SERMON SEEDS H40 FOR 1/10/05
Posted by: jpeters <jpeters@...>
SERMON SEEDS FOR JANUARY 10, 2004
A PRAYER REQUEST FROM JACK - Dear friends, I want to thank you for you support of Sermon Seeds and of me. The Lord has broadened my ministry horizons so to speak. I will be speaking at a small field conference for Cross World (U.F.M.) in March in Brazil and teaching on the Book of Nehmiah. I would appreciate your prayers that I will be able to communicate clearly, help and encourage the missionaries that I will be teaching. Thanks for praying.
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Genesis 6:5-9
BEFORE THE FLOOD
THE SINFULNESS OF MAN Vs. 5
THE SORROW OF GOD Vs. 6
THE SENTENCE OF DEATH Vs. 7
THE SELECTION OF NOAH Vs. 8
THE STANDARDS OF CHARACTER Vs. 9
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Psalm 4
THE SOURCE
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS Vs. 1
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF HELP Vss. 2-3
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF CORRECTION Vss. 4-5
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF GOOD Vs. 6
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF GLADNESS Vs. 7
GOD IS THE SOURCE OF REST Vs. 8
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Isaiah 1:2-9
NATION IN TROUBLE
A STUBBORN NATION Vss. 2-3
A SINFUL NATION Vs. 4
A SICK NATION Vss. 5-6
A SUPPRESSED NATION Vss. 7-8
A SPECIAL NATION Vs. 9 Had a very small remnant
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Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
GOING PUBLIC
PRIVATE SHARING = PUBLIC REWARD Vss. 1-4
PRIVATE SUPPLICATION = PUBLIC REWARD Vss. 5-6
PRIVATE SACRIFICE = PUBLIC REWARD Vss. 16-18
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John 1:35-51
DISCIPLES
In this passage there are four disciples enlisted into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Each one of them was unique.
DISCIPLE WITH A CHAMPION Vss. 35-41
Andrew had found the Messiah!
DISCIPLE WITH COURAGE Vs. 42
Peter was the stone.
DISCIPLE WITH A CAUSE Vs. 43
Philips cause was to follow Jesus.
DISCIPLE WITH CHARACTER Vss. 44-51
Nathaniel had no guile.
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1 JOHN 2:15-17 ETC. - PAGE 1
LOVING GOD
Real Christianity #8, Studies in 1 John
Lets talk about loving God.
We will use 1 John 2:15-17, the next passage in our 1 John series as an important part of the discussion.
But, we will include other passages as well. Lets look at:
THE COMMAND TO LOVE GOD
Matthew 22:35-40 - Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, [36] Master, which is the great commandment in the law? [37] Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [38] This is the first and great commandment. [39] And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [40] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus summed up the whole Old Testament Law and Prophets with two quotes:
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 - Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: [5] And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Leviticus 19:18 - Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.
· According to John MacArthur, loving God with all our hearts is to love him from the core of ones personal being.
· Loving God with all our soul is equivalent to emotion. We should be emotionally committed in our love for God.
· Loving God with all our minds is used here in the sense of intellectual, willful vigor and determination, carrying both the meaning of mental and endeavor and of strength John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Matthew 16-23 (Chicago, Moody Press, 1988), p.339
Now, humanly speaking to love the Lord my God in such a way, I would have to keep the Old Testament Law, especially the 10 Commandments. The first four commandments are in relationship to loving God. The last six are in relation to loving others. Because we are talking about loving God, lets just list the first four commandments.
1. Exodus 20:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Exodus 20:4-6 - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: [5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
3. Exodus 20:7 - Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Exodus 20:8 - Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
So the love of God is commanded. But there is a problem. You cant do it!
You cant love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind, nor can you love your neighbor as yourself.
Somewhere along the line, you have already broken the Ten Commandments, and have, therefore failed to love God the way you should. Romans 3:23, Isaiah 64:6
Before the Ten Commandments, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden also failed to obey God when they ate the forbidden fruit. Their disobedience showed they did not love God with all their hearts, souls and minds. You too, have failed to obey God and have not loved Him with all your heart, soul and mind.
THE CAUSE FOR LOVING GOD
There is a cause, a reason for us to love God completely.
We could not love God the way we should. We could not obey His commandments. We failed to love God.
But God did not fail to love us. 1 John 4:10, Romans 5:6-8
Either a person pays for His own sins and spends eternity in hell, or someone needed to satisfy Gods righteous judgment by paying for us. The person who paid for our sins had to be someone who had no sin Himself. That was the Lord Jesus Christ.
What love God has shown for us! That love becomes real in our lives when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, when we trust Him for forgiveness and eternal life. John 3:16
If you have trusted Christ you have every reason and every motivation to love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul and mind. You can say with the Psalmist:
Psalm 40:2 - He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
1 John 4:19 - We love him, because he first loved us.
Our love for God should be in response to His love for us!
We should love Him completely, because He loves us completely!
THE CHALLENGE TO LOVING GOD
Although we have due cause to love God completely, we are challenged in our love. This brings us to our 1 John text.
1 John 2:15 - Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
We are challenged by the pull of the world.
The world wants us to love it.
In this verse the word world does not refer to the earth, nor does it refer to the people on the earth. It refers to the world system or the worlds evil way of doing things.
God is telling us here that we will either love the worlds wicked ways or we will love God. It will be one or the other. The one who loves God does not love the world.
The one who loves the world does not love God. Matthew 6:24
Our challenge is this: Even as Christians it is possible for us to love the world. And loving the world is the last thing that we should want to do! James 4:4
So what exactly do we love when we love the World?
1 John 2:16 - For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Lust is desire. Not all desire is wrong. If we didnt desire food we wouldnt eat. If husbands and wives dont desire each other there would be no children. If we didnt desire rest we wouldnt sleep. If we didnt desire liquid we wouldnt drink.
The lust of the flesh is when these desires get out of hand.
The one who lusts after food is a glutton.
The one who lusts after sex is a fornicator, an adulterer, or worse!
The one who lusts after rest is lazy!
The one who lusts after the wrong kind of liquid is an alcoholic!
Whenever I allow my own physical desires to get out of hand, I am guilty of lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes is when I desire to please my eyes more than I try to please God.
Most of us would not argue that pornography is wrong! It is when I allow my eyes to feast on things that are sensual.
But anytime we look at a member of the opposite sex with the wrong motives, we are guilty of the lust of the eyes. Matthew 5:27-28
Lust of the eyes often allows us to enter a fantasy world of entertainment that distracts us from the love of God.
Americans love their sports entertainment, their video entertainment, their television entertainment and their world wide web entertainment. And when these fill us with visions and thoughts contrary to Gods holiness or rob us of time that should be devoted to God, they are wrong!
Another way the lust of the eyes affects us is through our wanting what other people have. We want to keep up with the Jones. We want the car, the house, the gun, the dress that we really dont need, but we want it more than we want to please God!
When these things rob us of our commitment, love and loyalty to God, they are wrong!
Lust of the flesh, Lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
There is nothing wrong with taking pride in your work or in your appearance.
Pride is wrong when you think yourself better than others and even say so!
Pride is what often keeps us from admitting we are wrong, or apologizing, or asking for forgiveness.
John wraps up this little section of Scripture by saying in Vs. 17, And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Beloved we have a challenge on our hands. We are challenged to love God and not the world, and quite frankly, it is not easy. We have a tendency because of what the Bible calls the Old Nature to want to love the world instead of wanting to love God.
We need help and our final point supplies it.
THE COMMAND TO LOVE GOD
THE CAUSE FOR LOVING GOD
THE CHALLENGE TO LOVE GOD
THE CONQUEST IN LOVING GOD
I was not able to save myself, to justify myself before God.
I could not love God completely in my own strength before I was saved.
I can not love God completely in my own strength after I am saved.
I will succumb to the world.
The help I need is based on the fact that I am identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Romans 6:3-4
When Christ died, I died.
When Christ was buried, I was buried.
When Christ rose to new life, I rose to new life.
Romans 8:1-4 - There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [4] That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
The righteousness of the Law is to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind. I will do this when I am controlled by the Holy Spirit.
The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me as I walk under the control of the Holy Spirit of God in my life.
He is the one that will enable me to walk after the Spirit!
Galatians 5:16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:22-24 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
How do you become filled with the Spirit?
· Consider yourself crucified with Christ.
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
· Ask God to fill you with His Spirit and believe He will!
Luke 11:13 - If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
John 14:13 - And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
The only way you will truly love God is when you appreciate what Jesus has done for you, submit to Him as Lord of you life, and ask Him to control you by His Spirit.
THE COMMAND TO LOVE GOD
THE CAUSE FOR LOVING GOD
THE CHALLENGE TO LOVE GOD
THE CONQUEST IN LOVING GOD
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1 JOHN 2:18-27
LIE DETECTOR
Real Christianity #9, Studies in 1 John
Wouldnt it be nice if each one of us had a built in lie detector so we would know who was lying and who was telling the truth?
The need for a lie detector is more important than you may think. John 8:44
People are especially good at lying because of the influence of Satan.
As the Father of lies, what do you think the Devil would lie most about?
Religion, of course!
The way to Heaven
The road to salvation
Eternal life
The deity of Jesus Christ
Satan is an enemy who wants no one to find eternal life.
In our text we find that Satan is at work promoting lies that will keep people from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Thankfully, we as Christians have a lie detector that can keep us from succumbing to the lies of Satan.
DECEPTION
1 John 2:18-19 - Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. [19] They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
It is the last time or the last hour according to Vs. 18.
This is not a literal hour, but a period of time.
It is the time when anyone can be saved who puts their faith and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness and eternal life.
It is also the time when Jesus Christ can return at any moment for His saints, and set the stage for the last great events of history.
After Jesus does come for his saints there is the promise of the appearance of the character that John says his readers have heard that he would come. John calls him the antichrist.
I view Antichrist as Satans greatest and culminating effort in this age to overthrow the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it will not work. Lord Jesus will destroy Him.
Satan is not idle, waiting to reveal his antichrist.
In Vs. 18 John says that we know it the last hour because there are already antichrists around.
They are not as powerful. They are not as dangerous. They are not as persuasive. But they are powerful, dangerous, and persuasive enough to lead many people astray!
The word anti we think of meaning against.
So naturally, an antichrist is one who speaks against Christ.
No matter how well he speaks of Christ, He is against him.
Some of these antichrists sound so flowery and nice talking about the Lord Jesus. But if you listen carefully to what they are saying you discover that they are denying Him as Savior, as Christ, as Messiah, as the Son of God.
This preposition, anti, has another meaning besides against. It can also mean instead of or imitation.
The antichrists of today are an imitation of Christ and of true Christianity.
They are designed by Satan as a means of deception, as a lie!
Vs. 19 - They went out from us, but they were not of us;
In other words, many of these antichrists, these false teachers started in the church, started among believers, but they were never really saved.
Vs. 19 continues they would no doubt have continued with us:
And why not? If they stayed right within the church they could have peddled their false teaching much easier.
But God spared us.
but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
They separated from true Christianity so that it might be obvious that they were not with us. Of course the world still tries to group false teachers under the title of Christianity.
There is deception out there!
Satan has his antichrists.
Be careful. Be concerned for those who are being deceived.
DETECTION Vss. 20-21
Is there a way of telling the true from the false?
Can a Christian tell which teachers are right and which teachers are wrong?
Can a Christian avoid being fooled? These false teachers are certainly out to convert Christians.
The answer, of course, is yes!
God has provided a detection system for us.
1 John 2:20 - But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
This word, unction means anointing.
There is an anointing that has taken place the moment a person was saved.
Gods Holy Spirit baptized, immersed, or placed each believer into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13
And when the Holy Spirit baptized us He came inside us to dwell. We have the Holy Spirit of God living inside.
Gods Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity is a teacher. John 16:12-14
The teaching of the Holy Spirit allows us to discern when there is a false teacher. Vs. 20 concludes and ye know all things. These words can actually be rendered, and ye all know. In other words, every true Christian can discern between what is truth and what is false doctrine through the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Vs. 21 - I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
John assures his readers that he is writing not because they did not know the truth, but because they did know the truth.
And because they did know the truth, he wanted to remind them that the truth contains no lies.
John further reminds his readers that no lie was caused by the truth.
This means that none of us should sit back and look at the cults, and say, Well, theres some truth there, that makes them all right. The falsehood of the teaching overrides any truth.
These cults do not need to be wrong in all their doctrines to lead people astray. It only takes a little poison in some perfectly good grain to kill a mouse.
If there is a lie in the basic teaching of Christ and salvation, there is no truth there, and we as Christians should be able to detect it.
DECEPTION
DETECTION
DENIAL Vss. 22-23
1 John 2:22 - Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
Now John tells us who the liars are.
These are the ones who play fast and loose with the doctrine of Christ.
They deny that Jesus is the Son of God, that is, God the Son in the flesh.
They deny that Jesus is the Messiah.
1 John 2:23 - Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
To deny the deity of Christ is to reveal that you do not have the Father living inside of you.
To confess the Son as Savior shows that the Father dwells within you as well. John 14:21
The Muslim people do not acknowledge the deity of Christ, they do not have the Father.
The Jewish people do not acknowledge the deity of Christ,
They do not have the Father.
The Jehovahs Witnesses do not acknowledge the deity of Christ. They do not have the Father.
The Mormons do not acknowledge the deity of Christ in the same way we do. They do not have the Father.
Liberal theologians often do not acknowledge the deity of Christ. They do not have the Father.
Look at what a teacher is saying about Christ, and if he is a false teacher, an antichrist, you will see the denial of Christ somewhere in his teaching.
DEFENSE Vss. 24-27
So how do we guard against false teaching?
What is our defense against this onslaught of Satan?
1 John 2:24 - Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
There should be some non-negotiables in your faith.
There should be truths that you believe, that you have heard from the beginning of your Christian faith.
If these non-negotiables remain in you, youre relationship and fellowship with God the Father and God the Son will continue and abound.
These non-negotiables are the Gospel.
G God loves you.
O Only begotten Son, Jesus Christ
S Sin, all have
P Precious blood of Christ shed for our sins
E Ever-living Savior
L Let Him in
1 John 2:25 - And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
The one who is truly born again will stay with the Gospel and receive the promise of eternal life.
1 John 2:26-27 - These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. [27] But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
John wrote these things because of the ones who would seduce or lead Christians astray.
In Vs. 27 he assures us that we have an anointing of the Holy Spirit that abides in us. It is continual
It is the work of the Holy Spirit that defends us against the seduction of false teachers.
It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us, so that we dont need false teachers haranguing us.
This passage doesnt mean that we dont need Bible teachers. Thats what John himself was doing, teaching the Bible!
Jesus Himself told us to teach in his Great Commission. Matthew 28:19-20
Paul appointed teachers.
Paul told Timothy to teach others who would teach others. 2 Timothy 2:1-2
I think Johns point is that you and I have a defense against false teachers. It is the teaching work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will use Gods Word, His own personal insights, and the teaching of Godly teachers to keep us on the straight and narrow.
And the more we allow the Spirit of God to teach us, the more we will abide in Him.
So God has equipped us with a lie detector.
DECEPTION
DETECTION
DENIAL
DEFENSE
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