Let’s turn now in our Bibles to chapter four as we continue our journey through the Word of God. Now Paul has introduced in chapter three the subject of justification by faith. That is, I stand before God righteous. Not by the works that I have done. God does not account me righteous because I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I don’t go to dances. I don’t go to shows. God doesn’t count me righteous because of my works. And my works have nothing to do with my righteousness. God counts me righteous because of my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And God accounts my faith for righteousness. That is because I believe in Jesus Christ, God looks at me as righteous. For God sees me in Christ Jesus. And thus He sees me in the righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to me because of my faith in Jesus.

So in chapter four Paul is going to illustrate this truth to the Jews from two of their main characters in history. Men that they traced their background to, Abraham and to David. The two heroes of the Jewish faith.

So beginning in chapter four he speaks concerning Abraham, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? Now Abraham is the father of all who believe, but these are the physical descendants of Abraham, pertaining to the flesh. What has Abraham discovered or found?

2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. If God justified Abraham because of his works. Then Abraham could boast in his righteousness. He could be begin to elucidate or express his works. He would tell about all that he had done. And he would point to them and he would boast of them. See I’m righteous. Look at what I’ve done. Now Paul declared in the previous chapter concerning the righteousness which comes by faith, God justifies those who believe in Jesus. He said where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. So because I’m justified by my faith in Jesus Christ, I can’t really glory or boast in my works. that which I have done or that which I am doing for the Lord. The sacrifices that I have made. The amount of money I’ve given or whatever. I can’t boast in those things because they have nothing to do with my righteous standing before God. All I can do is glory in Jesus Christ. Now that’s God’s purpose. That no flesh should glory in His sight. Therefore any kind of boasting that I may do of sacrifices that I have made for Jesus or things of this nature, are completely wrong because I’m trying then to get people to say, oh, isn’t he wonderful. And you know our wicked, horrible flesh likes people to think that we are wonderful. It likes for people to think that we are really deeply spiritual. And so we so often do things to sort of emote a sort of spirituality. The way we react or respond many times. We’re trying to give off, a “Oh, I very spiritual.” You know even the tone of voice and even the way you say, ooooh brother, you know. And you can do things that sort of you know, exude, an oooooh. And then you let off subtle little hints like, the other morning I was awakened by the spirit, I don’t know time it was. I know it was still dark. And I had the most glorious time having the spirit of God ministering to me. I was just in ecstasy and all. We can just let people know that we always get up before daybreak and spend time with the Lord before we begin our busy schedules. And people say, oh my, isn’t that wonderful. He’s so righteous. But you see, it’s not of works. That doesn’t make me more righteous. It’s no more righteous to get up at four o’clock in the morning that it is to get up at eleven. That has nothing to do with your righteousness. We are accounted righteous because we have believed in Jesus Christ! So what did Abraham discover? If he were justified by his works then he would have whereof to boast to glory but not before God. He wouldn’t be glorying in God, he would be glorying in his works.

3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” That is his believing the promise of God as God showed him the stars and said as the stars of the sky are innumerable, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God. And God accounted his faith for righteousness.

So, 4Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. You see, the moment you work for somebody, that puts them under obligation to you. If you have worked for eight hours, they owe you. So if you have been contracted to work for minimum wage and you put in eight hours, that person then owes you then approximately forty dollars. That’s the law. If they don’t pay you, you can take them to small claims court and get a judgment against them. They owe it to you. They become a debtor to you. Now if I could do so many works to be righteous. If God would specify, okay, you know, an hour a day in prayer, ten chapters a day in the Bible, witnessing to five people, and so forth, then if I would do those things then God would owe me, God would be in debt to me because Lord, I done this work for you. So that makes God a debtor to me, but God will be a debtor to no man. So because my righteousness is by faith, it is of grace. God doesn’t owe it to me, but God has imputed it to me because of His grace. And so it is by grace that I stand before God, righteous, not by works.

Now having said that, Paul declares: 5But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, To him that does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, that faith is accounted for righteousness. Does that mean then that I have a free ride, a free ticket, it doesn’t matter what I do as long as I believe in Jesus Christ? Yes, as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, your belief will be manifested by your works. But the works don’t make you righteous. They don’t save you. But they are the fruit of that faith and belief in Jesus Christ. So we see a beautiful balance between Paul and James. And so that is why I choose to take James at this time on Thursday nights, so that we get the balance. Paul tells you that God accounts us righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ. And he is right. But James tells you that a true faith in Jesus Christ will be manifested by works, if it is a true faith. That it will be displayed or demonstrated by works that are in keeping with what you believe. You see, I may say that I believe in certain things, but if my works don’t line up with what I say I believe, then there is reason to question, do I really believe it? You see if I said I believe someone has planted a bomb in this pulpit tonight, that is set to go off in two minutes. It’s going to blow this place apart. And if I just kept talking to you, you’d say oh he really doesn’t believe it. And you would be right. I mean if I really believed it, I’d say everybody out of here, you know! There are exits all around, you know, get out of the place. It’s going to go up! And I’d be out the back door. You see, wow, he really believes it. So your works come from your faith and they prove the genuineness of that faith. But it isn’t’ the works that make me righteous, it’s just because I have that righteousness through faith in Christ because I have a true belief in Him. I believe that He died for my sins. I believe that I am destined to spend eternity in the glory of His kingdom with Him. I believe that He loves me so much that He gave Himself. And thus I respond to that love. And to the belief that I have. It’s in harmony and shows the faith.

Now, he quotes David, Psalm thirty two, 6just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: For David said:

7“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; David had committed a horrible sin. The sin had compounded. It went from adultery to murder. When David was faced with his guilt, he confessed his sin. He said, I have sinned. The prophet said unto him, and God has forgiven your sin. And so David wrote, Oh, how happy is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

When David was praying about his sin (Psalm 51:1-4, 16-17), asking for God’s forgiveness, he prayed for the mercy of God. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions for against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. And then he said, You don’t really want sacrifices but a broken and a contrite heart, You won’t turn away. So David came and received the forgiveness. Not on works that he did. He has broken the law of God. The law of God was condemning him, but he appealed to the mercy and the grace of God. And then he wrote (Psalm 32:1-2), Oh, how happy is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

But then he went one step further. Now we can all speak of the blessedness of the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered, but he went one step further. And not all have taken that next step. He said, 8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.” How happy is the man to whom God does not impute iniquity. You who are believing in Jesus Christ. You have come to put your trust in Jesus Christ. God does not impute iniquity. That is, God doesn’t count your sins. John said, if we say we have fellowship with God and we walk in darkness, we lie and know not the truth, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have this fellowship one with the other and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us. Actually, it’s present perfect tense is continually cleansing us from all sin. There is a continual cleansing. God doesn’t impute sin. I may do something that I feel horrible. Oh, how could I have done that? Oh, that is so terrible. Oh, I am so miserable. I hate myself. And I’m going on, but God doesn’t even impute it. He doesn’t put it down on the record. He doesn’t keep an account of it. We sort of unfortunately think of God many times as Santa Claus. That is you know, you go ahead and tell Him everything you want and if you are a good boy, you get it and if you are a bad boy you’ll get the sticks. Because He is making out a list and He’s checking it twice. And He’s going to find out who is naughty and nice. And He’ll reward you according to your deserve that which you are deserving. But not so with God. God is not making out a list. God does not have any charges against you, who believe and trust in Jesus Christ. Oh, the blessedness of the man to whom God does not impute iniquity. The man that God isn’t keeping any account of. Your wrong doings or whatever.

You know, so many times we’re going around with that guilt complex, because all of us are sinful. We’re all living in this body of flesh. And as long as we are living in this body of flesh, we have these fleshly desires. We can’t escape them. That is why when we get to the eighth chapter, Paul will say we’re groaning and travailing waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God to which the redemption of our bodies. We so often feel that guilt. And Satan presses it upon us.

But again in chapter eight, Paul said, who is he that condemns? It is Christ who has died. He rather has risen again and is making intercession. He is your attorney. He is your representative. He is your mediator. Now if you had an attorney that would say, judge, this guy is a crook. He’s horrible. You know, you can’t believe how bad he is. You would fire him! You want an attorney that’s going to represent you. Well judge, he really didn’t intend to do that, you know. It was just one of those little things. You want him to represent you in a favorable light. And so Jesus Christ, our mediator. He is not condemning us. You remember He said to the women that neither do I condemn you. The one taken in adultery. To Nicodemus, He said (John 3:17), God didn’t send me into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Me might be saved. And He that believeth is not condemned. Oh, how happy is the man to whom God does not impute iniquity. I love it!

So he then going back to Abraham in verse nine, said, 9Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, (Is it only for the Jews who have gone through the ritual of circumcision? Or is this blessing of God not imputing sin, God forgiving our iniquity, covering our sin? Is this only for Jews or those that are circumcised? Or is it for the Gentiles, too?) or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

10How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? (And he answers) Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. (When did God say and God accounted his faith for righteousness? (Abraham believed God and God imputed his righteousness because of faith. It says it in chapter fifteen in the book of Genesis. When did God give to Abraham the sign of the covenant that he made with him? It was in chapter seventeen, a few years later. So Paul is pointing this out. God made this glorious promise to Abraham before he was ever circumcised. Therefore the promise is to all, Jew and Gentile alike. This blessedness of God covering, forgiving our sins, our transgressions and not imputing iniquity to us, but accounting our faith for righteousness, it is unto all, not to just the Jew, but unto the Gentile alike.) 11And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, (It came later but God had already imputed his faith for righteousness.) that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, (In order that this principle of righteousness by faith alone, might be given to all men, accounted to all men, Abraham becomes the father of all of those who believe in the promises of God, Jew and Gentile alike.)

12and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. (So we look to Abraham as our father also. As the spiritual children who believe and follow his example of faith in the promises of God, we then become children of Abraham, thus we are heirs to all of the promises that God made to Abraham and to the Jewish people. A lot of times people say well that was to the Jews. That was a promise that God made to the Jews. Well, you see, because we are the children of Abraham, we also are the heirs of the promises that God made to Abraham because he is the father of those who believe.)

13For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. So the ordinance did not make him righteous, keeping the ordinance because that came after God imputed righteousness. And Abraham lived a couple hundred years, at least, before the law was ever given. So it could not be by the law that Abraham was declared righteous. Because there was no law that was given at that time. The law followed afterwards.

14For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. If the state of California would declare that we have no longer any speed limits on the freeways, then the Highway Patrol could not pull you over for speeding, because there is no law against speeding. You can’t break a law that doesn’t exist. So where there is no law, there is no transgression. You haven’t transgressed because there is no law that says you shouldn’t. So he is pointing out that by the law comes judgment when you violate it. But where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law, because there is no law. The law worketh then judgment.

Going back to Deuteronomy chapter 29:20, the time of the law. The Lord said, “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. 21And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, 22so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it: 23′The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ 24All nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ 25Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; 26for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. 27Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. 28And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.” So He is declaring to them that the law brings the wrath of God, that is, the violation of the law of God. And so this righteousness does not come by keeping the law. The law brings the wrath of God. The law worketh wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Christ is the end of the law to those who believe. You see, the law was a schoolmaster to bring me to Jesus Christ. It was intended to show me my evil. It was intended to show me how rotten and sinful I am. How much I deserve the wrath and the judgment of God. So that I would flee to the mercies of God and cry out to God for His mercy. Once it has brought me to God and to this relationship in Christ Jesus, where I am crucified with Christ, then the law has no further jurisdiction over me. It can’t make me righteous. It brings the wrath of God.

16Therefore it (the righteousness) is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, (In other words, because it is a righteousness by faith, it becomes sure. The grace of God. And the purpose is that there might be the assurance. You might have assurance. You see if God accounted you righteous because of your works and your good deeds, keeping the rules. We’ve got this list of rules and you keep these and you’ll be righteous. And if God then accounts you righteous by your keeping of these rules, what happens when you break the rules? You are unrighteous! And thus your righteousness is always a tenuous thing. You may be good for four days out of the week. And then the fifth day blow it royally. And so if my relationship to God depends upon my good works, then my relationship to God is tenuous. Sometimes I can fellowship with Him and sometimes, I cannot. Because I don’t always keep the rules. I don’t always keep the law. So God has made it by grace so that it is sure. It’s certain! It doesn’t depend upon my faithfulness to God, but it now depends on God’s faithfulness to me! And because this relationship depends upon God and His faithfulness to His word, hey, I’ve got a sure relationship! I can come any time. The door is never closed. When I have failed miserably I can still come, the door isn’t closed. God isn’t imputing iniquity to me. So that it might be sure. God has put the responsibility on His faithfulness to His word, not upon my faithfulness to keeping a set of rules. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed.

not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations (Not just to the Jews. Abraham is a father of many nations.)“) in the presence of Him whom he believed–God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; Now here is an interesting thing about God. He can speak about things as existing even though they don’t exist, because He knows they are going to exist. You see, He is eternal. He’s omniscient. He knows what’s going to be. So He often speaks of things as existing before, in time, they have come into existence. He can do that because He knows they are going to be. So that He spoke of Abraham’s seed before Abraham ever had any children. Through thy seed shall all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Well, he didn’t have any children but God spoke to him as though he had children because God knew that he was going to give him Isaac. So God can speak of things that don’t exist before they exist because He knows they are going to exist. That’s what is so thrilling about God’s speaking of my sanctification and my being glorified together with Christ. He speaks of it as though it were already though it isn’t quite yet, but He knows it’s going to be. So I find great assurance when God speaks about my being glorified together in Christ. All right! God said it! Why? I’m not yet there. But God knows that I am going to get there. And so he can speak of it as existing, though it doesn’t yet exist because God knows He is going to do it! And He sees it as an accomplished fact. I in my own weakness and my limitation see the progression and the growth. And I am struggling, you know, in all of this. But God sees it as already as accomplished and speaks of it as an accomplished fact.

So Abraham, God promised he would be the father of many nations, 18who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” (It was the promise of God so it gives hope! I mean, he had hoped for so many years to have a child. Now after so many years, you sort of give up hope. But against hope, he still believed in hope. God said it. Now human reason would tell me it can’t be. But God said it! And God can speak of things as existing before or even when they don’t exist because He knows they are going to exist. So God spoke of his seed. So against hope he believed in the hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was spoken. You see, it was based upon what God had said. If God said it, it’s certain. It’s sure. So shall thy seed be. God said that.)

19And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. The implication is that he was impotent and that Sarah had gone through the change of life. But he didn’t consider that difficulty because he had the word of God. And God spoke of his seed as existing. So he knew that his seed was going to have to exist. You see, in the case of when Isaac was born and had grown up, when God said, “Abraham.” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest and offer him as a sacrifice on a mount that I will show you.” So Abraham gathered his servants and he took Isaac and they began to journey. For three days, they journeyed from the area south of Hebron to Mount Moriah. When they finally came to area of Mount Moriah, he said to his servants, you wait here. I and the lad will go and worship God and will come again. And Abraham started up Mount Moriah with his son Isaac. And he said, “Dad, we’ve got the wood for the sacrifice and we have the fire, but where is the sacrifice?” And Abraham said, “God will provide Himself a sacrifice.” So when they came to the top of the Mount, Abraham bound his son Isaac, placed him on the alter, raised the knife. You say, how could he? His only son whom he loved? The Book of Hebrews gives us a fascinating commentary. It’s again Abraham’s faith in the word of God. God said through Isaac thy seed shall be called. Isaac didn’t have any children yet. So he knew that God’s got a problem. And he believed, we are told in Hebrews that he believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to keep His word. That’s how much Abraham believed and had confidence in God’s word. To the extent that he believed in the resurrection, God will keep His word to Isaac, thy seed will be called and thus God will have to, if necessary, raise him from the dead in order to fulfill God’s will. But I know that God will! So he was willing to offer his son in that faith in the promise of God and so God, You have a problem. And You can solve it by raising him from the dead. Of course, God stopped him, and said behold there is a ram caught by its horns in the thicket there. Offer the ram and God said, now I see that you won’t withhold anything. You’ve passed the test, Abraham. And thus with blessing I will bless thee and multiply thee. And He reiterated the promises to Abraham. And Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovah Jireh. For he said the Lord will provide. And in the Mount of the Lord is shall be seen. He prophesied. And thus on that very Mount, two thousand years later, God gave His only Begotten Son whom He loved to be the sacrifice for our sins. Abraham was only playing out a drama that would unfold two thousand years later when God on Mount Moriah gave His Son as a sacrifice.

So Abraham believed God. God’s promise that you will be the father of many nations. Through thy seed all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. All right. I don’t have any children but I’m impotent. Sarah’s gone through the change of life, but no problem. I’ve got God’s word. That faith in the word of God! And so the first key to faith was putting out of his mind the difficulty, the problem that existed. And for us it is so important that we not dwell upon the difficulty of the situation. The more you concentrate on your problem, the bigger it gets and the more impossible it seems. So you really can’t focus on the problem. You need to focus on God who is greater than any problem you’ll ever face! God who is able to solve every problem. And thus it’s a redirecting of our focus. Not on the problem but on the greatness of God.

When my mother was dying of cancer, living with us. We were taking care of her in those last days. Sort of repaying a debt for all of the years that she took care of me. Not really repaying but just a small return for the tremendous investment that she made. And I would look at her, sit and talk and pray with her. A woman who was a gift of God. Whom I loved so deeply. And I was sort of awed by the power of cancer. To take a healthy, vibrant life and to reduce it. To sap the strength. And I saw and was awed by the power of these cells to choke out life. Cancer! A word that strikes terror in people’s hearts. And I was so overcome by the power of cancer. One morning when I went into the room and sat at the end of the bed. Weeping inside. Praying for her. I knew that she was suffering a lot. I said God, I’m no hero, but I’m willing for a day to take her suffering. And I wish today that you would just take away her pain, put it on me. Let me bear it for just one day. Just to give her a day of relief. Stop this suffering. And Jesus came and stood beside me and said, “Chuck, that is a foolish request because I bore the suffering for her.” And I said, “Oh Lord, how true. Forgive me for my folly.” And in that moment I saw no longer the power of cancer to suck out a life, but I saw the power of Jesus Christ! That cancer, what are a few malignant cells? What are they to the power of Jesus? The Creator of the universe. And my focus turned from the cancer to Jesus. From the power of cancer to the power of Jesus! And I realized that it had no power against Jesus. And as I was just having this tremendous spiritual experience, my mother said, Ooooh, the pain is gone! God touched her in that moment. She never experienced from that moment on any more pain. I also said, Lord, she is yours! I thank you for the fact that I have been able to share a lot of years with her. I’ve been blessed by her life. But if you want her, Lord, she wants you. I’m not going to hang onto her Lord. I mean it’s going to hurt like everything. But she belongs to you and if you want to take her, that’s fine. But, Lord, not with pain. Not with suffering. And the Lord took her shortly thereafter. But we were willing to release her because she was always His anyhow. She was just on loan to us. And it was just a, one of the most remarkable spiritual experiences of my entire life. I’ve never felt Jesus closer. I knew that he was standing right beside me as He spoke to me. A remarkable experience! But it came at an extremity, where you know you’ve come to your own limitations. Where you just are reaching out because you are desperate. The Lord was there and He touched. We need to focus on Him. On His power. Not upon the problem. That’s the first key to faith.

The second, 20He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, He didn’t question how God’ s going to do it. Well, I don’t know how God can ever do that. And he didn’t waver or stagger at the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, Abraham was praising God for a child before Sarah was ever pregnant. He was giving glory to God.

This is where we so often fail. Years ago when we were pastoring in Carona. A very small church. I was working in Alpha Beta to support the family in order to continue in the ministry. And my wife’s mother died in Phoenix. We had to go down to Phoenix to care of the funeral and all of those things. So it took a couple of weeks to get everything all squared away. I had notified the manager of Alpha Beta that I would be gone. And he gave me the time to go. When I came back I went in and reported. And he said, well, Chuck, we got a call from the union. You can’t go back to work until you take care of your union dues. While I was gone they had lapsed and so I hadn’t paid them. So I went over to the union to pay the dues. The gal said you have a fifty dollar fine because of your late payment. I said well, I only have money for the payment. I don’t have money for the fine. She said well, we’re sorry but we can’t reinstate you until you’ve paid the fine and the dues. I said, but you don’t understand, I don’t have the money to pay the fine and I can’t get the money if I not working. Well, she said, I guess that’s your problem because you’ve got to pay the fine before we can let you work. And so we argued over it for awhile. And she won. And so I was unable to work because I didn’t have the money to pay the dues and the fine that had been levied. So our debts began to pile up. And for the first time in my life I got a letter that said, you know, your payment is past due. I had always felt that I had wanted to honor God by always making payment on time. To be very careful with finances. That I not put God in a bad light. You know he’s a preacher. He doesn’t pay his bills. So I was very careful about that. I’ve always sought to be. For the first time, I got a letter that said your payment is past due. I was so troubled by it. I woke up at four in the morning. I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about is all of these bills that I owe. And I don’t have a cent to pay them. I don’t have any money. What am I going to do? And my mind was turned on. I couldn’t sleep. So I just carefully rolled out of bed so I wouldn’t wake up Kay. And I went out to the living room. I got our all of the bills. I totaled all of them up. It came to $416. And I sat there, discouraged, dejected. Alpha Beta market wanted me to go into managership. They had offered me to train for managership. They said you won’t have to belong to the union. Claude Edwards, the president of Alpha Beta was once a minister. And I had found favor with the men of Alpha Beta. I still see some of them who were my bosses in times past. We have a great relationship. They respected my faith in Christ and my diligence in work. They wanted to move me into management. So I thought, well, I guess this is it. I just can’t support the family and be a minister. So I’ll go to work for Alpha Beta. I’ll go into management. And I’ll support the church. Maybe I can teach a Bible class and you know, I’ll be a good Christian business man. The sun came up. Kay and the kids woke up. She fixed breakfast. We went in and sat down at the breakfast table and looked at my beautiful children, three of them. And boy when you don’t have money, you really feel the responsibility. You know, I’m a failure. Here’s kids dependent on me for their food and everything else and oh my, you know. But you know that’s all right. I’ll go full time with Alpha Beta. The one thing that they required is that I give up the idea of the ministry because they didn’t want me to be divided in loyalties. The phone rang. I answered it. They said, Chuck how are you doing? I said, oh great. How about you? They said oh, we are doing fine. We talked for a little bit. They said, well, yesterday afternoon we placed a check in the mail for you. We sent it special delivery, air mail, so it should be coming sometime today. So we just wanted you to be watching for it. I said, oh, praise the Lord, that’s wonderful! And then they said, it’s for four hundred and twenty five dollars. When I hung up, I grabbed Kay and waltzed her around the kitchen. I mean. You talk about Habbakuk said, leaping for joy and spinning. I mean that was me. Ooooh, I going to be able to pay off every debt and even have a little money left over. Oh, Lord! You’re so wonderful. Oh, I love You! I was just so excited. After about an hour when I had cooled down a bit, the Lord spoke to my heart. He said, what are you so happy about? I said, Oh, Lord, you are too much. I can’t believe. I’m going to be debt free. By the end of the day, I’ll have everything caught up. Oh Lord, you are so great. He said, how do you know they are going to send it? I said, Lord, let’s not kid about stuff like this. I know these people. I’ve known them for a long time. They are good friends. And they are people of their word. I trust them, Lord. They wouldn’t call me and say something like that if they hadn’t done it. I believe them, Lord. And I trust them. Then he hit me. He said, you had My word this morning when you woke up and four o’clock, sitting there adding up all your bills. I didn’t see you jumping up and down and waltzing your wife around the kitchen. Down in the mouth, discouraged. And yet you have My word. Now you have the word of man and you are all excited. Who do you really trust more? Hey, what can you say? Oh, Lord, You know, I trust you, Lord. I’ve got Your word, thank You, Lord. No, no, He’s got you. You’re nailed. All you can do is repent. Forgive me, Lord, I wasn’t trusting Your word. Had I been trusting your word, I would have been waltzing her around. I would have been rejoicing. Forgive me, Lord for not believing Your word.

Being strong in the faith, he gave glory to God. He was acting as though he had it though he didn’t yet have it because God said it, he knew he would have it! And finally21and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Is God able? That’s the question. Can God do it? Is God big enough? Is God strong enough? Does God have enough power? Does He have enough ability? Is God able? And when you focus on God and on His power and His ability. And that’s what the disciples did when they were faced with some problems, they came and said, oh, Lord Thou are God. You created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. You see, now we are getting our problem in perspective. We’ve got a problem here, Lord. But first of all, we’re depending on You. You’re the Creator. You’ve created everything heaven and earth and everything within them. So, my little problem is even more insignificant when I see it in the light of the greatness and the glory and the power of God. So it comes in focusing. Not upon the issues. Not upon the problems. Not upon the difficulty. Not upon the impossibility, but upon the promise of God and the ability of God to keep His promise. Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.

22And therefore (Because of his faith.) “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 23Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, God, by our faith in Jesus Christ and our faith in Him who raised up Jesus from the dead, God through that faith and because of that faith will impute righteousness to us. Apart from any ordinances of the church. Apart from any works of rules and laws, God will account our faith for righteousness.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, 25who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. So it brings you to Romans 10:9-10. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. God’s word.

Now, we are always faced with, “Will I believe God’s word or not?” You see God says one thing and Satan comes along and says another. And Satan will seek to put you under condemnation. He’ll say, you are a rotten sinner. You have failed so many times. You have no right to ask God for His help. You have no right to come to God. Look how many times, you’ve failed Him. You might just as well forget it. God’s not going to forgive you. And am I going to believe Satan? Or am I going to believe God? Who said if I’ll just confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, I will be saved! That God will impute righteousness to me apart from my failings. God justifies the ungodly!

God said to Adam, “In the day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.” Satan said, “You won’t die.” Now Eve is either going to believe God’s word or Satan’s word. Satan is always contradicting what God has said. Oh, the promises of God, you can’t believe that. And so the issue becomes, will I believe what God has said or will I listen to Satan and doubt the promises of God? And remain in condemnation, remain under that sense of guilt and unworthiness. Or will I just trust God and rejoice that God has given me his word. That I stand before Him, righteous, pure, holy. God sees me, complete in Christ Jesus, in the righteousness of Christ, which God has imputed to me through my faith and trust in Jesus. Great position! Because it is solid! It is sure! It doesn’t change with my changing. It doesn’t vary with my varying. It doesn’t waver with my wavering. My relationship with God is certain! It is sure. It’s established because it isn’t predicated upon something so weak as me and my works! But it’s predicated upon the work that Jesus Christ has wrought for me! God is resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We need also to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. To Him who worketh not but believes, God has imputed His faith for righteousness.

Father, we thank You for this wonderful position that we have in Christ Jesus. Oh, Lord how blessed we are. And how we thank You, Lord, for Your promises that You’ve given to us. Exceeding rich and precious promises whereby we become partakers of the Divine nature. And so now, Lord, fulfill in us Your Word. And Lord, help us to stand fast in that liberty wherein Christ has set us free that we would not be entangled again in rules and regulation as a basis for our righteous standing, but we will stand in the finished work of Jesus, who has paid it all. In His name we pray. Amen.

Whom Is God Sending You To?

“So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” (Matthew 17:16-17)

Jesus gave His disciples the power to cast out demons and to perform miracles of healing (Matt. 10:8). He gave them His authority to minister to people, yet they became so self-centered that they lost the power to do the work of God. When God sent a father with his epileptic son to them for healing, they failed miserably. They were so concerned with position and status (Mark 9:32?35) that they lost their focus on what God wanted to do through them.

Jesus’ response to His disciples included some of the harshest words ever to come from His mouth. He called His own disciples ?unbelieving? and ?perverse? and questioned how much longer He had to endure them! Why? Because they were supposed to be on mission with Him to bring salvation to others, but they had become so disoriented to Him that they were spiritually powerless, lacking the faith to bring physical and spiritual comfort to those God had sent to them.

God ought to be able to send a hurting person to any child of His and expect that they will be helped. Like the disciples, we can become so preoccupied with our own ambitions and distracted by the busyness of our lives that we become ineffective in ministering to those whom God sends to us. It is even possible to become so involved in religious activity that we are of no help to anyone. Regularly take inventory of your life to see if you are being a faithful steward of every life God sends to you.

Now Paul the Apostle in chapter one, showed that the Gentile world was guilty before God. God had revealed Himself in nature, but man rejected the revelation of God. In fact he made such a foolish error he began to worship and serve the creature or the creation rather than the Creator. And we are surely at that point again today where the worship of mother earth, the worship of nature, rather than the Creator.

In chapter two, he showed how that the Jews who were resting in the law, making their boast of God, were no better off than the Gentiles, who were guilty before God. Because though they boasted in the fact that that they had the law, they weren’t keeping the law. And if you don’t keep the law, then there is no value to the law. They had the ordinances of God. They had that seal of circumcision, which would indicate that they were to be a people that would live after the spirit and not after the flesh. A Godly heritage, spiritual people. But that the circumcision did not make them spiritual. Being spiritual is something within the heart of a person. It isn’t an outward kind of ritual or ordinance. So showing that the law had no value, as far as making them righteous, just having the law didn’t give them special privileges. Showing that circumcision, unless it really follows that in the heart, they were living after the spirit, the ritual itself did nothing, would naturally bring up the question that Paul begins with chapter three.

What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? What’s the advantage of being a Jew? What’s the advantage of being circumcised? Paul’s answer is 2Much in every way! There are advantages.

But Paul said, Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. They were people of special privilege. God had revealed His word to them. We are people of special privilege in that God has given us His word. Tonight we are here to study the Word of God. And that is a tremendous advantage to have the Word of God! An advantage if you keep the Word of God and live by the Word of God. But if you don’t keep the Word of God, if you don’t live by the Word, then having the Word itself is not an advantage. But in reality, a responsibility. And you have a greater responsibility, knowing the will of God than a person who has never known the will of God or the Word of God.

So then Paul declares, 3For what if some did not believe? Or what if they didn’t keep His word? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Here is an interesting concept. If I say but I don’t believe that. Does that make it then not so? If I say, I don’t believe that two plus two equals four. And you give me two apples and two more apples and I count them. But I say, I don’t believe it! Does that mean that two plus two doesn’t equal four, because I don’t believe it? Of course not! It only proves that I’m a fool. So the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. I don’t believe in God! Does that mean that God doesn’t exist because he doesn’t believe in God? Of course not. I don’t believe that this is the Word of God. Does that mean that this isn’t the Word of God? Of course not. And so because some do not believe, does that make the faithfulness of God of no effect? Of course not! It doesn’t alter the fact at all. What is, is! Facts are facts, whether you believe them or not does not alter one iota the truth of God’s Word. So what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Does that mean that there is no real power then in believing in God?

This word in the old King James, God forbid, is literally the word, perish the thought or banish the thought. The word God isn’t in there but it just, God forbid. It is used several times through Romans here, but in the Greek, it is just, banish the thought! Ridiculous! 4Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. God’s truth stands. Believe it or not. And whether you believe it or not, let God be true. Let the truth of God stand. And if nobody believes it, it is still true because it is God’s Word.

As it is written:

“That You may be justified (Speaking of God here, as it is written, that you might be justified)in Your words,

And may overcome (or prevail) when You are judged.” Now this is quoted from Psalm 51. When David had been faced with his sin with Bathsheeba. And David prayed to God for forgiveness. You remember that prayer, “Have mercy upon me, Oh God, and according to the abundance of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. For against Thee and Thee only, have I sinned and done this great wickedness in Thy sight.” And here is where it says then, that you might be justified in your sayings or righteous in your sayings and you might overcome or prevail when you are judged. Now what he is saying here is that God is justified in what He had said. And men oftentimes challenge then, what God has said about heaven. What God has said about hell. What God has said about the judgment of sinners. And many times people challenge the justice or the fairness of God. You hear it all the time. How could a God of love allow a child to be born without an arm, with a physical impairment? Why would a God of love, and it’s always the challenging by man of the fairness or the justice of God? There are so many factors that we don’t take into consideration when we bring up these kinds of issues. It’s interesting how that we want to blame God for every calamity. Even hurricanes are called acts of God. Things that are destructive, we say well, God did it! And we blame God falsely. We are living in a world that is in rebellion against God. We are living in a world that is suffering the consequences of those rebellions. Prior to the flood, there were no hurricanes. There were no violent types of tornadoes that were destructive. The earth was surrounded and encompassed in a cloud or a vapor, that shielded out much of the ultraviolet rays. They didn’t know what skin cancer was. They lived to be nine hundred years old. They had a nice environment. But when God saw that the wickedness of man was exceedingly great and the thoughts and the imaginations of his heart were only evil continually, God brought the judgment of the flood. He removed this water protection barrier from the heaven, the great world wide flood that followed. But with it followed dramatic climatic changes and with it the sudden shortening of man’s live span. No longer living to be close to a millennium, a thousand years old. It’s interesting when you think of man’s history, that Noah lived almost one sixth of the history of mankind. It’s almost sort of frightening to realize that I’ve lived over one one hundredth of the history of mankind. But man’s historic existence hasn’t been that long. And his lifespan was dramatically cut off right after the flood. Why? Because his protection, this blanket around the earth, was removed. And now we are exposed to more of the ultraviolet rays of the sun and the cosmic radiation, getting through to the earth, creating the mutation of our cells. And the quicker breakdown and a faster aging process and man’s dying at a much younger age than they did previously. But that is result from sin! Now God warned of the consequences of sin. He said if you do this, this is what is going to happen. Man did it and then when it happened, he wants to blame God!

If you jump off of our offices next door, go upon the roof and try to fly, jump off, I can tell you that if you survive, you are going to be hurting bad. That is just the law of gravity. Now, if you go up and jump off, you can’t really blame me because you are hurting so bad. Because I said if you jump off that, you are going to really hurt. So in all of your pain, you can’t say, why did you hurt me? Why did you say that? You see, I’m not to blame because I warned you of what would be the consequences of a particular action. Even so God is not to be blamed because He knows that certain actions are going to bring certain results in your life. Pain, suffering, sorrow and yet we go ahead and do these things. And then we want to blame God for the consequences. Wrong! And so man is wrong in judging God.

And so he is speaking of that here in verse four, that you might prevail when you are judged. I have a hard time understanding the mind set of a man who would challenge God or who would judge God. Who am I to challenge the justice of God or the fairness of God? And yet we find people doing that, but He prevails.

Now here is their argument. 5But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? But our disobedience, our unrighteousness has commended the righteousness of God. God did not destroy us. We as the Jews still exist and our unrighteousness and look at their history, always turning away from God, and God would bring them into judgment. God led them into captivity. They suffered a lot of pain. They suffered a lot of sorrow because of their disobedience to God. But they said it commends the righteousness of God. God didn’t destroy us. So you see, they say, well why weren’t they destroyed? Because they are God’s people. So our unrighteousness commended the righteousness of God. Therefore why should God judge us for being unrighteous? Actually we only proved that He was true! God said that we were going to turn away. God said that we were going to go into captivity. So that we are only proving that God’s word is true! And thus because we proved that the word of God is true, God really shouldn’t judge us for our unrighteousness. He’s unfair to take vengeance. And again Paul uses this phrase, perish the thought! Ridiculous. Because how could God then judge the world.

But then they say 7For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? I told this whopping lie of how God was with me. And God revealed Himself and God led me through these difficult circumstances. And people were praising God and saying oh bless God for that glorious thing. It’s was a big lie, a big whopper, but oh it got the people all excited, praising God! And so because so many people were blessed, even people got saved, why should God judge me? You know actually God ought to pin a badge on me for telling such a great lie that convinced so many people that God was wonderful! Crazy kind of irrational logic that people concoct. Why am I also still judged as a sinner?

As Paul said 8And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?–as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just. Paul said, I’ve never said anything like that. Now God’s grace and God’s love and God’s justification is a glorious thing. The redemption through Jesus Christ is wonderful. And it’s especially glorious when a person whose life has been so totally destroyed by sin, they are really at the bottom of the barrel. It’s glorious to see the grace of God extended to such a person and their lives transformed miraculously. It’s wonderful to see God take someone whose life is worthless according to the world’s standards and make of them an instrument of His glory. We sort of call them trophies of grace. And we look to what God has wrought and we rejoice together. We see so many of our pastors of Calvary Chapels who God rescued from the junk heap. And God has raised them up and is using them mightily now in ministering the gospel around the world. And we see these men whom the grace of God has just been magnified because they were so low and God has lifted them from the pit, the miry clay. And has established their feet upon the Rock and now they are being such a power for God! Does that mean that I should go out and just really destroy my life in sin and take all of the drugs that I can get hold of and all? So that then I can be saved and then God’s grace might be demonstrated. Oh praise God, look at what he did for that poor soul! And so people will glorify God because His grace is sort of exalted in that He reached to the depths….No, no, no. But you see this is the kind of foolish reasoning that sometimes people have. Paul is saying, “Let us do evil that good may come.” Some are saying that I’m am saying that. He said, “Their condemnation is just.”

So the question again, another question, 9What then? Are we better than they? (That is are we Jews better then the Gentiles? No.) Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. (Now the Jews had the advantage of receiving the oracles of God. God gave them His law. And God told them what He would do for them if they kept His law. And God told them what the consequences would be if they broke the law of God. They broke the law of God and God’s word true and those consequences of which God warned, came upon them. So we’ve proved that God’s word is true. But the advantage then is gone. It’s only if you keep the word of God that it is the advantage to you. And so the Jews are not better than the Gentiles. Paul said we’ve proved both Jew and Gentile that they are all under sin.

10As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

11There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

12They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.” So Paul begins to make this indictment against both Jew and Gentile. We are all of us guilty before God. There are none of us who are righteous before God. Not one! And none that understand. And there are none who are seeking after God in the natural state. But we’ve all gone out of the way.

But then he begins to describe them, 13“Their throat is an open tomb;

With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“The poison of asps is under their lips”; The mouth speaks blasphemous things. Death proceeds. Poison. With their tongues they have used deceit.

14“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16Destruction and misery are in their ways;

17And the way of peace they have not known.” (Feet carrying us to mischief, to bloody acts.)

18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. The law or keeping rules, cannot make you righteous. As I was growing up in church as a young fellow, we had pledge cards that we signed each year at summer camp, the final night. We were to carry these pledge cards in our wallet, which I did. In which I pledged to keep my body pure. Not to smoke. Not to drink. I pledged not to go to dances. Not to use any foul language. And I kept that pledge card in my wallet. And I did my best to keep that pledge. I didn’t go to shows. I didn’t go to dances. I didn’t drink. I didn’t smoke. I kept my body pure. But I was looking at that as the basis for my righteousness. And I felt that I am righteous because I don’t go to shows and I don’t go to dances and I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. And that was the basis of my righteousness. I prayed so many hours a week and read so many chapters of the Bible. That was the basis of my righteousness. It was a righteousness of rules that I was keeping. But the keeping of rules cannot give you a righteous standing before God. And that was my big mistake. I thought that the teaching of the rules gave me a righteous standing before God. Now not to imply that I was perfect, not by a long shot. There were times when I would get angry. And in a fit of temple, I would swear. And for a week I would feel horribly guilty. I would pray. I would wait for Sunday night so I could get saved again. And I would feel this horrible guilt. And I would renew my vow to God, asking His forgiveness. But the whole while feeling, I really have no right to ask God for anything or to expect anything from God for how I have failed. I’ve failed God and thus I have no right to ask God for anything. Because I was looking for God to bless me on the basis of my righteousness, which was predicated upon my not drinking, my not smoking, this kind of thing. The rules that I was keeping.

Now Paul is here talking about what the law says. It says to those that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God. Because you see if you keep the whole law and you violate in one point, you are guilty of all. It doesn’t matter which point you have violated, you’re guilty! Now though I never did smoke and never did, you know, drink or whatever, yet I did sneak off once in high school and went to a show. So I was guilty of breaking this pledge card that I had in my pocket as I was sitting in the show. And I still remember that miserable night! It was in the Broadway Theater there in Santa Ana on Broadway. Stars and Stripes Forever. And the whole while I was sitting there I was praying my heart out. I didn’t really see the picture, my eyes were closed. I was praying, Lord, don’t come for the church now. Wait until Sunday night when I can repent and get saved again. The law cannot make you righteous. All the law can do is point out your guilt. It makes us guilty before God. That was the purpose and the intention of the law, to show us guilty before God. So that we would not be trusting in our own righteousness but we would be casting ourselves upon the mercy of God.

As Jesus was saying about the two men who went into the temple. The Pharisee who said, Father, I thank You that I am not like other men. But I do all of these good things. I pay tithes and so forth. And I do all these wonderful things. Jesus said this poor old publican over here wouldn’t even lift his head up but just was beating on his chest and said, “Oh God have mercy upon me, a sinner.” But Jesus said, he went home justified. Why? Because he cast himself upon the mercies of God. He wasn’t looking at his own righteousness, which as a Pharisee, came from his misinterpreting of the law. He had interpreted the law so that he in his mind fulfilling the law when in reality he had broken the law, but his misinterpretation made him very self righteous. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. All that the law can do is show you what sin is. But in seeing what sin is it should then drive me to God for help and forgiveness. The law reveals the fact that I am a sinner. And when it has done that it fulfills its purpose. And so it is a mistake to think that you can set a bunch of rules and live by those rules and be righteous. Not so! And this is the principle of law. It isn’t just the Ten Commandments. It’s the principle of rules. So many churches have made the mistake of setting up rules for righteousness within the church. And all that develops is self righteousness, which will not save.

But in contrast now, 21But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, In the next chapter, Paul is going to use as a classic example of righteousness by faith, the man Abraham. Which say the Scriptures, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness? What? His belief in God. But what did he believe? Where does it say that? God took Abraham outdoors. He said look up into the heavens, Abraham. Now you are talking pre smog days. You’re talking desert skies. You’re talking pre light pollution days. No light pollution. The strongest lights were candles and little lanterns. You’re talking about a man standing out there in the desert. Clear, clear, crystal clear, desert air. Looking up into the heavens and seeing the Milky Way and the myriads of stars. And God said to Abraham, who at this point was still without his promised son. Even as the stars up there are innumerable, so shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God and his belief was accounted for righteousness. God said, “Righteous man.” Because he believed God.

But just a minute. Who shall thy seed be? Abraham understood that God was promising the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come from Abraham’s seed. That he would be a descendant of Abraham. For as Paul rightly commentaries on this passage in Galatians 3:16, Paul points out that it was unto his seed, singular, as of one, not seeds plural as of many, for that seed is Jesus Christ. So Abraham believed in Jesus Christ. As Paul said here, the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; So it’s what righteousness apart from the law, being witnessed by the law. Thus in the first book of the Bible, one of the books of the law, here is Abraham believing God and his faith being imputed by God for righteousness. His believing that God would send the Messiah, Jesus Christ, through him. So this righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That is unto all and upon all of them that believe for there is no difference.

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, For when you talk about sinners, we’re all on the same level. We are all guilty. We have all sinned and have come short of the glory of God. That is almost a redundant statement because the definition of sin, missing the mark, is the same idea as coming short. We haven’t lived up to the mark. We’ve come short of the glory of God. Now, some people are better than others, admittedly. They are not nearly as mean and cantankerous. They have a much sweeter nature. They’re not always flying off at every little thing. They’re not always cursing people and just living a miserable life. There are some people who by nature are quite kind, quite considerate. They are wonderful to be around. With some people I’d rather not even be around. And so there are people that come closer to the mark. But we’ve all come short. And to miss the mark is to miss the mark.

But, I almost hit it! But you missed man. I came close. Yes, but you missed. It’s like we are going from here to Catalina. Half way across the channel we sprung a leak and the boat went down. We all started swimming toward Catalina. Because I’m so out of shape, I only get a hundred yards from where the spot where the boat went down and I go down. But you keep stroking away. You are in good shape. You get within a mile of Catalina and you can see Avalon. And you can see the boats and the people, but you’re just totally exhausted and you go down. Well you came closer, but we both were drown. So you see, the fact that the consequences are the same. We’re sinners. And as sinners, we are then under the judgment of God against sin. Oh, but I’m a pretty good sinner. That’s your problem! We’ve all sinned and have come short of the glory of God.

But 24being justified freely by His grace The word grace means undeserved or unmerited favor. It is giving to me something that I do not deserve at all! We have three words that are sort of associated. The one is justice. We’re getting that here in the text. And the word, justice, means getting what you deserve. And there is something in us that sort of loves justice. We sort of delight in it. He’s got what he had coming. Good! It’s getting what you deserve.

Mercy. That’s not getting what you deserve. When Napoleon was marching through Paris on one of his victory marches, a young girl broke from the crowd and came up crying, “Mercy, Sire, mercy for my father.” He said who is your father? And she named him. And he said your father is a traitor to France. He deserves to die. She said, I didn’t say justice, Sire. I said mercy! Yes he deserved to die but mercy! It’s not getting what you deserve.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve! I don’t deserve the forgiveness of sin. I don’t deserve heaven. I deserve hell! And if justice was served, I would go to hell. But God who is merciful with His great love where with He loved us. The grace of God! Not only is it that I don’t go to hell, but I’m going to spend eternity in heaven! That’s grace! God’s grace. He gives me that which I could not earn. That which I do not deserve and yet God gives to me and bestows upon me His love, His goodness, His blessing and the eternal benefit of the heavenly kingdom.

So justified freely. Now the word justified, you need to sort of break that up to get the understanding. Just as if, I had never sinned! And that is how God treats my sin. It’s just as though I had never been guilty. And God has justified me freely through His grace!

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Through the fact that Jesus paid the price for me. He died in my stead.) 25whom God (that is Jesus Christ) set forth (Whom? Jesus Christ. God has set forth to be.) as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, The judgment of God that had been pronounced against sinning man. This sentence that was already given. The soul that sinneth shall die. The wages of sin is death. That sentence that had been declared, righteously declared by God against sinning man. The righteousness of God had been propitiated through the death of Jesus Christ. Through faith in the blood. The blood that Jesus Christ shed speaks of a life that has been poured out. The life of the flesh is in the blood. And so the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ signifies the giving of His life. Now the sentence of sin is death. Jesus gave His life. Shed His blood. The righteousness of God that demanded the judgment on my sin was satisfied through the death of Christ. He is propitiated or the satisfaction given, through the fact that Jesus did die and thus the sins have meted or they have experienced then their consequences in Jesus Christ.

Now as Isaiah the prophet said, Paul said these things were testified in the law and the prophets, Isaiah said, “All of us like sheep have gone astray. We turned everyone of us to our own way. But God laid on Him the iniquity of us all. So He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. God said for the transgressions of My people He was smitten.” So Jesus Christ, God incarnate, took upon Himself my guilt.

Now in the Old Testament when you had sinned you would bring a sin offering to the priest. You would bring a goat or a lamb. You would lay your hands on the head of the goat. You would confess your sin. That’s in a symbolic sense transferring your sins over unto the goat. And as soon as you did, the priest would slit its throat, catch the blood in the basin, and put it on the altar. And that goat or that lamb died as a substitute for you. The blood was shed instead of your blood. And there was made then this covering for your sin. So Jesus Christ came as my sin offering and God laid on Him all of my sin, all of my guilt and then He died for me. Thus the righteousness of God is satisfied in that there has been death for sin. But because of the grace of God, I didn’t die for my sin but Jesus died for my sin. So God freely declares me innocent of all the charges because they have been paid for in the death of Jesus Christ.

26to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The righteous demands of God have been satisfied. And God can now declare me innocent. He exonerates me because of my faith in Jesus Christ.

27Where is boasting then? Can I go around and tell you how good I am. Let me just take a few hours and tell you how wonderful a person I am. All I can say is that I’m a poor, wretched, miserable, sinner, but Jesus died for me. He paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow. The boasting is eliminated because it is not by my righteousness that I am saved. It’s not by my good works. I am saved by my simple faith and trust in Jesus Christ, clinging to Him and His works. God said, “Exonerated.” Paul in writing to the Ephesians said, “For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship.” I’m so glad for that. For when we get to heaven, we are not going to have to sit around and listen to one another brag over all that they did to get there. All the sacrifices that I made and all the things that I did. Ooooh, no. When we get there, we are all going to be surprised. We’re just going to sit there and say, wow, isn’t Jesus wonderful? He took all of my sin. He took my guilt. He took my trash. He took my junk. And he died for me! And now by my trust in Him, God has exonerated me and brought me into His presence that I might be here in the kingdom of God forever. Oh praise the name of Jesus! And all the glory and praise will be going to Jesus when we are there and not bragging and boasting.

Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? (Oh, no, no, no. If I were saved by works then boasting is there.) No, but by the law of faith. It’s by the law of faith. Because it’s not what I have done but what I believe that God accounted me righteous.

28Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Without rules and regulation.

29Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not (God forbid! Or perish the thought!)! On the contrary, we establish the law. No, we don’t negate the law of God. We establish the law of God. It was the thing that showed us our helplessness. It was the thing that revealed to us that we couldn’t do it on our own, that we needed to reach outside of ourselves with the help of Jesus Christ. And it was the law that drove me to Jesus Christ. To cause me to put my trust and faith in Him because I realized that I couldn’t keep the law. So I’ve established the law. It’s validity in fulfilling the purpose for which God gave it and that is to reveal what sin is to me so that I might know that I am guilty and I need God’s help. And thus seeking the help of God, believing in Jesus Christ, I’m justified apart from the works of the law or apart from certain rules that would make me feel, well, I’m righteous because I do this and I do that. I am righteous because I believe in Jesus Christ.

Oh, but aren’t you opening the door then for me to do anything? Well, I do anything I want. But what I want is to please Him more than anything else! I’m now bound by another law, not of rules and regulations, but the law of love. For the love of Christ, Paul said, constrains me. That’s the thing that pressures me to live the right life. I love Him so much and He loves me so much, that I don’t want anything to come between us. I want to do those things that please Him. I don’t want to do those things that would be distasteful or displeasing to Him. And so it is the love of Christ that draws me. And I live actually by a much higher standard than I would if I were under rules. Because it is interesting, the human nature being such as it is, if there are rules by which I am regulated and held in check, I’m always going to find a way to bend the rules. To push the limit. You know, you can’t, you are always doing that, pushing the limits. How far can I go? And that’s the way it is when you are under the law. You are always pushing the limits. But when you are under this bondage of love, oh man, it’s not how close can I live to the world and still be a Christian but how close can I live to Jesus. Held by the bonds of love. A great place to be. And when you know and discover the grace of God which we will be discovering more and more as we continue on in Romans, your love for the Lord is just going to increase as you realize what God by grace has wrought for you, has done for you and what He is planning to do for you who by simple faith in Jesus Christ have come to trust in Him.

Father, we thank You for Your word and for, oh, this wonderful position that is ours now. Justified freely by Your grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that You will teach us more and more about the wonderful plan of salvation. The grace of God, the justification, the sanctification and that glorification. Draw us, Lord, unto Yourself and unto that great love. Bring us into a richer appreciation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

You Are Light

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

There is no mistaking the effect of light upon a darkened place. Light boldly and unabashedly announces its presence and vigorously dispels darkness. God’s desire is to fill you with His light. He wants you to shine as a brilliant testimony of His presence and power in your life, so that the darkness in the lives of those around you will be displaced by the light of God’s glory.

If, however, you notice the world around you becoming darker and darker, don’t blame the darkness! It is simply doing what darkness does. The only remedy for darkness is light. If the world is becoming darker, the problem is not with the darkness. The problem is with the light. Jesus said His disciples should be the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). What an awesome responsibility–to be the ones through whom God would shine His divine light and dispel the darkness from around others! In announcing His own coming, Jesus said, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,/ And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death. / Light has dawned” (Matt. 4:16).

There was no ignoring Jesus’ arrival upon earth! Darkness was dispelled! Everywhere Jesus went, God’s truth was boldly proclaimed, people were healed, hypocrisy was exposed, and sinners found forgiveness. The world was never the same once the Father introduced His light through His Son. Can that be said of you as well? Do your coworkers recognize the light that is within you? Does the presence of Christ radiate from your home into your community? When God’s light is allowed to shine unhindered through your life, the darkness around you will be dispelled.

Matthew 21:5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

It was customary that when a magnificent king would make his entrance into a city, there would be great pomp and circumstance. Crowds were placed along the entrance route that were prepared for just such a great spectacle. No king ever came into a town or village in humility. The greatness of the king was underscored by the size of his entrance.

Zechariah the prophet wrote approximately 700 years before Jesus was born. He predicted that the greatest of all Kings would appear in Jerusalem, not with great spectacle, but in humility and simplicity. He would not arrive as most conquering kings, on a great stallion, but instead on the back of an unbroken foal of a donkey.

Whenever a king would arrive in a city on the back of a donkey, he was signaling that his arrival was in peace. When a king came to conquer, he rode on the back of a great horse.

As Jesus arrives in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, April 2, 32 A. D., he did so in perfect fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. The people who had gathered at the entrance to Jerusalem, held palm branches to be waved at the arriving king, customary for that day. As Jesus makes his entrance into Jerusalem, for the first time in his three year ministry, He allows Himself to be proclaimed as “The Messiah, the Son of David”, in fulfillment of all the old testament prophecies. Up to that day, Jesus would not allow pressure from even His disciples, to announce Himself as the promised Savior. Jesus came to fulfill the prophecies about the coming Savior and there was an appointed day for that arrival and announcement. He would not be moved from that objective by the pressures of any man.

John 7:3-6 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” For even His brothers did not believe in Him.  Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.

More than 600 years before this day, Daniel had been given the most important prophecy of all future events foretold by God. The angel Gabriel reveals to Daniel that there would be a period of “sixty-nine weeks” of years determined for the nation of Israel, before God would bring His Messiah to earth. The seventieth week, would be a time of unparalleled horror for the inhabitants of earth as twenty-one separate judgments by God would be “poured our” on the earth in preparation of the coming of Jesus.These events are described in vivid detail in the Book of Revelation, chapter 6: verse 1, through chapter 18.

Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks...

At the end of this seventieth week, a seven year period of time, Jesus will return to the earth with His church, and establish the throne of His father David on earth, for one-thousand years.

Luke 1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

Revelation 19:11-16 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the Palm Sunday before He will be crucified the following week, He knows that His arrival is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. It has been exactly 483 years (69 X 7) since the command from Artaxerxes Longimanus in 445 B. C., gave the Jews who had been held captive in Babylon for 70 years, the right to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the Temple.

With the magnitude of importance that Jesus arrival in Jerusalem was, one would think that the skies would open up and the angels would shout for joy, over the arrival of the greatest King in the universe. Just the fact that a prophecy had been given of the exact day of arrival for God’s Messiah, was reason enough to shout the arrival of this day.

Instead, the coming of Jesus to Jerusalem as the King of Kings, was as unpretentious as His arrival in Bethlehem at His birth. Jesus came humbly, lowly, riding on the foal of a donkey. Proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord in peace. To all those who have a heart after God and care about their eternal destination, we rise up and take notice. To those who care only for themselves and their own life, Jesus arrival 2,000 years ago means as little as any other event on the earth that passes without notice.

Since our King came in such humility, and served all mankind in peace and simplicity, should not also,  all we who follow Him?  We should proclaim Jesus and exhibit His presence in our life, in humility. Who are we that He should have died for us? We are just sinners who were on a destination eternal doom, had Jesus not stopped that eternal free fall?

We, the redeemed of the Lord, are no better than any other person on this planet. We are simply better off, because we have believed the good news that God is ready to pardon us for our sins and grant us eternal life.

When we see those who are still trapped by their sin and remain in darkness of God’s provision for them, we should do so with great fear and humility. Many of those who we see today, will never make it into the perfection of Heaven. Not because they are not welcome, but because they refuse to believe and be saved. We should shudder at the thought that one human being would be lost, when such a great price has been paid for their salvation. When we speak, let our words be full of the same grace that would flow from Jesus lips, had He spoken them to this person. May we ever pray night an day for those who we know, that remain unsaved. That their eyes may be opened and their hearts be ready to receive this humble King who rode into Jerusalem with humility and peace.

Rob Robinson

We continue our study of this classic book in the Bible, written by the Paul the Apostle.

In chapter 1, verse 18, he tells us the wrath of God is going to be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. And he tells us what men were doing. Because when they knew God they would not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful. They became vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools as they changed the glory of an uncorruptible God. And they began to fashion images like corruptible man and birds and creeping things. So God gave them up to the uncleanness through the lusts of their own heart to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. They changed the truth of God into a lie and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. So God gave them up to vile affection. The women changing the natural use to that which is against nature. And likewise also men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust toward one another. Men with men, doing that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was fit. And even as they did not want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient. And thus being filled with all unrighteousness, and fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy and murder, debate, deceit, malignancy, whisperers, back biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they that commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in those that do them.

Now, when you read that what’s your response? What’s your reaction? The wrath of God is worthy. Just nail them, Lord! They are horrible! They are guilty! That’s awful to do such things. But watch out, because Paul said, Therefore (because of all of this) you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. Jesus said, judge not lest you be judged. And yet we find it quite easy to pass judgment on people, as though we know what they are thinking. As though we know what is their motive. We don’t know what is in the heart of a person. We’re so prone to cast judgment. Yet, we really don’t know what’s going on in their heart. We think we do. We say, well, did you see the way he looked, you know. Did you see that sneer? You know, and we are so prone to judge people. We’re all different. A person may be doing the same thing but have a whole different attitude and heart.

I remember when I was just a small boy. My parents had gone to the store. They left my older sister in charge. We found some paint in the garage and decided to surprise my parents and paint the garage while they were gone. It was a bright red paint. But I thought that looks good on the garage door. So as they came home, I was busily painting the garage door. I couldn’t understand why my dad was so angry. I couldn’t understand why he gave me a whipping. Because I really thought, they are going to be so happy to see this new paint job on the garage. I thought they would appreciate it.

Years later, the chickens come home to roost. When I came home, I found my little daughter painting the garage. My wife screamed out in horror and was ready to correct her. I said, oh, wait a minute. Because I remembered my own experience as a child. And I, you know, said, honey, as you were painting the garage, what were you thinking? She said, I was thinking I’ll probably get a spanking for this. But it’s fun!

So you don’t know what’s going on in a person’s heart or mind. We are so ready and quick to judge. But God has not allowed us that luxury of judging others. He has reserved that for Himself. Now the moment I enter into judgment on another person’s actions, I am now possessing a knowledge of righteousness that is knowing that that is wrong. It’s an admission on my part that I know it’s wrong! And in the judging, I am actually acknowledging that I know the right from the wrong. Which means that I am inexcusable when I do something similar. And so often as we judge another person for what they have done, in reality all you have to do is alter the circumstances slightly, and we find that I’m doing the same thing! Just alter slightly.

As when Nathan came to David and said David, there is a man in your kingdom who is extremely wealthy. He has more than he could ever spend. Herds and flocks. Next door to him there lives next to him a very poor man. All he has is one little ewe lamb. It’s like a child to him. It eats at his table and sleeps in his house at night. And the rich man had company come for dinner. He ordered his servants to go and by force take the one little ewe lamb from the neighbor and slaughter it in order that he might feed his guests. And David’s righteous indignation raised within himself and he said, that man will surely be put to death! Nathan said, David, you are that man.

You see, change the circumstances slightly. Change the story and we find that quite often, we are guilty of judging someone for the same things that they are doing. Only with a slight change of the story. We often are the guilty ones. We’re the man. So, we are inexcusable in judging others. As we have pointed out this morning, God sees our hearts. And the law was intended to deal with the spirit, the attitude of man. And interpreting the law to only deal with its physical, outward, was a mistake. Thus I could be guilty of murder without ever touching another person. But by the hatred, the absolute hatred, that I have for them. It is brewing in my heart. Jesus said that I’m guilty of murder.

I may never enter into with a physical relationship with another woman, other than my wife. And yet, if I am lusting and desiring a relationship, then I have already have committed adultery in my heart. So as Paul gives us this list of things that are being done by the pagan world, the murder, adultery, fornication, and all, he says not only do they do those things, but they take pleasure in those that do them. Now today in the film industry, Hollywood, what are the things that are being portrayed in the movies? Murder, violence, fornication, adultery. Do you watch those movies? Why do you watch those movies? As you are watching them, do you think, that is terrible? Nobody should do those things. That’s awful. I hate that. I don’t want to see that kind of stuff. Are you really turned off by it or are you turned on by it? You see if those kind of things, and the only reason that I can understand a person really watching that, is that is does turn them on. You see, if it didn’t you wouldn’t be watching. But as you watch, if you are taking pleasure in those things. If you are deriving pleasure out of that movie that is portraying adultery or fornication or murder or whatever, if you take pleasure in that, yet you are judging people that do those things, then you are taking pleasure in it yourself, you see, then you are guilty!

Therefore you are inexcusable O man whoever you are who judges another, and yet you are doing the same thing. Now that is a real fallacy with our judgment. I have no right to judge, that is to condemn. As supposing that I know what is in a person’s heart and I know their motives. The judgment of man is often faulty but the judgment of God is true. So Paul teaches us about God the judge here in chapter two. And he tells us about the judgment of God that is coming. And that we need to realize there is a day of judgment coming! People do not get by with evil, though it appears many that they are getting by with it. In the end you will not get by with evil or with sin. There is a day of reckoning. There is a day of judgment. It may not be in this lifetime, but it will come. You don’t get by with sin.

2But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. God is going to judge them. And His judgment will be according to truth. For God knows what’s in their heart. In the day when the secrets of the heart will be revealed. God knows what’s in a person’s mind. You remember when Ezekiel the prophet had a vision (Ezekiel 8:7). He saw this wall. God said dig a hole through the wall. He dug a hole through the wall. When he went inside the room, God said, crawl in the room there. When he went inside, he saw all kinds of filthy pornography, paintings and all on the walls. And God said, I have allowed you to enter into the chamber of the minds of the leaders of Israel. You’re seeing what they’re thinking in their minds. God knows our thoughts. God knows our hearts. And thus the judgment of God will be according to truth. Our judgment is not always according to truth. It is as we perceive many times what truth is, but often our perceptions are faulty.

The second thing, 3And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? God’s judgment is inescapable! No man can escape the judgment of God.

4Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? God is so patient. He deals with us with such patience and longsuffering. He is so forbearing with us. He doesn’t strike immediately. In His goodness He gives time for repentance. He calls us to repentance. He is patient and longsuffering as He waits for us. But the whole purpose of God is that it might bring you to repentance. Now, here is the problem because so often because God is so longsuffering, because God seemingly is allowing you to get by with it. Or you see someone else doing these things and seemingly God is allowing them to get by with it. We begin to mistake the longsuffering of God as weakness. As though God is not able to judge. And that is not a grave mistake to make, interpreting the patience and the longsuffering of God as weakness. But there is one mistake even worse! And people make this mistake. They think that the longsuffering of God constitutes approval. That God actually is approving the things that they are doing. And that is a fatal mistake! God in His forbearance and longsuffering is giving you an opportunity to repent. Because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9). But you are not to despise this forbearance and goodness of God, but realize that their purpose is to bring you to that repentance. God is slow to anger. God does not want to destroy you. Through the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:18), God cried out to those sinful people, “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will you die?” He said, “I don’t have any pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they might turn from their wickedness and live.” God loves you more than you can ever realize. And in spite of what you are doing, God is patient and He gives you time and space to repent. But there comes a day and make no mistake about it, when God will judge. And if you have not repented of your sin and turned to Jesus Christ then you will face the wrath of God against all sin.

5But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, (What’s happening if you continue in sin and in these practices, God is longsuffering and He is patient. You begin to misinterpret it and think that He is weak or He approves. Actually what is happening is that it’s like a river that is being held back by a dam and the water keeps flowing in. But one day the thing is going to burst and the thing is going to burst and the water is going to come flooding out in an uncontrollable surge and force. And thus the wrath of God, the indignation against the sin is building up. You are treasuring through the hardness and impenitent heart this storing up this wrath of God. That when the day of judgment comes, it’s going to be revealed. The righteous judgment of God. And thus this next thing we learn about God’s judgment. It’s righteous, according to truth, it is righteous judgment. When God is judging the world, in the book of Revelation as the sixth vial, I think it is, that is poured out. There comes forth the voices from the alter, that say, “Holy and righteous are Thy judgments, O Lord.” The acknowledgment in the midst of the great tribulation period.

For God 6who “will render to each one according to his deeds” God will be righteous in His judgment. Ever man will receive from God according to his deeds. Now: 7eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; God will judge them and reward them with eternal life.

8but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness–indignation and wrath, (They will receive the indignation and wrath of God. God’s judgment will be righteous. It’ll be according to truth. And if you are patiently continuing in seeking to do the will of God, and you are seeking the glory of God and the honor for God in your life, God will give you eternal life! But to those who do not obey the truth and follow after unrighteousness, it will be His indignation and His wrath) 9tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; The Jew first because he has been given the most light and understanding. To them were given the oracles of God, the law of God. And thus with these privileges comes a greater responsibility. That is true for us in this day. God has given us His Word and the knowledge of His Word. Knowing the truth brings a responsibility unto each of us of obedience to that truth that we know. The greater the light, the greater the responsibility. For we will be judged according to the light that we receive.

But in contrast, 10but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11For there is no partiality with God. You are as important to God as anybody else in the whole world. God loves you supremely. God is no respector of persons. Often times I’m embarrassed because people come and say, I want you to pray for this because you are closer to God than I am. Not so! I’m not closer to God than you. All of us are equally close to God. As Paul said to the Athenians, in Him we live, we move, we have our being. I may be more conscious of the presence of God than you, but surely not any closer. And God doesn’t respect me or my prayers any quicker that He does your. God is no respector of persons. God doesn’t say, well, Chuck is calling on Me. Isn’t that great? Great, to hear from you, isn’t that fine? How have you been doing? And so I don’t have any special privileges or “ins” or whatever. God is no respector of persons. He will receive you just as He will receive me. You are as important to God as the Pope. Man elevates other men. In God, we are all at the same level when we stand before Him. You are important to God! He is no respector of persons.

12For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, (Now people always say, what about that poor man in the dark areas of Africa, who has never heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Paul deals with that issue here. Those who have sinned without knowing the law of God will perish without the law.) and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 13(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; But in the next chapter he is going to show us that no one has done or kept the law. There is none righteous. No not one. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Those that have the law will be judged by a higher standard than from those that did not have the law.)

14for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) In other words, every man, whether or not he knows the law of God or the word of God, has the conscienceness of, “This is right or this is wrong.” There are things that he knows that he should do and things that he knows that he shouldn’t do. And no man has been totally obedient to his own standards that he knows are right to do. All have sinned. Those who have the law have violated the law. Those that do not have the law, the ten commandments and all, still have an awareness that it is wrong to hurt. It’s wrong to bring pain. It’s wrong to take from someone else. There is that innate law that is written in a person’s heart. And thus even because he may not know or have the law of God, he’ll still be judges according to that law that God has written in his heart. The standard that God has placed in his own mind and conscience. There’s not a single one of us here tonight who have not had the voice of conscience say to us, that was wrong! I don’t think there is. If there is, please stand up and identify yourself. So we’re all guilty. The degree doesn’t matter. We are guilty! The Bible says if you keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, you are just as guilty as if you broke them all. For it is written, cursed is the man who continues not in the whole law to do all that is written therein. How many violations does it take to make you guilty? How many times do you have to go on the freeway at seventy-five miles an hour to be guilty of breaking the law? If an officer pulls you over and you say, well, I’ve only done this five times, you know, it’s not fair. Everybody else is going past me and all. Well, you know, you are guilty! Once, you are guilty. And you may do it just once and get caught, but still you are going to have to pay the same fine as if you had done it a hundred times and finally got caught on the one hundred and first time. Guilty. We all are guilty before God. And that’s what Paul is bringing us to in this as he really elaborates this when we get into the next chapter, but Jew or heathen. The Jew has the law, the greater knowledge. Judged by a higher standard. We who are Gentiles without the law, will be judged by the law that God has written in our hearts. None of us shall escape. This law of God written in our heart shows the work of the law whereby the conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.

16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men (Ooooh. Have you ever thought what it would be like to stand before God in judgment and try to declare you innocence? To try to lie your way out of it? Well now God, that’s not what I was thinking. Oh, it isn’t? Gabriel, project on the screen what was going on in their mind when they were doing that. God will judge according to the secrets of men) by Jesus Christ, according (Paul said,) to my gospel.

17Indeed you are called a Jew, (Now he is addressing the Jews very directly. Up until this point it’s pretty much all of us, whoever you are who is judging another and yet guilty yourself.) and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, (We are Jews. We have the law of God. God has spoken to us and given to us His laws. You boast of the fact that you know the will of God.)

18and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, (The Jew was very proud and rightfully so of the fact that God had spoken to them and the nation as He was seeking to prepare a nation through which He might bring the Messiah into the world. And thus they were very proud of the fact that God had delivered to their fathers, the Law, God’s Law.

19and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, (You have the light of God. You have the knowledge of God. And it’s a very heady thing. God has spoken to me! God has revealed His will to me! I’ve been instructed by God.)

Thus you look at yourself as 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. Thus, their position, as instructors of God’s laws. An instructor of righteousness. James sort of warns us against this. He said, be not many masters, knowing that you will receive the greater condemnation. To teach God’s truth again brings an awesome responsibility. To say that I am bringing to you God’s Word, which I feel that I am because I’m going straight through the passages. But to be a teacher places me under a greater responsibility before God as I teach you what God has said that we should do or should not do. And I’m declaring to you the truth of God, then if it isn’t being fulfilled in my own life, I stand in a greater judgment because I know the truth. I am a teacher of the truth.

21You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? (And let me say this, yes! So often a person will come up to me after a sermon and say to me, that was just for me. And I’m thinking, no, it was just for me! Oftentimes I am convicted of God as I am ministering the truth of God, it’ll strike my own heart and I will feel the conviction of God. And often times as I am speaking, I am repenting. You teach others, but don’t you teach yourself?

You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? Do you sometimes take that which is not rightfully yours? Are you stealing from your boss by not giving him a full eight hour day? You see it can be in so many forms.

22You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Are you as Jesus said, looking at a woman and desiring her in your heart? We say oh no, you shouldn’t commit adultery. That is one of the works of the flesh. And we know that they which do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But am I guilty of looking lustfully at a woman and desiring her?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? We look at idolatry and people making little images, Budda and other images. And we say isn’t that ridiculous? And yet so often in your heart, there are idols in your heart. You’ve never formed one out of wood or stone. But within your heart there is idolatry because of your love for other things that exceed your love for God. Your God is the chief love in your life. Whatever you love more than anything else is your god. And He said Thou shall love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart. The love for Him has to be first. You who abhor idols but do you commit sacrilege?

23You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? They were boasting, that we have the law of God. But just having the law isn’t sufficient. And in the breaking of the law you actually are dishonoring God and bringing disrepute to God. The sin of David with Bathsheeba. When he was faced by the prophet with this sin, one of the by products of David’s sin, according to the prophet was, you’ve caused the enemies of God to blaspheme. In other words, they know, David, that you love God. They know, David, that you have the law of God. They know, David, that you are a man of God. And yet, by this sin, now the enemies of God, those that hate God, you’ve given them a opportunity to blaspheme God. Look at David, he’s supposed to be, you know, and look at what he had done. And that’s the tragic by product of our sin so often, is that here we are taking the name of Christ, we’re known as Christians, and then if we take advantage of someone. If we cheat in a business deal, if we are deceptive in our practices, it causes people to blaspheme Jesus. They say, he’s supposed to be Christian, but do you know what he did? And the name of Christ is disgraced and blasphemed many times by the things that we do. So the prophet is rebuking David because of his actions that brought disgrace and blasphemy to the name of God.

24For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written. Written in the prophet of Isaiah.

25For circumcision (He said, which was the badge of the covenant which was given to Abraham. Abraham you will be My people. I will be your God. I will bless you. I will multiply you. Nations and kings shall come from you. I’ll give to your descendants the land in which you dwell. Now as a sign of this covenant, you are to be a spiritual people, you are to be the father of a spiritual nation. You are to be a father of those who believe in Me. People who live and walk after the Sprit and not after the flesh; therefore the male children that are born, your descendants are to be circumcised. The flesh is to be cut off, indicating that they are not to live after the flesh but they are to live after the Spirit. So it is a ritual even to the present day among the Jews. The badge of a Jew is this circumcision, the covenant of God. He speaks of the covenant of God to Abraham. When a person wanted to proselytize into the Jewish faith, one of the requirements was circumcision. An acclimation that I’m going to live after the Spirit. I’m not going to live after the flesh. Now when the Gentile church began to spread, there were certain Jews that felt you can’t be saved unless you are circumcised. And they began to create problems in the Gentile church in Antioch, saying unless you are circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you can’t be saved. And the first church counsel was convened to order to deal with this very issue. Of whether or not circumcision was essential for salvation. Paul later in writing to the Galatians got a little testy on the issue. Those that were coming and troubling the Gentile believers, saying you’ve got to be circumcised and getting a little testy, he said I wish they were castrated, they that trouble you like this.

But here Paul is declaring that circumcision doesn’t profit you. It is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. It’s just like you weren’t circumcised. So it is, the ritual, doesn’t save you. The law doesn’t save you. Having the law doesn’t save you. It doing the law, but we can’t. Keeping the ordinances of the law, circumcision, that doesn’t save you. For if you are circumcised and still you don’t keep the law, it’s as though you weren’t circumcised.

26Therefore,(If that is true, then, reversing that) if an uncircumcised man (the Gentiles) keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? Because, you see, it’s an issue of the heart. That’s what God is interested in. Thus with baptism in the Christian faith, one of the rituals of the Christian church. Same thought, the baring of the life of the flesh to live a life of the Spirit. The water representing the grave, the old life, governed by the flesh, buried. I rise up out of the water in newness of life in Christ Jesus to live after the Spirit. But if I rise up out of the water and still live after the flesh, then the baptism is totally meaningless. It doesn’t count. But if a person is living after the Spirit though he has not been baptized, the issue is that in his heart is where the true baptism takes place. It’s in my heart that I determine to live after the Spirit and to walk after the Spirit. And I believe that there will be many people in hell who have been baptized. And by the same token, I believe that there will many in heaven who were never baptized. That is, as a physical going under the water. Yes, I think it is important. Yes, I think you should. Yes, it is obedience to the command. But I don’t believe that it’s essential to salvation. The physical action of baptism. Certainly the Spiritual in a person’s heart is essential.

27And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, (That is those Gentiles who are called the uncircumcision.) judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. The Jews were in conflict with Jesus often. And in one of their conflicts, recorded in John’s gospel (John chapter 8), they made their boast of being Jews. We are the children of Abraham. Jesus said if you were the children of Abraham then you would have believed me. But you are of your father, the Devil. Now they said they were Jews, but not all that say they are Jews are true Jews. Because it isn’t a thing of physical descendancy. It’s what is in a person’s heart. A true Jew is a thing of the heart not of the flesh.

Jesus said in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, He said, I know those who say they are Jews, but are the synagogue of Satan. Now Paul here is talking about the true Jew is not one outwardly. Not a person who is just one outwardly. That doesn’t make you a Jew. The circumcision is not an outward action. A Jew is one inwardly. One who had dedicated and committed his life to God. And it’s the circumcision of the heart that counts before God. A man who walks after the Spirit in truth and not in the letter. And the praise in not of man, but he receives the praise of God and the acknowledgment of God! And thus we should seek the praise of God, the acceptance of God. Not of man, I’m not worried about that. But I’m right before God. My heart is right before God.

So Paul continues this very same thought as we go into chapter three. He is going to show that we are all of us guilty, Jew and Gentile alike. And thus we, all of us, need a Savior, which God has provided in Jesus Christ. So a tremendous, tremendous, presentation of the gospel, showing that all of us, Jew and Gentile alike, have come short of the glory of God. There’s none of us who are righteous, no not one. So all of us need a Savior. And Jesus Christ is that Savior. That we will get in chapter three as we move on in this glorious presentation. This presentation of Paul of the gospel and the way he presents his case is so classic that it used to be in the law school at Stanford University, the requirement for graduation in a law course was the memorizing of the first eight chapters of Romans. It’s such a clear, powerful presentation that it was used as a sample of how to present a case. And the law students had to memorize it. I imagine things have changed by now. But it is just inspired of the Spirit. Just a classical presentation.

Father, we thank You for Your Word and we ask Lord, that You will help us. That we might leave judgment, Lord, to You. And rather than looking at others, may we allow You, Lord, to look at us. To see us, Lord, and may, Lord, You reveal to us those things in our lives that are displeasing, unkind, unlike You. For we desire, Lord, to be like You. So Lord, move in our hearts and in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (Matthew 5:13)

God’s people are His preserving agents for a world that is corrupted and degenerating because of sin. Your life is designed and commissioned by God to enhance a community and to preserve what is good and right. There is deep significance today for a godly life that is involved in its community. The presence of Christ in you makes all that He is available to others. His salvation can free an addict, mend a broken home, heal the pain of the past, restore a wayward child, and comfort a grieving heart. All of this is available to those around you as Christ expresses His life through you.

If we are not in a right relationship with our Lord, however, Jesus said we are like salt that has lost its saltiness and is, therefore, good for nothing. None of God’s saving grace and power can be dispensed through us to others. How do we test the “saltiness” of our life? Look at our family. Are we preserving it from the destructive influences that surround it? Examine our workplace. Are the sinful influences in our work environment being halted because we are there? Observe our community. Is it a better place because we are involved in it? What about our church? The evidence that we have been used by God as a preserving agent is that things are becoming spiritually better around us instead of worse. If people around us are deteriorating spiritually, we need to go to our Lord and allow Him to adjust our lives so that we can be used to preserve others.

What a joy it is. To labor for the Lord and to serve the Lord. And that brings us to Romans, chapter one, where Paul said:

Paul, a servant(a bondservant or bondslave) of Jesus Christ, Paul wrote his letter to the Romans while he was in Corinth at about 60 AD. It was his third visit to Corinth. And in his opening here, he will express to them the desire that he has had, to come to Rome. A long standing desire, but up until this present, the time that he wrote, he was hindered from going. Now when we closed the Book of Acts last week, we found Paul in Rome, at the end of the Book of Acts. That was three years after he wrote this desire that he had to come to Rome. Now he speaks of his desire as having been a long standing desire. We know that it was the will of God that Paul was to go to Rome. Jesus said, “As you have borne witness of Me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness of Me in Rome”. This desire to go to Rome was a desire that was put upon his heart by the Lord as the Lord said that He would write His desires on the fleshly tablets of our hearts. So God had put upon Paul’s heart that desire to go to Rome, but it was several years before the desire was a fulfillment. Often times God reveals His will in advance, but it takes time for it to be accomplished. Look how long Abraham waited for the promise of God to give him a son through Sarah. And so often times like with Abraham, we get impatient waiting upon God. And we think, well, maybe God needs my help. Maybe God can’t quite do it without me getting involved. As the general rule, we are able to pretty well mess things up when we get involved. And then it takes a little longer for God to unscramble our mess before He can go ahead with His program. So Paul is writing. And so you were three years ahead of this writing last week. Now we are going back three years earlier as Paul was writing to the Romans, expressing his desire to come.

He calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ. When Paul was on his way to Damascus to imprison the believers of Jesus Christ. Breathing out murder against them. Very strong in his feelings against Christianity. Determined to wipe out this sect! The Lord apprehended Paul. And as he was lying there on the ground, the Lord spoke to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest Thou Me?” His response was, “Who art Thou, Lord, that I might serve Thee?” And it was at that point that Paul became a servant of Jesus Christ.

Now he is writing to the Roman church many years later. About twenty seven or so years later. And he calls himself a slave or a bondslave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, Writing to the Ephesians, he said Paul an Apostle by the will of God. Here he speaks of his calling to be an Apostle. One who has been sent out by the Lord and separated unto the gospel of God, Or the Good News of God. About the only place you are going to find good news today is in the church. You won’t watch it or you won’t see it on the television newscast. You are going to see bad news only. You won’t read it in your newspapers. But the good news of Jesus Christ is just as good as it ever was! The news that God can transform our lives from darkness to light! From the power of Satan unto God, the wonderful good news!

2(Which (that is good news) he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) As you go through the Old Testament and the prophesies of the Scriptures, they are prophesying of the coming of God’s anointed King or the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Messiah! And thus the good news is that God has fulfilled the promises to their fathers, the prophets. And God has sent the Messiah, the Savior into the world. Isaiah said all of us like sheep had gone astray. We turned everyone of us to our own way. And God laid on Him the iniquities of us all. The good news of the Messiah who would come and who would bear our sins. God would put on Him the iniquities of us all. But by bearing our sin, He would grant to us eternal life, forgiveness of sins.

So the promise of this good news by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Over three hundred predictions concerning Jesus. Giving details and aspects of His life were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. It, as far as mathematical probabilities, is impossible for anyone to fulfill those predictions. And yet Jesus did.)

And so he was declared, Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; Many of the promises concerning the Messiah were related to David. It started when David had his friend Nathan over. As they were sitting there talking, David said, you know Nathan, I was watching the people go into the tent over there to worship God. For they had moved the Tabernacle to Jerusalem. I was sitting here in my palace. In all my luxuries of my palace. And here God is dwelling in a tent. That is not fair Nathan. I’m going to build a house for God that is going to excel anything. I mean I’m not going to spare any expense. I’m going to build God a magnificent house! His friend Nathan the prophet said that that sounded like a splendid idea. Do all that is in your heart. Nathan went home. He couldn’t sleep that night. God woke him up and said Nathan, you spoke out of turn. You didn’t wait on Me. You didn’t listen for My voice. You encouraged David to build Me a house. Nathan, I can’t have David building Me a house. This guy’s hands are too bloody. So you’re going have to go back and tell David that he can’t build Me a house. But you tell David, I’ll build him a house! And that there will be one of his seed that will sit upon the throne forever. That is the Messiah will be a descendant of David.

So the next morning as Nathan came into David he said, Oh, David I’ve got some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that you can’t build God a house. You are a man of war. Your hands are bloody. But the good news is that God said He took you from the sheepcote and from following after the sheep and He made you the ruler over His people. And God is going to build you a house. And there shall never cease one of your descendants from sitting on the throne. David immediately recognized that as a promise that from his descendants, the Messiah would come.

So David went in to the Lord. He said, oh Lord, You took me from the sheepcote, following after the sheep. You made me the ruler over Your people. Oh God, You have done so much! I mean I’m amazed at what You’ve already done for me. But now You speak of the future! What can I say? Here, David, probably the most articulate man who ever lived. A man who was gifted in words praising God. The Psalms are the witness of how capable this man was of expression of praise and thanksgiving. And yet, so overwhelmed by the goodness of God, is that he is speechless!

You know, I love it when you just get to that place of awe and wonder so much that you just can’t say anything. Saborollan said when prayer reaches its ultimate, words are impossible. And you have been so overwhelmed by God’s love and grace that I just, you know, just can’t. Anything you say is almost cheapening what God has done. In trying to express thanks, there aren’t any words in the English language that are adequate to express the feelings of your heart and your spirit for what the Lord has done for you. This is happening to me more and more. God is blessing in such glorious ways, that I find myself at a loss trying to express how much I appreciate what God has done and what God is doing. I find words are inadequate as the Scriptures speak about the joy. It says it is unspeakable or that it is indescribable.

Paul in describing the glorious trip that he had to heaven. He said that it was impossible, it would be a crime to try to describe the glory and the beauties that he heard while there in heaven. It would be a crime to try and describe it because language hasn’t been invented.

The modern philosophers today talk about the ultimate experience. And the difficulty of having the ultimate experience. Now were are not sure that anybody has yet had it because the difficulty is that if a person did have the ultimate experience, they wouldn’t be able to describe it because there haven’t been words that have been created that could describe or define the ultimate experience. So if you had it you really couldn’t share it. Because there isn’t language to share it. And so if you had it and you should say to a friend. Oh, oh, last night, I had the ultimate experience. And if they say, oh great, tell me about it. They’d know that you don’t know anything about it. Because if you knew anything about it, you knew you couldn’t describe it. Julian Huxley, who has had such a tremendous influence on our present educational system thought that the ultimate experience was perhaps dying under or while hallucinating on LSD. He influenced a lot of people. In fact they were having so many of the university students in Europe committing sucicide, thinking that maybe this was the ultimate experience, death being the ultimate experience. Can you imagine that? That they had to start telling the classes, we’re not certain that death is the ultimate experience. In other words, don’t try to find the ultimate experience in sucicide or death because we’re not certain that that is it. Oh, poor world. As we get down a little bit Paul is going to tell us about it. Professing himself to be wise, he became a fool because they began to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.

4And declared to be (In the Scriptures) the Son of God with power, The son of David according to the Scriptures but also declared to be the Son of God with power. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. The child was to be of the seed of David, but He was also to be the Son of God given to us. A child is born, a Son is given. The Psalm two speaks about the Son of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, we are told in John.

So declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: The greatest proof that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah is the resurrection from the dead! In the gospel of John, as he closes his gospel, he said, and many other signs Jesus did, which I did not record. But these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you might have life in His name. Now as John gave to us the sign of Jesus, the works, the miracles that prove that He was supernatural, the Son of God, the final sign would be His resurrection from the dead. When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, He said there will no sign be given to this wicked and adulterous generation except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The only sign Jesus was going to give to them was His resurrection. And so Paul said, by His resurrection from the dead He was declared to be the Son of God.

5By whom (That is by Jesus.) we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: So Paul experienced the grace of God. He talked of himself as the chief of sinners and yet as such he experienced the grace of God. You, too, can experience the grace of God. God’s blessings, God’s unmerited favor and this theme of God’s grace. We are gong to discover it throughout the whole book of Romans. And I pray that as we come through the book of Romans, that you will come to a fuller, richer understanding of God’s grace than you ever have before.

You see, so much of our training is that of reward for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior. So if you want to receive special favors you are especially good. I mean that is just the way it is. If you don’t want any dessert, just be bad and you will be deprived of dessert. You have to go to bed right after dinner, but you don’t get dessert because you have been bad today. So it’s the reward system. The reward for being good and the punishment for being bad. And it so clouds our attitude mentally that we carry this over to God. And there are so many times where we feel, well I’ve been so horrible. I’ve been so miserable. I’ve just been out of sorts and surely God won’t bless me today because I’ve been so miserable. And God doesn’t bless you. And you say, see, I knew it! I knew God wouldn’t bless me. I’ve been so horrible. Well, no, that isn’t why God didn’t bless you. The reason why God didn’t bless you is that you didn’t believe and trust Him to bless you. If you believe and trust God to bless you, He will! If you believe that He won’t, He won’t. You don’t have faith for the blessings. You know that I have discovered this interesting thing about grace. That I have learned to expect to be blessed by God though I realize that I don’t deserve it. You know what? The blessings have never stopped because I’m trusting God to bless me because I know that God loves me and wants to bless me! God wants to bless you. God wants to just lavish His love upon you.

Jesus said if you being earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to your children. Now I take my grandkids into Toys R Us and I turn them loose and we go up to the check stand and check out the toys that they have chosen. And I love it! I love it! It’s just, I don’t know, it just does something for me to see their smiles and to see their reactions and their responses. Before they can hardly talk, when grandpa is coming down, it’s Chuck E Cheese or Toys R Us, you know. I mean it’s just a routine. And it’s a joy! Just a joy. And so with God! And if you, being an earthly father. I’m just an earthly father. I’m not even a good example, but God loves you and just wants to bless you! And the lack of blessings is not because of the lack of devotion, it’s because of the lack of faith. The lack of devotion often creates the lack of faith. And if you believe something to be true, and in a sense, if I believe that, you know, as long as I’m doing this, God isn’t going to bless me. As long as I’m doing that, I’m not going to expect God to bless me. He doesn’t. I mean, the blessings are received by faith in God’s grace. We are going to get into that quite a bit as we go through Romans. So that you will discover the key to being blessed by God. When I discovered this several years ago while going through Romans, I discovered the grace of God. And the fact that God will bless me because of His love for me, not because I deserve it. Not because I’m worthy. But even when I’m totally undeserving and unworthy, He even often times chooses that to show His grace. Just to say I still love you, Chuck, in spite of the fact that you’ve really messed it up. I still love you. It’s just sort of an assurance of saying, I still love you. And what a joy it is to be blessed of God. And not on a reward of my goodness but just as a sign of His tremendous love for me. So we’ve received grace and apostleship for the obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. The Lord had sent Paul out to all the nations. Apostleship means to be sent out. Sent out by God to all of the nations for the name of Christ.

6Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: I’ve been called to be an apostle. You also, have been called by Jesus Christ.

And so his address of the letter is 7To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, You know, you love everybody, but your family is beloved. They are close. There is a special kind of a love for those who are in the family. And being in the family of God, you’ve got a special relationship. For God so loved the world, but you are beloved of God. You are special. Very special. You’re of the family of God; and thus in that intimate circle of beloved of God and called to be saints: It’s rather tragic that the Catholic church has set up a long list of qualifications in order to be sainted by the church. You’ve got to live sort of an exemplary life. You have to do many wonderful deeds. Then after you die you have to answer the prayers of the people so that they can give testimony that they have prayed to you and their loved one was healed or some miracles were done as they prayed to you. And if they get enough witnesses and testimonies to say, well, we prayed to Saint Charles and he, you know, did this for us and did that for us and all, then they will have their meeting and their counsel. They will consider you. And then they will acclaim that you were a saint. And you will get the official title of saint. The Lord doesn’t put you through all that rigamarow. The Lord just calls you a saint. That’s neat. I like the ring. It sounds great! Saint Charles, I mean, doesn’t that have a ring to it? I mean it sounds good.

You know I like it that John referred to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. Nobody else said that about him. Mark, Matthew, Luke, they don’t say John was the disciple that Jesus loved. Only John says that. He calls himself the disciple that Jesus loved. Well, you are the one who He has made a saint. You’ve been called to be a saint. And that’s just by His grace. Again, it isn’t that I’m deserving that title, but that’s something that He has given.

No wonder he follows that by saying, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice this is so typical. Paul begins all of his letters with this grace and peace. It is always in that order. You never read peace and grace be unto you. And the reason being is that you cannot know the peace of God until you know the grace of God. It is not until you know the grace of God that you can enter into the rest that God has for His people or that peace. As long as you are trying to be good enough to be accepted by God, you’ll always be struggling. You’ll never be at peace. It is only unto you come to the place where you understand it is God’s work and God’s love for you that has put you in the family of God. As undeserving and unworthy as we are, but God’s grace towards me and the finished work of Jesus Christ, my righteousness is imputed to me by my faith in Jesus. And there I rest and because of that I have now peace. But I didn’t have real peace until I knew and discovered the grace of God. And then it follows that, I’m resting. Not in my works but in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8First, (He said) I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Now it is interesting that we don’t know anything of the origin of the church in the city of Rome. But it shows us how the gospel had spread. In fact in the first thirty years of the early church, the gospel was taken into all the world. When Paul wrote to the Colossians, just a couple of years later, he said and the word of the gospel as it has come to you as it is in all the world.

In the last chapter of Acts, we find that when Paul finally arrived at the Roman port of Puteoli, when the saints in Rome heard of Paul’s arrival, they came on out to the Appiian Way to meet Paul, all the way to Appii to meet Paul there and some as far as the Three Taverns. They came over to meet him. There was a strong body of believers there in Rome. And their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world. People were talking about the wonderful church in Rome. It’s exciting that God is working in so many places today! We could very well write to many of the pastors and say, you know we thank God for your faith and how that, you know, your church is being blessed and people all over the world are hearing of what God is doing there in San Diego or there in Albuquerque or Ft. Lauderdale or Spokane or Seattle or all around where God is working in such a glorious way.

9For God (He said) is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, (The good news of Jesus!) that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; (Interesting, that as Paul speaks about his prayer life, he declares that God is his witness. Jesus said, when you pray, go into the closet and shut the door and pray to your Father, which sees in secret. And your Father which sees in secret will shall reward you openly. Paul could not call others to bear witness, though they were his companions. He didn’t say that Timothy will bear witness that I’m always praying for you. Or Luke will bear witness of my prayer for you. Or Aristarchus will bear witness of the prayers that I’ve prayed. No, he says, God is my witness, that without ceasing, I’m mentioning you always in my prayers. This man Paul is an Apostle, a servant of Jesus Christ, and really an example. He was able to say, be ye followers of me even as I also am of Jesus Christ. The prayer life of Paul. God bears witness.

10Making request, (His prayer was, that) if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. My desire, my prayer. I want to come. I want to visit you. I’m praying that that will be the will of God. Now Paul was desiring to go to many different places, and God stopped him. They has tried to go to Bithynia but the Spirit hindered them. Now Paul is praying that it will be God’s will, after all this time, I’d like to come and visit you in Rome. Not that I might see the sights of Rome. Not that I might walk through the Forum and you know, see all of the wonderful sights there in Rome. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end (the end result) ye may be established(to be more established in you faith. Not to come as a tourist or a sightseer or to satisfy a curiosity of just seeing Rome, the lights of Rome and all. But my desire is to impart to you some spiritual gift. The end result is your being established.); 12That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. That just by our sharing together, I will be edified, you will be edified. That should be the experience. Whenever we gather with the body of Christ, there should be a mutual edifying, blessing. Oh, how good to see you! Oh, what a blessing it is to be able to spend this time with you. And as we share with one another what God is doing in our lives, it is always just a blessing, an edifying experience. And that’s what Paul is desiring. That I might come and share with you what God has been doing in my life. I want to hear what God is doing in your life. That we might just have mutual benefit by our visiting together.

Now he says, I want you to know. 13Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto, Up to now I have been hindered.) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I want to see God’s work in your life. Now the Bible speaks about fruit abounding to our account. The fruit of the ministry. People’s lives being blessed. People’s lives being edified through the ministry. That’s the fruit of the ministry. The blessings that come to others. So Paul desires that he might bear fruit in Rome there also. He might be able to bring others to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

14I am debtor (he said) both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. I want to come and preach the gospel! 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. So Paul’s expression of his desire to preach the gospel in Rome, the capital of the world. He had that opportunity. It didn’t come just as he was expecting or hoping. He came to Rome as a prisoner of the Roman government because of his appeal to Caesar. But God blessed his time in Rome as we studied in the last chapter of Acts. Many were converted. Paul wrote later to the Corinthians, telling them of the conversion of many, even those of Caesar’s household. And so a great ministry there in Rome. Fruit as he desired.

So in the gospel of Christ, 17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. The righteousness of God through faith. It’s revealed in faith. There is that righteousness that is of works. That is doing the right things. And there are many people who practice hard at doing the right thing.

The Pharisees, look how hard they struggled to do the right thing. Jesus spoke of the Pharisees of straining at a gnat. It was unlawful to eat anything that had blood. All of the meat that they butchered had to be thoroughly bled to be kosher. To be eaten. So if they were jogging down the street and a gnat would go down their throat they would gag themselves straining at a gnat, trying to regurgitate the thing so they wouldn’t swallow it and thus violate the law of having blood. They tried hard to be righteous. But the righteousness was self righteousness. And God said our self righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God. All of that tremendous endeavor of the Pharisees was, Jesus said, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you are not going to enter the kingdom of heaven.

So the righteousness of God is the other righteousness versus the self righteousness which is my work. It is the righteousness which is through faith in Jesus Christ where God imputes to me the righteousness of Christ. Now when Jesus said to His disciples, except your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, I’m certain that their mouths dropped open and they said, no way. I mean these guys practice being righteous. And Jesus said, that isn’t sufficient. You’ve got to exceed, but Jesus was talking about not righteousness that comes by our works but righteousness that comes by our faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness that God accounts or imputes to me. And as we go in Romans, this will be one of the subjects that Paul takes up in great detail. That righteousness which is of Christ through faith. Now the righteousness of God is revealed. As we get into verse eighteen, the wrath of God is revealed. So the revelation of the righteousness of God. That is which is imparted to me that the just shall live by faith, by my faith in Jesus Christ. God accounts my faith for righteousness.

But on the other side of the coin, the wrath of God shall be revealed. Now not a popular subject. People don’t like to hear about this. The moment you mention the wrath of God then they give you some kind of a classification of hell fire, brimstone preacher. And they don’t want to hear of the wrath of God. There is all of this flowery talk of the love of God and you know, God is love and love is God. This whole bit. And they don’t want to know. They don’t want to hear that God’s wrath is going to be revealed. And yet if we do not teach that God’s wrath is going to come against all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness, we are not being honest with the people. We are not declaring the full gospel. There is that other side. Yes, God is love. Yes, God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. But the other side of the coin is: 18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; You cannot sin without paying the consequences for your sin. Either your sins will be forgiven by the grace of God through Jesus Christ or you will be punished forever for your sins. The Bible speaks of the judgment of God that is going to come upon this earth as God will judge the earth for their wickedness and their sin. And I do believe that that day of God’s judgment is not far off. I believe the conditions of the world are getting to that place where God must judge the world. Now we do know historically that God has judged the world with a flood. We know historically that God has judged certain cities. When the wickedness gets so bad then God just says that’s it. And He wipes out that generation. As He did in the days of Noah. When the hearts of men were only evil continually. He did that in the case of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where their sins became so blatant that God wiped them out. So the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. It’s not that they don’t know God. But they hold the truth of God in unrighteousness.

And so Paul tells us and he gives now the indictment. This is the cause. This is the reason. 19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. No man has an excuse for not believing in God for God has revealed Himself unto man by His creation. And it is God’s intent that man in observing God’s creation, comes to the acknowledgment and the knowledge of the existence of God. You cannot have design without a designer or a machine without a mechanic or an engineer who designed it. And so here we are. The wrath of God has been revealed because when they knew that God existed. That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God had showed it unto them. The Bible tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God. You go out and look up into the heavens. You see the moon, the stars, the planets, the galaxies. They declare to you of the Creator. And even scientists today are forced to admit the day of creation. They call it the big bang. But when it all started, we say that there was a Creator. God was the first cause, not the big bang the first cause.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth shows His handiwork. The life forms show design. Oh, what fabulous design. You look at the plants, the flowers, the insects, the animals, and man. You have to marvel at the design. We are in a day in which men are, you know, making everything very small. Trying to make miniature kind of chips and so forth. Everything is smaller and smaller, doing more work. Can you imagine how large an ant brain must be? Yet the wisdom that the little ant has. He knows that winter is coming. He can’t swim so he lays up store in the summer. You’ve probably met some of them lately in your kitchen. They are gathering up for winter when they can’t get out. Now what tells that little ant where the food is? And how does he tell his friends? How does he communicate? I’ve found something, you know. And then to watch four of five of them working together to get one crumb off the table you know. Amazing! And yet their brains can’t be that big. Solomon, that wise man said, go the ant, you sluggard. Learn of his ways and be wise. There are four things on earth that are small but are exceedingly wise. He talks about the ants laying up their food in the summer. Design, marvelous design! They tell you of the wisdom of God. The heavens, the awesomeness of the universe tells you of the glory of God! And day unto day they are talking to you. And night unto night they are speaking. And it’s a universal language. That is why in every culture, even the most primitive, there is the awareness and the consciousness of God and the worship of God. Many times it’s false. They have been lead astray, but yet the basic idea and concept of the existence of a Creator, a higher power, is there. Why? Because it is revealed throughout His creation.

But, 21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Now we have the downward plunge of man. Yes, God exists. It’s obvious in creation. The design testifies of the Creator. But yet men do not glorify Him as God. We are exalting man. We are in the age of humanism. Where man is exalted. Actually I guess we are getting to the place of animalism and treeism because they are beginning to exalt the animals and the trees above man. But the worship of the creation rather than the Creator. First of all they knew God but they wouldn’t glorify Him as God.

How do these things come about? You have to get really imaginative. How did you get your eyes? Well, zillions of years ago when you were just a worm, the sun began to give you ultraviolet radiation that caused a mutation of your cells that created a freckle. Unfortunately the freckle wasn’t on the tail end. And gradually through a process of many mutations, that freckle turned into an eye. In a socket. That could move. And you could see around. So you became a salamander. And as you were trying to make your way over the rocks, the coral, fresh out of that hot ocean, your poor little bottom side got scratched. Scabbed over. It became callused. And it continued to grow and develop until it became legs. And then you could walk. You see, as I said when you try and put God out of the equation, it takes an awful lot of imagination. They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Why do we laugh at this? Because it’s foolish when you really stop to think of it. To think that your body could have developed through billions of years of fortudious occurrences of accidental circumstances is ridiculous. But he is on the downhill plunge.

Next, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, The worship of man. And today we see that don’t we? Young people by the thousands worshipping man. Gathering at the concerts worshipping. Worshipping the creature, man. Making their gods like unto corruptible man and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Save the kangaroo rat. And it’s amazing how many people will rally for these causes. But just take a good look at them. But really the tragic thing is that the government listens to them. They all look pretty much the same. Cut out of the same cloth.

Now because of this, changing the glory of an uncorruptible God into the image of a man or beast or birds or whatever. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, God gave them over to the lusts to following and doing the lusts of their own hearts. to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: (A further step down.) 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. I would like to suggest that the worship of the creature is irrational. To take a rose. To look at its beautiful design. To see the glorious color. To hold it to your nose and take a deep breath. And smell that marvelous fragrance. Then to hold it out and admire it and to say “That’s God”. That’s ridiculous. That’s not God. That’s a creation of God. And it’s irrational to behold the beauty of the rose and to worship the rose! The rational thing is to worship the One who was able to create such a beautiful flower. To put in it such a pleasant fragrance. Worshipping the Creator rather than the creature. But man has got things all mixed up today. And we are worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. And we are ascribing to the creature all types of miraculous powers of developing organs and so forth in order to meet the various recognized needs that I might have. So we’re going downhill! Changing the truth of God to a lie. Oh how that is being done today. Because they did not want to retain the truth of God. They changed it into a lie.

26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: (Or lesbianism.) 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (Which was fitting for what they had been doing. It is interesting to me that Satan will bring man to the lowest level of filth.

Take the worship of these men in India, who have declared that they have had an experience of becoming gods, the avatar. They’ve gone through this transformation. And they have gone through the next level of evolutionary development. And they have entered into the god state. The Sibabbas and the others that brilliant professors go over to learn and to sit and to worship these men. Now these men who have elevated themselves to this god level. The Sibabbas and these others. To show you the level to which Satan brings a man’s mind when he has taken over and has control. It is considered by these people that go over to worship the Sibabbas and so forth, a tremendous honor to drink his urine or to eat his defecation. Because they feel that god, Sibabba is entering them. Look at what Satan is reducing people to!

Some of the practices in homosexuality are much the same. The scatting and so forth in homosexuality is the same thing. Satan will bring you to the lowest filthiest level! So here are men who refuse God. They don’t want retain God in their minds. They won’t acknowledge the truth of God. And so you are on a down hill skid to the lowest levels of depravity and filth. It isn’t just a, well you know, I just don’t want to believe in God and all. Hey, that is just the beginning. You are on the way down. And you are going to end up at the bottom! For this cause God gave them over to their vile affections. Now it is interesting to me, he says the wrath of God is going to be revealed from heaven. And it’s when man gets to this level that the wrath of God is revealed. The wrath of God was revealed against Sodom and Gomorrah when? When it came to the place where the homosexuals were actively operating in streets brazenly. Parading their gay pride. That’s when God said, “It’s enough”. And He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And I believe that the activity of the homosexual community, the gay pride parades and things of this nature, are only an indication of that we are at the place where the wrath of God will soon again be revealed from heaven. The judgment of God against the unrighteousness of men.

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, (I don’t want to know about God.) God gave them over to a reprobate mind, (Void of God and the understanding of God.) to do those things which are not convenient (decent); 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, (and now the activities), fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. There are things that you abhor. That you would never think of doing. And yet it is interesting how that in television and movies, people take pleasure in those that do them. We watch these horrible things. People being blown away and you know, the tough guy. Heads rolling and things like that. There is some kind of a reason why people watch that stuff. They take pleasure in seeing fornication or adultery or stuff like that portrayed in movies. So not only do they do them but they take pleasure. Those who take pleasure in those things are guilty. The Bible says, don’t be deceived. God is not mocked. What so ever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And if you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you are going to reap corruption. If you are sowing this stuff into your mind. Taking pleasure and sowing this junk into your mind to the flesh, then you are going to reap corruption. People just don’t go out and do these things. They are things that are planted in their minds.

Bundy confessed to James Dobson of being hooked on pornography. How that pornography finally didn’t satisfy. He had to actually go out and experience. And thus that chain of murders. You are sowing that in your mind. You are planting seeds of corruption. Oh, that God would help us to keep ourselves pure. Our minds pure! Our hearts pure! That we would sow to the Spirit. And that’s why you are here tonight. You are sowing to the Spirit tonight. The Word of God is Spirit and it is Life. And this will transform you. This will change you. This will elevate you. It’ll lift you out of the pit and this world and its corruption. And it will put you on another level, a higher level. A pure level. A holy level. That’s why it’s so important that we guard what goes into our mind. And that we plant to the Spirit, that we study the Word and we stay in the Word, because we are living in a corrupt world and it is trying to infect you with its corruption and evil. You’ve got to stand.

Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. We’ve got to make that purpose in our heart. I’m not going to defile my mind. I’m not going to defile my body. I’m going to stay pure for God’s sake. I’m going to seek after God. And as you do, you’re lifted higher and higher.

You turn away from God. You don’t want God in your mind. You take that path. You begin to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. You’ll end up at the bottom of filth. You are moving in one direction or the other. Upward or downward. And you determine the direction by your own desires. I want to seek God. I want to be conformed into His image. I want to be pure and holy as He is pure and holy. Moving up. I don’t want to keep God in my mind. I want to do my own thing. I want to follow my own desire. You’re moving down. And Satan will take you to the bottom. You’ll find yourself doing things that you never dreamed that you would ever do or were capable of doing. You find yourself in that pit.

Now Paul here in chapter one is showing that without God, we’re all of us are lost. The whole world is guilty. As we move into the next chapter he will confirm that. There is none righteous, no not one. And so as we move into chapter two he’ll show us that we are all guilty thus we all need salvation that God has offered to man. We will understand now even more the grace of God. It’s extended to man at the bottom of the pit. That man who has gone all the way down to the depths is not beyond the love of God or the reach of God or the grace of God. For God’s grace reaches to the lowest hell to bring a man out of the pit who is ready to be destroyed. Oh how marvelous is the grace of God that He has offered to you and to me!

Father, we thank You for Your Word. It is Spirit. It is Life. And Lord, we see the world around us. And we see the very things that Paul is describing here and men who did not want to retain God in their minds. And so were given over by God to reprobate minds. To do these filthy things. To live lives like animals. Lord, we want to live like You. We want the higher plane, Lord. We want to be conformed into the image of Jesus. Purify our minds and our hearts. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

A fellow wrote to Ann Landers and said: Dear Ann, please help me I am confused. I’m having an affair with two different women at the same time. And I want to get married but I don’t know which one to marry. Please advise me but don’t give me any of that morality stuff. She wrote back, dear two timer, you say that you don’t want any of that morality stuff, but that’s the only thing that separates man from the animal kingdom. Therefore I advise you to write to a veterinarian for advice.

There are two planes upon which to live. The Spiritual plane or the fleshly plane. After God or after the animals. Now no wonder man looks to the animals to find his roots. He is living like an animal. And thus he looks to the animal kingdom for his roots. But your roots are not in the animal kingdom. You are not a highly evolved animal. We have fallen from the image of God. The roots are upward. Man was made in the image of God. He’s fallen from that image. If you want to find your roots, find God. And you’ll find life and what life is all about. The life that God intended. Life on the highest plane. As we go through Romans, I pray that God will bring each of us into life in the highest plane. That life in Christ. That life in the Spirit.

May the Lord be with you and bless you. May He fill you with His Spirit. May He guide you with His counsel. And may we each one be drawn closer to Jesus Christ with each day.

Follow Me

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24)

We can take God’s presence for granted. We can assume that because Jesus said He would be with us always, He will follow us wherever we go (Matt. 28:20). Jesus does not follow us; we are to follow Him. You do not invite God to join you in your activity. He invites you to become involved in His activity. Jesus said: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). Following Jesus requires absolute obedience. He does not seek our counsel about which direction we think is suitable. God already knows what is best without ever having to consult with us.

Following Jesus will lead you into experiences you never dreamed of! You will be with Jesus as He weeps over those trapped in sin. You will feel the pain that Jesus feels. You will see those who were spiritually blind experience the joy of coming to see God for the first time. You will see lives that were broken, made whole. You will see marriages restored; those in , released; and those who mourn, comforted. At times it will be easy to follow Jesus. At other times, you will be tempted to abandon Him. Following Jesus can mean going through a storm or standing on a mountaintop.

You may have stopped following Jesus, but now you want to follow again. When you stopped following Jesus, you did so on your terms. But thereturning to Jesus is strictly under His conditions. He is God, and you are not. Are you willing to follow Jesus anywhere, at any time, under any condition? That is the only way you can follow Him.

The final sign to those who are living in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ, will be a marked increase in violence and evil over the face of the earth. Jesus said that these final days would parallel the last days of Noah, when God destroyed all living things during the great global flood.

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

For one hundred years Noah warned of God’s impending judgment.  People went about their normal daily lives, unconcerned and unafraid of God’s promise of destruction on all those who would not repent.  In a single day, Judgement fell upon those who ignored God’s Word and they all perished. So also, Jesus said,  will it be in the last days,  that men will be going about their normal lives of sin and ignoring God, until the day that the Rapture occurs. Then will begin a final period of time the likes of which the world has never seen, “The Great Tribulation.” During the final three and one-half years of the Great Tribulation, close to two-thirds of the population of earth will perish under twenty-one judgments of God.

At the Rapture, the disappearance of millions of Christians from the face of the earth, will shock and horrify the remaining population, when news of their disappearance is announced. One of the possible explanations for the vanishing of so many, will be that these individuals who have disappeared, were abducted by alien beings. News agencies will report that the vanished were removed from the earth in order to be reprogramed in their thinking from those who believe that the Bible is true and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, to a more moderate, less extreme fundamentalist world view.

The Bible describes the timing of this event as being the beginning of a period of seven years of Tribulation. Daniel chapter 11, and 2 Thessalonians  chapter 2, indicate that a new world ruler will appear on the scene that will bring peace and calm to a world shattered by news of the disappearance of so many.

According to New Age philosophy, this world leader will also appear on the earth during the last days. He is referred to as the “Maitreya”, who will announce himself as the “Christ”.

The Bible describes this coming leader who is hailed as the “savior”, as being a “false Christ”, or  ”antichrist”.

During the last seven years of the current age, the Bible describes this false Christ as drawing most of the world into the worship of him as their God.

According to the authors of New Age doctrine, those who have disappeared during the Rapture, will be those who would have rebelled against this new Christ. New Age leader Ruth Montgomery, describes their New Age belief that the Messiah cannot appear on the earth until these troublesome ones have been removed, so that the earth is prepared for his coming. Those who are removed will be sent to another planet where they will be reprogrammed in their thinking. apparently this answer will satisfy most of the world population and they will hail this new leaders as the answer to all of man’s problems.

It will be the rise and pinnacle of the New Age movement that will eventually lead to the removal of the true church and the beginning of the seven year tribulation. The world view of New Age philosophy is that the planet is being prepared for a coming Christ and the uniting of the whole world under one government, one financial system, and one religious system, headed by one man.

It is interesting that the entire scope of New Age philosophy closely resembles the prophetic predictions of the Bible, which describe a coming world ruler who will be proclaimed as “The Christ”, or “The Messiah”.

Daniel 11:36-39 “Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Revelation 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.

The main point of New Age Religion is that man is his own God. He has no need of any outside Deity to guide and direct his life, or to save him from his sin. In New Age thought, Man is God, and sin does not exist.

In New Age Doctrine, there is no absolute truth. All experiences in life are relative to the situation the particular person finds their self in. Every situation in life is interpreted by the person who is experiencing it, and it is wrong to judge the motives or actions of anyone else.

In other words: you can live any way you want to, and it is no one’s business but your own…

When the term “New Age” is used, it refers to the belief that the earth is headed towards an eventuality in it’s evolutionary process, whereby it is making a transition from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age. This belief was made popular by the 1969 hit song “The Age of Aquarius”, by the Fifth Dimension.

When the age of Aquarius is fully realized, life on earth will fall into harmony and a golden age of man will emerge. As man discovers the God within, he begins to understand that he has the power to create his own world. The Age of Aquarius will awaken this knowledge in all men and the God potential within all human beings.

According to the Age of Aquarius experts, each astrological age results from the slow movement of the earth in it’s rotation around the Sun, that takes 25,800 years to complete. Each of the twelve constellations that the earth will move through, takes approximately 2,150 years to complete, before it enters the next constellation. In Astrology the signs of the zodiac are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. In the twelve astrological ages of earth that require earth to pass through each Constellation during it’s 25,800 year cycle, the movement is the opposite, or in “retrograde”: Beginning with Pisces, moving into Aquarius, Capricorn, Sagittarius, and so forth.

The earth is due to finish its travel through the Pisces Constellation, and begin it’s journey into the Aquarian Constellation, on December 21, 2012 of this year. This corresponds to the Mayan belief that the end of the world will occur this year at the same time in December 2012.

In New Age Religion, God is an impersonal life force, a power that is within all human beings. Man is himself his own God, and has an unlimited potential for power and creation. Human beings in effect, create their own reality, and all truth is based on what you perceive truth to be.

In New Age Religion, the person of Jesus Christ as described in the Bible is a completely different individual: Jesus is said to not be God, nor is He the only Christ, but one of many Christ’s. Remember the word of Jesus when He spoke of the last days, just prior to His return to earth:

Matthew 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

According to the Authors of the New Age Movement, Jesus Christ is a normal man who evolved spiritually into the “Christ Being”.  (A Course in Miracles, Vol. 3, pp. 83-4).

New Age Religion teaches that all human beings have the same potential to achieve this “Christ Being” themselves.

Sounds eerily familiar to satan’s promise to Eve, that if she would eat of the fruit that God forbid, she would be “Like God”.

Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things and has always existed. He became human with the fulness of God dwelling inside Himself, at Bethlehem. Before Jesus took the Body of a man and came to earth, He was the Eternal God to whom all creation owes it beginning and existence.

Colossians 1:16-17 For by Jesus all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Some of the more recent preachers of the New Age have reinvented the historical Jesus by claiming that He traveled to India and learned the New Age doctrines there during His “silent years” (Shirley MacLaine, Out on a Limb, pp. 233-34).

The salvation of man in New Age religion will occur when man has become enlightened through experiential knowledge of “Gnosis”. To receive spiritual instruction, man must use “spirit guides”, otherwise known as shaman’s, witch doctors, or mediums in other spiritual circles.

New Age groups use age old Occultic techniques to allow an individual to evolve into the oneness (Unitive) of consciousness that they are seeking to achieve.  (James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy: An Experimental Guide, pp. 243-60).

Some of these Occult techniques practiced in New Age religion include: Altered States of Consciousness or commonly called Transcendental Mediation, Yoga, the usage of Chrystal’s, Channeling,  the use of Spirit Guides, the use of Psychics, past life therapy, hypnosis and acupuncture are also used.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the New Age movement in regards to the fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy, is that all of the behaviors and devices used in the New Age Religion, are described in detail throughout the Bible. The ultimate goal of the New Age to bring the world into a single government, monetary system, and religion, are also the intended goals of the coming antichrist spoken of in great detail in both the old and new testaments of the Bible.

On Jan 30, 1976 a document was signed by 32 senators and 92 representatives called the “Declaration of Interdependence. As the United States sought to unite as one nation, all of the separate states, so also is the goal of the New Age movement, to unite to world into one government and people.

It is clear that the prophecies of the Bible that speak of the rise of a world ruler who will unite the world under his leadership, are intended for the New Age movement. Bible prophecy being history written in advance, it is certain today that God was warning the world that when the rise of this movement has begun, the time of the end is near.

Although the New Age movement believes that it’s goals for a one world united, are an original idea put forth by it’s organization, the fact is that all of the aspects of the New Age can be traced back to Babylon where man sought to become united as one world, apart from God. The origin of all these thoughts is Lucifer who desires to be worshipped as God and rule over the earth.

Isaiah 14:13-14  For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

It is for certain that the timing of Jesus return to remove His church at the Rapture, is closely tied to the rise in Occultic activity and man’s desire to worship a creature rather than the Creator who is Blessed forever. As the flood of Noah was tied to the rise in Occultic activity by fallen angels who took human woman and procreated the giants spoken of by the Bible and other secular literature, so also will the final judgment of the seven year Tribulation, be tied to satan’s increased evil in the world, working through organizations such as the New Age Movement.

Genesis 6:1-4 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Make no mistake, the New Age and historical Christianity are not compatible. All other religions of the world such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Occultism. are easily integrated into the New Age agenda. Only Christianity, because of it’s central theme of man being a sinner who is alienated from God and in need of redemption by Jesus Christ, is a clear contradiction to the New Age Philosophy.

The New Age movement is comprised of as many as 30,000 smaller groups, scattered throughout the world. The leaders of this movement are in the workplace, our school systems, government offices, hospitals, science organizations and even the Christian church.

One of the most effective uses of New Age thought is being taught to our children today in the public school system, seeking to indoctrinate young minds into New Age thought, as early in life as possible.

In Marilyn Ferguson’s book The Aquarian Conspiracy she writes: “A leaderless but powerful network is working to bring about radical change in the United States. Its members have broken with certain key elements of Western thought…. This network is the Aquarian Conspiracy…. Broader than reform, deeper than revolution, this benign conspiracy for a new human agenda has triggered the most rapid cultural realignment in history….

The Aquarian Conspirators range across all levels of income and education, from the humblest to the highest” she calls them legions of conspirators. schoolteachers – office workers, famous scientists, government officials – lawmakers-artists – taxi drivers – celebrities, leaders in medicine, education, law, psychology…. they are found in corporations, universities,  hospitals,   faculties of public schools,  factories, doctors’ offices, in state and federal agencies, city councils and the White House staff, in state legislatures, in volunteer organizations, in virtually all arenas of policy-making in the country.”

The most central and commonly shared beliefs among New Agers are various conglomerations of gnosticism and occultism. They learn spirituality by experience. Marilyn Furgueson states it this way: “The radical Center of spiritual experience seems to be knowing without doctrine … the teacher does not impart knowledge but technique. This is the ‘transmission of knowledge by direct experience.’ Doctrine on the other hand, is second-hand knowledge, a danger. Do not get entangled in any teaching.” (The Aquarian Conspiracy, Marilyn Ferguson, pages 371, 377.)

Gnosticism is an ancient world-view stating that spirit is the only true reality, and that the unconscious Self of man is actually connected to or is this essence. It is through Intuitive knowledge, “visionary experience or initiation into secret doctrine” (not the plenary revelation of prepositional truth in the Bible), that man becomes conscious of this true Self (Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 10, 1968, p. 506; New Bible Dictionary, pp. 473-4).

Occultism is a “general designation for various theories, practices, and rituals based on esoteric knowledge, especially alleged knowledge about the world of spirits and unknown forces of the universe” (Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 7. p. 469).

Many of the occult practices and beliefs revived by the New Age Movement, were a part of very early pagan cultures. These practices such as witchcraft, sorcery, spiritism (contacting spirits from the other worlds), divination, astrology (clairvoyance; seeing the future), necromancy (consulting the dead) mediums (channeling) all of these and more are clearly and strongly condemned by God in the Bible:

Deuteronomy 18:9-14“When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you.

Leviticus 19:31  “Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Isaiah 47:9-15  But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.“For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, “No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know. “Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before! Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.

Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth that the spirits that people believe they are contacting of departed loved ones, or other entities who claim knowledge of future events, are really demons.

1 Corinthians 10:20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

When a person makes use of a spiritist, medium, shaman, or channeler, they are contacting demonic spirits who lie, deceive and seek the destruction of all men.

John 10:10 (Jesus speaking) The thief (satan and the demons) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.

Some things done innocently and unknowingly by many today, are in fact ancient pagan occult acts that open up a person to contact by demons that will oppress and possess the unaware as they continue in these practices. Some of the most popular pagan practices today in the United States are:

Horoscopes, palm reading, the use of the crystal ball, water witching, the pendulum, divining rod, tarot cards, tea leave reading, numerology, palmistry, Ouiji boards and the study of animal entrails.

36% of Americans believe that astrology is scientific. 25% of Americans accept reincarnation as fact. Near-death experiences have been popularized in books and movies. Therapeutic touch, channeling, meditation, UFOS, and contact with extra terrestrials, space brothers, and ascended masters, are all a part of the “culture of  consciousness” taught by the New Age.

Psychic readings of a person’s credit card have become one of the most popular shows on American Television in recent years. Americans are fascinated and addicted to the occult, and the refusal to turn from these pagan practices are one of the many reasons that The United States has suffered such great decline in the past 50 years. As God judged Israel for her movement into the pagan practices of nations that surrounded her, so also has God begun his judgment of America for her love of the occult and the New Age Religion.

Forbes magazine reported in June of 1987 that the New Age Market revenue increased to 3.43 billion dollars in the United States. New age music produces over a hundred million dollars a year in revenue. New age jewelry sells over 5 million dollars in merchandise in the U. S. each year.  The crystals used in New Age practices are sold for as much as $10,000 each.

Many who study the Bible are stunned that the mention of America is absent from all Biblical prophecy for the last days. It is clear that the reason for this omission is that in the last days before Jesus returns, the U.S. will no longer be a great superpower, or nation of righteousness. As many nations before have been lost by the removal of God from their society, Americans today are seeing the effects of what happens to a nation who forgets the Lord. The United States came into existence by God’s supernatural power, as men and women prayed and sought the Lord for His guidance in creating a nation where the worship of God could be freely exercised by those who Love God, without intervention or hindrance of government. The United States is being lost today because this love for God is nearly gone and in it’s place is the worship of demons and the glorification of man has become the New Age Religion.

The current pagan practices of the United States and the world, will certainly bring the same results, that they did during the days of Noah. As God observed that the constant thought and intent of men was continually towards evil, he will once again bring judgment. We are approaching a time when “The end of all flesh” is at hand. A day fast approaching when God will visit the earth with judgment one final time, for man’s refusal to glorify and thank Him. Instead man has turned to the worship of demons and the widespread practice of evil and violence on the earth. It is the dawning of the News Age and all the pagan practices that have been revived in the United States and around the world, that will bring the return of Jesus to the earth. First to remove those who love Him at the Rapture, then at the end of the seven year Tribulation, to set up a final kingdom of righteousness that will never end.

Rob Robinson

Let’s turn in our Bibles now to Mark’s gospel chapter sixteen, we’ve come now to the end of the gospel of Mark. Next week we start the book of Luke.

As we get into the sixteenth chapter of Mark, it should be acknowledged that some have put a question mark or a doubt on the last portion of this chapter, beginning with verse nine to the end. The reason for the doubt or the questioning as to the accuracy or the authenticity of this portion of the chapter is because in two of the oldest manuscripts, this portion is deleted, that is, the manuscript known as the Sinaiticus and the other manuscript known as the Vaticanus.

Back in the middle of the 1800’s a man by the name of Tishan Dors was down at the Saint Catherine’s monastery in the area of the Sinai and he discovered there in the monastery this ancient vellum that was actually being used more or less for kindling, and in examining it, realized that it was an old copy of the scriptures, perhaps one of the oldest copies existing as far as the amount of the text that was there.

Upon the announcement of this discovery in the Vatican shortly afterwards, they pulled out this ancient manuscript from the Vatican which is known as the Vaticanus manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus is called the Aleph, and they found that these manuscripts were quite similar. Not completely similar, there are differences in the two manuscripts themselves.

When they were going to revise the Bible, the two men who had a great deal to do with the revision were Wescott and Hort. They were Greek scholars and they put together a Greek text, which relied heavily upon the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, these two ancient texts. It should be noted that these texts do date back in the year 420-430, somewhere in there as best they can determine.

Because in these two texts, the last portion of Mark’s gospel is deleted, they felt that it was necessary in the revised text to delete it or at least to make notations that it was not found in some of the oldest manuscripts, and you will find many notes like this in many of your modern translations. Many times it’s called the oldest manuscript and sometimes they even have the audacity to call them the best manuscripts. I say audacity because there’s a real challenge as to how good these manuscripts really are.

Let me read what some of the scholars at that time, mainly Shrivner and Dean Burgeon, had to say concerning the Codex Sinaiticus, which they put great credence upon. It said, Since the documents were first inscribed, they were made subject to no less than ten different attempts of revision and correction. That is, places that were crossed out and revisers who went through ten different revisers, went through and made changes many of them as late as the sixth to the eighth century. Dr. Shrivner published in 1864 a full collation of the Codex Sinaiticus with the explanatory introduction in which he states among the other facts of interest that the Codex is covered with such alterations, alterations that were obviously of a correctional character, brought in by at least ten different revisers, some of them systematically spread over every page, others occasional or limited to separate portions of the manuscript. Many of these being contemporaneous with the first writer, but the greater part belonging to the sixth to the seventh century.

We are sure that every intelligent reader will perceive and with little effort, the immense significance of this feature of the Sinaiticus Codex. Here is a documentation which the revisers have esteemed–and solely they’ve esteemed the Codex Sinaiticus but solely because of its antiquity–to be so pure that it should be taken as the standard whereby all other copies of the scriptures are to be tested and corrected. Such is the estimate of certain scholars of the nineteenth century, but it bears upon its face the proof that those in whose possession it have been from the very first and for some hundreds of years thereafter, esteemed it to be so impure as to require corrections in every part.

The Bible has been subject to what is called higher criticism, those who come to the Bible with a presupposition that it is like any other ancient text, and to be studied like any other ancient text, is not really the inspired word of God, and they seek to find fault and they seek to find contradictions and proofs that the Bible is not really inspired by God and inerrant. These men have been hammering at the Bible for years. From the school of higher critics comes such men as Wescott and Hort who, using the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, made their own Greek text upon which the revised version and practically every other modern version has been taken.

There are two basic families of text and that is the Alexandrian school from which the Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus have come with that family of text, and then there is of course, the received text that encompasses the majority of the text. It should be noted that the majority of the text has this latter portion of Mark in it. It is only the two manuscripts that we had mentioned earlier that do not have the last portion of Mark’s gospel. It is interesting, however, that this last portion of Mark’s gospel is quoted by many of the early church fathers who died long before Codex Sinaiticus was ever copied.

In the early years of church history, Irenaeus who lived from 140 to 202, he quotes from this last portion of Mark’s gospel. Now if you are using the Codex Sinaiticus primarily because it’s the oldest document and you say because it’s the oldest it’s probably the most correct, then you have to explain what document was Irenaeus quoting from two hundred years before this was ever written.

Hipolatus who also lived from 170 to 235 quotes from this last portion of Mark’s gospel. Certainly they were quoting from earlier manuscripts. So this idea that because of its antiquity that it has to be correct, it’s sort of blown out of the window because you have Bible teachers quoting from this last portion of Mark’s gospel.

So let me read you what Dean Burgeon said concerning the Codex Sinaiticus. He is not very high on it, to say the least. He speaks of the impurity of the Codex Sinaiticus:

In every part, it was fully recognized by those who were best acquainted with it. There are other characteristics of this old manuscript which have to be taken into consideration if a correct estimate of its evidential value is to be reached. Thus, there is internal evidence that lead to the conclusion that this was the work of a scribe who was singularly careless or incompetent or both. In this manuscript, the arrangement of the lines is peculiar, there being four columns on each page and each line containing about twelve letters, all of them capitals that are run together, [in other words, there’s no attempt to separate the words, just all of the letters run together in all capitals] and there is no attempt to end a word at the end of a line, for even words having only two letters such as en and ec are split in the middle; the last letter being carried over to the beginning of the new line [it’s really a very peculiar text, to say the least] though there was ample room for it on the preceding line. And this and other peculiarities give us the idea of the character and the competence of the scribe. [Probably done by some kindergartner.]

But more than that, Dr. Shrivner says,

This manuscript must have been derived from one in which the lines were similarly divided since the writer occasionally omits just the number of letters which would suffice to fill a line [in other words, he omitted whole lines and there were enough letters to fill that line but they were just omitted.] and that to the utter ruin of the sense. [And that is, the way they wrote it, it just doesn’t make sense at all with the omission of that line. As if his eye had just sort of wandered to the line that was immediately below. Dr. Shrivner states that] Instances where complete lines are omitted and others where the copyist pass in the middle of a line to the corresponding portion of the line below [so lift off the end and the first portion of the next line]. From this, it is evident that the work of copying was done by a scribe who was both heedless and incompetent. A careful copyist would not have made the above or other mistakes so frequently and only the most incompetent would have failed to notice upon reading over the page to correct the omissions which utterly destroyed the sense.

In other words, had he bothered to even read over what he had written, he would have realized that he messed that line and he would have inserted it to fill in so it would make sense.

Speaking of the character of the tool of these manuscripts, Dean Burgeon says,

The impurity of the text exhibited by these Codices is not a question of opinion but a fact. In the gospels alone, Codex V [that is, the Vaticanus] leaves out words or whole clauses no less than 1,491 times. It bears traces of careless transcription on every page. Codex Sinaiticus abounds with errors of the eye and the pen to an extent not indeed unparalleled but haply rather unusual in documents of first rate importance. On many occasions, ten, twenty, thirty, forty words are dropped through very carelessness. Letters and words even whole sentences are frequently written twice over or began and immediately cancelled while that gross blunder whereby a clause is omitted because it happens to end with the same words as the clause preceding occurs no less than a hundred and fifteen times in the New Testament.

The Codex Vaticanus differs from the received text in the following particulars. It omits at least 2,877 words. It adds 536 words. It substitutes 935 words and it transposes 2,098 words and it modifies 1,132; making a total of 7,578 verbal divergences. But the Sinaitic is even worse. Its total divergences are over 9,000.

So when you read some of the most ancient manuscripts as they have in many of the Bibles and those that skip the last part of Mark or those that put it in so often put, This portion is omitted in some of the most ancient manuscripts. Those manuscripts are two, the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus of which we’ve just read to you how sloppily they were done.

So that to omit it, it doesn’t really finish the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen to the last verse of, that is, eight, before they get to this, which was omitted in these two manuscripts. “And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher for they were troubled and were amazed, neither said they anything to any man for they were afraid.” Isn’t that a great place to leave a story? Running away afraid, afraid to talk about it, end of story. And we don’t even have the proofs of the resurrection yet. We don’t have Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene and all, it cuts it off right there. Obviously no place to cut off the story.

So don’t be deceived into thinking that when someone says some of the finest manuscripts that we have, Codex Sinaiticus, one of the lousiest manuscripts we have. And to put a lot of credence on it is just sheer ignorance or deliberate deception. It is a poor, poor manuscript. And thus, to put so much credence in it as was done was Wescott and Hort, you have to look for other motives. I do not buy into the New Age theory that it was a part of the New Age plot. I think that the value of that book, New Age versions, is not in trying to discover conspiracy of New Agers to change the Bible; but I think the value of that book is the comparison of text side by side so that you can see the changes that have been made in the modern translations versus the King James.

It should be noted that the King James version was a translation of the received text or the Textus Receptus as was of course, Martin Luther’s translation, Wycliffe’s and all of these translations come from the received text; that is, what is also known as the Majority of Text. You see, where this is deleted in two manuscripts, it is included in over a thousand manuscripts. So you have a vote of a thousand to two. But for some reason they put greater credence on the two than the other thousand that have come over to us from a variety of sources, all agreeing together in coming out at the end in agreement against these two of which, as we pointed out, in one over 7,000 changes and the other over 9,000 changes. So with that, let’s take a look at what Mark has to say.

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene (16:1),

One more thing, this fellow Dean Burgeon, tremendous scholar, has written a book called The Last Twelve Verses of Mark, extremely scholarly book in which his final conclusion is that it is genuine, it does belong there, is a part of the original text by an overwhelming amount of evidence. And he’s written this book on the subject, more thorough and complete than any other book that’s ever been written on the subject of the last twelve verses of Mark.

So “when the sabbath was past,” this was the Saturday sabbath. There seems to be an indication in the scriptures that we had two sabbaths running concurrently. There was, of course, the feast of the unleavened bread, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread was a sabbath day, according to the law. And thus, it would seem that there were two concurrent sabbaths, one on Friday, one on Saturday. This is the Saturday sabbath when it was over. “Mary Magdalene,

Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him (16:1).

In the previous chapter, we find that these are the women who were standing afar off watching the crucifixion of Jesus, verse forty, and they are the women who also followed Joseph when he took the body of Jesus and watched him as he put it in the tomb and the stone was rolled over the door of the sepulcher. So now they are coming early in the morning, the sabbath day, bringing sweet spices that they might come and anoint Jesus.

Very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun (16:2).

Mary Magdalene, evidently they left to come but she no doubt hurried ahead of the other women. She arrived at the tomb while it was still dark. She saw that the stone was rolled away, did not go in to find out anything, seeing the stone that was rolled away, made the assumption that they had moved the body of Jesus. And so she ran to tell Peter and John that Jesus’ body had been moved by somebody. And of course, Peter and John then came running to the sepulcher. In the meantime, these other women arrived and Mark will tell us what happened to them when they arrived, how that they saw the angel sitting there at the place where they had laid Jesus. But they then rushed back to tell the disciples what the angel had told them. Peter and John then arrived, John outrunning Peter, but Peter rushing into the tomb, John waiting outside and their discovery of the wrappings that were around Jesus, lying there, the fold’s still there but the body gone. And John immediately recognized the significance of it, that Jesus was risen indeed.

They leave and Mary who had told them comes back now and it is while she is there weeping, sobbing, that the angel said, Why are you weeping? And she said, Because they have taken away my Lord, I don’t know where they put Him. And she turned away and Jesus was standing there. She thought He was the gardener, and He said, Woman, why weepest thou? And she said the same thing, they’ve taken away my Lord. So that’s sort of the way the events took place, the gospels put them together when you collate the whole thing, this is the way the story comes out. And then Mary saw Jesus, grabbed hold of Him, and He said, Don’t cling to Me, Mary, go and tell the disciples that I have risen indeed. So she came to tell the disciples. So these women come, while it is very early in the morning, first day of the week, that would be the Sunday, and they came to the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.

And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre (16:3)?

If you have seen some of these sepulchers over there and the stones that are in front of them, you’ll understand their question. I have actually tried to push some of these stones by setting my back against the wall, my feet against it and tried to roll it and couldn’t do it. They really weigh a lot and they are really set there firmly. And so I can understand the women’s question, Who’s going to roll away the stone? Because we are told it is great and those are great stones that they would roll in front of the opening of the cave in which they would bury the bodies. And so it was their concern, who would roll away the stone? Worried about that.

Like so many of our worries, however, they are unnecessary, they are needless because when they got there, they found the stone was already rolled away. So here they are worrying who’s going to roll it, and it’s already done. Have you ever worried about something, when you arrive there it’s already taken care of. All that worry, what would I worry so much for? Wasted all the energy worrying. And here the Lord’s gone before me and taking care of things before I ever got there. But I was sure worried about it and spent a lot of mental energy in worry that was totally needless. And so is their case.

But when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great (16:4).

In the last chapter, we find the chapter ending with Joseph taking the body of Jesus and wrapping it in fine linen and putting it in the sepulcher and rolling the stone to the door of the sepulcher. Behind that stone there in the sepulcher laid the body of Jesus. There lay there a dead concept of God. You see, Jesus had come to reveal God unto man. “God, who at sundry times and in divers ways spoke to our fathers by the prophets,2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his own dear Son, God’s revelation” (Hebrews 1:1). He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9).

What did He reveal to us about the Father? That the Father has tremendous concern for you because He loves you. He wants to provide for you, take care of you, He watches over you, He’s concerned with every, even minor detail about your life, far more than what you even dream or realize because of His intense love for you. And so He brought to man this concept of a God of love, not of wrath, not of judgment, but a God who loves His creation. Not a God who is far removed from His creation but a God who is infinitely involved in His creation. But man rejected that concept of God. And when you look at the cross and the events of the cross, you find everything but love.

You find the viciousness of man, the hatred of man, venom being poured out upon the Savior as they nailed Him to the cross, as they mocked Him as He died. And as Joseph took and wrapped Him in linen and put Him in the tomb and rolled the stone over the door, behind the stone there lay a dead concept of God, rejected by man. Behind the stone there actually lay a dead religion. True it is unlike any other religion, but it is and does have the aspects of a religion for it does speak of God and man’s approach to God and it speaks of the faith by which man is to come to God. But so unlike most religions, religions that have man reaching out to God, this is a religion that tells us that God was reaching out to man, that finite man could never reach God, starting with an earth base. But an infinite God reached down to finite man and “God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

Unlike religions which give you the regulations and the rules whereby you might please God by your efforts and by your works, this is a religion that says that by your best effort you can never please God. You have to be born again. You have to have the infusion of a new life, a spiritual life. But man rejected that religion, he will continue by his own works, as rotten or feeble as they might be to try to appease a God of wrath and try to reach if possible this infinite God and there He lays. Behind that stone there is a dead hope.

The disciples during the ministry of Christ were extremely excited. They knew the prophecies concerning the Messiah and the kingdom of God that was going to be set up upon the earth. They knew that there was going to be a time when the earth would experience true peace, that they would “beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks, they would study war no more” (Isaiah 2:4). They had hope that that kingdom was going to be set up now, that they would be able to raise their children in peace and that the glory of the Lord would cover the earth. But He was crucified and they placed Him in the tomb and they rolled the stone over the door of the tomb and behind that stone, a dead hope. The disciples on the road to Emmaus said we had hoped that in Him was the salvation of Israel. But they put it in the past tense. But they crucified Him and this is the third day. Hope is dashed.

What does it mean, The stone is rolled away from the door of the sepulcher? It means just this: the concept of God is not dead, it is true. He is a loving God. He is concerned with you, deeply concerned with you and with every facet of your life. It means that the religion is not dead, it’s alive. That though man cannot reach God by his own efforts, God has reached down to man and provided a way whereby man can have the forgiveness of sins and whereby man can come into fellowship with the eternal God through the sacrifice of His Son. It means that you can know God and fellowship with God, just as He declared by faith and trusting in Him. It means that the hope is alive.

Peter said, Thank God that we have a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. “Of an inheritance that’s incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, that’s reserved in heaven for you, who are being kept by the power of God through faith” (1 Peter 1:4,5). I’ll tell you what, what a new view this gives of the cross. As we look now at the cross through the open tomb, it gives us a whole new perspective. Before the stone was rolled back, the cross was a horrible miscarriage of man’s inhumanity against man, a classic example of how heartless and cruel man can be. A terrible tragedy that the Son of God should be hanged. But now, we look at the cross with a whole different view. We see it not as defeat, but we see it as glorious victory.

God wasn’t defeated, Satan was defeated there at the cross. His power over your life was defeated in the cross of Jesus Christ for He spoiled the principalities and the powers that are against us, making an open display of His victory as He triumphed over them through the cross. And so it gives us a whole different view of the cross. Rather than being a great tragedy, it’s God’s love demonstrated in a very visible way to man. I like that verse, “that the stone was rolled away.” What a difference it makes.

And so they entering into the sepulchre, saw a young man sitting on the right side, [obviously an angel] and he was clothed in a long white garment; and they were frightened. And he said unto them, Don’t be afraid: You’re seeking Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: but he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. [And then he said,] But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there you will see him, even as he said unto you (16:5-7).

Go and tell the disciples and Peter. Peter probably figured that the Lord never wanted to have anything to do with him again. You know how you feel when you’ve really blown it big time? How you feel when you’ve really failed the Lord? Like He’s through with me, He never wants anything to do with me again. I don’t blame Him, I failed Him. In that time of crisis, I let Him down and all of that guilt that Peter was feeling. So the Lord puts a little, go tell, and Peter. Let him know. The door isn’t closed. There’s forgiveness, there’s understanding, there’s compassion, there’s love. “Go tell the disciples and Peter.”

And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; and they were trembling and they were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; because they were so afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene (16:8,9),

This is confirmed in the other gospels, especially the gospel of John which tells us of this appearance to Mary Magdalene.

out of whom he had cast seven devils (16:9).

Can you imagine what her life was before she met Jesus? A life of torment, a life of bondage, her life was a living hell, possessed by seven evil spirits which Jesus cast out and set her free. Don’t you know, as Jesus said, “He who is forgiven much loves much” (Luke 7:47). Don’t you know that she had a love for Jesus that is incomparable? This man delivered me out of hell. This man set me free. This man gave me life and from that time, she followed Him, she stayed close by Him. She was standing there when He was crucified. She followed when they took Him to the tomb. And she’s probably the first one to arrive at the tomb. Seeing the stone rolled away, ran to tell Peter. But then when she came back, then she met Jesus, the first one to see the risen Lord. There’s something tender and special about that. John again tells us how that she grasped Him. I think a death grip, like someone who was drowning and suddenly the Savior is there who she thought she had lost. And I think it was a grip that says, You may have gotten away from me once but I’ll never let You go again. And so Jesus said, Mary, don’t cling to Me. But go and tell the disciples I’ve risen indeed. And thus, this woman, Mary Magdalene became the first commissioned witness of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And she went and told them that had been with him [that is, the disciples], as they were mourning and weeping (16:10).

Here we are, the third day, and Jesus said to them over and over again, They’re going to crucify Me but the third day I will rise again. Not that I feel I’m better than the disciples, far from that. I wish I was somewhere even close but I don’t even feel that. But somehow, I think that had Jesus said over and over again, They’re going to crucify Me but the third day I’ll rise again, I think that on the third day I’d be looking for something. I think I would be waiting there, let’s see, this is third day. Let’s go check things up. Let’s see what’s happened. But rather than being in expectancy and anticipation of the resurrection, they were weeping, they were mourning. As far as they were concerned, it’s all over. Here Mary shows up, can you imagine how excited she must be. I’ll bet you she had a hard time getting the words out. The excitement, the thrill, I’ve seen Him, I’ve seen Him, He’s alive, He’s alive. Calm down, what are you trying to tell us, Mary? And it was probably that she was so excited and all that they thought she’s flipped.

You remember when Peter was thrown in jail after James was beheaded by Herod and he saw it pleased the Jews so he threw Peter in jail intending to bring him forth the next day and execute him. And that night, the angel of the Lord delivered Peter. But the church, you remember had gone to prayer, praying for Peter. And the angel delivered Peter out of the prison and he went to the house where the church was praying. He knocked on the door and the young maid, Rhoda, came to the door and said, Who is it? Peter, let me in. She ran back to the prayer meeting, she said, Peter’s at the door! They said, You’re crazy, you’ve seen a ghost. And he kept knocking until they finally said somebody better answer it and Peter was there. And so our faith, you see they were praying for Peter’s release but surely not with faith because they didn’t believe it when it happened.

How many times have we been surprised that God answered our prayers? Just by His sovereign grace and love, not anything to the credit of my great faith but just God’s sovereign grace. And so here are the disciples. Again, the witness of a woman, they wouldn’t accept. In those days women didn’t have many rights and they could not testify in court. They wouldn’t accept the word of a woman. So Jesus commissioned Mary to go tell them but they didn’t listen. They were still mourning and weeping. They should be rejoicing. But that’s what unbelief will do. It’ll keep you in tears. It’ll keep you in agony. It’ll keep you in despair and misery when you should be rejoicing. God is going to take care of it. Many times God has already taken care while you’re still mourning and you’re still weeping and your unbelief keeps you from entering into the joy of God’s victory and of God’s work.

And so, God has done it. He has raised Him from the dead. But they can’t enter into the joy because of unbelief.

After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country (16:12).

Luke expounds on this. He tells us that Cleopas and one of the other disciples were on the road to Emmaus when Jesus joined them and we’ll get that in the gospel of Luke. And they mentioned to Jesus, now in another form, they didn’t recognize Him even as Mary didn’t recognize Him at first. Just what implications are here are something that you’ll have to draw for yourself. I’m not qualified to make implications but He appeared in another form. They were obviously very sad because He questioned them, How come you’re so sad? And they told Him the story that He knew so well. How that Jesus was crucified and this was the third day and they even mentioned, Some of the women said that they saw Him. Because after He appeared to Mary, He appeared to those other women.

It’s interesting to me that as they came to Emmaus and Jesus was acting like He’s just going to keep walking, they said, No, it’s getting late, come and stay with us. And when He broke the bread, they recognized Him. How? Perhaps they saw the nail pierced hand as He broke the bread. And immediately He disappeared. But then they started talking, did not our hearts burn in us as He spoke with us in the way?

So they went [that is, the two came back] and told it to the residue: but neither believed they them (16:13).

You can’t blame them for being prejudiced against women completely because when these two guys came back they didn’t believe them either. Unbelief, what does it take to dispel the doubt and the unbelief of the human heart? What does it take? What does it take for God to dispel the unbelief in your heart?

Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they were sitting at meat, and he upbraided them [or He rebuked or scolded them] with their unbelief and their hardness of heart (16:14),

He had done that to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “O slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared” (Luke 24:25)! And so “He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart,”

because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen (16:14).

Really scolded them for that.

And he said unto them (16:15),

And now the commission that we have in Matthew to,

go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (16:15).

The commission to the church to carry the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.

And He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (16:16).

It’s just that clear cut. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved. Don’t believe in Him and you’ll be damned. The Bible says “he that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12,13); “but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

And these are the signs which will follow them that believe; In my name they will cast out devils; they will speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (16:17,18).

There are those who have taken this passage of scripture and abused it. In some radical groups, there are those that are known as snake handlers and when they get in a meeting and they are worked up into a real frenzy, they will begin to pass rattle snakes around the circle to demonstrate their faith and using this scripture, “They shall take up serpents” and that’s the basis for this snake handling practice. I am reminded of the temptation of Jesus by Satan when he took Him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said, Jump, for it is written, “He will give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. To bear thee up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11,12). But Jesus answered and said unto him, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:7). Any deliberate taking up of serpents to prove your faith is tempting God. Same is true of drinking any deadly thing. It shall not harm them. To deliberately drink cyanide or arsenic to prove your faith is tempting God. It is not intended that this should be done.

Note that these things were to be done in the context of carrying the Gospel into all the world. And in the records of the missionaries, in carrying the Gospel into all the world we find accounts so many times where missionaries were bitten by some deadly snake without any ill effect. At times when missionaries had to drink swamp water filled with all kinds of vermin and disease and did not have any ill effect.

We remember the case of Paul the apostle when he was shipwrecked and cast up on the shore and they were gathering wood to make a fire to warm themselves out from their experience in this surf. And how that as Paul was gathering some wood and throwing it in the fire, this poisonous viper fastened itself on Paul and the natives on the island said, He must be a horrible murderer because even though he escaped the storm and the surf, yet the gods will not allow him to live. And they were waiting, they knew that deadly viper, they knew that the person only had just a few minutes and they would go into convulsions and die. And so they were watching, waiting for him to start into the convulsions and to die. But he just shook the thing off in the fire. So after a while when he didn’t go into convulsions they said, he must be a god. It didn’t affect him. But you see, that was in the context of carrying the Gospel into all the world and I believe that as we carry the Gospel into all the world that if we by happenstance are bitten by a poisonous viper that you can take this as a promise of God.

If you’re forced to drink out of necessity water that you know to be polluted, you can ask God to bless it. I don’t think any harmful effects will come. But that’s in the context of carrying the Gospel into all, it isn’t going out and testing faith. Like one minister took a thing of poison around his congregation, had them all drink it to show their faith. We don’t want any faithless people in our church and he lost a few. He was charged with manslaughter and rightfully so. But it isn’t something that we’re just to foolhardily step out on and say, He’ll give His angels charge over me, watch me sail off this twelve-story building. And when Satan suggested that, Jesus rejected it as tempting God, putting yourself in deliberate jeopardy just to try and prove your faith and a passage of scripture.

So the book of Mark ends in a very beautiful way.

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and he sat on the right hand of God (16:19).

Where He is today. “Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us” (Hebrews 7:25). “He who is ascended is the same one who first of all descended in the lower parts of the earth. When He ascended, He led the captives from their captivity” (Ephesians 4:8-10). When Stephen was being stoned, he said, “I see the heavens open, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of the Father” (Acts 7:56). Here he says, He’s up there seated at the right hand. Paul in Ephesians tells us that He is seated in the heavenly places far above all principalities and powers. But the story is that whenever a martyr is coming home, He stands to receive him. And so Stephen saw Him standing there ready to receive him into glory. And Stephen said, “Lord, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59).

Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts tells us a little more fully concerning the ascension of Christ into heaven and we’ll cover that when we get to Luke and to the book of Acts. Again, we told you that Mark is an abbreviated account.

And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen (16:20).

So be it. End of story. So “they went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them, confirming the word with signs following.” I believe that’s the correct order. I don’t believe that God intends that signs be the primary draw for the church, that we try to draw people with signs to prove some kind of spectacular powers. I believe that there is power in the word of God to bring conversion. And the signs follow. Thus, the faith is not in the signs but the faith is established in the word of God. I think it’s a very dangerous thing to establish one’s faith in signs that they have seen because there are many times that there are charlatans who are showing signs and if you believe because I saw that man who had an oxygen tank and he took the thing off and he ran up and down the aisles. And you believe because you saw that apparent miracle when he was prayed for, they just pulled the oxygen mask off and the guy ran up and down the aisle. And you say, I saw it, thus, I believe because I saw that. Then when you find out later that the guy really didn’t need the oxygen tank, it was all set up, what does that do to your faith?

But if your faith is established in God’s word, then it’s unshakable. Because you see, you may see a genuine sign that will bring faith in a sense, but the next time the person may not be healed. My faith is not in what I have seen God do, as far as healing the sick. My faith is in the word of God. And thus, it’s not a variable. It’s established, it’s strong. You can’t put faith in feelings which again are sort of a sign. Oh I felt warm all over. I felt tingly all over. I felt bubbly all over. But maybe tomorrow you’re going to feel rotten all over. And so you don’t put faith on feelings, you put faith in fact, the fact of God’s word that is true. The word of God that changes not. And when your faith is established in the word of God, it is unwavering, it’s unshakable. Signs follow, great, wonderful. But don’t put your faith in the signs. Put your faith in the word.

Father, we thank You again for Your word, a lamp unto our feet, a light into our path, a cleansing of our soul and spirit. Lord, we pray that we might hide Thy word away in our hearts, that we would not sin against You. Establish Lord our lives in the word and in You. And Lord we thank You for the signs that do follow. We thank You for those confirming things that come. But Lord our faith is in You and in the word that You have declared. For though heaven and earth may pass away, we know that Your word is going to abide forever. And so Lord thank You for Your word and the opportunity of studying the word that we might grow thereby. Bless Lord our study, make us diligent students that we might indeed learn of Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Take Up Your Cross

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24)

Your “cross” is God’s will for you, regardless of the cost. Taking up your cross is a choice; it is not beyond your control. You may have health problems or a rebellious child or financial pressures, but do not mistake these as your “cross to bear.” Neither circumstances you face nor consequences of your own actions are your cross. Your cross will be to voluntarily participate in Christ’s sufferings as He carries out His redemptive purposes (Phil. 3:10). Paul said he rejoiced in his sufferings because he knew that by them he was able to participate in the suffering required to bring others into Christian maturity (Col. 1:24).

We tend to want to go immediately from “denying ourselves” to “following Jesus.” But you can never follow Jesus unless you have first taken up your cross. There are aspects of God’s redemptive work that can be accomplished only through suffering. Just as Christ had to suffer in order to bring salvation, there will be hardships you may have to endure in order for God to bring salvation to those around you. Jesus did not talk with His disciples about the cross until they had come to know He was the Christ (Matt. 16:21). You will never be able to endure the suffering of the cross unless you have first been convinced that Jesus is the Christ. Once you have settled your relationship with Christ, He will introduce you to your cross.

There is no Christianity without a cross. If you are waiting for a relationship with God that never requires suffering or inconvenience, then you cannot use Christ as your model. God’s will for you involves a cross. First, take up your cross, then you can follow Him.

Chapter fifteen as we continue our journey through the Bible. Now in the fourteenth chapter, we had Mark’s account of the last supper with the disciples, the passover feast, the betrayal of Jesus by Judas there in the garden, the trial of Jesus before the religious council and the chapter ended with Peter’s denial of Jesus. So we are in that same day because the Jews, the day begins at six o’clock in the evening.

So in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council (15:1),

This is that entire religious council of the Jews including the priests, the scribes, the elders.

and they bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate (15:1).

The power for capital punishment was actually taken away from the Jews by the Roman government just about the time of the birth of Christ. In fact, when Jesus was just a young boy in Nazareth, the Roman government took away the power of the Jews to inflict capital punishment. The Jews interpreted this as the end of their reign, end of the kingdom and some of the Jews actually went in public with sackcloth and ashes mourning over the fact that God had failed to keep His promise. For the promise through Jacob to Judah was the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh or the Messiah comes. And they interpreted the taking away of their power for capital punishment by the Roman government as the taking of the scepter, the power. And the Messiah had not come and thus, they were in the streets mourning over the failure of God’s promise. Little did they know that right then in Nazareth the Messiah was growing up, just waiting for God’s time for His revelation.

So they had to take Jesus to Pilate in order to get the death sentence. On other occasions, such as in the book of Acts with the case of Stephen, they stoned Stephen when they became angry and the Roman government would just sort of turn their head and look the other way. They allowed them to create a ruckus and stone people if they do desired. But they legally could not in a court of law sentence a person to death. That is why they brought Jesus to Pilate because they wanted to get a death sentence. In order to bring charges before Pilate, they had to bring political charges. They could not say He is claiming to be the Messiah. The Roman government could care less. So they accused Him of claiming to be the king, they accused Him of encouraging people not to pay taxes to Caesar and they were trying to frame criminal civil charges against Him against the Roman government so that Pilate would hear the case.

It is interesting that in bringing Him before Pilate, the Roman form of execution was crucifixion. The Jews usually just stoned the person to death and that was their form of execution. But with the Romans it was crucifixion and according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, He had to really be crucified in order to fulfill the prophecies. And thus, their bringing Him before Pilate was not really just a happenstance but it was a part of God’s plan because again, He must be put to death by crucifixion in order to fulfill the prophecies of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52:13,14. So they brought Him to Pilate,

And Pilate asked him, Are you the King of the Jews (15:2)?

for this was one of the accusations that they had made against Jesus,

And Jesus answering said unto him [basically], You said it. [Yes, I am.] And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing (15:2,3).

In Isaiah chapter fifty-three, verse seven, we are told that “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” He did not defend Himself against the false accusations that were being made. Now this is an unusual kind of a situation. For an innocent man to be charged with a capital crime and false witnesses being brought, but He does not respond or answer the charges that are made by the false witnesses, He doesn’t seek to defend Himself.

So much so that Pilate said, Aren’t you going to answer? Don’t you hear all of these things they’re accusing you of? But Jesus answered nothing; so that Pilate actually marvelled [at the silence of Jesus]. Now at the feast (15:4-6)

It was the custom for the Roman government, that is the feast of passover, as a gesture of goodwill they usually released unto the people a political prisoner. And it was just to celebrate the passover and to give the Roman nod of consent and holding out an olive branch kind of a thing, and thus they chose a political prisoner that they would release to the people. Jesus was in fact being charged with political crimes and thus, He would classify for the release of a political prisoner at the feast time.

It’s very possible that Barabbas had a group of friends who were there that morning specifically to seek the release of Barabbas. He was part of an insurrection. He actually was guilty of the things that they were falsely charging Jesus of, a rebellion against the Roman rule. This man was actually guilty, he have been with a band of men who had joined an insurrection against Rome and in this insurrection, he had murdered a person. But it could be that this group of zealots of which he was a part, it could be that they had gathered that morning specifically for the purpose of seeking the release of Barabbas who was being held as a political prisoner. So that they were already prepared to ask for the release of Barabbas because they are now asking Pilate to go ahead and to fulfill this custom of releasing a political prisoner. It could be that their being there for the release of Barabbas just really played into the hands of the high priest who had brought Jesus for the sentence of death. So now at the feast,

he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. [Mark tells us about this] one prisoner named Barabbas, who was bound with those who had made insurrection with him, who had committed the murder in the insurrection. And the multitude began to cry aloud for him to do as they had ever done to them (15:6-8).

In other words, they were crying for Caesar, Release to us the prisoner. Release to us.

So Pilate answered them, saying, Will you that I release unto you the King of the Jews? For he knew [Pilate knew] that the chief priests had delivered Jesus because of envy or jealousy (15:9,10).

He knew that the charges that were being made against Jesus were spurious. And so, they’re crying for the release of a prisoner, and he said, Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?

But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom you call the King of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him (15:11-13).

So here the choice of the people. Interesting, isn’t it? The choice is that of the law or the lawless. Jesus represented the law of God, Barabbas represented lawlessness. And the people chose the lawlessness over the law, people haven’t really changed much through the years. If it were up for an election, you could be sure the lawless will win. There is that within people that lawlessness against God. And here they chose Barabbas so the question, What shall I do then with Jesus?

That was the question that Pilate was facing. What is he to do with Jesus who is called the Messiah or the King of the Jews? It’s not a question that is just exclusively Pilate’s. Actually, it’s a universal question that every man must face. Tonight that question is just as relevant for you as it was for Pilate. You have to make the same decision, you have to determine what you are going to do with Jesus who is called the King of the Jews. You can confess Him as Lord and Savior. And He said “if you would confess Him before men, He would confess you before His Father which is in heaven.” You can deny Him, deny Him the lordship of your life. You can rebel against Him. But He said, “If you deny Me before men, I will deny you before My Father in the presence of the holy angels” (Matthew 10:32,33). You can receive Him as your Lord and Savior but “as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). Or you can reject Him. You can believe on Him and “whosoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Or you can go on in unbelief.

In Revelation 21, it tells us the fate of the unbelievers. You can be for Him or you can be against Him but one thing you can’t be is neutral. Jesus said, “He who is not for me is against me” (Matthew 12:30). So many people are trying to take more or less a neutral stand concerning Jesus but He has made such radical claims that leaves no room for neutrality. He either is the Son of God or He is a fraud, He is a deceiver, He is a liar, or more kindly, He’s a lunatic.

But you have to make a decision, you cannot be neutral. And thus the question, “what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” is the question that you must personally answer, someone else can’t answer it for you, you can’t ride in on someone else’s faith, your mother’s or father’s or family’s or grandfather’s. God has no grandchildren. It’s every man making his own decision concerning what he is going to do. Thus, the Roman judge is the one who is having his faith determined by his decision and so it is with all men.

You see, your decision doesn’t affect the faith of Jesus at all. But it does affect your faith. Your eternal destiny is determined by what you do with Jesus who is called the Christ or the King of the Jews. And your decision has its effects upon your future. So it is a very important question, in fact, the most important question that you will ever face is what you are going to do with Jesus who is called the Christ.

Paul the apostle said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). And he talked about death as just something that he was actually looking forward to; “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:23): yet it’s necessary for me to stay around a little while to encourage and strengthen you. We who are in these bodies often “groan, earnestly desiring to be delivered from them, not to be an embodied spirit but to be clothed upon with the body which is from heaven.” Those who have made Him the Lord of their lives have found the life in Christ that gives them the hope for eternity.

Voltaire, that famous French atheist, one of his favorite phrases concerning Jesus was, Crush the wretch. It is interesting that when he came to the point of death, it was much different from Paul’s who said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, our righteous judge, shall give to me: and to all who love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7,8). But Voltaire on his death bed was screaming out, More light, more light, more light, and that was his last words. He went out into the darkness of eternity, without hope, without Christ.

So vital question, one that we must each one answer for ourselves. He asked the people and their response was, Crucify Him.

But he said unto them, Why, what evil has he done (15:14)?

Now you see that the whole judicial system has broken down. A judge is arguing with the crowd. You can’t really picture that, can you? A judge and here are the people in the courtroom observing the trial and they start calling out and rather than rapping and calling for order and getting the bailiff to take these people out of the courtroom, he’s starting to argue with them. Why, what evil has he done? But there is no rationale, they can’t point to any evil that he has done. And so when you have no rationale, you just shout louder and more vehemently. That’s exactly what they did,

they began to cry more vehemently, Crucify him, [let him be crucified]. So Pilate, willing to content the people (15:14,15),

and that’s an awful phrase, how many horrible things are being done in order to content the people? Giving in from what you and your heart know is right. Giving in against what your conscience is telling you. In your heart you know what you should do but not having the strength and the courage to do it. You succumb to the cries of the crowd, to the pressure of your peers and you are forced by this pressure to do things that you yourself know are absolutely wrong. Yet you succumb to that pressure. And this is the case of Pilate, in order to content the people, he

released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified (15:15).

It is interesting that the gospels really don’t play up the scourging. The scourging was a common practice by the Roman government in order to elicit confessions out of the prisoners. The prisoner was bent over so his back was fully exposed and they would use this leather whip with little bits of broken glass and bone imbedded in it that was designed to rip the flesh, so that when they were finished with the administering of this scourging, this beating, the person, his back would look like hamburger. Many times they died as a result of the excruciating pain and the loss of blood. Many times they went insane and they became raving maniacs as the result of the scourging. Sometimes the whip would whip around their face and there are records of their eyes being pulled out by the scourge. It was a horrible thing. And it seems so cavalier, he delivered Him to be scourged. Now the question is this, what does the scourging have to do with our salvation? Because I cannot believe that God would allow this to take place even plan for it to take place because in Isaiah chapter fifty, verse six, it said, “I gave my back to the smiters”; and in Isaiah chapter fifty-three, it declares there that, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

There has to be a purpose for the scourging, God had to have a purpose in it. The cross, the shed blood of Christ we understand fully that there He was giving His life, the blood flowing out symbolized the life going out. And there as they put the spear through His heart and the blood and the water came forth, through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ we have forgiveness of our sins for He was dying as our substitute in our place as a sacrifice for sin. That we understand. But I’m afraid we understand very little about the scourging, they really don’t make much about it in the New Testament though it was a horrible, horrible experience.

And then the soldiers led him away into the hall, that is called the Praetorium; and they call together the whole band of soldiers. And so they clothed him with purple [the royal color], they platted a crown of thorns, and put it upon his head, And they began to greet him, Hail, King of the Jews (15:16-18)!

Mocking, mockery and scorn. Interesting thing though, however, the crown of thorns, an interesting choice for a crown. For in going back to Genesis where did the thorns come from? You remember when Adam sinned God said, “Cursed be the ground, thorns shall it bring forth” (Genesis 3:17,18). Thorns are the result of the curse of God upon the ground because of man’s sin.

Years ago I was directing a YMCA camp in Arizona out near Oracle junction, in a place we dubbed Scorpion Gulch, for obvious reasons, and we had taken a group of the young boys on a hike up to an abandoned mine and went down the mine shaft and explained a little bit to them about the strata and showed them some of the veins that were being followed as they were pursuing after the gold. On the way back from the trip to the mine shaft, one of the little boys back behind me began to scream in obvious pain. And I went back to see what was going on and here he had this attroia (???) cactus just fastened into the back of his hand. It’s called jumping cactus but it really doesn’t jump. It though does break off very easily if you just brush it, it will break off and the thorns just sort of attach as it breaks off of the cactus, it just attaches itself. Now it’s just thorns all the way around and so you have to be careful in removing it. What I did is I got a couple of sticks and worked the sticks between the thorns underneath and then popped the things off. But as I was working, this sticks in and this little kid was just in a lot of pain with the thorns fastened in. As I was working it in, he said, That darn guy Adam! And I said, Where do you go to Sunday School? He said, The First Baptist Church. Well, you’re learning.

Thorns, the result of the curse. And thus, Jesus was dying to remove the curse of sin. And so I find it quite interesting that they would crown Him with thorns, thorns that resulted from sin and now He is taking away the sin of the world. Crowned with thorns.

They smote him on the head with a reed (15:19),

The night before He had been buffeted by the officers of the high priest, He had been beaten by them, they put a sack over His head and hit Him and said, Prophecy who hit you. And they had really treated Him unmercifully the night before. Now here the soldiers picking up on it and they are hitting Him on the head with a reed or a cane, a caning process. I think we’ve heard something about that recently.

and they did spit upon him (15:19),

Isaiah 56, I did not hide my face from those who spit on me.

and bowing their knees they feigned to worship him (15:19).

Hail, King of the Jews, in mockery, bowing and making a big sport of it as heartless men sometimes do. I find it extremely difficult to understand how heartless man can be to fellowman. We talk about civilization and civilized people and the Roman government was supposed to be a very highly developed civilization. And we’re supposed to be living in a highly developed civilization today but it’s amazing what civilized men can do to other men and to other human beings. And we don’t have to look very far back to see it. We look back at the holocaust in Germany. You read the accounts and it’s just unthinkable that man could do that to fellowman. But you read of the things that are happening in Bosnia and the atrocities on both sides and you wonder, how can a person do that to a fellow human being?

So we see them doing it to Jesus. And how? Because of sin. Because of Satan’s dominating their lives, their thought processes. And Jesus is dying for these kinds of people. People whose lives have been perverted as the result of sin. Less than human as the result of sin. The very ones for whom He is dying are those who are inflicting such pain, punishment and mockery upon Him.

And so when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put on his own clothes, and they led him out to crucify him. And they compelled one Simon a Cyrenian (15:20,21),

Cyrene was there on the point of North Africa right in the area of Libya. This man probably had come for the passover to Jerusalem. And while he was there, he heard the commotion, he saw the crowd, he saw the Roman soldier who was leading the crowd with the sign that said, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, because as they would make a procession to the cross, they would actually take a circuitous route through the city in order that as many people as possible will see the accusation and they will fear the power of Rome. So in front of the procession there would be four soldiers, one in front holding the sign, two at the side and one behind the prisoner who is carrying his cross to the place for the crucifixion. And so he saw the soldier marching with the sign, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and one of the soldiers put his sword flat on his shoulder and that required him to carry the burden of that soldier for one mile. You couldn’t argue, it was just Roman law. If a soldier would lay his sword flat-wise on your shoulder, that was just you became for one mile his slave. You’d have to pick up his luggage and carry it for a mile. That was Roman law.

That’s when Jesus said, “If they compel you to go one mile, go two” (Matthew 5:41). Go the extra mile, that’s where you get the idea. And he compelled this Simon to carry the cross of Jesus. No doubt at this point Jesus was already beginning to physically weaken. He had lost so much blood through the scourging, He had been beaten unmercifully the night before by the guards of the priest and now by the Romans themselves. And seeing Him beginning to lose strength, he probably tapped this fellow, Simon, to carry his cross.

It is interesting that he identifies Simon as the father of Rufus and Alexander where that doesn’t mean anything to us, the fact that he inserts the names of the sons, probably means that it did mean something to the people to whom Mark was writing, that they knew Alexander and Rufus. It is thought that maybe the book of Mark was written first to the Christians in Rome and it is interesting when Paul writes his letter to Rome there in the last chapter as he is giving greetings, he said greet also Rufus and his mother and mine. In other words, Paul was saying she’s like a mother to me, the mother of Rufus. So it could be that this is the Rufus and because they knew Rufus, it was his father Simon. When Simon got to Golgotha, he probably thought, Man, I’ll carry it the mile then I’m getting out of here. But it could be that something intrigued him with Jesus. He was attracted to Him even as he bore His cross so that he waited there and as they were nailing the hands, he heard Him say, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And being intrigued by it, he stayed, perhaps lingered, long enough to become a believer in Jesus.

There was in the church of Antioch, Acts chapter thirteen, a man who had a prominent place in the church in Antioch whose name was Simeon which is another name for Simon, and it said they called him “Niger” which means “of swarthy complexion,” African. And being from Cyrene, very possible that in Acts the thirteenth chapter, the Simeon that we have there is the Simon of Mark, that he was converted and was known then later to the church.

He was passing by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, and they compelled him to bear his cross. And they brought him unto the place called Golgotha, which, being interpreted is The place of the skull (15:21,22).

It could be called The place of the skull because of the appearance of the hillside and of course, in Jerusalem today, across from what they call Solomon’s quarries, halfway between Herod’s gate and the Damascus gate, standing on the wall, looking across over the top of the bus station, you see the top of Mount Moriah and you see on the side the caves that form to look like a skull, the hollow sockets of the eyes and the bridge of the nose, next to the cave that they call Jeremiah’s grotto.

Or it could be that there were just a lot of skulls, that it was a place of crucifixion and there were just a lot of skulls around because as a rule, when a person was crucified, they did not bury the body but just took it from the cross and they allowed the vulture and the scavenger dogs to just eat it and left the skeleton there. So it could be that there were just a bunch of skulls around there and that’s where it got the name, The place of the skull.

There they offered him to drink wine that was mingled with myrrh: but he did not receive it (15:23).

The wine mingled with myrrh was an anesthesia, it was to numb them so that they would not feel the pain. Actually there was a group of women in Jerusalem who felt sorry for those that were being crucified and they formed a guild and they would make up this concoction to give to the people who were to be crucified to put them into an altered state of consciousness so that they would not feel so intensely the suffering and the pain of hanging there on the cross. But they offered it to Jesus and He did not take it, He refused this anesthesia.

And when they had crucified him (15:24),

Once the cross was, they would lie it on the ground and then the prisoner would be placed on it and the hands on the cross bar, they would nail the hands and then there was this little wooden step upon which he would stand and with loosely tied and there they would hang until they died as they were hanging there. After a period of time as your muscles begin to give way, your body begins to go out of joint. As it does there’s the excruciating pain, your body hanging there and gravity beginning to take its toll and begins to slip out of joints with excruciating pain. Of course, it’s described in Psalm 22, the body being out of joints. Death usually came by suffocation. After the muscles would give way you just hang there and you’d finally just couldn’t breathe anymore, death by suffocation. So they would strip the prisoner of his clothes and the common custom was just to divide the clothes between the four executing soldiers. But with Jesus,

they divided his garments (15:24),

but for His robe, His robe was a special robe, no doubt made by one of the women who companied Him. It was without seam, woven from top to bottom, and they said, this is too nice to just tear into four parts, why don’t we cast lots for these. And so they parted His garments among them, but for His vesture they cast lots and thus was Psalm 22:18 fulfilled.

And it was the third hour [that was nine o’clock in the morning], when they crucified him (15:25).

Or when He was placed upright there on Golgotha.

And the superscription of the accusation that was written over the top (15:26)

They would take the sign, the guy would carry it through the streets and then they would nail it at the top of the cross so that as He was hanging there they would all see the crime that He was accused of or guilty of. It was written over at,

THE KING OF THE JEWS. And they crucified with him two thieves; one of the right hand, and the other on the left (15:26,27).

And so Isaiah 53:12 was fulfilled, “He was numbered with the transgressors” there in His death.

And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, he was numbered with the transgressors. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads (15:28,29),

And now you can get a picture of these people. Just screaming out, as He was hanging there, shaking their heads as they shouted their filth and their taunts.

and they said, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and build it again in three days, Save yourself, and come down from the cross (15:29,30).

When they asked Jesus for a sign, He said, “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days” (John 2:19). And they said, We’ve been building this thing for forty, you say you’re going to rebuild it in three days? Jesus was referring to the temple of His body. But they’re bringing up this again. They’re saying, Hey you that would destroy the temple and build it, come on down, save yourself.

Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save (15:31).

How true that is. You see, He cannot save Himself if He is to save others. If Jesus would have saved Himself, He would not be able to save you. “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” I’m sure that the chief priests didn’t realize how accurate was his statement that he was making. Now Jesus could have come down, we know that. He told Peter, “Don’t you realize I could call for ten thousand angels to deliver me, but the cup that the Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it” (Matthew 26:53)? Thus, in staying there, hanging there on the cross, He proved the extent of God’s love for you. God was willing to go all the way in order to redeem your soul from sin. Never ever should you question or doubt God’s love for you. If ever you begin to question it, look back at the cross. And there God commended His love or displayed His love toward you in that while you were still in your sins, Christ was dying for you.

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). So never, ever question God’s love for if “God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how much more then shall he not freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32)? And so here we see God’s love being demonstrated in a very powerful way as Jesus was hanging there, taking all of this abuse while He hung there on the cross.

Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross [the scribes were saying], that we may see and believe. And even those two that were crucified with him reviled him (15:32).

Luke tells us that later on, one of the two had a change of heart. And when the first one continued with the mockery, he said, Don’t you fear God? Seeing we’re in the same boat as this fellow, we are here because we deserve to be here but this man hasn’t done anything wrong. And then he said to Jesus, “When you come into your kingdom, would you remember me” (Luke 23:42)? You remember that story, we’ll get it when we move into Luke’s gospel next.

Now when the sixth hour [or noontime] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (15:33).

This could not be explained as an eclipse of the sun inasmuch as the passover takes place at full moon. It’s impossible to have a total eclipse during full moon because as you know very well, at full moon it comes up as the sun is going down. A total eclipse is caused when the moon passes in front of the sun and it creates then the shadow and the darkness on the earth at that point where according to the time of the year, where it gets the full coverage. But impossible during a full moon so that you have to explain this phenomena of the darkness in another way than eclipse.

In Amos, a very interesting prophecy, chapter eight, verse nine, “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth on a clear day:” (Amos 8:9). So it happened on a clear day, the earth was darkened. “And I will turn your feasts” (Amos 8:10),

Now this remember took place on the day of the feast of passover which was a feast of great rejoicing because they were rejoicing over God’s delivering their fathers out of the Egyptian bondage. “But I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins” (Amos 8:10),

The sackcloth was usually worn at death. “And I will make it as the mourning of an only son” (Amos 8:10). I find that very significant. “For God so loved the world He gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). “And the end thereof as a bitter day” (Amos 8:10). Fascinating prophecy of Amos and here we see the fulfillment as from the sixth hour or noon until the ninth hour when Jesus dismissed His spirit, darkness over the whole land.

And at the ninth hour (15:34),

three hours of darkness, it was as though nature wouldn’t look at this horrible scene. It was just, man’s sin magnified and exemplified in the death of Jesus Christ. The first sin was suicide of sorts because God had said to Adam that you’re not to eat of the fruit of that tree for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. You will bring a death sentence upon you. And thus in eating he was committing suicide. The second recorded sin in the Bible is fratricide, when Cain killed his brother Abel. This is the sin of deocide, man attempting to kill God. Man has not ceased that attempt. There are many men today who are still seeking to kill God. They’re seeking to kill people’s faith in God. They have set themselves against God and they are determined to destroy the idea of God, the concept of God. Unfortunately, they have gained positions of prominence and power in our educational system, in our judicial system and thus are becoming quite effective in their attempt to eradicate God out of society, out of our national life. And they are working always, constantly trying to destroy God. Here it was in the crucifixion of Jesus, trying to destroy God. And it continues to the present day. “In the ninth hour,”

Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? that is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me (15:34)?

We know that this is the first line of Psalm 22. Often when a rabbi was teaching, he would give the first line of the psalm because they were familiar with the psalms. All you had to do is give the first line and then that psalm would go through the minds of the people. And it could be that Jesus is calling attention to His disciples, more or less, go back and read Psalm 22. And if they would go back and read Psalm 22, they would understand what was going on. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. It’s not out of control, God is still in control.

So many times the events of our life we feel that things are out of control. Not so, God is in control. God rules. And though the disciples probably felt that this is horrible, man’s ruling over God, yet go home and read Psalm 22 and you’ll find that this is part of God’s determined counsel. This is the plan of God to reveal His love to the world. It is through the death of Jesus that salvation will come to all.

There will be a day that will come when all will acknowledge Him as Lord, the end of the Psalm goes on that the whole world will, even those that are down in the grave, will acknowledge Him as is prophesied later again in Isaiah, but spoken of by Paul where he said, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord” (Romans 14:11), to the glory of God the Father. And thus, it’s all a part of God’s plan. Go home, read it.

But yet, as you interpret it, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Going on in the Psalm, “why art thou so far from the cry of my roaring? I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not; in the night season, and am not silent.” But then in verse three, He gives the reason why He was forsaken, For “thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of thy people Israel” (Psalm 22:1-3).

The holiness of God necessitated the break of fellowship when God laid on Him the iniquities of us all. At that moment, God placed upon Jesus your sin, my sin, the sins of the world. And as Isaiah cried out, “And God laid on him the iniquities of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). And God cried for the transgression of my people was He smitten. So in bearing our sins, when God placed upon Him our sin, He then suffered the consequence of sin which is separation from the Father. God’s hand is not short that He cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear. But your sins have separated you from God. That’s always the effect of sin, separation from God. And when He took our sin, He was separated from the Father and thus, the cry, and what a plaintiff cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

He had told His disciples, All of you are going to forsake Me because you’re all going to be offended. You’re all going to forsake Me. Because the scripture says, “Smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7). And so He knew and expected them to forsake Him. But now even forsaken of the Father, alone He paid the price to redeem you from your sins. Oh what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. Willing to be separated from the Father for that moment that I would not have to be separated forever. Isn’t that glorious? I don’t have to be separated from God now because Jesus bore my sin, separated from God for me.

Some of them that stood by, when they heard it, they said, Look, he’s calling for Elias (15:35).

Now you see, they were Roman soldiers. They did not know the Hebrew language, they did not know that the Eloi, Eloi was My God, my God and they thought, they had heard of Elijah and so they thought He’s crying for Elijah. It is possible that they thought that He had gone into a delirium, into sort of a madness.

And so one ran and filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it to his lips (15:36),

Psalm 69:21 was fulfilled that in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And of course, we are told in the other gospels that along with this cry, He did cry, I thirst. “And so one filled the sponge with vinegar, put it to his lips and”

The other said, No, no, wait, let’s see if Elijah will come and help him out here (15:36).

Maybe we’re going to have a drama here.

And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost (15:37).

The other gospels tell us what He cried. He cried, It is finished. In the Greek it’s just one word, Finished, “Telestai”. Finished. Redemption of man, cried with a loud voice, Finished. And He gave up the ghost or as the other gospels said, He dismissed His spirit. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (15:38).

Significant, it was God who tore the thing. And we are told in the other gospels there was a great earthquake. The rocks were actually torn in the earthquake, and in the earthquake, this veil in the temple, this heavy, heavy veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies–from the place of God’s presence, the place where man was not allowed to come, into the presence of a holy God; only the high priest could come and then only one day in the year and then only after many sacrifices, and then with a rope tied around his foot in case the bells in the helm of his garment would quit tingling, they would know that he was dead, that there was something wrong with the sacrifices and so they had a rope on his foot so they could pull him out. They couldn’t even go to get him out and so the rope on his. And that would make you sort of I suppose tenuous in going in. The rope on your foot, you just hope everything’s alright. Did I dot the i’s and cross the t’s, is everything perfect here? You’re coming into the presence of God. But you see, common man couldn’t do that. The priest would go in for the people.

But now God is saying, Look, entrance is available for all men. “Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of mercy, that we might find grace, in the time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). And so we have access now unto God, through Jesus Christ. “One God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And He prepared the way that leads to God’s abode. It’s a way marked by love. But it leads us home to God. I love that that God just ripped it and said, Hey come on in. The way is now made, the way has been prepared through Jesus Christ. Your sins are not just covered, now they’re put away. The Old Testament, they made the Kaphar, the covering for sin. But now through Jesus Christ, sin’s put away and thus access unto the Father by all who will come through Jesus Christ.

And when the centurion, which stood over against him (15:39),

More or less, overseeing the whole crucifixion,

saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. There were also women looking on afar off (15:39,40):

John tells us that Mary the mother of Jesus was also with the women,

with Mary Magdalene and another Mary, here’s Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome (15:40);

these women that have followed Him from Galilee, these women that had traveled around with the disciples, who had prepared the meals and had just been a part, an intimate, integral part of the group standing there watching.

(Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem (15:41).

So there were quite a few of the women standing afar off, Mary His mother and Mary Magdalene were standing close enough that Jesus could speak to them from the cross. And John the beloved disciple was there nearby too because Jesus spoke to John and sort of committed to John the keeping of His mother, Mary. That’s recorded for us in the gospel of John, we’ll get that later.

Now when the even was come (15:42),

He died at around three o’clock in the afternoon. Now it’s necessary that He be buried before six o’clock because the next day was the sabbath day, and it was the great day of the feast, it was the first day of unleavened bread which was a sabbath day, and again, a holy day. You had a double sabbath on this week and so, the preparation. They had to have everything prepared by six o’clock in the evening, the sabbath day begins and you can’t do anything beyond that. So, it was evening,

the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which was also waiting for the kingdom of God, he came, and he went boldly to Pilate, and craved [or he begged] for the body of Jesus (15:42,43).

Pilate didn’t know He was already dead. He was surprised to hear that He was already dead. He marvelled that Joseph was there; is He dead already?

And so he called unto him the centurion, and he asked him if he had been dead for any length of time. And when the centurion confirmed that yes, Jesus was actually dead, , he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of rock, and he rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre (15:44-46).

And then, Isaiah 53:9 was fulfilled where He made His grave with the rich. So Joseph of Arimathaea burying Christ in his tomb. Today the Garden Tomb is one of the most beautiful sites in my estimation in the Holy Land, whether or not that is the actual tomb is just a matter of speculation but it surely fits the description and is a marvellous experience to see this tomb and surely it was, no doubt, one, if this is not the one, similar to this where Joseph buried Jesus, a tomb that was hewn out of the rock. And of course, you find a lot of them around Jerusalem and you find the rolling stones in front of them. There’s several of them, the King’s Tomb, and also over near King David Hotel what they call Herod’s Tomb and these tombs that are hewn out of the rock.

Someone said, How in the world could this man, very costly, only the wealthy really were entombed. The others were just put in sarcophagus, these flesh-eating coffins. Only the wealthy were buried in tombs and how is it that the guy would go to all of the expense. There in the Garden Tomb there is a cistern for the water to keep the garden and a lot of elaborate expense. Doing that all to prepare a tomb for himself, how could he just give it over to another man? Someone said, Well, it was only for the weekend.

We are told in the close that,

Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses followed, they knew where the tomb was (15:47).

So that that sets the stage for the next chapter, the resurrection of Jesus.

Father again we’re so grateful for Your love, so rich, so full, so complete. And we stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene. And we wonder how He could love us, sinners, condemned, unclean. O how marvellous, how wonderful Your marvellous love for us. Thank You Lord, thank You Lord, for taking our place, dying in our stead that You might give us life, eternal life. And Lord as we look at the question, What shall I do with Jesus who is called the King of the Jews? May we this day crown Him the Lord of life, the Lamb upon the throne. And may we bow our knee before Him and kiss the scepter as we pledge our hearts, our lives, our all in allegiance unto Him. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Deny Yourself

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. (Matthew 16:24)

Sin causes us to be self-centered, shifting our hearts from God to self. The essence of salvation is an about-face from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. The Christian must spend a lifetime denying self. Our great temptation will be to affirm ourselves while we follow Jesus. James and John did this when they chose to follow Jesus but asked for the two most prominent positions in Jesus’ kingdom (Mark 10:35?37). James and John wanted a discipleship that would not impede their personal desires and aspirations. Like them, we say, ?Lord, I want to be pleasing to you, but I want to stay where I am.?

Self-centered people try to keep their lives unruffled and undisturbed, safe and secure. Our temptation is to give our time and effort to the goals of this world. Then, when we are successful in the world’s eyes, we seek to bring God into our world by honoring Him with our success. We may say, ?Now that I have succeeded in business [or sports, or politics, or with my family, or even Christian ministry], I want to give God the glory for it!? God is not interested in receiving secondhand glory from our activity. God receives glory from His activity through our lives.

The world will entice you to adopt its goals and to invest in temporal things. Resist the temptation to pursue your own goals, asking God to bless them. Rather, deny yourself and join the activity of God as He reveals it to you.

As we mentioned this morning, Mark’s gospel is more or less an abbreviated version of the gospel and in the thirteenth chapter, we find this abbreviated version of what is often called the Olivet discourse that was prompted by the disciples’ questions concerning the signs of the destruction of the temple and the sign of the coming of the Lord and the end of the age. And so Jesus gave to His disciples signs that would indicate the time of the destruction of the temple, He gave to them signs of His coming again, and of the end of this age of Gentile rule that would precede the glorious kingdom age, the establishing of God’s kingdom upon the earth. So Mark tells us,

As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here (13:1)!

Josephus probably gives us the best description of the temple. It is interesting that nothing really very much is made out of the greatness of the temple, its building. We do know that Jesus came to the temple. He, on two occasions, drove out those that were merchandising and making it sort of a bazaar, changing money and selling sacrificial animals within the temple precincts. He did call it His Father’s house. When they first were asking for a sign, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again” (John 2:19). And they made fun of the fact that they had been forty-six years in the construction and You say You’re going to build it in three days. And so “He was talking,” we are told, “of the temple of His body” (John 2:21).

According to Josephus, between the years 19 and 20 B.C., Herod had began the construction of the temple. When he first made mention of his plans to build the temple, there was a negative reaction among the Jews. Some thought that he was just attempting to destroy the temple that had been built by Zerubbabel, when they return from their captivity, and they thought that he would never finish the project of the new temple. So he gave a speech to the people and he more or less in the speech outlined his plan to build this tremendous monument, it would be greater than any building that existed. At that time, you had the great temples in Ephesus, the great temples in Athens, Greece, but this was to exceed them all in glorious magnificence. He was wanting this to be the crowning achievement of his life. He wanted this to be the monument that would forever mark him in the annals of the history of man. This was to be his great building and that in years to come, Herod the great would always be remembered because of this vast temple complex that he built there in Jerusalem. To allay their fears that it would not be completed, he said that he would gather all of the materials before they would actually begin the project of building the temple. And the first thing they did, of course, was to enlarge the temple mount area by building this huge retaining wall.

In the Tyropian valley, the retaining wall was some 250 feet high above the bottom of the Tyropian valley. They had this massive bridge, fifty feet wide, that came across the Tyropian valley, those in the upper city of Jerusalem could come across this massive bridge of which part of it still exists to the present day. When you go to the temple mount area, you will go up to the western wall and into the gate, to the left there, and you’ll see this tremendous arch in there which was one of the arches of this bridge that crossed the Tyropian valley some 300 feet long and the people in the upper part of Jerusalem could come across the bridge to the temple without going down into the valley and back up again. The top of the bridge was 250 feet above the valley floor. So it’s just absolutely mind boggling when you’re there and you see the huge stones that they used just to build the bridge, the huge stones that they used to build this retaining wall around the southern part of the temple mount area and the eastern part in order to enlarge the area of the temple courtyards, and it was not just the temple itself but there were many other buildings built in conjunction with the temple; colonnades, porches and just magnificent buildings surrounding the temple.

The temple itself according to Josephus was a hundred and twenty cubits high which would be about a hundred and eighty feet which would be about the height of an eighteen-story building. So it was quite mammoth in size. According to Josephus, some of the stones that were used in the lower level of the building of the temple were forty feet long and twelve feet high and eighteen feet thick. Some of the historians believe that he was guilty of hyperbole, that he’s exaggerating it a bit, but in the excavations along the western wall, the temple mount area, or the retaining wall, the western wall, up towards the fortress of Antonio, I stepped off one stone that was forty-seven feet long. I don’t know the thickness of it but was about six to seven feet high. It’s estimated that it weighs somewhere around a hundred and sixty to a hundred and eighty tons. And so, Herod was really going to put it all into this temple, it was to be a monument unto Herod throughout generations. God had other ideas.

The disciple was remarking to Jesus about the stones, these huge stones that Herod used and about the great building itself with its beautiful gates covered with plates of gold and the golden grates on the gates that glistened in the morning sunlight so much so that you really couldn’t look at them. It was like looking at the sun, the reflection. And when the disciple was pointing out these huge great buildings, the temple, the porticoes, the colonnades,

Jesus said unto them, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (13:2).

And that must have seemed to be one of the most impractical things that Jesus ever said. How in the world could anyone ever destroy such a magnificent structure, such a huge structure as the temple. And yet here is this amazing prediction by Jesus, “not one stone will be left standing upon another.” When a person makes predictions, it is easy to find out whether or not they are true or false prophet and that is, does it come to pass? And if it doesn’t come to pass, then it’s very obvious they are a false prophet. If it comes to pass, then there are other tests that you should put before you’re ready to accept them as a true prophet but, what are they teaching you to believe and trust in for your salvation? But here was an amazing prediction and one that will establish whether or not Jesus is a true or a false prophet.

They were leaving the temple area, they went through the Kidron valley over to the Mount of Olives and there was a place that Jesus was accustomed to, more or less, stay on the Mount of Olives with His disciples and we are told here that it was over against the temple. That is, they had a view of the temple from the place where they were sitting there at the Mount of Olives. From the Mount of Olives, you have a great view into the temple area, especially from the middle portion of the Mount of Olives, there’s a path that comes down and you get a grand view of the whole temple area, the large temple mount area and the buildings.

And so Jesus was over there where they could look back down onto the temple mount, [the temple and the buildings that were there], Peter and James and John and Andrew, [that is the brothers, Peter and Andrew, James and John] they came to Jesus privately and they said, Lord tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all of these things shall be fulfilled (13:3,4)?

Matthew tells us that they were asking for the signs of His coming again and the end of the age. But when shall these things be? When shall this destruction of the temple take place? So in this Olivet discourse, you have actually prophecies that deal with the signs of the destruction of the temple. And then you have prophecies that deal with the signs of His coming and of the end of the Gentile age. And as I said, Matthew and Luke give to us fuller accounts of this Olivet discourse.

So Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you (13:5):

One of the signs would be false Messiahs, false christs, deception.

For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ [or the Messiah, the Anointed One]; and shall deceive many (13:6).

I’ve often said that it is tragic what men will believe who have rejected the truth of Jesus Christ. If you want to just set yourself up as a sucker to believe anything, then just don’t believe in Jesus. I look at these people who have rejected the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I look at the Hare Krishnas. I see them in their saffron robes, I see them with their finger symbols and their shaved heads and I see them as they are dancing on the streets and so forth, and I think what a tragedy, what foolish things people will believe who reject the truth of Jesus Christ. And the Lord sort of said that. In 2 Thessalonians, He said that “because they would not receive the knowledge of the truth, God gave them over to a strong delusion, that they would believe a lie:” rather than the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:11). You see people who are following after men who proclaim themselves to be Messiah. Take the case of Koresh there in Waco, Texas. Take Jimmy Jones in Ghana. And just more recently this past week, the suicides of the people that were following this supposed charismatic leader and looks like maybe there was murder and suicides. But the things that people will believe when they reject the truth of God. God just gives them over to a delusion because they don’t want the knowledge of the truth, God will allow them then to be gullible and to believe all kinds of fanciful nothings. And so, Jesus warns first of those false religious systems that would proliferate.

And when you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, don’t be troubled: for these things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet (13:7).

In other words, man has not, does not, and will not learn to live together in peace. How the idealist has so long advocated, hoped for, dreamed of a peaceful world. And how they sought to bring to pass treaties that would bring peace to earth, and of course, development of the league of nations and more recently, the United Nations and trying to establish a world type of government so that we can create world peace. But just look at our world today. Look at how troubled we are. Wars and rumors of wars, and right now rumors of wars again. But Jesus said those things are going to happen. The world, and I hate to explode any of your, no I don’t hate it, I like to burst your bubbles that are false, no sense living in an illusion or being deluded into thinking, everyday and in every way the world is getting better and better and better. I had a grandmother who used to tell me that. And it’s not happening, it’s not going to happen. The world is going to get worse and worse, according to the scriptures. Evil days shall wax worse and worse, was spoken of the last days, “perilous times will come because men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1,4).

And all of the consequences of man giving himself over to the flesh and the lust of the flesh until it becomes like it was in the days of Noah, when everyone was doing that which was right in his own eyes. So don’t live under a false illusion of thinking that we’re on the verge of world peace. In fact, Paul said, “When they begin to say, Peace and safety; then come sudden destruction” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). So watch out for that peace cry. Jesus said, “You’ll hear of wars and rumors of wars” and that’s going to go on and has gone on and shall go on until the Lord does come.

For nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom: and there will be earthquakes in divers places, there shall be famines and troubles: and these are just the beginnings of sorrows (13:8).

That is, the nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes in diverse places, famines and pestilences. And of course, we are seeing our share of these things today, the beginning of sorrows. And so,

Take heed to yourselves (13:9):

He is telling now the disciples the things that are going to be happening to them. This is prior to the destruction of the temple.

they are going to deliver you up to the councils; and to the synagogues and you will be beaten: and you will be brought before the rulers and the kings for my sake, for a testimony against them (13:9).

So He’s saying, it’s not going to be easy to be my disciple, to follow Me. You’re going to be persecuted. They’re going to bring you before the religious councils. They’re going to bring you before the rulers. They’re going to beat you. And all of these will be done for my sake. And so we do read in Acts the fourth chapter when Peter and John were beaten and commanded not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus. They went their way rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer persecution for Jesus Christ. No doubt remembering these words of Jesus as they were being beaten. Thought, yes, the Lord told us. He’s a prophet, here it is.

So the gospel must first be published among all nations (13:10).

There are many mission groups that have taken this passage of scripture as their main impetus for their foreign mission programs. Jesus said the gospel will be preached in all the world and then shall the end come. And it is the commission of the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That is the commission Jesus gave to His disciples, to the church. And it is thrilling today to me to see how that so many of the churches have developed a vision for world missions and how many Calvary Chapel missionaries we have serving the Lord all over the world tonight. Just how the Lord is going to accomplish this feat of the Gospel being published or preached into all the world is not fully known. Surely satellite communication opens up a broad new field of getting the Gospel into all the world.

This past week we were approached by a religious broadcasting group who have a large 250,000 watt short-wave transmitter and antennas that are beamed towards Mexico and South America and offering to turn these over to us for a radio ministry that would reach Mexico and South America. And we are presently praying about it, looking for property in Idaho to relocate the transmitter and tower because it will be necessary to relocate them. But the opportunity of getting the Gospel out through radio, we of course are going on satellite within just a few days now. We put up a test signal this past week onto the satellite and we will, actually, we don’t have our stations set up for it yet but it can be received on these antennas that people have around the country especially those that live up in the remote areas and we already had some calls from people who picked up the signal off of the satellite dishes. And so it’s interesting and we’re moving in this direction in another way by which we can expand the preaching of the Gospel. Mexico does not allow religious broadcasting per se. But with the short-wave, we can pop right in to Mexico and the government can’t stop it. We just bounce the signal off the ionosphere and it just blankets Mexico. So there are many opportunities of getting the Gospel into all the world.

We do know that in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, during the great tribulation period, there will be “angels who will be flying through the midst of heaven bearing the everlasting Gospel” (Revelation 14:6). So maybe Jesus was referring to the angels carrying the message and this will precede and then shall the end come. God is faithful and I believe that God is giving one final witness to the world. I believe that “God is not willing that any should perish, that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), and that final witness to the world, the opportunity of men to believe or to reject Jesus Christ. So one of the signs of the last days, the Gospel first published among all nations.

But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up [that is, before the councils], don’t take any thought beforehand what you will speak, neither premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak: for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit (13:11).

So Jesus is saying you don’t have to worry about your defense, the Holy Spirit will just give you the words to speak and you see classic examples of that when Paul was arrested and brought before the magistrates, how the Holy Spirit inspired Paul’s testimony to them. You see it in the case of Stephen, where he was brought before the council and how the Holy Spirit gave him that masterpiece of a sermon.

Now the brother shall betray brother to death, the father the son; children will rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (13:12,13).

So it’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be hard. You’re going to be lights in a dark world but the world doesn’t want the light. You’re going to be salt to preserve the world from rotting but they don’t want that preservation. They’re going to hate you, you’re going to be persecuted for My sake. And even your own family members may turn against you and deliver you up to the judges.

But when you shall see the abomination of desolation (13:14),

Now we go leapfrog into the signs of the return of Jesus Christ to the earth in power and glory. “When you will see the abomination of desolation”

spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (13:14),

Matthew says “standing in the holy place”. The book of Daniel chapter nine speaks of the abomination of desolation and it again is referred to later on in the book of Daniel and from what Daniel says, we know that the abomination of desolation is the desecration of the rebuilt temple by the antichrist. Now it would appear that when the antichrist comes into power, that he will make a covenant with the nation of Israel, a covenant for seven years. And in the covenant it would appear that he does grant to them the permission to rebuild their temple. And of course, this is on the heart of so many Jews today. They are looking for their Messiah because of the nation being birthed again, they are many of them looking for their Messiah. They believe that they will be able to recognize their Messiah who they say will be a man, they will recognize him because he will lead them in the rebuilding of their temple. He will be the one that will bring them their temple. And so it would appear from Daniel that this covenant will be made with Israel by this man of sin, the antichrist and probably in that covenant, grant them the privilege of rebuilding their temple on the northern portion of the temple mount site in Jerusalem, probably putting a wall next to the dome of the rock mosque and then reserving the whole northern side for the Jews to have their religious center and the Moslems can keep the southern side which they have the dome of the rock and the Al Aqsa mosque.

It is interesting that when John measures the temple that is to be built, the Lord commands him not to measure the outer court because it’s been given to the Gentiles. In the new temple that Ezekiel saw, there was a wall that was built around it to separate the holy place from the profane. And so it would appear that there will be a covenant made with Israel allowing them to rebuild their temple without actually creating a jihad with the Moslems. And in the midst of the seven-year period, three-and-a-half years into the covenant, he will come to Jerusalem and he will stop the daily sacrifices and the daily prayers and he will stand there in the temple of God, according to Second Thessalonians chapter two, showing that he is God and demands to be worshipped as God. That is the abomination which Daniel said causes the desolation. That is the final affront of man against God.

At this point, the wrath of God’s indignation will overflow and will begin the three-and-a-half years of the great tribulation period of which the Bible speaks. So this great tribulation period of three-and-a-half years will precede the return of Jesus Christ in glory. He will come at the end of this great tribulation period. In fact, he will come 1,390 days after the profaning of the temple, after this abomination that causes desolation, according to Daniel chapter twelve.

“So when you see this abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing where it ought not,” that is, standing in the holy of holies of the new temple,

(let him that reads understand,) (13:14)

so you’re under the command of the Lord when your read this, you need to understand it. and to understand it, you need to go back to Daniel chapter nine and on through to the end of the book of Daniel to get understanding of this abomination which causes the great desolation.

then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains (13:14):

According to the book of Revelation chapter twelve, God will give to the nation of Israel, to the woman wings of an eagle to bear her to the wilderness place where she will be nourished for three-and-a-half years, time, times and a half time, the three-and-a-half years in which God will preserve them in this place in the wilderness that God has set for them. And so this is the time to flee when you see this abomination of desolation.

Let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house (13:15):

In other words, post haste, get out of here fast.

Let him that is in the field not even go back to his house to get his garment. And woe to those that have little children, and to those that are nursing in those days (13:16,17)!

Going to be days of great hardship.

And pray that your flight will not be in the winter. For in those days there shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of creation (13:18,19)

These are going to be the hardest days that man has experienced upon this globe we call the planet. Days of turmoil, days of strife, days of cataclysmic judgments, of divine wrath and is unparalleled in the history of man. Even greater than the flood of Noah, greater than the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so “in those days, there shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of creation,”

which God created unto this time, and neither shall be (13:19).

This is it, this will be the place in history, nothing ever again like this, nothing has ever been like this.

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days (13:20).

The phrase “no flesh would be saved,” it is interesting that in some of the latest weapons that are developed are what are called dirty bombs, nuclear bombs that have extremely intensive radioactive fallout. These bombs are designed not to destroy the buildings, the material things, they only destroy the human body by ultra-radiation. And this ultra-radiation causes running ulcers and a person, the flesh is just eaten away. God described interestingly enough in Zechariah the manner by which those who came against Jerusalem were to be destroyed and as the Lord describes the method by which they were to be destroyed, it sounds very much like radioactive kind of burns that the people would receive. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh will consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (Zechariah 14:12). Of course we now have a new virus that is a flesh-eating virus. And so, no flesh would remain, an interesting choice of words.

And then if a man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; don’t believe him: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take heed: because I have foretold all of these things. [Told you in advance.] But in those days, after the tribulation [the end], the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken (13:21-25).

Isaiah speaks of this event in the sixteenth chapter. Joel speaks of this in chapters two and three. Amos speaks of this, the days when the sun doesn’t shine, the moon doesn’t give her light and a tremendous meteorite shower is upon the earth, powers of heaven shaken. Actually Isaiah describes “the earth reeling to and fro like a drunken man, being moved out of its place” (Isaiah 24:20). Great cataclysmic events.

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory (13:26).

So the signs of His coming. This great tribulation period climaxing in these spectacular cataclysmic heavenly events, the sun not shining, the moon not shining, and the tremendous meteorite showers. And then “Jesus coming in the clouds with great power and glory.”

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven (13:27).

His elect here are the Jews, not the church. Isaiah chapter eleven, verse twelve is no doubt the passage that Jesus is referencing here when He talks about His coming and this gathering together from the ends of the earth. “He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12). And so it’s a reference to Israel.

There are those that say it’s the church and thus they put the church in the great tribulation period. But those who say that God is through with Israel, that the church is Israel, have such a messed up prophetic view that it’s hopeless. And it’s dangerous to say that God is through with the nation of Israel. God said that as long as there is day and night He will not forget His covenant with the nation of Israel. So if the sun comes up tomorrow, God’s covenant is still standing with Israel. And don’t rule Israel out, God is not and will not break His covenant with the nation. He’s going to take them through some heavy experiences but yet He has made His covenant and His promises to them and they are, the church does not replace Israel. We have our own place in our relationship to God through Jesus Christ. But Israel also has its place and God is going to yet deal with them, He’s got a seven-year covenant to yet be fulfilled with the nation of Israel. So “then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds in great glory and He will send His angels and gather them.”

Now learn a parable of the fig tree (13:28);

In the Old Testament, the fig tree has been used as a symbol of the nation of Israel. God cried through the prophet, “They have barked my fig tree,” as He spoke of the destruction of Israel. In the book of Jeremiah, God likened Israel to a basket of figs, rotten figs that were so rotten that they had to be thrown out. Jesus in the cursing of the fig tree, there was a symbolism involved. It was a tree that didn’t bear fruit and thus was cursed and would wither and die. And so with the nation of Israel, because it did not bring forth the fruit that God had desired it was to be cursed, it was to wither and die. But God would bring it back from the grave, Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven. So “learn the parable of the fig tree,”

When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, you know that summer is near (13:28):

So the fig tree in the springtime begins to put forth the green leaves, the new fruit. You know summer is coming, summer is getting close. It’s like when you see the signs, the Santa Clauses and the Christmas trees going up, you know that Thanksgiving is close.

And so in like manner when you shall see these things come to pass, know that it’s near, even at the doors (13:29).

These are the signs of His return. Just know when you see these things that it is near.

Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled or be done (13:30).

The Greek word here “genea” probably refers to the nation of Israel or the Jewish people, the Jewish genes will not pass ’til all of these things be fulfilled. The remarkable thing is that the Jews have maintained a national identity for almost 2,000 years without a national homeland. And this is unparalleled in the history of man. There has been no other ethnic group of people who have been able to maintain their ethnic identity without a homeland. Usually when a nation has been taken captive, within three or four generations there is a loss of a national identity. And yet here the Jews have maintained their national identity for 2,000 years without a homeland. And so again, if the generation refers to the Jews as a group, it is an amazing prophecy and has been fulfilled.

There are those who say that it is the generation that sees the fig tree bud and thus, the generation that saw the birth of the nation of Israel. That more or less is passing, the generation. I saw the birth of Israel and I’m passing. Those that saw that rebirth, those that were alive in 1948 saw the rebirth of the nation Israel. There are some that interpret that that generation would not pass.

The budding of the fig tree is that the birth of the nation or is it maybe when Jerusalem became again Israeli territory in 1967. Jesus in Luke twenty-one in the same context of the Olivet discourse said that Jerusalem would be trodden under the foot of the Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. So in 1967 when Jerusalem again became under the control of the Israel government, completely and fully, the whole city of Jerusalem, did that mark the budding of the fig tree, if the budding of the fig tree indeed be the nation of Israel? So there are several ways to interpret this and not all of them, you can’t really discount any. The thing is about prophecy, you really never know for sure until after it’s happened. And then you say, Oh yes. And a lot of people have made mistakes in trying to be very dogmatic in their prophetic interpretations and it has oftentimes proved to be wrong.

Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will not pass away (13:31).

Here are the words of Jesus. Interesting predictions, predictions of the temple being destroyed, it was fulfilled. Prediction of the events that would precede the destruction of the temple, they were fulfilled. Predictions of the things that would be transpiring when He would return again, and we do see such things taking place today. His word would last. It’s interesting that we have His word tonight, we’re here to study His word. It’s been probably, no other book has been subjected to such critical analysis as the Bible. No other book has been attacked as viciously as the Bible. There have been so many people that have set themselves to disprove the Bible. Of course, that’s the dangerous thing. If you don’t believe the Bible, disprove it. Prove the Bible wrong. I dare you to. But be careful, it’s a trap because those that have set out to prove the Bible wrong, so many of them that I know ended up believing the Bible. The internal evidence of inspiration is so strong that I know of so many who set themselves out to disprove the Bible, ended up being very firm believers. So Jesus said His words would not pass away. They haven’t passed away, we have them tonight, we’re reading them tonight, we’re studying them tonight. So another glorious fulfillment of prophecy.

But heaven and earth shall pass away. The earth is in a slow process of passing away. Our universe is in a slow process of fading out. The sun is losing mass, one million two hundred thousand tons of mass per second. Sir Jean said, the great scientist, the earth was like a giant clock, the universe is like a giant clock that was wound up but is slowly running down. The first and second laws of thermodynamics are taking their toll and there is a process of degeneration that is taking place. Of course, the universe is so vast it will take a long time in the natural span for this to happen, but according to the Bible there’s going to be cataclysmic things that are going to hasten the end of the universe as such. Heaven and earth will pass but not the word of Jesus, it’s eternal. That’s why we should put such study and interest in the words of the Lord, they are lasting, they’re eternal.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man (13:32),

That is, the very day and hour that the Lord is coming for His church, nobody knows that. And in the Greek it means, just in the day of hour nobody knows. It’s just, that’s what He said. You don’t know. We just had another, I don’t know what gets into people to try and set, eighty-eight reasons why Jesus is coming in ’88. And we had that book and all of these fuss around the country. Have you heard the book? And I had so many people sending me this Wise and Nuts book, turned out not so wise but pretty much of a nut. And he didn’t make it. So then he had the audacity to say, Oh I miscalculated it, it’s 1989, and got the people, there weren’t that many that followed it for 1989.

But even this year, there was another fellow that set this year and he’s a pretty prominent fellow and should know better. But I don’t know, there’s something about date setting that seems to be fascinating and you get a lot of people excited. And then once the day passes, and of course, this goes way back, they’ve been doing that. At the thousand year, the first millennium there were a lot of them that believed the Lord was coming then. And when the Lord didn’t come in the year 1000, they figured out it’s because Jerusalem is under the control of the heathens and thus the crusades were to go and free the Holy Land so that the Lord could come. That was the whole impetus behind the crusades. Then 1847, 1857, some fellow back in Zion, Illinois got the people all dressed in white robes and waiting because he had figured out the day that the Lord was coming.

Jehovah Witnesses have had three or four dates that have passed by for the coming of the Lord. But “no man knows the day or the hour,” just that’s it. In fact,

not even the angels of heaven know that, and not even the Son (13:32),

so if you say the Lord’s revealed the day and hour to you, you’re pretty special person because He didn’t even do that to the Son. Because we don’t know the day or the hour, the word of Jesus to us is therefore,

Take heed, watch and pray: for you know not when the time is (13:33).

Because we don’t know when the time is, the injunction to us is just watch and pray.

For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and he commanded the porter to watch (13:34).

So Jesus is the one who has gone on the far journey, left His church and gave us our duties, appointed us the various duties. But to the porter He said, now watch.

Watch ye therefore: for you know not when the master of the house is coming, whether it will be in the evening, or midnight, or in the early morning, the cockcrowing, or in the morning itself: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch (13:35-37).

So watch. You don’t know, we don’t know. It could be tonight. I would be thrilled if it were tonight. It could be tomorrow, it could be before the weekend. Watch because we don’t know the time of the Lord’s return. The important thing is that we are ready and that we are watching.

Father, we thank You for the word of God rich, full, blessed. And Lord, we pray that You will awaken us and stir us unto good works that when You come Lord, You will find us faithful servants watching, ready for Your return. Lord, we pray that we might give all diligence to serving You and to engage ourselves in the things of the Spirit. Not to be caught up in the worldly patterns so that the day catch us unaware. And Lord may we be ready, may we be watching. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

]]> http://www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/http:/www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/bible-studies/bible-study-mark-13/feed/ 1 http://www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/http:/www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/daily-devotional/devotional-tuesday-february-16-2010/ http://www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/http:/www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/daily-devotional/devotional-tuesday-february-16-2010/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 07:03:10 +0000 B.P.U Contributor http://www.bibleprophecyupdate.com/?p=2635 www.blackaby.org

Forgive To Be Forgiven

And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

Few things are more precious to receive than forgiveness. After carrying the burden of our sin, it is wonderfully freeing to know that the one we have wronged has completely forgiven us. Jesus told His disciples to ask God for forgiveness every time they prayed. Jesus knew that we would daily incur debts against God, as we inevitably fall short of God’s standard. A day does not go by that we do not need to ask God to remove our debt against Him.

Jesus warned that we should expect forgiveness from God as we forgive those who sin against us, for God will forgive us in the same way we forgive others (Matt. 6:15). God’s nature is forgiveness (Exod. 34:6—7). If we are to be His disciples, we must follow His example. If God will forgive our most relentless enemy, we can do nothing less. Jesus did not say that certain offenses are unworthy of our forgiveness. We have no biblical excuse for allowing unforgiveness in our hearts.

If you choose to withhold forgiveness from someone, your worship and prayers are futile (Matt. 5:23—24). Ask God to make you aware of those dark corners in your life where you are harboring resentment. A keen awareness of your own need for forgiveness will put the offenses of others in their proper light. Ask God to make you like Christ so that, even when you are being persecuted, you can pray “Father, forgive them.”

Let’s turn now in our Bibles to the gospel according to Mark, we’re in chapter twelve this evening. Jesus has just ran headlong into the religious leaders as He came into the temple and drove out the moneychangers and got rid of those who were commercializing the temple and so they came to Him and they asked Him who gave Him the authority to do those things and by what authority He did them and who gave Him the authority? And He answered with a proposition, I’ll answer your question if you’ll answer My question. John’s baptism, was it of God or was it of man? They reasoned among themselves, If we say it was of God, then He’ll say why didn’t you believe him and follow him? And if we say, Of man, then the people will turn against us because they’re convinced John was a prophet. They said we can’t answer you. He said, neither do I answer you. So as He is now still, this is still this confrontation with them, you’re still in the midst of this confrontation.

And he began to speak unto them (12:1)

That is, the religious leaders, the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, “He began to speak to them”

by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, digged a place for the winefat [or vat actually, in modern English], and he built a tower, he let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country (12:1).

Now in Isaiah chapter five, he uses the parable of a vineyard, the vineyard representing the nation of Israel and how that God planted the finest plant, how He put protection around it, how He did everything to ensure wonderful fruit. Had built the winepress in it, had put the wall around it to protect it. And how that in developing it with the finest vine and all, yet when it came time to bear fruit, it only bore wild grapes. And so the judgment was He was just going to break down the walls, take away the protection, allow the vineyard to just go wild and to be trodden down, it failed to bring forth the fruit that God was seeking (Isaiah 5:1-5).

When Jesus again uses a vineyard in a parable, there is in the study of the scriptures what they call expositional constancy. And that is, when in a parable a vineyard is used of the nation Israel, whenever the vineyard then is used in parabolic form, the expositional constancy would say that it is always the nation of Israel that is being referred to. So as Jesus brings up the vineyard once again, they would immediately identify the nation of Israel as the vineyard. It was let out to husbandmen. They would be the ones who were to nurture and to care for the vineyard in order to ensure that the vineyard brought forth good fruit, their responsibility to keep the vineyard and to develop it, to cultivate it that it might bring forth good fruit.

There was a certain man, planted the vineyard and set the hedge around it; in other words, he established this vineyard. And when the time came that he should reap the fruit of the vineyard, and as a general rule, when you had an absentee owner, he was entitled to fifty percent of the produce that came from the vineyard. And so the time came for the owner to get his fifty percent and it could not be collected until the fifth year.

The time came for the owner to receive the fruit, and so he sent a servant unto the husbandmen to gather for him or to get for him the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son (12:2-6).

Now of course the servants that were sent were the prophets. And for the most part, the office of the prophet was a hazardous position in Israel. In fact, in Stephen’s defense before the council as he got into the rehearsing of their history, he was showing them how that traditionally, their fathers had rejected God’s plan. How that when Joseph was rejected by his brothers, they said, We bow down and serve you? Are you kidding, that’ll never happen. And yet they sold him as a slave but still in the end, they did bow down and do obeisance to him according to the dream that he had. But they rejected him the first time around. Second time around, they acknowledged the position that the Lord had placed him in. Moses, when Moses first came to the people, they rejected Moses from ruling over them. And Moses fled and spent forty years in the wilderness. The second time around, they recognized that God had ordained Moses to lead them out of their slavery in Egypt.

As Stephen was getting into it, of course he was building up to Jesus, first time around you’ve killed Him but He’s coming back again. You’ll recognize that He’s the King of kings and Lord of lords. He’s building to that but before he could actually get to the punch line of his message, he was so into how blind they were. He said, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers stoned” (Acts 7:52)? Name a prophet who came out unscathed. Those men who dared to speak God’s truth unto the people.

And so here Jesus is pretty much saying the same thing. The prophets that God had sent to the nation of Israel were mistreated, imprisoned, beaten, many of them killed. In the book of Hebrews chapter eleven, it tells us about the suffering of the servants of God, those men of faith, how they were imprisoned, how they were stoned, how they were sawn asunder. Men of whom the world was not worthy. And how they were mistreated by the world and by the nation of Israel. So all of the succession of prophets have been pretty well badly treated by the nation.

God is still desiring fruit and so He said, My beloved Son, I’ll send Him, surely they will reverence Him. Now here Jesus puts Himself in a far different category than the prophets. There are always those today that would like to reduce Jesus to one of the prophets. In fact, Mohammed declares that Jesus was just one of the prophets in a succession of prophets. And there are many people that buy into this line. He’s just one of a succession of prophets that God had sent. But notice how Jesus puts Himself in a far different category. Finally, He said, “My beloved Son, I will send Him, surely they will reverence Him.”

But the husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours (12:7).

Pilate knew when they brought Jesus before him that it was a conspiracy, that they were jealous of Jesus and fearful that Jesus would replace them. The high priest had said, “Don’t you realize that it’s necessary that one should die in order that we might save our position in the nation” (John 11:50)? They said, Behold how all of the people are going after Him, we’re going to have to do something about this. Or else, they’re going to take away our power, our position. And so this basically, Jesus is showing them what they have already determined that He is a threat to them, a danger to them and thus, He had to, in their mind, be destroyed lest they lose their authority and their power and their hold over the people. “This is the heir, let’s kill him and then the vineyard will be ours.” We’ll be able to continue our control and power over the nations.

What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? [The lord of the vineyard is God.] he will come and will destroy the husbandmen [those religious leaders], and he will give the vineyard unto others (12:9).

And then Jesus said,

Have you not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner (12:10):

Or the main cornerstone upon which the building was built or the keystone in the arch. Stone rejected by the builders. And so that was a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, the stone as promised by Moses, the rock, the stone declared by Daniel, not cut with hands that shall smite the world governments, bringing them down and establishing a kingdom that will never end. The stone though that was rejected by the builders, by the religious leaders of the nation of Israel and it is become and He is become the headstone of the corner.

Now when Peter was standing before the council, these same men and beside him was John and the lame man that all of his life had been lame and was a notable beggar who was at the temple begging from people who went in, and he is standing there with them whole, and the chief council asked him, “By what name or by what power did you do this miracle to this lame man?” [How did you do this? What power, what name?] “And Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit said, You men of Israel, if we are examined this day because of a good deed, if we’re being judged, if we’re on trial today, we’ve been arrested, we’re here on trial because of the good deed, this lame man is walking,” [he basically was saying, Don’t you think that’s a rather lame charge? The guy’s walking, what’s your problem?] “But if you really want to know, the God of our fathers has honored His Son Jesus and it is, he pointed them and he said, This is the stone that was set of nought of you builders” (Acts 4:7-11). Remember that one? He’s cutting right through because they had heard Jesus say, Haven’t you read the scripture? And now Peter’s reminding them of the very same scripture, “The stone which was rejected by the builders has become the chief cornerstone.”

And so they sought to arrest Jesus at that point, but they feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them (12:12):

They got the point of the parable. They realized He’s aiming at us. So they got together and they said, We’ve got to do something to take away His popularity among the people. We’ve got to turn the people against Him. We’ve got to get rid of Him. And so they were figuring out how they could catch Him and cause Him to say things that would turn the people against Him.

And so they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words (12:13).

To trap Him, make Him say something that would make Him unpopular.

And when they were come, they said unto him [and listen to this buttery stuff], Master, we know that you are true, and you don’t care for man: and you don’t regard the person of men, but you teach the way of God in truth (12:14):

In other words, we know you’re a straight shooter. We know that you don’t fear man. You speak the truth and you don’t care who it hits. You’re straight. Tell us,

Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not (12:14)?

They figured they got a Catch twenty-two. If He says, it is lawful, you should pay your taxes to Caesar, then the people will all turn against Him. The Roman government, in establishing its rule over the earth, where a nation would work together in cooperation with Rome, the nation was left fairly independent. And during the reign of Herod the great, the nation of Israel was allowed many freedoms because of the favor that Herod the great had with Rome. Upon his death, the nation was divided to his three sons, Archelaus had the southern portion where is Jerusalem, Judaea; Antipas had the area up in the Galilee region; and Philippi had the regions in the far north up towards Syria. Archelaus was, Antipas and Philippi were they worked together with Rome, they did alright. But Archelaus was a poor leader, poor ruler and under him, there came an insurrection against Rome. He wasn’t powerful enough to hold it down and so the portion that Archelaus ruled became a Roman province, that is, they sent a Roman procurator to rule over the area. And there were then Roman soldiers stationed there to keep order and to keep law.

So such was the case there at this time, it was a place that was under the Roman authority and law, and the Romans taxed the people ten percent of their grain, twenty percent of their wine. Really when you look at that, the taxation isn’t bad compared to what we pay. And then they have what they called the Poll tax. That was the tax that you paid for just the right of living. It was reasonable though, it was only a denarius which is a couple of dollars a year.

When people are living in an area where they are provided services by the government, taxation is proper and we are told that we are to pay taxes. Honor to whom honor is due, and tribute or taxes to whom taxes are due. The fact that you can go into the bathroom and turn on a faucet and wash your hands, that running water is provided by the government. There’s got to be some way to pay for it. You can turn on the lights. These things that we enjoy, the benefits that we have, they collect your trash once a week. What a mess things would be if we didn’t have the trash collections, if we didn’t have the sewage plants and all of these things that have been developed by the government to make life easier for us. So there are certain obligations to the government, taxes to whom taxes are due.

But the Jews rebelled against taxes to Rome, especially did they hate this denarius that they had to pay the Poll tax, just the right to live. I have a right to live without paying Rome for that right. And that was the one that galled them especially. So, “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes or not?” You’re a straight shooter, tell us. If Jesus says no, it’s not lawful, that’s an unlawful tax, then they’ll run right down to the Roman headquarters and say we’ve got a tax revolt going on down the street. And they would have had Jesus arrested by the Roman government. So what can He say? Either way He’s wrong.

So Jesus said, Give me a denarius (12:15),

one of your little coins that you pay your poll tax with. Give me a denarius. They gave Him a penny, interesting He didn’t have one, isn’t it? For those who say that He wore designer clothes and was so wealthy and all this kind of stuff. Interesting He had to borrow a denarius to make a point. And He held it up to them,

And he said, Whose image is that on there? And of course the image was Caesar’s (12:16).

They said that’s Caesar. Put the coin back to them and said, If it’s Caesar’s,

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s (12:16).

In other words, there is a certain obligation that we do have to government but then there is a greater obligation that we have to God. Giving unto God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? Our very existence, our very lives. As Daniel said to Belshazzar in his drunken state, “The very God in whose hand your breath is, you have not glorified.” And so we should give to God what is God’s, the glory, the praise, the respect, the reverence, the honor, because He is our Creator and we really are His.

Then came some of the Sadducees (12:18),

The high priest was a Sadducee and most of the priesthood were Sadducees. These were men who did not really follow the oral traditions as did the Pharisees. They weren’t interested in the Mishnah or the oral traditions. In fact, they pretty much held only to the Pentateuch, the first five books. They even had questions on the rest of the books of the Old Testament but they held that the first five books were inspired. And because in the first five books, the books of the Pentateuch, there was no mention of resurrection, they believed that when you died, that was it, it’s all over. They did not believe in life after death, they did not believe in angels, they did not believe in spirits, they were the humanists, the naturalists of the day. Interesting that they would be the religious leaders, they were the ones who were the husbandmen who were to be developing the fruit in the vineyard, the religious leaders. But here they were rationalists, humanists. And so they came to Jesus, and they made up what I’m certain is a hypothetical case, unlikely that this would actually happen.

Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and he leaves his wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother (12:19).

That’s the Mosaic law. Actually it was before the Mosaic law, you go back in the book of Genesis and Levi, you remember his son married Tamar, he died and so the brother took Tamar and he died and so Levi have one more son but he thought, Oh my, she’s already killed two of my, don’t know that I want my third son, and so it was back before the law, this situation with Levi. And then you also have the case of, there was another case, Onan who refused to raise up a seed to his dead brother. But it was incorporated in the Mosaic law and it’s a very interesting law there, actually if a man died his brother was to take his wife and the first child would be named after the dead brother to keep his family name alive in Israel. If the man did not want to marry her, he did have an out, he could come before the judges and he could present his case. He could say, Look, this was my brother’s wife, he died, I know I have an obligation to marry her but I don’t want to marry her. Gave my brother such, I don’t want to be tied to that. And so he would take off his sandal and hand it to her. And she would spit in his face. It’s there under the law, look it up. And then he was known as the man from whom the shoe was loosed. Sort of a dirty word. He wouldn’t take care of family obligations, he wouldn’t honor his dead brother. Deuteronomy chapter twenty-five, you’ll find this law that they are referring to. So they made up this hypothetical case now.

There’s a man and he died and so the brother took the wife and he died. The next brother took the wife and he died, next brother took the wife, until the seven brothers, the story of seven brothers. They all had her as a wife, finally the seventh died. No children (12:20-22).

In the resurrection, who gets her (12:23)?

I read somewhere and this is awful, that there was a tombstone and on it, it said, Side by side, here lie my wife and I. And when on that judgment morn when the skies are filled with Gabriel’s horn, if she stands up I’m lying still. In the resurrection, whose wife will she be? You might say, Who wants her? They’re trying to create a case in which shows the ludicrousness of the idea of resurrection. In other words, if there’s resurrection of the dead there’s going to be all kinds of problems. It’s sort of ludicrous, this idea of resurrection. And they’re trying to point that out.

And so Jesus answering said unto them, Do you not therefore err, because you do not know the scriptures, nor the power of God (12:24)?

They erred in two points. You don’t know the scriptures. Number two, you don’t know the power of God.

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven (12:25).

Marriage today is ordained by God, a relationship in which two persons enter into the deepest, the most intimate and the most abiding relationship that we can experience on the human level, the two become one. It’s ordained by God. It is a beautiful, close bond. God has intended that through marriage children be brought into the world into a loving, rich, secure environment. But man has messed things up. But when you have a good marriage, there’s nothing better. It’s the closest thing probably to heaven on earth you can experience, a good marriage. And there are many people, I’ve actually had people say, If he can’t be my husband in heaven I don’t want to go to heaven. That’s sort of foolish because consider the alternative. He won’t be your husband there. But I won’t be happy. You do err because you don’t know the scriptures and you don’t know the power of God. The relationships that we will have in heaven will exceed even those of our marriage relationships here. Heaven is going to be such a glorious place. And just “eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard,” we’ve only gotten just glimpses, little glimpses here and there. But it’s so far beyond anything we’d ever hope for or dreamed or could imagine. And so Jesus said, “You do err, we’ll be like the angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

And as touching the dead (12:26),

That’s answering your question, but let’s go on to your issue. Touching the dead that they rise, you don’t believe that the dead rise but touching the dead

that they do rise: have you not read in the book of Moses (12:26),

Again that’s all they would accept, the first five books.

how in the bush God spoke unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: therefore you greatly err. [So He really put them down.] And so the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well (12:26-28),

They thought, that’s heavy, didn’t think of that one.

they asked him, Which is the first commandment of all (12:28)?

That is, first in importance. What’s the most important commandment of all?

And Jesus answered him, The first of all of the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: [The Shema there in Deuteronomy.] And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: and this is the first or primary commandment. The second is like it, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There are no other commandments greater than these (12:29-31).

These are the greatest. First, your relationship with God, loving Him supremely, loving Him with everything you have—all thy heart, soul, mind and strength, your whole being. Second, your relationship with each other, loving your neighbor as yourself. The first table of the law does deal with the first four commandments, with our relationship with God. But basically they can be summed up in loving God fully and completely. The second six commandments have to do with our relationship with our fellow man, they can be summed up with just love your neighbor as yourself.

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, you have said the truth [that’s good]: for there is one God; and there is none other beside he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices (12:32,33).

That’s more meaningful than all of your burnt offerings or sacrifices. This is what, you’ve got the heart of it.

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, You’re not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that dared to ask him any question (12:34).

That sort of ended their questioning. But then Jesus went on to question them.

And he said, while he taught there in the temple, How say the scribes that Messiah is the son of David (12:35)?

The word “Christ” is the Greek word the anointed and the word “Meshiac” in the Hebrew is again, the anointed. They both mean the anointed. And the reference is to the fact that kings when they were crowned as kings were anointed. They would pour the oil over the head, the anointing oil, being anointed as king. So the Messiah would be God’s anointed king. And thus in the Greek, the word “Christos” is the anointed and thus acknowledging again or it is the equivalent of the Hebrew “Meshiac” or Messiah. It is not His name and many people think His name is Christ. His name is Jesus but He is the Messiah, the anointed one. And so David in speaking of the Messiah in Psalm 110,

For David himself said by the Holy Spirit (12:36),

Notice Jesus attributes the words of David to the anointing of the Holy Spirit. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16), we are told by Paul when he wrote to Timothy. When Peter was quoting from the Psalms, he said, David by the mouth of the Holy Spirit spake saying, so the acknowledging of David being anointed by the Holy Spirit and his words being inspired words from God. So how is it that David himself by the Holy Spirit said,

The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool (12:36).

So David called the Messiah his Lord. Then how is it that the Messiah is called the Son of David? If He is the Son of David, how is it that David called Him Lord? In that society, it was a patriarch type of society where the father ruled until he died. Jacob ruled over the family until his death. That was just the way the culture was. And no father would ever call his son Lord, that was just so opposite to their whole social order, to their culture. So Jesus is proposing a real problem to them, the Messiah was known, one of His names is Son of David. But how is it that David by the Holy Spirit called Him Lord? My Lord.

David therefore himself called him Lord; and whence is he then his son? [It stumped them] And the common people were glad. [Yes, nail them again.] And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, who love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces (12:37,38),

They love to wear these colorful robes, they love to sow on to the robe the broad phylacteries, the little tassels indicating their spirituality. They love to be recognized by the robes they wore as religious men. And some of the fancy types of robes and the colorful robes indicating the order that they have within the religious order itself. They love it. Jesus said, Beware of them, they love to go with these robes, the long clothing and they love the salutations in the marketplace as they walk through the marketplace with their robes that show how righteous they are. They love people saying Rabbi, Rabbi. And they love

the chief seats in the synagogues (12:39),

Those seats that were down in the front that faced the people so that everyone could see them sitting there in front of the arch in which the Torah was kept. They loved that position, recognition as spiritual leaders.

Several years ago I spoke in a church in Sweden and the platform was as high as the balcony. And on the platform were all these huge throne-like chairs and the elders of the church all sat in these chairs looking out at the congregation. It was sort of uncomfortable, you looked right in the balcony, right at the people in the balcony there, others were looking up at you. but it’s much like the synagogue where the scribes would sit in the front looking at the people. Here are the erect and nice spiritual men and they love it. They love

the uppermost rooms at the feasts (12:39):

the more important places, they love the seating order at the feast, to be seated in the places of honor. Remember Jesus said when you’re invited to a feast, don’t look for that high place but look for the low place. Better to sit in the low place and have them come and say come on up here, you belong up here; rather than sit in the high place and say, oops, we’re sorry but you’re sitting in the wrong place, you belong down the line.

Which devour widows’ houses (12:40),

They go around taking advantage of people. They write to the little widows on social security these letters of the tremendous emergency that their ministries are facing and if you don’t send money in right away, we don’t know what we’re going to do, how we will survive, so please use the enclosed envelope and make your check as generous as possible. Save this ministry that Satan is trying to destroy. We’re trusting in you to save us. And that’s just their problem, they’re not trusting the Lord. But here they go around,

and for a pretence they make long prayers (12:40):

Jesus said that they think they will be heard for their much speaking, so they were repetitions, their prayers were repetitious. He talks about vain repetition in prayer. You don’t talk to a friend in a vain repetition of sentences, your friends will think you’re crazy if you talk to them like many people talk to God. When you talk to a friend, you think about what you’re saying, it’s thought out, it makes sense. And thus when we pray, we are to think out our prayers. We’re to speak to God as we’re speaking to a friend. But here these for a pretense will make these long prayers and Jesus said,

they will receive greater damnation (12:40).

Taking advantage of the people spiritually, putting on this pretense of spirituality, receiving a greater condemnation. There are degrees of punishment in hell, we’ll get to that when we get to Luke chapter twelve.

Jesus was with His disciples and they were near the treasury, and they were beholding how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich putting in their money (12:41).

Notice they were noticing how they did it, how you give. And you can give with great ostentation and I’m sure it was probably an exaggeration but He said, When you give, don’t be like the Pharisees who sound a trumpet before them. They have the band going in front of them blaring away in the trumpets and holding out your gift and dropping it in the treasury, drawing attention to yourself. He probably was speaking in a hyperbole but yet here they were observing how they were giving, with just the great pomp and the wealthy people coming and giving.

And there came a certain poor little widow, she threw in two mites, which make a farthing (12:42).

A farthing is a quarter of a cent so a mite is a quarter of a farthing or an eighth of a cent, so she gave in, she put in about a quarter of a cent.

But Jesus called to him his disciples, and He said unto them, I tell you the truth, this poor little widow has cast in more than all of they which have cast into the treasury (12:43):

All of these wealthy people, everything they put in, she has given more.

For all they did cast in of their abundance (12:44);

It didn’t cost them, they have more than enough but she has cast in of her want.

she cast in all that she had, even all of her living (12:44).

So really it isn’t the amount that you give to the Lord, it’s the sacrifice that’s involved. That’s where real giving comes in when it becomes a sacrifice, when you’re giving of your substance to the Lord. More than just giving out of the abundance that you have, true sacrificial giving is that which the Lord recognized as more than all the rest.

Brings us to chapter thirteen so read it over. When I read through the chapter, as I read through I first of all try to get in my mind the various events of the chapter, generally into my mind. And then as I continue to read it, those passages that seem to be a little difficult I will look up commentaries on those passages. I will use Strong’s or Young’s concordance and I will look up the Greek or the Hebrew as the case may be to maybe get a better understanding of a verse. And then I will ask myself, what does this say to me? How does this apply to my life today? Which of these scriptures really speak to me about my relationship with God, my relationship with Jesus Christ. What does it tell me about God? What does it tell me about Jesus? And hopefully, because we are only going one chapter a week, I would hope that daily, you would read chapter thirteen, that you’ll try and put it in order in your mind, the sequence of events, put it in your mind in order so that you could list off the order of events of chapter thirteen. And then what has spoken to you the most? How does this apply to you today? What does it say to you? And really seek to on your own be fed by the Spirit of God, gaining insight and understanding into the scriptures as the Spirit will become your personal tutor as Jesus promised, so that you might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Learning To Love

And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you. . .But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. (1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9)

God is love (1 John 4:16). His very nature is perfect love, but because of sin love does not always come freely and naturally to His children. You may have been raised in a home where love was not expressed. Perhaps you were hurt by someone you loved, and your heart became hardened as a defense against further pain. You may love others but not know how to express your love in words or actions. You may feel frustrated because you have been called by God to love, yet you do not understand how to love others.

Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica to encourage them not to become disheartened as they learned to love each other (1 Thess. 3:7). They did not need Paul to explain to them how to love, for God Himself would teach them how to love one another. God would give them His love, and as they followed Him, He would cause that love to multiply. If they found someone who was difficult to love, God would enable them to love through His Holy Spirit.

God in His grace has made provision for our human weakness, and He is prepared to teach us how to love one another. There are no exceptions. God can teach us to love even that especially difficult person.

Are you struggling to love someone? God will help you. He will enable you to love your parents, your spouse, your children, your friends, or your enemy in a deeper way than you could ever love them on your own. If you do not know how to express your love in a meaningful way, God will teach you how to do this. God is the authority on love. As you relate to others, ask God to make His love overflow to them through your life.