Saturday, March 27, 2010

What Worth Is The Law Of God If It Not A Part Of Salvation.

Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”

As we continue to crawl our way through the book of Romans on Wednesday nights, we have found that Paul just continues to define the law and salvation. Paul has from just about a 360 degree angle defined the uselessness of the law when it comes to salvation. I simply cannot understand how anyone can study the first seven chapters of Romans and still believe that works is a part of salvation.

Here in chapter seven Paul is asked a very important question, “…Is the law sin…” and he answers “…God forbid…” Just because the law is not part of salvation does not make it useless, worthless, or even unusable to the Christian. And just because the law teaches us our sinfulness and our need of a Saviour does not make it sin itself. Paul said “…for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Or I would not have known I was a sinner before God had the law not told me. In the book of Galatians chapter 3 Paul calls the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and that is accomplished by making our sins known to us. I likened this to driving down the Interstate where the Maximum speed limit is posted and if you go over that posted speed then you have broken the law. However what if there is no posted speed limit and you go over the state maximum speed then are you still a law breaker, yes but unknowingly. Paul went on in verse 11 “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me…” did the law “deceive” Paul, yes it did, the word “deceive” means to seduce wholly that is the law made Paul a law breaker just as a posted speed limit would make one a law breaker and when he recognized this he found the need for a Saviour. While the law is not sin it does make us sinners, not because if we do as it says then we are sinners but because we fail to do as it says. The law of God does not work like we do, for example if a woman came to church with a short and tight shirt and by that caused a man to look at here with lust in his heart then he has sinned and she has sinned because she was improperly dressed. However with the law of God while it does cause us to sin it is not sin. Paul went on in verse 12 “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” The law is holy because it is God’s law and nothing of God is sinful. The law is in itself holy because God spoke it, it is His words and His law. The law was never written to justify man but to show us sinners. Paul told us in Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” It is our desire in the flesh to break laws in fact it has been said “laws were made to be broken” however they were not. It is man completive nature not to be told how to live and if the law says not to do something then someone will do it, this is what Paul meant when he said “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me…” verse 11 The law brought the opportunity by its commandment to cause me to sin.

Please do not expect justification by the law because was not written for that reason, but the law serves a wonderful purpose in that, through it, we have a full understanding how important Jesus Christ is to us. We know by the law that we come up short of God’s standards and lean on Jesus Christ for salvation the only person to ever live the law to its fullness.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Love Of God; How wonderful It Is!

Ephesians 2:4 - 5 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (5.) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”

Beloved have you ever set down and pondered in your heart how much God loves you? Well if you are saved you have always been loved of God. I find so many people who confess “I have loved God all my life” well an in-depth study of God’s word will prove you absolutely wrong, how could you love God if you are (in a lost state) at enmity with God which all mankind is before they are saved. Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God...” therefore anyone who says they have loved God all of their life is simply wrong. Now as we look on the other side of this subject those that have been saved, are saved, or are going to be saved, are loved of God and has been loved of God for all eternity; that’s right all eternity. This must be understood first and foremost, God is eternal and He never changes, He never adds any thought, or changes any thought, He knew all things before the world was created. God’s love for us is eternal and He loved us before He created the world. Some will deny this but they are wrong. Notice what Paul says in our text scripture “…for his great love wherewith he loved us…” He loved us putting that love in a past tense form making us ask when did this love start, it started before the world was created; please remember God cannot change “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8. So just how great is the love of God? God’s love is so great that it cannot be matched. Since God loved us before the world was created then it must be a great love indeed. Before we were born God loved us, and after we were born and living a life of enmity against God, and while we were dead in sin God still loved us, (Even when we were dead in sins…” verse 5. How great is the love of God, He loved us while we were sinners and He carried His plan through and saved some of us regardless of our sinful actions and enmity against Him. However this is not the end of God’s love because this love never ends no matter what we do even after salvation. That’s right even if we turn against God He will still love us, even if we fail to attend church God will still love us, no matter what we do after salvation we cannot be separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus Romans 8:35 – 39. Please remember God cannot change Hebrews 6:17 “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:” God showed us, that is those who are saved (…the heirs of promise…) that His will is immutable or unchangeable in any way so that we can trust and depend on Him that His love will never change no matter what we do in this life. Therefore we as Christians can have total confidence that God has an eternal love that cannot end, ever. Please also understand the love of God and the pleasing of God are two different things. God’s love is eternal but God being pleased with us is another matter. While God will love us no matter what we do in this life He will not always be pleased with us, we can only please God by doing His blessed will like attending church or living a life consistent with His biblical will. Beloved God’s love is so great He sent His own beloved Son in the form of a man to die for our sins so His love could be complete. Beloved next time you want to think about God think about the love He had on us not because we were good people but that He elected to love many of this world’s sinners and bless them with salvation from eternal damnation. God’s love is indeed great and we can count on the very fact that no matter what it will never end. Our love for one another may end but the love of God is too great and wonderful to ever end.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

One Sent From God.

“John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.” John 1:15

John The Baptist was one sent from God to bring the world witness of the Messiah Jesus The Christ. John The Baptist was not a self appointed witness to the coming of the Messiah, oh no John was sent from God. Isaiah 40:3 “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” John was not a self appointee of baptizing, oh no he was appointed by God to baptize them that believed that Jesus was the Saviour of man kind. John was known as the forerunner of Jesus Christ to let the Israelite people know that their Messiah was coming, the great shout in the wilderness. However as it was John just as well have been shouting in the wilderness because very few heard the cry. John 1:11 “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Beloved just as John was sent from God with the great message that the Saviour was coming men today are men sent from God with the message that the Saviour has came and just as it was in Johns day very few are hearing the message. Mankind today is truly no different than those in John’s day, the cry goes out but very few hear it. And just as it was when Jesus was walking the world, no one gave much notice to what the message was they just wanted Jesus to give them something, but what He offered is not what they wanted. One would think if John The Baptist was such a one as he was (a man sent from God) then many would hear him but they refused to hear the message about Jesus Christ. However you would surely think that if Jesus Christ Himself carried the message of salvation that man would surly flock to Him and believe, but they did not. The message about our Saviour and the saving grace of God has never been popular not even when Jesus Christ Himself preached it. The Gospel message Got John the Baptist killed, it got Jesus crucified, and it got all of the Apostles also killed. All of these men were sent from God to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. People because they love evil more than God, people that cannot hear the gospel message because they are deaf to God message will never flock to hear the true message of God. Your pastor is like unto John The Baptist a man sent from God, and that message is that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of mankind, believe on Him as your Saviour, trust in His blood to cleanse you from all of your sins and you to can be a true Christian. But as it was with John, Jesus, Paul, Mark, Matthew, and etc. it is with your pastor people simply do not want to hear.

People flocked to Jesus if He had something to give them and when He gave them something like healing, food, or etc. then they were happy but tell them of their evil heart and present the remedy of healing their wicked ways then they flock away somewhere else. Most places of worship today are like that, give them their programs, pat them on the head and tell them how sweet they are and you can fill the house, but tell them about their evil heart and they will flock to another house. Without programs and freebies they simply are not interested in “worshiping God”. This is why they Lord wanted His men and churches to know that a man that teaches TRUTH is worthy of double honor and the man that fail to do so is unworthy altogether. Beloved if you are one who measures your pastor’s success on the number in the church you could not more sadly mistaken. If you measure your pastors success on how many programs or how much money brought into the church then you are again sadly mistaken. The success of your pastor is how much truth he delivers to the church and the stronger he delivers it the more successful he is. And beloved if many do not flock to hear the message do not worry, not many flocked to hear John, Jesus, or any of the others either.