True Faith: Unity and Violence

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It's great to be with you all again. I know some of you may have heard This is I think it's with a fifth or sixth sermon.
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I've done in this series on holy violence It centers around Matthew 11 12 Which says from the days the
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John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence the violent take it by fourth force So I want to pick up in that series
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Miss Linda has printed out an outline in your bulletin. So if you open it up to the insert right here
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You'll see the outline along with the text we talking about. Thank you, Miss Linda for doing that The title this sermon is true faith unity and violence we're focusing on three verses from Matthew right after Matthew 11 12
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There was so a young man graduated from high school in 1904 for graduation
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He received the uncommon gift of a trip around the world Little did those who gave him this trip realize what it would do to him
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While on this trip, he began to feel a burden for those who were less fortunate and those in need of Christ around the world
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He wrote home and said I want to give my life and service to Christ as a missionary Though his friends and relatives stood in disbelief.
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This man wrote two words in the back of his Bible. He wrote no regrets He returned to America and there he enrolled in Yale University where he was a model student
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Though others might have thought his college life would quench his desire for the mission field. In fact, it only fueled it
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He started a Bible study and by the end of the first year a hundred and fifty students were meeting weekly to study the
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Bible and pray By the time he was a senior 1 ,000 of the 1 ,300 students at Yale were in the discipleship groups meeting for weekly
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Bible study and prayer He did not limit his evangelistic efforts the up -and -out around Yale's pristine campus
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His heart was equally stirred for the down -and -out. He founded something called the Yale hope mission
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He ministered to those in the streets of New Haven, Connecticut he shared the ministry of Christ with orphans widows the homeless the hungry offering them hope and a refuge a
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Visitor from overseas once was asked what impressed him most during his time in America and he responded the sight of that young millionaire kneeling with His arm around a bum in the
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Yale hope mission when he graduated from Yale. He was offered many lucrative jobs But to dismay of his friends and relatives he refused instead.
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He wrote two more words in the back of his Bible He wrote no retreats. He entered Princeton Seminary and upon graduation.
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He set sail for China in China He wanted to serve Christ among the Muslim population on route to China.
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He stopped over in Egypt to study and learn Arabic However, while there he contracted spinal meningitis and he died
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He lived only a month after that at the age of 25. He was dead in his life
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This man counted all things as lost for the sake of knowing Christ and making him known He refused to be taken with the futility of life inherited from his forefathers but instead he said
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I'm gonna live out my life as To the glory of God and the ransom of Jesus Christ When his
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Bible was discovered after his death, it was found that he added two more words to the back of his Bible Those two words were no regrets
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This man's name was William Borden and he gave up a vast familial inheritance He was a millionaire back in the 1800s, which translates to you know, two or three hundred million today
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He said he truly understood that the Christian life consists of unity with Christ and it consists of violence of purpose
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In my sermon say I want to outline how true faith must be united with knowledge and acceptance of the truth as well as an unyielding trust in the promises of God Please turn to Matthew 11 where we're going to read verses 13 through 15 today
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Or if you prefer it's also printed in your bulletin And I'm ready for the
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New King James Version Matthew 11 13 through 15
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For all the prophets in the law Prophesied until John and if you're willing to receive it, he is
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Elijah who is to come He who has ears to hear let him hear There are three main ideas that we're going to see in our text today.
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You must know the truth You must accept the truth and you must trust the truth
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Jesus taught the Jews these lesson and these three components are always present in the faith of true believers
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So starting in for point number one, you must know the truth This point is going to come mainly from verse 13.
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It says for all the prophets in the law prophesied until John Matthew's gospel is very interesting here because Matthew Reverses the chronological order and he puts the prophets before the law if you think about the
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Bible It's the law and the prophets Matthew reverses that Most verses the New Testament which mentioned the law and prophets placed them in the order revelation was given
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So first the law than the prophets Moses reverses that I'm sorry, not Jesus reversed that rather I believe in this sense
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She's trying to show the Pharisees that John's ministry did not Contradict the law was found in the Old Testament. Most of the common people acknowledge on was a prophet
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But what they'd accuse him of breaking the law But instead what John's ministry was it was a fulfillment of it
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Well, John was universally acclaimed as a prophet the Pharisees most likely. I'm sure they accused him of being a lawbreaker
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They accused us of being a lawbreaker. So chances are high. They accused John of the same thing And the main reason they accuse him of that is because he didn't follow their rabbinical regulations
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The law and the prophets occurs ten times in the New Testament Oh for almost half those of those occurrences are found in the
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Gospels and In the gospel account. She is usually presenting himself as the fulfillment of the
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Old Testament. Let's read a few of them together Matthew 5 17 says do not think that I came to destroy the law and the prophets
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I did not come to destroy but fulfill them Luke 24 44 Then he said to them these are the words which
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I spoke to you while I was still with you That all things may be fulfilled which was written the law
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Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me But finally then he said to them
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Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken Ought not the Christ have suffered all these things and enter into glory and beginning in Moses and the prophets
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He expounded them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself It's Luke 24 25 to 27 the capstone of the
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Old Testament was a ministry of John the Baptist But the glory of the New Testament is the person and work of Jesus Christ The prophets and laws were precursors to John and John was the
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Messianic Herald The Mosaic law had 613 commands the Mosaic law is not just the
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Ten Commandments all the laws the Old Testament's numbers Leviticus are all there 613 total Those range from the moral law of God.
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There's laws regarding diet clothing livestock if you've ever read through him, you know, there's a lot To this list the
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Pharisees added 1 ,500 man -made laws so they almost doubled it or Tripled if you count the total overnight and they thought they they forced the
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Jewish people to observe these Jesus mentioned the reason I mentioned believe that Jesus mentions the prophet and law is because he's saying only the laws of the
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Bible are Binding on the conscience of believers, right? He didn't say the prophets and the law and the rabbinical law
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He said the prophets in the law, so he left it there Additionally the Sadducees they believed only the
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Pentateuch was inspired So they only believed in the first five books the Bible they would have disregarded the prophets, right? And this is also rebuke to them because Jesus is saying no
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I accept the entire canon of the Old Testament all the prophets in the law The Sadducees are like the liberals of the day the
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Pharisees were the conservatives It's actually want to throw out everything but the Pentateuch and Jesus said no the whole Old Testament is the
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Word of God including the prophets Jesus may never have used the phrase soul of scriptura. We have it hanging up on the wall right here
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But in his verses he insists on the primacy of Scripture. That's what he's doing. He says along the prophets In Atlanta, we have a very famous pastor called
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Andy Stanley and he suggests that Christians should unhitch their beliefs from the Old Testament In saying this he opposes
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Jesus Christ and he preaches the devil's gospel There's no one hitching from the Old Testament. The Old Testament is Christ And if you don't hit from the
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Old Testament you reject Christ, too He's a false teacher. He was never ordained by God and the reason why is because he opposes the
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Word of Scripture God's Word must be protected from man's encroachment whether it come from the religious right or the religious left
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Because both the Sadducees and Pharisees opposed Jesus and we to resist both of those extremes The Bible is very clear about the punishment for taking away
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But the Sadducees did or adding to what the Pharisees did in Revelation 22
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It says for I testify to everyone who hears the words the prophecy of this book if anyone adds these things
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God will add to him the plagues that are written this book and if anyone takes away From the words of the book of this prophecy
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God shall take away his part in the book of life from the Holy City and from the things are written in his book
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That's the punishment for people that add to or take away from Scripture Shifting gears a little bit
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What event do you think marks the beginning of the New Testament era? There's a lot of answers you could put there If you study history, you'll generally notice our dates are gonna come with one of two common prefixes
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You're either gonna see BC or you're gonna see a D attached there BC means before Christ and AD is
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Latin, which is Anno Domini It counts upward from zero, which is the year Christ was born to modern -day where we tour here in 2024
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So the year zero is the year Jesus was incarnated and born into this world If you've ever heard anyone mention the terms
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BCE or CE, right? That's the secular world's attempt to take Christ out of the but out of the center of history
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So instead of saying BC or 80 they'll say before the common era or the common error But here's the funny thing year zero is still
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Christ's birth so they can relabel it all they want But Christ's birth is still the center of history So zero
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AD or zero CE is the center of Christ here on earth If not, so but if not
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Jesus birth What else could be the the BN New Testament era some might say when Jesus emptied himself, you know
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He came down some said may see the crucifixion The crucifixion be a popular one because that's when the new covenant was ushered in or what about his resurrection?
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His resurrection is vitally important to Christians Finally a less popular one.
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How about the Ascension right when he ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit down? That's another very common point. You may say started it
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But at that point the Holy Spirit was an abiding presence in the life of every Christian because you just said when
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I leave I'm gonna send the paraclete or helper with you and he's gonna dwell in you and tell you all things You know after when this happened the
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Holy Spirit became a permanent force it pretty much there's no more in the Old Testament Everyone the only the
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Holy Spirit was only given to those that were positions of authority in the New Testament comes in every Christian If you have the
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Holy Spirit you will not live in ignorance of God's Word because the Holy Spirit empowers you and pushes you to Study and learn about God however
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All these events while they were great Jesus did not mention any of these events as the inflection point where the Old Testament Judaism became
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New Testament Christianity Instead he said all the Old Testament prophets in law Prophesied until John so Jesus gave
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John as the beginning point of the New Testament As some theologists have noted and I've said before in previous servants
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John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was very much an Old Testament prophet, even though he preached in the
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New Testament Jesus John preached repentance. He held up God's law as the supreme standard that sinners must meet
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Additionally John had the zeal and courage of an Old Testament prophet. He was not a scare He was not a scared guy.
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He was sold out for the Lord There was nothing in his life, but preaching the gospel and baptizing people that believed
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He lived a very simple life an aesthetic life. He had very few material possessions. He had no shelter
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He didn't eat fancy food both the message and his lifestyle showed that John was an alien this world
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He was not he was not a prince of this world. He was not a permanent dweller He was just an alien the
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Bible mentions this motif or theme of Christians as heavenly citizens very frequently Here's some examples if you look at first Peter 2 11, it says beloved
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I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul
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Hebrews 11 13 says these all died in faith not receiving the promises but having seen them afar off They were assured of them.
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They embraced them They confessed them and here's the most important part that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth
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Right, that's what a true Christian is. You're a pilgrim here The Old Testament to New Testament transition had another watershed moment as the demographic composition of the church has shifted, right?
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Frequently Old Testament believers were men with a lot of possessions power or prosperity. If you look at the
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Old Testament, you'll see that Job Abraham Isaac Solomon Joseph and Jacob they all had a lot of you know, they had power they had money
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They had a position of prestige the New Testament believers were not like this New Testament believers are much more likely to be poor persecuted and educated.
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That is a very significant shift between the Old and New Testament John the Baptist led the groundwork for Christ and Ultimately the
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New Testament believers such as ourself the vast majority of which would be materially poor but spiritually rich Please flip back with me to Matthew chapter 10 and let's read what
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Jesus said when he sent the disciples out So, please turn to Matthew 10 and we starting in verses 7 verse 7
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Matthew 10 bar starting verse 7 He said it as you go preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse the lepers
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Raise the dead cast out demons freely you have received freely give provide neither gold nor silver
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Nor copper in your money belts nor bag for your journey nor two tunics nor sandals or staffs for a worker is worthy of his food
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Now wherever whatever city or town you go into inquire who is worthy and stay there till you go out
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Do you see the gospel urgency and aversion to materialism of John the Baptist in these verses?
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If not, let's take a closer look Traveling light as the disciples did it removes the ability of the world to slander disciples as greedy and it communicates
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The mission is more important the comfort of the messengers. It's not important to be comfortable. What's it come to? What's important is the message they're sending out
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These commands were Jesus of Jesus were a metaphorical girding up of the disciples loins for gospel ministry
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If they moved from one's friend's house to another in the same town, the citizens would view their trip as a vacation
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Oh, they're just here to you know, have fun. They're just moving from place to place Instead this would then what this would do this would hurt their gospel
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Witness and it would make Satan's tactic of encouraging people to defer their salvation much more effective.
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Oh, they're just here to party They're not here to just tell something important You know a royal herald was not chosen for his ability to couch serve between houses
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If you had a royal herald, he just went slept on a bunch of people's No He's he's what is he chosen for to get in town to deliver the message with authority and urgency and then leave that's your job
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It's really not possible to be too devoted to the Lord. I like what JC Ryle says here He says in following the things that make up true religion and serving
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Christ. There can be no extreme So if someone tells you you're too extreme and serving the Lord you tell them that's wrong.
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It's not there's no Too extreme in serving in serving Jesus and God It's noteworthy in this verse 2 if you look back at it
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The law was said to prophesy in the same way as the prophets did this has two very important lessons to it for us
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When we tell people the law of God and exhort them to obey it We are prophesying if you tell them thus says the
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Lord that's a form of prophecy, right? That doesn't excite the carnal mind That's not gonna excite an unbeliever.
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It doesn't thrill the imagination It's not as cool as I know when the Lord's coming back Right, but the effects of this prophecy aren't miraculous because God uses these ordinary means to bring people to himself
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Additionally, you know the law does not predict the future or give us insight a major life decisions
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If you think about the law of God, does that predict the future? Does that give you insight major life decisions? It doesn't but rather it tells us we should obey how we should obey the
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Lord in the presence So many people get caught up with God's will for their future life and they neglect to obey him and they're right here in their present circumstance
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We are called to live a day -by -day Christianity and trust the Lord as the lilies of the field and the birds of the air
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Rely on God for their sustenance if you knew a major event of your life before it happened.
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How would you exercise faith in God? How would you do that? Discernment it's a spiritual discipline
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The reason we have to practice it is because we have to build it up We read the Bible and then we apply the
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Bible to our lives. That's what the sermon is God gets greater glory when Christians make godly decisions by the help of the
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Holy Spirit Then if we had the correct answer fed to us if someone just gives you the correct answers to a test and you pass
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It's like it's a computer. You're like a computer. That's not what God wants us to do We're to take the Bible apply it to our sick lives and live it out
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Let's hear what the Holy Spirit had to say about this through the pen of Moses This is one of Miss Lillian's favorite verse verses.
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She says it a lot I always think about her when I read this one But Deuteronomy 29 29 says the secret things belong to Lord our
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God But those things that are were revealed belong to us and our children forever that we may do all the words of this law
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So the secret things the Lord don't worry about those the revealed will this is what you study Show yourself an approved worker and study it.
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I urge you study this today This is your this is right here is what God wants you to study this these scriptures
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Don't put it off till tomorrow Felix told Paul to come back and talk about the gospel later He said come back at a more convenient time and guess what later never came for Felix He died in his sins and he went into eternity without Christ and the devil laughed at it because he didn't trust the
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Lord He was foolish. Don't put your salvation off Felix is now serving an endless sentence in hell. Let his let that warning of his life be an example for all of you my second point is
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Coming from verse 14 verse 14 is you and the main point of verse 14. You must accept the truth
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What does verse 14 say and if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come?
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This verse kind of reminds me of an onion, right if you look at it It looks like a simple thing, but if you peel back the layers, there are many layers below the surface of this verse
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Let's read the first clause of the sentence. The first clause ends with that first comma It says and if you are willing to receive it, right the truth of the
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Bible It's not dependent on the world's acceptance of it, right? That doesn't indeed we go even further from that and say, you know
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What the world's ignorance of the truth is no obstacle to Scott sovereign will what does
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Paul say in the third chapter of the epistle to? Romans he said certainly not indeed Let God be true
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But every man be a liar as it is written that you may be justified in your words and you may overcome
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When you're judged, that's Romans 3 4 the ending of these verses is a perfect explanation
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I think of what's occurring here in Matthew 11 14 Concerning the topic of Elijah. Jesus is not soliciting input.
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He's not seeking approval and he's not selling a narrative Rather he's saying you know what? He's pronouncing judgment because the
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Jews did not accept his word is final if you're willing to receive it It's still true or not. But if you're not willing to receive it, it's gonna be on you
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When Jesus speaks no more evidence is necessary. It should be enough for all Christians to say God says it that ends it
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Salvation requires we would go beyond just mere knowledge and we accept God's Word is authoritative over our lives
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This word is authoritative over everything we do I want to briefly list three lessons that we can glean from this text and apply it to our lives
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Lesson number one our point I say sub point a in the outline the truth does not rest in the world's acceptance or even the religious world's acceptance
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This may seem like an obvious statement, but in our godless post modernistic culture, we can no longer take this as a given
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Have you ever had a person come up to you and say well, this is my truth This is your truth that person there is a third truth, right?
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If you've ever had that that's a crash course in a in a theory What's known as post -modernism people will insist with a straight face to you that all of these belief systems that are diametrically opposed they'll say they're all correct at the same time and This is not only a front law of God, but it's illogical as well
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When people reject God his word and it's any more restraints on their lives. You know what the end result of that is
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It's always madness and to insist. There's three forms of truth is simply that it's just madness.
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There's no three forms of truth There's one truth you can have in logic You can have three things be legally wrong, but three opposing beliefs cannot be equally true.
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It's madness to insist. Otherwise When you reject the peace of God, what do you get you reap confusion in your life?
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What does Paul say in 1st Corinthians? He said for God's not the author of confusion but of peace in all as in all the churches of the
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Saints Imagine if people live their lives the way they treated God in his laws, right? You can ignore you can scoff you can revile gravity as much as you want to but if you jump off a high bridge
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What's gonna happen? You are gonna die Does the president of the United States and the governor of our state only exist if you believe them to?
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No, you're their presence and their power totally independent of your desire to believe them or your antipathy antipathy or hostility to them
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Or if you're indifferent to them Try breaking the law see if the power of the state and the federal government has is still an invisible thing
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It's not Likewise those that use God's patience as license to scoff at his existence are playing
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Russian roulette with their eternal souls and as the stakes Russian roulette is it's really stupid game where people take a revolver and put one bullet in flip the chamber and go click
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Click if you scoff at God's Word and say well, he's patient. I'm not dying in my sins
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You're playing Russian late if your soul that's you're doing I mean think of how stupid it is to sit there clicking with one bullet in the empty chamber That's how stupid it is to use
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God's patience as license for continuing your sin. I love what HB. Charles says He's actually his church is down in Jackson.
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I'm gonna try to go visit one time I visit my mom He says truth is truth whether I experience it or not
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The Lord does not need my experience to validate his word your experience is inconsequential and not relevant to the
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Word of God So the Word of God is here put your experience below it Question so point number point two or sub point
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B rather Sub point be up to truth does not change to accommodate different belief systems
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We are to hold up the mirror of the law and preach the gospel to everyone regardless of their views to God of the
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Bible In his first epistles the Corinthians Paul reminded his hearers that we preach the same gospel to all men
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First Corinthians 23 verse 25. He says this But we preach Christ crucified to the
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Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness But to those who are the cold or the elect both
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Jews and Greeks Christ is the power of God and Christ is the wisdom of God Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men
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The Jews had the oracles and promises of God the Greeks had neither but guess what?
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They're both accountable to God for their actions in our culture We might consider these to be those groups that know
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Christian doctrine and those are ignorant of any knowledge of God Like you can use different openers when you talk about their soul
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But ultimately it always comes down to the law says this and you must obey If someone says they're a
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Buddhist the law says this if someone says I'm a Catholic the law says this if someone says I don't Believe them
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God. I'm an atheist. The law says this we don't change our gospel for different people We may change our approach how we get to it, but the gospel should be the same
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If you don't if you if you know Christian doctrine, you do have an advantage But if you don't act on the knowledge you have your punishment is a much greater than those that have gospel light
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Right think of the leaders the Pharisees the Sadducees Herod came to them and said, where's the Messiah born?
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And what did they say in Bethlehem of Judea did a single Pharisee or Sadducee take the trip down a single one?
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So what did their knowledge do? nothing However their knowledge, you know their head knowledge never resulted in repentance or changed heart
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It was all up here never got to down here and they're now paying the consequence for their unbelief I love what
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Thomas Watson said He said knowledge without repentance will be a torch to light men's way to hell if you have knowledge and you're not
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Repentant and it is a cause you to submit yourself and repent to the Lord. It'll just be you'll have a brighter pathway to hell
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That's it. I like what Stephen Charnock said to a lot of times as humans We tend to elevate verbal denials of God above practical denials.
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So if someone says outright I hate God for someone says I know God to live a life that denies him He said Stephen Charnock said a practical denial of God is worse than a verbal because deeds have more deliberation than words
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Words to be the fruit of a passion you may say something in anger But a set of evil actions is the fruit and evidence of a predominant evil principle in the heart
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So someone can say something in a passion But if your life if you can say, you know God, but you live contrary to his laws
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That's worse because it's premeditated versus actually saying God's name in vain or yelling it out somehow In our pluralist pluralistic society.
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It's considered a social faux pas Which is French for or mistake to insist that Christianity is correct and all other religions are wrong
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If you say that you're gonna make yourself very unpopular very quick, right? What some may call politeness is essentially it's just the etiquette of the devil.
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That's the devil's etiquette is what that is Does it matter the Jews accept John as the New Testament Elijah or not?
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Does it really matter? Like let's just think about this. Can they hold a different view on this point and go to heaven? They don't think
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John is a testament Elijah No, they can't if John's not the New Testament Elijah, then
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Jesus is not the Messiah Biblical truths are always interlocking. You can't reject one without rejecting them all
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Consider what's at stake here Everyone that you or I meet is an immortal soul and they're gonna spend eternity without the
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Lord in Torment or with the Lord in unending joy Isn't it worth risking a little discomfort when the stakes are so high?
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I mean, can you have any higher stakes than that? Neglect this year the gospel It'll lead you being cursed in hell rather than being praised in heaven
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Wouldn't you rather be praised in heaven than cursed in hell share the gospel to be forewarned is forearm though You will encounter opposition when you share the gospel heaven is relentlessly pressing day by day in the devil's kingdom
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Although it seems our world gets darker and darker every time he every time you turn on the news or read anything It seems like it's getting worse and worse heaven is slowly but surely encroaching though But as heaven encroach in the devil's kingdom, guess what the forces of darkness.
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They're always gonna push back They're always gonna fight back Martin Luther said this and I think it's a
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I think it's a great quote He said the gospel cannot truly be preached without offense or tumult
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I mentioned that Sunday school this morning as well That's a great quote Finally force
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I have sub point C under 0 .2 Embracing the truth of the gospel gives us the same spirit and unites us with the
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Old Testament believers When the Jews asked you on the Baptist in John 121, they said are you
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Elijah? What did he say to that? He said I am NOT right. Why does Jesus then call him that Elijah who is to come like why?
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Why would you just say that and John says I am NOT You know,
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I would say John the Baptist and Elijah they had a shared testimony of suffering sacrifice and submission to the will of God all
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Believers who suit to live godly lives will suffer as they pursue one common salvation
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Both Elijah and John were fearless for the Lord and they preached with power and authority
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Elijah rebuked the heathen kings and priests of Israel and Judah and John the Baptist condemned Herod for the adultery and he condemned the religious leaders for hypocrisy
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Both men had their moments of weakness Who can forget Elijah's depression the desert when he was like I'm the only one left take my life or who can forget
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John's despair And here is dungeon both men lived a simple lifestyle. They had few possessions.
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They had fewer comforts John the Baptist saw many conversions in his ministry and Elijah saw very few if any we don't really know if Elijah saw many conversions
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But guess what? Both of these men were effective servants of God because God rewards faithful servants
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He doesn't reward successful servants. Elijah was just as faithful as John the Baptist even if he saw less converts
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What is the main thing that unites John and Elijah and all of us to them? It's the gospel thread That's what unites us the godly men women that came before us and those who are yet to be born
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It's the gospel thread throughout throughout the Bible as brothers in Christ What did both men look toward they look toward the advent of the
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Messiah? They had one eternal hope and they had one goal even though Elijah strained to see through a dim mirror like he was trying to get a glimpse of what the
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Christ would be like and John the Baptist saw Jesus in his flesh They they both even though they had that their goal was the same
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Does your heart burn with love for our Savior and Lord if so? You have the same spirit as the
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Old Testament Elijah and the Elijah who is to come namely John Their example should be an encouragement to all of us who are striving to enter the kingdom through the narrow way
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I like the opening verse of Hebrews chapter 12. I think this sums up this point really nicely Hebrews 12 verse 1 says
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Therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance
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The race that is set before us Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
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That's the gospel thread Like when we look unto them sometimes people read this verse and when
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I read it when I was younger to misinterpret it It doesn't necessarily mean that all the Saints are sitting here watching us at this very moment
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But what it means is we have their examples in here. This is what we have the Bible We should follow their examples and in a sense their lives still speak to us because we can read about them here
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If you want to know where and I think I mentioned this maybe three sermons back Malachi 4 5 and 6 is really the verse that Jesus and the
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Jews are referring to here So if you flip back to Malachi 4 and look at verses 5 and 6, this is why he was called the
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Elijah who is to come The prophet Malachi the final book of the new of the Old Testament.
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Sorry He writes behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
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Lord and he will turn the hearts of The fathers the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest I come and strike the earth with a curse
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Notice that Malachi does not say Elijah will bring new teachings with him. There's no new teaching
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So all the new teaching the Pharisee invented that's not who's talking about what but what did he say here? He says he will exhort the people to undergo a heart change that restores relationships
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For someone to be regenerated a bare knowledge of truth is not enough. It's not enough to just know the truth
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Rather you must accept the truth and accept that his authority over your life and ask God to heal you
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Only then will our land or society be healed Our society is made up of many individuals
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When society is made up of many Christians and Christians under the authority of the headship of God The land's gonna have a good time
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If you have a society full of people that reject the authority of God that reject his word that claim to be whether it's conservative
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Or liberal I don't care But if they reject the authority this word and don't live under the rules this word
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Our country's not gonna have a good time and you're seeing the fruits of that today My final point is you must trust the truth
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Jesus has this very famous. I mean, I think it's famous I've heard quite a bit but he says he who has ears here
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Let him hear in verse 15. I Have a question. Does everyone that hears the gospel believe it if you've been a
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Christian for even a short amount of time Let's say two days, you know that here in the gospel and believe in the gospel are two completely different things
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When you share the gospel, you'll find many people know about Jesus and then many people know about the cross But they treat it like a piece of trivia.
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That's all it is to them. It's a piece of trivia They know it they might even accept it and say well, I believe in Jesus and I believe he died
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But it's just trivia. They'll answer the question, but the information when you talk with them longer
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It's had zero impact in their life. Their life has not been changed by it If you ever feel discouraged when you're doing this remember the prophets
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Jesus and the Apostles They preached a spiritual dead man the entire course their ministries
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So when you get rejected and oftentimes that is discouraging remember they had the same stuff Jesus taught imagine
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Jesus God in flesh was here preaching and the vast majority rejected him So if they rejected the master as servants, we're not gonna be any different We'll have the same thing we share it, but don't let that discourage you from sharing the gospel
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Without the quickening of the Holy Spirit Spirit's truth cannot be received into the soul. The Holy Spirit must quicken the soul in order for the truth to be received
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God created the first human ears in the Garden of Eden out of the dust of the ground and God must
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Open the spiritual ears of every Christian for them to be saved Please turn to Matthew 13 just flip one chapter forward in your
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Bible and we're gonna look at verses 14 through 15
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I'll read it real quick In their case the prophecy as Isaiah is being fulfilled which says you will keep on hearing
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But you will not perceive for the heart of this people has become dull with their ears. They scarcely hear they have closed their eyes
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Otherwise they would see with their eyes Hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return and I would heal them
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You see the progression there see with their eyes here with their ears and understand with their heart return
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Understand what the heart has to the hearing and the seeing are not enough. It must be linked in the heart Now this phrase he who has ears to hear
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Jesus uses very frequently in the Gospels Typically, he said this phrase at a conclusion of a parable
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There are very interesting Parallels between this saying I think another common saying of Jesus if you think about Jesus Also, he says verily verily or amen.
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Amen quite a bit both of these phrases Amen. Amen. He who has ears to hear let him hear they both showcase the authority of Christ since every word
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Christ says is gospel It's the Word of God And they'd say that he's inspired and authoritative
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However, one phrase you can fulfill by passive hearing if you just hear amen. Amen, you passively hear that Okay, I paid attention.
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But when Jesus says he who has ears to hear let him hear that requires active obedience
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There's no passivity there. That means it's not just these ears. It's the ears of your soul Christians and non -christians alike can play close attention to the words of Jesus But only the elect can take the spiritual truths and trust their life and soul with them and say these truths
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I'm hanging my life. I'm hanging the eternal fate of my soul on these truths I'd like to break this well first before I go there if you
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He who has ears to hear is a double -edged sword to the more of that you hear and turn off and don't take in your Soul the greater punishment is gonna be a lot of times people forget that hearing like hearing truth is a double -edged sword
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It's either gonna be the saver of life to life or in the Judgment Day God's gonna play that truth back and say how many sermons did you sit through how many times you read my word?
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How many times you this and you still did not believe what I said? So we hear this truth pray the Lord would apply it to your lives and put your trust in it
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There's two groups of people in this room and I'm gonna break my application down to that if you're an unbeliever today
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The Bible and the truth that it contained will be meaningless until the Spirit of God opens your spiritual ears
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This verse I think is a microcosmic or miniature version of the gospel Let's just take a look at it.
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He or she that has ears to hear let them hear what is he or she? It's the call if you're an individual lost in sin, you are the he or she
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He that has ears to hear what is that? That's the cure who provides the cure
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God God provides the ears to hear and finally let him hear that is the command
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Jesus commands you to hear and if you don't obey you will suffer a penalty for disobedience
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Let's read what God says about a sinner's ability to understand these words We're to take a look at the words that he said to the pen of the
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Apostle Paul 1st Corinthians 2 14 says but the natural man does not receive the things of the
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Spirit of God For they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned
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So you need new ears if you want to hear the Word of God and understand it Imagine for a moment your hands are shackled you have
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Cuffs on or fetters wherever you want to call them the name of one fetter is obstinance and another one is stupidity
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That's what you see in these verses, right? They cannot receive them and they are foolishness to him, right?
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So you see obstinance? I don't receive it and their foolishness. That's stupidity By the way, when you reject the
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Word of God, these two fetters are linked with the chain that chain is God's judgments Everything you do in this life these fetters on your hand whether it's work or leisure or is gonna be hampered by these chains
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Can more education set you free from these chains? How about better hygiene if you have better hygiene can get rid of those handcuffs if you decorate the handcuffs
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You may make them more pleasing to the eye But it doesn't change the fact that you can't do stuff your body range of motion is restricted
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You're gonna trouble picking stuff up getting in cars in a like manner You can sacrifice your body your time and your energy to spiritual pursuits without the
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Holy Spirit You will remain a spiritual prisoner. Those handcuffs will not come off unless the
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Holy Spirit of God does that for you? Not only are you dead in sin at this point, but the Bible will be dead to you
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I like what Matthew Henry says here Matthew Henry says unless the Spirit of God Comes with the
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Word of God It will be to us a dead letter if you read this Bible and you do not have the
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Spirit of God living your heart You will not understand it. It'll be foolishness to you or strange or cryptic without God's Spirit.
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You could understand it Do you treasure the Word of God more than anything else in this universe if not you should are you staking your eternal destiny on?
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The truth it contains this is what separates the true possessor from the false professor Scripture is your
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Supreme Court Scripture is your 401k scripture is your physician scripture is your comforter scripture is your eternal
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Hope if this is not true of your life Then give God no rest until he changes your heart
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Those things should all be true of it You should wrestle with the truth the Bible like Jacob wrestled with God at the heavenly ladder
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You should plead with him like David did to forgive his sins after the affair with Bathsheba You should pray to him with the fervor of Elijah at Mount Carmel These men are given as examples so we should follow and if you say today
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I don't know Christ take these men's examples and say I'm not gonna let God go until he saves me
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You persist in these activities like the relentless widow in the New Testament who said I'm not gonna let that unjust judge go
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Until he gives me Deliverance from my enemy and she did that for what for deliverance from an earthly enemy
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How much more should we do it when our souls are at stake if you're not crying to God for deliverance from your sin
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If you're not crying for your eternal salvation You are a fool. You are eternally a fool if you do that and you will regret that for the rest of your life the
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Bible Is heaven worth obtaining if it is strive for it? The Bible has many great and precious promises for seekers
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We believe that God elects people and we believe that God has chosen people Well, guess what you the ball is in your court you are to obey you are to pursue if you sit back on your hands and say
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I'm not gonna pursue the gospel because I Don't think I'm elect. That's a lie of Satan. You've just swallowed hook line and sinker
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No, you pursue it You say I'm gonna go after God and I'm gonna keep going after him until he saves me if you're an unbeliever
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This is what you need to hear for the believers I Want to have a point be outside of the
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Gospels the most frequent usage of the phrase ears to hear is actually found in the Revelation, so if you read the book of Revelation, I know
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Keith mentioned this a lot the letters to churches That's where you'll see a lot Jesus started his ministry with the phrase and he closes the
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Bible at the same phrase as well These phrases are service bookends. Yeah, how many of you have lots of books?
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Maybe not it's kind of a thing But when you have books on a shelf you put bookends up really they hold the books together
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They unify them keeping from flipping off Those are the bookends to Jesus ministry. He who has ears to hear in the
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Gospels. He who has ears to hear in Revelation um There's however, there's a one distinct difference between how it's applied in the
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Gospels in Revelation So, please follow along as I read some verses from Revelation and see if you notice a difference here
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Revelation 2 7 says He who has an ear let him hear what the
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Spirit says the church is to him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is the midst the paradise of God Revelation 2 11 he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the
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Spirit says the church is he who overcomes Shall not be hurt by the second death
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Revelation 2 17 he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the
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Spirit says the church is To him who overcomes I will give some of the manna the hidden manna to eat
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I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written Which no one knows except him who receives it
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Did you catch the difference there between what God says in Revelation the Gospels? Yes, he says well, he says ears here.
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He says let him here. He says to the churches now He's narrowed his command down from the whole world in the
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Gospels to just the church If you were a believer this exhortation is for you
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Are you continually renewing your mind with the study of God's Word? Although we and prayer although we are justified we still need the
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Spirit of God to renew our mind Every day without the continual help of the
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Holy Spirit. What do we do? We slide into another form of man -centered religion Sanctification is the center of a very narrow path on the right is the ditch of legalism and hypocrisy and on the left is a
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Ditch called licentiousness, right? you're either gonna become a Pharisee and make up rules that don't apply or you're gonna say
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I'm gonna live out the world and claim Christ is my Lord both of those will take you to hell Extra biblical laws and cheap grace are both perversions of the gospel and both must be vigorously resisted by Christians So when you see you're sliding to a licentious or when you see you're sliding to the legalistic side of the aisle
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Ask the Lord and pull yourself and move back into the center because sanctification is synergistic
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God gives you the power and he says work out your salvation Do you need more encouragement in the fight weary Christian?
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Consider the rewards that God promises in these verses to believers who overcome the world You will get to eat from the tree of life, which
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Adam and Eve forfeited after the fall Imagine tasting pure fruit unspoiled by the fall and untainted by sin in Christ we can overcome the second death that second death has been the scourge of all men from the dawn of time
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I don't care if you're the lowest beggar the highest president You can be the most powerful man in the world Alexander the
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Great at that time But guess what without the Lord that second death's gonna hurt you Says believers we manna from heaven the manna from heaven, of course nourish the
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Israelites during their wilderness journey according to Psalm 78 25 This is the food of angels.
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So we fed with heavenly food But of all the analogies in this verse my personal favorite is the white stone one
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That's if I had to choose one it would be that one, you know in Greek culture You know a lot of times when you read the
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Bible the Bible is you know But you have to understand the context in which it was written the people it was written to the language
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There's all these things. That's why studying history. The Bible is so important understanding the context here In Greek culture, which by the time of Jesus arrival in this earth
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Greek culture had permeated Israel. Very very You have something called a Hellenistic Jew, you know
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Paul of course was it came from a Gentile background But Greek culture permeated Jewish side to the extent that you had a lot of Jews that thought like Greece I mean, that's
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Greek culture. It would become become the the the language of the world at that point but in their culture
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When you want to invite someone to a party or banquet you had a white stone and you engrave their name on it You sent it out, right?
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So like instead of like an actual, you know, what we have like an invitation you have a white stone Upon arrival the person would present the stone to the attendant and you were admitted into the feast, right?
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They use the same exact stones not with your name on them But the similar stones in a Grecian legal system when you're just when the defendant was declared innocent
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He was given a white stone If you were declared guilty, you're given a black stone right when
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Jesus promises a personalized white stone It's a legal declaration that we're righteous and it's the entrance ticket to the eternal marriage supper of the
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Lamb Once we reach the shores of our eternal home, we can finally be at rest from our sojourn in this hostile world
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I like what George Whitfield here has said He said how sweet is rest after fatigue how sweet will be heaven when our toilsome journey has ended
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Let us pray together Dear Heavenly Father. We thank you that you are the author of our salvation from beginning to end
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You have commanded that we be perfect and you have provided perfect righteousness to the death of your son
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Grant that everyone in this room would obtain true salvation that contains knowledge acceptance and trust in you
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We thank you that we gain knowledge of your eternal will to the pages of the Holy Scriptures Jesus we follow your command to accept this truth as you have said in our text today
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Holy Spirit, we put our trust that you have sealed our souls and they will be preserved until we reach our eternal home
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Please keep these truths in our mind and store them in our hearts in the name of our Holy Triune God we ask for these things