Is for that reason. Then you remember when Jesus died, that the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom,
not bottom to top. That’s how a man would re would tear it. But from top to bottom, that’s how God tears it. Man is separated from the throne of God, but no more in and Hebrews chapter four in verse 16 in verses 14 and 15, he says we have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities for he was on all points.
Uh, Tim did like, as we are yet without sin, there’s the soiled high priest in chapter three, but there’s the perfect high breezed never touched within equity. Never touched by sin. No sin offering needed to be made for him before he made the atoning offering. He was perfect. He entered into the Holy place and he entered through the Holy place and he entered into the throne of God.
And he made the sacrifice for us, the perfect sacrifice and the perfect high priest. But imagine if you were a high priest on that very first day in the very first tabernacle and you went in and the door shut behind you and it was dark. And imagine yourself standing before God, without his revelation. Imagine standing before the judge of all the earth,
if he had never revealed to us his word, and imagine walking before his throne into the complete unknown in nothing but darkness by way of our knowledge of him. But God didn’t put us in that situation. God, didn’t give us the responsibility to go through this life and try to be obedient to him and into the next life and do so in complete darkness in a complete lack of knowledge,
guessing only what kind of God created this universe and what kind of God would give us all that we have and what kind of God would let sin and suffering and pain and anguish go on in this world. God, didn’t give us that situation. God said, come into my Holy tabernacle and I’ll give you the light. John chapter one, John chapter one is one of those passages that you need to have footnoted next to Zechariah chapter four,
because John chapter one says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was, God notice. First and foremost, that the whole premise of John chapter one is there is a revelation and it is embodied in Jesus Christ. The word was, God, the word was with God. The word was in the beginning. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him. And without him was nothing made that was made in him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. John says, Jesus Christ is the light turn to revelation. Chapter two revelation actually revelation chapter one, revelation chapter one, we find this same picture revelation chapter one beginning in verse 12 in verse 11,
Jesus introduces himself as the alpha, the Omega, the first and the last, but then verse 12. Then I turned to see now here’s John and his vision. Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m going to keep saying it shared imagery doesn’t mean same interpretation. Okay? But get the imagery. Chapter two, chapter one, verse 12. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned.
I saw seven golden lamp stands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands one, like the son of man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band, his head and hair were white, like wool, as white as snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass.
Is it refined in a furnace? And his voice as the sound of many waters he had in his right hand, seven stars out of his mouth when a sharp twoedged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. John turns to see who’s talking to him and he sees Jesus one like the son of man. And as he turns to see,
he also sees the lampstand. Now, John, why would you be describing the lampstand? You’re not part of Israel anymore. You’re not under the old Testament. You don’t go to the tabernacle because the tabernacle was pointing forward. The light of God, there pointed towards the light of God that shown not as seven lamps in a dark room, but as the sun in all of its brilliance,
chapter two, verse one to the angel of the church of Ephesus, write these things, says he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands back in Zechariah chapter four. When you see the lampstands, you see the eternal light of God. And now you’re going to see Zechariah get pulled into understanding what that means.
He sees the two olive trees that are buy it one at the right of the bowl and the other end it’s left. So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me saying, what are these? My Lord Zechariah sees what he sees. He, he, he, he can see it, but he doesn’t know what it means. And so he asked,
what are these? Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord, the angel ass much, again like a teacher, do you not understand provoking the one who’s learning the one who’s seeing these things to admit he needs help to understand these things. John will experience the same thing.
John will be asked by the angel, what is this? What do you see? What does it mean? And John will reply. You know, as if to say, don’t ask me, you tell me. So he answered and said to me, this is the word of the Lord.<inaudible> not by might nor by power. But by my spirit says the Lord of hosts,
who are you? Oh, great mountain before. Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace To it, zero will says, or sorry. Zechariah says, I don’t know what this means. Explain it to me. And the angel says, what you see is the word of the Lord. What you see is the revelation of God to<inaudible>.
What you see is God using his revelation to bring forth the governor that would stand and bring forth. What’s coming over and over. I’ve said, Zechariah’s the bridge. And he’s ringing forward the imagery of the prophets. And he’s bringing forward the profits from before from Isaiah and Jeremiah and Elijah and others. He’s bringing forward Moses and his lampstand and those things that they declared about the future.
And now he’s pointing them to here, the governor<inaudible> and beyond him to the Christ. He says, this is the word of the Lord. Not by might, nor by power. All of this is happening to a small ragtag group of people in a small, up until 16 years before deserted city in a small place in the middle of the world that looked like it had no significance at all.
And yet God says, it’s not going to be by Mike. What I’m going to do. I’m not going to do through some great army and it’s not going to be by power. It’s not going to be what this world would expect, but it’s going to be by the spirit of God. What’s that revelation. God says, you look around you and you don’t see all the power.
You think you need, you look around you and you don’t see the army that you need to defend. You. You look around you and you see a temple. That’s nothing By comparison to what came before. And yet all you need to remember is I’m here. And that’s where we read. Who are you? Oh, great mountain. I’m firmly convinced.
This is a reference back to previous prophets and their prophecies of Babylon. Cause remember Israel went away into Babylon. They went away into captivity, but God gave the King of Babylon a message. God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of a mountain that would be carved out without hands a mountain that wouldn’t originate with the greatest King in a line of Kings, in a line of nations,
Nebuchadnezzar being the first and the head of gold, bringing about nation after nation, after nation. And yet God would set up a kingdom that would like them away and would set up a kingdom that would never be destroyed. And it wouldn’t be by might. And it wouldn’t be by military power. It would be by his word before it’s irrevocable, you shall become a plain and he shall bring forth the capstone.
Now verse seven needs to get connected back to the stone, talked about in chapter three, the stone with the seven eyes. Okay. We we’ve talked about God laying the foundation and the chief cornerstone, but we also talked about the capstone, the very last stone to go on top of the temple. The very last piece of that temple to be created.
Here’s the capstone in the eyes, looking out, God saying I see everything and Zerubbabel brings that forward. And he does. So with shouts, with shouts of grace, turned to Ezra. As soon as I figured out where I wrote this down as we chapter three, this is from the time of the foundation being laid, but it sets the picture that I think you need to get from this of the capstone.
The very last piece of the, of the temple being laid chapter three, verse 10 of Ezra. When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priest stood in their repair roll with trumpets and the Levites and the sons of ASAP with symbols and praise to the Lord. According to the ordinance of David King of Israel. And they sang responsively,
praising and giving things to the Lord for is good for his mercy endures forever toward Israel, mercy, and goodness, grace. Isn’t it. The goodness of God and his mercy extended together, isn’t it grace. But then he says, then all the people shouted with a great shout and they praise the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house was laid.
And here’s the rest of the context, but many of the priests and Levis and heads of the father’s houses, old men who had seen the first Tembel leapt with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes yet, and many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shallow of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people for the people shouted with a loud shout.
And the sound was heard of far off. This shout goes up when the last stone goes on top of the temple, grace, grace to it, God you’ve been with us this far. Don’t turn your back on us. Now extend your grace. There are some people who say there is no grace in the old Testament. They haven’t read Zechariah chapter four,
apparently because it’s right here because it’s, God’s saying it’s not you. And it’s not your strength and it’s not your goodness. And it’s not your righteousness. It’s me, it’s mine, but I’m giving it to you. I will make you what you ought to be. Verse eight. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, now here’s the remainder of Ezra chapter three.
Here’s the, they saw the foundation laid and there was a shout of joy and there was the praise to God, but there was also the sorrow at what they were seeing in comparison to the old temple. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying the hands of<inaudible> have laid the foundation of this temple. His hands shall also finish it.
Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. God says through the angel to Zachariah this governor, this man will finish the temple. This man will bring forth what I commanded. And then you will know that he’s mine and that he’s doing my work. Then we read that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you for who has the day of small things for these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of the rubble.
What was the plumb line? The used for you hung it from the top to make sure everything was straight. Everything was according to the pattern. Everything was exactly the way the architect designed it to be well who’s the architect is God. And you see the governor and you see him holding the plum line and the seven are witnessing it. What seven, the seven lampstands.
This is the bringing about the enacting of the revelation of God and the word of God taking place in their lives. He sees a rebel with a plumb line. He says, they are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth. Then I answered and said to him, what are these two olive trees? Okay. So,
so John gets, or excuse me, Zechariah gets this. And he says, Oh, okay, I’ve got the lampstands. What are the olive trees? I I’ve got that. I need the rest of the vision. What, what, what are they? He says, what are these two olive trees at the Rite of lampstand? And then it’s left.
And I further answered and said to him, what are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains. Now you’ve got the full picture. You see, it’s not just that. There were two olive trees on either side of the lampstand, but the two olive trees have two branches. And from them continually drips the oil that keeps the lamp eternally lit.
Now you can’t read Zechariah chapter four and read about two olive trees until you and finish reading that until you go read revelation, chapter 11, revelation chapter 11. Then I was given a read verse one like a measuring rod and the angel stood and said rise and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there, but leave out the court,
which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the Gentiles and they will tread the Holy city under foot for 42 months. And I will give power to two witnesses. I alright, two witnesses keep track of those. I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesize 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth. Hmm. What is sat cloth?
It’s filthy rags to witnesses and their profits. Two witnesses. And they’re looking at Jerusalem, two witnesses, and they’re seeing the destruction. That’s coming two witnesses and they’re mourning. That’s why you put sackcloth on. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies.
And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. As if to say, here are people who are enemies of God and they say, we’re going to put out the light of God. We’re going to stop the prophecies of God. We’re going to stop the word of God. And yet from these olive trees, proceeds fire and destroys the enemies of God.
We’ve never known of a prophet who destroyed the enemies of God with fire from heaven. Did we? Oh yeah. Yeah. We’ve seen that, but there’s a little bit more because notice he says these have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. Oh, wait a minute. Who did that? Oh, that’d be Elijah.
And they have power over water to turn them to blood. Wait a minute. Who did that? That’d be Moses. And to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire who did that? That’s Moses, God says, here are my profits and they’re not letting the light go out and they’re going to stand and they’re going to prophesize.
And my word is going to come forth. And my light is going to come forth from them and they will defend the truth. They will defend the light and they have been given power by me to do so. Now shared doesn’t mean shared interpretation because those aren’t this tame to olive trees in Zechariah chapter four, but you needed to see those to get these because here are Moses and Elijah who stand as the four runners of Christ.
Oh, wait a minute. Who met with Christ on the Mount of transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17, Moses and Elijah. And they talked with him in the mountain about the death. He was about to suffer and were told that. But in chapter four of Zechariah, it’s not Moses. And Elijah, he says, then he answered me and said, do you not know what these are?
And I said, no, my Lord. So he said, these are the two anointed ones who stand before or excuse me, beside the Lord of the whole earth. Wait a minute. Which two anointed ones, these aren’t two Kings. These are Jeshua.<inaudible> the high priest and the governor chapter three and chapter four. He said, they’re not going to let the light go out for who has despised the day of small things,
two olive trees and a lampstand. Well, how much light can it give all the light? They need to olive trees in a lampstand. Won’t they eventually be destroyed. No, because God will be their defense, two men and a remnant. Will they be able to do what God said they would do? Oh yes. Why not? Because of Mike and not because of power,
but because of the word of the Lord, because God chose them and told them he would be with them in the same way. God chose Moses and Elijah and said, I’ll be with you now go. Now we need to bring all of this forward to us. We have the word of the Lord. We have everything it’s told us to do and everything it’s promised about what’s to come and that light will never go out.
And that light in bodied in Christ is the light. And the one who spoke to those churches in revelation chapter two and chapter three, and told them to the one who overcomes I will give a crown of life. But to the one who turns his back to the one who becomes self-interested to the one who gives in to Satan to the one who turns his back,
when brought about, or when temptation or when testing is, is brought about to that one, I’ll fight against them. Isn’t it interesting that in revelation 11, when you see the two trees, they’re measuring out the judgment against Israel, they’re measuring Israel to show they come up lacking. They’re measuring out the judgment that is going to come about against a nation that turned its back on God.
But in Zechariah chapter four, there, the hope for the future God’s word is always present. It’s always present to shine, a light of truth and a light of judgment and the determination and the terminating factor is which side of his truth will we be on? Will we be on the side of truth or will we stand against him and opposing if you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ,
you don’t stand with the truth because you haven’t submitted to it. You haven’t put on Christ and been immersed in water for the remission of your sins. You haven’t been covered in the blood of the lamb. The sacrifice doesn’t cover you, but it can, you can hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. You can repent of your sins and confess the name of Christ.
You can be immersed in water, die to sin and rise to walk in newness of life, a toned, clean made pure, and you can then follow the light of God by being obedient to the revelation that he’s given. If you’re outside the body of Christ, you have the opportunity To obey now. And always, if you’re a member of the body of Christ and maybe you’ve become a little bit like the remnant,
that’s lost. Hope you need to remember the light. Hasn’t gone out. If you have need of the invitation, why not come now? As we stand in, as we sing<inaudible><inaudible> me thirsty.<inaudible> rock dance class.<inaudible> that may not is here. Watershed.<inaudible> Certainly appreciate Aaron’s sermon today. I know it’s one that we gain much knowledge from and much strength from when we know that it’s God’s word that leads us through life and we need to be faithful to the word.
Now we’ll have a closing prayer and brother terrier, sander simulators. I was probably father who art in heaven. We thank thee for this beautiful first day of the week and an opportunity to we’ve had to come together as your children to study that word and then worship you the only true and living God, we pray that we have learned something that will help us in our everyday lives to be stronger.
Christians. We pray that you would remember. Those are our number that are sick and unable to be here. We pray that you would restore them to their health, hormone health to enable them to be back with us. We pray that you would go with us now and keep us safe. We return again in Christ name. We pray. Amen.
07-22-2020 – Wednesday PM
PETER – 2 Peter 1 and 2
Knowledge; False Teachers
How has God given us everything pertaining to life and godliness? 2 Peter 1:3 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(yes or no) Are there qualities which a Christian should add to his faith?
What will be the result? 2 Peter 2:1-7, 11 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How did Peter know the things which he had taught? 2 Peter 2:16 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In 2 Peter, Peter spoke of his death as (a) soon, (b) distant, or (c) unknown?
2 Peter 1:14 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Where did Peter say that prophecies originated? 2 Peter 1:21 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
According to Peter, who would distort the truth? 2 Peter 2:1-3
How can a person become enslaved to sin? 2 Peter 2:19 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Good evening. How’s everyone this evening. Good. The way I keep backing down towards the front of the auditory, you’d think that we’d had a lot, lot of people here. We’re just all really spread out, but that’s okay. Take your Bibles if you will. And open them to second Peter, we are in second, Peter, and then we are going to head straight into first,
John, after we’re through with it. Now, the lessons for on the sheets have us going through chapter one and chapter two of second Peter tonight. And I can just tell you, that’s not likely, I’m saying there’s Not a chance. I mean, it might happen. It might happen. But, uh, I checked with myself earlier and I said self not having it.
So, alright, let’s begin with a word of prayer. Our gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne grateful for the day that you’ve given to us and the life that we have, the opportunities that we have to serve you. And the open doors that are before us, may we always be looking to those opportunities to glorify your name and to preach the gospel,
to those that are around us to teach them, encourage them, to be obedient to your word, to stand up for what is right and stand against that, which is wrong. Help us to always strive to see the world and see sin and see righteousness. As you see it. Lord, we ask that you forgive us when we sinned and fall short of your glory.
When we failed to do what we ought to do. And when we do that, which we ought not, we ask that you be with us as we go throughout this period of study, may all that we do be in accordance with your will and all that we say, be right in your eyes. All this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Peter’s going to write to basically the same audience that he wrote to in the first letter. He concluded that letter with greetings, from those who were with him. He concluded that letter with a warning of out an enemy that they needed to be sober-minded of. They needed to be aware they needed to be paying attention, but the focus of the first letter is suffering.
The focus of the second letter is eternity. And so as we go through second, Peter, he’s talked about eternity in first, Peter, but not with the same razor focus that he does here in second, Peter. But as he talks about sec is he talks about eternity. He does it in a specific context. And that is a reminder when you go through second,
Peter, you’re going to see that idea of a reminder, a reminder of the basics, a reminder of growth, a reminder of this always being in remembrance. And here’s why he knows his time on this earth is short and he is setting them or setting before them a reminder. So they are ready when he’s gone. Compare in your mind. Second,
Peter second Timothy, when Paul is almost ready to, as he says, be poured out and John chapter 14, 15, and 16 and 17, frankly, because each one of those is the last message before someone leaves this earth in death. This last reminder, and every single one of them shares some very significant properties. Number one, a focus on truth.
Jesus in John chapter 14, 15 and 16 would tell the apostles that he was going to send the comforter and the comforter would guide them into all truth. Paul would write to Timothy and he would set before him a reminder in the end of chapter three, about the inspiration of God and a charge in chapter four, beginning to preach that inspired word, and then a warning against those who will get to a point where they would desire to have their ears tickled.
Instead of hearing the truth and a pointing out of those who had departed from the truth. Peter is going to focus on the truth. He’s going to focus on the doctrine that leads to salvation. And he’s going to talk in depth about false teachers and warn against those who would pervert the gospel and lead them away into destruction. So you see these connections between the three of them,
but then you draw into that John chapter 17 in that prayer, that Jesus gives in the upper room before he goes to the garden before he’s betrayed. And this reminder that the thing he’s given to them, the, the word of God is the thing that they’re going to give to everyone else. And when they give the word of God to everyone else,
that is the singular thing that can bring about unity between that person and those apostles and God, the father and Jesus Christ. The truth is the fundamental hub of unity in the church. The moment the truth gets sacrificed on the altar of opinion or on the alter of preference or on the alter of tradition or on the alter of whatever supply the list. The moment the truth gets sacrificed.
There isn’t unity because we lose unity with God. And when we lose unity with God, it doesn’t matter what we agree on. We’ve lost all unity because the only unity that matters is fellowship with God, the father, and then fellowship with one another. Okay. So second Peter chapter one, Simon, Peter, a bond servant, and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained like precious faith with us,
by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ notice a number of things as he begins. Number one, faith, he sets the tone, the tenor, the atmosphere of the entire letter with I’m writing to you because of the faith you have. But what, how does he describe that faith? Precious. We have things in this life that are worth what we pay for them.
Uh, have you ever gotten a toy in a happy meal from McDonald’s outside of the collectible ones that have been around for 40 years and are in perfect condition and someone can pay a very large sum of money for I’m just talking about the one you get yesterday at the, how much is it worth exactly what you paid for it, it came with the meal.
Okay. Because you paid very little for it. It’s pro it’s likely value is very little, but what bought our salvation, the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus Christ. So when Peter introduces this, he says we have obtained a like precious faith. He starts off with a comparison, like precious. He says we together have obtained a unified faith because it is the same faith I have is the same faith.
You have this, this is one of those passages that just puts aside every idea that some modernist have. And we just all have different face and different beliefs. And we’re all headed to the same place. No, Peter says the foundation of what you have and what we have together as Christians is a like precious faith. And as soon as you get rid of the same single thing,
that’s most important. And that is the faith that begins in the righteousness of God and the son of God and the revelation of God, you have nothing, because that was what Jesus came to give. So he says to those who have obtained like precious faith, let me also make a note there that if you can obtain like precious faith, that means you weren’t born with it.
It also means that God didn’t choose you to have it arbitrarily without any decision upon you and choose others. Not to have it because you obtained it. You had a part in it. Calvinism, can’t be true if this passage is because Calvinism would determine that the Holy spirit shows you from before the foundation of the world, you to be saved and someone else to be lost.
And in addition to that, the Holy spirit gave you the faith that you have by a miraculous event. And you didn’t have anything to do with it. Not what Peter said. He said, you obtained it. You did something to gather this faith, but he says, it is like precious with us by the righteousness of our God and savior Jesus Christ.
When we see the word righteousness, sometimes we see it and we think right, doing, but really at its base, most of the time, especially when it’s talking about God, it is talking about his justice. It is talking in a, in a civil sense about one who is right in his judgment. So when you see righteousness, you see the law,
you see God’s judgment and his reward to those who do righteousness and his judgment against those who do unrighteousness. Okay? So when you see the righteousness of God, don’t just think, Oh, he’s talking about God does good things. No, God is just and right. And all of his actions are just, and right. So he says, we have obtained a light precious faith,
or you’ve obtained a light pressure space with us by the righteousness of God and the savior, Jesus, grace, and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus. Our Lord, he introduces faith. Verse one knowledge verse two, because knowledge and faith cannot be separated from one another. There’s a mentality in the denominational world that says I have faith,
which is a blind leap in the dark. Then what’s the point of knowledge. No. Peter says you have a light precious faith. That’s founded upon the knowledge of God, not a blind leap in the dark. As a matter of fact, he’s going to set that contrast very starkly, because he’s going to tell them about the knowledge of God and the promises of God.
And that those promises are so sure that you can live your life with zero doubt about those promises coming true. It’s not a leap in the dark. It’s not guesswork. Here’s the thing. Have you ever been walking through your house with the lights off? You pretty much know where everything is. Yeah. Have you ever been walking in a building you’ve never walked into before in your life and the lights are all off or maybe you go on a tour of a cave and you get down there and just when they,
you get down there and they say, all right, well, everybody’s standing real still. We’re in turn all the lights off and you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. Now, try and walk around. See this mentality of the modernist is faith is a leap into the unknown with no knowledge of what’s there. Peter didn’t believe that for a minute.
Peter said that we are to have knowledge based upon God’s revelation. We know what’s there. We don’t know exhaustively what’s there, but I mean, let’s face it. We don’t know exhaustively. What’s here. Raise your hand. If you knew what the coronavirus was 18 months ago, we don’t know exhaustively. What’s here. Let alone what’s there. He’s not talking about exhaustive knowledge.
He’s talking about knowledge that cannot be disputed and could not possibly be wrong because it originated with a righteous God. Now he says, as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. God not only is righteous. Jesus not only is our savior. Grace and peace are not only given to us so that we have them supplied in and multiplied in the knowledge of him.
But he gave us all things. We were to do this from a logic class of MSOP. We do it this way. We, we draw he’s shaking his head. No, and we draw a circle. And in that circle, we’d put all things that pertain to life and godliness. Now, if there is one thing, one thing out here that pertains to life and godliness,
that’s not in that circle, then that’s not true because if there’s one thing outside the circle, then all things aren’t there. But Peter made it clear everything, all things to the exclusion of all other things, all things are here that pertain to life and godliness. So if someone comes to you and says, I believe the Bible, and I think it’s a wonderful book.
And I think it came from God. And I think it’s inspired, but I think you should also read this thing because this thing will tell you things. This thing doesn’t tell you, here’s what you can know. There may be some sort of advice in there, but either it’s repeating the thing that’s already here and therefore isn’t necessary or it’s wrong and isn’t necessary.
It’s why we don’t need the book of Mormon. We don’t need any other latter day revelation. We don’t need the creeds of churches or the decrees of the Catholic church. Or I’m not saying that there aren’t things you can learn from those things, but you can learn things from a history book too, can’t you? Yes, but that’s not the context of this.
The context of this is what do you have to have to have, uh, all things that pertain to life and godliness. Obviously the context of life here is not a discussion of all things you need in order to do business or write a contract or that that’s not, that’s not what he means by life. What kind of life is he talking about eternal life?
And as we go into the passage a little bit more going to become clear, he’s talking about the life that really matters. Not the life on this earth, eternal life and godliness, everything that pertains to those, none of it originates with a man. None of it comes through any source besides God. So then he says this, God not only has given us through his divine power.
All things that pertain to life in Gatlin as he’s called us to something, what did he call us to glory and virtue? Now, if we were to single out second, Peter, as, as an epistle all to itself and not think about the last two that we’ve just studied James and first Peter, we might look at the word glory and think God’s called us to majestic things into a life of,
of glory and a life of, of majesty and alive. Just filled with nothing but good things. But if we’ve re we’ve read James and we’ve read first, Peter, how many times was glory attached to suffering all through both of those books, he’s called you to glory and virtue and glory has repeatedly been the context of the suffering you go through in this life to achieve the glory you receive in the next.
So when he says you’ve been called the glory and virtue, you don’t don’t imagine that that means you’ve been called to nothing but happiness in this life and good things and good actions, good things, good actions on the virtue part, but glory, that’s got a cost attached to it. It’s called suffering. And so he says all there, his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue by which have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises.
Here’s where he wants you to take your faith. He wants you to take God’s righteousness. He wants you to take what he has given to you in the knowledge of him to give you everything that pertains to life and godliness and this calling. And he wants you to wrap them all up into one ball that says, God made a promise, just like in the life of Abraham,
where in Genesis chapter 12, we’re introduced to Abraham and God says, you go where I send you, I’m going to show you a place and I’m going to give you this. And I’m going to make of you a great nation. And through you, all nations of the earth will be blessed. And Abraham went on that journey through good times and bad,
hard times and happy times, but he went on that journey. Looking the Hebrews writer tells us for a city whose builder and maker was God looking for the end of a promise. Now, were there times along the way where Abraham questioned whether or not God was going to deliver on those promises? You remember when Abraham said I is my servant over here,
that was born in my house going to be my air. Yeah. There were times that he questioned the promises where he questioned whether or not God was going to do it. And there was even the time where God said before the years out, you’re going to have a child. And he laughed to himself because he was old. But God also said with man,
this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. So as he draws you forward into these promises, as he talks about the truth and the knowledge and the faith and the glory and the virtue in all of these things, being drawn together into these promises, he says this, he said by which you have been hurt by, which have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises that through these,
you may be partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. He now sets this contrast and the life of the Gentiles and the life of those living in the world and the life of a Christian. There are those who would argue that we through the feeling of our bodies and through the emotions of our bodies and through the experiences that we can have in our bodies,
we can reach a higher spiritual plane. I mean, if you would like to spend a few million dollars, just go look for people selling that, and you can spend all the money you want. But Peter said that if you want to take part in par, take in the divine nature, you can’t do that wall fulfilling fleshly loss. He said,
there’s an opportunity here for you to partake in God’s nature. But it comes at the exclusion of sin because as long as sin is in your life, you can’t have part of that life. So then he says this, but also for this very reason. So because of this, because we’re striving for this because of these promises, because of this calling,
because of this faith, because of these things that he’s given to us in the knowledge of him give all diligence, we’ve all seen and probably done it in our lives. We’ve all seen a group of people where ma we’ll, we’ll say there were four, four people and three of them were working very hard. And one of them wasn’t and we look at it and go,
that’s just, that’s just terrible because those three are working like a dog. And that guy is doing nothing. Now, maybe occasionally we’ve been that guy. Everybody else is working. And we’re just not this giving all diligence is the idea that we have set ourselves to accomplish something and nothing, nothing, nothing will hold us back from it. We are going to do everything.
No matter the cost, no matter the effort we are going to give, not some diligence, but all exhaustive diligence to do this. He says giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue. So he talked about their light, precious faith. Now he’s going to talk about virtue. What is virtue, moral courage. It is this idea that you stand up for what’s right?
And you never turned back. It is a moral decision to say good and right. We’ll try out and I will stand beside it and I will be involved in it. And I will lead in it. And I will guarantee while I’m standing that good will be represented. He said, you take your faith and you set on it, a determination, a courage,
a conviction that good will be done. But then he says, and to your faith, virtue, to virtue knowledge, you didn’t start with faith without some knowledge, but there’s a growth that is to occur. The knowledge you had to become a Christian is one thing. The knowledge you ought to gain after you’re a Christian is something entirely different. And so he says,
you take your faith, which is based on this fundamental knowledge that you have. And then you add virtue, this moral conviction and courage, and then you add more knowledge. But then he says, you add to knowledge, self-control with a conviction to do what’s right. And the knowledge of what is right. You begin to exert control over yourself. You begin to exert control over your actions.
You begin to exert control over how you live and to yourself, control perseverance. What’s the word perseverance mean? Not giving up. It’s an, it’s another word in the original language that we often find translated patience, or to stand up under. We’ve talked about that. I think back in James, the idea of to stand up under something and not stop as if you are lifting a burden and you’re not going to put it down,
he says, you take your faith and you add to it, your virtue. And you add to that, your knowledge and you add to that your self control. And you add to that, your determination to carry on through any thing, because it’s one thing to make a decision, to have a stand for moral courage. And it’s another thing entirely when you’re faced with a real consequence of losing your life for that decision that you actually carry through.
Many people determined to do what’s right, until times get hard. And then they lose the conviction they had and they turn around and go the other direction. And so he says, you start with your faith and you add to it, your virtue. And you add to that, your knowledge and you add to that yourself control. And you add that your perseverance,
that standing up under the burden and struggles of this life, and then godliness, you say, Whoa, wait. We’re, we’re all the way up here in perseverance. Before we get around the acting like God, if we think of godliness as an equivalent of holiness, then what happened to self control? That what happened to virtue? That’s not really the idea here.
You remember. He said, you can partake in the divine nature. When you set aside the fleshly loss, he said, you take your faith and you add to it, a determination to stand for what’s right. And you add to that, the knowledge that God’s given concerning what is right? And you add to that, your harnessing of controlling yourself.
And then you add to that, this perseverance to continue doing what’s right in the face of everything the world throws out at you. And then you begin to experience God like NIS. That’s what godliness is. God like this. Not saying that we begin to start handing out miracles. Not not saying we begin to whisper and things happened. This just happened to be created.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We begin to look like him. Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, you do all of these things to be attitudes. And you’ll be blessed. That word blessed means what happy and those things that you be blessed in doing included. Things like suffering, being poor in spirit, being humble,
seeking righteousness, hungering, and thirsting after righteousness. But it also included standing for what’s right? Because he gets over there to verses 14 and 15 and 16. And he says, you are a city that is set on a Hill. You are the light of the world. You are the salt that changes the flavor of everything, unless you’re not. And if you’re not,
you’re worthless, but if you are, they’ll see your good works. And they’ll see through them to who God, because they’ll see your good works and not glorify you. But your father who is in heaven, what does that mean? That means you became the picture of God, right in front of them. You represented him. That’s why they saw your words and they didn’t glorify you.
They glorified him. Now he says this. He says to your godliness, add brotherly kindness. It’s really interesting that we’re this far into the list before we get brotherly kindness. But this relationship, this love of a brother, this love of your brethren is something that frankly people don’t always start out with because they don’t understand it. They don’t understand what it means to truly be a family in Christ.
And so they’re there to a degree lost on this, not lost in the sense of, of lost in sin, but they don’t comprehend that when you read concerning people who go through difficult circumstances, when you read concerning the things that some military units have gone through and they come out, we’ve got a phrase for it. They come out a band of brothers,
they went through everything that could be thrown against them. And the only guarantee they had that they would make it to see another day was the guy standing next to them who would fight for them. And he for the other one. And when they got out the other side of that encounter or the other side of that experience, they had a bond that was unbreakable.
That’s here. This love for brethren is here because when you’ve done all these previous things, you’ve gone through it. All you’ve gone through. Remember we already had perseverance. You’ve gone through everything the world could throw at you. And you came out the other side with those who also were faithful. So he said, you add brotherly kindness, and then add what love charity,
a GAAP, a love, the love of someone else more than yourself. As he calls us to go through this. He said, you begin with faith and you end with love. And it only gets any coincidence at all. And that he ends with love. And first Corinthians chapter 13 makes it clear that love is the enduring character of God. First John chapter four makes it clear that if you can’t love your brother,
you can’t be righteous with God because God is love. Now, some will say, well, wait, wait, wait, all right, but I get this. This is a progression, but don’t you grow a little bit in these all the time. I mean, you’re not suddenly going to just, just have perseverance. And that’s true. These are kind of like a circle of growth.
You keep going back through this circle and you begin again at faith and you keep growing again. And again and again. So it’s not a onetime all down. I have perseverance. Okay. I can check that off the list. Oh, now I have faith. I can check that off the list. Oh, now I am brotherly kindness. I know this is a growth pattern that builds momentum towards eternity.
So yes. I think something to note though, too, is all old lady, brotherly kindness relates to the individual themselves holdings they have for themselves. If they have to take care of within, before they can show up without, you know, he’s talking about, take care of yourself before you can him, somebody else different pastors. Talk about some examination.
All of that leads up to when I have those things, then I can show brotherly kindness. Not that you can’t show at a better time, but your brotherly kindness will be seeing more when you have those characteristics and say would the away Absolutely good point. So just this idea. See, I told you, we weren’t getting into chapter two. This idea that the first five are inward focused.
They’re focusing on yourself, six and seven focus outwardly. They focus on how you enact what’s inside towards others. So then he says for, if you do these things, excuse me for, if these things are yours and abound, not just the idea that you have, you’ve got to, you’ve got a smattering, you got a little bit, you’ve got a,
a dip or a novel or whatever the current term is in the cooking world is that you have these things in abundance. You’re growling in these things, your exceeding in these things. He says, if you have these things, if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Here we are back in knowledge again.
So there’s fruit produced in these things. He’s a, you can’t possibly exceed in these things and a bound in these things and be unfruitful. But then he says for he who lacks these things is shortsighted even to blind this and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Now I know we don’t have a lot of time, but we’ve got to go over to Deuteronomy chapter six because this statement here carries a connotation that is born right back here in the old Testament.
Deuteronomy chapter six, Moses is talking to the second generation. Those who came out of Egypt, they, those who died in the wilderness have now given birth to the second generation. The second generation is commanded to do this beginning in verse three, therefore hear O Israel and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you. And that you may multiply greatly as the Lord.
Your God, that, excuse me, that is the Lord. God of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your, and with all your strength and these words,
which I command you today shall be in your heart. Now, just step back and think Moses given them the law and is giving them the law the second time. And he says, you know who God is. And you know, his law and his law belongs in your heart because of what it’s going to do in your life. But notice what he says.
He says, and you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up four different times throughout the day, he describes this idea of you are constantly to be involved in teaching your children, these things. And if you’re constantly teaching them,
you’re constantly reminding yourself. And so this knowledge gives birth to their obedience, but then he says, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your Gates. He said, you put them ever before you, you remind yourself over and over and over again,
concerning these things that belong in your heart. And then he says, so it shall be when the Lord, your God brings you into the land, which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities, which you did not build houses full of good things, which you did not fill hewn out Wells,
which you did not dig vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant. When you have eaten and are full, then the wear less. You forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. He says, I’m warning you. You put God’s word in your mind. You put God’s law in your heart.
You continue in it day in and day out. And when you receive the promises, don’t forget the Lord. And we have a mindset that says, wait a minute, I would look at all these done for me. How could I possibly forget him? If he gives me all of these things, if he fulfills every promise that he’s ever made to me,
how could I possibly forget where it all came from? And if we thought that way, we would be entirely naive because that’s exactly what they did. They received all the blessings and all the promises. And then for God, where it came from and in the first century church, the same thing happened. Do you remember what John wrote to emphasis? When he said you’re doing this and you’re doing this and you’re standing against that,
but I have somewhat against you because you’ve left your first love and all of the effort to defend God, to fend his word, defend the church, do what’s right in an enact. Good. They forgot God. Peter tells them. Don’t forget God, okay, we’re going to leave it there. Thoughts or questions. We’re going to cover the actual questions since they cover chapters one and two.
We’ll cover those on Sunday. If not, you are dismissed. Thank you for your attention.<inaudible> Good evening. Good to see everybody out tonight, uh, got a little bit better crowd and we’ve been having all spread out and everything. So it was good to see y’all we don’t have very many announcements tonight. We need to remember the sick, the Rodale and Dorothy and Joan Springer,
Pam Shaffer. And we’ll see the doctor this week about her MRI and Sylvia. Have you had yours yet? Friday by Friday. So we hope that comes out and good. A former member here, Tom Allen passed away today from Pat pancreatic cancer. I understand he’s had that for a long time, but anyway, uh, we need to remember that family means meeting Monday,
July the 27th at six 30 here at the building, uh, national gospel meeting call flyers are on the table out there. If you want them. That’s all those announcements. Um,<inaudible> singing. Uh, Michael Dale has the devotional interior weekly has closing prayer.<inaudible> Marquis books. Number 900 to 900 to 538. Number five, three eight. My hope is built on nothing less than jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trucks, sweetest frame, but wholly lean on jesus’ name on Christ. The solid era ground is sinking sun, a whole other grounded.<inaudible> when darkness dance, his love the face. I rest on his son, changing graves and every high and stormy Gail my anchor holds with and the veil on Christ. The solid rock got that. Oh,
all other ground is sinking sand. A whole other ground did sneaking Simon. When he choked, come with trumpet sound Oh, Marianne then and, and be found dress Dan, his right up nestled on both legs to stand before the throne on Christ. The solid rock I stand the ground is sinking son. Oh, how the ground is.<inaudible> My lesson this evening.
My Divo this evening is on trusting the instrument over intuition. Dr. Erwin Lutzer, who is a, a pastor tells the story of flying on a commercial flight. Seated next to him was a man who used to be a commercial airline pilot, but now flies his own smaller plane. The two became engaged in conversation about the safety of flying. The pilot said many people think that these huge jets are more safe and therefore are more safely put together and therefore are safer to fly than smaller planes.
People think that because they are more, there are more crashes with smaller planes than with commercial jets, but he said, that is not true. The reason that so many lighter planes crash is not bad equipment it’s because, because of inexperienced pilots flying the little planes let’s replied. Tell me more. The air of inexperienced pilots is that they refuse to believe their instruments.
The pilots said in a storm, they trust their instincts rather than their navigation instruments. And that’s where they get into trouble. For example, they are absolutely convinced that the altitude of the plane is increasing when it’s not. There is an internal mechanism that tells them the altitude, but when the altitude is not increasing, they often choose to disbelieve the instruments and adjust the plane.
According to their senses, they think that the plane is turning or banking when it’s actually not. When the pilot ignores his readings and adjusts the plane, according to his intuition, it is sure to crash. Then he said, there wouldn’t be as many light planes that crash. If pilots would devotedly believe they’re inside their instrument panels rather than accepting what they think their senses are telling them.
When you consider your relationship with God, with God, is what do you base your conclusion, your faith on? Do you believe you are right with God because you think or feel you are, or do you know you are right with God because you are following the instrument, his word, which has provided a guide for you to get home heaven. God’s word is truth.
John chapter 17 in verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth and arriving at our heavenly destination. Depends on whether we follow the instrument. God has provided the instrument, which God provided to create. Belief is his written word, Romans chapter 10 and verse 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
God’s word was written. So that the one who is reading it might believe and know that they have eternal life. John wrote, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name, John 2031. Again, John writes these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life.
First, John five, 13, a man once said, and I’m sure there’s several men that have said I wouldn’t trade. What I feel for a stack of Bibles. Yet life in his name has never been based upon feelings. It has always been based upon believing that Jesus is the Christ. The belief comes through the instrument. God’s word as well.
The Hebrew writer States and having been made perfect. He became to all those who obey him, the source of eternal salvation, Hebrews chapter five and verse nine, Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, Matthew seven 21 here,
we learned that eternal salvation is never based upon feeling you are saved, but through obeying the instrument that he has given you, his word air traffic controllers can not guide the pilot. If the pilot will not obey his instruments and his instructions, likewise, God cannot guide us with his word. If we are not willing to obey it, it is his word of truth that will judge us.
He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day, John 1248. If we are to arrive safely at our heavenly destination, we cannot allow our feelings to determine our path. There is a way which seems right to men, but it’s end as the way of death,
Proverbs 14, 12, we must believe obey and trust the instrument of his word. It was provided so that we might be sure of our final destination. When we ignore God’s word and adjust our lives. According to our feelings, we are sure to crash and great. That crash will be Matthew chapter seven, verses 24 through 27. Most of us are aware of this,
uh, that Jesus spoke of the wise man and the foolish man, therefore whosoever here at these things of mine and do with them. I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell not for, it was founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth,
these things of mine and do with them, not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended. And the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon the house and it fell and great was the fall of it. If we listen to his instruments, we know that we must believe John eight, 24.
Once we have heard, and we believe in his instrument, we must repent Luke 13, one through three, our instrument God’s word then tells us that we are to confess Jesus openly before men, Matthew chapter 10 and verse 32. Once we have done this, we have put full assurance in our instrument and are ready to devote our life to it. Through baptism acts 2216.
We must follow and listen to our instrument every day and walk in the light to receive a crown of righteousness, or we will fall like those in the small planes. If we step into the darkness first, John one, six and seven in revelation, two 10. If you have yet to decide on following his word or instrument, everybody knows the waters of baptism are all ready,
always ready for you. If you have been falling, failing to let his instrument guide you the way you should, and you have been falling into darkness, we are here to pray for you. Whatever you need. Come forward. As we stand in 902 Can walk away then nothing. Right?<inaudible> what can make me whole again, nothing but a few years.<inaudible><inaudible> no.
Oh no. Uh, the guy, no,<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> no. Oh no. Uh, the fam no, nothing.<inaudible>, nothing can fight and nothing, but, uh, blah, uh, GE is not a good that I had done nothing that the blah, jeez. Oh, pressure flow.<inaudible> no, no.
Uh, the<inaudible> nothing, but<inaudible> ah, Let us pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the privilege to be in your house tonight. We thank you For Aaron and Michael, that proclaim your word to us Lord, and in a way that we can understand, Lord, we thank you for the blessings that you give us every day. We thank you for the rain Lord that we got date.
We thank you, Lord, for loving us when we were unlovable Lord. And just when we stumble, Lord, just help us pick herself back up and get back on the right path. Thank you Lord, for letting us come into your house tonight and forgive us, our sins, these things we ask in your name. Amen.
1 Peter 5: Elders and Young Men and Zechariah 4: 07-19-2020 – Sunday AM Live Stream (Class and Worship)
Summary:
CLASS: PETER – 1 Peter 5
Elders and Young Men
Sermon: Michael Dale: Giving As Worship
Questions for 1 Peter 5 class
- (yes or no) Did Peter say that he was an elder? 1 Peter 5:1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- An elder should not shepherd the flock of Christians (a) eagerly, (b) voluntarily, (c) as a lord, or (d) being an example. 1 Peter 5:2-3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- How should the younger men treat the elders? 1 Peter 5:5 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the reward to the humble?
What should a Christian do with his anxiety? 1 Peter 5:6-7 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - The devil is likened to __________________. 1 Peter 5:8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What will be the result of faithful suffering? 1 Peter 5:9-10
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Jonah is classified as an Old Testament book of ___________. See Lesson 166 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
We are in first Peter chapter five, run a, take a moment or two and discuss a few details from chapter four. Um, as we get into this closing chapter of, uh, this letter of first Peter, let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious and battlefield father in heaven. We bow before your throne grateful for the day that you’ve given to us and the life that you’ve blessed us with.
Grateful for all that you do for us on a daily basis, we pray that you watch over us and care for us, that you be with those that are traveling. And those that are separated from us, we pray that you help us to strive daily, to live acceptably in your sight and to walk the path of righteousness before you, Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling because of illness.
Those that we know that are dealing with COVID and with other illnesses, but also, and especially those that are dealing with longterm and terminal illnesses, we pray that you comfort them, give them strength, help them to endure through difficult times. Lord, we pray that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory and seek the, your forgiveness and repent of those things.
All this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Peter, As he’s drawing these thoughts to a close we’ve said over and over again, his message to them revolves around because God, because God did this, you should do this first Peter chapter one, verse 16, be ye Holy for I am. Holy says the Lord because God is Holy be Holy because Jesus suffered.
That’s the end of chapter two. You also suffer, not suffer for wrongdoing, but suffer for right, doing, for doing good and do so willingly. But then he says in verse 15 of chapter four, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busy body and other people’s matters. Yet. If anyone suffers as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter, Peter, as I think we mentioned on Wednesday and the other apostles had direct experience with this, we have recorded there in the beginning of acts a I think it’s chapter four, where they’re brought in and they’re arrested and they’re beaten. And then they’re released. And when they’re released they’re they glorify God because they got out right Now.
The text says they glorify God because they were counted worthy to suffer for his name, their glorying wasn’t in, we got home there. Goring was in, we were found worthy to suffer for Christ. Okay. So when he says yet, if anyone suffers as a Christian, he’s not talking subjectively, he’s not talking, eh, you know, theoretically,
he’s talking from experience and he’s telling them, you need to have this attitude. Then he’s Dez for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will the end of those who do not are? And what will be the end? We read all the words that works better. What will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
This passage, if we scroll back up and we go back to verse 12, the context here is based upon my research, my study, and, and, and this is an agreement with many other commentators is this passage is in a context of the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish nation that was coming. Okay. Jesus warned in Matthew chapter 24 and Mark chapter 13 in Luke chapter 21 that this destruction was coming and Jesus gave the signs that would be coming in advance of that destruction because they had showed him the,
the, the apostles had showed him the temple and showed him the stones of the temple and the glory of the temple. And Jesus said, there won’t be one stone left upon another. Now Peter’s immediate audience. His primary audience are Jewish Christians, many of whom in 80 65, when this is believed to have been written around that time are still in Jerusalem.
Now, what did Jesus tell his disciples about that destruction that was coming? What did he tell them to do? When they saw the signs take place?<inaudible> Flee. Get out, don’t go. If you’re up on the rooftop, don’t go back down into the house. When you see these come to pass you go. Now we don’t have a scriptural record of those events,
but we do have a historical one. And that is what Josephus recorded. Josephus recorded that the Roman empire came down and they came up to and besieged Jerusalem. And then for a period of time, they withdrew and according to Josephus every Christian in the city of Jerusalem, during that withdrawal left the city. And when that had occurred, after that short withdrawal,
the Roman empire came back in full force. They overtook the city and they decimated it. But Josephus records that not a single Christian died in the attack of Jerusalem. Now, Josephus is not a Christian. Josephus was a Jew. He was not even very favorable towards the Christians, but he’s writing a history for the Roman empire for Rome. And he’s recording these events and he’s they got out and they got out because Jesus told them exactly what to expect.
Now, when I said all of that, not to get back into chapter four, but to bring us to this, because he just said for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, he’s talking about suffering. He’s talking about a judgment. That’s coming against Israel against Jerusalem, and this the things that are going to take place.
And he says, it’s going to be difficult for you when he says for the time has come for judgment to get at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now, if the righteous one is scarcely save, where will the ungodly in the center appear?
When he draws forward that quotation from the old Testament, he’s not talking about hearing the word of God, acting upon it. By faith, that faith producing repentance, being obedient to the gospel, having your sins washed away, being covered by the blood of Christ and having that blood of Christ continually cleanse you from your sins. As you walk in the light,
that’s not scarcely, will the righteous be saved. That is not what that passage is talking about. The context here is the destruction of Jerusalem. He said, when you get out and by the way, the word scarcely there means difficult when he’s warning them of the, this destruction, that’s coming. The judgment here, it’s not the day of judgment.
The judgment is the judgment upon Israel, the judgment upon the Jewish people, the judgment upon a nation that had departed from God. And Jesus said that their time was up now who left the city, the righteous Christians who heard what Jesus warned about and were saved from that judgment by obeying it. But it wasn’t without cost. It wasn’t without difficulty. It’s not as though they had all their possessions all packed up,
ready to go. And the moment that the Roman empire showed up, and then they withdrew, they just go grabbed all their possessions and they are no Jesus told them. You’re not even going to have time for that. You’re going to be out in the field. And you’re going to hear the word that the, that there’s a way out and you better take it.
And those who have children and mothers that have children, they’re going to be in a hard situation. And those who are pregnant are going to be a hard situation. Why? Because they’re going to be fleeing from an army while pregnant with difficulty, the righteous will be saved, but why were they going to be saved? That’s where it connects back to a reasoning from the lesser,
the salvation, from a judgment, a destruction of a city and a destruction of a nation to the greater, they were going to be saved from this destruction, this earthly destruction and this earthly war by hearing the word of God, Jesus, and doing what he said and that reasoning from the lesser to the greater, when you do that in this life,
you’ll be saved from the judgment he warned you about. And therefore, when you do that, ultimately in your spiritual life as well, you’ll get the same result. Okay? So he’s bringing them forward through this, this destruction, this judgment is coming. We’ve been warning you about it. We’ve talked about it. We’ve told you it’s going to happen and it’s nice.
It’s at hand. So be ready for it. But there’s a greater and more important judgment to also be concerned about. And that’s the judgment when, uh, you know, everything will be burned up. And he’ll talk about that in second, Peter. Okay. So then he says, therefore, drawing a conclusion. Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful creator.
You’re a Jew in Jerusalem, but you’re a Jew by, by a birth, but you’re a Christian and you’ve gone through trials and persecutions in Jerusalem, but you’ve stayed there. You continue to make your life there. Things have been hard, but you’ve gotten through it. And then the Roman empire shows up your home, your land, everything you have is there and you have to trust God enough to decide.
I’m not going to rely on the defenses of this. I’m not going to rely on these walls. I’m not going to rely upon our ability to stand in the past. I’m not going to rely on the possibility that there’s going to be a truce, a treaty or anything else. I’m leaving with what I have in my hand and what I have on my back.
And I’m leaving and I’m never coming back. Therefore, let those who suffer according to will of God commit their souls to him. God, if I leave everything I’ve ever known, if I leave everything that I I’ve ever I’ve created, I’ve built my life. Everything that we have, our home is here. You see this hurricane comes and you wee it.
It’s on the news. Every single time. There’s these people, they will not leave their sandbag in their house. They’re all the shoreline. They’re not moving. They’re not leaving. And inevitably, at some point, some of them don’t make it, but they decided that that, that place, that location, that stuff was more important than their life.
Peter says, no, you put your hands or your life, your soul in the hand of God and his, he carries you through the trials, the difficulties, the things that refine you and bring out the best in you as he does this. Then ultimately when you’re called upon to let go of everything you have in this life for your life, you do it.
And he is still faithful to you. So then we kind of have a shift, but we’re not done. We’re not done talking about suffering. Okay. We’re, we’re shifting to inside the congregation inside. How do you, how do you interact with one another? He’s going to now write to elders as an elder. Peter, by all indications of scripture was not only an apostle,
but also an elder in the church. And notice what we read the elders who are among you. I exhort I who Elm a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. This almost feels like the beginning of a new letter that, you know, kind of like it’s, it’s it’s page one,
line one, I Peter writing. But, but Peter wants to address an issue. He doesn’t go into a description of people who are doing it wrong, but it’s one of these statements that says, if everybody’s doing it right, this, this wouldn’t be necessary, either that, or it’s just a warning, but he’s, this is an exhortation to you who are elders.
And this exhortation is about their relationship to the congregation, as well as their relationship to Christ. He says, I’m a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He begins in the intertwines in this whole discussion of suffering. The fact that he witnessed the sufferings of Christ when Jesus was there in the garden, as he was preparing to be betrayed and handed over to the Jews,
three disciples were taken with him from the edge of the garden, into the middle of the garden. Who were they? Peter, James and John. And then he left them there and he went a little further and prayed. And the Bible describes him being in agony. And he comes back to the three. And what were they doing? They were sleeping.
He says, couldn’t you watch with me for one hour. Now you go back and you read through the text and you read it carefully. And the likelihood is they’d been up for probably 24 hours or more at this point, they’re exhausted. But he says, watch and pray that you’d be led not into temptation. And then he goes back and he prays again for another hour.
And he comes back and they’re doing what sleeping. Peter says I was there, but he wasn’t just there. Then he was also there. When the soldiers came, who would drew his sword and attempted to defend his Lord, Peter, what did he end up doing with his sword? Making a mistake. He cut off Malcolm, had his ear. And what did Jesus do?
Put it back on. I don’t know if any of you have ever had an accident with a blade of any sort, but don’t, you just wish that you could just, just reverse that. And just, just, just put that back on gut. I’ve got a friend who’s missing a couple of fingers because of an accident with a blade. He,
I bet he wishes. He could just have put them back on, but Jesus did. Peter was there. Peter was there when Jesus told him, put your sword away, Peter. And he did. And Peter was there in the courtyard of the high priest when they put him on trial. And Peter was there at the cross when they hung him on it,
he says, I witnessed his suffering. And he says, I am a partaker of the glory to be revealed all throughout this book. Peter writes to them, trying to get them to realize that suffering in this life is not the end. It’s the beginning. It is here for a purpose to prepare us for glory to come as Jesus suffered. Remember Jesus in John chapter 17 at the beginning of that prayer said glorify me now with the glory that I had with you from the beginning,
he said, the hour is calm for me to glorify you, but God return me to the glory I had. So Jesus went through suffering to the glory on the other side. And Peter says, I’m a witness of the suffering and a partaker in that glory. But you only achieve that. If you suffer to any Christian who goes through life and they’ve never suffered for being a Christian,
something’s wrong because Jesus made it clear. They hated me the world. And they’ll hate you too. Sometimes I think we tone down our Christianity so that we don’t bother people. They should be bothered. Oh, not, not annoyed, not, not, you know, uh, you’re always thinking you’re better. No, they should be bothered by their own unrighteousness.
Ultimately it was the chief priests and the elders and the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees own sins that caused them to hate Christ because he kept showing how they were hypocrites. He kept showing the difference between someone who was truly righteous and someone who just wanted to play righteous. So then he says, shepherd, the flock. Now remember he’s writing to these elders.
He said, you elders shepherd the flock. Now that command that instruction, that exhortation does not come without context because a shepherd not only feeds the sheep, a shepherd not only cares for the sheep, a shepherd not only carries the sheep when the sheep is lame or when the sheep is weak, the shepherd also protects the sheep. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
You remember Jesus said that the difference between a shepherd and a hireling was a hireling fleas. When danger comes the shepherd doesn’t Jesus and Peter are instructing these elders. You shepherd the flock of God. You feed them. You care for them. You protect them. You help them. You nurture them and you suffer for them if you must. But he goes on to say,
shepherd, the volume of God, which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain buddy yearly. He sets these things. These two areas in contrast one another, he says, don’t do it because somebody forces you to don’t do it because someone said, you’ve got to do this because no one else will don’t even do it because no one else will do it because it needs to be done.
Do it. He says willingly out of a desire to serve. Now, this is one of the things that we need to be careful about is because he uses the word overseers. And in our modern use of that word is an overseers kind of like the boss. You know, you go to a job site and there’s somebody, who’s the boss. And they walk around and make sure everybody’s doing their job.
There’s an aspect of that here in this word, where they oversee the work being done by others. That part’s true. But sometimes we mix in the mentality that the overseers, the guy who sits in a comfy chair and does nothing while he oversees people who do the real work. And that’s not an elder, an elder is the one who is laboring in front of others who is leading them.
Now, Peter would right. Or excuse me, the apostles would, would speak in acts chapter six, about there being things that they shouldn’t as the apostles at the time, spend their time doing. He said, it’s not useful for us to be serving tables instead of preaching the gospel. There’s many different jobs that need to be done, but he said,
this is a good work. Go find people who can do it. We need to find appropriate work. We need to find the right work for the right person, but there’s work to be done from elders all the way down to regular members there’s work to be done. But he says, you are ultimately responsible for the work being done. You’re the shepherd and you’re the overseer.
But he also says not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. This is there. There’s a number of passages that bring this out. But this is one of them where we get a clear picture that the first century church would pay their elders. We don’t do that very often. Now. I don’t know why we really ought to. If we looked at the value,
I mean, we just sat down and looked at the value of a full time minister to a congregation versus full time elders. I can tell you which one’s more valuable to the elders and they also have a greater responsibility. And so when we it in times and not saying it’s a requirement, but saying the new Testament makes it clear. It’s an option.
When we expect someone who is an elder, who’s in a position in their life who is able to lead and is qualified to lead, but they’re struggling to deal with the day to day details of a job, a family pay, you know, all the things to sustain their own living. There’s a very limited amount of time they can spend focusing on the,
and so it is one of those things that the new Testament makes clear that there are elders that number one, by being an elder, they’re worthy of it, the laborer is worthy of his hire and that’s speaking concerning elders. He also makes it clear though, that that shouldn’t be the motivation he’s writing to these elders. And he says, don’t, you dare take this position for money.
Not don’t be paid for it, but don’t do it for that reason. Do it eagerly, do it willingly, do it because you love the congregation. But then he goes on to say this nor as being Lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. Here’s one of those passages where there are times where people will come and they’ll,
they’ll try and shift this meaning because they don’t agree with what the elders chose to do. They’ll say, well, the elders aren’t supposed to tell us what to do. They’re not supposed to Lord over us. That’s not what this passage means. This passage is saying, do not Lord over them in self interest, do not make decisions for the congregation because that decision’s best for you.
Instead be an example to them. If a congregation begins to make decisions that that are incorrect, or maybe they want to do something that is in contrast or contradiction to the word of God, what are elders supposed to do, supposed to do? Are they supposed to say, well, I don’t have any authority to tell you you can’t. No, they’re not.
They’re supposed to act like shepherds. When, when a shepherd sees a sheep walking towards the cliff with his head down eating and grazing grass, what’s the shepherd supposed to do? Save the sheep, yank him out of danger and put it back on the right path. It is absolutely the end, the authority of elders to determine a direction for the congregation and to mandate one so long as that direction falls within what is scriptural.
But here’s what they’re not to do. They’re not to set a direction for the congregation that ultimately only serves themselves. There is exactly what Jesus accused, the scribes and the Pharisees and the high priests of doing. He said, you go out and proselytize. These Gentiles to them, children of the devil. You consume widow’s houses. You go, just go through Matthew 23,
over and over and over again. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa unto you. Because they were self focused. Peter says, elders, don’t you do that. But instead he says, be examples to the flock. And now we’re going to switch from their relationship to the church or to the church among them, the Christians, among them to their relationship to Christ,
which goes straight back to be because God he says, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. So as he tells them to do this and tells them what not to do, tells them how to do it and how not to do it. He reminds them they’re someone over you. They might be the shepherds in the congregation,
but there’s someone else who’s over them and it’s Christ. And he says, he’s going to appear and he’s going to appear. And when you’ve been faithful, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. But there’s a little implication there. What if they’re not faithful? How many times did Jesus illustrate? What happens when a vineyard owner or a Lord or a King goes and leaves his vineyard in the hands of husbandman.
And then he comes back and finds. They’ve been on faithful every time there’s judgment. And yet every time he comes back and they’ve been faithful, what is their reward? So by mentioning the reward, he implies the judgment upon those who are unfaithful. Then verse five, he says, likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes. All of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God,
resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. As a younger person, I’m going to freely admit, there are times where it’s hard to submit to elders. It’s hard to submit to those who were over you because sometimes in the back of your brain, you’re going well, but I wouldn’t do it that way. And yet Peter says submit. But then he adds on to that.
All of you submit to one another, because what he’s getting us back to is get your self out of the discussion and start serving one another. You submit to one another because you’re willing to serve the other one. Peter was also there. When his Lord removed his outer garment and strapped the clothing of a servant on and washed their feet. He reminds them,
God resists the proud and the person who decides this is the way to do it. And there’s no other way to do it. And the elders have decided to do it wrong. So I’m not going to do what they say. Just back that up. Pride, pride, pride, pride. Peter says humility, humility, humility. And this comes from the apostle who by all indications of scripture struggled the most with pride.
He was always the first one to speak. He was the one who was always out there. He was, let me walk on the water. Let me come to you. Let Peter struggled in this area. And as an elder, Peter says, younger people submit to your elders. So then he says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him for, he cares for you. This brings together the entire congregation. The elders are to do this, the members, or to do this, the younger, to do this, the older or to do this, all of them are to rely on God because he cares for you.
But then he says, be sober. Be vigilant. In this context is Peter is writing to them and he’s encouraging them to be mindful of their actions towards one another. He also warns them. You have an enemy. He says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour be sober means be mindful,
be alert, be awake. Be vigilant means, be ready, be ready for battle because you have an enemy. And it’s Satan. Peter was the one who Jesus told him that Satan desired to sift him as wheat Christ made it clear to Peter that Satan had his eye on Peter. I have my own opinion as to why that is, but, but,
and I’ll share it with you and you can give me your opinion. If you disagree with me, I think Satan knew if he could get Peter, he could get every one of the apostles. I firmly believe if he could turn Peter, he could get Judas and not get any of the others. But if he could get Peter, he could get them,
all people with influence and people with a personality that was like Peters was where people followed them. And people agreed with them. They’re people who have to be very aware, because if they get led astray, they’ll never go by themselves. Others will always go with them. And so he says he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. When does the lion roar,
as there are, as they are pouncing, all you, you watch all the, all the animal videos they sneak up to their prey. The roar is what happens is they’re attacking the prey. So he says, be sober, be vigilant. If you’re sober, if you’re vigilant, you see Satan approaching before he starts roaring, before he starts attacking.
But then he says, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, but may the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory be, or by Christ Jesus. After you have suffered a while, perfect establish, strengthen, and settle you to him. Be the glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. Uh, one of these days, I’m going to do a sermon on those four words, perfect establish, strengthen, and settle. You put those four words in your mind and draw together. All this discussion about suffering all the discussion back to his description of it, refining you as fire and put those four words in that context and see how all this discussion summarize is summarized in those four words.
But then he says by Sylvania is our faithful brother. As I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying, that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. He told them to be steadfast in the faith, in resisting Satan. And he told them continue to stand in the grace of God. He then says she who is in Babylon elect together with you,
greets you. And so does Mark my son many believe. And I think they’re probably right, that this letter was written from Babylon, from Babylon was not the great magnificent place. It was the days of debit Cadenza, but it still existed. So from Babylon, greet one another with a kiss of love, peace to you, all who are in Christ.
Jesus. Amen. Let’s go through the questions. Question number one. Yes or no. Did Peter say that he was an elder? Yes. Question two. An elder should not shepherd the flock of Christians, a eagerly be voluntarily. See as a Lord or D being an example. See, as a Lord, how should the younger men treat the elders submit themselves?
What is the reward to the humble? God will lift them up. What should a Christian do with his anxiety? Alright, rely on God. The devil is likened to roaring lion. What will be the results of faithful suffering crown glory? Um, hold on to spit out a crown of glory or eternal glory either. Either one of those would be acceptable.
There a crown of glory goes back to the previous verses, but a right there as eternal glory, Jonah is classified as an old Testament book of, I think I heard it prophecy. Minor prophet. Yes. Okay. Thank you for your attention. We will be dismissed until the worship hour<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible>. It’s good to see all of your social distancing this morning,
all spread out like we’re supposed to be. It’s good to see everybody here this morning here at the Chi. Well church, her Christ Sunday morning service. If we have any visitors, we’d appreciate it. If you take one of the yellow cards and fill it out. So we’d have a record of your attendance. Uh, if you need to, I think everybody,
I don’t see any visual. So everybody knows to pick up your Lord’s supper and put your donation in the back. So, uh, that’s taken care of, remember our sick Rodale and Dorothy Wilson and, um, Jones. Springer is still on able to be with us, Pam, still not with us because of her back problem. Sylvia’s here this morning.
Good to see her where she is still having back pain. And she will have an MRI Friday, the nationwide gospel meeting flyers on the table. If you participate in it every night, um, You got a card that will be put on the boat on the board back there this morning from the Richardson’s. It says thank you all for the wonderful card and gift you sent us home with.
There’s definitely a hole in our heart from leaving such a great group of people. We’re thankful that we’re able to spend our time at Memphis school of preaching with you. Thank you for letting us be a part of your family. We’re your home now and settled in to our funny farm. We brought pigs home this week and hoped to add some chickens and Guinea soon.
We love y’all and miss you, uh, Eric Holly, Cassie, and Matt and we’ll. And I know we miss them this month, our monthly meeting, a thank you card from the Lewis and Martha Rushmore Lewis road. Thank you for a little lending us, Rebecca for the summer. Your gift of $200 permits us to work daily with literature and make plans for distribution overseas.
We are scheduled to go to Asian countries in October, and that card has to be signed. There’s hot on the table in the foyer man. We’ll meet Monday, July the 27th at six 30 and a sound later be Aaron Cozort, uh, Joe Case and lead singing. Lord supper, Tommy O’Neil and Michael will have the sermon today and Eric Howard and we’ll have a closing prayer.
Thank you. Number one, 147 will be our first song. Number 147. All of the songs should be honest. The slides this morning seeing all four verses I stand amazed in the<inaudible> Jesus<inaudible> and one, uh, how he could, uh, me<inaudible><inaudible> wonderful. And my song<inaudible> wonderful is my SAIC. For me, for me,
it was in the God. Then he pray not my will, but he had no tears for his own grave. MAs sweat drops of blood form. Uh<inaudible> and my song<inaudible> is my Savior’s for me.<inaudible> came from<inaudible> to come put him in those or Ross he bought for my soul that a wonderful land. My song<inaudible> wonderful is my save yours for me.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> wonderful.
And my song,<inaudible> my joy through the<inaudible> of his love for me.<inaudible> wonderful. And my song<inaudible> wonderful is my same yours for me. Our next song before our opening prayer will be number 709, 709. How sweet, how heavenly sing all five verses. Um, Sweet. How has the, is the side when those that love the<inaudible>,
uh, the ESPYs, the Lyda and so forth. Uh, when he, she can feel his bruh the side and with him bear up.<inaudible> when saw rough flow from eye to eye and joy from heart to, uh, when free from, and we score and pride, uh, which is all up, up each can, his brother’s fan wings,
I dance and show a brother, uh, when, uh, then won the, uh, full stream through and every book, um, laws, when you, yes, we need. And here is the man, every action<inaudible>, uh, is the golden chain that binds the happy souls. Uh, um, and he he’s and<inaudible> is buzz up glow with,
uh, Bow, Oh God, our father in heaven, we truly are thankful into the, for the privilege that we’ve had today to come and worship you. We’re so thankful, dear God, for your love for us. And the love that was shown through your blesses son, when he came and died upon the cross of Calvary, giving his life and shedding his blood for us father,
we’re so grateful for your word that we’re able to study together as we have this morning. And we’re so thankful for the lessons that we learned from it that might strengthen our faith and cause us to be better servants in the kingdom and be more mindful of one another. And especially of those that are outside the body of Christ father, we pray that you strengthen this each day as we continue to study and encourage each other.
We’re so thankful for the family of God that meets here and for every member of her and help us to continue to love each other. As you have loved us father, we’re grateful for our visitors today, and we pray that you be with them and bless them for having come this morning. We pray that you be with Michael as he delivers your word today to us and pray that we might gain much from the study that he brings forth to us.
Father. We’re mindful of Eddie and the boys, as they will be traveling home tomorrow, we pray for their safety. Pray. You bless them and be so grateful for them being back with us father, we are also mindful of the Richardson family and pray that you continue to bless them. And the work they’re doing there at home, we pray much,
much comes from them because they give much. And we pray that you bless those that are able to hear them and be with them. Their father we’re mindful of those that are in other lands, teaching and preaching your word. And we pray your special blessings to be the DePalma’s and the rush mowers. We pray that we’ll always continue to encourage them as we have that privilege and opportunity where mindful father of those that are not able to come today.
And we pray that you bless them and let them know that we’re thinking about them. And we love him. And we do miss him. We pray father for those that are having physical problems, that we might always be attentive to their needs and try to lift them up in some form or fashion. We pray for those father that are under the care of Potter.
And we pray for the orphans and the unwed mothers. There, we pray father that we might continue to encourage them as we have that privilege and opportunity and support that the efforts that are being used there to teach those young people, the gospel of Jesus Christ and that they continue to come to belief of your word and be obedient to it and become children of yours.
Father bless us in our efforts here at Collierville. We pray. We continue to try to do your will and be good example before others in this community that we might say or do something that might bring them to an understanding of your wheel. And they want to be obedient to it. That’s us in our worship today. And we pray it would be acceptable.
We’re thankful for Aaron as he directs us in our song service, bless him and watch over him in Jesus name. We pray amen song before the Lord supper will be number 344, 344. We’ll sing all three verses and then the chorus low in the grave. He lay<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> uh, dad G she sees us my<inaudible> G she sees,
uh, smile save, uh, he<inaudible>, uh, eh, she sees, uh,<inaudible> uh, from the grave. He Rose with a mighty try on for his falls. He, uh, Rosa Victor from<inaudible>. We have the opportunity to just time to eat of this bread and drink this cup. To remember the death of our savior,
who willingly gave his life for our sins. Would you bow with me, our heavenly father? We thank you so much for Christ our savior. We thank you for this bread, which does represents his body then was hung on a cross for our sins. As we partake of this bread, dear God would pray that each one of us would think of the agony that Christ suffered for each of us,
because of the love has for us. He sings. We ask in his name, amen, What’s your problem with me, Heavenly father. We continue with our thanks for this fruit of the vine, which just represents the blood of Christ that was shed for each of us as weeper. Take of it, help each one of us to do it. So with truly thankful heart,
we pray that this might be acceptable under the, this we ask in Christ’s name, amen With me, Our heavenly father. We thank you for all blessings that we receive daily. We thank you for the mains that we have to provide a living par sales in our family. We know that we truly are blessed in this country, dear God, We pray as we return under the a part of that,
that you have blessed us with, that we would do so with a cheerful, happy heart, pray that these funds would be used to spread your word throughout the world. This way, asking Christ name. Amen. If you would like to, you may Mark number 936 number 936. This will be the song of invitation after Michael’s lesson. Lord, I’m coming home before the lesson,
we’ll sing number 376. If you would let us all stand as we sing this song, number 376, if you will stand and then remain standing for the scripture reading to follow, he paid a debt 376. He paid dad. He did not. Oh, hi dad. I could not, Hey, I needed some lawn to wash my<inaudible>. Now I see being a brand new song,
amazing Grise<inaudible> that I could never, eh, he pain<inaudible> cleanse my soul and send me free. I’m glad that jeez, us did all my<inaudible>. I now can see being a brand new song. Amazing Greg<inaudible> man. I could never, eh, one day he’s calm being back home me to live with him eternally. Won’t it big Laurie to see him on that.
Eh, I then will see being a brand news song. Amazing Greg<inaudible> that I could never, eh, Scripture reading this morning will come from second Corinthians chapter nine, second Corinthians chapter nine and in verse seven, read. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not ragingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver. Please be seated.
Good morning, everybody. This and being able to be back today. It’s nice to be in the building, worshiping with everybody in person. It’s totally different. You still worship the Lord, but it’s much better when you get to be in the presence of all of your brother and this morning, I know, uh, it’s been a while since I’ve been up here,
but I’ve been working on the five acts of worship putting together good sermon series. And this morning, I want to speak to all of you about a giving attitude. We’re going to be reading first from second Corinthians, chapter nine, verses six through eight, second Corinthians nine, six through eight. But this I say he, which so is sparingly shall reap also sparingly.
And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bound to flee every man, according as he has purposes in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God. Loveth a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work as Christians. We are commanded to give and not just give,
but give with the right attitude. Do you remember being a child? I know. So for some of us that may be a little harder, but remember back to the days of being a child, how happy it was that we got to do anything with our parents, our mother would say, let’s clean the house and you’re rushing around looking for the vacuum or the cleaning supplies you were.
You’re just so excited about this. And your father says, I need you to come, help me work on the car. And you’re out there holding a wrench before he even has a chance to get changed into his car, working clothes. Your parents tell you here’s your money for God. And you could not wait for the collection plate to come by.
So you could give every cent. Your parents gave you without hesitation, somewhere along the way we lose that innocence. And it becomes almost a chore to give our hard earned money to God. As a child, helping our mother to clean taught us to keep a clean, tidy house. As we got older, helping our father to work on the car,
taught us simple things like at least being able to change a tire or air filter or something of that sort as a, as a man, myself, helping my father help me to know how to rebuild an entire car. So our godly parents teach us in all things that we should go and the way that we should go when we grow Proverbs 22 and verse six,
read with me, Proverbs chapter 22 and verse six,<inaudible> Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. As a child being taught by our parents to give all we had should have carried over in like manner to our adulthood as cleaning and working on a vehicle. We need to remember as adults that everything is the Lords,
Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 14. Read with me Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 14, Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also. And all that they’re in is everything is the Lords as children. We understand that we need to give to God happily. We as adults, that every possession on the earth is the Lords Psalm one Oh four 24,
Psalm one Oh four 24<inaudible> Oh Lord. How manifold are thy works and wisdom has thou made them all the earth is full of VI riches. All throughout the old Testament. We see how God commands his children to sacrifice from the wealthy to the poor. He gives commands as written in the book of Leviticus. The Lord even commands a specific amount of the income from the children of Israel.
Let’s read of this Leviticus, 27, 30 through 34 Leviticus, 27, 33 34. And all the tie that the land, the tie there’s a 10th, whether of the seed or the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lord’s. It is Holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem ought of his tides, he shall add there,
there to the fifth part thereof and concerning the tie of that, the herd or the flog even have whatsoever. Passeth under the rod. The 10th shall be Holy unto the Lord. He says, not search, whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it. And if he changed it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be Holy.
It shall not be redeemed. These are commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel and Mount Sinai. They didn’t just give a 10th of what they made every month of what they made every week. They gave a 10th of everything they owned. Every time they gave, some of us may be thinking, well, that’s the old Testament,
right? But as Christians, we are commanded to give and not just give, but give with the right attitude. We must give bound to flee. We must give purposefully and we must give cheerfully first, let us take a look at giving to flee. What does the word bound to flee mean to you? Think about it for a second bound to flee.
I use dictionary.com because it gives us the most modern definition of things. dictionary.com bound to flee means liberal and be stowing gifts, favors or bounties generous. According to Vine’s dictionary bound to flee literally means with blessings. That is that blessings may accrue. So if we put the definition from vines and from dictionary.com together, to have a greater understanding, we understand that bound to flee is to liberally bestow blessings.
So that blessings may be bestowed upon us. We are told if we want to receive many blessings, we must so many blessings turn with me to second Corinthians chapter nine in verse six, Paul through inspiration uses an example of a farmer sowing and reaping to make it easier for the people of the day to understand second Corinthians chapter nine and verse six<inaudible>. But this I say he which so if sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
This passage does not imply that if you give more money, you will receive more money for your own personal use, but that in sewing or giving bound to flee, you will be blessed. I think of an old time farmer out there and just pinching some off and sprinkling it out versus the farmer who had grabbed handfuls and just toss it everywhere. The more seeds you have out there,
the more bound to fall your crop is going to be. If you’re a sparse with your seed, then you’re barely going to get any crop back. So what does the context teach us about this bountiful sowing? If we look at the context, Paul is not just asking about spiritual blah, not just talking about spiritual blessings, but speaking to the Corinthian church about monetary blessings.
Look at second Corinthians chapter nine, verse five, right above the verse. We just read second Corinthians nine and verse five. Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before you and make up beforehand your bounty, where a ye had noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty. And not as of covetousness,
sewing bounds of flee will give us all sufficiency or what we need to survive spiritually and physically look with me in the fall in verse eight of second Corinthians chapter nine, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That she always having all sufficiency in all things. We still bound to flee not only to survive, but so we can help others continue reading in verse eight with me,
we’ll start back at that. Ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work, all the good works that we can do to help others. This is one of the reasons why we give bounds of flee. Where do we get the seed to sow bountifully? God has given us everything that we need. Let’s turn to second Peter chapter and verse three second,
Peter chapter one and verse three.<inaudible> According as his divine power hath given unto us, all things that pertain with unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that have called us to the glory and virtue. He’s given us everything that we need. God provides all that we need. Let’s read what Jesus says about this topic. Matthew six 25 through 34,
Matthew chapter six verses 25 through 34.<inaudible> Jesus says, therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body. What you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body more than Raymond behold, the fowls of the air for they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them.
Are you not much more than they, he takes care of the birds of the sky. Of course, he’s going to take care of us, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature and why take he thought for Raymond consider the lilies of the field, how they grow? They toil not neither do they spin. And yet I see in to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed.
Like one of these wherefore, if God, so clothes, the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven. Shall he not much more clothe you? Oh, ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal, shall we be closed for after all these things,
do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father, Noah that he have need of all these things that ye have need of all these things, but seek ye first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
God gives us everything we need to so bound to flee and to reap bound, to flee. We know that he will provide for us. We must be careful not to. So expecting a financial return though, our reward is not in the flesh, but in the spirit, Galatians chapter six, verses seven through nine, Galatians six verses seven through nine,
the inspired writer, the inspired writer, Paul writes be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever. A man soweth that shall he also reap for he that psoas to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that so us to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life and let us not be weary in well doing for in due season,
we shall reap. If we faint not, we will reap the benefits of our spiritual sewing. We cannot serve two masters. Jesus tells us in Luke chapter 16 and verse 13, Luke 16 and verse 13. We are servants. All of us, Christians and no servant can serve two masters for either. He will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and mammon. Mammon is wealth or money. You can’t serve both. You’re either a servant of God or you’re a servant of your wallet. If we try to hang on to our money, it will bring much sorrow. Let’s read first Timothy six, nine and ten first Timothy chapter six, verses nine and 10. But they, that will be rich,
fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lust, which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after they have earned from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. When I think of giving bounds of flee, I think of the poor widow that Luke wrote about in his gospel account in Luke chapter 21 verses one through four,
let’s read that account, Luke 21, one through four, Luke chapter 21 verses one through four. And he looked up and saw the Richmond casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting and feathered two mites. That’s less than a penny today. And he said of a truth. I say unto you that this poor widow has cast in more than they all for all these have of their abundance cast and cast in unto the offerings of God.
But she out of her opinion, which is her poverty have cast in all the living that she had. She did not give bountifully because she gave a lot of money like the wealthy men did, but she gave bound to flee because from her heart, she gave every little piece of copper that she had. We do not just give bound to flee, but we must give purposefully.
Now, what does purposefully mean to give with purpose? Right? dictionary.com States. It is to set as an aim intention or goal for oneself Strong’s dictionary States. It is to choose for oneself before another things or by implication to purpose or intend before we give we are to purpose or have an intention on what we are giving in our heart. Second Corinthians chapter nine and verse seven.
Let’s go back to second Corinthians chapter nine, and we’ll read the first part of first seven, second Corinthians nine, seven, every man, according as he has purposes in his heart. So let him give. So as we have put in our mind, this is what we’re going to give. Then we make sure that we give it. We are not to give feeling like we are being robbed.
As Paul through inspiration writes, our giving is not to be of necessity. Let’s continue reading verse seven of second Corinthians chapter nine, not grudgingly or of necessity for God. Loveth a cheerful giver. We don’t begrudge the money. We don’t shake as we put that check or that cash into the, into the offering plate. We do it because we’re happy about it.
We are to give willingly and with joy, let’s go back and look at what David said about this first Corinthians or first Chronicles, 29 17 first Chronicles, chapter 29 and verse 17. I know also my God that thou try us to the heart and has pleasure and uprightness as for me and the uprightness of mine heart, I have willingly willingly offered all these things.
And now have I seen with joy thy people which are present here to offer willingly unto thee? We don’t give because we’re commanded to, we give because we are willing. We want to, because we want to, we are to give from a willing mind, second Corinthians chapter eight and verse 12. Look with me in second Corinthians chapter eight and verse 12 for if there be first a willing mind.
It is accepted according to that, a man hath and not according to that, he has not, we don’t need to worry about, I can’t give everything I want to give. It’s accepted that we give from what we have our giving is not just another bill that we must, it is to further the work of the Lord. We don’t set this up like an automatic payment.
This is not something that we have to do, although it is commanded. It’s something that we should want to do. We give because we want to not because we have to. When I think of giving purposefully, I think of the Macedonians as Paul wrote about them. Let’s read of the Macedonian. Second Corinthians chapter eight, verses one through four, just a little bit further up on the chapter that we’re in.
Currently. Second Corinthians eight, one through four<inaudible> Moreover brethren. We do you to wit of the grace of God, bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How that in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality for, to their power. I bear record yea and beyond their power. They were willing of themselves praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us.
The fellowship of the ministering of the saints. The Macedonians had purpose to help the Christians in Jerusalem and nothing was going to keep them from giving what they had purposed nothing, not hardships. They were going through, not their poverty. The Macedonians did not just so show us how to give purposely, but in this instance, they also showed us, we must give cheerfully.
What does cheerfully actually mean? dictionary.com States that cheerfully means to be full of cheer in good spirits, Hardy or in grudging, according to Strong’s dictionary and the Greek cheerful as actually the word hilarious where we get the word hilarious from laughter. You’re supposed to give with great laughter in your body. It is to be cheerful or glad, prompt or willing as having acted wisely.
And now being glad in heart, our giving should bring us to great gladness of heart. Like the Macedonians let’s read again, verses one and two here of chapter eight, moreover brethren. We do you to wit of the grace of God, bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy in their affliction,
they had an abundance of joy and in their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. I just, I love this occasion of the Macedonians. They, they let nothing hold them back and they did everything they could to, to bring forth as much as they possibly could to help the suffering brethren. There should be no hesitation in our giving. The Macedonians begged to give let’s read verses three through five,
again of second Corinthians chapter eight, four to their power. I bear record yea and beyond their power were willing of themselves praying us with much intrigued that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the scenes and this, they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God.
The children of Israel are another good example of this type of giving. At least sometimes in their path, they gave so much that they were forced to stop. Let’s look at this example, we’re given an Exodus chapter 36 verses one through seven Exodus, chapter 36 verses one through seven, Then rot Bezalel and a Holy app. And every wise hearted man and whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary.
According to all that, the Lord had commanded and Moses called Bezaleel and a Holy ad and every wise hearted man and whose heart, the Lord had put wisdom. Even everyone who’s heart stirred him up to come onto the work to do it. And they received of Moses, all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary to make it with all.
And they brought yet unto him free offerings. Every morning, they were giving to help build the tabernacle and also just giving free offerings. All the wise men that rot all the work of the sanctuary came every man from his work, which they made. And they spake unto Moses saying the people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make.
And Moses gave commandment and they cause it to be proclaimed throughout the camp saying, let neither man, nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. They had to restrain them from giving more for the work of the Lord for the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much,
they had too much already and they were still bringing more and more and more. They couldn’t stop them from bringing to the Lord to make sure that the work of the Lord was fulfilled. If we give cheerfully, we will be blessed. The blessings of giving with a cheerful heart are unfathomable. Let’s go back to second Corinthians chapter nine and verse eight, second Corinthians chapter nine and verse eight.
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That G always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work, no matter how hard we try, we will never be able to outgive God, turn with me to Ephesians chapter three, verses 20 and 21, Ephesians chapter three, verses 20 and 21. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding,
abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh within us, unto him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world, without end. Amen. How can we ever I’ll give the sacrifice of the Christ. God will take care of the cheerful giver. Let’s see Philippians chapter four and verse 19, Philippians four 19.
But my God shall supply all your need. According to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus, everything we need, he’s going to supply. We don’t need to worry. When we put our offering that we have decided to give in our hearts. If we’re going to be able to pay that next bill, or if we’re going to be able to buy groceries for our family,
that is not what we put our minds on. When we’re giving to the Lord as Christians, we are commanded to give and not just give, but give with a right attitude. We must always remember to give bound to flee. That is to give our blessings liberally. We must always remember to give purpose purposefully that one always twists my tongue up purposefully.
That is to give, as we have intended to give, not just what we have decided to give at the moment. We must always remember to give cheerfully. That is to be happy to give, because we know all that has been given us by Christ. Let us always remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive acts chapter 20 verse 35.
Let us go back to that mentality we had as a child, when our parents gave us the money that we wanted to give so badly for the offering for Christ said, barely I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children. You shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 18 three to be converted and become like little children who must first hear the word of faith.
Romans 10, 17. We must believe that Jesus is the Christ. John eight 24. And we must repent of our sins. Luke 13, one through three. We must confess that Jesus is the Christ before men openly Matthew 10 32. We must be immersed in the water for the forgiveness of sins, acts 2216, and we must live faithful unto death.
First, John one, six and seven. We are to walk in the light as he is in the light. So we can have fellowship with one another revelation, two 10. If we do this, we will receive a crown of righteousness. If all, if you are ready to follow this simple plan of salvation, the waters of baptism have been prepared.
If you need the prayers of the, we are here for you because the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man of Ellis, much James five 16, whatever your need, please come forward as we stand in scene. Uh<inaudible> uh<inaudible> to, um, uh, uh,<inaudible> also<inaudible>. Uh<inaudible> so I<inaudible>, I<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Oh,
uh, uh, um, uh<inaudible>. Oh, I am<inaudible> uh<inaudible> uh,<inaudible> also<inaudible><inaudible> Oh,<inaudible> uh<inaudible>. Oh, so my<inaudible> my, uh, is<inaudible> my strength. My<inaudible> also<inaudible><inaudible> Oh,<inaudible> uh, uh<inaudible>. Oh, so I want to thank Michael for that lesson this morning and appreciate all those who served within the worship this morning,
take your songbooks and turn the number 77, number 77, gonna sing all three verses of this song. And then we will be led in our closing prayer. Remember to observe social distancing and wave that everyone speak from a distance, but it is good to see each and every one of you here this morning, and we appreciate your presence. Number 77.
Well, we love you. We, uh, ship and, uh,<inaudible>,<inaudible> all the, uh,<inaudible> jeez, uh, sweet of you. We, and, uh, you<inaudible> all the, uh,<inaudible> and all the, uh,<inaudible> Please bow with me. Our father in heaven. We come to you at this time,
thanking you for another opportunity to build, to assemble here this morning, sing songs, praise your great name, but most importantly, hear another portion of your word. God, we ask that you help each and every one of us take the message that was brought to us by brother Michael this morning and apply it to our lives and share it with those around us.
So we may better serve you here on earth. God, we also know that there’s many amongst our brother and sisters here that are suffering from various illnesses and ailments. And we ask that you wrap your loving arms around them and their families, and reach out to the physicians and the care providers for these individuals. And if it be your will restore them to a measure their health,
that they may one day again, assemble with us to worship your great name. We know Lord also that we each and every one of us fall short of your glory from time to time. And when we do, we ask that you forgive us of our shortcomings and pick us back up again. Now, as we prepare to depart this facility, we ask that you guide garden direct each and every one of us until we return at the next appointed time.
We pray this through your son, Jesus name. Amen.