Podcasts about irian jaya

Dr. Charles Foley is back again on the latest episode of "Worth Your Time," where he shares tales from his life of mammal watching and conservation efforts. Dr. Foley recounts a memorable trip to Tanzania under the stars in the Simanjiro Plains with Dr. Rob Shumaker involving local Maasai village game scouts, a freshly cooked goat, and a night of swapping ghost stories by a campfire, showcasing the profound human connection to storytelling and nature. Dr. Foley also explains his passion for mammal watching, explaining the challenges and nuances of observing nocturnal species. His adventures span the globe, from the Serengeti to remote Irian Jaya, each trip driven by the thrill of encountering rare and elusive mammals like the aardvark and the mysterious long-beaked echidna. These narratives are not just tales of travel and animal sightings but reflect a deep commitment to conservation and community involvement, highlighting how local actions can lead to global impacts. Join the global community of wildlife enthusiasts like Dr. Foley on Mammalwatching.com, where you can share and discover mammal watching tips and tales. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species - https://www.iucnredlist.org

God can seem surprising at times. In this message, Otto Koning (a missionary to Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea) shares on the concept and gives practical (and often funny) reminders on how we can fully trust God and live the fullness of the Christian life.Learn more about the Bravehearted Voices Podcast and how you can be discipled and grow spiritually by visiting braveheartedvoices.com

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1061, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: This Is I Country 1: An island, it's the world's northernmost "I" country. Iceland. 2: They're the only 2 "I" countries to border each other. Iran and Iraq. 3: One of this country's driest regions is the Negev Desert, with an annual rainfall of usually less than 10 inches. Israel. 4: Its ethnic groups include the Dayaks on Borneo, the Toraja on Sulawesi and some Papuan groups on Irian Jaya. Indonesia. 5: Among its 26 counties are one famed for its cut glass and one known for its tweed cloth. Ireland. Round 2. Category: Auditions For A New Mustache 1: It's thick, bushy and named for a tusked northern mammal. a walrus mustache. 2: It bears the name of an artist born in Figueres. Dalí. 3: With its twirlable up-curled ends, it's the perfect style for villains like Snidely Whiplash. a handlebar mustache. 4: The shape of this 'stache gives it this name, like an item used in a backyard game. horseshoe. 5: An Asian villain of literature and film lends his name to this mustache. Fu Manchu. Round 3. Category: The Works Of Victor Hugo 1: In "The Last Day of a Condemned Man," a prisoner wakes up every morning knowing each day could lead to this instrument of doom. the guillotine. 2: "The Toilers of the Sea" is a story of a shipwreck in these islands between France and Britain where Hugo lived in exile for decades. Channel Islands. 3: Hugo's only opera libretto was for "La Esmeralda," based on this novel of his. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. 4: The early novel "Bug-Jargal" is set during the Revolution in this French Caribbean island possession. Haiti. 5: Hugo's last novel, "Ninety-Three" refers to 1793, the fourth year of the French Revolution and the beginning of this brutal period. The Reign of Terror. Round 4. Category: The Body Politic 1: The 160-seat Dáil Éireann is the lower house of this country's parliament. Ireland. 2: The lower house of Argentina's legislature is the chamber of these--representatives, not junior sheriffs. deputies. 3: There are 338 members in this branch of Canada's parliament. the House of Commons. 4: In the west Japan's national assembly, the Kokkai, goes by this slender name. the Diet. 5: This name of Iceland's parliament comes from words meaning "whole assembly". the Althing. Round 5. Category: Lafayette 1: In April 1771 he joined this group of king's guards that was all for one and one for all. the Musketeers. 2: In 1777 he spent part of a harsh winter here with George Washington. Valley Forge. 3: Before turning his attention fully to the telegraph, he painted a portrait of Lafayette. (Samuel) Morse. 4: In 1771 he joined this military group over 100 years after D'Artagnan. the Musketeers. 5: July 15, 1789 the day after this political event, Lafayette was appointed head of the French national guard. the storming of the Bastille. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

The Gospel must be preached to all nations because God has elected some from every tribe, language, people, and nation to be in heaven. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles if you would, to Mark, chapter 13, and you can also turn as well to Matthew 24. We're going to be looking at both of those places. The Scripture reveals that despite all of its swirling complexity, human history has a purpose. We are moving to a destination. We're going somewhere with all of this. It's not just random chaos, but God has a plan and a purpose. The destination the Bible reveals, to which we're going, is a perfect universe, a perfect world free from all sin and a beautiful radiant city. The New Heavens and the New Earth are that perfect universe and that radiant city is called the New Jerusalem. The Bible reveals that the light source of that new universe and of the New Jerusalem, according to Revelation 21 and 22, is the glory of God, the glory of God. Revelation 21:23 says, "The city”[the New Jerusalem] "does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and the lamb is its lamp." Again, in the next chapter, Revelation 22:5 it says, "They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light." But what is that? What is the glory of God? In my studies and my meditations, I've thought a lot, it's an important topic. I believe the glory of God is the radiant display of the attributes or the perfections of God. Sometimes it's just brilliant light, as 1 Timothy 6:16 says, "God dwells in unapproachable light." Well, think about that, unapproachable light. How amazing must that be? For this reason, the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision were constantly covering their faces, though they had no sin or guilt, but just in that unapproachable light, the presence of the glory, they were covering their faces. For this reason also, the theophanies, or the displays of God, where God shows up in human history are frequently attended by overpowering light, like in Ezekiel's vision of the likeness of the glory of God by the Kibar River east of Babylon. Ezekiel 1 says, "High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. And I saw from what appeared to be his waist up, He looked like glowing metal as if full of fire. And that from there down He looked like fire and brilliant light surrounded Him, like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell face down." So radiant, light, brightness connected with the glory of God. Also at the time of the birth of our Lord in Bethlehem, an angel appeared to shepherds outside Bethlehem and it says in Luke 2:9-10, "There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified." This was a glory of the eye, not of the mind or heart. It was just bright light, and it stunned the shepherds that night. But the glory of God is seen not just in brilliant light, sometimes it's in the radiant display of the perfections of God, the attributes of God woven into the tapestry of historical events. That takes the eye of faith to see it, but it's there. The attributes of God woven into the tapestry of history. The perfections of God, attributes of God, include His wisdom, His power, His love, compassion, justice, patience, kindness, mercy. These are attributes. God has ordained history, the story of history, for this reason to put Himself on display in the sequence of events and unfolding history. He put Himself on display in a history, a story, that He predestined before Christ began, written in His own mind before time began. The sequence of events, this history, has all been written out by the author of history and it's intrinsically connected with the Christ event, the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said in Revelation 22:13, "I am the alpha and the omega. I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end." History is linear, and Jesus is history. Jesus is what the story is all about. The radiant display of the glory of God in heaven, I believe, will consist in part in a retelling of His mighty works in saving His people from their sins and in their individual context all over the world, across the centuries, a retelling of the mighty works of God and saving sinners. I believe it's the most glorious thing God has ever done. His glory is greatly on display in salvation. Revelation 7:9-10 says, "After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes, and they were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'" "The radiant display of the glory of God in heaven, I believe, will consist in part in a retelling of His mighty works in saving His people from their sins and in their individual context all over the world, across the centuries." Here's a multitude, a huge quantity of people, from all over the world, every imaginable context, standing around the throne of God in heaven praising God for salvation. The specific stories of these individual people that make up these millions from every nation on Earth, will bring infinite and eternal glory to God. A few verses later, Revelation 8:13, "Then one of the elders asked me, 'These in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?'" As I've said many times before, that story will take forever to tell fully. It is so complex, but it is woven through with light, it’s woven through with glory. "These redeemed," who are they and where do they come from? Well, how long do you have? We have all eternity. So, pull up a chair and let's hear the story of how God redeemed this one and that one and the other one from all over the world. Heaven will be filled with the stories of the greatness of God put on display in the amazing tapestry of history that He wove in every century. This is the story of missions. The spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem to the ends of the Earth across every generation of history, that unspeakable glory as before us this morning. We're going to focus just on two verses of scripture. Mark 13:10, right in the middle of our Mark study, and then a parallel verse, Matthew 24:14. Mark 13:10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come." I want to tell you something about the science of Bible interpretation. The Gospels, there are four of them, three of them basically take the same approach to the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark ,and Luke. They're called synoptic because they see things from about the same perspective. Then the fourth Gospel, John, comes at it from a different perspective, but they all tell the same thing. We believe that all scriptures God-breathed is perfect, so therefore these are four perfect accounts of the life of Christ, but they have some differences with one another. When we have those differences between, let's say, Matthew and Mark, we harmonize. We don't pit them against each other, we put them together. We try to harmonize, and that's not always easy to do. Generally, I look on it as a two-for-one sale. I'm going to take both statements here as true, and if one of them tells me one thing, He said that and that's true, and if one of them tells something else, He said that, and I just harmonize, I put it together. I. Context: Jesus’ Prediction of the Destruction of the Temple Let's talk about the context here. We're moving through the Gospel of Mark. Mark 13 is Jesus's description of the history of the end of the world and the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the end of the world. It came from a statement Jesus made in Mark 13:2: "Not one stone will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down." This was a prediction of the destruction, at least of the Temple, but probably really of the whole city of Jerusalem and focused on the temple. It was the final week of Jesus's life. Things were hurdling to a conclusion, the dramatic turbulent events culminating in His arrest and His trial before the Jewish leaders. His condemnation by them is being handed over to Pontius Pilate for condemnation by the Romans and then His crucifixion by Pontius Pilate and the Romans. So that's where we're heading. Jesus has given a seven-fold denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of the Jewish nation. It's fully depicted in Matthew 23. It's just quickly summarized in Mark. But it culminates in this statement in Matthew 23: 38-39, "Jesus says, 'Behold your house is left to you desolate.'" This is a very important statement—your house is left to you desolate. “Desolate” means “empty." The reason I'm saying that is, "For, I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say ‘Blessed is He comes in the name of the Lord.’" “Not seeing Me again” is the essence of your desolate house. That's what makes your house desolate. Then Jesus dramatically walked out of the Temple, never to return again. The disciples came up at that moment and chose that moment to talk about how beautiful the Temple was. We shouldn't be surprised at this. This is what the disciples, the apostles were like, frequently off message. This is who we are as well. “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down.’" That must've been incredibly distressing to them. They come to Him later, privately, when He's out of the city, He's up on the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, they're out of the city and they're there. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, Matthew 24:3, “The disciples came to Him privately. 'Tell us,' they said, 'When will this happen and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?’" Matthew 24 and Mark 13 cover roughly the same ground, but Matthew 24, in much more detail. There's almost nothing found in Mark 13 that's not found in Matthew 24, and there are other things besides in Matthew 24, so I have my eye on both. Matthew 24 has the full question the disciples asked and the fuller answer that Jesus gives. The three parts of the question in Matthew 24 are, "Tell us, when will this happen?" And, "What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" The complexity of Matthew 24 and of Mark 13 comes in discerning and kind of to some degree, unweaving the tapestry of Jesus's answer. What is He talking about right now in this part? Is He talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 870 AD by the Romans? Is He talking about the end of the world? What is it? They weave it through. Jesus, I believe, is giving a history of the world between His First and Second Comings. It's bigger than just the destruction of the Temple. Just to tell you, if you look at Mark 13:10, a key word for me in that is the word “first.” First. "This gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations." First before what? Before the destruction of the temple? That didn't happen. So clearly, Jesus's scope is bigger than the destruction of the Temple. He's looking at, I believe, all history, from the First to the Second Comings of Christ, and He's traveling and traversing that history. Look at verses 5-13, Mark 13. Jesus has said to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming I am He and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There'll be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. You must be on your guard. You'll be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of Me, you'll stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them." Here's our focus verse, verse 10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given to you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents, and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Last week, we traced out those thirteen verses and looked at the whole answer. Just to summarize, it begins with a warning against false teaching. He goes from that to a prediction of the ordinary convulsion of events of history, wars and rumors of wars. That happens in every generation, almost every year of history, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. That's all the time. There'll be famines, earthquakes, various places. He calls all this the beginning of birth pains. The birth pains means a terrible convulsion or pain resulting in something beautiful and wonderful. We're heading to a good destination, but we have a lot of pain to go through first. That's what “beginning of birth pain” means. Then He mentions persecution. They will be handed over to the local councils. They'll be flogged in synagogues. These will be opportunities for them to be witnesses to Him. They will testify to Jesus. "On account of me, you'll stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them." The flow of human history is a canvas on which the masterpiece of redemptive history is being painted. These commonplace convulsions, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, arrests, trials, all of that is being sovereignly controlled to accomplish the spread of the Gospel, to accomplish the salvation of God's people, to accomplish the glory of God. That's what's going on here. It's amazing how God controls history even down to the micro-level, to achieve His purposes. I found a number of years ago a great example of this in the life of John Calvin. John Calvin is a great reformer who spent most of his life in Geneva, a great theologian, tremendous leader. However, he was not originally Swiss. Geneva is a city in Switzerland. He was French and he was basically a refugee, a religious refugee running for his life because he believed in the Reformation. The Catholic King of France was persecuting what they called Lutherans, and he was running for his life. By this time, he had already written a significant theological work, and he was on his way to the French city of Strasbourg. He had in mind a quiet life as a scholar. He was going to be quiet in his room and eat little bowls of gruel and write theology books, and that was going to be his life. That would've made him happy. He was that kind of person. At any rate, he was a scholar but already well known. Amazingly, en route to Strasbourg, he couldn't go there because an obscure war had broken out between the King of France and Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor. It's not at all one of the most famous wars ever. It's one of those wars and rumors of wars that Jesus talked about. But as a result, the straight road to Strasbourg was blocked with troop movements. So here, this fleeing man, this refugee has to divert through the city of Geneva. At any rate, there he is in Geneva, and William Farel, who started a Reformation work there hears that Calvin is there, and he thinks this is just the guy that we need for the Reformation here in Geneva. He was right, but Calvin had no such intention. When Farel came and said, "I want you to work here in Geneva," he said, "No, no, I'm going to go have a quiet life writing books in Strasbourg." He didn't say it just like that, but it probably went something like that. After Farel tried to persuade him and wasn't successful, Farel rose up in what Calvin called intemperate zeal and threatened him with the judgment of God if he chose a quiet life of academia rather than taking part in the Reformation in Geneva. Calvin was wired to fear that kind of thing and said, "Okay, I guess I'll stay in Geneva,” and he did. He was there most of the rest of his life. What's my point? Wars and rumors of wars for a purpose. "Are you saying that God orchestrated a war between Catholic King Francis of France and Catholic King Charles the Fifth, so that John Calvin would end up in Geneva and not Strasbourg?" Yes, that's what I'm saying, and other things too. Other things too, but at least that. That's what God does. Isn't it amazing that history has a purpose? Even as it seems to be churning and random and destructive, God is at work in the midst of all of it. The central work of all of this is, "You will be witnesses for me. You'll be my witnesses. You are going to proclaim this gospel." Look at verse 10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." The power of the Holy Spirit is central to this mission. He said, "Do not worry ahead of time what to say, what to speak. It will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the driving orchestrator and force of the spread of the gospel, the third person of the Trinity, that is His role and He's extremely good at his job. As Acts 1:8 says, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you and you'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria to the ends of the Earth." In the midst of all this, there'll be a tremendous amount of pain for the witnesses, painful betrayals, family relationships will be compromised. Your own closest relatives will turn their backs on you. "Everyone will hate you because of Me," Jesus says. Intense persecution, and that's what makes this journey so glorious. The courage, the boldness, the suffering, the willingness to pay the price. That's the story. That's big picture. II. A Command in Mark Let's zero in on the command, Mark 13:10, “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." In Mark's version, Mark 13:10, it takes a command form, effectively. It's a command in Mark. It uses the Greek word “dei”, which means “it is necessary,” but that's frequently a command, a sense of a command. It is necessary for the Gospel first to be preached to all nations. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the message of the kingdom of God with Jesus as the King of the kingdom of God. He's the centerpiece, he is the King, he's the Lord, he's the Savior. The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and all that that means. That's what the Gospel of Mark has been unfolding all along. It's a message about the kingdom of God, that God is King. "What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the message of the kingdom of God with Jesus as the King of the kingdom of God. He's the centerpiece, he is the King, he's the Lord, he's the Savior. The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and all that means." The kingdom is the spiritual realm where the subjects of the King are delighted to have God as their King, and they're pleased to obey Him and to follow Him. They're delighted about it. God's sovereignty over rebels is a different matter, but the advancing kingdom of God has to do with individuals who throw down their weapons of rebellion and come in gladly under the kingship of Christ. The Gospel is, as we've said before, God, man, Christ, response. That God created the universe, the heavens and the Earth, and as the Creator, He has the right to make laws and rules by which we live our lives. God, the Creator, God the King, God, the Lawgiver and God the Judge. That's God. Man, we are created in the image of God to have a relationship with Him, to have a love relationship with Him and to love each other, but we have sinned. We have broken the two Great Commandments. We have not loved God with all of our hearts, all mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We have sinned. Therefore, we stand under God's judgment, physical death, eternal death in hell. Christ is God's answer to that problem. The Son of God, fully God, fully man, born, took on human flesh. We celebrate it this time of year. He lived a sinless life under the laws of God. He died in our place as our substitute, a transfer of guilt effected. When we believe in Jesus, our guilt put on Jesus, He dies in our place, His righteousness is given to us, and that's the white robes that we're going to stand in on Judgment Day and for all eternity. The imputed righteousness of Christ, that's what Christ came to do. Then the response, we need to repent of our sins, turn away from our rebellion against God the King. Believe in Jesus, trust in Him, and we'll receive forgiveness of sins. That's the Gospel: God, man, Christ, response. It is necessary for that message to be preached, to be proclaimed to all nations. That's what He's saying. That has to happen first, before the end of the world. That's what first, first is tied to the end of the world. Why? Why is it necessary? Why don't I give you four reasons, four reasons why it is necessary for the Gospel. Let's keep it simple, because Christ the King commanded it. We'll start there. Christ told us to do this. These were his last words before He ascended back to heaven. The Great Commission, so-called, which is a commandment to all of His followers, to make disciples of all nations, is in all four Gospels, a different version but in all four Gospels and in Acts. The most famous version is Matthew 28, "Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.’" To all nations in all eras of history, that's the Great Commission. It is necessary, therefore, that this happened because it is the will of God and of Christ for us. Secondly, it is necessary because the Gospel is the only way for sinners to be forgiven and reconciled to God. There is no other way. There is no other plan. The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Or as it says in Romans 10:12 -15, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, can they call on one they have not believed in and how can they believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they're sent?" As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News?’” That's the logic of missions. It's a logical work that Paul does in Romans 10, using a series of rhetorical questions, assuming negative answers. The statement is made worldwide, anyone in any nation on Earth who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus in faith will be saved. But how can someone call on someone they've not believed in? They can't do that, can they? No, of course, they can't. No one can believe in someone they've never heard of, can they? No, of course they can't. And no one can hear without someone preaching or proclaiming the message. No, they can't. Absolutely not. And no one can do that preaching unless they're sent out. Hence, the need for missions. That's the logic of missions, and it's the answer to why it is necessary for this Gospel to be proclaimed. Thirdly, it is necessary for the Gospel to be proclaimed to all nations because God has chosen people in every tribe and language and people and nation. They're called the Elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. God wants those people reached. Jesus said in John's Gospel, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. They must be brought in, and there'll be one flock and one shepherd." Those are people, not just Jews, but all the ends of the Earth. God has people out there. There will be people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. It's been ordained. They were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless and they have to be brought in, and the only way they're going to be brought in is by the preaching of the Gospel. That's the third reason. The fourth, it is necessary for the Gospel to be preached for the maximum glory of God. That's the ultimate reason for everything. It is for the glory of God that this be done. Ephesians 1:11-12 says, "In Him we're also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him, works out everything in conformity to the purpose of His will, in order that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory, that we might be, exist, for the praise of His glory and that we might praise His glory, that we might ourselves notice His glory.” So we will be glory, and we will see glory, and we'll praise Him for it. That's the reason why. Or again, in Romans 15:9, "That the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." So those are four reasons why it is necessary for the Gospel to be preached. To whom should the Gospel be preached? What we've already said, to all nations. To all nations, the Greek is “panta ta ethne”. The word “ethne” is from which we get the word “ethnic”, and that's the key. We as Protestants, as Evangelicals, we have had a progressive, growing understanding of missions over the last 500 years. Little by little by little, we've understood more and more clearly our obligation in this matter. For the first three centuries, the church just exploded all over the Roman Empire. People were going everywhere preaching the gospel. Apostles, non-apostles, everybody, and it was spreading everywhere. It went as far north as Scotland, it went as far south as Sub-Saharan Africa. There's clear evidence of this. It went as far east as India. It went as far west as Tarshish, which is like Gibraltar. It was all over the place, and the Gospel was spreading. However, once the Dark Ages fell and politics wove together with some form of Christianity, Christendom came about. We had the Crusades, which are the most abhorrent misconstrued incident of mission that's ever been in history; we still paying the price. But there was this mixture of church and state, and it was a mess. To make matters worse, the Gospel itself, for the most part, was lost in a false “gospel of works" religion. The Dark Ages fell, but praise God, the Reformation came and scraped away all that darkness and the Gospel was reclaimed. The Gospel of justification by faith alone, apart from works of law, was shining in those Protestant churches, Lutheran churches, Calvinist churches, the Anabaptist churches. But those folks weren't doing missions initially. They were really just trying to survive. Missions, at that point, was done mostly by Roman Catholics through the Jesuits, who were spreading the power of the Pope and of their Catholic kings, like the King of Spain and the King of Portugal to distant places like Japan and other places. But they didn't bring the true Gospel with them. Meanwhile, the Protestants continued to establish doctrine and to reach their own countries, but not doing missions. But God worked in Protestant churches, little by little, a clearer understanding of our obligation concerning missions in four key steps. The first step, or insight, comes from William Carey. He was a Baptist, a cobbler, a blue collar guy, and he wrote an incredible work called An Inquiry into the Obligation Christians Have to Use Means for the Evangelization of the Missions to the Heathen. Heathen will be pagans or lost people. He was a trailblazer in Protestant missions. The insight is that we Protestants should do missions. We should go to distant lands and share the Gospel. Not just the Jesuits should do that, we should do it. That was step one. Step two came from a leader named Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China. He went on his first missionary trip and just like most missionaries did in the mid-nineteenth century, he stayed on the coastlands such as Shanghai, port cities. He had a vision for the inland regions of China, teeming hundreds of millions of Chinese that had no hope of hearing the Gospel. He founded something called the China Inland Mission. So step number two is, we need to get off the coast and go into the dark heart of Africa, the dark heart of India and of China, and find people there who have no physical access to the Gospel. Step two, inland missions. Step three came from a leader at the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century named Cameron Townsend. He was a missionary in Latin America and South America. He was working with some tribal people, and they were doing all of their work in Spanish, the trade language. At one point, one of these tribal men said, "If your God is so smart, how come he doesn't speak my language?" Good question, right? Good question. So Cameron Townsend started a ministry called Wycliffe Bible Translators to get the Bible into the heart language of people all over the world, and that work continues to this very day. Insight number four came in the middle of the 20th century from a missionary leader named Donald McGavran, and he began to see that the issue wasn't reaching political nations, like nations that are represented at the United Nations. It had to do with understanding the word ethne as a people group, a group of people characterized by a language and a culture and a heritage and a self-identifying focus. And so that started the people group conception of the work. “Panta ta ethne” means to all people groups. Now, how many people groups are there in the world? No one knows, only God knows. It's very difficult to see lines of border and demarcation between people groups. Donald McGovern did his work in India, and there are probably at least 5,000 people groups, if not more, in India, but there's a lot of overlap. Joshuaproject.net, which you can go and check that out, they say 17,446. As an MIT engineer, I'm like, "I don't think there's that many significant figures." I would say roughly 18,000. or roughly 16,000. I don't think we can get down to 17,446. However, there's a lot. There's a lot of people groups. IMB has a smaller number of people groups. Then you go to the next level, which is “unreached people groups.” What are unreached people groups? It's defined as less than two percent evangelical in that nation. When I was a missionary to Japan, the Japanese were the largest unreached people group in the world, less than two percent evangelical. Since then, they've been superseded by another group. But that's a people group. That's what “unreached” means. “Unengaged,” another U is added, meaning, as far as the IMB knows, there is no effort to try to reach that people group. There's no one working on that, as far as they know. So you've got the UUPG, which is unengaged, unreached people groups. That's the focus. That's where the work should go. It is necessary for us to do that, for the church to do that. It is necessary for us to reach them with the Gospel. And this stands as a permanent command from our Lord and King Jesus Christ. "If you love Me, you'll keep my commandment." That's Mark 13:10, the command. III. A Prophecy in Matthew Look over at Matthew, where it comes across as a prophecy, or perhaps a promise. I'm okay with either one. Look what it says in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as the testimony in all nations and then the end will come.” So prophecy, promise. What is Jesus saying there? "And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as the testimony of all nations, and then the end will come." The preaching of the Gospel to every tribe, language, people, and the nation is as guaranteed as the end of the world is. They're equally guaranteed. It's going to happen. This is a remarkable assertion by Jesus, more remarkable than not one stone left on another. Picture Jesus on that tiny little rocky outcropping there in the Mount of Olives surrounded by a band of followers that were frequently off message. You know those guys. Surrounded by a very small number of people saying, "This thing that we're doing here is going worldwide, everyone on Earth will hear about this." All peoples on Earth, all peoples, all nations will hear. That's incredible. Effectively, then, “the Jewish conception of their own kingdom will end, the Messianic kingdom, and My kingdom will be established and will reign for all eternity." That's awesome. How does He know that? He knows it because He's God, but He also knows it because the Old Testament scripture predicted that this would happen. God willing, next week, we'll look at Isaiah 49, but in Luke 24, "This is what is written. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." It's going to happen. Which scriptures? Many. There are many scriptures. But I'm going to look at Isaiah 49 next week. Isaiah 49, 1 and 6, "Listen to me, you islands, hear this, you distant nations." Islands and nations, distant nations. God says to Jesus, "It is too small a thing for You to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You," [Jesus] "a light for the Gentiles that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the Earth.” Jesus is actually not saying anything different than Isaiah the prophet said or that many other prophecies gave. Friends, this is a great encouragement. How does a team play if it's guaranteed, if they think they're absolutely going to win? They're going to play better than if they think they're going to lose. How does an army fight if they think ultimate victory is guaranteed? They fight better. We are going to win because Christ is going to win. This gospel is going to win. The task seems difficult. 3,150 unreached, unengaged, unreached people groups. None of them are easy to reach, or they would've been reached. They're in very difficult situations or places. I went through and thought about some of our units. If you guys don't know what the word “units” means, it means either a married couple, like a family or single. That's why we use the word units because some of them are single men and women, but sometimes family. We call them a mailing address or a group, a family unit. That's what we mean by it. I was reading about units in Turkey, 1.29 million practice Shia Islam. They speak North Levantine Arabic, a significant minority in Turkey. Their goal is to keep their Arabic culture alive in the secular Muslim state of Turkey and pass that on to their children and grandchildren. They mix elements of Sufism, which is Islamic mysticism and Shia Islam. Then we've got Thailand, where we have some units, I won't say their names, but they're there working, and there are people there that are following a certain flavor of Theravada Buddhism. Then in Bangladesh, overwhelmed with poverty, where we have another family unit there. People there are practicing Sunni Islam. They're tragically poor, and they're in darkness, in the grip of darkness. When we think about how difficult it is, and how long it takes to learn a language well enough to share the Gospel in it, and how long it takes to learn a culture, and how long it takes to make friendships, and then that whole journey, and then how long it takes to see one person cross over from darkness to light, that's the challenge in front of us. We need to be encouraged. Remember the lesson of the fig tree that we preached on a number of months ago? Mark 11:23-24, "Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he has said will happen, will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mountain moving, faith-filled prayer is made for the Great Commission. That's the mountain that needs to be moved. Remember what I said about prayer at that time. Prayer is not you giving God an idea He didn't have before or persuading Him to do something He didn't want to do. That's not what prayer is. Prayer is you learning from Scripture what God is doing in the world and asking Him to do what He has decreed and ordained to do but hasn't done yet. That's what it is. God has decreed and ordained that people from every tribe and language and people and nation will be standing in those white robes around that throne. That's what He's decreed. It is encouraging to see the progress of the Gospel. Those other signs, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, those don't mark anything. They're characteristics of every generation. But the progress of the Gospel, that's like a ticking clock to the end of the world. If you were to put dots on a map all over the world of what we would consider to be healthy Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in the year 1550, where would you put the dots? It would be almost all Central and North Europe, 1550. If you advance 50 years later, [1600] you would see more dots in those same areas, but still nowhere else. If you put dots where you had healthy Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in 1650, by then you would have to add some North American colonies, in Virginia, and New England, and other places, and more over Europe, but nowhere else [1650]. If you advance another 50 years, many more dots up and down the 13 colonies. Many more dots in Europe, and nowhere else. By 1750, by then you had the Great Awakening, lots of dots all over the 13 colonies that eventually became the United States of America. You have some dots in the Caribbean where some Moravian missionaries went and sold themselves into slavery to preach the Gospel to the slave population there. Then, of course, Central and North Europe, some in the Catholic areas in Europe as well, but nowhere else. By 1800, William Carey's in India. So you put a dot there. But all the rest, just more dots in those same areas. As the new country of the United States spreading westward, there's more dots there, et cetera. In 50 more years, unbelievable. The 19th century, called the great century of missions, and they started to explode. By this time you've got Hudson Taylor in the inland regions. You've got dots in China. You've got a lot more dots in India, definitely dots in Burma. Because by the time Adoniran Judson finished his work, there were 25,000 baptized Burmese Christians. Now in 1850 there are dots all over. And by this time you can start putting them in Sub-Saharan Africa and other places. Add another 50 years, 1900, the great century of missions has ended. You got churches all over Asia, Mongolia, India, Burma, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa. In 50 more years, post-World War II, you've got the Gospel spreading to the islands of South Pacific, Irian Jaya, and Papua New Guinea. Soldiers that had fought there then went back to some of those places with the Gospel. Remarkable. 50 years later, the year 2000, the map's covered with dots, the entire world map. There's not a political nation on earth that doesn't have a healthy church. Not one. All the nations, I don't know how many nations are in the United Nations,230 some odd, all of them have some healthy church planted. But still, you've got those unreached people groups. So big picture, I can't tell you this progression without smiling. We are winning, the Gospel's spreading. The Holy Spirit is good at His job. He puts a compulsion on people, and they go where He wants them to go, and they lay down their lives as He wants them to, and the Gospel spreads. But there's still work to be done. I'm not going to burden you with statistics, that would be hard to communicate. But there's been a kind of a flattening of mission endeavor over the last 10 or 15 years. It's a little discouraging as you look, and it's just a narrow window, but missionary thinker Ralph Winter said, "More of the same will not get it done.” The burden is laid on churches like us and many other churches around the world to recommit ourselves to missions, recommit ourselves to the work left to be done, and to give sacrificially as we are called to do. IV. Applications First and foremost, if you're here listening to this mission sermon, but you came in here not a Christian, your work is to believe in Jesus. No point in talking about missions if you're lost. First and foremost, you've heard the gospel: God, man, Christ, response. I'm calling on you while there's time, repent and believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. If you're already a Christian, understand both the command in Mark 13 and the promise or the prophecy in Matthew 24. Take it seriously. This is the command laid on us, but rejoice in the sovereignty of Christ to get it done. Be confident in the final outcome. The Lord is going to win. He will be glorified. I'm looking forward to all eternity of hearing those stories. It's going to be phenomenal. Pray confidently in the spirit of Matthew 9 for more laborers, laborers in the harvest field. Churches like ours send out two precious commodities to the mission field: people and money. That's what IMB does. We gather people, and we gather money from Southern Baptist churches and point them strategically in directions. The Lottie Moon Christmas offering that we take every Christmas, our goal is $150,000. The Southern Baptist Convention exists in part for that. It was originated for that, and it's why we do. It's the crown jewel, I think, of our cooperation with Baptist churches all over the country. We pool resources to do a job too big for any one church to do. We couldn't afford to send very many fully-supported missionaries, just one church, to these various places. So we pool resources with thousands of churches. Truly, 100% of the money you give to Lottie Moon goes to missions. I was a trustee for nine years. What that means is we take more money in than Lottie Moon. It takes more money than Lottie Moon to put those missionaries on the field. I don't know how they tag dollars that go... Whatever, it gets pooled. The point is, the budget is bigger than the Lottie Moon offering. Where does the rest of the money come from? It comes from something called the Cooperative Program, where throughout the year, 12 months a year, we pool resources and a chunk of that goes to missions as well. A hundred percent of your giving goes, and our goal is $150,000. What I always say to you as a member of this church is engage, pray about your financial giving. We also have the opportunity through our home fellowships and through just your own initiative to get to know our friends that are serving overseas. We live in an iPhone or a smartphone world. You can contact them and be with them real-time. I FaceTime with these folks. You can find out what they're going through, support them, pray for them. I'm going to end this time now in prayer, and then we can get ready for the Lord's Supper. Father, thank You for the message that we have heard, the Gospel message of the Gospel going to the ends of the Earth and to the end of time. Now as we turn our hearts to the Lord's Supper, we thank You for the Word that we've heard and for the ordinance we're about to partake in. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 908, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: submarines 1: By the mid-1950s this country had about 375 subs in various oceans and seas. the Soviet Union. 2: After WWI the Allied Submarine Detection Investigation Committee developed this to detect subs. sonar. 3: Until this arrived in the 1950s, almost all subs used diesel-electric power. nuclear power. 4: Subs usually have 2 of these optical devices, 1 for general use, 1 for the attack. periscopes. 5: Air trapped in these tanks makes a sub float. ballast tanks. Round 2. Category: al gore rhythms 1: His home state. Tennessee. 2: His job from 1985 to 1993. U.S. Senator. 3: His wife's most famous nickname. Tipper. 4: The East Coast school where he got his B.A. in 1969. Harvard. 5: The foreign country where he worked as a journalist from 1969 to 1971. Vietnam. Round 3. Category: veggies 1: You don't have to know the language to know the Swedes call it a "baggy root". a rutabaga. 2: The name of this immature onion is from Ascalon, a port in Palestine. a scallion. 3: You'll often see a red variety of this vegetable used as a garnish and carved into "roses". a radish. 4: The more common name for colorful "flint" corn. Indian corn. 5: Carrots are rich in carotene, which the body uses to produce this vitamin. vitamin A. Round 4. Category: this is i country 1: An island, it's the world's northernmost "I" country. Iceland. 2: They're the only 2 "I" countries to border each other. Iran and Iraq. 3: One of this country's driest regions is the Negev Desert, with an annual rainfall of usually less than 10 inches. Israel. 4: Its ethnic groups include the Dayaks on Borneo, the Toraja on Sulawesi and some Papuan groups on Irian Jaya. Indonesia. 5: Among its 26 counties are one famed for its cut glass and one known for its tweed cloth. Ireland. Round 5. Category: state nickname fun 1: These 2 states with a precious metal in their nicknames border each other. California and Nevada. 2: The nickname of this state includes a greeting in a non-English language. Hawaii. 3: A ride at the Albuquerque Int'l Balloon Fiesta might show you why New Mexico is the "land of" this. Enchantment. 4: Minnesota may have gotten this nickname from a cartoon showing railroad organizers as tunneling mammals. Gopher State. 5: In 2004 a biologist caused great excitement when he photographed an actual wild one of these in Michigan. a wolverine. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Hey there! It seems like we are off to a good start this year in the Daily Bible Reading Podcast. In this extra podcast, I am trying to give answers to frequent questions. First I want to ask you to share the DBRP NOW with your friends. If you started listening to the podcasts just a few days ago, then perhaps it has occurred to you, “Hey, this podcast would be perfect for …” this or that friend. If so, please share with them right away. This first week of the yearly plan is a great time to start listening, and if your friend wants to, he/she can easily catch up with you. Then you can discuss the readings together. I invite you to contact me if you hear mistakes in my podcasts or if you would like to send a comment. My favorite way for you to contact me is via the Contact button at dailybiblereading.info. It's in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you write about a problem in accessing a certain podcast, please tell me what device you are using and what podcast player. But hey, before writing to me, please check out the Read This First pages linked in the banner bar at dailybiblereading.info. That's the place to go for information about Bible apps, podcast apps, Bible sites useful for digging deeper. and also information about me (Phil) and Gale.[a] After a break in listening to my own podcasts, in 2022 I came back to listen to them again in a concentrated way, looking for things to improve. I ended up making improvements to 154 out of the 365 episodes among the NLT podcasts, and I will continue making improvements to the GNT series in 2023. But now I am afraid that I may have introduced new errors in the NLT series. So for you listening to the NLT series in 2023, please let me know if you hear mistakes or if a certain episode has inferior recording quality compared to the others. YouVersion now has an audio play button at the bottom of every page in the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. Because that reading plan is sponsored by the Daily Bible Reading Podcast, some people will think that the play button is giving them the recordings for the podcasts. It does NOT. If you hit the play button, you get a Siri/Alexa-like voice that reads the devotional content page, and after that page, the app will play whatever voice is bundled with the translation you have selected. If any of the people who have recently subscribed to the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan in the YouVersion app are confused like that, then they won't get the message about their mistake, since they will never see the extra podcast that I release like this one. However, when the voice pronounces the name of Job as job, I hope that they will figure out that they are not listening to a podcast. Actually following the 3D reading plan that way is not too bad. I'm just sorry that those who do this will miss out on the extra information that I sometimes give in the podcasts, and also they will miss the prayers at the end of each podcast. For more information about my two full-Bible reading plans in the YouVersion app, please visit the Read This First pages linked at dailybiblereading.info, and look for the page that is about Listening to podcasts. Now let me give you a selection of quick tips.  If you have any questions about why I have recorded the NLT and the GNT for the DBRP, please see the Read This First pages. Those two are the most understandable English translations for those consuming Scripture in audio form. If you started listening to episode 1 podcast on January 1st, if you don't want to install a podcast app, you can simply go to dailybiblereading.info or dailygntbiblereading.info. Your daily episode will be near the top. Using that website is also a great way to listen if you are using a computer instead of a smaller device. If you are somewhere in the middle of the year or are irregular in your listening, a good podcast app will make it easy to select the next episode without having to remember the day number or search for it. If my reading is too slow for you, a good podcast app will let you choose to speed up the audio. My favorite speed is 1.20. I don't recommend listening to Scripture at 1.5 speed if your aim is to understand it and think about it. Two years ago, when I was reading the 3D plan and not listening to the audio[b], I enjoyed using the MyBible app, which works on both Apple and Android devices. It has MANY options for customization. A simpler app that allows you to follow the 3D plan is called Quick Bibles. The Indonesian version of that program is the most popular Bible app in Indonesia. You can download and follow the Digging Deeper Reading plan in both of these two apps instead of using the more popular YouVersion/Bible.com app. Please, if you are listening to the DBRP on your commute to work, have things set up with your podcast app so you do not need to touch your phone. If you commute to work with an Android device, I recommend that you check out using the Podbean app. If you sort the DBRP podcasts in ascending order (low to higher numbers), then the app will automatically move from one episode to the next without a touch. One of the easiest ways to listen to the 3D plan using smart speakers. Please see the Read This First pages at dailybiblereading.info for instructions about using smart speakers, and also for more information about podcast apps. At the first of each year, I frequently have received email questions asking me to explain what I said about the Orya people in the introductions to Genesis 1 and 2. I said this: I have seen first-hand in my work in Indonesia that when a people group misunderstands and twists the story in Genesis 1-3, it will have far-reaching consequences for their lives. In the case of the Orya people, twisting the story of the fall caused much suffering and misery among families. ============== It was about 1986 when Isaak Sasbe made a special trip to see me. At that time I and several Orya men were about to finish translating the Gospel of Mark. While I knew how to say lots of things in the Orya language, I usually couldn't follow everything in an extended narrative in that language. So, on the day Isaak visited me, I am so thankful that I thought to turn on my little tape recorder. In the following months, I would carefully transcribe everything that Isaak told me. Isaak was the governmental head (or the mayor) of the village of Santosa. This is the story that he told, and that which the people there learned from his uncle, Daud. In the beginning, Adam and Eve and other Orya people lived on Jadam mountain. They lived by the power of God. They even had glass in their windows. And they could just think about it, and food would appear on their tables. And they could just think about it, and all the dishes would be washed and put away. (They lived by the magical power of God and didn't have to work.) But it all was ruined when Adam had sex with Eve. Until that time people lived without sex. So God got angry and told Noah to build a big boat. When the boat was finished and the flood waters started coming up, everyone who helped build the boat could get on. Those that got on included Jesus. As the flood got deeper, other people tried to climb up, but Noah hit them over the head with a hammer and they fell back into the water. Jadam mountain was the only mountain peak left above water, and the remaining Orya people stayed there until the water receded. But Noah and Jesus took the power of God with them in the boat, and they sailed away with it and landed in America. That's why you Americans live with the power of God. Then Isaak said something most significant: “I came here to ask you: How can we get the power of God back?” (The anthropology article that I wrote on this is published with the title Of Paradise Lost.) Of course I tried to explain to Isaak that all this was twisted and wrong! I remember his disappointed look upon hearing my explanations. Years later I gained insight as to why he would have been disappointed. According to his belief, if I really had the secret of the power of God, I wouldn't share it with anyone, because that would let others in on the secret. If I told other people how to share the power, the result would be less power and wealth for me. Eventually this story and another told by Isaak's uncle resulted in what anthropologists call a ‘cargo cult'. Such movements are common in the Papua province of Indonesia (formerly called Irian Jaya), and the other side of the island in Papua New Guinea, and in the Solomon Islands. A cargo cult starts when a charismatic leader arises (like Isaak's uncle Daud), and tells people, “Hey, we're doing things wrong. If you do what I tell you, we'll be blessed with cargo (health, wealth, and prosperity) from our departed ancestors.” Daud's twist on this was that the thing the Orya people needed to do to unlock garden-of-Eden-like prosperity was to trade wives. That idea actually had almost nothing to do with Adam and Eve falling into sin in the garden, but with Moses and Joshua and the raising of the walking stick at the crossing of the Red Sea. A little note about Isaak's uncle's background: Daud was one of the few men of his age that went into town and learned the Malay language. So when the first Malay-speaking evangelists came into the Orya area, he was one who was often called upon to translate what the preacher said. That's where he learned Bible stories. How I wish I had recordings of those Maylay sermons and Daud's translations! Another point worth mentioning: Spontaneous sermon translations are not a good way to present the Gospel. There is a little interesting thing here also from a Bible translation perspective: The false teaching of Isaak's uncle involved taking literal happenings in Bible stories and taking them figuratively. Orya people still struggle with this: “Adam and Eve surely didn't sin by just eating a fruit. How silly! It's no big deal if I take a papaya from someone else's garden. They had sex.” Now, a figure of speech in Orya is ‘to pick a flower with someone', and it means to commit adultery with that person. So it was very logical for them to think that picking a fruit was a euphemism for forbidden sex. And Daud's false teaching was that Moses didn't literally raise a walking stick over the Red Sea. Orya men always go to war in pairs. The junior goes first and strikes the first blow, and the junior warrior follows and dispatches the victims. The less senior warrior is called (using figurative language) the other man's ‘walking stick'. So Daud said, “Instead of Moses raising his literal walking stick, he and Joshua (who were war partners) exchanged wives. God was so pleased with that that He opened the Red Sea for them to escape.”   When Daud first started promoting this teaching about wife-swapping, the Orya people didn't just start having free sex. No, Daud and the other leaders regulated which pairs of men would trade wives. I said before that this led to misery. Imagine this: Among two couples, there might be 2-3 of them who were happy with making the trade, but 1-2 were not thrilled with having sex with their new partner. When I first heard of all this, I imagined that it might be all the guys who would be happy, and all the women who would not be. But, in fact, I heard stories of misery from both sexes. One could not run away from this. Where could you run to? And would you leave the children behind? Women were beaten. People of both sexes were trapped. And sexual sin is sticky, in the sense that it inescapably brings more sin and shame with it. Plus it all has to be kept hush-hush, and you can't tell anyone about your problems. Trying to regain a Lost Paradise using human ideas results in misery. I'll probably tell you in another podcast how, years later, the Lord used his Word to defeat the cargo cult. One terrible effect of the cult was to distrust anyone teaching differently from the cult teaching. That is one thing the Lord defeated. Before the occasion that brought the defeat of the cult, people would hint to me about their cult activities saying, “We're doing our traditional cultural practices to bless this land (meaning to bring prosperity).” Note that after only 30-40 years after the start of the cult, they called the wife swapping their ‘traditional cultural practice'. That was not their true tradition! I, the newcomer and foreigner, had to remind them! In the olden days before Daud Sasbe, adultery was severely punished. The punishment was to have your thigh shot at close range with an arrow. The thigh would be pierced with a big spear-like arrow— the kind used in killing pigs. Not many committed adultery back then. God, our creator, has every right to tell us humans how to live. People who live as God instructs us in the Scripture are actually the happiest people in the world. God knows what is best for us. And He has been kind enough to not hide this knowledge from us. He made us male and female to harmonize together in a beautiful way. A couple is so harmonized that two become one, one body. Any time we humans say, “Oh God didn't really mean what he said about __x__ in the Bible!” (you fill in the blank) — we are headed for trouble and misery. My stories about how the Orya people were led into degrading sexual sin probably sound so strange to you that you can hardly believe it. Well, when I tell the Orya what is happening now in the sexual revolution in America and other first-world nations, they can hardly believe it! The sexual revolution will not lead our society to Paradise, happiness, or prosperity, but to shame and misery. ============= I want to repeat my appeal from the top of this episode: Please share with your friends about the 3D reading plan and the Daily Bible Reading Podcasts. Any day of the year is a good day to start listening to the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never tell you not to read the Bible. That message comes from someone else. Expect the Holy Spirit to speak to you each time you read or listen to the Bible. Please forget about me and listen to Him. Gale and I send you our New Year's greetings, and as always, I say, May the Lord bless you ‘real good'.      

Hey there! It seems like we are off to a good start this year in the Daily Bible Reading Podcast. In this extra podcast, I am trying to give answers to frequent questions. First I want to ask you to share the DBRP NOW with your friends. If you started listening to the podcasts just a few days ago, then perhaps it has occurred to you, “Hey, this podcast would be perfect for …” this or that friend. If so, please share with them right away. This first week of the yearly plan is a great time to start listening, and if your friend wants to, he/she can easily catch up with you. Then you can discuss the readings together. I invite you to contact me if you hear mistakes in my podcasts or if you would like to send a comment. My favorite way for you to contact me is via the Contact button at dailybiblereading.info. It's in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you write about a problem in accessing a certain podcast, please tell me what device you are using and what podcast player. But hey, before writing to me, please check out the Read This First pages linked in the banner bar at dailybiblereading.info. That's the place to go for information about Bible apps, podcast apps, Bible sites useful for digging deeper. and also information about me (Phil) and Gale.[a] After a break in listening to my own podcasts, in 2022 I came back to listen to them again in a concentrated way, looking for things to improve. I ended up making improvements to 154 out of the 365 episodes among the NLT podcasts, and I will continue making improvements to the GNT series in 2023. But now I am afraid that I may have introduced new errors in the NLT series. So for you listening to the NLT series in 2023, please let me know if you hear mistakes or if a certain episode has inferior recording quality compared to the others. YouVersion now has an audio play button at the bottom of every page in the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. Because that reading plan is sponsored by the Daily Bible Reading Podcast, some people will think that the play button is giving them the recordings for the podcasts. It does NOT. If you hit the play button, you get a Siri/Alexa-like voice that reads the devotional content page, and after that page, the app will play whatever voice is bundled with the translation you have selected. If any of the people who have recently subscribed to the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan in the YouVersion app are confused like that, then they won't get the message about their mistake, since they will never see the extra podcast that I release like this one. However, when the voice pronounces the name of Job as job, I hope that they will figure out that they are not listening to a podcast. Actually following the 3D reading plan that way is not too bad. I'm just sorry that those who do this will miss out on the extra information that I sometimes give in the podcasts, and also they will miss the prayers at the end of each podcast. For more information about my two full-Bible reading plans in the YouVersion app, please visit the Read This First pages linked at dailybiblereading.info, and look for the page that is about Listening to podcasts. Now let me give you a selection of quick tips.  If you have any questions about why I have recorded the NLT and the GNT for the DBRP, please see the Read This First pages. Those two are the most understandable English translations for those consuming Scripture in audio form. If you started listening to episode 1 podcast on January 1st, if you don't want to install a podcast app, you can simply go to dailybiblereading.info or dailygntbiblereading.info. Your daily episode will be near the top. Using that website is also a great way to listen if you are using a computer instead of a smaller device. If you are somewhere in the middle of the year or are irregular in your listening, a good podcast app will make it easy to select the next episode without having to remember the day number or search for it. If my reading is too slow for you, a good podcast app will let you choose to speed up the audio. My favorite speed is 1.20. I don't recommend listening to Scripture at 1.5 speed if your aim is to understand it and think about it. Two years ago, when I was reading the 3D plan and not listening to the audio[b], I enjoyed using the MyBible app, which works on both Apple and Android devices. It has MANY options for customization. A simpler app that allows you to follow the 3D plan is called Quick Bibles. The Indonesian version of that program is the most popular Bible app in Indonesia. You can download and follow the Digging Deeper Reading plan in both of these two apps instead of using the more popular YouVersion/Bible.com app. Please, if you are listening to the DBRP on your commute to work, have things set up with your podcast app so you do not need to touch your phone. If you commute to work with an Android device, I recommend that you check out using the Podbean app. If you sort the DBRP podcasts in ascending order (low to higher numbers), then the app will automatically move from one episode to the next without a touch. One of the easiest ways to listen to the 3D plan using smart speakers. Please see the Read This First pages at dailybiblereading.info for instructions about using smart speakers, and also for more information about podcast apps. At the first of each year, I frequently have received email questions asking me to explain what I said about the Orya people in the introductions to Genesis 1 and 2. I said this: I have seen first-hand in my work in Indonesia that when a people group misunderstands and twists the story in Genesis 1-3, it will have far-reaching consequences for their lives. In the case of the Orya people, twisting the story of the fall caused much suffering and misery among families. ============== It was about 1986 when Isaak Sasbe made a special trip to see me. At that time I and several Orya men were about to finish translating the Gospel of Mark. While I knew how to say lots of things in the Orya language, I usually couldn't follow everything in an extended narrative in that language. So, on the day Isaak visited me, I am so thankful that I thought to turn on my little tape recorder. In the following months, I would carefully transcribe everything that Isaak told me. Isaak was the governmental head (or the mayor) of the village of Santosa. This is the story that he told, and that which the people there learned from his uncle, Daud. In the beginning, Adam and Eve and other Orya people lived on Jadam mountain. They lived by the power of God. They even had glass in their windows. And they could just think about it, and food would appear on their tables. And they could just think about it, and all the dishes would be washed and put away. (They lived by the magical power of God and didn't have to work.) But it all was ruined when Adam had sex with Eve. Until that time people lived without sex. So God got angry and told Noah to build a big boat. When the boat was finished and the flood waters started coming up, everyone who helped build the boat could get on. Those that got on included Jesus. As the flood got deeper, other people tried to climb up, but Noah hit them over the head with a hammer and they fell back into the water. Jadam mountain was the only mountain peak left above water, and the remaining Orya people stayed there until the water receded. But Noah and Jesus took the power of God with them in the boat, and they sailed away with it and landed in America. That's why you Americans live with the power of God. Then Isaak said something most significant: “I came here to ask you: How can we get the power of God back?” (The anthropology article that I wrote on this is published with the title Of Paradise Lost.) Of course I tried to explain to Isaak that all this was twisted and wrong! I remember his disappointed look upon hearing my explanations. Years later I gained insight as to why he would have been disappointed. According to his belief, if I really had the secret of the power of God, I wouldn't share it with anyone, because that would let others in on the secret. If I told other people how to share the power, the result would be less power and wealth for me. Eventually this story and another told by Isaak's uncle resulted in what anthropologists call a ‘cargo cult'. Such movements are common in the Papua province of Indonesia (formerly called Irian Jaya), and the other side of the island in Papua New Guinea, and in the Solomon Islands. A cargo cult starts when a charismatic leader arises (like Isaak's uncle Daud), and tells people, “Hey, we're doing things wrong. If you do what I tell you, we'll be blessed with cargo (health, wealth, and prosperity) from our departed ancestors.” Daud's twist on this was that the thing the Orya people needed to do to unlock garden-of-Eden-like prosperity was to trade wives. That idea actually had almost nothing to do with Adam and Eve falling into sin in the garden, but with Moses and Joshua and the raising of the walking stick at the crossing of the Red Sea. A little note about Isaak's uncle's background: Daud was one of the few men of his age that went into town and learned the Malay language. So when the first Malay-speaking evangelists came into the Orya area, he was one who was often called upon to translate what the preacher said. That's where he learned Bible stories. How I wish I had recordings of those Maylay sermons and Daud's translations! Another point worth mentioning: Spontaneous sermon translations are not a good way to present the Gospel. There is a little interesting thing here also from a Bible translation perspective: The false teaching of Isaak's uncle involved taking literal happenings in Bible stories and taking them figuratively. Orya people still struggle with this: “Adam and Eve surely didn't sin by just eating a fruit. How silly! It's no big deal if I take a papaya from someone else's garden. They had sex.” Now, a figure of speech in Orya is ‘to pick a flower with someone', and it means to commit adultery with that person. So it was very logical for them to think that picking a fruit was a euphemism for forbidden sex. And Daud's false teaching was that Moses didn't literally raise a walking stick over the Red Sea. Orya men always go to war in pairs. The junior goes first and strikes the first blow, and the junior warrior follows and dispatches the victims. The less senior warrior is called (using figurative language) the other man's ‘walking stick'. So Daud said, “Instead of Moses raising his literal walking stick, he and Joshua (who were war partners) exchanged wives. God was so pleased with that that He opened the Red Sea for them to escape.”   When Daud first started promoting this teaching about wife-swapping, the Orya people didn't just start having free sex. No, Daud and the other leaders regulated which pairs of men would trade wives. I said before that this led to misery. Imagine this: Among two couples, there might be 2-3 of them who were happy with making the trade, but 1-2 were not thrilled with having sex with their new partner. When I first heard of all this, I imagined that it might be all the guys who would be happy, and all the women who would not be. But, in fact, I heard stories of misery from both sexes. One could not run away from this. Where could you run to? And would you leave the children behind? Women were beaten. People of both sexes were trapped. And sexual sin is sticky, in the sense that it inescapably brings more sin and shame with it. Plus it all has to be kept hush-hush, and you can't tell anyone about your problems. Trying to regain a Lost Paradise using human ideas results in misery. I'll probably tell you in another podcast how, years later, the Lord used his Word to defeat the cargo cult. One terrible effect of the cult was to distrust anyone teaching differently from the cult teaching. That is one thing the Lord defeated. Before the occasion that brought the defeat of the cult, people would hint to me about their cult activities saying, “We're doing our traditional cultural practices to bless this land (meaning to bring prosperity).” Note that after only 30-40 years after the start of the cult, they called the wife swapping their ‘traditional cultural practice'. That was not their true tradition! I, the newcomer and foreigner, had to remind them! In the olden days before Daud Sasbe, adultery was severely punished. The punishment was to have your thigh shot at close range with an arrow. The thigh would be pierced with a big spear-like arrow— the kind used in killing pigs. Not many committed adultery back then. God, our creator, has every right to tell us humans how to live. People who live as God instructs us in the Scripture are actually the happiest people in the world. God knows what is best for us. And He has been kind enough to not hide this knowledge from us. He made us male and female to harmonize together in a beautiful way. A couple is so harmonized that two become one, one body. Any time we humans say, “Oh God didn't really mean what he said about __x__ in the Bible!” (you fill in the blank) — we are headed for trouble and misery. My stories about how the Orya people were led into degrading sexual sin probably sound so strange to you that you can hardly believe it. Well, when I tell the Orya what is happening now in the sexual revolution in America and other first-world nations, they can hardly believe it! The sexual revolution will not lead our society to Paradise, happiness, or prosperity, but to shame and misery. ============= I want to repeat my appeal from the top of this episode: Please share with your friends about the 3D reading plan and the Daily Bible Reading Podcasts. Any day of the year is a good day to start listening to the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never tell you not to read the Bible. That message comes from someone else. Expect the Holy Spirit to speak to you each time you read or listen to the Bible. Please forget about me and listen to Him. Gale and I send you our New Year's greetings, and as always, I say, May the Lord bless you ‘real good'.  

David served several tours of duty as a soldier in Northern Ireland, but always knew he'd fly planes on the mission field. His exploits in Irian Jaya with naked cannibal tribesfolk are sometimes hilarious, other times deeply moving. He picked up some wounds along the way, but is still hanging in there and making his life count! --- Help us start small businesses in Burundi: greatlakesoutreach.org/christmas Choose Life in 2023: greatlakesoutreach.org/chooselife If you'd like to receive a weekly podcast episode link that you can share with your friends on WhatsApp, click this link to join the group with ease: simonguillebaud.com/inspired-podcast/#whatsapp For more from Simon visit: simonguillebaud.com --- Produced by Great Lakes Outreach - Transforming Burundi & Beyond: greatlakesoutreach.org

Christus geeft Zijn kerk een opdracht. Wat doen de Gereformeerde Gemeenten daarmee sinds het ontstaan in 1907? Het begint met praten, met een commissie, met een collecte. Het vervolgt met praten op de Generale Synode, de benoeming van een voorlichter en het ontstaan van een zendingsblad. Dan breekt het door met de uitzending van het eerste zendingsteam. Maar is het wel een goede keuze om dit team naar Irian Jaya te laten gaan?

Louis M. "D.D." Scarabin, Jr. takes us from the time he found out he's taking the job in Tembagapura, Indonesia through stories of Ross McCrimmon, who lost his wife over there, and the pilots of the F-27 that took workers and their families from Cairns, Australia to Timika. Bobby Means greeted the family at the airport and had Louis drive the treacherous roads of Irian Jaya. Louis also discusses his involvement with the Lupa Lelah Club including the Mardi Gras parades that started circa 1981. This is the first in a long series on Tembagapura years. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jason-scarabin/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jason-scarabin/support

In today's Bravehearted Voices Podcast, Otto Koning (a missionary to Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea) shares his famous pineapple story. Using his experiences as a missionary, Koning brings tremendous humor with profound and practical insight to Christian living. If you've never heard Otto Koning speak, this message will be a special highlight. Learn more about the Bravehearted Voices Podcast and how you can be discipled and grow spiritually by visiting http://braveheartedvoices.com/ (braveheartedvoices.com)

In this episode I chat with Murray Harley Murray is a retired professional loose head prop playing for the ACT Brumbies 1996-97, he is also a member of the C2K Rugby Academy Front Row Club coaching staff. He is a RugbyAU Level 2 accredited coach and has recently completed the World Rugby Coach Educator course. Only one of only five coaches trained and accredited to deliver RugbyAU's pilot ‘Scrum Passport' program across the QLD GPS Competition. Murray has also coached at all levels and states / territories in Australia. More recently Murray has had success with set piece and clubs at University of Queensland, Palmerston Crocs Darwin, Brothers Townsville Seniors, Brothers Juniors, Caloundra Lighthouse and Toowoomba Bears as well as St Patrick's College, Shorncliffe, Padua College, Downlands College and Toowoomba Grammar School. Internationally in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Irian Jaya, USA (Texas & California), Tonga and Fiji. Murray has coached QLD Schoolboys II and was Asst Coach of the Australian Schoolboys Development XV. As well as Australian Universities Rugby Union. In recent years Murray has volunteered his time with the C2K Rugby Academy along with 55 former international and provincial players where athletes attend up to nine sessions a year for position specific skills training. Murray is also the founder of Engage Mudang. Engage Mudang was established to provide set piece (scrum/lineout) specific training for junior and senior rugby clubs and schools with the aim of promoting safety and correct technique. So if you feel your school or club could benefit from Murray experience feel free to get in touch, his details will be in the show notes. During this episode we chatted about building relationships with players, thinking about doing things differently. We also spoke about scrums and ensuring the scrum remains safe while remaining a contest. I really enjoyed this chat with Murray and could of chatted for hours around the setpiece. I hope that you get something out of this chat and as always feel free to pass on to anybody you think will benefit from it. If you are new to coaching or have concerns around coaching the right technique around the scrum, remember there are a lot of good coaches out there that are willing to help you. Thanks for listening please feel free to subscribe and leave a rating. Please enjoy this chat with Murray Harley If you are interested in contacting Murray regarding Engage Mudang please email him on murray.harley1966@gmail.com or through Engage Mudang on Facebook --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bullys-rugby-coaching/message

Podcast Intro: Immunity refers to an organism's ability to withstand a specific virus or poison through the use of specialized antibodies or sensitized white blood cells. We prefer to sacrifice healthy selections for the sake of saving time in this fast-paced atmosphere where fast foods are abundant. On the other hand, what are the negative consequences of these actions? With many businesses competing with one another, and with the high demand for food relative to the continuous growth in population, companies are now churning out processed and cheap food rapidly. The lack of education and the rise of daily expenses on necessities, such as food, allowed people to compromise. Now, the pandemic accelerated and made things worse. What are the factors and effects that unhealthy food consumption leads to? Tune in as Dr. Emeran Meyer discusses the gut-immune relationship in this episode. What you'll get out of tuning in: What is the “One Health Concept” What is the importance of the soil microbiome for plant and human health What are the mind-gut microbiome system and its role in health and disease What is the key to longevity and good health How the microbiome determines the strength of your immune system and your immune resistance. How to increase the abundance of microbes in your gut. How lifestyle determines your chances of surviving pandemics that are about to come in the future. Links/CTA: Emeran Mayer, MD Instagram: @emeranmayer Youtube Channel: emeranmayermd The Mind Gut Connection book, Harper Wave 2016 The Gut Immune Connection book, Harper Wave 2021 Highlights: Cate talks about the case of Covid and an Elderly with regards to Microbiome Cate talks about perspective, our beliefs influence how we think and how we solve problems. Cate talks about the direct correlation between chronic systemic inflammation and the severity of symptoms Timestamps: 12:26 - Metabolic Syndrome 16:14 - Science and Practice of Mind-Body Interactions 22:23 - Cytokine Storm 27:10 - The “Gut Immune Connection” by Emeran Mayer 28:55 - Why do people fear when they hear “virus or bacteria” 33:41 - Scientific vs. Empirical Evidence 37:05 - Ancient vs. Modern Concepts 40:53 - Learning from the Ancient Sages Quotes: “The fact that today, we see this increasing prevalence of autoimmune diseases and allergies and food sensitivities. Many people think it has a lot to do with the altered interaction we have, as infants in a much more sterile environment. Where we have banned microbes from the time of deliveries, or C sections and sterile hospital environments, to antibiotics early on, prematurely born babies ending up in intensive care units being loaded with antibiotics for four weeks sometimes.” “Early in life in terms of the natural exposure, Homo sapiens have had to their environment, including going through the birth canal, and picking up some of the good bacteria in the birth canal, which helps start to build the baby immune system is even like upon injection, right from the mom's body to then what we do. And if we look back, historically, there was a lot of skin-to-skin contact with newborns. There's a lot of mixing of the environment with the infant. And that helped create a baseline immune system, an innate immune system that was stronger.” “When we look in any indigenous culture, usually there's some relationship with a specific type of traditional fermented foods. And so in ayurvedic medicine, it was always considered to pacify Vata, which is the wind force, which creates the issues primarily in the nervous system first, and then the digestive system second, and it's like the nerves that upset the digestive system, like just being nervous, being anxious, being worried more of the people that are on the lighter side have less consistency with digestive capacity.” “The immune activation happens in the gut. So, these microbes are only microns away from immune cells. And it's the only separation not even from the real physical barrier, but from this mucous layer produced by some cells in the gut in the colon. And so, the margin for error is pretty small, and if you change that mucous layer just a little bit, you will already get contact between microbes and these immune sensors.” “People always talk about how we need to boost our immune system. With COVID-19, it's the opposite. You want to prevent this excessive response. An excessive response happens because the immune cells are programmed in a non-adaptive way in their passage through the gut.” Guest BIO: Emeran Mayer Dr. Mayer is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Executive Director of the G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience. He has been one of the pioneers in the science and practice of brain gut microbiome interactions with applications in a wide range of diseases in gastrointestinal, psychiatric, and neurological disorders. He has published close to 400 scientific papers and several books and has received multiple awards. In addition to his academic interests, Mayer has a longstanding interest in ancient healing traditions and has been involved in documentary film productions about the Yanomami people in the Orinoco region of Venezuela, and the Asmat people in Irian Jaya. He has recently co-produced the award-winning documentary “In Search of Balance” and is working on a new documentary “Interconnected Planet”. He is a strong believer in Buddhist philosophy and got married in a Tibetan monastery by Choekyi Nyima Rinpoche in Kathmandu. He regularly pursues meditative practices. He has spoken at UCLA TEDx on the Mysterious Origins of Gut Feelings in 2015 and has been interviewed on National Public Radio, PBS, and by many national and international media outlets including the Los Angeles and New York Times, the Atlantic, and Time magazine. He has appeared on numerous podcasts, including Lewis Howes' The School of Greatness, Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory, and Mark Hyman's The Doctor's Pharmacy. He is the author of the 2016 bestselling book The Mind Gut Connection published by Harper&Collins and translated into 16 languages. In his new book, The Gut Immune Connection, Mayer proposes a radical, unifying concept about the chronic non-communicable disease epidemic we are finding ourselves in. He discusses how changes in our diet, lifestyle, and the way we interact with the world during the last 75 years have led to a profound dysregulation of the community of trillions of microbes living in our gut, resulting in a progressive chronic activation of our immune system. This aberrant immune system activation is emerging as the root cause of our current epidemic of interrelated chronic diseases affecting every part of our body. In addition, it makes us more vulnerable to viral pandemics. He uses the One Health concept to explain the intricate interconnectedness between the microbes living in our gut, in the soil, the health of our plants, and our own health.

This is the twentieth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he shares the inspiring story of Stanley Dale's bewildering and courageous response to being shot through with five man-killing arrows in the heart of the jungle — and surviving. Everyday people absent of the power of Christ Jesus would fall to pieces in such circumstances, but the Christian, the one indwelled by the power of the Almighty, is able to work exploits even in their most weakened moments.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the eighteenth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he dives into the theme of perseverance in the Christian life. Stanley Dale had one quality that set him a part from most in his generation. He would simply never give up. It didn't matter the level of difficulty or the degree of impossibility — he was tireless in his faith. If we are going to "dare to do as Stanley Dale”, this is a great place to start.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the fifteenth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he discusses the idea of the “stand-in” in Scripture. Someone who is willing to do the hard work though it ultimately be credited to someone else. This was the role of John the Baptist who famously stated, “I must decrease, that He would increase.” May this also be the declaration of our souls as Christians.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the fourteenth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he explores the idea of “spiritual showdowns” in Scripture and how that same “showdown” mentality must clothe the Christian in our era as well. This world must behold the God of the Bible—they must see His power. And, we, the Church, are the very ones commissioned to demonstrate it.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the thirteenth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he explores the rough beginnings of the man, Stanley Albert Dale. And then he demonstrates how that very “roughness,” that nearly suffocated Stanley in his childhood, was the very same “roughness” that worked a very real wonder, glory, and awe forever in the hearts of the tribal inhabitants of the Dark Mountains of Irian Jaya in the 1960's.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This particular sermon serves a dual purpose as both a Sunday sermon offered at The Church at Ellerslie as well as an installment (the 13th) in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series entitled, Daring to Do as Stanley Dale. This powerful series about the bold missionary ventures into Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) back in the mid-twentieth century and is sure to deeply stir those that listen. In this episode he explores the rough beginnings of the man, Stanley Albert Dale. And then he demonstrates how that very “roughness,” that nearly suffocated Stanley in his childhood, was the very same “roughness” that worked a very real wonder, glory, and awe forever in the hearts of the tribal inhabitants of the Dark Mountains of Irian Jaya in the 1960's.  Support this podcast

Guest Name and Bio: Emeran Mayer, MD Dr. Mayer is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Executive Director of the G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience and Founding Director of the UCLA Brain Gut Microbiome Center. He has been one of the pioneers in the science and practice of brain gut microbiome interactions with applications in a wide range of diseases in gastrointestinal, psychiatric and neurological disorders. He has published more than 388 scientific papers and co-edited 3 scientific books. He is the recipient of the 2016 David McLean award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2017 Ismar Boas Medal from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disease. His current research interest is focused on the role of brain gut microbiome interactions in human diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, autism spectrum disorders, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease. In addition to his academic interests, Mayer has a longstanding interest in ancient healing traditions and affords them a level of respect rarely found in Western Medicine. He has been involved in documentary film productions about the Yanomami people in the Orinoco region of Venezuela, and the Asmat people in Irian Jaya. He has recently co-produced the award winning documentary “In Search of Balance” and is working on a new documentary “Interconnected Planet”. He is a strong believer in Buddhist philosophy, was a member of the UCLA Zen Center for several years, and got married in a Tibetan monastery by Choekyi Nyima Rinpoche in Kathmandu. He regularly pursues meditative practices. He has spoken at UCLA TEDx on the Mysterious Origins of Gut Feelings in 2015 and have been interviewed on National Public Radio, PBS and by many national and international media outlets including the Los Angeles and New York Times, Atlantic magazine and Stern and Spiegel Online. He is the author of the 2016 bestselling book The Mind Gut Connection published by Harper&Collins and translated in 16languages. In his recent book, The Gut Immune Connection, Mayer proposes a radical, unifying concept about the chronic disease epidemic we are finding ourselves in. He discusses how changes in our diet, lifestyle and the way we interact with the world during the last 75 years have led to a profound dysregulation of the community of trillions of microbes living in our gut, resulting in a progressive chronic activation of our immune system. This aberrant immune system activation is emerging as the root cause of our current epidemic of interrelated chronic diseases affecting every part of our body. In addition, it makes us more vulnerable to viral pandemics. He uses the One Health concept to explain the intricate interconnectedness between the microbes living in our gut, in the soil, the health of our plants and our own health. He proposes a solution to the chronic disease epidemic, which emphasizes the implementation of major lifestyle changes, and focuses on a radically different approach not only to our diet but to the world. What you will learn from this episode: 1) How the gut is connected to the immune system 2) How the gut is actually our first brain, not our second brain 3) How changes in the gut microbiome can lead to conditions like Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's disease 4) How the gut microbiome can impact mental health 5) How the serotonin in our gut microbiome can influence our health and how we feel How to learn more about our guest: emeranmayer.com uclacns.org microbiome.ucla.edu Facebook: @emeranamayer IG: #emeranamayer Linkedin: @emeranamayer Please enjoy, share, rate and review our podcast and help us bring the message about precision health care to the world!

This is the twelfth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he investigates the powerful training institute God raised up in this time to train, equip, and inspire a generation of missionaries with a passionate yearning to reach the unreached of this earth.  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the tenth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he discusses the incredible ability of missionaries throughout history to move towards challenges as opposed to running from them. Of course, this ability isn't derived from their own human gumption, but it is a gift of the Spirit of God. For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the eighth episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he discusses the ethics of foreign missions. Is it our job as Christians to poke our noses into the cultural and religious affairs of others? Should we just mind our own business? Or is our business the actual invading of foreign places where the Gospel has not yet been heard and delivering the Gospel in order to wholly alter that culture?  For more information about Daily Thunder and the ministry of Ellerslie Mission Society, please visit: https://ellerslie.com/. If you have been blessed by Ellerslie, consider partnering with the ministry by donating at: https://ellerslie.com/donate/ Support this podcast

This is the second episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the twenty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the 1960's. In this episode he dives into the strange and perplexing concept of spiritual taste buds. When we enter the Kingdom of Heaven via faith in Jesus Christ, there is a process of being recalibrated in our desires, our drives, and our determinations. In a sense, God gives us new taste buds to appreciate the exquisite feast He has prepared for us — a feast that we would not appreciate or be able to stomach outside His supernatural enablement.    Support this podcast

This is the very first episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series drawing on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the thirty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the late 1960's and 70's. In this episode he explores the way God intentionally builds His men and women for the key swings in history — the key moments in the grand story.  But, God doesn't just build His heroes to share the Gospel Truth, but He also prepares the lost to respond to the Gospel Truth. Support this podcast

This message is a celebratory mixture of the 700th Daily Thunder episode, The Ellerslie Sunday sermon, and the kick-off day for our Fall 2021 5-week training. This is also the very first episode in Eric Ludy's epic fall Daily Thunder series, entitled “Daring to Do as Stanley Dale”. This series draws on the boldness and bravery of the fearless missionary ventures to Irian Jaya (Papua New Guinea) during the thirty-five years from WW2 up until the massive harvest of souls in the late 1960's and 70's. In this episode he explores the way God intentionally builds His men and women for the key swings in history — the key moments in the grand story.  But, God doesn't just build His heroes to share the Gospel Truth, but He also prepares the lost to respond to the Gospel Truth. Support this podcast

In this episode, we share 2 book recommendations for individuals and families. One will give you a good history of the work of missionaries over the centuries (great for Sunday evenings), and the other is like a handbook for missions (great for anyone getting personally involved in missions). We find it to be extremely practical. We recommend it as a must-read for all our future missionaries.Links:Book: From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Ruth TuckerBook: On Being a Missionary by Thomas HaleAmazon Smile LinkSpecial Needs - Media Ministry Equipment, Baby ItemsEpisode on YoutubePMc Outreach Podcast in Italy - Vera VitaLike Jesus driven to His cross so we drive ourselves to the singular task of the edification (planting) of Biblical churches in Italy.Support the show (https://www.practicalmissions.org/donate)

Guest Name and Bio: Emeran Mayer, MD Emeran A Mayer is a Gastroenterologist, Neuroscientist and Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry in the Division of Digestive Diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  He is the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA, and co-director of the CURE: Digestive Diseases Research Center. As one of the pioneers and leading researchers in the role of mind-brain-body interactions in health and chronic disease, his scientific contributions to U.S. national and international communities in the broad area of basic and translational enteric neurobiology with wide-ranging applications in clinical GI diseases and disorders is unparalleled. He has published more than 350 scientific papers, and co edited 3 books.  He has published the bestselling book The Mind Gut Connection, and is currently working on a second book to be published in early 2021. He is the recipient of the 2016 David McLean award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2017 Ismar Boas Medal from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disease.  His research interest is focused on the role of brain gut microbiome interactions in human diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, autism spectrum disorders, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease. Mayer has a longstanding interest in ancient healing traditions and affords them a level of respect rarely found in Western Medicine.  He has been involved in documentary film productions about the Yanomami people in the Orinoco region of Venezuela, and the Asmat people in Irian Jaya.  He has recently co produced the award winning documentary “In Search of Balance” and is working on a new documentary “Interconnected Planet”. He is a strong believer in Buddhist philosophy, was a member of the UCLA Zen Center for several years, and got married in a Tibetan monastery by Choekyi NyimaRinpoche  in Kathmandu.  He regularly pursues meditative practices. Dr. Mayer has been interviewed on National Public Radio, PBS and by many national and international media outlets including the Los AngelesTimes, Atlantic magazine and Stern and Spiegel Online. He has spoken at UCLA TEDx on the Mysterious Origins of Gut Feelings in 2015, and his bestsellingbook The Mind Gut Connection was published by Harper&Collins in July of 2016 and has been translated into twelve languages.   What you will learn from this episode: 1) What the best diet for the gut microbiome is 2) How to optimize the mind-gut connection 3) What impacts food cravings and the desire to eat comfort foods 4) Which microbes are the most important to us 5) What can cause certain good bacteria to turn into bad or harmful bacteria in the gut microbiome How to learn more about our guest: emeranmayer.com uclacns.org microbiome.ucla.edu Facebook:            @emeranamayer IG:                          @emeranamayer Linkedin:              @emeranamayer   Please enjoy, share, rate and review our podcast and help us bring the message about precision health care to the world!

George and Sarah Boardman are practically unknown today, but they were giants in the faith. Stuart, The Three Mrs. Judsons, pages 115-216. Anderson, To the Golden Shore, pages 380-440. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, pages 130-132. Neil, A History of Christian Missions, pages 294-295.

Tamás Dávid-Barrett is my guest on Episode 04 of Inside Ideas with Marc Buckley. Tamas is a behavioral scientist, who asks what traits allow humans to live in large and culturally complex societies. His work focuses on how the structure of social networks changes during falling fertility, urbanization, and migration; as well as, how social networks vary over the human life-course. Tamás's current projects include the origins of inequality regulation; why the behavioral rules between women and men vary so much across cultures; and the evolutionary foundations of sharing behavior. Tamás is a professor at the Centro de Investigación de Complejidad Social at the Universidad del Desarollo in Santiago de Chile, teaches economics at Trinity College, the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and is affiliated with the Population Studies Research Institute in Helsinki, Finland. He is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In the past, Tamás ran his analyst company and did macroeconomic and development research in 35 countries all around the world. It was the highlands of Irian Jaya that changed the way he sees human societies. Tamás Dávid-Barret https://www.tamasdavidbarrett.com/ Human Beasts Channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/humanbeast #behaviouralscience #sharing #inequality #societies #TamasDavid-Barrett #MarcBuckley #innovatorsmag Inside Ideas by One Point 5 Media/Innovators Magazine Systemic change is needed to move us on to the right side of history. Marc Buckley talks with the game-changers on a mission to get us there as fast as possible. Marc is an Advocate for the SDGs, member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network, and award-winning Global Food Reformist. Take a deep dive with thought leaders, Innovators, Futurists, and those solving Global Grand challenges. Listen to renowned experts share their insight on topics including sustainability, environmentalism, global food reform, regenerative practices, systems thinking, innovation, new economic models, new civilization frameworks, The new podcast from Innovators Magazine https://www.innovatorsmag.com/ and OnePoint5 Media http://onepoint5media.com/ is available on Social media, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes News, Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast, and Pocket Casts. Marc Buckley https://marcbuckley.earth/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/buckleymarc/ Inside Ideas https://www.innovatorsmag.com/inside-... Innovators Magazine https://www.innovatorsmag.com/ OnePoint5 Media http://onepoint5media.com/ Sign up for our 'Innovate Now' newsletter to get episodes straight to your inbox: http://bit.ly/2pMbxKo YouTube Channel Inside Ideas https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEpV... Anchor FM Inside Ideas https://anchor.fm/inside-ideas Facebook Inside Ideas Page https://www.facebook.com/Inside-Ideas... Pocket Casts Inside Ideas https://pca.st/15amnfoj Overcast Inside Ideas https://overcast.fm/itunes1518311299/... Breaker https://www.breaker.audio/inside-ideas Google Podcasts https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=... Radio Public Inside Ideas https://radiopublic.com/inside-ideas-... Spotify Inside Ideas Show https://open.spotify.com/show/1igBKvw... Castbox Inside Ideas https://castbox.fm/channel/Inside-Ide... Apple Podcasts Inside Ideas https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Tamás Dávid-Barrett is Marc Buckley's guest on the latest edition of Inside Ideas. Tamas is a behavioural scientist, who asks what traits allow humans to live in large and culturally complex societies. His work focuses on how the structure of social networks change during falling fertility, urbanisation, and migration; as well as, how social networks vary over the human life-course. Tamás's current projects include the origins of inequality regulation; why the behavioural rules between women and men vary so much across cultures; and the evolutionary foundations of sharing behaviour. Tamás is a professor at the Centro de Investigación de Complejidad Social at the Universidad del Desarollo in Santiago de Chile, teaches economics at Trinity College, University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and is affiliated with the Population Studies Research Institute in Helsinki, Finland. He is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In the past, Tamás ran his analyst company, and did macroeconomic and development research in 35 countries all around the world. It was the highlands of Irian Jaya that changed the way he sees human societies.

Paul wrote, "When I am weak, then I am strong." He is referring to the power of God at work in His people when they allow Him to use them in their weaknesses. This week Pastor Tim shared the story of Elinor Young, who survived childhood polio and grew up to serve God among the Kimyal tribe in the mountainous interior region of Irian Jaya. Her Kimyal friends gave her the name of "Bad Legs" referring to her polio-weakened legs. They believed her 'bad legs' were a sign that God loved them so much He sent her to share the Bible with them. The lesson to learn is that God will use all of us just as we are, unpolished and broken, to draw others to Himself!

Opini tentang kecanduan main hape, polemik papua, dan rencana KPI meregulasi YouTube dan Netflix

I. Worldwide Fear of Death Please open your bibles to Acts 2. We’re not going to do an exegetical walk through this text, but I want to say some things from that and then look at some other texts. There are always new things happening in this world of ours. I had not heard of this terrorist attack until this morning. And we're mindful of the fact that we live in this complex and diverse world and there are cultures very different from ours, language is very different than ours. People who answer the basic questions of life of what they will eat and how they will speak and what they will wear and how they will celebrate very differently than we do in our culture. We know that those lands have different heritages, different histories, different stories that they tell from their own past, they're very different than ours. So it's just an incredibly diverse world that we live in, but one thing unifies the human race, very much on my mind this morning, and that is fear of death, fear of death. In 1973, Ernest Becker a Pulitzer Prize winning author wrote a book entitled "The Denial of Death." And the thesis of the book is that humanity is enslaved worldwide by a fear of dying. This man is not writing from a Christian perspective, but he said that what people do all over the world is deny, deny, deny, deny. And they find a lot of different ways to deny death and their fear of death. There are religious ways, narcotic ways, alcoholic ways, ways of success and labor and all of that, that distracts and diverts. There are cosmetic ways and surgical ways to deny that you're aging. There are all kinds of denials of death. Becker said the main thesis of his book is that the fear of death haunts the human being like nothing else. It is a main spring of human activity, activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man. Now this author back then had no answer for this. He's just making an observation. But we have the answer, amen. We have the answer to death itself and to fear of death. And we praise God, and we're assembled today to celebrate that answer. Hebrews 2:14-15 says that by Christ's death, "he destroyed him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." What a triumphant passage that is. And if I'm not careful I'll just go over and preach on that one right now. There's so many celebrating passages that we can... But liberated from fear of death. All over the world, death is known as the final enemy. We understand this, funeral rituals, very diverse, different cultures, but they're there and they're powerful, and they involve immense lamentations and overwhelming grief. It's really very simply. You just live long enough in the world, you know this reality. A certain person who's important to you is alive, he has wrapped himself up in your life in some way, he's part of your life, you eat with him, you talk with him, you enjoy his company, laugh at his jokes, maybe, work together on some project. He's woven into the fabric of your life to some degree. But then suddenly one day something happens, and you never see him alive again in this world. Maybe you see his dead body and maybe you don't, but one thing you know, that person who you remember is gone, and you never from that time on saw them again alive in this world. That's the experience of death, every culture, every nation, every tribe, subject to the same sorrow. And there's no refuge on this planet. No one's figured it out somewhere. It could be the distant mist covered valleys of Irian Jaya, there's no stone age tribe that's found some secret to the problem of death. Or even in the barren outreaches of the outback of Australia. It's not like there's some group there that has found the secret. Or you could go to the steel and glass high rises of Asia, Macau, or Hong Kong, and all of the teaming population there and there's not some back alley there where there's some specialist that is an oriental expert in herbs and has some interesting remedies that has delivered him and everyone that comes to his shop from death. Or you could go to the farmlands of the Ukraine where people are working hard, leading a wholesome life, and they're having year after year crops growing and they live that life of a Ukrainian wheat farmer, but there's no remedy, they die with no remedy. We've got missionaries that work in the northern regions of the Laplanders in Finland, and they send back reports that they haven't discovered a secret to death, and the Gospel is needed there, because they die just like we do. And the same thing in the jungles of the Amazon, this unites the people there too. They have all kinds of flora and fauna there, they have all kinds of interesting species of spiders and tree frogs with special poisons in them and all kinds of other chemicals that we don't have here in Raleigh-Durham, but they haven't discovered a secret to death. Not even in Durham, North Carolina, the City of Medicine, where right near us within a few minutes drive there are pharmaceutical companies that are researching various aspects of pain and suffering and disease, but none of them has conquered death and they won't. So this brings us to this Easter celebration, this Resurrection Day celebration. II. Jesus Christ Has Conquered Death Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He has conquered death. And He is the only one. I'm not denying that some people have been resuscitated by CPR or those electrical pallets that put electricity and revive a dead heart. I don't even deny that there are in the Bible accounts of miracles of Lazarus and others that were resuscitated to the same mortal life that we now experience, but Christ alone has been resurrected, never to die again. He's the only one. And He says in John 10:17-18, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes my life from me. But I lay it down freely of my own accord. I have the authority to lay my life down and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from my Father." Can you imagine anyone else making such a claim? There is no one else, no religious leader has made such a claim. I have absolute and power over life and death, my own. No one can kill me if I don't will to be killed, but I lay my life down freely and I have the power to take it back up again. And again, Revelation 1:18, where Jesus appeared to the Apostle John, when he was in the island of Patmos in exile, and he says this, Jesus said to John, "I am the living one. I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the key of death and Hades." So not only that, Jesus claims to unleash that power toward us, to give us the fruit of His resurrection victory. That's what makes all of this a celebration. He said in John 14:19. "Because I live, you also will live." Cherish that O dear brothers and sisters in Christ, "Because I live, you also will live." And again, John 11, Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." But we may ask how can we be certain of these things? I need to know how can I be certain that Christ is risen, and that he can give me that same resurrection victory? What would be the ground of my assurance, the ground of my certainty? How can we who live here in the Raleigh-Durham area, in this high tech era, this digital age, 21st century, how can we derive any kind of certainty or assurance of these things? We're skeptical people, we need to know how can we know that any of this is true? And I say to you right now, the only way you will ever have certainty that Christ is risen from the dead, and that you also will be raised from the dead in the end is by faith in the Word of God. There is no other ground of assurance. Only by faith in the Word of God in the Scriptures will you have this certainty. If you don't have that faith in the word of God, you'll not have any certainty, either that Christ has been raised from the dead, or that you also could be raised from the dead. And the Bible is given to minister that faith to us, to feed us by faith. At the end of John's Gospel, in John 20:31, the Apostle John expressed why he had written his account of all the miracles, including the miracle of Christ's own resurrection. And said, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name." So by reading the words on the page, so you may have eternal life, you can access Christ's resurrection victory by simple faith in the Word of God. III. “This is What is Written” Now you may say there are many holy books. Wise men in the past, religious leaders have written things down, there are holy books a plenty. Seems like every religion has its own library, its own set of holy books. What is the difference between the Bible and the Hindu Scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita and other Hindu writings? Or the Muslim writing, the Quran, what's the difference between the Bible? Why should we believe the Bible as a holy book compared to the Quran? Or the Analects of Confucius or the Sutras of Buddhism or other holy books. But what is the difference? Well, there's two central differences in reference to the Bible. The first is predictive prophecy and the second is the testimony to the person and work of Jesus. No other scriptures have this combination of predictive prophecies culminating in this perfect historical figure, Jesus, that's the difference. And Jesus claimed to have power over death and He... It is said of Him by the eyewitness that He was physically raised from the dead. But his central evidence was the prophecies that were written in the Old Testament, and that's what we're going to spend the rest of our time on, feeding our faith on the prophecies. What is written? The Jewish religion was founded on Scripture, the writings of Moses, and then of the Prophets, and they were assembled in what we call the Old Testament, the 39 books of the Old Testament, written centuries before Jesus was born. And the Jewish life and religion was based on the Scriptures. Moses said in Deuteronomy 32:47, concerning the words he had written there in The Five Books of Moses. "These are not just idle words for you, they are your life." But not only did Jewish Scripture contain the laws by which the Jewish nation was to live, it also contained God's predictions about the future and this is what makes the Bible unique, God's ability to predict the future, and then tell the prophets what was to come and they wrote it down. There's no other religion in the world that has this aspect of predictive prophecy of foretelling. As he said in Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning from ancient times what is still to come. And I say, my purpose will stand and I will accomplish all that I please." I love that, that's Isaiah 46:9-10. He says, I declare to you, I speak to you the end from the beginning. I tell you where we're going with all this. No other religion does. The Bhagavad Gita doesn't do it, the Quran doesn't do it, the Sutras don't do it, the Analects of Confucius don't do it, but Scripture does. And it was all asserted centuries before Jesus was born, the central event in human history was the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth and it was all predicted centuries before He was born. And so Jesus, after He was raised from the dead, went to His own disciples there in the upper room, and this is what he said, Luke 24:44-48. "He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Then He opened their minds, so they could understand the Scriptures." He has the power to do that. He has the power, and I actually prayed for this yesterday that this would happen. In my mind, in your minds, in the minds of any unbelievers that might be here that were invited to come worship with us, that He would open your mind by the power of the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures. He has that power to do it. And Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He told them this is what is written that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Well, that was just the beginning of a 40-day period in which Jesus trained His disciples in the Old Testament Scriptures. It was the greatest seminary in history. Now, we're right near by Southeastern Seminary. I happen to teach there from time to time and I love it. It's one of the greatest seminaries in the world, it's nothing compared to that 40-day Seminary. And I think all of you students that are at Southeastern or any of you professors, you must assent to this, that you would rather sit at Jesus' feet than any of the esteemed faculty at Southeastern. But the topic of that 40-day seminary was very clear. This is what is written, this is what the prophets said would happened, so that their faith would rest certainly on the unchanging, the written Word of God, Acts 1:3. "After His suffering, Jesus showed Himself to these men and gave them many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days, and spoke about the kingdom of God." Now, what Scriptures did He share with them? We don't know, but we do know how Peter and the other Apostles preached on the day of Pentecost. And we do know how the Apostle Paul wrote the Book of Romans and all of the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures that he used to feed into them. Now, Paul was not there in that 40-day seminary, but he received a special tutoring session from the Holy Spirit. But it's the same Old Testament prophecies and scriptures. IV. The Three Greatest Prophecies of Christ’s Resurrection And I'm going to look with you this morning at the three greatest Old Testament prophecies of Christ's resurrection from the dead, and then the three greatest prophecies of our own resurrection from the dead, also from the Old Testament. Psalm 16 And we begin with Psalm 16, this is the one that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost. Now, if you look at Acts 2, we're going to just give a setting of this, this preaching that he did. The day of Pentecost was one of the three major festivals in the Jewish year. It was very close in time to the Passover just 40 days later, and so, pilgrims would come from all over the Greek speaking, the Roman world, the Jews from distant lands, and converts to Judaism would come to Jerusalem for the Passover and they would stay over for Pentecost. Thousands of Jews have made this journey and they would stay. Now, Christ was crucified, in fulfillment of the Passover symbolism was crucified on Passover Friday, He was buried just before the Sabbath, He was raised to life on the third day after the Sabbath, the first day of the week. Now for 40 days, Jesus met with the disciples to go over these Scriptures and He told them that at the end of that time, they should wait in Jerusalem for the gift that the Father would give them, the Holy Spirit who would be poured out on them from on high. And Jesus would ascend up to heaven and that He and the Father together would pour out the Holy Spirit. Well, then Jesus did ascend and the church went back to the upper room, and they are waiting in the upper room for the gift that the Father was going to send. On the day of Pentecost, the gift was given. The Holy Spirit was poured out from on high, and they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And there's the sound of a violent tearing shredding wind, powerful like a hurricane level wind and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them. And this crowd gathered of these pilgrims that were there for Pentecost, gathered around the house where they were staying, because they heard the sound of the wind. And Peter and the other Apostles went down and began to preach the Word of God to them. And what was amazing is that people heard all of them hearing one message, but they all could hear that one message in their own native languages. So God was doing something in their minds so that they heard, their eardrums would vibrate, but they would hear it in their own mother tongues. And Peter preached this incredible message, and in verse 22, he talks about the life and the miracles of Jesus' ministry. He said in verse Acts 2:22, "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did among you, through him as you yourselves know." So many of those people were eyewitnesses to the miracles Jesus had done. But then Peter in the next verse lays the blame for their death right at their feet. He just lays it at their feet. They had seen Jesus' miracles, they knew who Jesus was. And God and handed Him over to them, the Jewish nation, for judgment. Look at verse 23, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge…" Stop right there. Let me just tell you, God had worked this whole thing out before the foundation of the world. There's no surprise, He didn't throw this thing together at the last minute. Not at all. He knew exactly what He was going to do with the problem of sin before He said, "Let there be light." And He made this whole plan, that's how He was able to speak through the prophets and let out a little bit of information to mark Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior of the world. But anyway, Peter said, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of lawless men, wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross." "You did it." He was blaming the nation of Israel, along with the wicked men, the lawless men. Peter then declared very simply the greatest good news in human history. Look at Vverse 24, "But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him." Oh, don't you love those words? Can you just spend the rest of the day meditating on Acts 24? God raised Him from the dead, and freedom from the agony of death, why? Because death couldn't hold Him. It's impossible for death to keep hold of Jesus. And then in verse 32 again, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." So the church was based on the power of eyewitness testimony, "We have seen Jesus alive." This is a matter of historical record. In space and time, we saw this individual, we touched Him, we ate with Him, we saw Him. Eyewitness. But God knew that was a temporary... A temporary status. Very soon after that, the physical evidence of the resurrection would be gone, maybe later that same day it was gone. And the eyewitnesses themselves would be arrested, and would martyred, and even in John's case, die of old age in exile, and they'd be gone. And future generations would only have one thing, the Bible. Only have the scriptures. That's all we would have. And the eyewitness would write down what they saw, and so we have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And we have... But it's the same thing, the Scripture. And so only by the prophecies of Scripture can we believe that these things are true. And so Peter there in his Pentecost message, turns to the solid foundation of predictive prophecy, and he turns to Psalm 16. It was the resurrection that had been predicted by King David a thousand years before Jesus was born. Look at verses 25-28, and that's chapter two. David said about Him, "I saw the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence." So that's Psalm 16. The Jews had been reading it for 10 centuries. It was well known to them, they didn't understand the meaning. And they hadn't really thought it through. They hadn't put two and two together. Peter puts it all together for them. He said, "Look, David, King David wrote this... " He didn't say, a thousand years ago, but they knew, a long time ago. And he wrote these words speaking of the defeat of death and decay at the grave, a corruption, "You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay." Think about it. Peter makes the point here, David could not have been speaking about himself, because David himself died and was buried and his body decayed. Look at verse 29, "Brothers, I can tell you confidently, [boldly, clearly] that the patriarch David died and was buried and his body is here to this day." It decayed. Remember the death of Lazarus and how the sisters were worried that if you took the stone away too early after four days, there would be a bad odor. You know what decay is all about, the corruption of bacteria, of worms eating the body, the defilement of the body because of sin. The body is sown in corruption and it's sown in dishonor. That's what decay is all about. But this prophecy says, "You will not abandon me to the grave, and you will not let me see decay." Well, Peter says... "He's not writing about himself because he died and decayed." But who's he writing about? Look at what he says verse 30 and 31. "He was a prophet, and he knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on His throne. Seeing what was ahead [I love those words], he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay." Just ponder that, what other religion? Seeing what was ahead, and we would add writing what he saw. It's predictive prophecy, he was not talking about himself, to declare in words and write it down and have those scriptures handed on from generation to generation of Jews. Have the scribes copy them, all of those Hebrew letters, copy them, the generation after generation, not think it through. But the time had come for the veil to be removed from their minds and from ours, and say, "How could this be possible? How could someone die and see no decay?" And this is this testimony that is given in Scripture. It gives us the certainty that Christianity is true, and that Christ is risen from the dead. No other religion has these predictive prophecies. And these prophecies center on the most important issue in life, how we sinners can be forgiven by almighty God, and how we can live forever, and not die. That's what these predictions have to do. Psalm 22 Well, what other prophecies do you think that Jesus showed to His church? I want to give you two others, Psalm 22 and you can turn and look there if you would, and also one other, Isaiah 53. First Psalm 22, again written by King David, so a thousand years before Jesus was born. Jesus quoted Psalm 22 from the cross. He said, "My God my God, why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1. I've often thought to myself that's Jesus' way of saying, "After all this is done, go back and read Psalm 22." But it also was a real sense of abandonment by God, with Him as our substitute. God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God, that exchange at the cross, and so that sin, our sin was laid on Him, and God in some mysterious way, abandoned Jesus. And He says, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" Now, that... This Psalm breaks into two main sections, and Peter spoke about it, how the prophets spoke of the sufferings of the Christ and the glories that would follow. That's a good two-part outline to Psalm 22. The sufferings of Christ come through the first section, the subsequent or following glories is in the second half of Psalm 22. Jump down with your eyes if you would at verses 14 through 18. This is a description of the physical process of crucifixion. It says there, "I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax, it is melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." Well, there are many details in this Psalm that were directly fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, including His garments being gambled over, but especially amazing are these words in verse 14 and verse 16. Verse 14, "I am poured out like water... " Dehydration. "And all of my bones are out of joint." Disfigurement. And then verse 16, "They have pierced my hands and my feet." So again, this was written a thousand years before Christ was crucified, but it was also written about three centuries before the Assyrians invented crucifixion. Nothing like this had happened to anybody in David's time. David's hands and feet were not pierced, his bones were not physically put out of joint, he wasn't dehydrated, he wasn't surrounded by a bunch of enemies, and his garments were not gambled for. Again, he was a prophet, and he spoke filled with the Holy Spirit, seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the crucifixion of the Christ. But then at a certain point, the Psalm just turns and gets really happy. The Psalm just turns and gets really happy. The Psalm just turns and gets really celebratory. Look at Verses 22 through 25, "I will declare your name to my brothers in the congregation, I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you descendants of Jacob honor Him. Revere Him all you descendants of Israel, for He has not despised or disdained the sufferings of the afflicted one. He has not hidden His face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly. Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows." Suddenly, this suffering individual is celebrating a great deliverance in the great assembly. Look at verses 29 through 31, "All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. All who go down to the dust will kneel before Him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve Him, future generations will be told about the Lord, they will proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn, for He has done it." This is resurrection, triumph, victory. Now, I was going to take the second half of Psalm 22 and put it in the second category, predictions of our own resurrection, but I kept it here. "All of those who go down to the dust… who cannot keep themselves alive... " Do you know who that is? That's us. And on the basis of Christ's piercing, on the basis of His crushed status, and His death on the cross, we will live forever. This is the celebration of Psalm 22. Isaiah 53 Now, Isaiah 53. Go and look at Isaiah 53, specifically verse 5 and 6. If Psalm 22 describes clearly how Christ died, Isaiah 53 describes very clearly why Christ died. Isaiah 53:5,6. Jesus' death was as a substitute for our sins. The centerpiece of Christianity was, or is substitutionary atonement. Atonement literally means "at-one-ment." We were estranged from God, and through Christ's substitutionary death, through His suffering, we are made at one with God, reconciled with God. And no verse in the entire Bible, including the New Testament teaches substitutionary atonement as clearly as Isaiah 53:5, and also verse six. Look at it, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Written six-and-a-half to seven centuries before Jesus was born. Why did He die? He died because we all like sheep have gone astray. Because we're sick with sin and we need healing. Because we're rebels. We have all turned away from God and followed our own path, and we deserve to be condemned to hell, we deserve to die eternally for our sins. And God sent His son, His only begotten son, Jesus, born of the virgin Mary, to come into the world, lead a sinless life under the law of Moses, never violated the law, but then die an atoning death, a substitutionary atoning death. Look at Verse five, look at the substitutionary language. "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed." Again, notice in verse five the word pierced. That's a very unique, interesting word. I picture a sharp implement, a sword, a needle, an awl, something like that going through with force, a membrane to the other side. That's what piercing is. And there are actually four prophecies in the Old Testament linked to the death of Jesus in which the word pierce is used. How do you explain it? But here it's not actually talking so much about the mechanism of Christ's death, but the purpose of it and the results. By His wounds we are healed. Now, you may ask healed from what? Let's just keep it in the context first. Healed from sin, healed from turning to our own way and doing what we want. Healed from rebellion. Now you say... I've heard some people say this means also physical healings involved. Oh yes, infinitely so, more than you can imagine, not like the health and wealth prosperity Gospel where you can be healed from a cold. I mean healed from everything, from every pain and suffering you can ever imagine in a resurrection body for eternity in heaven. That's the healing He's going to give you. And all of it blood-bought. Verses 7 through 9 in Isaiah 53 also depict details of Christ's death and burial. "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants, for he was cut off from the land of the living [that means dead]. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and was with the rich in his death." You don't need a grave if you're not dead, so he died. But he was buried in a rich man's tomb. I've often thought about Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who were hidden secret disciples of Jesus before He was a corpse. Think about this. Did the Romans do guilt by association? Oh, big time. Would they have wanted any of Jesus' secret followers, to arrest them and maybe execute them? Absolutely. Where then did Joseph and Nicodemus suddenly get their courage to ask for the dead body of Jesus and bury Him with lavish spices in Joseph's rich man's tomb. Where did that courage come from? I tell you, it came from the Holy Spirit. Did it come from them reading the prophecies and saying, "You know Joseph, we need to go and fulfill this prophecy right here. We need to be certain that He's buried in a rich man's tomb." Nothing of the kind, they just suddenly, out of a love for Jesus and a sorrow at His death, took up courage and got the body and buried it in a rich man's tomb. But Isaiah predicted it seven centuries before Jesus was born. Look at the end, verse 10 and 11, "Though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days." Oh, He has a future, a history after being buried. Yes, He does. "The will of the Lord will prosper in His hands." Praise God. Verse 11, "After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied, and by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." He was buried, and after the burial, He will see light. He will see His descendants, and He will rejoice. Resurrection. Well, those are the three greatest predictions of Christ's death and resurrection. V. The Three Greatest Prophecies of Our Resurrection What about our own? Do you see that this day would not be a happy day for us, if Christ is risen, and ascended and glorified, and we all end up in hell? It's because Christ is willing to take His resurrection victory and give it to us. He's the champion. He wins the championship and He gives all the plunder and the booty and the gold medals, and all of that to us. He already has all that, He's going to be seated at the right hand of almighty God. He did it for us, and it was written down and predicted centuries before He was born. Isaiah 25-26 Turn, if you would to Isaiah 25 and 26. We'll start at 25. On Maundy Thursday, I talked about this Isaiah 25:6-8. I'm not going to walk through it carefully, but just read it. Isaiah 25:6-8: "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth, the Lord has spoken." There is a rich feast coming, a banquet, and what's amazing about this banquet so lavishly described is that it really comes down to one thing: The destruction of death. He's going to destroy the shroud that's wrapped around the corpse, the sheet that unfolds all nations. He's going to swallow up death forever and we are going to celebrate. Now look to the next chapter, Isaiah 26:19. "But your dead will live. Their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning. The earth will give birth to her dead." A clear prediction of not Jesus' resurrection here, but the resurrection of those who went down to the dust, whose bodies did decay, who were buried, but the earth is going to give birth to her dead. You have to put the two together. By Christ's resurrection victory, death has been destroyed and the earth will give birth to her dead. Job 19:25-27 Turn to Job 19:25-27. Job was a godly man who suffered greatly, the loss of all his possessions and his children in a single day, and then the loss of his health, but these immense sufferings could not shake his trust in God. So look at Job 19:25-27. There he wrote, "I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" So after the worms have eaten me up and after my body has been destroyed, because my redeemer lives, I in my own flesh will see my God. Job 19:25-27. Daniel 12:2-3 The final one is Daniel 12, Verse 2 and 3. Turn to Daniel 12:2,3. Prophet Daniel lived six centuries before Jesus was born. God gave him amazing visions of the end of the world, and the greatest promise of all concerned the bodily resurrection of the dead from the grave into eternal glory. Daniel 12:2-3, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." That's the doctrine of the general resurrection. But then Verse 3, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever." Now, that's a glorious resurrection, resurrection glory. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will arise and shine with radiant glory. Look again at Verse 13. Daniel as usual was overwhelmed by the vision, didn't have any idea what he was talking about, was just told to write it down and not worry about it, and then was given this specific prediction concerning himself. Look at Verse 13. "As for you," this is an angel speaking to Daniel, "go your way till the end. You will rest," that means you will die, "and then at the end of the days, you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance." How powerful is that? So, this morning, we've looked at clear predictions of the death and resurrection of Jesus and clear predictions of the general resurrection of the righteous into bodies that will shine and live forever. VI. Applications What application can we take from this? Well, you don't have to turn there, but go back in your minds to the end of Peter's Pentecost sermon. After you get done preaching, it says that the people who heard him were cut to the heart or pierced in their hearts, and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And Peter and the other apostles replied, "Repent from your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." He didn't say it, but he could have added, "And you will be raised in a glorious resurrection body at the end of the world." So simply, all of you who hear me should believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. If you've never done that before, Welcome. I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad that somebody invited you. Maybe you just decided to come to church because it's Easter. If you did not come in here knowing that your sins were forgiven by faith in Christ, this is the time to cross over from death to life spiritually, and Jesus' resurrection victory will be yours for all eternity. Peter said it plainly, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." For those of you that are Christians, let me just say this to you. Be healed emotionally. You need emotional therapy. You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" I just know because I need it and I know all of you. It's like, "Yes, another Easter. We need to sing and celebrate and the music needs to be a little bit louder and a little bit faster tempo, and so we'll do that, and the preaching needs to hit a certain pitch, and all that," look, set all that aside. That'll all be gone within, by the afternoon. Do you realize that almost all of Jesus' disciples and apostles emotionally reacted the wrong way to the news of the resurrection? They're all off. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were just straight depressed. And furthermore, some of our women have told us that the tomb is empty and we can't make hide nor hair of it. They don't know what's going on. And Jesus said, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken to you." And He healed them by the ministry of the word. They didn't know who He was. His identity was hidden from them. But at the time... By the time He got done, their hearts were burning within them based on the scriptures. Think about Peter, Peter sees the actual evidence for the resurrection, and he went away puzzled. Peter. John saw and believed. Peter went away wondering. What about Mary there at the empty tomb and she's weeping and she sees the physical evidence for the resurrection and she's just weeping and crying? And the angel says, "Woman, why are you weeping?" "They've taken my Lord away and they put him somewhere and I don't know where he is and I want to get him and bring him back and bury him. I want to finish his burial." That's what she was about. Focused, focused individual. Alright? "I got to finish his burial." "No, you don't." And then Jesus appears and she thinks he's the gardener. It's one of the great moments in redemptive history, Mary thinking Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, is the gardener. "Sir, if you have taken him, tell me where he is and I'll get him and bring him back." Really? What's the plan, Mary? Then Jesus just spoke out of tenderness, and said, "Mary," and she immediately, with the hearing of her name, fell at His feet and worshipped Him. So I don't know what your emotional state was when you came in here. Maybe it was fine. Maybe you're just filled with joy, but I know this: Our joy is under constant assault by the world, the flesh and the devil. And my job here isn't to heat you up to a fever pitch and send you out like a coach at halftime and you're losing by three touchdowns. That's not my job. My job is to preach the Word and say you have a lasting permanent basis for unchanging joy, and you may be sometime sorrowful, but you can be always rejoicing based on these facts. So emotional therapy. Thirdly, let's put sin to death by the Spirit. We have the power to live in Christ a resurrected life. His resurrection physically gives us proof that we can live by the Spirit a resurrected life spiritually in holiness. Put sin to death this week by the power of the Spirit. The things that depress me the most in my life are my own sins. We don't need to sin ever again. We are set free from sin. Think like this. It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus. It was also impossible for Him to sin. Some day, it's going to be impossible for you to sin. The more you live like that now, the more joyful you will be and the more fruitful you will be. And finally, let's go out this week as messengers. The staff went out on Monday and were handing out invites to Easter. Two-thirds of the people we talked to didn't know it was Easter. I was excited about that. You know why? It means we can do the same thing next week. Don't tell them it's Easter, but you can tell them we'll be celebrating the resurrection. We'll do that for sure. They don't know. We are becoming an increasingly post-Christian, pagan society. People don't know these things. They don't automatically go to church on Easter anymore. So let's go out and tell them this week that Christ has risen and that they in Him can live forever. Close with me in prayer.

This "Legacy Show" was produced under our former name (Travel'n On) in the earlier years of our podcast. For all of you diving enthusiasts, Ian and Tonya have a real treat for you! Theyre joined by underwater photographer Christy Gavitt, who shares some of her favorite diving destinations in the world's most exotic locales, and offers some advice for those of you who have always wanted to learn how to scuba. Plus A special valentines gift: Ian and Tonya have some great ideas for some last-minute romantic getaways. Christy Gavitt discusses her undersea photography, what she thinks makes a great dive site, and reveals some of her favorite dive sites, such as Indonesia, the Red Sea, and the California Coast. Plus information about how you can get your scuba certification. Christy Gavitt shares more of her favorite places to dive, like Bali and Irian Jaya. Plus, if youre looking to do some diving, find out what you should look for in a diving operator, the differences between Land based and Sea Based operators, and learn what it takes to be a good underwater photographer. If you havent made any Valentines plans yet, Ian and Tonya are here to help keep you out of the doghouse! They have information on places offering great packages in exotic locations such as Belize and Aruba, closer to home in Hershey, Pennsylvania and Santa Fe New Mexico, and in Europe. Unfinished Business: Ian answers some listener questions about passports from last weeks show.

Today we have Steven Katz of SBK Reptiles. Steven breds many species of morelia. We talk about Irian Jaya or Papuan Carpet Pythons. How does he keep them, importation, and incubation. We also hit on Jungles and Bredli! CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST: https://soundcloud.com/joe-phelan-194475994 Some of my favorite reptile supplies! HerpStat Thermostat: http://amzn.to/2qjG9SI Sani Chip: http://amzn.to/2ETfrUt Maxima Vet Cleaner: http://amzn.to/2CRqTiJ ReptiChip: http://amzn.to/2CSIYwL What Camera do I use? : http://amzn.to/2CRCmi8 Instagram @portcitypythons Twitter @portcitypythons http://www.Portcitypythons.com Theportcitypythons@gmail.com

In this episode we are discussing Irian Jaya carpet pythons (Morelia spilota harrisoni). We will be discussing the keeping, breeding, bloodlines, morphs, selective breeding projects and much more. If you are interested in Irian Jaya carpet pythons aka Ij's then this is a show that you won't want to miss.  

The Moravian Church has been described as “one of the most remarkable missionary churches in Christian history” (Ruth Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya). In a day and time when few people were thinking about missionary activities, the Moravians were going to the most remote places on the globe and working among the most resistant […]

The Invisibility of God One of the hardest aspects of our faith, our Christian faith, is the invisibility of God. The God of the Bible is described as a majestic, radiant being who dwells in unapproachable light, His glory fills the Heavenly realms with such overpowering radiance that the holiest angels have to cover their faces even to be in His presence. This awesome creator God, this awesome ruler God, He is the source of everything in existence and He rules over all things actively. It is by His power that every atom in the universe holds together and keeps from flying apart. It is by God's power that the very being of all creation in the world has come. Such a majestic God is also the source of all beauty. The saints and angels are arrayed in concentric circles, it seems, in the heavenly realms around God, constantly celebrating His beauty, and His omnipotence, and they're doing this with incessant praise. They never stop saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, who was and who is and who is to come... The Almighty." But this radiant, beautiful, powerful God is invisible. And that's hard for us. 1 Timothy 1:17 says, "Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen." John 1:18, "No man has seen God at any time." 1 Timothy 6:16 says, "[God] who alone is immortal, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one ever has seen or can see. To Him be honor and might forever. Amen." Our eyesight, our physical eyesight, is the source of much of what we know about the universe. And by our eyesight, light floods into our minds in various colors and shapes and teaches us what the physical world around us is like. We get so much information from our eyesight. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." Now, in CS Lewis's classic, Till We Have Faces, one of the characters named Psyche, the Greek word for soul, talks about the strong feelings of desire, "It was when I was happiest that I longed the most. Do you remember? The color and the smell, and looking across at the Grey Mountain in the distance? And because it was so beautiful, it set me to longing, always longing. Somewhere else there must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, 'Psyche, come!' But I couldn't not yet come. I felt like a bird in a cage when all the other birds of its kind are flying home. The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing to reach that mountain to find the place where all the beauty comes from. Do you think it meant nothing, all this longing, the longing for home? For now death feels not like going, but going home." Beautiful, isn't it? There's a source of all this beauty, and we want to go there, we want to see it, we want to see God. But this hidden God we have to see now only by faith. This hidden God, this invisible God, is the source of all this beauty, all the life, all the creativity, all the love and peace and joy that's ever to be found in the universe, God is the source of it all. To be able to see him would be the perfection of sight itself, but we cannot. God is the invisible Creator, the invisible Sustainer, the invisible Emperor of all visible things that fill our eyes. But none of this is an accident, this longing to see what we cannot see. There is a spiritual realm around us. We talked about it last week, remember, in Isaiah 64:1, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down." Rend means to rip, to tear, "Make a tear in the heavens and come down." We talked about it in terms of the baptism of Jesus. Remember when Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were torn open, in Mark's Gospel, and the Holy Spirit descended. We talked about it in terms of Stephen's moment of death, you remember, as he's being martyred, in Acts 7:55-56. "Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 'Look' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'" As though there's some kind of... I don't know what to call it, a membrane or a wall or something between us and the spiritual realms. And through that membrane, we cannot pass, not yet anyway. We cannot reason our way through it, we cannot fly high enough to get over it. Or search for some secret portal, like in the Narnia Tales, CS Lewis, there's always some portal in different stories, like of course, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. There's the wardrobe. If you go back far enough into the closet, you'll come through into Narnia. And then we're into the spiritual realms. But there isn't such a place. God is the invisible, he is the unseen, He dwells in a spiritual realm that surrounds us, we cannot reach it. And we cannot know anything about this mysterious hidden realm except that God, and here's the word, "reveals it to us." That He reveals things to us. That is the word that the bible and theologians always use, Revelation. That's the name of the final book of the Bible to which I'm going after the Book of Isaiah. So pray for me because I don't know what the book means. I know the big themes, it's the details that get me. And I'm going to preach in my usual verse by verse, chapter after chapter-style, and I'm hoping that by the time I get to some of those chapters that I'll know what they mean. So pray for me. Natural Revelation and Special Revelation But we're going to Revelation. But that's the word, "revelation," it is the purpose of that book, and really indeed of all Scripture, to reveal the hidden to us. To pull back the veil, the unveiling. A pulling back of the veil so we can see the hidden, the invisible God. But God has chosen to reveal things to us, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate to us of His existence and His nature and His purposes. Now, he does this in what theologians call "natural revelation," revelation in nature. So nature communicates to us. "The heavens are telling the glories of God." Psalm 19. Or Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse." That's natural revelation. But God does it even better, by what theologians call "special revelation." By the scripture and by Jesus. The special revelation of God by the words of the Bible. He unveils His truth through the words of the prophets and the apostles. Amos 3:7, "Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants, the prophets." Now God has done this revelation most clearly, in the person and work of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the author... The Hebrews tells us, God's effectively final Word to the human race. "In the past, he spoke through the prophets at various times, many times, various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son… The Son is the radiance of God's glory, and the Son is the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word." Colossians 1:15, Jesus Christ "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." The Word "Behold" Now, I've talked about this before, but this is why I'm beginning the sermon this way. One word, in the King James Version, again and again, that just comes out again and again, but usually is omitted in these newer translations, is the word "behold." And we're going to follow the word "behold" here. "Behold." Honestly, other than reading scripture, when was the last time you said, "behold?" Imagine a housewife, "Behold, dinner is ready." Wouldn't that be exciting? That would be amazing. Or a husband coming home, "Behold, I am here." Something like that. It'd be a bit odd. I mean, I think of it in terms of a magician, maybe even an amateur magician, "Behold!" and out comes the rabbit out of the hat. Something like that. Behold. I don't know, you have to say it with a deep voice. "Behold." But there's a sense of something being unveiled, something being displayed. And these English translations either just omit it entirely or they use the word "look." I'm going to say it like that, "Look, I'm doing something great." It just isn't the same, friends. So I'm starting a campaign. The next translation needs to keep the word "behold" wherever it's found. And where is it found? In Isaiah 65, it's found in the King James Version nine times in these verses. Behold, behold, behold, it's like God's unveiling some amazing things in this chapter. And we're going to look at it this week and next week, we're not getting through all of Isaiah 65 this week. But look across, you're not going to see it in... ESV actually holds on to most of them, thankfully, praise God. But NIV does and others don't. So, in Isaiah 61, it's there twice, and none of the translations, I think, have it. I think KJV does, but it's literally "Behold me, behold me," in the Hebrew. "I said, 'Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.'" And then Isaiah 65:6, "Behold, it is written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will repay." And then four times in verses 13 and 14, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry, behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty, behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart, and wail for breaking of spirit." And then verse 17, "For behold, I create a new heavens and a new Earth, and the former thing shall not be remembered nor shall they come to mind." And then verse 18, "But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people a gladness." Nine times, God says "behold," as though he's saying to the human race, "Watch what wonders I'm going to unfold before you. I'm going to unveil some amazing things before your very eyes, things you have not known. You wouldn't have any other way of knowing, except that I'm communicating them to you. Watch, oh human race, watch and be amazed at this. Look on with wonder at what I will display to you." So, I'm going to organize this sermon and an entryway into next week's sermon, God willing, by these words, "behold." So first, "behold me." God's saying, "behold me," as He reveals His saving grace to the gentiles. Secondly, "Behold my judgments," on wicked Israelites that have forsaken Him for idols in verses two through seven. And then thirdly, "Behold my servants singing while the wicked are shamed." Put to shame, verses eight through 16. So that's this week's message. And then next week "Behold my new universe that I am creating." And we're going to step into that and try to understand some of the most amazing and perplexing verses in the Book of Isaiah. I. “Behold Me!”: God’s Saving Grace to the Gentiles (vs. 1) So let's begin with "behold me," God's saving grace of the Gentiles, verse one. God allows himself here to be sought by saying, "Behold me, behold me... " The first greatest revelation in this chapter happens in verse one, when God says twice, "Behold me, behold me... " Look at verse one, and I'll put in the "behold me" in the translation. "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Behold me, behold me." God Allows Himself to Be Sought This is the amazing grace, this is the patience, and this is the humility of God, this majestic and holy God. The incredible grace of God who presents himself with astonishing persistence and humility to the nations of the world that don't seek Him or care about Him at all. They've not sought Him, they're not looking for Him, they don't know about Him, they're ignorant of Him. And He's standing and saying right before them, "Behold me." And the verse literally says, "I allowed myself to be consulted... I permitted myself to be consulted by you." In other words, God took the initiative to reveal himself and draw from the Gentiles a yearning, a desire to seek Him and find Him. If God does not permit Himself to be consulted, if he does not permit Himself to be sought, we will never seek Him and we will never find Him. So the initiative is with God. Now, Paul the Apostle quotes this verse in Romans 10:20 to speak of the grace of God displayed in the amazing harvest of gentiles into the church of Jesus Christ, incredible grace of God, Romans 10:20. "And Isaiah boldly says, 'I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.'" He's talking there about Gentiles converted to a Jewish Messiah, becoming grafted into a Jewish olive tree, becoming honorary adopted sons and daughters of Abraham. They didn't know anything about these things. And Paul is talking about this incredible gentile harvest that's been going on now for 20 centuries, and we're part of it. So these gentiles, they were not seeking the true God at all, they were pursuing their idols with darkened minds. Their idolatrous worship services were exceedingly corrupt, and lustful, and debauched, involving temple prostitutes and drunkenness and gluttonous revelries. God's humble persistence in revealing Himself to the gentiles is stunning, for the text says literally, "Behold me, behold me... " and I think he does that in the preaching of the gospel of Christ. God, in Christ, persistently stands before the audience. And as the gospel is being preached by missionaries, by evangelists, God, in Christ, through that evangelist preaching is standing before people and saying, "Behold me, here I am in Christ, ready to save you, ready to be the focus of your entire existence, ready to be your King, your Savior, everything. All you have to do is seek me, and you will surely find me." Sought Now by Gentiles Who Were Not Seeking Him Before So He is sought now by gentiles, who were not seeking Him before. They did not seek for Him. They were not looking for Him in their villages, in their compounds, in their cities around the world. And these unreached people groups around the world, they were not seeking the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were not seeking the true creator God, not at all. Romans 3:11 says, "There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." None of them were, but God revealed Himself to them and by His sovereign Spirit, drew them. And the first they knew about it was a growing hunger and thirst inside to know this God. They wanted to know him. Where did that come from? God gave it to them as a gift. And they found Him through Christ. This is amazing grace, this is amazing persistence, amazing humility to the gentiles, to people all over the world. So the centerpiece of the gospel is God. I mean, honestly, God is the Gospel. "Behold me," God's saying that to us, who were previously in the darkness, now in the light. That's salvation, God unveiling Himself in Christ to us. And God does the seeking first. Luke 19:10, Jesus said, "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost." And then, in that incredible encounter in John Chapter 4, Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Remember that day? She got up and was coming to the well just to get some water, and oh no, there's someone there. She's trying to avoid all people. Not just someone but a Jew of all things, Jewish man. She wants to get in there, get the water as quickly as she can, and get home. But then he stuns her by speaking to her, and then stuns her even more by what he says to her. And little by little by little draws her to hunger and thirst for the living God. It comes to a point in the conversation when Jesus talks about His true aim in being there. He had to go through Samaria. Why? Because he had to find her, and not just her but her Samaritan neighbors. And this is what he said, John 4:23-24, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father is seeking." He is seeking them, all over the world through evangelism and missions, He's seeking people. And through the Gospel, standing before them saying, "Behold me, behold me, come and worship me." And so we seek God, and we do for the rest of our lives hungry and thirsty to know Him better, to know like Philippians 3, Paul says, "I want to know Christ." There's a hunger and a thirst and I hope that's what drew you to worship today, you wanted to come and worship this living God. Well, that seeking and yearning, that was first in the heart of God, your Heavenly Father. And because He yearned for you, now you're yearning for Him because He sought you, now you are seeking Him, because He loved you, now you love Him. We love because He first loved us. So just stop, if I could just stop and apply this right here, we're going to do some application right in the middle of the sermon. Just stop and wonder in amazement at this humble, patient, God, who stood in front of your soul all those days, persistently revealed Himself to you until at last you saw Him, at last you loved Him and you followed Him through Christ. Just stop right now and thank God for His grace in revealing Christ to you by His Spirit, you are now seeking Him because He first sought you so, give Him thanks and marvel that He has only begun to reveal Himself to you. You have infinitely more to see about this God, He will be like for eternity saying, "Behold me," and you will never be done. So, that makes heaven a very exciting dynamic place, doesn't it? We'll be learning forever, "Behold me, behold me." II. “Behold My Judgments!” on Wicked Israelites (vs. 2-7) Now in Isaiah 65, God turns with, I think great sadness to address the rebellious Israelites, and to convict them of their persistent wickedness in rejecting this God and instead pursuing idols. So Verses 2-7, "Behold my judgments on wicked Israelites." God was amazingly patient with them as well. In Verse 2, He says, "All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people who walk in ways not good pursuing their own imaginations." Now Romans 10, I think is just the best commentary on these verses, the best way to interpret them. Apostle Paul tells us how to interpret Verse 1 and Verse 2 of Isaiah 65. Paul applies verse one to the Gentiles, and their amazing harvest into the church, but then he turns and contrast the receptivity of the Gentiles to the hardness of the Jews, and they're just consistent rejection, not universal, but almost universal rejection of Christ as their messiah. And he's addressing that and he uses Verse 2 and applies it to Israel in Romans 10:21, he says this, "All day long" concerning Israel, he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a stubborn or a disobedient and defiant people, stiff neck people, uncircumcised hearts and ears." Again in this though we see the remarkable patience and humility of God with Israel. For generations through the prophets, through these messengers, God had stood before stubborn Israel, like the father of the prodigal son waiting at the end of the driveway for the son to come home, yearning with his arms spread out, wanting the prodigal to come home, and yet they were stiff neck, they refused, they were hard hearted, they wouldn't yield. They walked in evil ways, they pursued pagan religions of their own imaginations, not part of God's revelation and yet God continues to persistently hold out His hands to them, reach out to them, but they refused. So, what is the nature of this idolatry? Look at Verses 2-7. These are evil pagan religions that have polluted Israel for centuries, they had consistently sinned right in God's face, defiantly embracing Canaanite rituals, pagan rituals, godless rituals. Look at verse 3 and 4, "A people who continually provoke me into my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick who sit among the graves, and spend their nights keeping secret vigils, who eat the flesh of pigs and whose pots hold broths of unclean meat." So this is a paganism, a ritual, dark occultic religion that includes repulsive practices such as necromancy, and eating pig meat and other defiled meats in defiance of God's holy law. So they're spending their nights among the graves summoning the dead in some weird way, and they're chewing and swallowing pig meat in direct defiance of the dietary regulations that God had given them in the Laws of Moses. They eat the flesh of pigs and whose pots hold broths of unclean meat and their hearts are actually weirdly made proud by these bizarre rituals, they're actually proud of them. It's like one of those secret occultic religions where it's like higher and higher circles of knowledge. And as you went further and further into these deep secrets of Satan, you got more and more sacred in some weird occultic way. And so in verse 5, they say, "Keep away, don't come near me, for I am too sacred for you." In the KJV, this is one of the more famous translations, KJV says, "Come not near to me for I am holier than thou." Ever heard of that expression, "Holier than thou?" That's coming right from this verse. But it's a weird context, it's talking about Jews who are doing pagan rituals and think it's making them holy. How weird is that? So they rejected God's definition of holiness, choosing instead one from paganism and their attitudes and actions were utterly repulsive and provocative to God. Verse 5, "Such people are smoking my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day." It's a powerful image. Have you ever gone camping? And you make a fire, a camp fire and the wood that's available isn't the greatest, it's a little green, maybe pine, a lot of sap in it and it's a windy day and you get the fire going but it does not matter where you stand, the wind's going to find you the smokes, you know what I'm talking about? You keep adjusting your chair, you try all 360 points of the compass, and no matter where you put it, the smoke stings your eyes. I can feel it right now, I had it recently. It's like it's... Man, it's awful, it's obnoxious. Or another story, this is, my wife and I were missionaries in Japan, and we had a neighbor, older man who used to burn his garbage regularly and it did not seem to matter what the prevailing wind was that always found our living room. It just came right and then had a very distinctive, acrid, nasty odor, the burning garbage. And so God is saying, "These people who are living like this are smoking my eyes and in my nostrils, they're incredibly provocative and irritating to me." Fire that keeps burning all day. Now, it's for this reason we just need to marvel at God's patience with the reprobate, God's patience with wicked people who will not repent. Romans 9:22 says, "God…bore with great patience the objects of His wrath prepared for destruction." He puts up with a lot, they are stinging His eyes every day by the way they're living their lives, and He puts up with a lot. But at some point, God's patience runs out. At some point, the patience is going to stop. Verse 6 and 7, "Behold my judgments." God will not wait forever. At some point, the Day of Judgement will come. "Behold, it stands written before me, I will not keep silent, but I will pay back in full, I will pay it back into their laps." Verse 7, "'Both your sins and the sins of your fathers,' says the Lord, 'because they burnt sacrifices on the mountains and defined me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment of their former deeds.'" God is a careful record-keeper. Romans 2 says that these people do not realize that day after day, by their stubborn unrepentance, they're storing a wrath against themselves, for the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgments will be revealed. That's what He says here. God had been silent, and they misconstrued the silence, they didn't understand what it meant. They said. "Oh, there's no God, or He's not holy or He doesn't care or... " They feel justified in their actions, God doesn't seem to do anything ever. But finally, the day is coming. "Behold", that's the behold here, "Behold the day is coming when the wrath of God will most certainly come." And he says, "It stands written before me…" He uses this language, "Behold it stands written." Reminds me of that famous phrase from the movie, 10 Commandments. You remember 10 Commandments and Pharaoh's there, Yul Brynner, and he would make some pronouncement, and then he would say. I'm not going to do his accent. But he would say, "So let it be written, so let it be done." Remember that? If not, see the movie and see what I'm talking about. So this potentate makes a statement and there's these court stenographers around ready to take every word from the King, because that's law when the king says it. Well, that's what the King of the universe, is saying, "It stands written before me, there's going to be a Judgment Day." It's definitely coming, it's revealed. And God is going to pay back into their laps all the deeds they have done. Again, I'm going to stop and do application right here. Behold, God cannot be mocked. Do not misunderstand the fact that the wicked seem to get away with their wickedness in this world, do not misunderstand that. God cannot be mocked, we will reap what we sow, and Judgment Day definitely does come. Galatians 6:7. Revelation 2:23 says, "I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each person according to what he has done." Revelation 20 depicts this, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened, another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the book." It's payback time for God at that point. And the only possible salvation there is from this meticulous, holy, just, record-keeping God, is the cross of Jesus Christ, that's the only hope that we have. Flee to Christ, flee to Christ now while there's time, that's our message to Durham, that's our message to this community, to people, work places tomorrow, they're under the wrath of God if they're not Christians, urge them to flee to Christ, "Behold my judgments are coming," it's our job to make that clear. All over the world, people are involved in wicked idolatrous worship systems. Stone Age animistic tribes in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, still offer human sacrifices to the gods, to the spirits of the jungle and to the elemental demonic forces of the universe, it's still going on now. Hundreds of millions of Hindus follow empty demonic rituals that are offensive to God and damning to their souls. David Platt who's president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention writes about this in his book, Counter Culture. The horror that came over his soul watching a Hindu ritual. This is David Platt, he said, "I stood at the Bagmati River in South Asia, where every day funerals are held and bodies are burned. It is the custom among these Hindu people when family or friends die, to take their bodies within 24 hours to the river, where they lay them on funeral piers and set the piers ablaze. In so doing, they believe that they're helping their friend or family member in the cycle of reincarnation. As I saw this scene unfold before me, I stood in overwhelmed silence. For as I watched these flames overtake the bodies, I knew based on Scripture that I was witnessing at that moment, a physical reflection of an eternal reality. Tears streamed down my face as I realized that most, if not all the people I was watching burn had died without ever having heard the good news of how they could have lived forever with God." This demonic ritual is a smoke burning in God's nostrils all day long. In the very next chapter of Isaiah, God willing if we'll have time to talk about, the way the book ends, Isaiah 66:24, it says, "They will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me, their worm will not die, neither will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Christ alone can save us from that eternal fire. Now, just stop for a moment, stop for a moment. It's just easy to put the paganism out there, out in the jungles of Irian Jaya, along the rivers of India, with the Hindu rituals, there is a paganism right here in America, it's just obvious if you know what to look for. There is a growing overt paganism in this country. People who live for money, for food, for sex, for sports, for earthly pleasure, paganism, not just in the jungles of Irian Jaya or by a river in India, but also in the investment offices of Wall Street. Also in restaurants in Brightleaf Square, in huge sporting venues in Houston, Texas, there is paganism in these places too. And Christ alone can rescue the people who are involved in pagan worship in Wall Street and in restaurants and at Super Bowls. He can rescue them from their paganism. It's not true that everyone in Wall Street, everyone at the restaurant, everyone at the Super Bowl is pagan, I'm not saying that, but many are. 'Cause that's what their hearts are all after, that's what they're living for. III. “Behold My Servants Singing!” (While the Wicked are Shamed) (vs. 8- 16) Thirdly, behold my servants singing while the wicked are shamed. Verses 8-16. God makes distinctions. Good grapes here in these verses, good grapes are saved, the bad ones are rejected. So the Jews in Verses 2-7 are wicked and essentially pagan, but not all Jews follow these pagan rituals. God is able to make distinctions. Not all the Jews are bad grapes. In the large cluster of Israel, there was still some juice in some of them. God found a righteous remnant among all this paganism. Look at Verse 8. "This is what the Lord says, 'As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes, and men say, 'Don't destroy it. There's still some good in it.' So will I do on behalf of my servants. I will not destroy them all.'" Now Jesus told many parables of separation on Judgment Day. The parable of the wheat in the weeds, where it's all mixed up and they want to root them up. He said, "No, wait till the end." And He will separate the wheat from the weeds, and He'll gather the weed into His barn, but He'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Or the parable of the dragnet. "The kingdom of Heaven is like a net let down into a lake and it caught all kinds of fish." And then the fishermen sit down on the pier, and they separate the good fish from the bad. They collect the good fish in baskets, but they throw the bad away. Or again, the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, "When the son of man comes in his glory… He will sit on His throne in Heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left." So also in Verses 8-16, Isaiah reveals with the repeated word, "Behold." God is able to make distinctions between the righteous and the wicked. Blessings for the Remnant Look at Verse 9 and 10. He says, "I will bring forth descendants from Jacob and from Judah those who will possess my mountains, my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. Sharonwill become a pastor for flocks, and the Valley of Achor, a resting place for herds for my people who seek me." So, for the remnant, the genuine believing Jews and this and that extends them to the elect around the world I think. God promises to produce descendants who will inherit the Mountains of Judah and dwell there richly blessed. The Promised Land from Sharon in the west to Achor in the east will be fertile, a rich pasture-land for their flocks to graze in and lie down in peace. These are old covenant images of blessing in that way. But, given that Paul applies this chapter to Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, I think it's reasonable for us to look on them first as the spiritual blessings of coming to faith in Christ, the richness of the life we have in Christ, and then even better. The literal physical blessings we will have in the new H9eavens and the new Earth. And maybe the millennium. We'll talk about that next week. [chuckle] That'll be exciting. That's like two sermons in one. I have no idea how I'm going to preach the rest of this chapter in one sermon, but I'm going to try next week. We're going to try to walk through the idea of the millennium and try to come to some unity and understanding of that. But in any case, whether you believe in a literal millennium or you believe in the new Heavens and new Earth, there are rich blessings that are coming, even physical. The righteous will inherit the earth, along with all of the descendants of Abraham. In Romans 4:13 it says, that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world. The meek will inherit the earth. However, there will come judgment and wrath on the bad grapes, in this image, the bad grapes. Verse 11 and 12, "But for you who forsake the Lord, and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter for I called but you did not answer. I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me." Blessings and Curses These people turned their backs on God and His rich blessings. They forsook the Lord. It was not an accident, it was a willful choice. They embraced fate and destiny and lady luck. It's the way we would talk about it. Do you realize that Americans will bet if past habits... Americans will bet 4.7 billion dollars on the Super Bowl, or have already bet. Almost 5 billion dollars trusting in luck and fortune to make some money. Now, in this text, these people who forsook the Lord and turned their backs on that, and spread a table for fortune, and they're having a feast of paganism basically. God has destined them for slaughter. He tried again and again to call out to them, but they refused to listen. And so, we have blessings and curses. And here we have again and again through this word, "Behold. Look." See this. Behold, how much blessing the righteous are going to receive, and how the wicked will be excluded. And what's really striking here, is God is telling it to the wicked who are excluded. "Behold, my servants will have this blessing, but you excluded ones will not." And it just seems very striking, that language. Here, look at Verses 13 and 14, "Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, my servants shall eat, but you will go hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame.'" Verse 14, "Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you, shall cry out for pain of heart and wail for breaking of spirit." Now, this idea of feasting, in the kingdom of heaven is regularly described and what God is doing here through the prophet Isaiah is saying there is going to be a feast and you are going to miss it. Now here's the thing, for God to tell us this ahead of time, is incredible grace. If you see it properly. There should be a longing in the heart of outsiders right now, saying, "I don't want to be excluded. I don't want to miss out on the richest most bountiful feast there could ever be in all of this, I don't want to miss it. I don't want to stay an outsider I want to come in, I want to be invited into the feast and I want to sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven and I want to feast with Jesus I don't want to be an outsider." But then on Judgement Day He's going to say this, and He has no hesitation to make people feel regrets at that point. "My servants will eat but you will go hungry, my servants will drink and you will be thirsty." You're on the outside. And they will live in torment and especially pain of heart and breaking of spirit. I've thought about that. There will be bitter regrets, in hell. People will remember their lives. They'll remember things about it, they'll remember that they had good things while they lived, they will remember. I think especially the times they heard the gospel and didn't respond and they'll regret it. They're outsiders. Verse 15, "You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death. But his servants, he will call by another name." You know what that means? I really believe, and others struggle with this, but I believe the redeemed will know exactly what's happening to the reprobates in hell. They'll know their names, they'll know what's happening, because God's not going to hide it from us. We'll talk about that at the end of Isaiah 66 but it's openly taught. They'll go out and look out on them, and they'll know and we will vindicate the justice of God and all that God's not embarrassed about this, He has told us ahead of time what He's going to do. This is the time of Grace. This is the time when the door is open, come in. By the way, just a little application, on the Lord's Supper, when we have the Lord's supper I do something as a pastor called fencing the table. And what I say if you're not a believer, in Jesus Christ, do not partake. I want them to know they're outsiders. I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm just saying there is no feasting, apart from faith in Christ. I want them to know that. You know what? I've said this before, I want you to celebrate the next time we'll do a Lord supper. Come to faith in Christ, get baptized, come enjoy. Yeah. But the Lord here wants the outsiders to know they are outsiders and what's going to happen. And we're going to get a new name, it says in Revelation 2:17, a transformed nature, and we will be radically different. Verse 16, "So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth and He takes an oath in the land, shall swear by the God of truth because the former troubles are forgotten and hidden from my eyes." So we'll be done with all of our false oaths, done with all of our paganism. We have been transformed, we have a new name, we have a new nature, and we're going to celebrate the grace of God forever in heaven. IV. “Behold My New Universe” (vs. 17-25) [Next Week!] That's what's coming in, that former sorrows will be gone forever, all sorrow and sadness will flee away forever. And death and mourning and crying, and pain, will be gone, and we'll be there forever. Now verse 17-25, "For behold, for behold, I will create a new heavens, a new earth." Next week, we'll talk about that. I hope you see now why I did this in two weeks. There's just no way we could get through all of this in one week. V. Applications Let me do a little more application we'll be done. This passage I believe, gives a clear warning to the outsiders to flee to Christ now while there's time. So if you know yourself this morning to be an outsider, you know that you're not a Christian, I'm pleading with you flee to Christ, now while there's time. Come to Christ Jesus is God's son, He died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for all of our paganism and our idolatry and wickedness and He took all of that wickedness on Himself and died under the wrath of God, to give us a perfect righteousness by faith alone come to Christ. So you Christians, thank God for His persistence in saving you, H never gave up on you. And He never will. He's going to stand in front of you and say, "Behold me, behold me forever". And just praise God for that and look forward to seeing His face in Heaven. Just look forward to the beatific vision they call it the beautiful vision. The source of all the beauty where it all came from, you're going to see Him radiant and shining. God in Christ, the source of all beauty. Revelation 22:3 and 4 says, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him, and they will see His face, they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." Fourth be sober-minded about the future of the wicked.Take this seriously. I'm speaking to Christians. Look at these things, understand the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, weep over it, be broken over it, like David Platt was. And let it motivate you toward evangelism, let it motivate you toward missions. Don't harden your heart toward lost people in your school, your classes, your dorm, your workplace, your neighbor, don't harden your heart. Open up, be willing to take some abuse from them as you might lead some of them to Christ. And then next week, we're going to talk about the rest of the chapter and the beauties of the coming world as God will create it. Close with me in prayer.

"Today… This Scripture is Fulfilled" So this morning as I was thinking about this text, I was closing my eyes and just trying to picture in redemptive history, when Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth after having, it seems, already done some miracles, already done some healings, and the report had gotten back to his hometown, and he went to the synagogue there. And the town was abuzz with the reports, I'm sure, and they were wondering what was going on about Jesus. And the Sabbath day had come and everyone assembled in the synagogue and the time for the reading of the Scripture came in that worship service. And Jesus rose and went forward and the scroll of Isaiah was given to him. And he unrolled into the very place we're studying this morning, this very text of Scripture, Isaiah 61. And he read the ancient words powerfully and with spirit-endowed passion. And I think you probably could have heard a pin drop. Perhaps the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was a powerful moment as he read these words to the enthralled assembly there in the synagogue. "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And after he finished reading most of verses 1 and 2, he rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the attendant and then he sat down, and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he opened his mouth and spoke these words. "Today in your hearing this Scripture is fulfilled." Fulfilled. I think if I had been an average neighbor of Jesus, I would have been stunned at that word. Fulfilled. That word "fulfilled" must have hit everyone there like a thunderbolt. After all, the passage that Jesus had read had been around for centuries, 700 years. And now this man, who they'd watched grow up from a little boy in their community, was saying that as they listened to him read that Scripture, the Scripture had been fulfilled, this prophecy. This was a Messianic prophecy. And he was claiming to be the fulfillment of that ancient prophecy. Now our faith, our Christian faith, is a supernatural faith. It's unlike any other religion in the world. It's different. And what sets it apart from every other religion in the world is just this, fulfilled prophecy, specifically fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. That's what makes Christianity different. No other religion has this. Through the prophets, God told the human race ahead of time what he would do. And then in Christ, he did it. He fulfilled those words. No other religion in the world has this element of fulfilled prophecy, just as no other religion in the world has Jesus. Isaiah has talked about this again and again, how God alone can do this, God alone has the power to do this. Isaiah 46:9 and 10. "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is yet to come. And I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all that I desire." That's the God of the Bible. Or again, this, Isaiah 42:9. "Behold, the former things have taken place and new things I declare. Before they spring into being, I announce them to you." No prophecies in Scripture are as significant as those centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, the Anointed One, the Messiah. These prophecies set Jesus apart from every other religious leader. Mark that well. Use that to share the Gospel with people who think Christianity is like every other religion. It's not. They set Jesus apart from every king that's ever lived, every prophet or priest that's ever lived. They set him apart as the unique savior of the world sent from God on high to a world that desperately needs him, a world drowning in sin. Now, this morning, we get to look carefully at this prophecy, go word by word through it, verse by verse. This prophecy, written by Isaiah seven centuries before Jesus, 27 centuries before us. And we get to thrill at every word in this ancient scroll. We get to find light and life and health and peace and vigor and hope from considering the mission that Jesus has now accomplished, I want to say fulfilled, and that he is still fulfilling by the power of the Spirit of God. So let's look at it together. We're going to just unfold this line by line. I. The Messiah and His Mission (vs. 1-3) Look at the beginning at verse 1. "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." So here, the Messiah, the Anointed One, is anointed with the Spirit. Now, for me as I was writing my commentary on Isaiah, I was thinking about, I had to deal with issues of interpretation all the time. It's possible that Isaiah himself is saying these words. He's talking about his own ministry. But I think, as a believer in all 66 books of the Bible, all of them equally inspired, Jesus has settled forever what this passage is about, amen. It's not about Isaiah. It's about Jesus. And so that settles it, and so Jesus is speaking to us, he's talking to us. And so the coming Savior, this text says, he said, was anointed by the Sovereign Lord. The title "Sovereign Lord" in some of the translations is literally "Adonai Yahweh," so it's a doubled-up expression. Adonai is "my Lord." Yahweh is the covenant name for God, the creator of the ends of the earth, the creator of the nation of Israel. So this, this God of the universe who is also my Lord, the personal King of all the redeemed the creator of the ends of the earth. This one is addressed in this text or spoken of in this text, the Spirit of this God, says the text, "is upon me." As I said, the text is written in the first person. Jesus, I believe, is speaking directly through the prophet Isaiah about His mission. And the Holy Spirit of God made plain this mission centuries before Jesus was born. This is the essence of predictive prophecy that I'm saying is completely unique in Christianity, there's no other religion like. It says in 1 Peter 1:10-11, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ, in them, was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. So that's the essence of prophecy. A prophet has the Spirit of Christ in Him and He makes predictions about Christ, the predictions of the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow. And again in 2 Peter 1:21, Peter writes this, "No prophecy ever had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's the essence of predictive prophecy. The Holy Spirit comes upon a prophet, and he writes down words about the future. Revelation 19:10, says the, "Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." In other words, the point of it all, is to give a testimony about Jesus. So it was the glorious work of the Holy Spirit of God to put into the mind of Isaiah the prophet, the words that Jesus wanted to speak to the human race. To speak on behalf of our Savior, Jesus Christ. These words therefore are really Jesus's words spoken by the Holy Spirit seven centuries earlier. Now the prediction here is that the same Spirit of God that came upon the prophets, and wrote, that same Spirit has anointed Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord has anointed me. So there's a link between the word anointing and the work of the Spirit. They go together. So what then is this anointing? Well, the verb anoint has to do with the pouring out of oil on a key individual in Jewish society, to set them apart for their office and it's a representation of the Spirit of God descending from heaven, to earth onto that individual. Equipping them supernaturally for the task they would fulfill. Prophets were anointed with oil, priests were anointed with oil, kings especially anointed with oil. So we have the story for example, of Saul who was anointed with the oil and the Holy Spirit came on him and made him a different man. Recently at the advice of a church member, I was watching a historical depiction of the monarchy of Britain, and the anointing ceremonies, the key of the coronation, the key holiest moment, when the Monarch is anointed with holy oil and the Archbishop of Canterbury, puts the oil on the head and on the chest representing the heart and on the hands of the monarch. It seems like a fervent prayer that the Holy Spirit would descend and enable the monarch, to think after the manner of the Holy Spirit and to love after the manner of the Holy Spirit and to act also after the manner and by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Sadly, the monarchy of Britain has hardly ever lived up to that. I asked a friend of mine, "Do you think any of the kings or queens have been born again?" And he didn't know, he's an expert in monarchy and also a believer. Well, for them individually for all eternity, it will matter but the symbolism is powerful. Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. Now, this is absolutely mind-boggling. You came here this morning to have your mind boggled, whatever that means, nobody hardly ever use that word boggles, except mind-boggling. But this stretches our minds and our imaginations to the breaking point, how do we understand the infinite mysteries of Christianity? It's a mysterious religion, we believe in the doctrine of the trinity, that one God has eternally existed in three persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the persons of the Trinity are co-equal, co-eternal, but each person of the Trinity has different offices to carry out in the plan of redemption. For example, God the Father came up with the plan of redemption, it was His plan, the Father makes the plan. The Son mysteriously takes on a human body, does mighty miracle speaks perfect words, lives a sinless life, dies an atoning death and rises from the dead. The redemption was planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son and then applied by the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit applies it but the Spirit we're finding here is intrinsic to Jesus's mission. The Holy Spirit enables Jesus to do all those things that he did. It is by the Spirit that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It is by the Spirit that he was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. It's by the Spirit that He conquered all of the temptations of the devil. It was by the Spirit that He did great signs and wonders and miracles, it was by the Spirit that He taught perfect teachings. It was by the Spirit that He was strengthened in the Garden of Gethsemane, against that final temptation to turn away from the cross, so therefore by the Spirit he went to the cross, and certainly by the Spirit he was raised from the dead. Peter says this in preaching to Cornelius the Roman Centurion. In Acts 10:38, these are just amazing words, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him." So therefore Jesus did nothing apart from the Spirit's power. Just as he did nothing apart from the Father's plan. He says in John 5:19, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can only do what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does." Now, what I'm saying is concerning this anointing with the spirit, the same is true of the spirit that Jesus could do nothing apart from the Spirit of God. Now that's where your mind gets boggled. I understand why we need the Spirit to come on us for us to do great things for God, but Jesus is God. And so go ahead, just let your mind be boggled I don't have an answer to this. But it seems that we are instructed here that only by the Spirit of Jesus do all of these great signs and wonders in this great preaching. It's by the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled his office to be the Savior of the world. And after Jesus rose from the dead, it is now by the Spirit of Christ that the gospel is spreading to the ends of the earth, only by the Spirit that this redemption is applied to people as Acts 1:8 says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth." Now, specifically in verse 1, the Spirit anointed Jesus with power to preach, power for preaching power to preach the gospel, to preach the good news. That's the focus here to preach good news to the poor. Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time. And only by the power of the Spirit could he do it now, how great a preacher was Jesus? Do you remember the time when the rulers of the Jews, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Jesus remember that? And some time later, the temple guards came back empty-handed, they said, "Why didn’t you bring him in?" And they said "No one ever spoke the way this man does." They were just totally captivated by Jesus the preacher or at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, arguably the greatest sermon that's ever been preached. It says when Jesus had finished saying all these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law, Where did that sense of power that encounter with the living God, come from, but by the Spirit as Jesus spoke? And it says The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Meaning those who are destitute, they're beggars: They have nothing to offer. And so, that great sermon, I just mentioned a moment ago, the Sermon on the Mount, begins with these words. Blessed, happy rich eternally rich blessed are the poor in spirit or a good translation, the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. You have nothing in your hands, you have nothing to offer nothing to give. And Jesus says You're blessed if you realize it and you bring that emptiness to God and He will give you a Kingdom. So that's who he's going to preach to the good news. The Messiah’s Mission to Poor Prisoners Now, look at the mission. By the way, before I go on to the mission do you not see therefore the eternal importance of preaching? I'm not in any way saying anything about myself, just the office and the function of preaching it is eternally significant. This is exactly what the spirit anointed Jesus to do is preach. And frankly, without the preaching none of the other things would have been effective later the Apostle Paul said, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" And faith, the faith to call on the name of the Lord comes from hearing the message even the message of Christ. And so it's by the preaching of the message that souls are saved all over the world, is the most significant thing that happens at, on any given day is the preaching of the Gospel, it's more significant than all of the movements of the nations. And so, the significant of the preach now look at his mission, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion. To be stolen them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." This is the fullness of Jesus's mission. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit first and foremost, to preach to proclaim the word of God, the word of the good news, the gospel to all people, Gospel of salvation a message in words. So it's a message of joy for the broken-hearted, it's a message to freedom for the captives. It's a message of release from those sitting in dungeons of darkness, a message of the recovery of sight to those who are blind, a message of the gracious forgiveness of Almighty God, to those who deserve vengeance. This is the essence of the gospel, freedom from slavery to sin, from the chains, the dungeons of sin. Jesus said in John 8 "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." But then Jesus's Jewish enemies said, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin". Now a slave has no permanent place in the family. But a son belongs to it, forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free, indeed truly free." This is the freedom that Jesus preached. Satan has enslaved the entire human race in invisible chains that we are powerless to break. We're held in chains of sin, bad habits that flow from corrupted hearts, evil actions that consummate, previous lusts, wicked lusts. This is the nature of Satan's dark realm, his evil kingdom. We all sat in the gloomy dungeons of sin, and we could not break out, couldn't break free. So, Jesus was sent to proclaim liberty, freedom for the captives, to lead us up and out of Satan's dark dungeons. Now that's incredible good news. That's what we Christians celebrate. Not just Christmas, but year-round, that we've been set free. We don't ever need to sin again, ever. We're set free. And we're free from the penalty and the vengeance that we deserve, God's vengeance against our breaking of his most holy laws; we are set free from all that by Jesus. Set free. Jesus said in John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life." Isn't that a great verse? I think it deserves to be memorized along with John 3:16. Go ahead and memorize John 3:16. But John 5:24, "Crossed over from death to life." Beyond that, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit to perform mighty works of healing. "He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted. This binding up is literally related to shattering. So picture a piece of pottery that's been thrown to the ground and shattered on the rocks, just shards everywhere. That's what sin does to people. So, it does it to their bodies, their bodies are racked with disease and pain and suffering and ultimately, death. Does it to our souls, we are shattered by sin. Jesus comes to bind up, to put the pottery back together so you can't even see that it was ever cracked. It's a miracle of binding up of the broken-hearted. And he did literal, physical miracles. The recovery of sight to the blind, to show that he could do the far greater work of the healing of our souls and the reconciliation of our status with God, our heavenly judge and our Heavenly Father. That's the greatest work. And so, he did miracles in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralyzed man, "Rise and walk." Or the same thing with the man born blind. No one ever heard in the history of the healing of a man born blind. Jesus did that. The recovery of sight to the blind, as a physical, real, actual display of power. He actually did it in space and time. Yes, I believe in the miracles. They really happen. But there are also symbols of a far greater spiritual healing that Jesus alone can do. Now, this message of healing and grace and power for sinful captives changes everything. We were mourning and we were powerless and now we are forgiven and rejoicing and we have been embraced and adopted. Verse 2-3, "To comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion." As Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." We get eternal comfort now. This message is as relevant today as it was in Jesus' day. Sin leaves people's lives shattered, our heart's breaking. Think about the incredible comfort that Jesus has brought to people trapped by chemical addictions, enslaved by pornography, struggling with emptiness and desperation, darkly allured towards suicide, and Jesus steps in with light and changes everything and brings joy where there was such grieving and sorrow and brokenness. Jesus alone can do that. And he can step in, even to a funeral and bring a ray of eternal glorious sunshine. Even at a Christian funeral. So, we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We actually ultimately walk out mocking death saying, "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So we don't grieve like those who have no hope, even at the face of the grave. So we can say goodbye to Christian spouses and Christian friends and all that, even at the grave and know we'll see them again in Christ. He provides for those who grieve and mourn in Zion. So Isaiah 61 predicts the comfort that Jesus will bring to a mourning world, a world ripped apart and ruined by sin and death. The Year of the Lord’s Favor Now, pretty dramatically and some have noted this, some have talked to me about it even this week. In Nazareth Jesus stopped the reading right in the middle. Just stopped. Didn't read the whole thing. What do I mean? Well, this is what he said, this is Luke 4:18-20, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor," and he stopped there. Rolled up the scroll and gave it to the attendant, sat down and began to speak. Today, this Scripture is fulfilled. Okay, so he ended at the proclamation of something called the year of the Lord's favor. I can't hear that except that I think about the year of jubilee, like in the Book of Leviticus, where you get pretty much once in your lifetime a year unlike any other year. I mean, somebody's like, no working. Alright? Slaves set free. All of them go back. It's like this huge massive Sabbath rest for the fields and vineyards. And people are released from slavery and bondage then they go back to their ancestral properties and it's the year of jubilee. Once in your lifetime. What an incredible picture. A whole year of that. So it's the year of the Lord's favor. The word favor would be like grace. The year of grace, an extended period of grace for all us sinners. A once in a lifetime opportunity because of its infinite value. But it goes on for a full year, so it's a very vast window of opportunity, but it is finite. It doesn't go on forever, this year of the Lord's grace. That time is now to quote an earlier passage from Isaiah, Isaiah 55:6-7, "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will freely pardon." That's the year of the Lord's favor. And He is near now or as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "In the time of my favor, I heard you in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. This is the time. I can't help but stop and just wonder, and I prayed this morning that God would bring people here who needed to hear this message who are presently sitting in dark dungeons of sin and chains, and I'm just telling you that the door is thrown open if you just run through it through faith in Christ. And this is the time, now, you don't know that you'll ever hear this gospel message again. This might be the last time you hear the gospel, you don't know. But this is the year of the Lord's favor, this is the opportunity for amnesty for all sinners who hear this message to run into forgiveness and reconciliation with God and eternal life. I would grab it if I were you, I already did grab it back in 1982. I'm saying this is the gospel, Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me, but why did he die? Well, because of the next part that Jesus didn't read; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Vengeance. God has a day of vengeance for those who will not receive the grace of this gospel. He has a day of vengeance for people all over the world who do not fulfill his holy law as written in their hearts and evidence in creation. He has a day of vengeance coming for sinners all over the world. That day is real and it is coming. Romans 2:5-8 says this, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath. When his righteous judgment will be revealed, God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But, for those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there'll be wrath and anger." That's The day of God's vengeance. It's spoken of in many places in Scripture. Honestly, without understanding The day of God's vengeance, you won't understand what you're being saved from. Salvation won't mean anything. You have every right to ask, "Saved from what?" Well, saved from the day of God's vengeance, saved from being punished for your law violation, punished for your sins. All of us, we're under that death sentence. Jesus regularly warned about the coming day of God's vengeance. He said, "I tell you that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Matthew 13, "The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all those who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats. "Then he will say to those on his left [the goats], 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'" So, why did Jesus stop the reading at that point? Clearly, at other times he did preach and warn about the day of God's vengeance. Well, I think it has to do with the word "fulfilled," it has to do with what he was there in his first coming to do. He was there to fulfill salvation. He didn't need to come to earth to pour out vengeance. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed from heaven down, there didn't need to be an incarnation to do that. But for salvation, he came from heaven to earth. The first coming was to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and salvation. But there will be a second coming. Now in John 3:17, Jesus said, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world will be saved through him." So he didn't come for vengeance in the first coming. But there will be a second coming. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." That's what the second coming will be like. That's why I think he stopped the reading. II. The Transformation of the Messiah’s People (vs. 3-9) Now, in verses 3-9, we see the transformation of Messiah's people, not only does Jesus proclaim and heal but he also transforms the people he saves. We become different, essentially changed, transformed. Look at verse 3, "To bestow on them... " And I love the NIV's translation here, so I'm going to stick with it. "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor." Now, this is really cool. It wasn't till I practiced this sermon this morning that I noticed this. So here, these three words are highlighted in my outline: Crown, oil, garment. What does that speak to you of, but a coronation? It's amazing. These are emblems of royalty. These are emblems of royalty, as though Jesus came to take wretched dungeon dwellers like us and make us into royalty, and put a crown on our heads, and anoint us with the oil of his spirit, and cover us with righteous robes to make us royalty, kings and queens under his ultimate kingship. He will be King of kings, and he will be Lord of lords, and we will reign with him forever. And so Peter calls us a royal priesthood. It's just amazing. And so the transformation is of our heads, so that we think differently through repentance and through the teaching of the Word of God, and our hearts, so that we love differently by the transforming work of the Spirit, and then our lives, so we live different kinds of lives, and look how he describes it, "A crown of beauty instead of ashes." We were ugly in God's sight, but through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we're now radiantly attractive to him, he actually likes looking at us in Christ. And then the oil of gladness, instead of mourning, Christ is everything. These exact words were spoken of Jesus's affections. In Hebrews 1:9, it says of Jesus, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God your God has exalted you or set you above your companions," listen, "by anointing you with the oil of joy." It's the exact same thing it says here. We are then in him transformed, loving righteousness, hating wickedness, anointed with the oil of joy instead of mourning. So Jesus changes our hearts and then a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, apart from Christ, life was hopeless, it was bleak and empty and purposeless. We had nothing to look forward to except the just wrath of God in death. But now, in Christ, we have a joyful life in which we can do service to God that's worth doing. We can actually do good works, not to pay for sins, but to build up his kingdom and it says, "They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." Isn’t that marvelous? Oh, I want to be an oak of righteousness, wouldn't that be marvelous? We were bruised reeds, weren't we? Swaying back and forth with public opinion, every temptation swayed by it, powerless to resist. Now, in Christ, we can become mighty oaks of righteousness, no longer double-minded but able to withstand all of Satan's attacks. After I graduated from college, I took a trip, a cross-country, with a friend of mine, probably one of most fun trips I ever made. We were two free guys. He was driving to a job in LA, I had one waiting for me back in Massachusetts, he paid for all of my expenses, which I thought was pretty cool, cause his company paid for his. And it was just, it was pretty amazing. We went to Yellowstone, we went to Grand Teton National Park, but one of the most memorable places was Pacific Coast 1, this highway that went along Northern California. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. But in Northern California, it's the Redwood Forest and these massive redwood trees, I'll never forget them. These trees can live as long as 18 centuries, we're told. 1800 years old. Their trunks can be as wide as 30 feet. You could drive a car through one of those tree trunks. They can reach 379 feet high, almost a 40-storey building. Massive. Wonder what the root system is like. And this road that you drive through is called the Avenue of the Giants, and you can just drive through it. To me, that's what church history is like. We can just drive for 20 centuries, through the Avenue of the Giants and think about brothers and sisters in Christ that led gigantic lives. They were oaks of righteousness, rooted in Christ, rooted in the truth of the Bible, not easily swayed by lust and temptations, and by the opinions of their age, they were rooted in Christ and in the Word of God, the unchanging Word of God, and they just grew up and bore fruit for God. It's a massive display of life and power and stature. Like in Ephesians 3, Paul prays that they would be rooted and established in love, and would have power together with all the saints to grasp that infinite dimensions of Christ's love. Rooted in Christ, or again in Colossians, "So then just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him." The Root System for the "Oaks of Righteousness" So what's your root system like? Are you rooted in Christ? Are you rooted in the Bible? Rooted in the Word of God? Rooted in the work of grace in your life? Are you stable in Jesus? Stable? I love studying about this royal priesthood that is church history, these are brothers and sisters in Christ. Think about the Roman martyrs, the ones that had their blood shed in the sands of the Colosseum. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Nero made some of them torches for his garden parties, and they would not shrink back. Think about the missionaries that went courageously in the centuries that followed to win the pagans of Germania or the Scottish forebears known as the pits or think about those that evangelized the Vikings. How would you like to evangelize Vikings and lead some of them to Christ before they killed you? I mean, think of the courage of these brothers and sisters that did these great things or think about the reformers like Luther that he took his life in his hand for doctrine justification by faith alone, he was willing to literally die at the stake, burn at the stake for that. They didn't get him, but they wanted to. Took his life in his hand, these oaks of righteousness. And think about the missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, those that have taken the gospel to the inland regions of China and Africa, and to the jungles of the Amazon rainforest and Irian Jaya, they've gone as far as you can go to take the gospel. Work's not done yet, but they have done... Don't you want to be an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of His splendor? Don't you want to live that kind of a life? I do. And the point of all of this is the display of His glory. Not for us, not to us, but to Your name be the glory. For the display of God's splendor, that they can see how great God is by looking at our lives. Verse 4, "They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore places long devastated. They'll renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." Obviously, the immediate context here is the rebuilding of the City of Jerusalem, but the words go far greater than that. Small city in Palestine rebuilt after the exile, it's bigger than that. The people of God in every generation have been involved in rebuilding ancient ruins. I think about Luther and Calvin, how they rebuilt the ruins of godly New Testament theology on the wreckage of centuries of false teaching by the Medieval Roman Catholic church. They rebuilt doctrinal buildings on wreckage. Or I think about even missionaries who elevated Paul's passion for the unreached, for those who have never heard in regions beyond. It's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ wasn't named. So I wouldn't be building on someone else's foundation, rather as it is written, those who have not heard will hear and those who have not seen will be told of Christ to the ends of the earth and missionaries in 19th and 20th century, they rebuilt the ancient ruins. The commitment to missions. Now Satan's a destroyer, and he ruins works that one sowed for the glory of God. Churches that were once really radiant and on fire for Christ become cold and lifeless and ruined. Colleges and seminaries established openly and clearly for the glory of God get taken over somewhere in there and become ruined by Satan's deceptions. Wreckage, those institutions lay in ruins. God calls on every generation to look at this wreckage, these ruins and say, "What can we rebuild by the power of God, to the glory of God? What can we rebuild?" Now obviously we Christians, we should go where there's literal physical destruction. We can go in the path of hurricanes with the Baptist men and go help rebuild houses, but you just must know that this is bigger than all that. The biggest, most glorious building projects say every week is the building of the church of Jesus Christ. This spiritual structure rising to become a temple in which God lives by his Spirit. That's the building project, and it's out of the ruins that Satan has left in the world. Enriched, Not Enslaved, by the Nations Verse 4, now very quickly, we're not going to go as carefully through all these verses, we'll just read them and look at them with me. "Aliens will shepherd your flocks and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards and you will be called priests of the Lord." That's awesome. You'll be named ministers of our God. You'll feed on the wealth of nations and in their riches you will boast. Here's that royal priesthood, that holy nation, that people belonging to God called out of darkness into light so that we can declare his marvelous praises. We're priests for the Lord and we're going to feed on the wealth of the nations, not like that prosperity gospel stuff. We don't believe in that. The wealth of the nations here is definitely spiritual, people converted. People who are treasures and they are converted. You'll feed on that and they will become shepherds in the Lord's house. And look at the transformation, verses 7-9, "Instead of their shame, my people receive a double portion and instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance and so they will inherit a double portion in their land. Everlasting joy will be theirs." You as a Christian can read those words and say, these are true of me. I'm not ashamed anymore. My shame has been covered by the blood of Christ. I've received a double portion for that. I'm not disgraced anymore. I'm now honored in Christ and I'm going to rejoice in my inheritance, God himself, and then the new heaven, the new earth. We're going to inherit the earth and that's my inheritance and I'm going to rejoice in that. Verse 8, "For I the Lord love justice. I hate robbery and inequity and in my faithfulness I will reward them and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, the new covenant. And their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed." Oh, that's powerful. Oh, I want to put that on display. I want everybody to see how God has blessed us, how richly we are forgiven and loved and secured and filled with hope and looking forward to eternity. We're a people the Lord has blessed. III. The Messiah’s Garments of Joy, Righteousness and Salvation (vs. 10-11) Finishes in verses 10 and 11, "I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." Who is speaking here? Is it Jesus? Is it Isaiah on behalf of all the redeemed? How about yes and yes, why not? We step up into the radiant beauty of garments of righteousness and we get covered with Christ's righteousness that he won first for us and then gives to us. Verse 11, "For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations." V. Application Applications, first, just stand in awe of the amazing moment when Jesus stood up and said this has been fulfilled. Stand in awe of that. Just stand in awe of God's ability to predict the future. Just worship him, worship him. Just say, "Thank you God for being such a God to figure all this out before the foundation of the world, predicted centuries before it happened." And then Jesus steps into time and says, "Today in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." Praise him. Secondly, meditate on the amazing grace that leads him to elevate degraded sinners like you and me from the dungeons, the satanic dungeons of darkness to be under him, kings and queens of glory, princes and princesses in his kingdom. That's incredible. Never get tired of thanking him for saving you from the day of vengeance. You deserved it. So did I. We were covered with stinking clothes, and instead we have this rich garment of praise now on us. Thirdly, we should yearn to become what the text says we will be, mighty oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his glory. Grow up in Christ. Don't be blown back and forth anymore by false teaching or by lusts and temptations. Don't be weak. Be an oak of righteousness to display God's splendor. Resolve in 2017 to be holier than you've ever been before by the power of the Spirit. Say, "I want to be an oak. I want to be a planting. I don't want to be weak anymore in this weak area. Give me strength to fight." Fourth, be energetic in the mission that this, like just about all of these last chapters Isaiah talks about, worldwide missions, nations coming to the light of the glory of Zion. Let's be energetic in it. Let's care about it.nI loved hearing Amanda's story. I was so excited, she was willing to share that story. You should ask her for details. The lives that were changed by her and her team. It's a great story. We're going to hear it in heaven, but it's great to hear it now. Let's love these stories. Let's send out more and more missionaries. Let's raise more money. Let's more than meet our goal. $150,000 to send out missionaries like that. Let's care about it. Let's pray for missions and be passionate and then let's make missions happen right here at home. We can do that with unreached people groups here in our area with the Gujarati, but we can also evangelize people who are just like us, same as us, same culture, same language but they need Christ, let's talk to them. And then finally, if you are struggling with depression and discouragement, Isaiah 61 is for you. God is able to comfort those who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. He's able to bestow on you a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Don't weep anymore. Rejoice in Christ, talk to other people. Get together. Don't be alone in your sorrow. Get together with other people and talk about Jesus. It's a great topic. Close with me in prayer.

Known now as West Papua, many people of this remote corner of the island of New Guinea retain their traditional ways.

It's one of the biggest struggles I think that every person has in life, is a sense of purpose. You know, “Why am I alive?” “Why am I even here?” “Why do I live each day?” And people struggle with that. “What gives meaning to my Mondays and my Tuesdays?” “What is the remedy to the terrifying sense of aimlessness and purposelessness in life that kind of dogs my heels.” And that same idea led the wisest man who had ever lived on earth up to that point, King Solomon, as he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, and he looked around at the world that surrounded him as he looked at his own life, his own achievements. And he looked at all of those achievements and the power and the wealth and the pleasures and all of that, and He said in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity, it's all emptiness, it's all meaningless.” As he looked at it. Now, we don't want to reach the end of a single day and feel that it was all vanity, it was all meaningless. We don't want to live a single day that's empty of purpose. And praise God through His grace, we don't need to, isn't that awesome? Every single day for us as Christians is a day just crackling with energy and promise with good works that are worth doing. I mean, eternally worth doing. And the more we meditate on Ephesians 2:10, the more joy that can come to us, and I hope the more energy and zeal and power through the Holy Spirit to live an active life of good works. For it says in Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” So, this idea is very powerful. There are a few verses that I think about every single day. There's a few of them, and I don't do it intentionally, I'm just saying they come in my mind. This is one of them, I think about Ephesians 2:10 every day. I think about it in the morning when I get up, and when I pray and say, “Lord, I want to do the good works that you prepared for me to do today. I want to walk in those good works. So Lord, give me a wise and discerning heart, show me what they are. I don't want to miss any of them.” I think we all have the feeling, and it's a mystery how Ephesians 2:10 fits into failure to do the good works but we know that we miss opportunities don't we? There are some things that we should have done and didn't do. And I don't want that to be my life, I don't want that to be any single day, and I sure don't want that to be the cumulative effect of my whole life that I missed them. I missed the good works. And so I pray for that every morning I just say, “Lord, to help me to walk in that pathway of good works that you have ordained for me,” There are various types. There are some just grand and glorious big, good works that you might only do once in your life, and years later you'll be thinking about that good work and what God did and in and through that time, and never do it again. And then there are just those day-to-day mundane small good works that you may be tempted to despise and wonder why it's still your job and why somebody else doesn't do it, by now. But that God has set out for you to do everything's included for me in Ephesians 2:10. So it could be anything from a word of encouragement that you speak to somebody, you pick up the phone and call them. Or you just take a moment and pray for a situation you know about it in the church. And no one needs to know about it. You don't need to tell anyone like Jesus said in Matthew 6, “you go into the room and close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen.” No one ever knew about it, but you prayed for a brother or a sister, or a situation and God sees it and He knows, and He hears it. Or it could be right a check for a ministry, or something large or small, wouldn't matter. So all kinds of good works. And so, God has ordained these good works, and in the language of Isaiah, I think of a pathway of good works in which God says “This is the way, walk in it.” Like there are these golden steps that we're going across, across the river of life, and we're just stepping from good work to good work to good work, and you can just live your life that way. This is the way, walk in it. It's what glorious grace from God to arrange ahead of time, a life of good works that have eternal significance and to be able to join with God the Father in the work that He's doing. As Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day and I too am working.” And we as sons and daughters of the living God, we can say that God's at work. He's working in the world, always working and I have, by faith, joined in His work, and that is glorious. There is also a sense in this verse, I think of craftsmanship, a sense of craftsmanship. We are God's workmanship, and the day is God's workmanship. The both of them and we're going to talk about that today, but there's a sense of craftsmanship. A little while ago, I came across a website that was talking about these expensive mechanical watches, from Switzerland and from Germany, and I came across one that cost 2.6 million dollars. For a wristwatch. Alright, now if I had 2.6 million, I would not invest it in a wristwatch. Imagine giving Jesus an account of that on Judgment Day, alright, enough said. But at any rate, this German watchmaker, Lange & Söhne, makes this one watch, it's called “The Grand Complication,” that's the name of the watch. And it takes a skilled craftsman, an entire year to make a single watch. And every part that goes into it, is hand-crafted the complexity is staggering. It has different chimes for different parts of the hour, 15 minutes, 30, 45 and the hour, a different chime, like it's a grandfather clock on your wristwatch. Imagine being at work, and the thing goes off and people are like, "What is that?” “Well, that's my new watch for 2.6 million dollars.” And the craftsmanship is amazing. It's got a calendar and it's got all of these things, it's all mechanical, it's not computer it's all gears and sprockets, and springs. And I just think about the complexity of it. And it's about that big and all of that fitting together, centuries of craftsmanship, but then I thought about this verse today. And we are more complicated than that. Vastly more complicated. And the craftsmanship that has gone into us is staggering, and the craftsmanship frankly, that's gone into the world around us, the complexity of how we as sons and daughters of God interact with other Christians and with non-Christians to achieve His eternal purpose is just staggering. It's exquisite craftsmanship. So God has been crafting you and shaping you and molding you for this lifetime of good works and He continues to do it, He's doing it right now for me and for you. And He's getting us ready for these good works. Not Saved by Good Works Salvation from Sin is Not by Works Now, when we come to the issue of good works, again, we need to stop and just be careful of context here, don't we? And it's very important. I chose to divide Ephesians 2:10 from Ephesians 2:8-9, and from the larger section, that Andy just read. And so I think it's good for us to look back and understand where we just came from last week, Ephesians 2:8-9, “It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” So you really need to see the whole thing together. So we have to go back and remember what we talked about last week because it is so pernicious, and so powerfully magnetically attractive this idea of justification by works, or being saved by works, and it's just consistently dogging our hearts whenever we feel guilty, whenever we know we've sinned, we want to turn to our own works, and try to pay for our sins by good works, and that cannot be. “It says it is by grace you have been saved,” “have been saved.” And so we said last week. Saved from what? Well, the answer is: Saved from eternal condemnation under the judgment of God, when it says in Revelation 20, that we will all be “gathered before this great white throne. And the court will be seated and the books will be opened and everyone that has ever lived will be gathered and we will all be judged, according to what we have done as recorded in the books, and by the Lamb's Book of Life and if anyone's name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they are thrown into the Lake of Fire.” So we could sum this up. To answer the question, “Saved from what?”, it's from the lake of fire that we deserve because of our sins. How can we be delivered from condemnation, how can we be delivered from Hell? And the answer is, it is by grace, through faith, faith in Christ, faith in the blood of Christ that you have been saved, and this is not of yourselves, he says, it is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. We can't emphasize this too much, although I don't want to just go off and preach last week’s sermon now because if Ephesians 2:10 is so glorious and beautiful, but we just need to understand that no amount of good works, no amount of the things that we could ever do in service to God can ever be used to pay for our sins. It is “through faith,” by simple trust in Jesus, by believing the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this faith “is not of ourselves,” It doesn't originate with us, it comes from outside of us in, it's a gift of God. And it's not by works. The Spiritually Dead Cannot do Good Works Why not? Because Paul already said in Ephesians 2:1-3 that “we were dead in our transgressions and sins, even while we lived, we were enslaved to the world, the flesh, and the devil and we could not have delivered ourselves.” Our good works cannot deliver us from that bondage, that slavery. “We were by nature objects of wrath, but God because of His richness, of His mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions God made us alive with Christ. It is by grace you have been saved, and God raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, in Christ Jesus.” So that's God, God stepped in, “but God” intervened, God raised you from the dead. You couldn't have done that. That couldn't be by works, and that's the Gospel of free grace. We talked about grace, remember unmerited favor, and how that's a good starting point. There's an unmerited side and there's a favor side, how we said that those are infinite under statements. We deserved condemnation and wrath. So it's definitely unmerited. And it's not mere favor, but it's a river of blessings, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” a river of blessings that has come to us and will continue to come to us forever. It is by grace, it is God's settled determination to do us infinite good, we who deserve infinite punishment. That is grace. So that's salvation by grace, and “it's by grace we have been saved through faith, not of yourselves but it is a gift of God” and not by works. But though we have not been saved by works, the text most certainly asserts that we have been saved for works, for good works, Not by good works, but for our good works. “For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” So we are clearly told that we're saved for good works. Good works cannot be used to pay for sins, but God when He saves us, by grace gives us a new nature, He gives us a transformed nature. And from that transformed nature flow a river of good works, or the nature hasn't been transformed. So we have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We have had the heart of stone removed, and we've had the heart of flesh put in. I love what it says in his Ezekiel 36:25-27. "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean." Oh, isn't that beautiful? You will be clean, “I will cleanse you from all your impurities. And from all your idols and I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit in you and I will remove from you your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh.” And now, listen to this, this is Ezekiel 36:27. “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Now we come to the complexity of the role of the law in the Christians life. And the way I put all of this together is the law condemns us, and brings us to the cross of Jesus Christ, saying we can't save ourselves And so we despair our self-salvation, despair our salvation by works. We can't keep the law and so we come and throw ourselves to God at the feet of the cross, and we plead for mercy and we get it. And we receive full forgiveness and salvation by grace through faith. But then having done that we have received now, a new nature, a transformed nature and the Lord turns us back to the Law and says, Now by the Spirit, keep this law. It's beautiful, it's the best life you can ever live in Psalm 119, the whole Psalm, 176 verses are “Oh, how I love your law, and how beautiful it is and how majestic and how right it is.” So we're dead to the law and its power to condemn us, but now we now live the law, the moral law, the beautiful virtuous law the Ten Commandments, or the two commandments Take the two commandments Jesus said, “All of the law and the prophets hang on this that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and the second command is like it, love your neighbor as yourself.” So the Holy Spirit, then moves us to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves in ways that we've never even imagined. Salvation by Works is no Gospel at All Now, there's been so much controversy about this over the years, so much misunderstanding. Before the Reformation in the 16th century, the medieval Catholic church had a whole system of religious works, and a terrible confusion about justification and a false Gospel, honestly, that they were preaching, “which was no Gospel at all,” and the Lord raised up Martin Luther. And Luther tried to earn his own salvation by works of Medieval Catholicism, by becoming a monk, by scrubbing floors and doing penitential prayers and doing confessional, and all of these works of Medieval Catholicism. But all it did was make him realize the inner corruptions of His heart more and more and more and he just felt greater and greater condemnation, until at last, he finally understood the Gospel. In Romans 1:16-17 Paul writes, “I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is from faith for faith just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.” And he finally understood that the righteousness of God there was not the righteousness by which, He condemned sinners, but the righteousness by which He saves sinners. It's a context issue, it's good news, it's the Gospel, and this righteousness of God is now mine as a gift to save me. He said, “Then at last, the Gates of Heaven flew open and I ran through I understood at last salvation.” Well, he spent the next number of years understanding more and more and preaching more and more on justification by faith alone, “apart from works of the law,” and he's preaching this, and being diligent and emphasizing this again and again, because they really needed to hear it, and He preached from Romans 4 about how “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” and he didn't work for it. It was just given as a gift. Preaching all of these things and they never tired of preaching “justification by faith, apart from works of the law.” Spurgeon and Luther Charles Spurgeon, and said they hit that same nail again, and again, and again, and again with their hammers, and so gradually became imbalanced, imbalanced on the issue of works, and it's easy to happen. And it shows up when Luther translated the Bible into German, and he came to Romans 3:28, which says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law,” he's stuck an extra word in there to help the scripture out a little bit. Hey, look, the scripture doesn't need help. If the Greek word is there, put it in there. If it's not in there, don't put it in there. Good. Just a good rule on translation. All you Bible translators. He stuck the word alone in there. “We maintain that a man is justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law.” God wasn't hindered when Paul wrote Romans. If He wanted him to say alone, He would've, He didn't. But it got even worse when he came over to the Book of James. And James in James chapter 2, from verse 14 on to the end of the chapter is talking about the role of works and faith, and he's actually asking a different kind of question than Romans 3 and 4 is asking. And that is, “What kind of faith justifies you?” That's what James is dealing with there. He says a “faith that has no works is a dead faith, he says It's a demon faith, even the demons believe that there's one God but they shudder.” So James is dealing with what kind of faith, and the faith that produces no works is dead, it's demon faith, it's empty faith and it will not save you. Well, Luther couldn't handle some of the phraseology that James used. The person justified by faith apart from works, but James says, that Abraham was justified by works, and he just couldn't figure it out. How they're using the word slightly differently etcetera. And coming at it from a different angle. Saved for Good Works Good Works Validate Justification And that Luther did teach the place of good works in the Christian life and he understood it properly. He was so upset at James, by the way they've worked it out, they're friends now, everything's good. But he called them Jimmy in the German language, and all that, and he said he wrote an epistle of straw, and if he could, he'd have it out. Well, that's disrespect for the word of God, and let me tell you something, when you come to two texts from the scripture that don't seem to harmonize, roll up your sleeves and work and pray. Don't throw one of them out. So, “we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from works.” But James says yes, “but what kind of faith saves, the faith that produces a lifetime of good works.” Paul would say the same thing right? From Ephesians 2 8-10, wouldn’t he? That's what's going on here. So, good works validate justification, they prove it. They show that it happened, that you've been born again by faith, you're leading a transformed life. It's the issue of fruit. There's going to be fruit in your life. Good works equals fruit in other places. So John the Baptist said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." If you've genuinely repented, you will have good works, you'll have fruit. Jesus said, "By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people ever pick grapes from thorn-bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear a bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear a good fruit. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them." And then Jesus said "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven." Plain Doctrine And again, this is a very hard thing to understand, but we will not be justified by works, but we will most certainly be judged by works. It would be easier to understand if I change the word judge, to say he's assessed or evaluated. Is that a little bit easier to understand? We will not be saved by good works, but we will be evaluated on the basis of our works on Judgment Day. Many passages teach this, but most clearly Romans 2:6-10, "God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life." Who's that? Christians. That's a description of the Christian life. People who by persistence in doing good are seeking for “glory, honor and immortality.” To them, He's going to give eternal life. "But for those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Who's that? Non-Christians. Then he says the same thing doubled up. “There will be trouble and distress for everyone, every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile,” Romans 2:10, “but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism.” So Jesus is a perfect fruit inspector, and He will inspect the fruit of your life. He will have the full record of your words, He'll have the full record of your deeds. And He will evaluate your heart perfectly accurately based on the works. But you will not be forgiven or saved on the basis of your good works. Does that make sense? Just evaluated. Was there saving faith? If so, there's definitely going to be these good works. I've had to say that I don't want you drawing that back down on it. I see it in my own heart. You do something wrong, you have to do something right to make up for it. Don't do that, go to the cross, go and pray, ask for forgiveness, and then get up by the power of the Spirit, and start living a works-filled Christian life again. Alright now, God's workmanship is on us and around us concerning these good works and that's awesome, isn't it? It's really exciting. “We are God's workmanship created in Christ is to do good works.” So, that means that God prepares us for the good works, God crafts us, He shapes us, and without that craftsmanship in our lives, we will not do the good works. That means all of your good works are a display of God's glory. To God be the glory for all of the good works, because He got you ready to do them. Now, His workmanship is done through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. He makes us a new creation. We're born again, we're made new, created new, without that no good works are possible. So, wait a minute pastor, you're saying that non-Christians do no good works? Yes, that's what I'm saying. Non-Christians do zero good works because none of it's done by faith. And “anything that's not from faith is sin,” anything not done for the glory of God is sin. So, they do none. We now ,as Christians born again, we now can do good works. We're able to do good works, and that's awesome. Now, He then continues to work on us, to craft us for more and more good works. How is he do that, by pouring the Bible into you? Just pouring scripture into you by your daily quiet time, by the sermons that you listen to, the books you read, the conferences you go to, the conversations you have, Bible study groups you're part of, just everything you do alone and in groups. He's getting you ready by the ministry of the Word of God for good works. Fruit And all of this is based on our union with Jesus Christ. Look at the verse again, “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.” So we are created new creations in Christ Jesus. It's all by union with Jesus. We do our good works in union with Christ by the Holy Spirit, not alone. Clearest passage on this is John 15, Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If anyone remains in me, you will bear much good fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing." That's powerful, isn't it? So as we abide in Jesus by prayer and by the Word, and stay close to Him and walk with Him by the power of the Spirit we'll do good works, we do it in Christ Jesus to His glory. Apart from me, you can do nothing. So God is working on us. God’s Workmanship on Us and Ahead of Us Both Sides of the Equation Now, it's so cool about all this, is God works both sides of the equation. He works on us for the good works and He gets the good works ready for us. That is really exciting, isn't it. Clearest example of this in the Bible, I think, is in Acts chapter 10, the story of Cornelius and Peter, do you remember that story? So Cornelius was a Gentile, a Roman centurion, who was a God-fearing man, interested, very interested in the Jewish religion, fasting, praying, doing lots of good works, but not converted. And one day an angel appears to him, and said, “Cornelius your good works have come up as a memorial offering before God, send men to Joppa to find a man named Peter who's staying in a house of the house of Simon, a tanner, he will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved. So he's not saved by all of his good works, but an angelic messenger said, Now, go send to get this man Peter.” Alright, so that's God working that side of the equation. Now, the next day, Peter gets up for his quiet time and he's having his quiet time, and putting one of those flat Middle Eastern roofs and he gets hungry. Isn't it funny how God uses little things, and so he's hungry and he asked for someone to make him a sandwich. Sorry, they didn't have sandwiches back then. Anyway, to make himself lunch or breakfast or whatever it was and while the meals being prepared he has a vision, he falls into a trance and has a vision, you remember. And how there was this large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners and the sheet contained all kinds of unclean animals and reptiles, and nasty things that Jews can’t eat. And the voice came from Heaven, "Arise Peter. Kill and eat." And Peter did what Peter does. He said, "Never Lord", four times he says, Never Lord, look it up. That was the last of the four. And that's after the resurrection, and the ascension into Heaven, “Never Lord.” Don't ever say, “Never Lord,” don't do that. Alright. If it's the Lord speaking and say “Yes Lord,” alright? "Never Lord, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean." And the voice comes a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." God is able to declare foods clean, that were unclean before and he's able to make people clean who were unclean before, but he didn't understand all that, he's just like, "What is this?” And it happened three times. Then the men from Cornelius appear at the gate. And the Spirit tells him, "Get up Peter and go with these men, don't be afraid to go with them." So they traveled back and they get to Cornelius' house, which Peter as a law-abiding Jew, would never have entered that home, and would never have had a meal with them, wouldn't have had anything to do with them because they're unclean. He understood, “wait a minute, I get it.” And as he's preaching the message the Holy Spirit falls on them and they become brothers and sisters in Christ by faith in the Gospel. He said, “Now I understand that God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who love him and believe him and do what's right.” And he learned a lesson there. He wasn't done learning, read about in Galatians 2, another day, we'll talk about, I already did, look on the Internet, I already preached that sermon. God’s Good Works are “Prepared in Advance” But yeah, he has not done learning yet, but God got both sides of the equation ready. Do you see that? He's doing that all the time, He's getting people ready for you, and you ready for those people. I don't just mean in terms of missions or evangelism everything. It could be another Christian brother or sister who's got a need, and He's getting her ready or him ready for you and you ready for that person, and it's just beautiful. God prepares these works in advance. Andy did a great job of emphasizing that. I mean, God has gone ahead of us. I like that it's redundant, “prepared in advance.” You know, that's redundant, don't you? All preparation is done advance. Imagine if your friends came, and there was no meal ready and you're like, what's going on and all that, and it's like maybe your friends say, “I thought we were coming in for dinner.” “Oh yeah, we're going to prepare it after you leave.” Well, that doesn't make any sense. Alright, preparation happens ahead of time, but Paul strengthens it with some extra phraseology, and says “God has gone ahead of you and gotten everything ready.” So I had this picture in my mind a number of months ago of how at Lowes you can do these kits, like you can go make a bird feeder, and you get there and everything's laid out. All of the pieces are cut. There's this little dish with the right amount of glue, and you've got all the tools, and just put it together. Do you like it like at Christmas time especially Christmas Eve. “Some Assembly Required,” isn't that cool? No, it's not cool. Not at 3 in the morning. Some Assembly Required, “tab A,” “slot B,” and all that. By the way, never put tab A in slot B, that's the problem. Put tab A in slot A please, alright. As a mechanical engineer, I had to say that. At any rate, some assembly required, these good works, we have something to do with them. God wants us to put it together and do it and it's awesome. It's very, very exciting. So every day the day is a masterpiece of good works, the day as I said, crackling and sparkling and filled with possibility, and energy and good things worth doing. So how far in advance does God get these good works ready? Minutes? Hours? Years? Centuries? Yes, all of the above, the complexity is beyond the brain to calculate. When it comes to, let's say, the mission field for example, there are many stories told of traditions, tribal stories passed down from generation to generation that got that tribe ready to hear the missionaries to come. Don Richardson tells the story in Peace Child, the Sawi people in Irian Jaya who had a tradition of a peace child, where warring tribes would exchange the son of the chief, and as long as that child was alive there could be reconciliation piece between the tribe. He used it as what he called the redemptive analogy. A way to explain the Gospel. They've been doing that for time immemorial. They didn't know when they started that. That was worked in providentially in that tribe. I heard another story, once of another tribe in a jungle area and they had passed down a prophecy by word of mouth of a man with yellow hair was coming with leaves with some kind of writing on it that would come and tell them the way to know the Most High God. Is there any chance that missionary is going to be bald or red-headed? No! Yellow hair. Imagine the mission agency, they don't know about the prophecy, they know nothing, and they're like, “Yeah, I like this guy, he's got yellow hair.” That's their requirement for the job, but God got that tribe ready to hear the Gospel in advance even, I don't know, centuries in advance or it could be just an individual encounter that God prepares. When we were missionaries in Japan, I had the experience of going, every Saturday, I would go to Takamatsu and I would take a train from Tokushima to Takamatsu and teach the Bible in English there, and then I would take the train back. And one thing I noticed on that train ride is that Japanese people didn't like sitting next to me. And listen, I was looking after my hygiene, I was doing what I needed to do whatever it was necessary but it just, I frequently had an empty seat next to me. The train could be crowded. So after a while, I kind of liked it. I actually used it, just put my books there, I had a little more space and it was good. But you know, until one day, a young man came, college-age, and asked if he could sit next to me, Japanese man. I said “Sure.” So I moved my books, and he sat down, and we got in a conversation. It turned out his mother is a Christian, but he's not a Christian, not yet, and he had questions about Christianity. He didn't sit down to talk about Christ, he just sat down. But we got into an incredible conversation about an hour long train ride and it led to many other Bible studies and he eventually came to faith in Christ and he said, after that happened, he said, "I think it was God's work in my life that I sat next to you on the train. I'm usually very shy, and I don't talk to strangers. And so God was working in him and in me to get us ready for that encounter. Walking Daily in a Pathway of Good Works “That We Should Walk in Them” And it's a pathway of good works, it says literally that we should “walk in them.” The NIV just simply says for us to do. I like "walk in” better so I like quote the NIV until I get to the end of that verse and say that we “should walk in them.” Is that okay? Anyway, that's what I do. “For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.” So, again, I get this picture of like tunnel vision, and this is the road ahead of me and I need to do these good works, this is how I'm going to make my way through my life. And Mondays works are not Tuesdays works and Tuesdays works are not Wednesdays works, and I can never go backward and do yesterday's works and I honestly can't go ahead and do tomorrow's works. I've got today's works to do today. And so we need to redeem the time, don't we? We'll get to that in Ephesians 5, but we need to make the most of every day, “redeeming the time because the days are evil.” So what kind of good works? Two Categories Well, he didn't say what kind, but I'm going to break them into two categories. Here in our church, we talk about the internal journey and the external journey. The internal journey is sanctification, or growth in Christ-likeness, growth in holiness, sanctification and good works. And then the external journey, is works you do in service to other people. You could say external, what either external to me, it could be both Christians and non-Christians are external to the church is non-Christians as we're reaching out. Okay, so two categories that I'm commending to you. Sanctification and service. Those are two main categories of good works that God wants you to do, that you should walk in, or another way to put it would be works of growing and works of going. So if you like the alliteration, I will give you two versions of alliteration. Sanctification and service if you like the letter S, growing and going if you like the letter G, and you like the rhyme. But the point is that you would be “growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ” internally and going out to serve other people in whatever way God has determined. Both are needed. Now, concerning the internal works, you are to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” you are to “grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ.” How do you do that? Daily quiet times. Get up and have a time in God's Word every day, and have a time in prayer every day. Also you're to grow by being a covenant member of a good, local church and receiving the benefits of the Body of Christ as they pour into you, as people hold you accountable, as people speak into your life and you do the same, so good works of growing that will feed your soul. You have to, by the Spirit. Romans 8:13, "by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh.” That's a work you have to do, if you're tempted in some area of lust, or weakness, or sin, you have to work and put that sin to death that's something you do by the power of the Holy Spirit. So those are works of sanctification. And then there are works of service. So everyday life, just deeds you do with your hands, with your mouth, with your feet, things you do to serve others, and they could be menial and mundane. It could be just everyday stuff you do around the house. It could be like emptying the dish-washer or loading the dishwasher. It could be vacuuming, it could be chores. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God,” the name of Jesus Christ. Do even the most menial things, those are some of the good works that you do. And we don't neglect them. But we also do good works toward other Christians by means of our spiritual gifts and so we're going to get to that later. I'm not going to say much about spiritual gifts now, but Ephesians 4, is all about it. But there it says in Ephesians 4 that, “to each one of us grace has been apportioned as Christ measured it out,” that Christ has given you. Each of you, a spiritual gift package, by which you can serve other brothers and sisters in Christ and advance the Gospel. And so you need to know what your spiritual gifts are and do your spiritual gift ministry. And there are other things that don't have anything to do directly with spiritual gifts but just ministries of care and compassion for other Christians, ministry of mercy. Going to visit people in the hospital, making a meal for a couple that just had a baby, or it has a medical need, there might be works of financial generosity where you see a financial need and you meet it financially. Home fellowship starts tonight. The works of just getting the house ready and hosting a home fellowship are good works that God's prepared in advance for you to walk in, beautiful works that bless others. Works of hospitality. Then there's works of evangelism and missions, reaching out to lost people. And that's something I just have a heart for in our church, that's the future of our church that we would grow and flourish more than ever before. In works of outreach of evangelism, external journey ministry. I am yearning for us to help, like the elders, to help people become better evangelists in their world. It's staggering to me, all the different mission fields you folks are going to go scatter to this week. All the workplaces, and schools, and neighborhoods, and malls, and shopping areas, and all these things. You're going to go throughout this week, and it is up to us to prepare God's people for works of service, “so that the body of Christ can be built up,” it says in Ephesians, get you ready for that. Application So one of the things that I would commend to you is the idea in terms of evangelism, say, "Lord, I want to be a witness. Would you please today give me someone to talk to? Just give me someone to talk to. And Lord, make me alert to it, I pray for that, and I want to be faithful, I'm willing to be bold but I don't need to even share the Gospel, I just want to talk to somebody knowing that my desire is to be evangelistic, but I want to just be more social, more outgoing and connect with somebody. Connect that also if you would with a challenge I'd like to give to each member of our church. That a year from now, somewhere between now and a year from now, you will develop a list of five people that are lost, you know them to be lost, by name that you're praying for, for them to come to Christ. I'm not saying you should evangelize them. I'm kind of saying that, we'll get to that another time, but I'm just saying that you're praying for them now, that's all, you're just praying for those five names. Now if you say, "I don't have five names,” then just go get them. Go to the same convenience store every week until you know the name of the person who's there on Monday evenings, find out what his name is or her name is. Ask if there's some way you could pray for them. They'll usually tell you something, even if they shut you down, you can still get their name. And just they're one of your people and then just until you've got five, all of us can do this. And then Home fellowships, I urge you to just hold each other accountable, who are you five? Well, I've got two, great praise God. Be positive, no guilt, just positive. Great. Who are you two? I'll pray for you for those two. So, we're going to do in our home fellowship this year and it's something I want to urge you to do. We are God's workmanship created for evangelistic good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to walk in. At some point as you're pleading with God to send some missionary or evangelist to this person, it might be you and God might just work that in your heart. So, assess yourself. As you listen to this sermon, assess yourself. It says in 1 Timothy 6:18, “they are to do good and to be rich in good works, to be generous, and ready to share.” Talking about the rich there, but I think it's true there. Are you rich in good works? That's what I'm asking you, just look at your life. Are you rich in good works? Do you feel a sense of excitement about God crafting you to do a specific array of good works today and in your lifetime? Do you look at every day as unique in terms of God going ahead of you, preparing good works for you to do? Are you doing the daily good works of internal holiness, daily quiet time, Bible intake, prayer, putting sin to death by the Spirit, is that happening for you? Are you feeding on God's word? And are you using your spiritual gifts? Do you have a spiritual gift ministry here at FBC [First Baptist Church of Durham]? Are you doing a pattern of good works? If not, just find out, say, "Lord I want to, give me a ministry here,” and then evangelistically reaching out, as I've shared. Close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, this is such good news, it's such a blessing to know that you have eternally significant, good works for us to do that we're not justified by works, we are no more children of God because we do the good works than before we did them, and we're no less if we should miss some, and we feel terrible, and we ask forgiveness for being selfish, or we're cowardly and not doing the good works, but Lord, we're secure, we're children of God, but Lord, we want to please you, and we want to do these good works. Lord, open our eyes to them, and help us by the Spirit to walk in those good works in Jesus' name. Amen.

Ruth Tucker writes, “Shrouded in legend and glorified by sainthood, Patrick, Ireland’s great fifth-century missionary is one of the most misrepresented figures in church history” (From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, 37). On this first episode of Strike the Match, we are discussing, “Who was St. Patrick and what can we learn for today?” I felt […]

Just beyond the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK,Russ Baker discusses the likelihood of a lone gunman and what the evidence suggests. We also talk about the Boston Bombing, Michael Hastings, and the role of Alternative Media in our world. His Alternative News Site, WhoWhatWhy.com is an excellent example of excellence in news reporting. Russ Baker is an award-winning investigative reporter with a track record for making sense of complex and little understood matters-and explaining it to elites and ordinary people alike, using entertaining, accessible writing to inform and involve. Over the course of more than two decades in journalism, Baker has broken scores of major stories. Topics included: early reporting on inaccuracies in the articles of The New York Times's Judith Miller that built support for the invasion of Iraq; the media campaign to destroy UN chief Kofi Annan and undermine confidence in multilateral solutions; revelations by George Bush's biographer that as far back as 1999 then-presidential candidate Bush already spoke of wanting to invade Iraq; the real reason Bush was grounded during his National Guard days – as recounted by the widow of the pilot who replaced him; an article published throughout the world that highlighted the West's lack of resolve to seriously pursue the genocidal fugitive Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, responsible for the largest number of European civilian deaths since World War II; several investigations of allegations by former members concerning the practices of Scientology; corruption in the leadership of the nation's largest police union; a well-connected humanitarian relief organization operating as a cover for unauthorized US covert intervention abroad; detailed evidence that a powerful congressional critic of Bill Clinton and Al Gore for financial irregularities and personal improprieties had his own track record of far more serious transgressions; a look at the practices and values of top Democratic operative and the clients they represent when out of power in Washington; the murky international interests that fueled both George W. Bush's and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns; the efficacy of various proposed solutions to the failed war on drugs; the poor-quality televised news program for teens (with lots of advertising) that has quietly seeped into many of America's public schools; an early exploration of deceptive practices by the credit card industry; a study of ecosystem destruction in Irian Jaya, one of the world's last substantial rain forests. Baker has written for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Village Voice and Esquire and dozens of other major domestic and foreign publications. He has also served as a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. Baker received a 2005 Deadline Club award for his exclusive reporting on George W. Bush's military record. He is the author of Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America (Bloomsbury Press, 2009); it was released in paperback as Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government and the Secret History of the Last Fifty Years. For more information on Russ's work, see his sites, www.familyofsecrets.com and www.russbaker.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

sermon transcript Introduction Christ has risen. Now, it's not Easter, I know, but Christ has risen. Amen. Amen. I was thinking about that. I get to preach today on the happiest day in history, the happiest thing that's ever happened, the most joy-producing, the most joyful event that's ever happened in history. This is the great answer to the problem of sin and death, and law and condemnation. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the consummation of everything. Now, as I was driving in, I had this thought. I'd never had this thought before. And I haven't worked it all out, so I'm a little nervous, but I'm gonna run with it here. This is the closest I'll ever get to base jumping right here, right now. I'm gonna run and jump. And we'll see what happens, but it has to do with this one concept and I'm working it through, and it's very, actually, very powerful and very pastoral, if you think about it. It has to do with something that you hear frequently connected with a joke, and it goes like this: stop me if you've heard this one. Stop me if you've heard this one. Alright, stop me If you've heard this one: Christ has risen from the dead. And I thought, that's not right. No, encourage me if you've heard this one so I can preach the resurrection. The issue here is why is it that grand glorious news like the empty tomb loses its impact on us, so that we're not as joyful now as we were earlier in the resurrection of Christ? What happens to us because we've heard this one already, what new things can I say to you about the empty tomb that you haven't heard before? And if they're really new, they're almost certainly heretical, so I'll try not to say them. I'm not trying to say anything radically new here. What happens to us? It's a deep question actually. It's a deep question. Ecclesiastes 1:8 may have an answer. I looked that up right before I came in here. “All things are wearisome, more than one can say.” That's life under the sun in the book of Ecclesiastes, it's that vanity of vanities. All things are vanity, vain, in this world, we feel that acutely. But It was this past week putting this thing together like a puzzle. It was like, wait a minute. Isn't that the last word in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter? “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not,” what? “In vain.” The resurrection is the answer to the book of Ecclesiastes. And the emptiness and weariness that this life pushes on us. And I don't minimize it, I know you're going through trials, I know, I've looked in your faces over the last couple of weeks, I've sat with you, I know what you're going through, I'm not minimizing it. Death and sickness and cancer and treatments, and broken relationships and hurt and pain, and I know therefore that “Christ has risen” doesn't have the same impact every day that it does at other times, but it ought to. For I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that Christ is gonna give us through His resurrection, it's not even worth comparing with it. It does not matter what you're going through. The resurrection trumps every card in a million decks. So, it's my privilege through the Holy Spirit to try to re-kindle in your hearts again whatever greatest joy you ever had in the resurrection, and then go beyond it. I don't think I've ever heard of any joy in the resurrection, perhaps in history that I've heard in the history of missions, as in that video EE-Taow, which talks about the Zooks as they ministered in Irian Jaya, and they've been patiently unfolding redemptive history, they got to the life of Christ patiently unfolding, they did solid work for months with these folks, then Jesus was crucified and the people were shocked, this stone-age tribe, they couldn't believe that he would die. And then they preached the resurrection and they just went nuts. At last, they could see everything, their redemption, their own forgiveness, their own eternity in heaven, and they celebrated, they cut loose for three hours. They were throwing the Zooks up in the air, up and down and up and down. Finally like, “Okay, put us down over here.” And they went on and the celebration went on. I wonder if that tribe is still celebrating at that same level. Probably not, but they ought to be. They ought to be. They could through the Spirit. Amen. I'm not minimizing the trials we go through, but didn't the Apostle Paul say sorrowful. Perhaps maybe we could say, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Like a compass needle returns to its true north, we return to joy in the resurrection, that's what you have. And so Daniel just sang, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” I would say, and I know he'd agree, there is a fountain filled with joy there too. And every time we go to the cross and the empty tomb, we can realize our sins are forgiven, God has adopted us, we have eternal life, we're going to heaven when we die, and God is gonna see us through all of our trials, it doesn't matter what we're facing, he who gave his only begotten Son and raised him up from the dead, he will get you through this life and he will bring you on into eternity. So that's the stuff I hadn't prepared. Alright, but as I was thinking about it, I just said, that's the burden. But the joy of preaching the resurrection, there's nothing new to say. But there's so much to say. The Resurrection: The Climax of Redemptive History The History of Death So today, I get to preach on the historical, one of the historical accounts of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I get to preach on the answer to the problem of death. This is the problem that entered into the world, and it causes grief all over the world, there's not a nation exempt, there's not a community exempt, there's not a family or individual exempt from this curse of death. The wicked tyrant Joseph Stalin said this, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Well, that's the way he thought. No, a million deaths is a million tragedies. Death itself is a tragedy. Death itself is a curse from God on the human race because of Adam's sin, and that's the theology. It may be something we struggle with, we try to understand, but how it is that we are held accountable. But in the wisdom of God, Adam was our representative. And it says in Romans 5:12, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.” And in this way, death came to all men because all sinned. We all sinned in Adam. We all die in Adam. He represented us. And since that time, there's been an indissoluble link between sin and death. The wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins will die.” And we also sinned not only in Adam positionally as being human beings, but we also sinned actually as soon as we understood the law. As soon as the law came, sin sprang to life. And we died, we sinned and died. But in Jesus Christ, the death penalty has been paid, and we are clear of it forever. Now, we will die physically if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, but we will not die eternally, the second death, the death penalty has been paid. And that's the significance of the resurrection, by Christ's resurrection, it says in Romans 4, we have been justified. Satan: The One Who Held the Power of Death… Now Defeated We've been vindicated, we will live forever, and Satan, the one who held the power of death has been destroyed. He has been defeated at the cross and by his resurrection. He could not stop the resurrection of Christ, and therefore we have freedom from fear of death, it says in Hebrews chapter 2. Ancient History Looked Forward to This: The Defeat of Death Predicted Again and Again in the Old Testament Now, this was predicted, this was prophesied, that there would come a death-conqueror. In the garden, the serpent was told, “I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers. He will crush your head. You will bruise his heel.” So by his death, by Jesus' death he crushed Satan and sin and death. And God promised it again and again in his scriptures, I love Isaiah 25:7-8, there it says, “On this mountain, he the Lord, will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.” Jesus Christ is the One Born of Woman, Who Came to Save Us from Sin and Death How powerful is that? He's going to destroy death. Well, now for us, he has destroyed it. Christ Jesus, the one born of woman, the seed of woman, has been born at the right time in the fullness of time, he lived a sinless life under the law of God, fulfilling all of its precepts and its commands on our behalf. He was obedient for us, so that he could win for us a perfect righteousness, a perfect obedience to the law of God, and transfer it to us through our union with him by faith; and our guilt transferred to him, our substitute. He dies in our place, and we stand righteous and uncondemned by that union we have with Christ. All Church History Looks Back to This Event: The Centerpiece of the Gospel is the Resurrection Now, all of church history looks back at this event. It's been 2000 years. 2000 years, the good news of the empty tomb has been proclaimed in nations around the world, almost every tribe and language and people and nation has been told. The message of 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and after that, he appeared to many eyewitnesses.” And this is our hope. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Praise God. A Loving Errand and a Supernatural Interruption (vs. 1-3) So that's just the intro. Let's look at the text and look at what it says in these marvelous 10 verses, we begin in verse 1-3 with a loving errand and a supernatural interruption. Now, just as we do this, this points again to the historicity of our faith, the historical roots of our faith. This is a historical account of some women who went to the tomb and the things that happened to them. We believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical event. It really happened. We do not look at the resurrection as a myth or a fable, or an inspirational story, or certainly not a lie; it is history. It actually happened in space and time, and this account, these 10 verses is part of the historical record. Look at verse 1, “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” In Mark 16, we have this parallel account, it says, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.” Luke 23 and 24 gives us this, “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, followed Joseph of Arimathea, saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and then prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” Then in Luke 24:1, it says, “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.” A Loving Errand… But Some Measure of Unbelief So that's a fuller picture of what is going on with these women, what's happening. It's a loving errand that they have, but there is mingled with it a measure of unbelief. It's a loving errand, they love Jesus, but there is mingled here a measure of unbelief. The Sabbath is over now, they're free now to resume work, they were interrupted by the Sabbath, and the women wanted to finish what they started doing, which is burying Jesus, they wanted to finish with the spices, they wanted to finish wrapping up his body. Now, there's no doubt about the love and the loyalty these women have for Jesus, and that's based on faith, they believed in the things he said, they believed in what he did, I'm sure they were confused by his death, deeply grieved by it, but they just wanted to finish the work they had started, and the Sabbath had interrupted it, so they're hurrying there early. Now, as they come, they're bringing these spices, and the spices are there to mask the stench of corruption, to mask the stench of decay, that's why they're done. They're not going to have an encounter with the living God, they're not going there to have an encounter with Jesus, resurrected from the dead. They're going to care for a corpse. They're not expecting a resurrection. None of them were. And all of this, despite the fact that Jesus had repeatedly told them that he was going to be raised on the third day. Again and again, they don't have to go to Isaiah 25. Jesus himself told them what was going to happen to him. So he said in Matthew 12:40, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” And then Matthew 16:21, “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day, be raised to life.” And then again, Matthew 20:17 -19. “Now, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is going to be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death, and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life.’” He has been very clear about this, and frankly, the text gives us indication from that time on, he began saying to them, so he's saying it again and again. Key Issue: They Did Not Understand the Scripture Clearly, they did not understand from the Scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead. This is the very point that John makes in John 20:9, is the very point that Jesus makes with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “How foolish you are,” he said, “And how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and the prophets in the Psalms, he explained all things that were written about himself.” It was there, they didn't understand these things from scripture, and they didn't understand these things from Jesus' plain statements about himself. Christ Does Not Despise The Women’s Mixture of Faith/Love with a Measure of Unbelief And so they come with their mixture of love and loyalty and unbelief. Some faith. Some unbelief. Isn't that us? Isn't it? Aren't we able to say like the father of that demon-possessed boy, “I do believe. Lord, Help my unbelief!” We're all like that. We have a mingling, that's why the resurrection is not as exciting today as whatever is the number one most exciting time you've ever had with the resurrection. It's because we're mingled, we don't have a pure faith, it's a mingled experience. And yet, isn't it marvelous how Jesus loves us anyway? And he cares for us and protects us and he's loyal to us Anyway? “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He's gonna take the smoldering wick of your faith and he's gonna kindle it into a flame, and that's his love for us. Who Moved the Stone? God Did! Through An Angel And so there they are, they walk to the tomb, it seems in the darkness, and as they approach the tomb, one thought dominates their mind: who's gonna move the stone? There's this huge, just huge boulder that had been rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb weighing thousands of pounds, I'm sure. And these women have, they just have no idea: how are they gonna move the stone? And so that's a big problem, they wanna go there, but they don't know how they're gonna get to the corpse, so they have a problem. Well, God took care of the problem at every level. No need to move the stone, no need for the spices and no corpse. Amen. Hallelujah. The whole mission's changed. Everything is changed, radically changed. So who moved the stone? In the famous words of Frank Morison, the apologetic writer, “Who moved the stone?” Well, God did through an angel. God moved that stone. We're gonna talk more about Morison and other apologetic writers next week. I wanna do a lot on apologetics next week, not this week, about how to take these truths and speak them to an unbelieving world that needs to hear about these things. But this one I just wanna work through just the historicity of the text, and Morison was a guy who set out to debunk the accounts of the resurrection and ends up being converted. How many times has that happened? Again and again, people read these accounts and say, “This is the truth. There's no way I can wrestle with this, I can't turn my back on it, Christ has risen.” But it's very clear, the answer to the question, who moved the stone? Look at verse 2 and 3, “Behold, there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.” Now, the gospel accounts are powerful and clear, especially John about what happened to the stone. John is very clear in the Greek that the stone was lifted up and removed from the entrance. It was just entirely removed, not just rolled up in its little trough and propped up. It was just lifted and moved, you don't wanna mess with an angel. Let me tell you something. They can do awesome things. And so this angel just picks it up and tosses it aside and then sits on it, it's this awesome picture here, so he lifts it up and moves it. What is the significance of the moving of the stone? Well, let me say plainly it wasn't to let Jesus out. Amen. I mean, picture that, how terrible would that be. I'm waiting, waiting. Or he's knocking from the inside. Jesus is gone! He's been raised from the dead. Jesus could have moved the stone himself, he didn't need any angelic help in that assistance, but he didn’t need the stone moved. He didn't need it moved. He came up out of those sticky linen grave clothes anyway, moves out of that, moves right through the stone wall. And he's gone. How can that be? How do we understand that, it's not easy to understand. What is a resurrection body? What is it? What is involved in that? The best chapter on that, as I've said, is 1 Corinthians 15, and there the Apostle Paul, verse 42 and following, says, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” And this is the key phrase, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Which is somewhat of a contradiction in terms, but it just shows the mysteries around the resurrection itself, it is a spiritual body, continuing. “So it is written, ‘the first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural after that, the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man was from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” So there's enough information in there to say, we're talking about a glorious, powerful, spiritual body that is not flesh and blood in that sense, but still it's not a ghost or a spirit. So he can say in Luke, “Touch me and see; a ghost or a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see I have.” And he's able to eat boiled fish, so he says, Jesus says, “I am not a spirit,” but Paul calls him “a life-giving spirit.” Spiritual body, that's the best I can make of it. And you're saying, “Pastor, you're just confusing us.” Well, that's as far as I can go. This resurrection body could do some astonishing things. It could just go through walls, it seems. Jesus frequently didn't look like his normal self, he had to reveal himself to people who knew him well. He's sitting there with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he's sitting there breaking bread with them. Their eyes are open, they realize who he is, and he disappears. Bodies don't do that, normal bodies, but Jesus has this resurrection body. And Jesus in John 20, though the doors are locked for fear of the Jews that day and a week later, he comes and stands among them and says, “Peace be with you.” Now, Wayne Grudem in his excellent systematic theology is at pains to be sure, we're not dualists, thinking, spirit, good, body, bad, Jesus had a real physical body, so he says there's no evidence that Jesus passed through walls. I just wanna know how he got out of the tomb? Not the upper room, I'm saying the tomb. Was he waiting for the angel to let him out? How'd he get out of the sticky grave clothes? So I appreciate what brother Grudem is saying about the dualism. He had a real body, it's just a mysterious body and can do amazing things. And so there it is. So why then was the stone moved? Not to let Jesus out, but to let us in, come and see the place where he lay, that's why it was moved. Come and see the evidence, come and see the place where he lay. And based on that evidence, the first generation, the apostles believed. John 20:8, John says, “He saw and believed.” So his faith in the resurrection was based on the grave clothes, the head covering folded off by itself the stone removed the missing body, no corpse. He saw the physical evidence and believed, but the next statement is more important. “They still did not understand from scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” That's what we get. We don't get to touch the grave clothes, we don't get to see the moving stone, we get scripture. And that's all you'll ever get, but that's enough, isn't it? It's enough. We read the scripture and we believe in the resurrection, amen. But the physical evidence was there for the eyewitnesses, for those that saw his glory and preached. 1 John, what they saw with their eyes, what they touched with their hands, what they experienced. Thomas could have, I don't know that he did, put his finger in the nail holes, it was physical and there were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Christ is risen. Now, we go into all this history because it's very plain that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is worthless, there is no Christianity. So history matters, and so we go into these details. The Earthquake and the Angel So what happened? Well, there was an earthquake and there was an angel. A violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. Behold, I like the “behold,” NIV tends to leave “beholds” out, I put them back in. Sometimes I even write them in. Behold, the angel suddenly comes and the earth shakes. And isn't that awesome? That's the second earthquake, great earthquake, in connection with Jesus' death and resurrection, the first happened after he died. The earth shook and rocks split, it says, and now we have this other earthquake. This is an earth-shattering experience. The earth is moving under our feet here with the crucifixion and the resurrection. And it's pointing to, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, to the new heavens and the new earth, when everything will be transformed. I like to use the word resurrected, when the earth will be resurrected, similar to Jesus, and we will be given a new heaven and a new earth. The removal of all the things that can be shaken, they'll be removed, all of them removed, and eternal things will be set up that will never be shaken. And we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably. And so there's such a joy in this, and so the angel does it, and this angel is mighty. He caused the earthquake. The text implies that, “there was an earthquake, for an angel came down from heaven.” So the angel is shaking the earth, these are mighty beings. What was the touch-down? I always think they're like Apollo 11, the eagle has landed. So the angel comes down and touches down somewhere away from the tomb and moves over to it, so he lands, earthquake, and he moves over, picks up the stone mightily and moves it aside, and then, this my favorite part: sits on it. Like with angelic legs dangling. I just get that picture of complete ease. He's in the presence of Roman warriors, not intimidated at all by them, they're very intimidated by him. He's just sitting there comfortable, joyful and saying, “This is a happy day, this is the happy day.” And he's just waiting to talk to the women, don't need to worry about the stone, don't need to worry about the corpse, he is risen. And so there he is, and look at his appearance, blinding light, this radiant glory from heaven, God the Father, giving some of his glory to the angel, and the angel radiating this blinding light from heaven. Just as Jesus' birth when he was born, and the shepherd saw the angel and he descended in the glory of the Lord, shone around and they were terrified. And so also these Roman soldiers, terrified at his glory. Angels are there ministering, angels are there at his birth, angels are there in his temptation, when he was in the desert and angels came and strengthened him. Angels were there in Gethsemane when he was sweating great drops of blood, and an angel was sent to strengthen him, and angels are there now at his resurrection, and they'll be there at his second coming, Amen. When the son of man comes in his Father's glory and all the angels with him, they'll all come for the second coming glory. And so he is glorious, he is powerful. Here in this account, there's just one angel, but putting all the accounts together, there's definitely more than one angel, there's a good number of angels that are involved here. In Luke, it says, “Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them, and in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” In John's Gospel, they're inside the tomb, sitting one at the head, one at the foot. And Mary looked in and saw them sitting there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head, one at the foot. Terror and Assurance (vs. 4-6) Now, in verse 4-6, we have terror and assurance. First the terror, In verse four, “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said, come and see the place where he lay.’” So we have terror first, and then the assurance that the angel gives. The Reaction of the Guards Look at the reaction of the guards, these are Roman soldiers who had conquered the world in the name of Caesar, fearless warriors, and they are utterly paralyzed at one angel, utterly paralyzed. And frankly, they had every reason to be, every reason to be. They are terrified of him, and they're trembling, the Greek word for “shook” is the same as what happened to the earth, the angel made the earth shake and he made these men shake, and they're terrified and they end up paralyzed. They can't move. The Reassurance of the Women The glory of this angel, and they can do nothing, and the angel just disregards them, doesn't say anything to them at all, his mission is for the women and for the believers. And so he speaks a word of reassurance to the women, calming their hearts, and he said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified.” In other words, “You have nothing to fear from me because you're in a right relationship with him.” Right? You have nothing to fear. If you are in a right relationship with Jesus, you have nothing to fear from Jesus. But if you're not, you have every reason to be terrified. He is an incredible friend. What a friend we have in Jesus, but he's a terrifying enemy. And he's the Lord of host, he's the Lord of armies, and so this is one of the soldiers in his army, this heavenly warrior. So he just ignores the Roman soldiers and he says to the women, he says, “Do not be afraid. Fear not, for I know that you're looking for Jesus and why you're here, and I understand your relationship with him. I'm here for you. So don't be afraid.” And then he says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said.” Now, in Luke's gospel, I think it's clear that there's a little bit of a stronger rebuke for them, actually. You get a little bit of it here, “He has risen just as he said.” But it's clear, in Luke, listen to this, “In their fright,” it said, “The women bowed down with their face to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” Why are you acting like he's a corpse? He's not a corpse, he is not here, he has risen. And then he's even clear, “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful man, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered Jesus' words.” So it's a bit of a mild rebuke, read the scriptures, believe the scriptures, it’s all laid out. Feed on God's word. Strengthen your faith in God's word. And I think that's a link to the very beginning of this sermon, if your joy isn't what it should be, get back in the word and strengthen your faith, and your faith will lead quickly to your emotions and to your joy. Remember what he said. They should have known. The angels say the same thing in John toward Mary Magdalene. Remember, she's weeping, weeping, weeping. I just love it, weeping on the happiest day in history. It's the same thing with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I preached an Easter sermon entitled, “Downcast Walking with the Risen Lord.” Depressed and with the resurrected Jesus, how can that be? And he rebuked them for it. Why are you so downcast and discouraged? Read the scriptures. And so the angel says in John 20:13, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put him.” He's not being put anywhere, he's going where he wants. Alright, just so you know. He's not put anywhere. And so he's risen. So why are you weeping? Same thing Jesus said to her when he began talking to her, “Why are you weeping?” The Basis of their Joy: The Empty Tomb And what should be the basis of their joy? The empty tomb. Look what the angel says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Now, you can only do that by faith, in your mind's eye, but go ahead and do it. Come now by faith and see the empty tomb. Come and see the place where he lay, and let your faith be strengthened by that, come by faith in the word and see. He is not here, he has risen. And so that's it. Just the body is gone. Now, as I said in John's gospel, there are angels where the body was, and you have the grave clothes described, and you have the angel at the head and at the foot, I love that. As one commentator put it so beautifully, it represents the cherubim who were on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. That's where the Lord said he would meet with Israel and in a glory cloud above the Ark. In the mercy seat between the cherubim, there in the glory cloud, he spoke to Israel. And that's where the atoning blood was poured on the day of atonement, there on the mercy seat between the wings of the cherubim, and so I think the position of the angels, one at the head, one at the foot and John's gospel tells us, this is the new mercy seat. This is where God will speak to you. The empty tomb, the crucifixion and resurrection, is where God will speak his final word to the human race. That's where the blood was poured for the atonement of our sins. It's all been fulfilled. The Joyful Mission Begins (vs. 7-8) This is the Beginning of the Spread of the News! Christ is Risen! Well, then their joyful ministry begins, verses 7 and 8, “Go quickly and tell his disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” And I like this part. “Now, I have told you,” meaning, I have nothing more to say, get going. It's like that Jewish way of expression, it's in the Old Testament a lot. “Have I not told you?” In other words, there's nothing more to say, you have your orders. And so they're given a very, very clear ministry, a mission to go and tell the disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee and there you will see him. And so they began running away, they're running, they're hurrying, they're afraid still, but filled with joy. Again, that mingling. That's just who we are. Afraid, what are they afraid of? Just look at it, is there anything to be afraid of at this moment? I tell you, no, there's nothing to be afraid of. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who cares? But they're still that mingling in our hearts, but still they are filled with joy, and so they go to tell the disciples that Christ has risen. The Fact That It Was Entrusted to these Women Shows the Honor The Lord Held Them In And isn't it marvelous how God chose to do it? Back then in the culture that they had back then, a woman's testimony wouldn't be accepted in the court of law. This is part of the evidence of why scholars in the 21st century, 20th century think this rings true. Because if you're gonna concoct or craft a fable, you wouldn't do it this way. So many elements of the Bible are that way, you just wouldn't show the sins of David and Peter. You wouldn't be so open, you'd try to cover that up. The Bible doesn't cover anything up and here the Lord willed that these women should go and tell the apostles concerning the resurrection, and it's a marvelous thing. And so they hurry away from the tomb, afraid and yet filled with joy. Now, we know from John's Gospel, Peter and John went and saw for themselves as well, based on what they had heard from the women. I never found out, we'll never know, I guess, until we get to heaven what happened with the spices? I think they were probably left in there, like the Samaritan woman left her water pitcher. Doesn't matter, I don't need the spices anymore, we don't need a water pitcher, and they're running filled with joy to go like the Samaritan woman to tell the whole village, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Christ?” The Highest Evidence: A Personal Encounter with the Risen Lord (vs. 9-10) The Highest Evidence: Personal Encounter with the Risen Lord And these women running to tell the disciples that Christ is risen, but they have one more beautiful perfect surprise that morning, one more. Better evidence than an angel, better evidence than the empty tomb, better evidence than the grave clothes. How about a personal encounter with the resurrected Christ? And that's where our account ends, the highest evidence, verse 9 and 10, “Suddenly Jesus met them.” That's what you can do in a resurrection body. Suddenly there he is, and he just appears and he's there. And he says, and I love this, “Greetings.” That's a kin to, “Morning.” It's so understated. It's so ordinary. “Hi. Here I am.” And again, there's, behold out of nowhere, he comes and their reaction is beautiful, it's priceless, frankly, it's the point of everything. It really is. It's the point of the crucifixion, and it's the point of the resurrection. Their Reaction: Pure Worship… Falling at His Feet!! They fall down at his feet and they worship him. As John Piper put it very plainly, in Let the Nations Be Glad, “Missions exist because worship doesn't.” That's the purpose of all of this, so that we would fall on our faces and worship the Lord, that we would worship the resurrected Christ. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Just Like in John’s Gospel… Jesus’ Message is Exactly the Same as that of the Angels I think there's a little more to it though, because they're holding on tightly, and Jesus has to say, “Stop holding on to me.” Alright, in another account. “Stop holding,” so I think they're saying, “Look, we let you go before and look what happened, we're not doing that again. We're gonna hold on.” And Jesus says, “You can't hold on to me. I'm here for just a short time, 40 days, I'm gonna get the apostles ready to do their ministry and then I'm going to ascend to heaven. So don't hold on to me because I have to ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.” But it's so beautiful, how Jesus calls them brothers, “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.” And so that's that beautiful, beautiful thing. It's the most surprising, the most spectacular aspect of the whole Gospel, J.I. Packer summed up the gospel in three words, “Adoption through propitiation.” Let me say it very plainly, we are adopted as the sons and daughters of living God, because Jesus shed his blood in our place for our sins. That sums it all up. Adoption through propitiation. We are brothers and sisters of the resurrected Jesus Christ, and he's not ashamed to call us that, he's not ashamed. We're sometimes ashamed of him, though we should never be, but he's never ashamed of us. And he is not ashamed to call us brothers. And so he says, “Go tell my brothers that they will see me.” Applications Christians: Know the Certainty of What You Believe So what applications can we take from that? Oh my. How long do we have? Not long, 'cause we have the Lord's supper, we have the Lord's supper. But be certain of your faith, be rock solid, certain that Christ has risen from the dead. Be certain about the scriptures, testimony, Old testament and New to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Be certain about these things. The word of God is perfectly true and reliable, and Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. He is completely vindicated, and his blood shed on the cross is sufficient for your sins and for mine. And if we repent and believe in him, we will have eternal life. So repent and believe in him and trust in him. And if you have already done that years ago, continue to repent and believe and to trust and to stay close to him, because he is the vine and you are the branches. Be Encouraged Even in the Face of Death And if I can just say, allow your joy to be rekindled, rejoice and be happy, in the Lord, rejoice even in the midst of your suffering. In Acts 9:39, some women were standing around Peter weeping and showing him some articles of clothing that a woman named Dorcas, Tabitha, had made for them, and they're weeping, they're crying, why? 'Cause she's dead. And Peter sent them all out of the room, knelt down and prayed, and then raised her from the dead. Was it inappropriate for them to be weeping? No, no, you know why? Because she was gone now, there was no certainty she would be immediately raised from the dead, and life's hard and Dorcas made life easier and better, and so it's right for us to grieve. But not as those who have no hope. And so that's why I say sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Sometimes we have to be sorrowful, but this message, the truth behind this message is an eternal fountain of joy for all of us. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in the word, and as we prepare our hearts now, O Lord, to receive the Lord's Supper, I pray that you would send forth again in fresh affusions, the Holy Spirit, to take these bear emblems, to take this experience here of the Lord's Supper, and to make it very powerful. Thank you for what we've just heard in the word, and we ask, O Lord, that you would use it and multiply it. I pray for any that are here that walked in in an unregenerate state, that they are lost, they're apart from Christ, that they would even now, repent and trust in Jesus. I pray these things in your name. Amen.

I. By Faith the People Crossed the Red Sea (vs. 29) What an incredible night that was. We talked about a week ago, the Red Sea crossing as God led Israel through the Red Sea on dry land, how the pillar of fire lit their way, and how it kept Pharaoh's mighty army, and the chariots, and the horsemen from devouring the Israelites as they intended. "By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land," with the water walling up to the left and to the right. A night that could have been fraught with terror and bloodshed and death instead for them meant life and a picture of salvation. And by doing that awesome thing, God established a name for himself and a testimony that lives to this very day. And the reason for that is what I just prayed a moment ago, God never changes. The same God who did that at the Red Sea is alive today. And though he may do and will do different things in our generation than he did in their generation, still he's the same. Israel’s Identity and the Red Sea Crossing Almost a thousand years after the Red Sea crossing, Daniel in exile in Babylon prayed concerning the restoration of the Jews back to the Promised Land; they had been deported because of their sin, their violation of the covenant of God. And Daniel prayed in this way, in Daniel 9:15, "Now O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong." You see, he's going back in his mind almost a thousand years to the Red Sea crossing, and he says that God made a name for himself that day. From that moment on, the moment of the Red Sea crossing on, the Red Sea crossing would live and shape Israel's identity as a nation. It would never be forgotten. Later on in the Exodus, right before they entered the Promised Land, in Deuteronomy 11, God reminded them of what he had done at the Red Sea crossing. And then again at the end of Joshua's life, as he's reestablishing the covenant, he reminded them of the Red Sea crossing. In the Psalms, the Psalmists can't get enough of talking about the Red Sea crossing. Psalm 66:5-7, "Come and see what God has done. He turned the sea into dry land." Psalm 77:19, "Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters. Though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Psalm 78:13, "He divided the sea and led them through, he made the water stand firm like a wall." They just can't get enough of talking about the Red Sea crossing. So also the prophets, Isaiah 43, "This is what the Lord says, he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and there they lay, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick." Isaiah 43. After the exile, Nehemiah returned back to it again. Nehemiah 9:10-11, "You made a name for yourself which remains to this day, you divided the sea before them so that they pass through it on dry ground. But you hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into the mighty waters." Even on into the new covenant era, Stephen, as he stands on trial for his life before the Sanhedrin, returns to the Red Sea crossing. In Acts 7:36, "He led them out of Egypt, and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt at the Red Sea, and for 40 years in the desert." This became part of Israel's manner of speaking. God led us through the waters. Because God led us through the waters, don't be afraid now of whatever trial you're facing. Again, Isaiah 43, in verse 2, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." Later in Isaiah they return to the Red Sea crossing as if to say, God, you led us then, why aren't you leading us now? You were mighty and powerful then, why not now? Isaiah 63, "Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses' right hand, who divided the waters before them to gain for himself everlasting renown." Who led them through the depths…Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and your compassion are withheld from us." God, what you did at the Red Sea crossing, do something like that for me now. The future restoration of Israel likened again to the Red Sea crossing in Zechariah 10: "Though I scatter them among the peoples, yet in distant lands, they will remember me. They and their children will survive, and they will return. I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon. And there will not be enough room for them. They will pass through the sea of trouble, the surging sea will be subdued, and all the depths of the Nile will dry up." And so their restoration will be as a Red Sea crossing through the sea, the surging sea of trouble, God would restore them to the Promised Land. And so the Red Sea crossing was a major part of Israel's self-identity as a nation, but it was far more than that. As we have already said, it was by this that God glorified himself. It was by this that God made a name for himself that endures to this day. Three times in Exodus 14 he says his motive for the Red Sea crossing. He says, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, but I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and all the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." Again. Exodus 14-17, "I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army through these chariots and horsemen." Exodus 14-18, "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen." So the point of the Red Sea crossing, ultimately, was that God would gain glory for himself and make a name for himself; why that? It's so someone like Rahab would call on that name and be saved. It's really that simple. That sinners to the ends of the earth would hear of these kinds of stories, and look to the God who did them, and trust in him for the salvation of their souls, that's why. Now, not everyone who passed through the sea as on dry ground was ultimately saved. Korah and Dathan and Abiram passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, they were not saved. Nadab and Abihu passed through the Red Sea as on dry ground, and they were not saved. And the 10 spies who came back and brought a bad report about the land and led Israel in rebellion against God, they were not saved. They passed through the Red Sea as on dry ground. Isn't it amazing? Aren't God's ways strange, that in the cases of those men that I just listed, the actual physical experience of walking through the Red Sea as on dry ground did not save them, but an Amorite woman, a prostitute living in the Wall of Jericho, hears about the report, and by that she is saved. She's not even there, just heard the report years later, believed it and was saved. Aren't God's ways marvelous? Isn't the sovereignty of God and salvation a marvelous thing to behold? II. By Faith the Walls of Jericho Fell (vs. 30) And so, in our study in Hebrews 11, we come to beyond the Red Sea crossing to the city of Jericho at last. Now, you may wonder what happened from the Red Sea crossing to Jericho, and what happened was rebellion; the 40-year gap. We already covered this in the Book of Hebrews, we discussed it in Hebrews chapter 3, how he quotes psalm 95 and says, "So, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" Forty years, 40 lost years through unbelief, through unbelief. They weren't converted by passing through the Red Sea as on dry ground. They get to the other side, and they soon complain about food and water. And they murmur and complain against God. And they defied God, they defied the Lord at Mount Sinai by crafting a golden calf, which they bowed down and worshiped, despite the fact that they had heard the voice of almighty God forbidding them to do it, they did it anyway because their hearts were going astray. And then, as I mentioned, when the 10 spies came back, and there were 12 that went out, but 10 of them brought a negative report about the land, and said that the land devours its people. And we saw mighty warriors there, the Anakites, and we saw vast cities with walls that reach up to the sky. And "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own wyes, and we looked the same to them." And they led Israel to rebel against God and to not trust in him, to not trust in his promises. And they led Israel to talk of stoning Moses, and to go back to Egypt and serve as slaves there. And so their punishment was 40 years of wandering. But now the time has come, that's over, that generation's dead. They're dead, all of them dead. Their bodies were scattered through the desert. Some of them died right away, some of them died over decades, but they were all dead except for Joshua and Caleb. But they're all dead. Now, the time has come for their children to believe God and to trust in him and to take the Promised Land as God had promised. But there are some major obstacles that were facing them. The Jordan River was in front of them at flood stage, and on the other side of the Jordan was the awesome city of Jericho, of which it is said we saw city walls there that went up to the sky. They had no siege weapons to destroy those walls. Gunpowder hadn't been invented yet. There were terrible obstacles, and they couldn't just bypass the city, they couldn't leave it in their rear militarily, and besides which it would dishonor God to leave any part of the Promised Land not conquered. It was part of what God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it was going to be conquered. And so the city had to be taken, and so the city was taken, but it was done by faith. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around it for seven days. Now, Jericho was prepared for a siege, it says in Joshua 6:1. "Now, Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites, no one went out and no one came in." So they were ready for a siege. God commanded the people what to do, step by step he told them what he wanted done. Day one, first day, they were to march around the city in total silence. An armed guard would lead the way, the Ark of the Covenant would come next, seven priests carrying trumpets would come next, and then the people after that. And they would march around the city and not say a word. They would not raise up a war cry, they wouldn't do anything, they would just march around the city and then go back to their camp. And so they would do the same thing on the second day, and the third, and the fourth, right up through the sixth day. Same thing every day. Finally, on day seven, they were to march around the city in the same pattern seven times, and then they were to shout to the Lord, for God would give them the city and they were to go, each man, straight into the city and conquer it. And by faith, Israel obeyed those strange commands, and by faith the walls of Jericho fell, and the people obeyed and by faith Jericho was conquered. What an awesome story, what an incredible thing, and again, unpredictable. What Does the Unique Siege Teach Us about God? Well, what does this teach us about God and his ways? Well, first, God's ways are radically different than ours, aren't they? "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" You know what the direct corollary of that is? "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and let him direct your paths." His thoughts are better than yours; they're not just different than yours, they're better. And so we just have to trust in him, stop relying on our own wisdom, and our own patterns, and our own ways. Has anything like this ever happened since? Had anything like this ever happened before that? It's an incredible thing. God has an endlessly creative list of different things to do in every generation. It's just amazing, every generation something new and different. A baby born under a ban, put in a basket, and set afloat in a river grows up to lead God's people in a mighty way, that'll never happen again, not like that it won't. A young shepherd boy goes out with a stone, five smooth stones, one stone and a sling against a nine-foot giant, the two of them representing their armies, they fight and he kills him without a sword in his hand. Friends, that'll never happen again. It was just that one time. It's incredible. A prophet ascends to heaven in chariots of fire while his successor watches on, and a cloak falls to the ground. It's never going to happen again. God has lots of different things to do. He's so creative. In every generation there's something different. A Gentile general covered with leprosy comes and bathes seven times in a river, comes up clean. Incredible. Every generation, something different. So God tells his people do some strange things, to do them by faith, and he does different things in every generation. Now, when they come to Jericho, they come to a walled fortress, a city with thick walls, no one going out, no one coming in. What do you do? You have to conquer it. Well, you have four options, at least that's how it looks to military science. You can go over the walls by means of siege towers or siege ramps, you can go through the walls by means of siege engines; like I said, there wasn't gunpowder, which kind of put an end to walled fortresses at that point. But there were catapults and battering rams, things like that. You could tunnel under the walls, or you could surround the walls and wait, and that would be a siege, and eventually running out of food and water, they would have to come out. Those were your four strategies. God said, in effect, none of the above. None of the above, we're not doing any of those four options. Carnal wisdom will avail you nothing at all. We don't have time for the siege, we've got other plans, we've got other people to conquer. And you don't need any siege engines, just watch what happens to the walls. There's no need to go over them because you can walk right on top of them when they come down. God's ways are better than our ways. And so God does unusual, different things in every generation, this we learned from Jericho. Secondly, we also learned that God is independent of all laws of nature. He created them, he set them up, but he is not bound by them. And we thank God for them. The sun rises in the east, it sets in the west, there's a certain rhythm that God set up to the seasons, which he said would never fail after the flood. God set up that rhythm of the seasons. Gravity always takes objects in the same direction, and you know what that direction is. You count on friction every day; you may not think you do, but you count on it. I know that, because when our floors are incredibly slick, down we go. We've cleaned them with polish before, and that's... It's been exciting. It's like walking on ice, you're never sure what's going to happen. So we rely on these things, though you may not have studied them, and you may not appreciate them the way some engineers or scientists do, but they're just part of the physical world in which we live. More in everyday life, if it were not so, we couldn't learn by experience, because every day would be something weird and new, it'd be like we'd be learning the universe new every day. But God hasn't done that. God sets up things, and we use the term laws of nature, or physical laws because of their constancy. It is the basis of science, it's why it's even worth studying, because God is so consistent. I'm just telling you, God is not bound by any of them. He's not bound by any of them, he can do what he wants. And there are no visible means for that wall, those walls to come falling down, but that didn't mean that they couldn't come falling down, because God can do anything that power can do. That is the nature of God. God is independent of all laws of nature. Thirdly, God loves to raise up mighty obstacles before his faith-filled people, and then conquer those obstacles by the faith of his people; he loves to do it. He loves to raise up difficult tests, and challenges, and obstacles so that he can gain glory for himself when his people trust him enough to get through them. And fourthly, Satan can't stop God. He can't stop him. Satan's powerful, far more powerful than any person in this room, or all of us put together. He is powerful, he is the God of this age, so called, but he is nothing compared to Almighty God and that Jericho, that was a walled satanic fortress of might, that Canaanite religion was wicked. It was wicked and it was evil. And God had given them time to repent. In the days of Abraham, in Genesis 15, he said, "The sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." But you know what? This is just maybe a little allegorical, I don't know, but I see with the 13 times that they traveled around that walled fortress, that satanic fortress, 13 times, that was the death knell of their Amorite religion. It was the final tolling of the bell when God would crush it for good. The time had run out, 400 years had run out. The time had run out, the time had come to repent, and it was done, and Satan can't stop it. Now, you look at that Jericho like a walled armed satanic camp, a fortress. Jesus Will Build His Kingdom And Jesus said it this way. He said speaking of Satan and his kingdom, he said, "When a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are safe, but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils." Amen, Jesus is someone stronger than the strong man. Satan's a strong man, Jesus is stronger. And Jericho could not withstand the power of Almighty God, Satan can't stop God. And throughout history God has in his sovereign way, in his sovereign... For his sovereign glory and purposes allowed mighty walled fortresses to be erected by Satan himself against the advance of the people of God. And they've stood in our way, these walls. Jesus said these walls would be there. He said it, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." He knew about those walls, he just said those walls are coming down. So look at the walls of the Roman Empire, that pagan, luxurious, militarily unconquerable it seemed Roman Empire. The one that put Jesus to death through Pontius Pilate, with all of its mighty roads and all of its economic infrastructure and all that sort of stuff. Mighty walls, but they came down into the steady onslaught of the Gospel. So that at some point, one of their emperors declared himself to be a Christian, Constantine. I mean, whether he was or wasn't, matters to him a lot. But we cannot judge from the outside. All I'm saying is, look at the progress of the Gospel, by the blood of the martyrs it advanced. And so also, hundreds and hundreds of years later, the walls of false doctrine by the Medieval Roman Catholic Church were erected against the Gospel, all kinds of additions and subtractions from the Word of God, and human wisdom, and perversions, and traditions of men came in. But they could not stop the reclamation of the Gospel and the reformation of the church, those walls came down. Just how about the walls of paganism, of godlessness that have come down under the steady advance of the Great Commission in the last 100 years? Hasn't it been beautiful to watch? Really since the days of William Carey, and Adoniram Judson, and then, Hudson Taylor in China and Robert Moffat in Africa, Jim Elliot and the others in Ecuador, and Don Richardson in Irian Jaya. Just one missionary hero, after another, those walls of unbelief coming down, the Gospel advancing, fewer and fewer unreached people groups. God is awesome. And so, he erects these mighty walls and then by his sovereign power brings them down. Islam is such a wall. A walled satanic fortress with people who are held by a false view of God and they're getting liberated every single day by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are our brothers and sisters, isn't it sweet? And God has that kind of power in your life as well, by faith, though. All of these victories are won by faith. After the people had marched around the wall for seven days, it was by faith the walls of Jericho fell. So what do we learn about faith and its ways? Well, first the daring of their faith, how daring were they? They were on the other side of the Jordan River, back at flood stage now, with it behind them, they're in Palestine, they're in the Promised Land on the side of the... With their enemies, but they don't have any walls. They don't have any city, they're there on their own with only God to protect them, but isn't that enough. One commentator, AW Pink, talks about the courage, the daring of their faith. He said there are three types, there are three degrees of faith. I thought this was insightful. There's a faith which receives, like a beggar you go to King Jesus and you say, I have nothing. And like a beggar you receive what he has to give you, by faith you receive salvation, forgiveness, simply like a beggar, a faith that receives. There is secondly a faith, which relies or counts on God to fulfill his promises, by that you move out in your Christian life. But thirdly, there's a faith that risks. A faith that risks, which dares something for the Lord, it puts earthly resources, earthly pleasure, earthly comfort on the line for Jesus. I fear that many of us stop after the second. We've got that faith that receives and the faith that relies, but we don't have that faith that risks. We're set here in Durham, we're set here in the Triangle area. We've got people to reach with the Gospel, but they will not be reached if we don't risk. And so, look at the daring of their faith. Look at the obedience also of their faith. Did not God's commands appear strange? What would walking around the city in total silence do? What would walking around it 13 times do? But they just obey, they simply did what they were told. How rebellious we are. How much we think our ways are better than his ways. But they were obedient. We see also the discipline of their faith. They were like well-trained soldiers, they did what they were told, they didn't argue with Joshua saying, "Hey, you know, we built high ramps when we were building the pyramids, we could build a ramp up to the walls of Jericho, we could do that." Carnal wisdom, carnal knowledge, they didn't do that. They just disciplined themselves under their commanding officer. We see the patience of their faith. Day after day after day, walking around the walls, the seventh day 13 times, and the wall still didn't fall. 13 times of walking, the wall's still intact. Then they gave that war cry, and then the wall came down. They praised the Lord, and that wall came down. But they had to be patient. God exercises our faith so that we may develop perseverance, that we may develop patience. And we see also the anticipation of their faith. I love how they shout the victory before the walls come down. Isn't that cool? They shout the victory, before the walls even show any indication of coming down. Trusting in him, that God's going to act, he's going to be faithful. Reading about the missionary, Robert Moffat, early 19th century Scottish pioneer missionary in South Africa, the Bechuanas, he was reaching out to them. He labored for years without a single convert among that people. Some friends from England wrote to him and asked, they knew about his trials, his difficulties and they wanted to brighten his day. So they said, "We'd like to buy you a gift and send it to you. What can we buy for you?" They were thinking maybe a book or something that would bring some comfort or a consolation to him. He said, "Would you please send me a communion set? I have no set with which I may share communion with the converts." He didn't have a single convert when he wrote that letter. Before the communion set returned, he had 12 of them. Isn't that a great story? The anticipation of faith. Mark 11:24, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours." So it was with the Jews at Jericho. III. By Faith Rahab Was Saved (vs. 31) But now let's focus on a single individual. There was living in the walls of Jericho a woman. And her name was Rahab. Verse 31, "By faith, the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies was not killed along with those who are disobedient." How did Rahab get in here? I mean, do you ever wonder that? This is the Hall of Faith. I mean, you have Abel and you have Enoch and you have Noah and you have Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Rahab? How did she get into the Hall of Faith? I tell you, the salvation of Rahab is one of the four greatest salvations in the Bible. I'm just going to go on, you're going to come ask me, what are the other three, aren't you? You're interested, what are they? One of the four greatest trophies, shocking trophies of God's grace. Nebuchadnezzar, Saul of Tarsus, thief on the cross, each for different reasons. Nebuchadnezzar filled with arrogance, the dictator, tyrant, murderer, animal for seven years and then lifted his eyes to Heaven and God restored his sanity and he wrote one of the most beautiful praises to the sovereignty of God you'll find anywhere in Scripture. Saul of Tarsus, you know well, the morning breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, converted by the evening, by display of the resurrected Christ in his glory. Thief on the cross, the most surprising to me, because Jesus had so little time to work with. And at the beginning of the time on the cross, he's reviling Jesus, by the end, he's saying, "Remember Me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom." And then there's Rahab. And when you come to Rahab, you realize all of the obstacles. Again, we're talking about obstacles. She was a Gentile, not a Jew, worse than that, she was an Amorite, about which I've already spoken. And they were under the wrath of God. They were set to be exterminated, to be condemned, every one of them. The Amorites had had 400 years to repent and they had not redeemed the time and now the wrath of God was about to fall. Not only that, but she was a notorious sinner, she was a prostitute. And there was a logistical problem, her house was in the wall, [chuckle] God intended those walls to come down. And you see in all of that, that God is no respecter of persons whatsoever. He chooses sinners who will most glorify him for his grace. What did Rahab have to offer? All of that mess by which she could glorify God for eternity for his grace to her. There was nothing whatsoever in this woman that could have commended her to be chosen by God for eternal salvation, it was by the sovereign pleasure of God alone that she escaped the wrath for which the rest of her countrymen were destined. Amazing grace. And yet there were no visible means of grace. There were no Sabbaths, there were no reading of the Scriptures, there were no prophets, there was none of that. What there was, was a report from the Red Sea crossing, and then the killing of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, that's what they had, that's what she had. Everybody had that, there in the city of Jericho. And evidently she was regenerated before the spies even came there. Before the spies even came there. Again, what was the point of the Red Sea crossing? It was that God would make a name for himself. Why Did God Want to Make a Name for Himself? Why did God want to make a name for himself? Is he likes some praise-craving fading star in Hollywood that needs people around him, sycophants to say, "Oh, you're so wonderful. Oh, you're so great. Oh, you're so amazing." No, God is very well-secured within himself, he has no needs like that, he's fine, he's not suffering from self-esteem problems, not at all. No, he makes a glorious name for himself that sinners like you and me will call on that name and be saved, for everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. And so, he makes much of his name so that we will call on that name and be saved. It's for salvation of Rahab that the Red Sea crossing happened and others too. And faith comes by hearing the message, and so, some messengers came to say what the God of... The Jews had done to the Egyptians. Rahab, living in the walls, as a prostitute was there, and she heard and believed, then Joshua was sent out two spies to scout out the land and this is what Rahab said to them, when they came to her house. "We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites East of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed, when we heard of it, our hearts melted, and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the Earth below" Do you hear the faith in that? Here is the true God. I know it's true. Now, then please swear to me by the Lord, that you will show kindness to my family. All of Jericho was terrified of the Israelites, but only Rahab cried out for mercy. And frankly, she's the only one that got the chance to do it. God sovereignly orchestrates both ends of that. And she had that faith established before they came, despise, it says in James 2:25, "In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified or considered righteous, [the NIV has] for what she did, listen, when she gave lodging to the spies?" You see, she had faith before they came, so that she opened her home to them and took them in, that was a display of her faith at that point and then sent them off in a different direction. And her faith worked in her a hope. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. She actually has a hope that the God of Israel might spare her and provide a place for her. There might be life for her. Salvation for her, she has a hope based on that. I notice the breadth of her faith as well. She's concerned not just for herself, but her family. And so, her family is extended grace because of her faith, they are blessed. I don't know if they were saved. I know that they were safe from the sword at that time, I don't know if they were spiritually saved. I have no idea. So, what was the effect of Rahab's faith? Well, James' point, James 2, is genuine faith always produces works, and so good works came from that genuine faith. She welcomed the spies. She sent them off in a different direction to protect them from their pursuers. She hung the little red cord in the window to identify her house as her own house, she did what she was told. In a minor way, I want to say we see the imperfection also of Rahab's faith. Faith doesn't make you a perfect person. She lied to the king of Jericho about the spies who she was hiding among the flat stalks on her roof. Now some of you are going to come to me and say, "Hey, what could she have done? What could she have done?" She could have told the truth, that's what she could have done. Well then, she and they would have been killed. Maybe, I don't know that. But I just want to ask you a question, can you imagine Jesus lying to save his life? Can you imagine Jesus lying to save someone else's life? Can you imagine that? So, she's imperfect. But so are you, and yet you believe in Jesus, amen. And Hebrews 11 and James 2 doesn't touch on those things. It's in the Old Testament, we know about it, but it's not a major feature. By faith, our sins are forgiven. By faith, our sins are covered. Now, if you want to come after it and talk to me about Corrie ten Boom, and all of that and what they could have or should have done, let's have a lively discussion. I'm just saying the Scripture says it's better to die than to lie. And not one of us has that commitment to truth, not the way Jesus did. Jesus, when he was charged on trial for his life, under oath by the high priest, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the living God?" He said, "I am." He made the good confession. I am. And in the future you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven and then the high priest tore his robe, and condemned Jesus to death. It's Jesus' way of thinking, he would rather die than sin. And what was the outcome of Rahab's faith? Her life was saved, and I say to you, not merely her life, but her soul was saved too. For God, a genuine faith came into her life, turned her away from wickedness, sanctified her, made her yearn for holiness, she gave up the life of a prostitute. She was accepted into the congregation of Israel, she married Salmon of the tribe of Judah, and she gave birth to Boaz, whose story you can read about in the Book of Ruth, what a godly man Boaz was. King David's grandmother. And amazingly then, this prostitute made it not only into the Hall of Faith, but into the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. Incredible, by faith. IV. Applications So what? So come to Jesus. Come to Jesus, God has made a far greater name for himself at the cross and the empty tomb than he ever made at the Red Sea. By sending his son, a descendant of Rahab, by sending his son in the flesh to die on the cross in our place, he has made the only way through condemnation you will ever find. It's the only way of salvation, faith in Jesus. That's why the author wrote Hebrews 11, that we would hear and believe and be saved through Jesus. Trust in him. And if you say to me, "Well, I have trusted him," I say, "Keep trusting in him." Keep believing in Jesus, feed on Christ, go to the cross again and again, you're still a sinner, you still need cleansing. The cleansing is still the same way. There's a fountain open in the House of David to cleanse you of all your sins, trust in him and maybe you've never trusted in Jesus. Maybe you were invited here today by a friend, maybe you had not yet made a commitment to Christ. Don't leave this place unconverted, the rest of the sinners, the Amorites in Jericho they all died under the righteous judgment of God, all of us deserve it. But by faith, God calls out his chosen ones to believe. You say, how can I know if I'm chosen? Come to Jesus, it's the only way you can do it. If God chooses you, you will come and I say come. It's not hard. Just look to Jesus with eyes of faith, trust that God gave him for you, that his blood shed on the cross is to forgive you of your sins, look to Christ resurrected for your eternal life, your resurrection, trust in him. And second of all, can I just urge you, stand in awe of God and the Red Sea crossing. Let's talk about it, why not? Say, wasn't God awesome at the Red Sea crossing? Like, well, that's old news. It's alright. It was old for the psalmists that were writing about it. God's the same yesterday, today and forever, to say, "My God can make a way through the Red Sea." And Zechariah 10 implies that we can kind of allegorize it to some degree. Don't go wild, now, Bible teachers, don't do it. But God can make a way through a sea of trouble for you. He can do it. He does the same thing in Isaiah 43. He said, "Look, I made a way through the Red Sea at that time. I'm going to make a new way, a better way in the future," uses that kind of way of speaking. Walk through your troubles and don't expect an easy life. Are you shocked by the trials that you're going through? Medical trials, financial trials, are you struggling? God delights to raise up obstacles, and then have you by faith conquer them and overcome them. He's set before us two infinite journeys. The internal journey of growth and holiness, Christ's likeness. You cannot do it without suffering. You can't do it without facing obstacles, you'll only bypass them or conquer them by faith. And neither can we make any progress in the external journey, except by courage and faith. We've got to risk things, brothers and sisters, we will not make progress. Close with me if you would in prayer.

Indonesien ist ein Flickenteppich: Der größte Inselstaat der Welt reicht von Sumatra im Westen bis Irian Jaya im Osten - über 5.100 Kilometer. Es gibt traumhafte Strände und vom Smog geplagte Metropolen. Autorin: Jenny von Sperber

sermon transcript Introduction The Point of Christmas So we turn this morning, 1 Timothy 3:16. Christmas time is here. I guess you didn't know that, couldn't tell, surrounded by the trappings of Christmas, surrounded by the joy of the celebration and all of the symbols that we are so accustomed to, but also surrounded by what I call the great beast of secularism that stalks our joy and our faith, secularism that statements - that are a declaration - that God, if he really exists, if he even exists, is irrelevant to our lives, that he doesn't matter, that he can be left off safely. And I stand here on the pulpit today to fight that. I think that God is the center of my life, the center of my glory and my joy, the center of my Christmas celebration. I want it to be the center of yours as well. And so I stand on one text this morning to do that, to meditate on the greatness of the coming of Jesus Christ and all that he came to do. Now, many of our feelings and images of Christmas come from culture and not from Scripture. It is Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol,” 19th Century, Victorian England, top hats and lamplighters and figgy pudding and all of those things, the roasted goose. It's been a long time since I've had a roasted goose for Christmas, but there it is. Carolers standing on the corner in the streets of London, Ebenezer Scrooge stalking and muttering about humbug and all of those kinds of things, the ghost of Christmas past and present filling our senses with images from that era of history, or perhaps it's that famous poem. That - written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822 – “‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.” Yaddy, yaddy, yaddy - you know all of that? Or Thomas Nast's famous depiction of Santa Claus as a heavy set bearded man with a big sack on his back, loaded with toys, a cartoon of which first appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1862. And some scientific comedian figured out how impossible I'd be for that man to get to every house, he calculated the number of milliseconds he would have to spend and the number of chimneys he'd have to descend and ascend, the speed of light would not be enough to get the job done in one night. Even if you gave him the full 24 hours. So that's how some people spend their time at Christmas time, calculating whether Santa could have done it or not. It's traditions like Christmas tree, and Mistletoe, and red and green nutcracker sweet, which boggles the mind with sensory input, of people dancing and twirling and pirouetting and rat kings and all kinds of things flowing in, what images and then black and white movies like “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It's a Wonderful Life,” and “The Grinch that Stole Christmas,” which isn't black and white, but probably should have been. If we could just move it aside, as we finally discover that, you know, even if you take all of the toys away, you're left with little Susie Who and singing a song that no one can comprehend and we all feel good about one another, and that's the true meaning of Christmas. And then there are non-spiritual seasonal songs that assault our senses like “Let It Snow,” and “Silver Bells,” and “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” one after the other. I was on one station this past week, 12 consecutive songs that had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, one after the other. All of this, it says nothing compared to the spirit of materialism that saturates us and that draws us away, that sense of covetousness and material desires that captured our hearts probably at a very early age. And it's really been hard to fight ever since, the desire for gifts and possessions, and you know the retailers know it very well. And so Christmas season begins earlier and earlier. I didn't know if you knew this, but we're actually starting the celebration with 2010, this one's not for this year, we're already, we've re-doubled, we've lapped ourselves, and it's already up to 2010 now, it starts way before Halloween in some stores. And there it is, as Andy once was talking about a touch of desperation this year, we're finding in the malls and the shops, desperation for materialism. I say that other than the sinful covetousness and materialism, none of these things are overtly bad, they're part of the physical life that God's given us the history and the culture, but they miss the point, don't they? The point is that Jesus Christ is born as the unnamed angel announced in Luke 2 and Verse 10 and 11. "The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people today in the town of David. A savior has been born for you, he is Christ, the Lord.'" That's the point. That's the joy. That's our hope, that Jesus is our Savior. And the Apostle Paul knew this very well, when so long ago, he penned the words of our text that you heard read already so beautifully today, "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, and was taken into glory." Context of 1st Timothy Now, the context of these words, Paul is writing to Timothy, his young protégé in the ministry, to instruct him concerning ministry in the local church. Paul is very concerned about the church that Timothy is pastoring - the church in Ephesus - he's concerned especially about false teaching, false doctrine, those that pervert the Gospel. In chapter three then, he establishes the character in ministry of elders and of deacons, elders especially entrusted with the doctrinal life of the church, and the summation of all of this is found in the words immediately preceding this morning's text. Look at them in verses 14 and 15. 1st Timothy 3, "Although I hope to come to you soon, I'm writing you these instructions so that if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." He wants Timothy to know how God wants him personally to conduct himself as a minister of the gospel, watching his life and his doctrine closely, so that he can save both himself and his hearers. He wants Timothy to instruct the people of God how they should conduct themselves in God's household, in the church of the living God. Even more strikingly, he wants Timothy to uphold with great power before the people of God, what the purpose and role of the church is to be in this world, that is, that we are the pillar and the foundation of the truth. And we rightly say that the church is not a building, but a people called out by his name, by the power of the spirit of Living God, yet here he uses architectural imagery. We are the pillar of the truth, that which upholds the truth powerfully strongly. And it ordains the truth and adorns the truth with beauty, and so the people can look at it and see it, it's also the foundation of the truth that which supports and grounds the truth in this sin soaked and confused world. It's something unchanging, something immovable, and that's something we need in this so-called post-modern world of ours. The people we live with, they're called post-modern, are deeply confused on this very issue that there really can be such a thing as spiritual truth. Absolute, immutable spiritual truth. Transcendent in the spiritual realm. Post-modernism then is the idea that if there is such a thing as absolute truth, it's impossible for any of us to know it for certain, unlike Pontius Pilate, then the post-modern person sits in judgment on Jesus Christ and says, "What is truth?" And then walks away as though there can be no possible answer, though the truth is staring him right in the face in Jesus Christ. Of course, post-modern physicists still believe in the unfolding of immutable physical laws by which they make their living, they hope that they're not changing constantly, hence their PhDs would be out the window, they'd have to go back to school, so they're counting on physics not changing constantly. Post-modern architects still understand that their basic architectural principles by which they build soaring buildings that will not collapse, post-modern surgeons still know where the liver is and where the heart is and the lungs are, and they don't confuse these organs or say it really doesn't matter. Well, they know what the truth is biologically. And it's the church's marvelous privilege to say that there is even more certain spiritual truth than any of these physical truths, and we are the pillar and the foundation of that truth. That's our job. We get to stand up and proclaim to this secular world of ours that Jesus Christ is born, that he is the Son of God, and that he is the savior of the world. That is the truth. And so the Apostle Paul makes it clear, verse 16, "Beyond all question the mystery of godliness is great. He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world and was taken up in glory." The truth is that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, he is the focus of the angel's joyful announcement to the shepherds of Bethlehem. He is the truth for the world, and we have many statements about him. First, it calls the doctrine of Christ, the mystery of godliness, and says that, it's a great mystery. And secondly, it says that God appeared in a body. And third, that he was vindicated by the spirit, and fourth that he was seen by angels, and that fifth, he was preached among the nations, sixth that he was believed on in the world, and seventh that he was taken up in glory, and these are the truths of the center of my Christian faith, and they will be the center of my celebration of Christmas on Thursday, just as they are the center of my life every day. The Doctrine of Christ: The Great Mystery of Godliness Beyond All Controversy Let's look at them a little more closely. First, we begin with the idea of the doctrine of Christ, what is called here the great mystery of godliness, and it begins with an interesting statement, "Beyond all controversy," he says. Oh, there have been great controversies about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Satan has vigorously attacked the doctrine of Christ from the very beginning. From the very beginning, Christ's claim to deity is what got him killed. 1st John tells us that it is the focus of Satan's attacks in the church, that Christ has come in the flesh. And throughout the early centuries of the church, the doctrine of the deity and the humanity of Christ were the central battle ground. In 190 AD Socinianism came along and taught that Jesus was a mere man at birth, but became the son of God at his baptism, he was adopted by God to be the Son of God. It's also called adoptionism, and it is false. Then in the third century, along came modalism the idea that there is one God who appears at different times: sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as Spirit, but just one God, of course. There is a big problem with that. Who is it that Jesus was talking to when he said, Father, and he would speak? And even more scary, who was it that answered him from Heaven? Modalism, again, a lie of the devil. And then in the fourth century, Arianism, the idea that Jesus is God, but with a little “g”, he's a created God, not Jehovah God, not the great God, but a lesser God. Arius taught this thing. Athanasius fought against him, he was the only one of all the bishops to stand against this, this subtle attack by the devil. It's a false teaching upheld even today by Jehovah's Witnesses that Jesus is a created being, a lower case deity. God raised up this man Athanasius and he taught the clear truth about Jesus, which is now the Orthodox faith, and it's captured in the Nicene Creed: We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. Well, that's clear, isn't it friends? That's the Orthodox faith, but God had to raise up Athanasius to fight for every line in that dogma. And then in the fifth century, there was Eutychianism, the idea that Jesus had one nature, the divine nature, clad in the human body. Therefore, he really wasn't a human being, he just had kind of taken over a body, kind of like someone drives a robot or something like that, and again, this was rejected. One attack after the other, that Jesus was truly the Son of God, and truly the Son of Man, both at the same time. Friends, it's an incomprehensible mystery ultimately, but it is the teaching of our faith. There's been a river of controversy about the doctrine of the incarnation, but Paul says here in our text, that there is something "Beyond all controversy," beyond any controversy this, and "that is the mystery of godliness is great." The mystery that we celebrate at Christmas time is a great thing. The Mystery: Not Something to Be Solved, but Revealed Now, when we speak of this word mystery, it doesn't mean like it's something to be solved, like one of those Agatha Christie things or Sherlock Holmes, something like that. You know, those things are exciting. Those are a lot of fun. I love reading Sherlock Holmes stories or listening to them on tape, different depictions of them. Sherlock Holmes, the very embodiment of the modern scientific method applied to solving crimes, he specialized in careful observation of physical details, which gave him amazing insights into the circumstances that would surround some kind of a case or a person. He said, “By a man's fingernails, by his coat sleeve by his boot, by his trouser knees, by the calluses of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt cuffs - by each of these things a man's profession or trade is plainly revealed.” Or take this conversation between Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. Watson in a case called The Sign of the Four, this is what Holmes said to Watson, he said, “‘My observation shows me that you have been to the Wigmore Street Post Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that when you were there, you dispatched a telegram.’ ‘Right,’ said Watson, ‘Right on both points, but I must confess, I don't see how you arrived at it, it was a sudden impulse on my part, and I have mentioned it to no one.’ ‘Oh, It is simplicity itself,’ Holmes remarked… ‘So absurdly simple that an explanation is superfluous, yet it may serve to define the limits of observation and deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish clay adhering to your in-step just opposite the Seymour street office, they have taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth which lies in such a way that it's actually difficult to avoid treading in it upon entering. The earth is of this particular reddish tint that is only found as far as I know, in that part of the neighborhood. So much is observation. The rest is deduction.’” So the key with Sherlock Holmes was careful observation and then logical reasoning. Friends, this mystery cannot be solved that way. Scripture precludes it; it's impossible. Jesus put it this way in Luke 17, verse 20 and 21, Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'there it is.'" God purposely conceals some truths from the human empirical method. They can only be known if he reveals them to us. And the Gospel and all of its mysteries, especially the incarnation of Jesus Christ is one of those things that had to be revealed or we would never have known it. And so it says in 1 Corinthians 1:21, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." It was wisdom from God that we couldn't figure this out by inference and deduction and scientific reasoning. God has humbled us; we must have it revealed to us. The Mystery: Not Something Irrational & Unknowable, but Rational & Knowable But neither on the other hand, is this mystery like the post-modern mystery religions, even in some emergent churches, which are always talking about mysteries, mysteries, mysteries. And by that, it's like something we can never know or understand at all, this great mystery. New Age religious folks are talking about this. Speaking of mysteries, post-modern pastors intentionally seek to leave their hearers with more questions than they entered with, to befuddle them and to tangle up their minds with mysteries and questions, so that you just leave off all rational process and don't think anymore about anything, but just are caught up in the wonder and the mystery of it all, as though that's somehow a good thing. No, it's not that thing either. There were such mystery religions in Ephesus, it eventually came up into what is known as Gnosticism, where you had to have these secret keys of knowledge, and if you didn't have them then you couldn't figure anything out. It was a mystery religion, and Paul fought it at an early stage, and then later the church would fight it vigorously. Now, this is instead a rational truth, that couldn't be known about God, but it must be revealed by God. And so Jesus is there at Caesarea Philippi with his disciples, and he said, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" And they had various options, but then he turns his gaze on his 12 apostles and he says, "What about you? Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter spoke for all believers when he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Do you remember what Jesus said next? "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in Heaven." It's a blessing of direct revelation from God to the individual heart that Jesus is God in the flesh. And we can understand that although we can't reason out all of the implications. Within a few moments Peter was taking Jesus aside and rebuking him for saying he was going to die on the cross. You don't rebuke the Son of God, he never makes any mistakes. And so, that's a good example of how we can't fully unfold all the implications of the things that have been revealed to us. We still struggle with unbelief, but the fact is this is a noble mystery that can only be known if God reveals it directly to your heart, and he calls it here the mystery of godliness. The Mystery of Godliness Now, since everything in this list refers to Jesus Christ, I think this is speaking of Christ as godliness. Could either be one of two things. Either that Jesus was Godly - he was the very picture of godliness, the picture of piety, the picture of holiness in a physical body, it could be that, or the word sometimes means religion, and it could be the mystery of our Christian religion is great. Either way, he's speaking of the greatness of Christ coming into the world. The Great Mystery of Godliness And he says, "Beyond all question, beyond all controversy, the mystery of this godliness is great." This is a great mystery. Friends, it isn't just a great mystery, it's an infinite mystery, the mystery of Christ. It's great, not because it would take a super genius to figure it out, that's not possible. No, it's great because it concerns an infinite person, the person of Jesus Christ. That Jesus is God in the flesh, that's a great infinite mystery, that he in a little baby body is God the Creator. How can you figure that out? You could be pondering that the rest of your life and never fully understand it, that Jesus perfectly reflects the glory of the Father, and that if you've seen him, you've seen the Father. That's a mystery, that Jesus came to give us a great salvation by the shedding of his blood. That is a mystery, and it is a great mystery. The birth of the Son of God to a human woman. Beyond all question, beyond all controversy, this mystery is great. Six Aspects of the Great Mystery of Christ #1). He Appeared in a Body And then he gives us six aspects of this great mystery of Christ. And the first that he gives us is that he appeared in a body. Now, the King James Version gives us, "God appeared in a body," and the modern translations take the word God out. Well, don't let that trouble you – the modern translations are from believers, the people that translated believe in the deity of Christ, the whole passage is speaking of the greatness of Christ. They are not denying that Christ was God, they're just saying that the ancient manuscript didn't have the word God in it; this doesn't change a thing. The fact of the matter is, he appeared in the body, and the Greek word appeared means was revealed, as light shining in a dark place. Revealed as he really was, but now in a body, and the whole flow of the New Testament was that Christ was truly God in a body, God appeared in a body, and the Verse therefore presumes Christ pre-existence, he existed before he took on the human body. He can say in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was born, I am." He's the eternal God who took on a body. Or as he said to Pilate – "Pilate said, 'You are a King then?' And Jesus answered, 'You're right in saying that I'm a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this, I came into the world to testify to the truth.'" Jesus chose to enter the world, and so this is the great mystery of godliness: that he was pre-existent God and he took on a human body. God appeared in a body. Now, many cults deny this central truth. 2 John 7, it says, "Many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the Antichrist. The spirit of Antichrist then is denying that God came in the flesh." Islam denies this central teaching. They deny that Jesus is God in the flesh, they cannot conceive of this. They say that it was Judas that died on the cross, and that Jesus was just a prophet, a miracle-working prophet, yes, but just a prophet. The Mormons deny the deity of Christ, they say that he is a created being, the brother of Lucifer. Jehovah's Witnesses, as I've already said, deny that he is God in the flesh; they teach that he is a created being. So this is centrally attacked by Satan. He appeared in the body. #2). He was Vindicated by the Spirit Secondly, it says "he was vindicated by the spirit." Vindicated means to justify, to declare righteous, to be proven, to have spoken the truth. Jesus was vindicated as God by the Spirit of God. And Jesus, I think without question, is the most slandered and reviled human being in history. More people have slandered and reviled and thought blasphemous thoughts of Jesus than anybody that's ever lived. Simeon who greeted Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus at the temple, "said this to his mother, Mary, 'This child is destined to be, to cause the falling and the rising of many in Israel,'" listen, "'and to be a sign that will be spoken against so the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.'" Jesus is the sign that's spoken against, and amazing how gracious Jesus is to those who blaspheme him and speak against him and who did not understand who he was. Remember, as he's dying on the cross, he says, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." At the core of that statement is, they don't know who I am, or they never would have done this. And yet Jesus is so gracious to former rebels who laid down their weapons of rebellion against him and come into his kingdom, and so, he says in Matthew 12:31, "I tell you, every sin will be forgiven men, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men." The next verse: "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven." How sweetly gracious is Jesus to forgive us all of that unbelieving blasphemy, when at last we finally come to faith in Christ. The virgin birth by his mother opened her up to the charge of sexual immorality - the charge that Jesus was born an illegitimate son. The Holy Spirit vindicated Jesus by descending like a dove at his baptism, he vindicated Jesus by driving him out into the desert to be tempted by the Devil, and he made it through without a single sin, and then filling him with power to do great signs and wonders and miracles among the people. He vindicated him by the words he spoke, no one ever talked like this man. He vindicated him throughout his whole ministry by enabling him to do all of these things with great power by the Holy Spirit. He vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead. This is the greatest vindication of all, the claims of Christ to deity throughout his life were brutally offensive to his enemies, culminating in his trial. When they said, "'I charge you under oath by the living God: tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?' And he said, 'I am.'" Well, that was a claim. They didn't believe it. And they killed him, he died on the cross, the Holy Spirit vindicated him by raising him from the dead, and so it says in Romans 1:4, that "through the Spirit of holiness, Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead." So, the Holy Spirit vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead, and the Holy Spirit vindicated Jesus by coming in power on the day of Pentecost and moving the Apostles to preach boldly in Jesus' name. In Acts 2:1-4, it says, "When the day of Pentecost came, they're all together in one place, suddenly the sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." In Acts 2:36, Peter said this, "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” vindicated by the spirit of God. The culmination of Peter's Pentecost sermon, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other Apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" #3). He was Seen by Angels Thirdly, "he was seen by angels." Angels are created spiritual beings - they're not omniscient. They need to learn the Gospel just as much as we do. It says "Even angels long to look into these things," 1 Peter 1:12. Angels are constantly watching human beings - watching us right now. We can't see them, but they exist in the spiritual realm, and they were especially watching Christ. They watched his whole life. They were there when he was born, the shepherds were there tending their flocks, and the angel appeared and announced that the Savior was born. And then suddenly a great company, the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest. They were there at his birth. They were there when he was tempted in the desert. Angels at the end of that time came and ministered to him. The angels watched all the way through his life. They ministered to him in the Garden of Gethsemane, when great drops of blood came out and he was fit to expire at that moment, and angels came and strengthened him so that he would be able to go to the cross for you and me. Angels were watching Jesus as he stunned them by pouring out his blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of human beings. They watched in amazement as God the Father poured out his wrath on his only begotten son, he, our substitute, and they saw all of that, they watched. They listened as Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And as he breathed his last and spoke those wonderful words, "It is finished, Father into your hands, I commit my spirit." They watched all of that, and then they were there as the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. One angel even got to move the stone back, so we could all go in there and see it. That Jesus is gone, he's not here. They got to announce, "Why do you," look for the dead, or "the living among the dead? He's not here, he's risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." They were there celebrating. The angels watched all of his life, he was seen by angels. #4). He was Preached Among the Nations Forth, he was preached among the nations. The mystery of godliness is great, and what's amazing to me as a pastor and a preacher is that God's entrusted to people like me, the ministry of reconciliation. I would think that if we go back a step, was preached by angel, would have done a better job. What do you think? That the angels would go out there and preach, but that wasn't God's will. Instead, he has entrusted to the church, the ministry of reconciliation, and we get to preach in the nations all of these truths, we get to be the pillar and foundation of the truth in the world. He was preached among the nations. "You will receive power", he said, "when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." When we go out today into the Liberty Street Apartments, I'm going to be thinking about this verse, that the Spirit of God is going to be indicating Jesus through my preaching among the nations, that they get to hear the Gospel. It's amazing to me. The Gospel advances this way. #5). He was Believed on in the World And fifth, was believed on in the world; even more amazing is that sinners like us can believe something like this. I mean, that God took on a body, that he had hair and nails, and flesh and blood and capillaries and all that stuff, that God took on a body and that he died, he was dead on the cross. God dead on the cross as the enemies say. God dead in the tomb for three days. How is that? It seems foolishness. When Paul took this message and preached it in Athens on Mars Hill. After they heard about it, "they sneered," utter contempt for a message like this, couldn't believe it. But yet there were some there that believed. He was believed on in the world. The Holy Spirit of God has kindled in us a faith that can never be quenched. He's believed in the world, the Gospel, the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. And through that Gospel, Roman Centurions, like Cornelius, and Praetorian guards like in Philippians Chapter 4, members of Caesar's household, and perhaps even a Roman Emperor, Constantine, bowing before Jesus and acknowledging that he is God in the flesh. That's amazing. Ruthless barbarian tribes from Germania, or the Norseman, the dreaded Vikings, that some of them would actually lay down their weapons and bow the knee to the Prince of Peace and believe in him. Astonishing. That men and women in Japan and China would see in Jesus, not western pollution, but the God of all the world, even of Asia. And brothers and sisters in Christ from Japan and Korea, Vietnam, China, are there testifying. They believe these same things. The cannibals in Irian Jaya would give up their idolatry and wickedness and become Christians. That atheist Marxist professors, that Maoist terrorists, that genocidal African warlords, that suicidal heroin addicts, forsaken, starving orphans, that bored alcoholic CEOs, that former Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, animists and others have actually turned away from all of these lies and found life in Jesus' name. #6). He was Taken Up in Glory He was believed on in the world, and finally he was taken up into glory. As he prayed in John 17, Father, I want the glory that I had with you before the world began. "He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." And once he passed beyond physical view, he was welcomed into Heaven by the angels and ushered right to his rightful place at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and he sat down on that throne. And since that time, God the Father in his zeal has been making his enemies a foot stool for his feet. And from that throne, he will come back and will enter our world again to set up his eternal kingdom. He was taken up into glory. Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great. Application: Diving Joyfully into the Mystery This is the Mystery of Christmas What then is the application for us? Dive into the mystery. All I've been doing with you this morning is just taking each of these six truths and ruminating over them, meditating on them with you. Take them home, take each one like a cherished diadem and look at it. Stare at it. Dive into this mystery. And trust in it. Stand on these Truths I'm aware of the fact that at Christmas time, people come back to church, haven't been in a while, wonder if they're going to be welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome to be here. Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said, "Of whom I am the worst." Find in Jesus your savior, and clear away all that secular stuff. All of those secular things, all the movies and the songs, the Christ-less songs, and all the shopping and the decorations clear it away and focus in on this. The mystery of godliness, that is great. He appeared in a body, focus on that, and on Jesus Christ who died for sinners like you and me. Purify Your Christmas And for the rest of us, can I just urge that you keep Christ the center of this time. I mean, you have to do physical practical things, have your quiet times, every day. Saturate your mind in Christ. As you go shopping - as shop you must - as you go shopping, keep in mind that all of these gifts are as nothing compared to the gift of the only begotten Son of God. Speak of it with your relatives, you're going to be brought together, perhaps with non-Christian relatives. Talk to them again, don't give up hope they're still alive, even at a late stage, they can still believe in Jesus. And for us as a church, let's continue to commit ourselves to preaching these doctrines, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Final Story: A Church Loses its Message, and Its Soul I read a story, John MacArthur told, and I'll close with this, of an old church in England, there was a sign in the front of the church that read this, "We preach Christ crucified." But after a time ivy grew up, and obscured the last word. Thus, the motto became, "We preach Christ." A little while longer, the vine grew up a little bit more, and all that said was, "We preach." Wasn't long before the entire sign was obscured entirely and the church died. I think that that vine represents that encroaching secularism, that encroaching unbelief, that can eclipse a testimony like this church. God has lit a lamp in this church and set it up to be a light in this community. Let's preach Christ crucified. He appeared in a body, he died on the cross, he was vindicated by his resurrection. He ascended in the glory and he's at the right hand of God. He's coming back some day to judge heaven and earth. Let's preach those things. Close with me in prayer.

Hosts: Michael Coyne, Matthew Godfrey and Manjula Tiwari Manjula goes to Indonesia and sends in a report from the field. Special guests Cruesa "Tetha" Hitipeuw of WWF Indonesia and Ricardo Tapilatu of the State University of Papua describe their work studying leatherback sea turtle nesting on Jamursba Medi beach, Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

Introduction: The world is full of all kinds of worship We are looking now at Romans 12:1-2. We’re going to spend two weeks on it, this time and the next time that I preach on Romans. The outline is balanced. You see, presenting your soul, presenting your body, presenting your mind, presenting your will. That's what we're looking at, but I'm not really going to be talking much about presenting your mind or your will this time, that'll be next time. We're going to focus on the first, namely presenting our bodies. And as we do, we come again to the question of worship. We did it last week when we looked at the doxology, which is the greatest doxology in the Bible, what an incredible section of Scripture. And how it began with that little word, "Oh" which shows the depth of Paul's emotions. His feeling inside his heart about all the doctrine that God had taught him and through him had given to us. And that's the first part of worship. It's an internal moving within our hearts, a moving of delight, and of passion, and of love, and of faith. We believe what we've heard is true, but that's not all, it moves us, doesn't it? It makes us joyful, it moves us emotionally. That's the inside. But now as we get to Romans 12:1-2, and really Romans 12-16, now we're asking the question, What should we do with our bodies? How can we live? And worship is both of those, isn't it? God has revealed himself to us in the Word, and then there's an internal transformation of joy and faith, and then there's an external pattern of life, and all of that is worship. Now, we live in a world full of worship, don't we? People are naturally going to worship something. We're religious, by nature. I know that there are some that have been trained in the halls of academia and higher education that claim to be atheists, and I think they are just aggressively suppressing the truth and unrighteousness within themselves that there is a great and a powerful spiritual being, God the creator. For the most part, human beings are religious, and around the world, they're going to find some way to express worship. Now these are, for the most part, man-made expressions of worship, aren't they? You look for example at the Hindus that travel as pilgrims to the River Ganges, which is a really foul place, it's been polluted, and yet that has specific religious significance and they're willing to go in and wash in the River Ganges because it's an act of their Hindu faith. Along the way, they're going to be doing little acts of worship and sacrifice called pooja to some of the millions of Hindu deities. They are religious people. The Muslims, for example will, five times a day, pray toward Mecca in a certain pattern, whether standing, kneeling, lying prostrate back up, and patterns of prayer that they learn from an early age. Once in their lifetime, they hope to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. And there, sometimes you've seen pictures of Muslims bowing down in concentric circles around the Kaaba stone, which is a stone that Muslim faith says came down from heaven pure white, but then was turned black through human sin. In the remote jungles of Irian Jaya, there are stone age tribes that worship their multiple deities, along the patterns that they learned from their ancestors, handed down from generation to generation. So, we human beings, we are religious. Even when in Christian circles, there are all different kinds of worship. Orthodox churches are filled with ornate and beautiful paintings, there are icons covered in gold which they say help them to worship. Roman Catholic worship focuses on the mass, the sacrifice of the mass, and the focal point is the taking of the Lord's supper. Lutheran services look somewhat similar to Roman Catholic services but they focus on the preaching of the Word. The Anglican services follow a pattern laid down by the Book of Common Prayer. Pentecostal services, if you've ever been to one, are exciting, stimulating times in which the gifts of the Spirit are being used. So they teach in open ways the speaking of tongues, dancing in the aisles. If you like to do that while I'm preaching, feel free. I don't think... You'd be the first in years here, but that's the kind of worship they do there.There's all different kinds of Christian worship. I'm not going to join you if you do that, but I will watch. Is that alright? But all different kinds of worship and there are different patterns of worship, even within the evangelical movement, there are seeker sensitive churches that use contemporary music and other types of patterns to make the service attractive to unbelievers, all the way to perhaps another extreme of folks that would only sing psalms without musical instruments. All of these within the array of evangelical faith. There are all different kinds of worship, but I say to you that as we look at the doxology last week with the "Oh," that Paul says, the deep passion for God and for doctrine, and the God of the Bible, combined with what we have in Romans 12:1-2, we have here, I believe, the highest expression of Christian worship you will ever find, and everything else pales in comparison with what Paul tells us to do here in Romans 12:1-2, this is worship. Paul says, "I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercies, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will." I. The Application of Christian Doctrine Now we have had 11 chapters of some of the deepest doctrine you will ever hear. Now, Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one of my heroes, he preached 297 sermons in those 11 chapters. I'm less than that. I know some of you don't believe that, but it's true, fewer than that, but still a lot of foundation has been laid. Along the way, as you'll read in Romans 1-11, you will not see a lot of commands. From time to time, there are some commands right in the middle of chapter 6 or some other places, there'll be some commands. But for the most part, Paul has just been laying out what is, what is the truth, what has Christ done, what is the significance of it, who are we in Christ, how are we saved. These are just truths, it's doctrine, it's a foundation. But now we come to that great question that Francis Schaeffer asked so many years ago, How then shall we live? Now as a preacher who has been preaching in Romans, I couldn't wait till chapter 12 to answer that question. So every sermon, I tried to stop and say, "Okay, based on what we've learned, how then shall we live?" Some sections of Romans, it's harder to do than others. Some are just very theological and theoretical and it's hard to know exactly how we're to live. But Romans 12-16 is Paul's application to the Christian message. This is his answer to the question of, "How shall we live?" Now, the beautiful thing here as we look at it, Christianity is not merely a way of thinking, neither is it merely a way of living. It is both, friends. It is both. And the pattern that Paul sets for us is, first, we must understand then we can live. It's not a kind of a cut flower morality or ethical system, which isn't connected or rooted to anything. Like for example, Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. I love Benjamin Franklin, what an interesting man living in the 18th century. He was a printer by trade and he printed something called Poor Richard's Almanack and in it were little proverbs of practical wisdom. You know probably many of them by heart. "A stitch in time saves nine." In other words, try to address a situation before it gets worse. "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." These are just basic everyday life ethics, but it's not connected to the system of doctrine that Christianity is. He was not a believer in Christ and was not trying to connect his ethical approach to the Christian message. Well, Paul doesn't do that. There's a lot of moralistic systems. Even now, you can listen to business speakers or head coaches that win championships, giving you the top 10 tips on practical daily living, that kind of thing, and people will flock to listen to these folks, and they can command $10,000 or more to tell you how to live your lives. I think we've got it for free here in the Bible, let's just read it. Read 11 chapters of Godly doctrine and then he'll tell you what to do. It's going to get very practical. Romans 12, Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, treat your enemies in this way, do this with government. He's just going to be going through all of these topics. Romans 12-16, He's going to be telling us how we should live, and so therefore, I'm advocating today a balanced Christian life. And by that, what I mean is, we should not be concerned with doctrine apart from application and nor should we be concerned with application apart from the doctrinal base. Let's follow what Paul has done, 11 chapters of basis now gives way to some of the most practical insights you'll ever have on how to live your life everyday. So, here we get where the rubber meets the road. Romans 12:1-2, He's going to be starting the whole thing off with this issue of presentation, presenting yourself, and that's what we're looking at this week and the next time as well. Presenting yourself body, soul, mind, will, everything; presented to Christ, presented to God. In Romans 12:3-8, He's going to be teaching us about spiritual gifts. That's going to be an incredible study. I believe everybody is given a spiritual gift and you've got a role to play in the body of Christ. We'll be talking about that. Romans 12:9-21 is just, as I said, very practical applications on how to live your life, a life of love with others, even with your enemies, how to live with others. Romans 13:1-7, that's going to be the Christian and government. Payment of taxes. What is government ? How do we submit to government? He'll be talking about that. The rest of that chapter is again this issue of love for others, with a special application on personal holiness. Personal holiness. Chapter 14 and on into chapter 15, very important chapter on Christians getting along with each other in the Christian body and not dividing over debatable issues, learning to accept somebody else's servant if he has a different conviction on a debatable issue. Very important in the Christian life. We'll be looking at that in chapter 14 and on into 15. Chapter 15 and the rest of that chapter, He's basically talking about the Jew-Gentile unity issue and how Jews and Gentiles together can be an offering up to God, a sacrifice of praise for him. Chapter 16, a bunch of greetings to people, you probably have never heard of, some of them you have, that is as practical and beautiful as you can imagine, and there's lots of truth there in chapter 16. Friends, this is where the rubber meets the road, and we begin with Romans 12:1-2, the most important of them all. II. You Already Presented Your Souls... Or You Can’t Proceed Now, I want to start from this place. The whole thing is a presentation. If you don't get anything else, get this, God is calling on you to present yourself to Him and He's calling on you to do that everyday. He's calling on you to do that in every way. He's calling on you to present yourself completely to God. That's what He's calling on you to do. Now, I say you must have already presented your soul to Christ or you can't go on. None of the rest of it will matter, you have to have presented your soul to Christ and that is, I believe, in Paul's view when he says, "Therefore brothers," speaking to brothers in Christ, "Therefore brothers, in view of God's mercies," what God has already worked in your life, the central mercy of God, the central mercy of God is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The central mercy of God is the forgiveness of sins through repentance and faith in Christ. It says in Romans 9:15-16, he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy, and it is the mercy of God in saving our souls that I have in mind. Now, Romans 12:1, it doesn't come across in all the translations but it is plural. For example, the ESV says, "I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God." It's not just one mercy, it's a whole rainbow of mercies, a whole array of mercies that God has given us and is giving us. But the central is, that the human soul corrupted by sin, enslaved to sin can actually be forgiven in the sight of Almighty God and restored into a right relationship with Him. We call that justification. We think about what Jesus taught, concerning this matter. In Luke 18, he said the tax collector stood at a distance and he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "Be merciful to me, a sinner." "And I tell you, [Jesus said] that this man rather than the other went home justified by God." So we were talking about justification by the mercy of God, and in that you presented your soul by faith, and you are in a right relationship with God. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Isn't that beautiful? To just know that God is at peace with you through Jesus Christ, that there's no outstanding debt to be paid, that your sins are forgiven. That is the central mercy of the gospel. Now at that time, you presented your soul to Christ. Jesus said, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" You don't want to lose your soul so you entrusted it to the Savior, and he the Savior of your soul took your soul at that moment, it is his. And at that moment, your soul became his possession and that gladly, you were glad to have it because he made it. He's the one that gave it to you. By faith, you were saying, "My soul is your possession forever." Friends, you do this once for all time, there's no need to do this in an ongoing sense you need to be saved. You need to repent and trust in Jesus. You need to present your soul to Christ. And that's once for all time. I think, however, there is an ongoing motivation in the Christian life here as well. All it says is, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God." Here's the thing. I think we have already received mercies from God, haven't we? If we're Christians, we have already received mercies from God. But my question is, is that it? Are there any more mercies yet to come? I would say yes and yes and yes, everyday a display of the mercy of God. One of my favorite verses about this, I just love, is Lamentations 3:22-23. It says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." And so, I think this is the foundation. We expect to get more mercy. Sometimes we feel like, "God why would you want my body? I'm defiled, I'm sinful." And you need to have confidence that God will, in an ongoing sense, be merciful to you so you can present yourself to him, that there's more mercies yet to come. So yes, look back at the mercies you've already received. Rejoice in them, delight in them, but there's still more mercies yet to come. And I believe God's going to be raining and showering mercy on you as a Christian from now until the day you die, and that mercy is going to get you all the way to heaven. And so in view of God's mercy, confident in God's mercy, he then gives us this command. III. Present Your Body Now what is the command he gives? Well, he tells us that we should present our bodies. "I appeal to you brothers, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies" he says. Now this is amazing! We believe in a spiritual God, He's not made of material stuff. Jesus told us, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. You might think what does this body of mine have to do with worship? Some people are proud of their bodies. A vanishingly small number of people are proud of their bodies. The rest, not so much. And you may think why would God want this thing? Why would he want my body? But God does want your body. Oliver Cromwell who was the Lord Protector of England in the 17th century was sitting for a portrait, and apparently he was not a handsome man. He had pronounced warts, for example, and the painter said, "We can do amazing things with paint, like just not paint certain things." He said, "No, paint it all, warts and all." It's a very famous saying, "Warts and all." So you may say, "Does God really want my body, warts and all?" I say to you, he does. He wants you to present your body to Him, warts and all, everything. Now, Scripture has a remarkable ambivalence about our bodies. By that I mean there are some things very negatively said about the body and some things more positively said. Our bodies were originally created in the image of God, holy and blameless before the fall, but they were corrupted by the fall badly. They are headed for the grave where they will meet corruption head-on. And we know that. Our bodies are programmed by habits of sin, and so we can talk about this body of sin or the body of death, and that's a big problem. Paul says he beats his body and makes it a slave so He's almost suspicious of his body, it's a problem for him to some degree and yet he says in another place, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. And they are the only vehicle we have to serve Christ in this physical world. And so there's an ambivalence about our bodies. There are problems, but then there are these blessings. God wants us to present our bodies to him. Present: To Put at One’s Disposal Now, what does that mean, present? What does it mean to present your body? Romans 6:13-14 already covered this, and just listen to the verses, you can study it another time, but Romans 6:13-14 says, "Do not offer," or "do not present," "the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness, for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." That's the same teaching, we have here. There's a direct connection between what's taught in Romans 6 and what's being taught here in Romans 12. It's the idea of presenting your body, specifically presenting the members of your body, the parts of your body to God. Now, I think the best picture I've ever found of this, and it's stuck with me ever since the day I learned it, and I hope it'll help you, is the picture we get the night that Jesus was arrested. In Matthew 26, the account is told of Jesus being arrested and they send a detachment of soldiers, that may have been as many as 600 soldiers, to go arrest Jesus with torches, lanterns and weapons. You know that just at the moment that he was about to be arrested, Peter tried to save Jesus's life. What an interesting moment. When I get to Heaven, I'll say, "Peter, what were you thinking?" Of course He's going to say to me that about a thousand times more than I'm going to say it to him, so fair's fair, but I think I'm willing to pay the price to ask him. What were you thinking? And Jesus deals with Peter and you remember he says an array of things, but it culminates in this, he says this. "Do you think I cannot call on my Father," listen, "And he would at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels." That's the exact same Greek word we've got here, 12:1. "Put at my disposal," Jesus said. Now, let me ask a question. With what attitude would the angels come down from heaven, if Jesus had asked for them? Would they not come and say, "Reporting for duty, sir, what do you want?" "See those 600 men over there? They're a problem to me." "No problem to us, Lord, we'll take care of them." Would they question the Lord in any way? They would be ready to do gladly anything Jesus commanded them to do. They are servants, they are ready to serve. And the angels are always like that. It wouldn't have been unusual in the garden in Gethsemane. They are always ready to serve even in the Book of Revelation, when it involves pouring out bowls of wrath and a third of mankind dies. They will do anything God tells them to do because they totally trust Almighty God, and well they should. He is a perfect being, righteous in all he does. And so the angels are ready to obey all the way, right away, with a happy spirit. That's what they do. And they would have come, and been put at Jesus's disposal. In other words, the Father would have said, "Jesus, they are yours to command, whatever you say they will do." That is what Paul is urging us to do with our bodies, present them to Jesus for his command, offer them to him as your personal commanding officer. Now, you might say, "How do I do this?" Well, I think you ought to begin every day in your quiet time, with a simple prayer like this, "Lord Jesus, I am yours. You bought me with the price of your blood. I belong to you, I am under obligation to you. I am yours." And that's a beautiful thing, isn't it? Isn't it beautiful to say to Jesus, "I am yours, you bought me." "I am a bond-servant of Christ," as the Apostle Paul said. You present your whole self and I think you should do it every morning in your quiet time. You offer your whole self to him. But I actually think you ought to go beyond that and you ought to offer the parts of your body to him in prayer as well. I don't think you have to do this every day, but I think it's helpful to say, "Lord, my mouth is yours, I pray that I would speak words that only glorify you, and build the body of Christ up today. Lord, my hands are yours, I pray that they would only do things that I'll be glad they did on Judgement Day. I want my hands to be instruments of righteousness, not of wickedness. I want my feet to carry me in the places where you want me to serve, that's where I want to walk, nowhere else." You're just presenting the parts of your body. And there's nothing strange about this, the Lord made it. Remember what we learned in the doxology, from him and through him and to him are all things. Those parts of your body, they belong to him anyway, you're just offering to him, what's already his. Say, "Lord, I want my ears to be yours today, I want to listen to the Word of God. I want to listen to other people talk so carefully that I can discern what their needs are, and find out how I can minister. I want my ears to be yours, Lord. I want my fingers to be used, I want my stomach only to be used for your glory, I don't want my stomach to be my god, my appetites to be my god, I want everything in my body to be yours for your glory." I think this is exactly what Frances Ridley Havergal did in her hymn Take My Life and Let It Be. She goes through every part of her life and just offers it up to God, as a sacrifice to him. Now, notice that it says "living sacrifices." Have you wondered what that means to offer your body to him as a living sacrifice? Well, we know that sacrificial imagery is powerful throughout the Bible. I mean, right from the very, in my opinion, right from the very beginning when sin entered the world, so did sacrifice, right away. Because God clothed the naked Adam and Eve with animal skins that he got from what I believe is the first sacrifice. Then Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did, it was an animal sacrifice. Noah offered some of those seven clean animals that he took on the ark, and God smelled the fragrant aroma after the flood and swore in his heart, "Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. We know the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they set up altars wherever they went, and they offered up sacrifices. We know that God commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, so we understand sacrifice. Now, I've taught before here that the sacrificial system is one of the clearest ways of understanding what Jesus did on the cross. There are lessons of the sacrificial system that lead you right to the cross of Jesus Christ, don't they? All sin deserves the death penalty. The death penalty can be paid by a substitute and the substitute cannot be an animal. We're waiting for Jesus. And then Jesus comes and John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," all of that points to the cross. But I'm saying to you now that the sacrificial system teaches us also how we live after we've come to faith in Christ. We are to see our lives as a sacrifice, we are to offer a sacrifice to God. A Living Sacrifice Now, what is a living sacrifice? Well, the animals were put on the altar and they were killed once and that was it, you gave them once, they died once and that was it, it was finished. God is actually commanding us to something even higher here, you are to kind of go on being a sacrifice the rest of your life. It's kind of like a constant death and life issue. We're constantly giving ourselves over to death so that we may live with God every moment. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, think about what Jesus said in Luke 9:23-24, Jesus said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." So there's an ongoing living pattern of, "Not my will but yours be done, Lord. I'm willing to die." He tells you to go witness to somebody and you don't want to do it and He's like, "Oh, it's so tough, you die to yourself, you take up the cross, you're a living sacrifice, you go." He wants you to put a certain pattern of sin to death, it's hard to do, it hurts, it's difficult. He wants you to die to yourself and to do what God calls you to do. He calls on you to fast and pray for some issue. It's hard for you to do. All day long, you feel those hunger pains, but you're dying to yourself, you're a living sacrifice, taking up your cross and following Jesus. Amy Carmichael, the great missionary in India, who worked with young girls that she was helping to rescue from temple prostitution, working with orphans in India did a great work. Her biography was written by Elizabeth Elliot, entitled A Chance to Die. And I think Amy Carmichael and all the missionaries that worked, and she had a rigorous application process. If you wanted go work with Amy Carmichael, you had to go through lots of process to join her in her work. She basically only wanted people there that saw the ministry as exactly that, a chance to die. A chance to die. And what I say is that every morning, God's mercies are new, but so also are the opportunities to die to yourself and live for God. And if you do that, if you will be a living sacrifice, you will find your life, but if on the other hand you refuse, you shrink back, you will lose your life. That's what the Apostle Paul said, that's what Jesus said, that's what we're learning here. A living sacrifice is much more costly than a dead one, isn't it? Well, that's once and you never see that animal again. It might have hurt a little bit, said, it's a sacrifice, like David said, "I will not offer to God a sacrifice that costs me nothing," but even a bull, you just pay it once and it's done. He's asking for an ongoing gift of yourself to him every moment. And he says it must be holy and pleasing to God, without blemish, pure and holy. We have to free our bodies from everything that defiles and contaminates them. It's got to be holy and pleasing to God or we cannot offer them, I think about 2 Corinthians 7:1, it says, "Therefore since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." You got to detoxify yourself. We are surrounded by spiritual and physical toxins, and we are to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. I think it's not long before any of us thinking about this topic knows that we're at least talking in part about sexual purity. We live in a sex-crazed culture. There's internet pornography, there are movies and there are just images around all the time, that pull us toward immorality. We are called on to be holy, holy in our bodies, holy in our minds and that's what he wants, living sacrifice, and he calls it our spiritual act of worship, this act of worship is the basic act of worship that God is calling on you to give. Now, believe me, I am not minimizing what we come to do here on a Sunday morning. Not at all. It is so important what we do, the singing we do, the listening to the Scripture, the prayers, everything, even now, the hearing of the Word, all these things are important. But if you want to ask, "How can I worship God," Romans 12:1-2 is telling you how to do it. Present your body to him, that is worship. Spiritual Act of Worship Now, it says your spiritual act of worship, the Greek word is interesting, it's related to the English word "logic," and sometimes it says "reasonable act of worship" or a "logical act," other times, "spiritual act." Basically, I think the idea is that this is what makes sense in the spiritual realm, this is the sacrifice that makes sense for you as a Christian. That is your spiritual act of worship. Now, behind all of this is a phenomenal concept that has not been well understood for most of the history of the Christian church, but I think the Reformation made a major shift and helped us to understand, and that is this basic idea, this is huge. All of life is sacred. There's not a difference between things that God cares about and things he doesn't. Things that are more holy to God than other things. All of it is sacred. No, don't misunderstand, I'm not saying there's no sin in the world, I'm just saying that there's no forum or no place where you can't be sacred in that forum. All of it is a possibility. Now, in ancient Israel, you know that the 12 tribes entered the Promised Land and each one of those tribes got a physical inheritance, a chunk of land that would be their inheritance, except one. Do you know what tribe did not get a physical inheritance? It was the tribe of Levi, the Levites. What did they get? They got the sacrificial system, that was their inheritance. They got to offer the sacrifices, they got to eat the meat that came with that, they got small parts of land that they could live on, but they didn't get a chunk of inheritance the way everybody else did. And that was considered an honor, that the Levites got the sacrificial system and within them, the line of Aaron, they were the high priests and they got to offer up the sacrifices, but the Levites as a whole, their inheritance was this act of worship, this sacrificial system. But from that, came a bifurcation in Israel between the sacred and the common. And therefore those that were involved in holy pursuits, reading the scriptures, praying, offering sacrifices, they were at a higher plane spiritually than the common folks. You see this attitude in John's Gospel when the Jewish leaders are saying something like this, "This mass of people that knows nothing about the law, there's a curse on them." They looked on themselves as higher and better. In Roman Catholicism, medieval Catholicism, that got embraced. There was the priestly class, you had priests, nuns, monks, and all that. They would separate themselves out from everyday life, and they would live in monasteries or they'd live in cloisters and they would live out their holy lives in that way. The medieval Roman Catholic historian Eusebius said it this way. "Two ways of life were given by law of Christ to his church. The one is above nature and beyond common human living. Wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone. Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life and the other more humble, more human permits men to have minds for farming, for trade and for other more secular interests as well as for religion, and a kind of secondary grade of piety is given to them." Do you see the difference? You got your really holy people, the priests, the nuns, the monks, all the way up to archbishops and the popes and all that, and then you got everybody else, and they're at a lower level in terms of spirituality. That is not in the Bible. If God wants you to present your physical body as a living sacrifice, that means that everything your body is involved in can be worship. All of it. I would argue it must be worship. In those cloisters, the monasteries and all that, they divided up the tasks between the sacred and the profane. There were the sacred tasks, reading the scripture, chanting, prayer, the Lord's supper. The profane tasks, common tasks, were farming, washing the dishes, preparing meals, eating, all of those things were lower. Even worse were those people that spent their whole lives doing those things, they were profane people, common people. The Reformation came along and said, "Enough of that. It's not biblical." Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, they recovered this vision. Look at this, William Tyndale said this, "If we look externally, there is a difference betwixt washing of dishes and preaching of the Word of God, but as touching to please God none at all." That is powerful, that's powerful. Williams Perkins put it this way, "The action of a shepherd in keeping sheep is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving sentence or of a magistrate in ruling or a minister in preaching." That means everything in life can be sacred, everything you do can and should be an act of worship to God. The key verse for this, in my opinion, is 1 Corinthians 10:31. It says there, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God." Now, my friends, I'm going to get as practical as I possibly can get. Can you eat a ham sandwich to the glory of God? Can you do it? Go on, nod or shake, what do you think, yes, or no? Is it possible to eat a ham sandwich to the glory of God? I say it is. As a matter of fact, if you're going to eat a ham sandwich, go ahead and do it to the glory of God, or don't do it at all. Can you wash the dishes to the glory of God? Yes. Does everyone who wash his dishes do so to the glory of God? I myself have washed dishes, not to the glory of God. It can be done, but I have done it the other way, occasionally. Ask my wife, or don't. I mean, she'll tell the truth, sometimes I wash dishes to the glory of God, and sometimes I don't, but I can do it always to the glory of God. I can cut my finger nails to the glory of God. Not right now, but I can do it at other times. I can dust a book shelf to the glory of God, I can make a phone call, I can pay a bill, I can put a vacuum cleaner away to the glory of God, I can get my tires rotated to the glory of God, I can exercise to the glory of God, I can go on a diet to the glory of God, I can eat a Thanksgiving feast to the glory of God. I can do all of these things to the glory of God, because there's not a separation between the sacred and the profane. It doesn't exist. There's just a difference between whether you're doing something to the glory of God or not. You are to be constantly a living sacrifice. Now, what's the key? IV. Present Your Mind The key has to do with the mind and we don't have time today. I decided a while ago we had to do it in two messages. You have to do it by presenting your mind. It's the way you think, it has to do with the way you think, and we're going to talk about that next time. You've got to present your mind to God, and it has to do with what's affecting you. You can either present your mind to the surrounding culture and be polluted by it, or you can present your mind to God through his Word and be transformed by it. But it's the presentation of the mind, and from that comes a presentation of the will. I will choose to do what God wills for me to do. V. Application: Are You Presenting Yourself? Okay, so we come to the application of the sermon, that means we're done. Because I've done nothing but application this whole time. Well, let me ask a basic question, "Are you doing this? Are you presenting your bodies as living sacrifices? Are you presenting every moment of your life, are you presenting your hands, your mouth, your eyes, everything to God as a living sacrifice, are you living this kind of a life? Are you spending your money to the glory of God or not spending it? Are you praying to the glory of God or not? Are you interacting with other people to the glory of God or not?" Everything can be his. There's no such thing as sacred or profane. Offer yourselves to him, as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of your body to him as instruments of righteousness, for sin shall not be your master, because you're not under law, but under grace. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Romans 10:14-15. The main subject of the sermon is how salvation will reach the ends of the earth by God's power. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Dramatic Moment in the History of Missions I think every preacher would like to preach just one time in their life something that would be called a deathless sermon, a sermon that lives in the minds and the hearts of the hearers. I know, as the pastor of a local church seeking to minister the word of God in week after week after week, that you can't rise to those heights every week. It's enough just faithfully to open the word and share those things that would be beneficial and strengthening to the body. I do not, therefore, promise that every sermon will be better than the previous one. I can't keep that up for long. But there was a dramatic moment in the history of missions, the history of the church, on Wednesday, May 30, 1792, when William Carey preached what came to be known as the 'Deathless sermon.' He was at a missions conference in Nottingham, England and he preached based on Isaiah 54:2-3. Earlier that year, he had written a seminal work, an incredible work on missions called An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Basically, Christians ought to do what they can and show great effort and ingenuity towards the salvation of those who've never heard the Gospel. And that was radical and revolutionary for Protestants at his time. Now he gets up to preach this deathless sermon, and it came in basically two points, a two-point outline. Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. And his application was missions. Now the ministry of William Carey in 1792 was directed toward one end, and that was dispelling attacks against the missionary ideal. There were people, Protestants, in this age that said that we don't need to be involved in missions. Specifically, some ministers who held in a strong way to the overall sovereignty of God over all things. God rules over all things. Their application of that is, therefore we don't need to be involved in missions. And so William Carey is seeking to defend the concept that we need to be willing to go even to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel with those who haven't heard. I believe that's exactly what the apostle Paul's doing here in Romans 10 as well. Because his ministry was also being attacked, viciously attacked by the Jews of his age. They were vigorously against his preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And so Paul here is giving, I think, a defense for his ministry. And in so doing he gives us really, I think, a timeless defense of cross-cultural evangelism and missions, the imperative that we have to go even to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel. Look what it says. You've just heard it read, but the beginning of verse 13, "'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.'" Redemption Accomplished and Applied When I was in seminary I read an incredible book on the theology of salvation. It was written by John Murray and was called Redemption Accomplished and Applied. We believe that the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross of Calvary, was sufficient for the sins of all people of all times. There's nothing deficient in the shedding of the blood of Christ, nothing incomplete in it. And when he said, "It is finished", that part of the redemptive plan of God was finished, but the redemptive history was not. There was still the need to take that blood of Christ and apply it to lost people, for their individual and personal salvation. And that's been the story of the church for the last 2,000 years. Redemption was accomplished by Jesus Christ, now it's being applied by the Holy Spirit through the church. And what a glorious story it's been, it's an incredible journey. Jesus laid out the road map. Already had it been laid out in the Old Testament, and he just merely, after his resurrection, in the short 40 days he had with his disciples after he rose from the dead and before he ascended to the right hand of God Almighty, he spent some time with his disciples and trained them and taught them in what their work was going to be now. And it says in Luke 24:46-48. "He told them, 'This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.'" Brothers and sisters, the journey from Jerusalem to Irian Jaya has been the most glorious journey in human history. It's a journey of blood and toil and tears and courage, a journey of death, of martyrdom, of ingenuity and creativity, a journey of love. And it's been remarkable. It's a story, the apostles, who, tradition has them going as far east as India, as far south as the Sudan, as far west as Spain, as far north as Cyrenae, Central Asia. The apostles, that first generation, traveled all around, and all of them paid for their ministry with their lives, except the apostle John, who died in exile at Patmos. And from the apostolic age until today, the Gospel has traveled across mountain ranges, raging white water rivers and burning sands of the desert, tundra, jungles, oceans to reach the ends of the earth, and it's been incredible. The Theological Underpinnings of the Long March of the Gospel Now I think the long march of the Gospel is worth studying. But I think it's also vital for us to understand the theological underpinnings of why it was right to go. Those questions are still in front of us today as they were in William Carey's era. We still need to have a defense for cross-cultural missions. We need to have a defense for it in our pluralistic age in which people doubt the idea of absolute truth, and therefore would definitely doubt the missionary endeavor. They would say, "Why in the world would you want to export something like that to the ends of the earth?" And so we have to make a defense. But it's always been that way even in Baptist history. One of the shocking things I learned in the last four or five years about Baptist history is there was something called the anti-missions movement in the 19th century, and a number of churches were against the organization of Baptist churches for the purpose of missions. That was the beginning of the Southern Baptist denomination, was that individual churches be organized for the purpose of great commission work. But there was a backlash movement that said, "We don't need to be doing that." Frequently, the churches espousing this were talking about the absolute sovereignty of God, and that there was no need for us to get involved in that. And they didn't want to contribute any money to missions. And so, for all time in history, we have had to defend the missionary endeavor, to defend it. The apostle Paul had to do it. Just to set some context here, in Romans 9-11. The apostle Paul is dealing with the problem of the Jews, his own countrymen, who were almost universally rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that was greatly troubling to the apostle Paul, greatly troubling. And so he's dealing with that question. And in the middle of that whole section, Romans 9-11, he's dealing with, I think, the fact that part of their bitter opposition to the Gospel was their bitter opposition of Paul's ministry to the Gentiles. They hated the idea that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had any saving intent toward the Gentiles. It bothered them. And so they opposed his preaching to the Gentiles vigorously. A good example, this is just a little note of Paul's life and ministry, and that is his ministry to the Thessalonian Jews and then in Berea, and then what happened after that. Just a little slice of the Book of Acts and 1 Thessalonians 2, it says in Acts 17:13, "When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there, too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up." You could almost ask some of these Jews, "What's your occupation or hobby, or what do you like to do?" "I like to follow Paul around everywhere he goes, and stir up mob scenes against him." They were against his preaching ministry. And they left behind their own work and their own lives so that they could pursue Paul and make trouble for him everywhere he went. And Paul talks about it in the 1 Thessalonians 2, he said, "You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches in Judea, suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets and also drove us out. They displeased God and are hostile to all men, listen, in their effort to keep us from speaking to the gentiles, so that they may be saved." So they were bitterly against Paul's missionary efforts toward the Gentiles, and I think what Paul's doing here, in Romans 10:13-15 is he's defending his ministry, as the apostle to the gentiles, concerning the preaching of the Gospel. But he's doing more than that, because he's giving a kind of a universal rationale for the preaching of the gospel to anybody, Jew or Gentile. Everybody gets saved the same way. That's what we talked about last time, in verse 13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved," Jew or Gentile, and therefore, we must preach. The Gospel must be proclaimed or people cannot be saved." I. A Glorious Chain of Questions Now, Paul is defending his minister and he does so with a glorious chain of questions. You see it there in verses 13-15. He begins with the basis. Theologically, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's how we get saved. Just by way of review, we talked about this over the last two weeks. What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Well, the analogy I use last week is of a drowning man or woman, they're not going to just out of pride, they're not going to say anything until they are convinced that they're drowning, because it's just embarrassing. And so somebody who calls on the name of the Lord is stripped of any self-illusions that they can save themselves, any illusions of their own righteousness they realize they cannot, they will not be saved unless Jesus saves. And so they call in Christ's name. Now what does it mean to call in his name? Well, it means to acknowledge what has been revealed about the Lord. What is his character? What are his great acts in history and what are his promises? That's what we talked about, to call in the name of the Lord, to call on his character, to call on his acts in history, to call on his promises and say, "Lord, what you have done for them in the past, do it for me now, save my soul." Well, that's what it means to call on the name of the Lord. Now, Paul digs a little deeper concerning that process and in so doing, he's defending the ministry of the Gospel, he's defending missions, he's defending evangelism, and he does it with a glorious chain of questions. Verse 14, "How then can they call on the one they have not believed in, and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard, and how can they hear without someone preaching to them, and how can they preach unless they are sent?" Now, all of these questions are what we call rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions are questions that are asked for an effect in an argument. When you're making a presentation generally, they're questions that everyone knows the answer to, but you ask the question to draw the audience into your way of thinking, to kind of make them say back what it is that you see to be the truth. And so he's asking questions that everyone knows the answer and they all assume a negative answer like this. No one can call in somebody they don't believe in, can they? Of course not, and no one can believe in somebody of whom they've never heard, can they? Well, of course not. And how could anyone hear or know about somebody unless someone tells them. There's no way that we could understand something unless somebody tells us. And how can they be told, unless they're sent? All of these things are just assuming an answer. And in so doing, he is making a defense. Now, Paul's assumptions here are amazing, they are deep and strong and worthy of study. Look at the first one. "How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?" Basically, no one can call on someone they don't believe in, can they? That's what he's saying. What this means to me is before any one cries out to the Lord for salvation, before any sinner's prayer gets prayed, there is first justifying faith. First, the heart believes, then the call goes out. And we've learned from moments for and again and again that that's the faith that saves us, we are justified by that inside faith. When we have come to faith in Christ, the Lord sees and he justifies us, and then out comes the call in the name of the Lord. And so, you can't call in somebody you've not believed in. The call comes after the faith, the faith is the first thing then. We first believe, and then comes the call. But before the faith, you have to hear. Prior to faith is hearing. "How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" Before you can call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to hear of him, and know of his life and his saving work. We were going out yesterday and inviting people to a picnic that we're going to have today in our International Sunday School. And I was talking to a man from an East Asian nation. He'd been here for a year and I asked him if he knew about Jesus Christ and he just kind of smiled, he said, "Well, that's what people say when they get angry or hurt themselves in this country." I couldn't believe it. I said, "Well, you don't know anything else?" "No." All he knew was Jesus Christ is a swear word in America. I thought, we have a journey to travel, don't we. I didn't know how long I was going to get at his doorstep, I had, as it turned out about seven or eight minutes and I saw it to begin to tell him something about Christ, and who we believe he is. That He is God and he entered human history 2000 years ago. And he was tracking, he was saying, "Oh, what happened before that?" He said, "The history of my country goes several thousand years before that," and so I had to talk about how he had always existed but he chose in the middle of history to enter in a human body. And so we got into this discussion, so already he was starting to hear in somebody he never heard of before, but he sure couldn't call on that one until he'd heard of him. And that's what Paul is getting at. You have to hear that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, that he lived a sinless life, that he did incredible miracles, taught incredible things, that he claimed to be God in the flesh, that he was rejected by his own people, and killed for blasphemy, that he died on the cross, that he shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, he died in our place, and that God raised him from the dead on the third day. You have to have those basic facts and without those facts and the promises that are connected with it, you can't call in the name of the Lord, you can't believe in him. And so prior to faith is hearing and in Paul's flow of questions here, prior to hearing is preaching. Look at verse 14. "How can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Basically Paul's assumption here is you can't discern anything about Jesus of Nazareth from anything but preaching the preaching of the Gospel. Now, he's already told us in Romans 1:20 that you can discern a creator from creation. It says in Romans 1:20, "Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." What does that mean? By looking at a sunrise or sunset, by looking at a starry night, by looking at a majestic mountain range, or looking at an interesting bird, like an ostrich or something like that, or even looking at yourself, physically, you can discern there must be a creator and he must be powerful, and he must be loving, and he must be good, you can discern certain qualities about God, but you cannot discern Jesus Christ the redeemer by looking at physical created things. You have to be told about him. You have to be told by a preacher and without a preacher, no one will know a thing about Jesus Christ. And then the final step is prior to preaching is sending. These preachers must be sent. How can they preach unless they are sent? I believe Paul is referring initially, immediately to himself, he was a sent one to preach the Gospel, the word apostle. He's constantly referring to himself as an apostle, apostle literally means in the Greek one who is sent, a messenger of a king or a governor, sent with a message, an important message. He is a sent one. And there must be a journey traveled and there must be some news to be sent with the sent one. That's what an apostle was. Well, who does the sending? Well, the apostle Paul was very clear about this, in Galatians 1:1, this is what he says, "Paul an apostle sent not from men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead." Who sent Paul? Well, yes, the church of Antioch laid their hands on and send him off. Definitely, and they're praying for him. But it was not the church of Antioch, that sent the apostle Paul in his missionary journeys. Local churches like ours, we can get involved in seeing what God's doing in a person's life and laying hands and saying, "We're with you, we want to pray with you, we're going to join with you." But God has called these people. It is God who does the sending. It is God who sent the apostle Paul. It was God who sent Christ Jesus as the first apostle. It's called he's the apostle of our faith in Hebrews. And it says that he was sent by God the father. Listen to this, speaking of Christ. In Luke 4:42 through 44, it says, "At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them." They wanted Jesus to be their private Messiah or their private preacher and wonder worker. "Just stay here, we'll feed you well. We got a job for you here." And Jesus says, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God," that's the Gospel, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." He was a sent preacher of the Gospel sent by God the father. And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Well, in like manner, Jesus then commissioned the apostles and sent them as well. It says in Mark 3 that he designated 12 of them to be apostles that they should be with them and that he might send them to preach. They were sent out by Christ to preach. And then this is consummated after Jesus' resurrection. In John 20 Jesus said, he shows them his hands and his sides, they look at the physical evidence of his resurrection, they're overjoyed at the evidence that Jesus has defeated death. Oh, what a night to be there, the night of the resurrection, that first Sunday. What an incredible time that must have been. And Jesus giving the physical evidence of his resurrection, he said this, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Well, that's powerful, isn't it? They were commissioned to go, commissioned by Jesus himself. And then he said this, "With that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'" So the mission, they're going on as a mission, for the forgiveness of sins, they're proclaiming a gospel by which people's sins will be forgiven. Well, I think that this commission… Let's not make the mistake that some have made in church history of thinking that this commission was only for that first generation of apostles. Some have made that mistake in church history, that is false because it says in Matthew 24:14, "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Friends, is the end here yet? No, the end is not here, or we'd be in the new heavens and the new earth. You don't miss something like that, friends. We would know. Some said the end has already come. Hymenaeus and Philetus in 2 Timothy said the resurrection has already taken place. How do you make that work? It seems like everything is about like it was. Friends, the end hasn't come yet. And you know what that means? The preaching ministry isn't done yet, there's still work to be done. Another evidence is the great commission itself in Matthew 28:20 it says, "And surely I will be with you," plural, "always to the end of the age." Clearly Jesus intended a sent preaching ministry to the end of the age. You know what that means? That means some people in our generation are sent as well. I'm going to argue that if we're healthy Christians, we're all sent and that we should be saying what Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me." Give me a specific portion of this ministry of reconciliation. Give me a job to do. Give me a place in the harvest to work. I don't want to be left out. It says in Proverbs, a disgraceful son sleeps during the harvest. I don't want to be sleeping during the harvest time, I want to be involved, I don't want to be left out or left behind. I want to be involved in what you're doing, Lord. II. The Beauty of the Missionary History And so, I believe that missionary history is one of the most beautiful things there's ever been. The beauty of missionary history. Look what the Apostle Paul says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." He's quoting Isaiah here, Isaiah 52:7, which we heard read for us earlier. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" That's the message. God is sovereign, even over sin and death. Our God is a king. Repent and enter the kingdom of God, that's the message. And so Isaiah was foreseeing a day when messengers would go out all over with beautiful feet and take this incredible message, and take it to the ends of the earth. And that's being fulfilled, and has been in the last 2000 years. Now, in the ancient world when things were technologically at a different level than they are today, there were still these mighty empires. And if an emperor, a single man, wanted to control his extensive empire, he had to develop a network of communication, of couriers, and of roads, and of other things so that messages could be taken from his throne to the ends of his empire and he could receive news back, perhaps of a rebellion that's rising or some other issue in his empire. There has to be an interconnection of communication. The Roman Empire had it for sure; 51,000 miles of Roman roads. Satellite photos show that they are in some of the most efficient places in all of Europe. It's incredible what the Romans did. Some modern highways are built on those ancient Roman roads and they were such an effective form of intercommunication in the Roman Empire. So also in the new world, when Cortez landed in Mexico, he found some runners from Montezuma of the Aztecs that ran back, and within 24 hours, Montezuma had full information about Cortez, how many men he had, what he had with him, it was 260 miles away, 24 hours later. So there's this system of couriers and of messengers who take the message by foot. Nowadays, we of course have the Internet and we have cell phones and all kinds of stuff in the world to become a small place. But back then, the news traveled mostly by foot. And so it was also with the news of the resurrection of Christ, it was first carried after the angel announced it to the women, the women carried it by foot to the disciples. It says in Matthew 28:8, "So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy listened and ran to tell the disciples." So, there go the feet, running with the good news that Jesus has risen from the dead. And then there's Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, the Spirit tells him go down to the road, that desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, and he goes down and there's this Ethiopian eunuch and he's riding in a chariot, and the Spirit told Philip, "Go up to that chariot and stay near it." Well, the chariot goes on by so Philip's got to run. And so he's running and saying, "Do you understand what you're reading?" He said, "Well, come on up here and explain it to me," and he's explaining the prophecy of Isaiah about Jesus Christ. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Now, this brings us into a minor problem. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think the feet are beautiful. I don't mean any offense to any of you who may have spent between $25 and $50 beautifying your feet in the last month or more. You don't need to tell me who you are, we won't make you come up and give a testimony of the boutique you went to or what they did to try to make your feet more presentable. I'm not saying that they're not pretty, okay? Sisters, believe me, I am not trying to insult you. I definitely think that women's feet are more attractive than men's feet, so it's good that men don't show their feet as much as the women do. But you have to go a long way before feet are even worth looking at, wouldn't you agree? They're not naturally beautiful despite our best efforts, and even if you've gone to one of those boutiques and they're really looking good, relatively speaking, none of you would say, "My feet are my best feature really. I'm going to lead with my feet." Okay? Then what is Paul meaning? What is Isaiah meaning, friends? What is God meaning by this expression? The way I read it is this, the news is so good, even something as low and dirty as feet will be embraced by the people out of joy. You can almost imagine, once some people come to realize what is being preached, the danger they were in apart from Christ, and how much they have been forgiven and loved. They could fall on the ground and kiss the feet that brought that good news. I think that's what's going on here. It's not that feet are beautiful, it's that the message is beautiful, it's that the missionary heart and love is beautiful, that the willingness to suffer to bring this gospel to people who have never heard, the willingness even to be martyrs for that process is beautiful. As the Apostle Paul said, "Now I rejoice in what was suffered on your behalf and I fill up in my body what is still lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body." There's nothing lacking in the atonement, but there's still needed to be redemption, not just accomplished but applied and it takes suffering to do it, doesn't it? And he says, "I rejoice in the story, I rejoice in somebody who's willing to pay the price to bring the gospel to Colossae." That's what he's saying. And it does take suffering, friends. And you know it, and that's why some of us shrink back from getting involved. But how beautiful are the feet of those who bring this good news. III. Facing Difficult Questions What about those who have never heard the gospel? Now, this brings us into some difficult questions. For example, immediately off this text, I would think we'd come to the question, "what about those who haven't heard the gospel?" It comes right out of this in that it says, "How can they call on the one they've not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?" The two words not heard tells us there are people who have not heard. And as a matter of fact, as long as there are people who have not heard, there's still the opportunity or the possibility of preaching ministry. Jesus said in Matthew 10 when he sent them out two by two, he said, "When you are persecuted in one place, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." There's different ways to interpret that, but I say this, there will always be another hill to go across and more people to preach to until the Lord finally ends the gospel enterprise. And so there are people who have not heard of Jesus Christ. Apparently, there's some living right close to us and right close to Duke University who think that Jesus Christ is a swear word Americans say. You don't have to travel very far to share the gospel to somebody who has never heard of Jesus. Well, what about them? Well, the implication is clear, without hearing they cannot believe, and without believing they cannot be saved. And so therefore, they are lost without this gospel. They are lost. Summer of 1983, I was on an evangelism project with Campus Crusade for Christ. We were in Boston and... Actually, we were in Hampton Beach but we went down to Boston to do an outreach in Boston Common. The first time I ever preached in front of a crowd was giving my testimony and sharing the gospel in Boston Common. I thought, "Wow, if my mother could see me now, my father could see me now. What an incredible moment it was." And people are just hustling by, but some stood and listened, and I was scared out of my mind. But after that afternoon of witnessing, I found out that John McArthur was doing a Q&A, question and answer session at Tremont Temple Baptist Church just a quarter of a mile away from where we were. Starting at 7:00 o'clock that night, I was so excited. He was my mentor by radio, still is. I've seen him but I've never met him, he doesn't know me, but he's been my mentor in preaching so I wanted to go and just be part of the Q&A. Well, there are hundreds and hundreds of people there. And I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to be one of the ones to ask a question, so I went up to one of the microphones and the question I asked was the kind of question that's asked within the first year of your Christian life, "What about those who haven't heard the gospel?" Well, he gave an answer I'll never forget. I will never forget it. He said, "You want to say inside your heart that they're okay, don't you? That they're fine the way they are." He said, "But don't you understand what that does to the gospel ministry? It turns it on its head, it makes it bad news, not good news. Basically you're bringing death and destruction everywhere you go. Everybody was fine until the missionaries came. But now they came and brought us the bad news about Jesus, that if we don't believe in him we'll go to hell. We were fine before they came. That's not what it says here, it says, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news,' that means they're already condemned, they're already in great danger. And the missionaries came and freed them from it. And how great are the people's joy." Now, there's much more I can say about this question of, "What about those who haven't heard the gospel?" But at least this much I can say, they are lost apart from this message. They are lost. Now, can God do something other than by human means? He can do anything he wants. He can send an angel if he wants to. He hasn't said, "I will only do it through human beings and through the church." He hasn't said that. But as we read this series of rhetorical questions, we have to act that way, don't we? That this ministry has been committed to us, and so we must take it on. If God is Sovereign, Why is Preaching Necessary? Second question, If God is sovereign as we've read in Romans 9, if he knows who the elect are, if He's chosen them before the foundation of the world, if they most certainly will be saved as we learned in Romans 8, then why is preaching necessary? What do we need to do? And this is the angle that William Carey was facing. There was a minister that said to him a very famous quote, "Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine." Now frankly, I don't have anything, any problem with an aspect of what was said there except the word 'will.' When God pleases to convert the heathen, he can do it without your help or mine. That's true. But has he chosen to, friends? And I say he hasn't. I say he's chosen to do it, including us in the ministry of reconciliation. He's fully capable of doing it any way he chooses. So they took the sovereignty of God and applied it wrongly. God is a God not just of the end destination, but of the journey to get there, and he has ordained the clear preaching of the gospel message is the way that people are going to get saved. And Jesus put it this way very plainly, "He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." Friends, what is Jesus gathering? Is he not gathering his sheep? Is he not gathering souls into the kingdom? Is he not gathering up his wheat into his barn and gathering the good fish in baskets? Is he not gathering people for salvation? And if you're not involved in the harvest, you are actually scattering. If you're not involved in the evangelistic and missionary enterprise of Jesus Christ, you are scattering, Jesus says. He says also in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, "All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We implore you, be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." You see that? God's making his appeal through us. We're imploring and begging and pleading with sinners to come to faith. He's committed to us this ministry, this message of reconciliation. Isn’t preaching becoming obsolete? Third question. Isn't preaching becoming obsolete? We are a modern technologically advanced people who love the flash of multimedia presentations, and television commercials flash images at your eye at the rate of two or three times a second, sometimes more quickly than that. Wow! Now moviemakers are using state of the art, high-end computer, super computers to produce unreal special effects that boggle the mind and challenge the imagination and in some cases, attack the soul. But they are doing things that visually you couldn't even have imagined 10 years ago. But when you go to church, all you get is old fashioned preaching, what some people call a talking head standing behind a wooden podium and telling us how it's got to be. And we're not really like… We don't like authority. And so the whole talking head thing is probably on its way out. Isn't preaching becoming obsolete? The rest of the world knows it. Why doesn't the church know it? I heard about one church that got rid of the pulpit and set up bar stools across the front and had every week four different people come up and just share about spirituality with a cordless mic while the pastor sat cross-legged listening to them, never said a word. That's what you get on Sunday mornings at that church. Other churches they call it emerging worship, they've gotten rid of content altogether. And so you just go in for sensory experiences, like the sound of dripping water or running water or the field of silk or you get a smooth black stone and drop it in a well talking about how God has forgotten our sins and this kind of thing. So, the content's out entirely. Isn't preaching becoming obsolete? Well, no. I think in this verse it says, it implies that preaching, the communication of the gospel by verbal means will last to the end of the world. It will last to the end of the world because the content is the ground of faith. It says in Romans 10:17, Faith comes from hearing, and the message of Christ is what they hear and that is the basis of faith, is they hear this content about Jesus. Faith springs up in the heart. It's not a flashing of images on the retina. Its content communicated in this way. Is Preaching the only method that God can use? The next question is, "Well, is preaching the only method that God can use?" No, there are all kinds of incredible tract ministries and books that are printed and multimedia presentations of Christ and movies that are made and other bases for getting the word across. But I believe this, there is something powerful about a human being standing in front of another human being one on one or one in a hundred, a thousand communicating the message of the gospel. I think God has ordained to bless it and He will keep on blessing it to the end of the world. There's something incarnational about, something that we're standing in front of them and sharing with them not only a message but our lives as well. And so this kind of communication will keep on going until the end. Isn’t missions arrogant? The final question I want to answer is, "Isn't missions arrogant?" Isn't it arrogant for us to think surely we're the people and truth will die with us, they're all waiting to hear from us, those heathen. And if we just go and just share them the truth then they can be like us. Isn't that arrogant? You may hear things like this at sociology departments and other places of high education, and just our pluralistic culture is going to say, "It's arrogant, what you're doing." It was told to me, it's been told to me two or three times. It's arrogant. Well, first of all, it would be arrogant if we were preaching ourselves as savior of the world. But Paul settled that when he said in 2 Corinthians 4:5, "We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." It might be arrogant if we had concocted this gospel message, if we had written it, if we had originated it, but the Scripture says prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Friends, is it arrogant to point to the Rockies and say, "Isn't that majestic?" Is it arrogant to point at a beautiful sunset and say, "Isn't that beautiful?" This is not our truth. We inherited it 2000 years later, we just come to believe it. And part of the truth is, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so we want to gather with Jesus, and so He has sent us out to share that. This is not arrogance, it is truth. IV. Application Now, what application can we take from this? Well, first, if you have never trusted in Christ, there wouldn't be any sense of me talking about missions without directly applying the gospel to you. There is no other salvation. There's no other way to be saved. If you are trusting in something other than Jesus, you will be gravely disappointed on judgment day. Come to faith in Christ now. Believe in Him, trust in Him for the salvation of your soul. But if you are a Christian, I want to ask basically this question. William Carey said in his two-part sermon, "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God." Can I ask you a question? What great thing or things are you expecting from God over the next year? Secondly, what great thing or things have you attempted for God in the last year based on that great expectation? Thirdly, what great thing or things are you willing to do for God over the next year? He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. Are you willing to join Christ in his gathering ministry? Are you willing to do something great for him, to shake off laziness, to shake off the deception that materialism is going to satisfy, to shake off what the devil's selling us, and to join Christ in the mission field? Now, I know that some of you are not going to be called literally to get on a plane and go to some other place, but I've already shared with you, there are people right near us who need to hear the gospel. Some of them frankly are from our own culture. Are you willing to cross the street and share the gospel? Let me say something directly to us at Southern Baptist. Old Testament version of evangelizing was what we could call, come and see evangelism. Jesus spoke of this when he said about Solomon, "The queen of the south came from the ends of the earth," came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, Jesus said, and now one greater than Solomon is here. Well, the one who's greater than Solomon said, "I'm not waiting for them to come here, we're going there." And so the New Testament mission is go and tell, not come and see. Well, I fear that Southern Baptists are much more come and see evangelizers, inviting people to church, saying come, the pastor will preach a message. And so the pastor must and should preach the gospel, but most people get saved other times in the week. Are you willing to be involved at the workplace? In the neighborhood? In the halls at school at the university? Are you willing to be involved with the people you meet this upcoming week? And are you willing to expand your circle of influence so that, like Ron was saying, you can actually get involved in the great commission that God's called us to do. What great things are you expecting from God? And what great things are you willing to attempt for God? It could be that God would lead us as a church, not only to give money. At the end of the service there'll be a deacon standing at the door to give money to Hurricane Katrina victims. And not just to go to Graystone and actually bring physical stuff, but there might be a team of retired people or people who have the ability to actually go down there, bring some of those things and use it as a platform to share the gospel. That's a great thing that maybe you weren't considering doing before today. Are you willing to consider that kind of missionary life? Are you willing to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God? Close with me in prayer.

I. Introduction: The Call As I just mentioned, one of the great joys of my life is being a father. I have four children, soon to be five, and I delight in that. I try to be constantly available and accessible to my kids. But this week, as Christie was visiting her mom in St. Louis, I was unusually accessible to them. I brought my cell phone with me while I was teaching the Acts class on Wednesday night. You've probably never seen a teacher or preacher interrupt to receive a phone call. Thankfully, that didn't happen that night because the instruction I gave to Nathaniel, my oldest, is I'm to be your second call after 911, okay? So you call 911, and then after that, while the person who's bleeding or dying or whatever is being ministered to, give me a call and I'll come home. Other than that, do not call this number at least during this hour while I'm teaching. I did not bring my cell phone with me up here because I see all my loved ones in front of me and so I think I'm okay. We have never been so accessible, though, as a people. I mean, we are ready, at any moment, to receive calls and yet, conversely, we've also invented call screening so that we know who it is that's calling, and some of you may actually not receive the calls if you don't want them. I think that call screening was absolutely designed for telemarketers at dinnertime. We do screen those calls. I hate to say it, it's true, but we do not receive those calls if we can avoid them. But there are some calls that can't be avoided, or really shouldn't. There's some calls at the higher level that we shouldn't ignore. When I was a pastor up in New England, there was a volunteer fire department up there in Topsfield, and if you volunteer to be a firefighter, you couldn't ignore the call that went out. There was a certain siren they used, and if you were a volunteer firefighter, you were going to listen to that call and you were going to heed it. So also, perhaps, a wedding invitation from your best friend. You're not going to avoid that call, you're going to receive it and you're going to go, especially if you're the best man or the maid of honor. So you're going to go and receive that call. If any of you would receive a personal invitation to a dinner at the White House, would you actually contemplate not accepting that? I would go; no matter what you thought of the politics of the individual, what an experience! Just to go to the White House and sit at a dinner, that would be exciting. And then there's a subpoena from the federal court, okay? That's at a different level entirely. If you decide not to take that call, they may be sending federal marshals to come find you. So there's just different levels of calls, some of them that we want to receive and are glad to receive, others we have no choice but to receive. Let me tell you something, there's a call in Romans 9:24 that is effective and powerful and produces salvation, and if you're a Christian today, you receive that call. You were called to be a vessel of glory, you were called to be a child of God, and you were called in an effective and powerful way by God, who created the universe out of nothing, and who likens the creation of the universe out of nothing to what he does in your heart to make you a Christian, and that's a marvelous thing to contemplate, isn't it? The powerful call of God that brings you to life spiritually and makes you a child of God. And what a joy it is to study that and to understand it, and how delightful it is. II. The Context Now, let me try to set this thing in context. We've been through a lot of truth already in Romans 9, let me try to just put it in capsule form. You may wonder why I didn't do that the first time and just do it all in one message. I guess I could do that, but there's so many wonderful truths, aren't there, in Romans and we've been learning about the sovereignty and the great power of God. The issue that the apostle Paul is dealing with has to do with the promises of God. It has to do with the word of God, and he's made us some marvelous promises in Romans 1-8, and there's a resounding crescendo at the end of Romans 8, in which we are assured that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And yet here we have this terrible difficulty the apostle Paul faces concerning the Jews. As in our day, so also in his day, the overwhelming majority of Jews were rejecting Christ. The overwhelming majority of Jews were not trusting in him for their personal salvation, and that brought the word of God, it seemed, under question. Has the word of God failed for the Jews? That's the issue that Paul's wrestling with here. Very significant, and his answer, as we've seen in Romans 9:6 is, absolutely not. It is not as though God's word has failed. Well why not, Paul? Because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Come again? What he's saying is that just because you're physically descended from Abraham, you are not necessarily spiritual Israel. There are the biological descendants of Abraham and then, within it, a smaller group which he calls, in our text today, the remnant. A smaller group of people to whom the promises were savingly made. God's word to them has not failed; indeed, it cannot fail. Then he unfolds the whole mysterious doctrine of unconditional election, that we've seen, Romans 9:6-13, that whole section dealing with unconditional election and, ultimately then, after that, he deals with the issue of justice and God's freedom in doing this. Is it right and just for him to have this sovereignty, this unconditional election, is it right and just and fair? And he deals with that. Now, all of that has been a parentheses and now we're getting back to the issue of the calling of God. He mentioned it in verses 11 and 12, and he gets back to it now, here in verse 24. Now, in the verses that we're studying today, there were two remarkable shocks for the Jewish people. Shock number one was that the Gentiles are included as God's new people. That's a shock for the Jews. Very, very difficult for them to accept that the Gentiles are included, that we actually can be the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ. That's the first shock. The second shock is that many Jews are not included among the people of God, only the remnant will be saved, and that is the second shock. And he supports the first with verses, two passages from Hosea, and he supports the second with two passages from Isaiah. Now, I made six observations in this text and I'd like to unfold them briefly, each one, in our message today. The first is that there is a new people of God. There is a new people of God that is formed by the Word of God, it is the "us" of verse 24, We are the "vessels of mercy." It says "Even us." The vessels of mercy, prepared in advance for glory. Secondly, there is such a thing as the sovereign call of God that makes this new people of God come to life. It is this calling of God that produces the people of God. Thirdly, this sovereign calling of God happens within the context of a human call, a human preacher, a pastor, a missionary, a friend, a witness for Christ, who speaks the word of God and, within that, God calls individual people to repentance in faith. There is the human call of the Gospel. Fourth, some Jews and Gentiles are both included in the new people of God. We are comprised out of Jew and Gentile. "Even us," Paul says, "whom he called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." So this new people of God is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Fifth, we, both Jews and Gentiles, are called out of our ethnic group into a first and greatest allegiance to Christ. He becomes our Lord, and that heavenly country to which are going, that's our true nationality. We're merely aliens and strangers moving through here. We may be Americans, we may be Chinese, we may be Koreans, we may be Caucasian, we may be African-American, we may have all kinds of characteristics here on Earth, but we are called out of allegiance to all of those things to a primary allegiance to Christ and to the new people of God to which we belong. And then finally, sixth, we are, all of us, universally humbled by the process. God intended to save us in such a way that we would know we were saved by mercy. We were saved by grace, so nobody can boast. The Jews can't boast, the Gentiles can't boast. All of us were, at one point, not God's people. And we were, at one point, brought to be God's people, through repentance and faith in Christ. There it is, there's six points of this. III. The New People of God: “Even Us” Let's look at it a little bit more in detail. Let's look at the first one, and that is this idea of a new people of God. There is a new people of God, it is the "us" or the "even us" in verse 24, we are the ones. Now, I think if we could go back one verse, we'll get a clearer understanding of what Paul means there when he says "even us" in verse 24. Look at verse 23, "What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory, even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?" We are objects of God's mercy, we are prepared in advance for glory, what an incredible thing. We are the new people of God, and we're made up both of Jews and Gentiles, as we'll get to in a minute. Now, God has a people. There is a people that God means when he says "I will be their God and they will be my people." He has this in mind, he is always had it in mind. In Jeremiah 31:33, the prophet Jeremiah says, "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel; after that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my people." So this is the people of God, but the question is, who are the people of God? Who are God's people? And if I put in the word "chosen," God's chosen people, your first thought might be Jews, the Jews are God's chosen people. Well, the teaching that we get here in Romans nine is that that is not the case. There is a new chosen people of God that's comprised of both Jews and Gentiles together, who have come through faith in Christ. We are the new people of God. Now, God did dangle that language in front of the Jews at Sinai. In Exodus 19, God said this. "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession, although the whole Earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Did you notice the key word at the beginning there? It's the little word "if." It's conditional. "If you obey me fully… you will be my people," that's what God was saying there. Did the Jews obey God fully? While Moses was up getting the stone tablet version of the 10 Commandments that had already been preached by the mouth of God, they were already breaking it with the golden calf. They're already breaking the covenant, right away, right from the start they were breaking the covenant. Israel broke the covenant, and they didn't do it just once, they broke it again and again, repeatedly broke the covenant of God. As Jeremiah said very plainly, "They did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them, declares the Lord." They broke the covenant. Now, one prophet who had an interesting ministry, who was called on to, in some way, through his life, display this broken relationship between Israel and God, was the prophet Hosea. Now, if you think you have a tough ministry, think about Hosea. The word of the Lord comes to Hosea and he is told to marry a daughter of unfaithfulness, is what she's called in Hosea. She was a prostitute, she made her living through immorality, and Hosea the prophet, a godly man, was called to marry this woman. What an incredible calling that was. Hosea had to deal with Gomer, he had to deal with the indignities of her promiscuity, her wandering lust, her lovers and her illegitimate children. Hosea, at one point, had to hunt her down and buy her off the slave block. What a shameful, shameful relationship, to have to say, "That's my wife up there, I got to buy her back, I get to redeem her." What a sad and a shameful thing. And she conceived babies by who knows whom, and Hosea named them, appropriately, "not loved" and "not mine." Those were the names of the babies that Gomer conceived. "Not loved" and "not mine." That's who they were, and that became a symbol for Israel as a whole, they were not loved and they were not God's people. That's what was being said there in Hosea. Now God has created a new people, it is the "even us" from verse 24. We are the people of God, we are the vessels of mercy, we are the ones that are prepared in advance for glory. God has a new people and it's us and this new people is new because they include not just Jews, now, but also Gentiles, it's a new work that God is doing. Now at one point, Gentiles were excluded. I'm going to talk more about that in a minute, but Paul in Ephesians two, says that out of the two, Jew and Gentile, he's made a new thing, a new man, "one new man out of the two, thus making peace." Now, this one new man is the new people of God, and we are called new because God is doing a new thing in the world among both Jew and Gentile. We are new because both Jew and Gentile get saved by a new covenant in the blood of Christ. We are new because both Jew and Gentile get saved by being ourselves individually transformed into a new creation. We're made new through the blood of Christ, this is the new people of God. And to them, God makes his promises, to them God will keep his covenant. They are the ones that God is addressing here in Romans 9. It is for them that God pours out his love, it is in them that God works by his power, it is for them that God orchestrates history, and with them God will dwell eternally in heaven. The new people of God, "even us." Are you included? Friend, are you included in the new people of God? Are you in the "us?" Can you say "even us?" Are you included through faith in Christ? IV. The Sovereign, Effectual Call of God The second point I want to make talks about the sovereign effectual call of God. The sovereign effectual call of God. The key question is, how does this new people come to be? How are they created? Or really, we could say recreated. And the answer is, right there in the text, look at verse 24, "Even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles." It's the calling of God, the sovereign effectual calling of God. Now, he had already mentioned this back, and I said that all of the defense of his sovereignty, the justice of God and it does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God who has mercy. All of those verses, that was a big parentheses. He's bringing up unconditional election back in verses 11 and 12. Look what it says there in Romans 9:11-12. There, he's talking about not all Israel are Israel, and he brings up the case study of Jacob and Esau, the twins that are inside the same woman. And he says, "Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls," there's the word, calling, "by him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger." Now, God's purpose in election, as we studied at the time, was that he would get the glory and we get the joy. That's a good exchange, don't you think? God gets the glory because it's all his work. He gets the glory, we get saved. We get saved in a way that he gets all the glory. No flesh will boast before him, he gets the glory, that's God's purpose in election. So he's going to work in such a way that we can't boast. An unconditional election accomplishes that. Now, God's purpose in election therefore comes, listen, "not by works, but by him." Just stop right there. Remember that we said the focus is on God, there in that verse. The focus is on God, it's not by works, but it's intrinsic to God and God alone. He's not looking outside of himself to find out about election, it's all within himself. Not by works, therefore, but by him, by God. But notice that's not all it says. He doesn't stop there, he says something interesting. "Not by works, but by God" would be true, but he goes beyond it. "Not by works, but by him who calls she was told the older would serve the younger." Now, what is this calling? Well, I believe that this is a calling that creates what it calls. It's a special kind of call and it's something only God can do. Take a minute, if you would, and look back at Romans chapter 4. We've already seen this calling once in Romans, Romans 4:17. There, it's talking about the case of Abraham and how he became the father of Isaac. Isaac then becomes a picture of a child of God, Isaac becomes a picture of a believer. How did Isaac come to be? That's what Paul's wrestling with in Romans 4. Now look what at he says in verse 17, "As it is written," speaking of Abraham, "I have made you a father of many nations, he is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed." Now listen, listen to what Paul says about God, "The God who gives life to the dead, and calls things that are not as though they were." Is that not powerful? Our God is a creator. He creates out of nothing. He created the universe out of nothing. He spoke into nothing and there was something. This is the sovereign and powerful call of our Almighty God. He has the ability to call things that are not as though they were. He can do that. Now, Abraham's body, Romans 4 tells us, was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and Sarah's womb was also dead. She'd been barren all her life. And yet God spoke into that deadness, he who is able to give life to the dead, he who is able to call things that are not as though they were, and he says, "Let there be Isaac." And there was Isaac. It's a call that cannot be refused. It's a powerful call. It's an awesome call. It's a call that creates what it calls, and that's exactly what's going on here. Go back to Romans 9, look and see, "Even us," it says in Romans 9:24, "whom he also called." It's similar to what happened in John 11, when Jesus stands outside Lazarus's tomb, and he says, "Move the stone," and they moved the stone, and then what does he do? After praying to his heavenly Father, he gives a call and he says, "Lazarus, come forth." Now, you have to know that along with the vocal command comes the power to obey it. You try it, actually don't. But I mean, if you went to a tomb and said, "Come forth," they would not come. Why? Because you don't have the power to call things that are not as though they were. You don't have the power to give life to the dead, but God does. And He has the power to call to people who are not a people and make them a people, whether they're Jews or Gentiles, He can do that. Amen. He has the power to do to that, He has the power to work in your life, He has the power to work in my life, He has the power to call righteousness in my life in a place where it wasn't before. He has the power to give life to my dead body when I'm molding in the grave. He has the power to do that. He's the one who can say, "Let there be light," and there is light. It is a call that cannot be refused. It's a call that creates what it calls. And you know something? If you're a Christian here today, that's what happened to you. To glory, to God be the glory for what happened to you, that's what's happened to you. God called and created life. He who said, "'Let light shine out of darkness,' made His light shine in your hearts to give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." That's 2 Corinthians 4:6. It's the God who creates what He calls, and it's in the call that He does the creating. Now, some theologians have called this irresistible grace. You know something? I don't quibble with it. How does the darkness resist the light that God created? "No, I'm just not going to be light. I just won't." Or, "I'll think about it, I'll get back to you, God, on the light thing, okay?" No, He says, "Let there be light," and there is light. And He speaks into your dark heart and He says, "Let there be the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ," and there is. That's what God can do, that's called being born again. You can't refuse it, and so that's why theologians call it irresistible grace. But I don't like it because it gives the image that people are being dragged, kicking and screaming like robots into the kingdom. "Oh, I hate this stuff, you know, I hate these holy rollers, these Bible thumpers. Why would I want to spend eternity with them?" And in that condition they're dragged in and here they are. "I didn't want to be here, but here I am. Irresistible grace. What could I do? Hog-tied and dragged." That is not the correct picture. What I like to think of instead is effectual grace, that God sends forth His word and it creates that which it was intended to create. Frankly, it's really healing that which was broken by sin. What could be more desirable than Christ? Tell me, what could be more appealing, more enticing, more beautiful, and more wonderful? But it's the sinner that says, "I'm not interested in Christ." God heals that by His powerful call, effectual calling. V. The Human Call of the Gospel Thirdly, we see that it comes in the human call of the Gospel. Now, you don't see it here, if you're saying, "Well, then why are you mentioning it?" Well, because I think it goes together with this word 'call'. We're going to see it much more in Romans 10. Go over one more chapter, Romans 10. And there in Romans 10:13-15, talks about a different call, not the one I have in mind right now, but a different call. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." That's the sinner calling out on Christ saying, "Save me Jesus, save me from sin." That's the call, and everyone who does that will be saved. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But then Paul goes on in verse 14, "How then can they call the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.'" You know what that's talking about? That's talking about the human preaching of the Gospel. It's happening right here, right now, in this pulpit. It's happening in many pulpits across this land, it's happening around the world right now. Human beings are preaching Christ, they're proclaiming Christ, it's a human call. And therefore there are two calls of the Gospel. One of them an external human preaching, the other an internal sovereign powerful call like, "Let there be light," and there's light. And the external one is the cloak of the internal one, and they go together in the elect, they go together in the redeemed, and they're powerful and effective. But they don't always go together for everybody. And so you can preach to a huge crowd of thousands of people, and some of them will get it and they'll be saved and they'll repent and they'll love it, and others will be like, "When's it over? Bored, they're disconnected, they're not interested, it's not happening in their hearts. But to others its like it's the greatest message they ever heard. It was life to me. So, what is this call? Well, it may be Billy Graham at a huge rally at Yankee Stadium, it might be a coworker on a coffee break, just the two of them talking about grace. It might be a missionary in the steamy jungles of Irian Jaya, like New Tribes Missions using a storytelling approach to redemptive history, it could be that. It could be a street preacher in Philadelphia, just standing on the corner with a bullhorn preaching about Christ. It could be a mother and a father quietly, day after day, year after year, explaining Christ to their growing children. Could be a pastor preaching an expositional message in Romans, or a Sunday school teacher on Easter Sunday explaining the empty tomb. Might be a persecuted Christian saying through bleeding lips to the very one who's beating on him or her until they're dead, "Repent and believe in Christ," preaching Christ to the very one who's persecuting. It might happen at VBS, it might happen through a Gospel track, it might happen through Trans World Radio, it might happen in a lot of different ways. What is the message? That God the Creator, that God the Father, sent His only begotten Son into the world, Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless and holy and perfect life, and who was our substitute at the cross, who took our place, who died on the cross in our place, taking our wrath, our judgment, on Himself, and extinguished it in His death, and who was raised to life on the third day. That is the Gospel, and anyone who calls on that name will be saved. That simple message, it's going off throughout the world. Many of you have been faithful this week perhaps, even to witness and to share the Gospel, it's the human call. And there's lots of different ways it happens. George Whitefield was a famous preacher, he used a very dramatic style, very theatrical. He would act certain things out, he was powerful to listen to. He would sometimes call on an angel and ask, "Isn't their room for one more in Heaven before the angel goes and says, 'All the elect are saved'?" And then there's this back and forth between God and the angel, and by the time you listen to this, people are like, "I want to be the last one please." And there's just tons of people believing, that was Whitefield's style. And then there's Jonathan Edwards who's got these tiny little notes, and he's just standing there reading like this, and hundreds of people are being saved because of the potency of what he's saying. External call in both cases. It could be Charles Spurgeon, maybe the greatest preacher of the 19 century, a man so exceptionally gifted at preaching, communicating the Gospel, that he went into the Agricultural Hall where they were going to have a big rally for Christ, and he went in to test the acoustics, and he says, just to test the acoustics, thinks he's totally alone, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And way up in the rafters is some worker up there working, doing some work. He thought he was alone. He thought it was the voice of God and he was saved, he was converted. In the external call of the acoustic testing came the internal call of the gospel of God, and it created life where there wasn't before. Its's a true story. And it's so mysterious how the two are related, it really is. I mean, they send you to the seminary to study the techniques. God does different things in every generation, it's different in every preacher, it's different even in every occasion, in every encounter. There's some basic things that are always going to be the same, but there's some things that are different. Like how did Spurgeon himself get converted? He's going one snowy morning, he can't get to his regular church, so he ends up at a primitive Methodist Chapel, the last place he imagined he would be when he woke up that morning. So he turns into this primitive Methodist Chapel, and the regular preacher wasn't there. And this Spurgeon's own testimony, this is so good, I just want to read it to you. This is his own words about his conversion. "The minister did not come that morning, he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin looking man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really stupid." Let me read that again. "Now, it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really stupid." Now, I look at that, and we teach our children not to say that word, but here is Spurgeon, and this is how he's describing the man who led him to Christ. "He was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had little else to say. He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in the text. 'Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the Earth.' Isaiah." And he was saved. The external call was rather shabby, frankly, rather shabby, but the internal call of God was sovereign and effective and he was converted. It's remarkable. VI. Some Jews and Gentiles Both Included The fourth thing is that some Jews and Gentiles are both included. It's not just Jews anymore who are the chosen people of God. This is a shock for the Jews that the Gentiles are actually included. Look what he says in verse 25-26, as he says in Hosea, "I will call them my people who are not my people, and I'll call her my loved one who is not my loved one. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', they will be called sons of the living God." And let me tell you something, I cannot fully communicate to you how shocking these verses applied to Gentiles would have been to these Jews. If you read it in context, it's basically, it seems it's God's way of bringing the Jews back. You know the whole Hosea and Gomer thing? It's like, "Alright, it's bad now, and they're not His people, but He will restore them and bring them back." That's the natural reading of Hosea 1. But here, Paul, in Romans 9, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is applying it to Gentiles, the people who are not the people. The Jews who had been kicked out, and so they were, but it's also Gentiles. And the basic idea is this, if God has the power to turn people who are not my people, into people who are His people, He can do it for Jews and Gentiles alike. He can do that, He has that power to turn people who are not a people of God into actually being believers, He has that power to do it. Now, the Mosaic Law viewed Gentiles as outsiders. There were regulations, you had to be circumcised. There are all of these regulations that the Jews had... The law of Moses therefore set up, what's called in Ephesians, a barrier or a "dividing wall of hostility." Jews on the inside, Gentiles excluded. They're on the outside, they're "separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." That’s Ephesians 2. That's not just a prejudice, that was really true, God set those rules up. But the Lord had an eternal plan for Gentiles. The Gentiles aren't Johnny-come-lately, as if He never really thought about Gentiles until the Jews rejected Christ. That is false. From the very beginning of the call of the Jews and the call of Abram, God said to Abram, that through his offspring all peoples, Gentiles, all the Earth will be blessed. From the very beginning, God has a sovereign plan for the Gentiles. And now at last, in Christ, it's coming to pass. Through the offspring of Abraham, namely Jesus Christ, we Gentiles are getting blessed, we're getting saved. And so we see the incredible riches of God's grace. Look at Verse 26. "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', they will be called sons of the living God." Is that not magnificent? Isn't it incredible to be a Christian? Isn't it wonderful to have the indwelling Spirit crying out "Abba Father" within you? And isn't it great to be Father's Day and talk about it? It's a wonderful thing to have a godly father, it really is. Not everybody has one, but it's a wonderful thing to have a godly father. And praise God for it, if you have it. But if you're a child of God, the real issue is you are adopted by the living God. The living God is your father. You can call Him Abba Father, and He will welcome you through faith in Christ. "In the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people', they will be called sons of the living God." And He can do that from both Jews and Gentiles alike, He has that power. Are you a child of God? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ? Have you repented and believed in Him for your salvation? Then you're adopted into the family of God. I think, of all the huge treasure box of riches that we have in Christ, it may be the most shocking and surprising that God would actually adopt us into His family. It's amazing. VII. Called OUT FROM and Brought INTO Fifth, we are called out of and called into. It says, "Whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles." Your first loyalty is to Christ, not to whether you are Jew or Gentile. That is not the issue. It says in 2 Corinthian 6:17, "Therefore, come out from them and be separate says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you." And then this one, Psalm 45:10-11, which is a marriage song, but which, I think, has end time implications. It says here… Think of us as the bride of Christ. "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty. Honor Him, for He is your Lord. Leave your people and come be part of a new people of God." Let that be your loyalty. Folks, we are aliens and strangers in this world, this is not our home, we're just passing through. And therefore, we are not primarily Americans, or primarily Chinese, or primarily Hispanic, or primarily African-American, or primarily even male or female. We are primarily children of the living God, that's our loyalty. And so when the fourth of July comes along, celebrate, enjoy, have a good time, have a picnic and barbecue, but understand, do the whole thing knowing you're not ultimately citizen of the US A. You are a child of God, and you are moving through to a heavenly country which will never end. That's your true home, your true place. We are called out of, and called into. VIII. Universally Humbled by What We Were Finally all of us, Jew and Gentile alike, are universally humbled by the process. That nobody that can boast and say, "Yes, but we were the real people of God." The Jews can't do that because they were called "Not my people." The Gentiles can't say, "Yes, but He loves us best." All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are all humbled by this process. Look what he says in verse 27-29. "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will carry out His sentence on Earth with speed and finality.' It is just as Isaiah had said previously, 'Unless the Lord Almighty had left his descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.'" Oh, this is sharp and humbling for the Jews. He goes right to the source of their national pride. "Though the number of the Israelites to be like the sand by the sea," those words were spoken in Genesis 22:17, by God to Abraham. And he says this very plainly, "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand by the seashore." And Isaiah says, "Yeah, that may be true, but only the remnant's going to be saved." And so Jacob went down to Egypt, 70 in number. Within four generations, they grew to two million approximately in number. God fulfilled His promise to Abraham, but most of those people died in the desert. They never made it to the promised land. The remnant will be saved, the remnant, the chosen ones from within the Jews, the remnant. And we'll talk more about the remnant we go on. And the second quote in Isaiah one, even more shocking. "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, a remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah." The very next verse, Isaiah 1:10 says, "Hear the Word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom. Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." He calls them Sodom and Gomorrah. He doesn't just say it's theoretical, they are no different. You know what I get out of this, folks? It's a very, very simple saying, We've heard it before, "There but for the grace of God go I." There is no one you can look at, no one you can point a finger and say, "Yeah, I would never do that." If you would never do that, it's because of the grace of God in your life. We are humbled by that, aren't we? Basically, he's saying to the Jews, "You know what? Except for the grace of God, you'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah." What are they? The most wicked and perverted Gentile cities there were. You'd be the same, but the grace of God's been at work in you, calling out a remnant and protecting them. There but the Grace of God go I. This is a universal humbling. Basically, this is it, God has the power to take people who are not His people, either Jew or Gentile, and bring them over and make them His people. He has the power to take people who are not loved and bring them in, make them loved, eternally loved. This is the grace and mercy of God. All of this to the praise of His glorious grace, so that we are all humbled and we are all shown mercy. For it says in Romans 11:32, "For God has bound all men, Jew and Gentile alike, over to disobedience, in order that He may have mercy on them all." And so you know what? Christian friend, Christian brother and sister, when you get there on the other side and you're past Judgment Day and you're there, and looking around at that multitude from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, who were saved by mercy and grace just like you, you will boast in Christ, and in Christ alone. Christ is your righteousness, Christ is your Savior, Christ is your redeemer, Christ is your hope. He is your Lord and He will be your boast on that final day. IX. Applications Now, what application can we take from this? Well, first, I don't assume that everybody here is a Christian. I don't know that you're all going to Heaven, I don't know that you're all children of the living God right now. Don't you want to come to Christ? Aren't you attracted by Jesus? Aren't you hearing within the kind of hull of this message, this human communication, a call of the living God to repent and trust Christ? Couldn't today be for you a day of salvation, the day of salvation, the day when the Holy Spirit entered your life and everything changed? Come to Christ. Can I urge you if you are hearing God speak to you right now, don't walk out of here without talking to me. You can come up during the invitation and talk to me. I've told you before, I have a hard time hearing while the music is playing. And I like the music, so let's play the music, but then afterwards, stay and talk to me. It's not two minutes of work we can do together, we can sit and talk about your soul. Don't leave here without being saved. If you are a Christian, rejoice in the surprising, amazing grace of God. Think about what God used to save you, the external human call. Who did God use to save you? And then ask, "Are you willing to do that for somebody else?" When was the last time you opened your mouth and said something about Christ to somebody? Do it this week, invite somebody to church. I like what's in the bulletin, they talk about a new technique. "Would you like to know how to get to Heaven from Clinton, North Carolina?" That's clever, I like that. I going to try it. Not Clinton, I'll do Durham. Would you like to know how to get to Heaven from Durham, North Carolina? It's intriguing. Makes you want to say, "What do you mean?" Let's talk to people, let's give the external call, and then let God do what He will with the internal call, He's the only one that can do it. Close with me in prayer.

Goal: Big-picture review of Philippians This morning is our last time to be looking at the Book of Philippians and my purpose today is to give you a big picture overview of the book. In 1987 I had the privilege of serving the Lord in Pakistan and I had a difficult decision to make at one point in the mission trip, and the decision had to do with transportation. Would I take the transportation through the Karakoram mountains on the road in a van and just see it from the ground or would I fly in an airplane into Gilgit, the North-West Frontier Province? And it was really kind of tough. I wanted both, and I couldn't have both, and it was hard but in the end I decided that I would go by plane. And so as we were flying into that incredible region, the second highest mountain range in the world, behind the Himalayas, the Karakoram mountains came into view, and the second highest mountain K2 also very remote, very difficult to reach, spectacular under the airplane. And as I looked over that entire expanse, I just, it was breathtaking, I'll never forget it. But as it turned out, Gilgit was in a tremendous cloud cover and they couldn't land, so they went all the way back to Islamabad and we had to go by ground travel. It doesn't always work out that way in life. But I got both. To be able to go, mile by mile and look at all of the terrain with my own eyes, in detail form and also to be able to look down birds-eye view at the whole thing. And that's my desire here as we finish our study. We've been carefully through this entire book. My great temptation is to preach 20 or 12 mini sermons this morning. 20 would be fine but 12. But I can't do that. And if you want to unfold each of the sub-points I'm going to make, you have to go back and look at how I expound it on those passages. But what I want to do is go back through the book and pick out the major theme so that we get in effect, birds-eye view of the whole book. I. One Overall Purpose: The Glory of God in Christ The one overall purpose of the Book of Philippians, the same as the overall purpose of God in creation and in redemption, and that is the glory of God in Christ. Jonathan Edwards wrote a great work The End for Which God Created the World, basically, he argues in that book that God is his own end, he was his own reason for creating the world that He would be glorified in his physical creation, that God would be exalted, that's why he created the world. It is also the end for which God redeemed his people, out of the world, that He would be exalted and glorified, that he would be revealed to be a great and glorious God. Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that people were God's ultimate end in creation and in redemption but we are not. God's own glory is the ultimate end, and so also, it is that the Book of Philippians portrays the glory of God in Christ, as his central purpose. If you look at Philippians 1, 9 through 11, we see Paul's prayer life and there we see his clear and central purpose for the Philippians, his prayer life for the Philippians. Certainly, it focuses immediately on their growth as Christians, but really ultimately it focuses on the glory of God, thereby, in other words, that their growth in Christ and their fruit bearing will re-down for God's glory. Look at Verses 9 through 11. "And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Well, there it is, that's the purpose. Our salvation both individually and corporately is to the glory and praise of God. Right there in Verse 11, Paul's own life, his life of suffering for Christ as an apostle was for the same purpose. Look at Verse 20, he says, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." That word exalted literally means magnified or made greater. Paul wants the Philippians to know that he is facing his own death, but he also wants the Philippians to know how or with what attitude, he is facing his own death. And so he says, "I want you to know that there's one thing on my mind above anything else that whether by living or by dying that Christ may be exalted in my body either way." Now, the word means to make greater or enlarge or make bigger as the word is used of a child growing up. This word exalted or magnified. It's used of a king enlarging his territory through conquest. It's used of a man's fame and reputation, spreading far and wide. It's used of the size of one's opportunities getting larger. That's this word. And Paul's deepest desire, is that Christ would be enlarged, that Christ would be made greater, that Christ would be exalted, that Christ would grow immense. Now when I began preaching in Philippians, many months ago, I asked the question, how can you make an infinite God bigger? Somewhat like asking how can you make the sun brighter or hotter. You can do nothing to the sun, you can add nothing to its glory. How then can we add anything to God? How can we make Him greater? Well, we can't. Our God is infinite. He fills having and earth. And yet the scripture says in. Psalm 34:3, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." Oh, how then can we magnify the Lord? Well, I tell you, there is a place in God's universe where he is too small and that's in your mind, in your imagination, in your heart. And not just yours, but all of the fellow members of the human race. That's where God's too small. We think too small of him, he's too little, too light, too insignificant to us. And so he must be magnified, he must be exalted, made greater, in my heart and in yours. And that's the purpose of the Book of Philippians. That's the purpose of God in Christ, that's the purpose of your salvation and mine, that he would be exalted, that he would be glorified, that he would be proclaimed and thought of in a great way. Well, that's the overall purpose. And frankly, if you get nothing else out of my message, that's enough. That everything that you do would tend toward the magnification and the glory of God. II. Two Journeys to Accomplish One Glory But the Book of Philippians goes beyond that and it gives us these two journeys to accomplish this one glory. Two journeys to glory. We've seen the internal journey, a progress in the faith. Look at verse 25, Paul there is wrestling with whether he's going to stay or go, whether he's going to live or die, wrestling with what would be better. And there in Verse 25, he says, "Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith." So this word progress implies a journey, doesn't it? There is progress we can make in the faith. This is what I call the internal or individual journey, progress that you make in the faith. That word progress. The external journey finds its origin in the same word. Look at verse 12, Philippians 1:12, "Now, I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." That's the NIV. Let's do it in the NAS. Verse 12 in the NAS says, "Now I want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel." Well it's the same Greek word, both in Verse 25 and 12, Prokope is the Greek word and that's where we get these two journeys, the individual or internal journey of sanctification, the external or corporate journey of the Gospel. Now these two journeys have one goal in mind, and that is the glory of God in the perfection of his people, that we would be finished and be conformed to the image of Christ, that's what He's doing in the world. And it helps me to know that. It helps me to know, "God, what are you doing in the world?" He said, I'm glorifying myself by calling out a people for my own name and bringing them on this incredible journey from dead in transgressions and sins to totally conformed to Christ. And I'm doing it for people all over the world, in every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. That's what I'm doing in the world. And that's what you should be doing too. Well, I think that helps me. So there's one major purpose, the glory of God. Two means to that end, the internal or individual journey in the faith, the external advance of the Gospel. Now let's see if we can describe each of these briefly from the words of the Book of Philippians, because Paul has much to say about both. And it's not easy to... They're very entwined and to unravel them and pull them apart is difficult. But let's see if we can do it a little bit. III. The Internal Journey Described First, the internal or individual journey described. The first thing I want to say, from the Book of Philippians, is that it is a journey begun and perfected by God Almighty. Philippians 1:6 teaches me this. Look at Verse 6, "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, will carry it on to completion till the day of Christ Jesus." Now, I told you it's difficult to unravel these because that could be both individual in you singularly or in you corporately. Frankly, it's the same thing. And you should care very much about the worldwide church of Jesus Christ and whether it's growing. But I'm going to take it in terms of the individual journey. "He who began a work inside you, individually, he will perfect, it or carry it on to completion till the day of Christ." This is an internal journey that God began in you and he's going to keep working on it until it's finished. A Journey Begun and Perfected by God Now I'll tell you what, I'm not a great finisher. I have a lot of projects that I've started and haven't finished. I have a number of books that have bookmarks at various places, 10%, 30%, 60%. Even 85 or 90% and still not finished. Have been for about two or three years. I'll get back to them by and by. Or maybe I won't, I don't know. Maybe you can relate to the fact that we don't just really finish everything that we start. As a matter of fact, Jesus picked up on this very issue in Luke 14. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower, he says, will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it. For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him saying this fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Is anybody going to do that in your life on judgment day toward God? Is anybody going to say toward God, God started something in your life and was not able to finish it. And I say, No. He staked his personal glory to this matter and he will not rest till all of his people are finished. He will not rest. And so this is a journey begun, and carried on, and perfected by God. Therefore, you know what that means? There is an inexhaustible energy and drive inside a true Christian to finish this journey. There's an energy and drive that's inexhaustible. A Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, runs on four nuclear power plants and with the new cores that they have in there, it can stay out over 50 years before it needs refueling. 50 years. Well, I'm going to tell you something, that is nothing compared to what the sun does. Every day the sun pumps out trillions of times of energy from its fusion power more than a Nimitz aircraft carrier does. Let me tell you, the sun is nothing compared to the energy of God. And that energy, that power is at work inside you, today, if you're Christian, and it won't stop till the journey is finished. Why is it you don't give up in the Christian life? If you think the answer is because you're such a good Christian, just keep growing, you'll learn. Eventually, you will see. It is not because you're such a good believer or such a determined person, but it's because God keeps getting you up out of bed and says, "Let's get going, let's keep moving, we've got a journey to travel today." The energy comes from God and it says it very directly in Verse 12 and 13, look at it. It says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," Verse 13, foreword is, "God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." So that's the first point is a journey begun, and completed by God Almighty. A Journey Motivated by a Consuming Desire to Know and Be Like Christ Secondly, the internal journey is motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. Let me say that again, this is an internal journey motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. Look at Philippians 3:7-11, there Paul says this, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which just through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." That's the nature of the internal journey. I want to know Christ, I want to be like him. That's what it is. It's an internal journey focused on the person of Christ, a passion to know Him better, a passion to be more like him than you were yesterday, a drive focused on the person of Jesus Christ. A Journey Toward Total Perfection in Christlikeness Thirdly, this internal journey is therefore I think clearly a journey toward total perfection in Christ. That's the finish line for us individually. We're going to keep going until we are just like Jesus. And that's why I could call it not so much or just an internal journey but an individual journey perhaps, because it's going to extend to your mortal body as well. It starts with your position, with your standing before God, a justification, at the moment, that you trust Christ, you are instantly made perfect positionally. Isn't that great? That you couldn't be more welcome or more received or more forgiven or more loved or more adopted than the moment you first trust in Christ. And so you were in a secure position the whole time that you're making your journey. Is that marvelous? Absolutely secure in your position and yet you're moving out. It's a journey toward perfection in every part of you. Toward perfection in terms of your attitude and your emotions. "your attitude," it says in Philippians 2, "should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing." So you should have the same mind, the same attitude as Jesus. And so it's a journey toward perfection, positionally first, and then in your performance and your attitude, your behavior, that you would in every way be holy and righteous and just like Christ and it will not stop until you're conformed physically even to him. Look at 3:20-21. That is the finish line for you. There, it says, "Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." That is for you individually the finish line of your race with Christ. That's the end of your journey When you are conformed inside and out, in every way to Jesus, you will have been totally saved. And that's what God means when He says through Paul, "I'm not going to finish what I began in you, until it is perfect in the day of Christ." That's literally what the word says in Philippians 1-6. He who began a good work will perfect it. We'll bring it on to perfection until the day of Christ. A Journey Made Through Great Effort and Striving Fourthly, this internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving. Now you may say, with all of this certainty language, with all of this sovereignty talk, with all of this sense that He who began a good work, "Hey, kick back, relax." What do you need to work for? God's going to do it. That is not the doctrine of the Book of Philippians, not at all. Look again at Philippians 2:12-13. We've already seen this, but look at it again. This internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving on your part. "Therefore my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." I don't see any laziness allowed there. I don't see any days off. I don't see a vacation in the summer from sanctification. I don't see any time off at all as a matter of fact. We're supposed to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling, every day of our lives. Look again at Philippians 3:12-14, he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect." Paul says I'm not perfect yet. I know that's the finish line, that's my goal, but I'm not perfect yet. "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect but I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heaven-ward in Christ Jesus." I press on forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. Do you see ease and comfort there? Do you see an easy life in sanctification there? Not at all. Look at the picture on the cover of the bulletin there, see a rock climber. Can you talk to him of ease and comfort? Is it easy for him? Can you say, "Well, at least I made it two-thirds of the way up."? My friend you don't live on a rock wall. Alright, it's no good to stay there, you got to keep on moving. You can't rest on your laurels in rock climbing. You got to keep on going until you attain your goal. And Paul in effect is saying, I strive and I pull and I strain, and I keep on moving every day toward my goal. There's no ease and comfort there. And so the internal journey is a journey made through great effort and striving. A Journey Made With Total Confidence in Christ But No Confidence in Self This internal journey is made with total confidence in Christ and no confidence in yourself. Total confidence in Christ and no confidence in your natural ability, yourself. Now first confidence in Christ and in God. Look at verse six of chapter one again, Philippians 1:6, at the very beginning of that verse that we've already looked at several times? "I am confident of this," it says in the NAS, "I'm confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus." There's a buoyant confidence in the Christian life. But it's not, I am confident of this, that you folks, you Philippians are such great people. I'm confident of this, that based on your track record you're doing very well and just keep on going. No, I'm confident of this, that he who began a good... It's very God-focused, very God-centered this confidence. Philippians 3:12, confidence in Christ. Philippians 3:12 says, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." Jesus took hold of you in Christ and will not let you go. And so therefore you have great confidence in your Christian life every day to put sin to death, to make plans and goals for yourself internally to grow, to set goals. To do different things than you've ever done before: Memorizing scripture, learning to blunt a sharp tongue which cuts down loved ones around you, learning to put to death a lust habit or a laziness habit. You can do it because God's at work in you, but your confidence is in God, not in yourself. Philippians 3:3, says it very directly, look at Philippians 3:3 which John McArthur calls the best single verse description of a Christian. "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus." that means you boast in Christ. That's another way to translate that word. Our boast is Christ. "Who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh." Do you see that? That's who we are. We don't put any confidence in the flesh but we put complete confidence in Christ. Our culture is big on self-esteem, isn't it? Big on the can-do attitude. If it's to be, it's up to me. Let me tell you something, it's up to you it's lost already. I'm not trying to be insulting. I am really, and I'm not thinking too lowly of myself I'm just saying if it's up to you and me, it's lost already. Martin Luther said, "If one thread of the cloak of my salvation depends on me, it's unraveled at the start." and that's true. But yet Christians are incredibly buoyant and confident. We can with William Carey expect great things from God and attempt great things for God both in the internal and the external journey. We can do that because God's at work in us to accomplish his ends. A Journey in which Supernatural Joy and Contentment is Possible But Not Guaranteed And then finally, number six, it is a journey, an internal journey in which supernatural joy and contentment are possible but not guaranteed. It is possible for you to go to heaven moaning, groaning, complaining and discontent, it is possible. A number have done it. And I've actually been with them for part of their journey. And it really doesn't honor God, does it? But you can do it. Do you really want to go to heaven that way? Five times in this epistle, the Apostle Paul speaks of his own joy. Three times he says he labors for their joy. Five times he commands them to be joyful. Look at Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice." And then in Philippians 4:10-13, we've seen even recently how it is possible to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, you can do anything and everything through Christ or through him who gives us strength. He gives us the ability to be joyful and content no matter what the circumstance but it is a secret. And it is very possible to go through this triumphant Christian life discontent and miserable, and not as fruitful as God would have you be. So those are the six descriptions of the internal journey: Begun and perfected by God, motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ. It's a journey toward total perfection in Christ, a journey fourthly, made with great effort and striving on our part. Fifth, a journey of total confidence in Christ but no confidence in the self. And six, it's a journey which is characterized, can be characterized by supernatural joy and contentment regardless of the circumstances, but not guaranteed. That's the internal journey. IV. The External Journey Described What does this epistle tell us about the external journey? Well, first of all, the starting point for the external journey was clearly depicted in Luke 24. Don't turn there, but listen. Last week we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. In Luke 24, 46 and 47, Jesus told his disciples this, the risen Lord said this, this is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. That's the starting point for the worldwide advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the City of Jerusalem. And it started with the resurrection and the day of Pentecost. The road map for that journey also clearly laid out in Acts 1:8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem," that's a starting point, "in Judea, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth." And so, we who live today in the 21st century can look back on a spectacular journey that God, the Sovereign God, has drawn the church through. 20, almost 21 centuries of success in the advance of the Gospel. Missionaries, beautiful feet, traveling across river and stream and mountain range and raging ocean to bring the message of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And there is no political nation on earth today where there is not a congregation of Christians, gathered today, 24 hours, circuit of the sun, worshipping Jesus Christ and proclaiming him to be there Lord. What an incredible record that God has done. But the journey is not finished yet, because there need to be representatives of every tribe and language and people and nation, around the throne and in front of the Lamb, praising Jesus for their salvation. So there's still work to be done on that external journey. A Journey Carried On by the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Now, what does Philippians say about this external journey? First, it is a journey that is carried on by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When I say proclamation, I mean the speaking forth of the words of the Gospel. Look at 1:12-18. These seven verses make it very plain that the external journey is carried on by verbally sharing the Gospel or the proclamation of Christ, and him crucified. "Now, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am really in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." Do you see that? They've been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others, you could insert, preach Christ out of good will. The latter preach Christ in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. "The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains." Verse 18, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." Well, I couldn't be playing, or could it? The advance of the Gospel must be done through the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. No one is going to get to heaven by watching your life or mine. Again, I'm not trying to be insulting. I want you to imitate Christ, I want you to be a light shining in a dark place. But nobody's going to get saved that way. The only way people are going to get saved is if you open your mouth and speak the words of the Gospel. Romans 1:16 says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel message, the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." And so the external journey, first, is carried on by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A Journey Advanced by People who Model the Transforming Power of the Gospel Secondly, it is a journey advanced, the external journey, advanced by people who themselves model the transforming power of the message that they carry. Let me say that again. It is an external journey that is carried forth by people who themselves model the transforming power of the message. Now, God did not have to do it this way. He could have just had, like, you know the Voice of America, voice of heaven, everyday comes on at 3:00 to 5:00, voice from heaven preaching the Gospel. He could have done that. He could have sent angels, just pop into a village in Irian Jaya, preach, do a few miracles. Just being there would be miracle enough. Anybody and everybody would repent and believe. He could do that, but he chose not to. Instead, He has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. And we are those who have been transformed by its message. Apostle Paul is the best example of this. At one point, he was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, but now he proclaims the very Christ he once tried to destroy. How is that possible, except that the gospel has transforming power? And so God has ordained that we bring the message, we who have been transformed. That means that your behavior makes a difference, doesn't it? If you don't model the gospel that you preach, then you will be ineffective in Evangelism. Look at verse 27 of chapter 1. Philippians 1:27, "Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." Do you see that? Live up to the message you preach. "Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you." You see? Your behavior and how you carry yourself makes a big difference. Philippians 2:22, "You know that Timothy," he says, "has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel." So Timothy, a messenger who's living out the message and who's carrying it forth. Philippians 3:17, "Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." There's a pattern of discipleship, a pattern of mentoring. And that's God's plan for the world. You're going to hear the message, you're going to imitate the one who preached it to you, you're going to follow in that pattern, and then you yourself are going to make disciples and baptize and teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded you. It's a multiplication ministry, and that's the way the kingdom advances. A Journey Opposed Every Step of the Way by Enemies Thirdly, this external journey is a journey that is opposed every step of the way by enemies, opposed every step of the way by enemies. Paul and Silas had preached the gospel in Philippi and were bitterly opposed by enemies. The Philippian Church saw it. They saw them beaten in public, they saw them thrown in jail. Now again, Paul is writing and he's in chains for Christ, it's happened again. So the Philippians didn't need to be persuaded about this, we Americans probably need more to hear about this, that the advance of the Gospel is bitterly opposed every step of the way by enemies. So the Philippians themselves were going through some kind of suffering. We saw it already in Philippians 1:27, he says... And 28, "Contending as one man for the faith of the gospel," Verse 28, "Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you, this is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you'll be saved and that by God." So it's going to be a hard journey, it's opposed every step of the way by enemies. A Journey of Great Suffering and Great Courage Fourth, the external journey is one of great suffering and great courage. The external journey therefore is one in which it requires us to go through great suffering and have great courage. Again, Verse 29-30 of Chapter 1, "For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for Him since you are going through the same struggle you saw that I have and now here that I still have." And so it's a journey of great suffering and great courage. Look at Philippians 3:10. Paul says, "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." That's the journey that we're on here, the external journey, it's not easy. There are enemies that oppose and therefore, it only advances by great courage and great suffering. The royal tapestry of church history made up of threads, brothers and sisters in Christ who are your family members and who laid down their lives so that other people could go to heaven, it's a glorious tapestry. And that's what God calls us to do in the external journey, great courage and great suffering. A Journey in Which Enemies Amazingly Become Worshipers Fifth, it is a journey in which enemies shockingly and amazingly become friends and worshipers of Christ. You never know who's going to get saved, you're never quite sure if the praetorian guard even might show some fruits of the preaching of the Gospel. Look at Verse 13 of Chapter 1. Philippians 1:13, he says, "So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard." So it says in the NAS, it's what it is, the praetorian guard and everyone else, and then turn over to the end, Philippians 4:22, I love this, "All the saints, send your greetings especially those who belong to Caesar's household." Whoa, where did that come from? Could that be some praetorian guard had come to faith in Christ? Could it be some of Caesar's own family, a sister an uncle? A niece, a nephew? Come to faith in Christ. Who would have ever thought it? And so church history has again and again, shown surprising conversions of people you would have least expected. The Philippian jailer and his family, middle of the night, who would have ever thought that he would have gotten saved that night? You never know who's going to get saved and so be willing to pray for kings and those in authority, be willing to suffer because you're never sure about the one who's persecuting you today may end up your best friend ever in Christ tomorrow. That's the nature of the external journey. A Journey Accomplished Best by a Unified Church And then finally, it is an external journey accomplished best by unified church. It's accomplished best by a unified church. So Paul tells Euodia and Syntyche stop arguing with each other. Philippians 2:1 and following, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenders and compassion that make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain can see, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also the interest of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross. And therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." And so 2:14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." Do you see the connection there? Be like Jesus, be a humble servant, unite the church together. The external journey advances best when its co-laborers love each other deeply from the heart. Alright, now, having given you a sense of these two journeys, let me make a couple of comments and then application. V. The Two Journeys Indissolubly Linked These two journeys are indissolubly linked. The internal journey of sanctification and the external journey of worldwide evangelization are linked together. You can't focus on just one and not the other. Many Christians and many churches make this error. There're some churches that are really strong in evangelism, they're really strong in getting people saved, strong in getting them to pray the Sinner's Prayer or walk the aisle. Strong in the evangelistic tent revival approach, but there's not much discipleship, there's not much patterning, there's not much transformation of the life. And so it fails. Then there are other churches that perhaps are a little more academic focusing on the greats of theological heritage and like to read and work inwardly, but they have neglected the external advance of the Gospel. I fear that we may be more like the second than the first and that we really want to know a lot about sanctification, but do we really want to share the Gospel? Are we really bold in witness, are we sacrificing for the advance of the Gospel? We can't just choose one or the other, they go together. Who is it that keeps witnessing year after year after year? But the mature disciple of Jesus Christ. Every new convert witnesses a little until they start tasting persecution. Alright, the question is, will you dig deep into Christ and Keep witnessing for 40 and 50 years? The only way you're going to do that is by growing into Christ-like maturity, these two journeys are indissolubly linked. We can't just choose one or choose the other, we've got to do both. VI. Summary and Applications Now what application can we bring from this? Well, we've seen these two journeys to accomplish one glory. The overall purpose of God is the glory of God in Christ. There are two journeys to accomplish this one glory, the internal or individual journey of sanctification, we've described as a journey begun and perfected by God motivated by a consuming desire to know and be like Christ, a journey toward total perfection in Christ-likeness, a journey made through great effort and striving, a journey made with total confidence in Christ but no confidence in self and it's a journey in which supernatural joy and contentment is possible but not guaranteed. The external journey is a journey carried on by the verbal proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it's an external journey advanced by people who modeled the transforming power of the gospel, it's a journey opposed every step of the way by enemies therefore a journey of great suffering and great courage and a journey in which enemies amazingly can become worshipers of Christ and it's a journey in which the advance is best accomplished by a unified church following the pattern of Christ. Let me ask some questions first of all, are you making any progress internally? Are you growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ? Do you have absolute confidence that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion? Are you discouraged in your Christian life? Are you growing more and more in Christ like maturity is Christ more and more the treasure and pleasure of your life or you're getting distracted and starting to love other things? Do you have a hunger and thirst to be perfect like Christ, to be free from all sin, to be conformed to Christ in holiness and humility and love and do you set your hope fully on the grace to be given to you when Christ raises you out of the grave and gives you a resurrection body or do you care too much about your present physical body which is already called in Philippians 3:21 lowly, in some sense contemptible? Are you working out your salvation with fear and trembling or have you gotten lazy in your Christian life and just accept certain things about yourself that God does not accept? Are you growing in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible intake, fasting, service, evangelism? Are you doing these things are you growing in grace and have you learned how to be content in any and every situation? Do you rejoice in the Lord always or do you grumble and complain when things don't go your way? Are you making progress in the internal journey? And secondly, are you doing anything in the external journey? When was the last time you opened your mouth and shared the saving gospel of Christ to somebody you thought was an unbeliever? When was the last time that you shared the gospel? When was the last time you risked a relationship to be able to witness to somebody? Perhaps at work, perhaps a friend or acquaintance, maybe a co-worker, maybe a total stranger in a public place, when was the last time you risked something? Are you discipling anybody or are you being discipled? Do you have a mentor in your life or are you being mentored? Are you involved in growing up in grace? Are you making disciples for Christ? Have you ever been persecuted because you are a part of the worldwide advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Has it ever cost you anything to be a Christian? And what about your financial life, did you make the pledges earlier or did you just not pass in the card? I'll never know, it's not about me it's about between you and God and perhaps you've checked the boxes but are you going to be faithful to it? In our global priority mission fund consider giving generously to that rather than buying the next thing that you have in mind to buy. Give generously to that. Sacrificially are you storing up treasure in heaven? Do you really believe that Christ haters can become Christ lovers? Do you believe for example, that a leader of a terrorist cell group, a Muslim terrorist cell group could become a Christian someday? And do you pray toward that end, do you pray for Osama Bin Laden? Do you pray for Saddam or any of these other people that we think they're beyond the reach of the grace of God, no they're not amazing things happen with the grace of God. And are you at peace with other Christians? Do you really believe that this church is united the way it should be or do you have something against somebody? Are we one in the way that Christ would have us be one? This is a great book isn't it? The themes in Philippians are incredible and deep and rich and it's been a joy and pleasure to be able to go through it with you however briefly. Let me close with Verse 23 of chapter four: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

sermon transcript Endlessly Looking to Kill Death Take your Bibles and look with me if you would at Hebrews 2. We'll be focusing on two verses, verses 14 and 15, taking a break from our series in Matthew to zero in on the triumph of Jesus Christ. I often wonder what it would have been like to have been there that first Easter morning, to be with the women that saw the angels, that saw the first evidence of Christ's resurrection. To look at the Roman soldiers that were lying like stones on the ground, terrified because of the angel that had come to move the stone. I wonder what it would have been like to be with Peter and John as they ran to that tomb and looked in and saw what they alone were privileged to see compared to us, they being eyewitnesses, apostles of his resurrection, that they might see the actual physical artifacts of his resurrection, to look at the cloth that covered his body, to look at the cloth that had been wrapped around his head and to see it, and to know that they still didn't understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead but that they would soon be witnesses, even at the cost of their own life, witnesses of this very fact around the world. Wouldn't that have been something? But you know, whatever joy there would be in seeing that is nothing compared to the joy that you will have when you see him face to face, looking at him as a lamb who had been slain from the foundation of the world, and realize that those wounds bought your passage to heaven. And so, it's a great privilege to stand in front of you and get you to think today about the treasure that we have from the cross and from the empty tomb. And we're only gonna consider one part of it, and I'm gonna zero in on this one concept in Hebrews, namely that Christ's resurrection has and should free every child of God forever from fear of death. That we're not slaves anymore to fear of death. Canterbury Tales A long, long time ago, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales and it's a story of a number of pilgrims that were traveling on their way to Canterbury and each one got to tell two stories. And there is one in particular that I found noteworthy, and it was “The Pardoner's Tale.” This is a religious man who goes around proclaiming the gospel, and he had a story to tell. It was a tale of three highwaymen who had just found out that their fence, the man that they sold their stolen goods to, had died of the Black Plague, and his family as well. So the fence, his wife and his children all had died of the Black Death. And they were indignant about this, furious as a matter of fact, and they resolved that they were going to hunt down Death and kill him. They're gonna chase him down. One of them said this, “I don't see what gives death the right to go carrying off anyone. If you ask me, it's about time that some brave soul stood up to death and put an end to his carryings on or should I say carryings off. Let's take an oath, friends, not to rest until we've tracked down this Death fellow and stuck a knife between his ribs. Think of what the mayor and the parish will pay if we can bring Death's corpse and lay it down here. Besides, how many purses do you think he's captured along the way? He must have quite a walletful by now.” So motivated by pride and by hope at gain, at greed probably, they tramped off full of indignation, ready to hunt down Death and kill him, then no one would have to fear Death anymore. Well, as they travelled, they saw an old man up ahead of the road and they had a sense that this might be death, and they went up and they asked him if he was Death. And they looked at him, but then they realized just how feeble he looked, he looked old and wizened, and it seemed there's no way he could have this kind of power. And the man answered, he said, “I wish I were dead, be freed from the burden of this old body that I carry around all the time, but actually, I just saw Death over there by that oak tree. If you hurry up, you can catch up to him.” Well, they went over to the oak tree and they didn't find Ceath there but they tripped over a pot of gold, a huge pot of gold, the wealth of seven lifetimes. And they immediately forgot their errand, their mission, and started thinking about how they would divide the plunder, the gold. And they sent the youngest one into town to buy some wine to celebrate where the other two stayed behind. And as he was gone, the two of them said, “You know, it'd be much better to split it two ways rather than three. So I'll tell you what, let's jump this guy when he comes back and then we can just divide it two ways.” Meanwhile, the younger one's in town and buys three bottles of wine but he gets to thinking about his two partners, and he buys some rat poison and pours it into two of the bottles but marks his own bottle very clearly. It's very late at night by the time he comes back and finds his former partners there, and he's already drinking from his marked bottle of wine. The two of them jump him and kill him with a knife, and then take the two unopened bottles of wine and begin to celebrate. In the morning, Death came to reclaim his pot of gold. He wrapped it up in the miserable rags of his decaying cloak, close to his gappy ribs. The three corpses under the oak tree made no move to stop him and he left them to a wealth of flies and crows before continuing his endless journey. The heavy pot of gold weighed light in his arms for though his bones were dry and his muscles were like the withered tendrils of a grape-less vine, his strength was immense for he could carry off the biggest or strongest of men even though like any man or beast, he could never carry off himself. Now that would take someone stronger than death, wouldn't it? That would take the man, Christ Jesus. That would take him, Jesus Christ, to conquer death and he had to pay a price to do it, didn't he? He had to die. And that's what we celebrate today. We celebrate the death of Death in the death of Jesus Christ, and we celebrate the triumph that we have through Christ that we will never fear death again. Worldwide Cultures: Many Differences, One Great Unifier Now, as we look around the world, we see a lot of things that unify cultures. The world is getting to be a smaller place, isn't it? And little by little, we start to see those things that are common to us. There are differences, that's true, differences in food, differences in customs and culture, differences in dress, in world view and in architecture, certainly these things, but there is this one unifying factor, the inevitability of death. If you were to go to the distant mist-covered valleys of Irian Jaya, a mysterious island which is huge and has many uncharted areas, do you think you would find a valley somewhere where people have found the secret to conquering death? I'd tell you no. Or if you went into the outback of Australia, would you find a small group of aborigines that had that secret whereby we could live forever? The answer is no. Suppose you went up to the northern country of the Laplanders where the Finns live, do you think that those frozen people have found also the secret to surviving death, living forever? The answer is no. How about in the teeming metropolises of Asia, do you think you could go down an alley and find an old oriental man who knew something about herbs and special homeopathic medicines, and he would be able to tell you the secret of living forever? You know the answer is no. No matter where we go all over this sin-cursed world, you're going to find the same thing and that is slavery to death. We're all under the same death sentence and there is no escape apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. So also in history, it's not like the secret at one point was known and now we've lost it. Ponce de León was searching for the waters of eternal life down in Florida and he never found them. He found many other things and eventually became the governor in Puerto Rico, but he never found the waters that would enable you to live forever. And we in our 21st century technology, we're seeking a way that we can defeat death through surgery, perhaps, or through certain types of medicines and all of this hasn't done one thing to extend our life beyond the 70 or 80 years that God has ordained. The fact of the matter is that death is inevitable, and our text shows us the only way we can escape fear of death and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. Fear of Death is Natural for Slaves of Sin Now I'm gonna look at four things this morning out of the text. The first is that fear of death is natural, and I would say appropriate, for those that are in slavery to sin. Fear of death is natural for slaves of sin. Look at verse 15, it says that Christ came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” From the Beginning, It Was Not So Now from the beginning, it was not so. Death was not originally part of the plan in Eden for Adam and Eve. Spurgeon put it this way, “It is a very natural thing that man should fear to die for man was not originally created to die. When Adam and Eve were first placed in the Garden of Eden, they were in such a condition that they might have remained there for myriad years if they had kept their integrity. There was no reason why unfallen man should die. But now that we have sinned, the seeds of corruption are in this flesh of ours and it is appointed unto man once to die. Yet as if the body knew that it was not according to the first decree of heaven that it should go to the earth and to the worm, it has a natural reluctance to return to its final bed.” What Spurgeon is saying there is that it doesn't feel like the way it should have been. We have a sense of a yearning to go back to Eden in one sense. “God has,” it says in Ecclesiastes 3, “set eternity in the hearts of men.” And so, we have a sense that we should live forever, and that death is really a shockingly unwelcome intruder, very much like the explosion that took the lives of the men and women on the Columbia, so there's a sense of explosion and a ripping into life when death intrudes. A sense that it's wrong, it's unwelcome. Why Death a Source of Terror Why is death therefore a source of terror? Why a source of fear? First, because of death's power. The grip of death cannot be broken. When death has a hold, it cannot be broken. There's a sense of the pillage of death. What does death steal from us? It takes everything earthly from us, relationships and possessions. It steals from us what is most precious. The pain of death also; we could be afraid of the very process of dying. What's it going to be like? What's it gonna feel like to actually go through the process of dying? Then there's the permanence of death, the fact that it can't be reversed. The things that are lost through death are lost forever and we can't get them back. The loved one is gone and we will never see them again in this world. But above all these, I think, there's the penalty of death, isn't there? For it is appointed unto man to die once and after that judgment. And I think that, in our heart of hearts, is what we fear the most or should if we're slaves to sin. Fear of Death of Some Benefit to the World Now, fear of death can be of some benefit in the world. I think it gives incredible courage to men, let's say on a battlefield, to strive greatly because they don't want to die or it gives ingenuity to drug manufacturers to find a way that we could defeat a disease like SARS, for example, or some other disease and it gives them motivation and a drive, probably the greatest use of the fear of death is to bring people to saving faith in Christ, that they might realize that they're under a death sentence and that life is uncertain. They don't ever know when they're going to die and so they should today close with Christ, to come to faith in Christ because they don't even know if they'll be alive tomorrow. Fear of Death Natural to Slaves of Sin But I say to you that fear of death is natural and appropriate to those who are slaves to sin. Verse 15, Christ came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” That's a strong word, isn't it, that we were slaves to fear of death? Why is that? Because the wages of sin, according to Romans 1:32, are well-known. Romans 1:32 says, “Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” And so they feel, inside their hearts, a death sentence for their sin. They know that they deserve it. Now they may harden their heart, they may steer their conscience but inside they know that there's a death penalty for sin. Romans 2:15, Paul says, “Since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” So there's a sense of fear of death because they know they're under a condemnation, that the law speaks against them. It speaks wrath and punishment. Hebrews 10:27 speaks of “a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” This is what they fear, this is the fear of death and it's natural for those that are slaves to sin, it's appropriate actually. Now, some worldly people do what they can with the fear of death. They'll use philosophy, they'll use bad theology or false religion, they'll use humor, they'll use many things to try to escape their fear of death. I’ve witnessed to people before that I thought should be afraid of death. I've talked to them of the gospel and they didn't know Christ and had no interest. And they were absolutely fearless, had no concern whatsoever for death. I thought they should have. I don't know what philosophy or way of thinking has gotten them to turn away from this natural fear of death but they do it. Greek philosopher Epicurus said, “Men, believing in myths, will always fear something terrible, everlasting punishment as certain or probable. Men base all these fears not on mature opinions but on irrational fancies. So they are more disturbed by fear of the unknown than by facing facts. Peace of mind lies in being delivered from these fears.” Epicurus would say through philosophy, through realizing it's all a myth. Yes, we die but after that, there's nothing, there's no judgment. Don't worry about what your conscience says, don't be concerned about that. And so, through philosophy, they can get rid of fear of death. Some do it through humor, like Mark Twain. Mark Twain said that we should go to heaven for the climate and to hell for the company. Well, that's clever Mark or Samuel. But the fact of the matter is, there really isn't any company in hell. It's a place of darkness, a place where there's nothing good, a place of suffering, and there's all good things in heaven. But he's trying to dispense with it through humor. It's very funny. What is he saying? He's saying, “I don't like church people.” That's what he's really saying. “I don't like being with them, I like to be with those like me but I'm kind of afraid of that heat thing that is going on there in heaven or in hell. So I'd rather be in heaven for the climate but I'm gonna go to hell for the company.” That's what he's saying. And so, he's dispensing with the fear of death through humor. Others do it through a way of thinking like the kamikaze pilots of World War II who were sure that they would have a glorious death if they would die that way in battle or Islamic fighters in a jihad will go right into heaven if they will die on the battlefield. And so, they dispense with fear of death through bad theology or bad understanding. But fear of death is natural for slaves of sin. The Devil Held the Power of Sin and Death Power to Murder the Body Directly Second, the devil held the power of sin and death. It speaks in verse 14, “of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil.” Now the devil has power to murder the body directly, he has that power. If the Lord permitted him, he could kill you today. Jesus said in John 8:44, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” And putting together what Christ just said a moment ago, he's a murderer and the father of murderers. The Greek word there is man-slayer. He kills human beings. And so, when he came in the book of Job to the throne of God, God had to restrain him from this, you remember? He said, “You can take any of his possessions but you can't touch the man himself.” And Satan had to obey God's command. And then the second time, Satan comes back and says, “Skin for skin, a man will give anything he wants for his life, anything he owns for his life.” And so, God says, “Okay, you can touch his body but you can't -” Do what? “You can't take his life.” Does that not clearly imply that the devil has power to murder? He has the power to kill physically. And so therefore, I think the devil is behind every murder that there's ever been. In one sense, he's responsible broadly for every death that there ever has been because death entered the world through sin, and sin entered the world through the temptation of the devil. And so, he's the father of everyone that's ever died, of every infant that's died in a third world country of starvation or of a lack of medical care, of everyone that's ever died of AIDS in Africa, of every young man in one of our cities that dies in a gang sling, a drug-related incident. He's the murderer of every 68-year-old man who dies of a heart attack. In one sense, the devil killed us all. He had the power of death. Power to Murder the Soul Indirectly But he also has the power to murder the soul indirectly through temptation and sin, doesn't he? You see, the devil's under a sentence and he knows it. He knows his time is short, and so he's under the sentence of hell, of the lake of fire, and what he has been doing is drawing us into his condemnation. He did it right from the garden, to draw us into his sin, into his rebellion and into his condemnation. And in this way, he seeks to kill the soul. The world system around us is designed to entice us to follow him that we might also be like him, a sinner. Therefore, it says in 1 John, chapter 2, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For everything in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, comes not from the father, but from the world.” And also, it says in James 1:14 and 15, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then when sin is fully-grown, it gives birth to death.” And so, the devil seeks to be a soul-murderer as well. The devil's greatest goal of all is to keep people from understanding the gospel by blinding their minds so that they cannot understand or see the light and the glory, the knowledge of God in the face of Christ, so he seeks to murder their souls that way. Power Far Too Great for Us And you know, his power is too great for any one of us or all of us put together. Martin Luther knew that in “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” This is what he said, “For still our ancient foe, doth seek to work his woe, his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.” And so the devil held the power of sin and death. Christ Destroyed the Devil to Deliver the Slaves First Step: Commitment by Christ to Love the Children of God Thirdly, Christ destroyed the devil in order that he might deliver the slaves. Now this is the beauty of it all. If you stop and think about it, we have, as Christians, two great religious holidays: Christmas and Easter, what I call Resurrection Day. The two are joined in this text. Do you see it? Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of Christ, that he came to earth and took on a human body. Look what it says again in our text, verse 14 and 15, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death that is, the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” And so at Christmas, we celebrate that Jesus took on a flesh-and-blood body. At Easter, we celebrate why he did it, that he might lay it down on the cross and take it back up again through the empty tomb. And so we see the two together. But there are steps to this, how he destroyed the devil. The first step was a heavenly commitment that Christ made to love us. He set his love upon us. His passion was to rescue his people from sin and from death. I was reading recently a quote from Dorothy Sayers, who lived earlier in the 20th century, talking about the seven deadly sins, and she zeroed in on the sin of sloth. And this is what she said, “In the world, it's called tolerance.” That's a popular word these days, isn't it? Tolerance. “But in hell, it's called despair.” Now listen to what she says about this tolerance. “It is the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it would die for.” Does that characterize some of your neighbors? I think it does. This is an apathetic age we live in. We're always showing our coolness by saying, “Oh well, it doesn't matter.” Just life goes on. There's nothing we would die for. How different is Christ from that. How passionately different is Christ from that whole list. I'll go over the list, but put Christ in. Christ believes in the Father's glory for his children. He cares for his children. He interferes with the devil's power of death. He enjoys the eternal consummation of his children in glory. He loves his children enough to take on flesh and blood, he hates sin and death, he finds purpose in his father's plan, he lives for his children, and for all of this treasure, he is joyfully willing to die. That's the passion of our Christ. And it started in heaven before he ever took on a human body. And so he had to share with us, since the children have flesh and blood, he also had to have flesh and blood. He wanted to be with us. And what that meant was taking on weakness, taking on fatigue, taking on hunger, taking on temptation, taking on all of these things, and ultimately, taking on mortality, taking on death. Second Step: Choice by Christ to Partake in Their Humanity And so Christ does all of this. He shares in our flesh and blood, he partakes in it. It's one of the things that knits us together, isn't it? Around the world. John F. Kennedy gave a speech on June 10th, 1963, at American University, a very famous speech during the time when he was addressing the escalating Cold War with Soviet Russia. And this is what Kennedy said, he said, “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal.” Jesus stepped into that mortality. He took on flesh and blood. He did it for a purpose that he might destroy the devil by dying. Third Step: Conquest by Christ of the Devil on Behalf of the Children of God Now recently, I was doing a Bible study with my kids, and we were going over the story of Samson. We actually read the whole story of Samson on one Saturday. It was very enjoyable. I mean, Samson's quite a character. But on the way to his wedding, do you remember the story? He sees a lion there, a lion jumps at him, and he attacks the lion and kills it. Sometime later he walks by and the carcass is there, and inside the carcass, there's a swarm of bees and they've made honey in the carcass. Now that is strange, isn't it? Would you have eaten the honey out of the carcass? I wouldn't have done it, but Samson did. He scooped it in his hand and got some honey out and was eating it as he went on his way and gave some to his parents, but he didn't tell them where he'd gotten it from. Good thing, they would have - I guess that was before germ theory, so they probably would've kept eating. But it's just a strange thing, very strange. As a matter of fact, it's so strange that it gave Samson an idea of how to plunder his enemies, the Philistines. He said, “Okay, I'll make a bet with you. I'm gonna tell you a riddle, and if you can answer my riddle, then I'll give you 30 changes of clothes, but if you can't, then you have to give them to me, 30 changes.” They said, “Tell us the riddle.” And do you remember his riddle? “Out of the eater, something to eat, out of the strong -” What? “something sweet.” How did they do with the riddle? Very poorly. Very poorly. They had to nag his wife until finally she got it out of him, and then the whole thing went that way. But I started thinking about Samson's riddle. Isn't that what Jesus has done at the cross and at the tomb? Out of the eater. What eats us? The corruption in the grave. It destroys us, it takes everything we have, it destroys everything we have. Out of the eater, something to eat. And what is that? The bread of life, that we might have eternal life and live forever. And out of the strong, what is stronger than death? Well, the Bible says love is stronger than death. Something sweet, eternal life. Isn't that wonderful, Samson's riddle? Bet you never heard another interpretation of Samson's riddle, but there it is. Christ is able to destroy the strength and the power and the plundering of the grave, but he only does it one way, by submitting to it. He goes through it. Fourth Step: Deliverance of the Children Forever from Fear of Death Now his body isn't corrupted, that's protected by Psalm 16, but he's going to go through that grave and out of it comes a triumph, and in this way, he destroys the devil. How does he destroy the devil? By taking from the devil any accusation he can launch at us at judgment day. All of those sins have been paid for, every last one. We're justified through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. And so it says in Romans 4:24, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification,” Verse 14, “so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil.” And so Jesus is the living one, he holds the keys of death and Hades, and he lives forever and ever. Christ the conqueror has won the victory, and he's given us the spoils. Fear of Death Unnatural for Children of God What is the fourth point? Well, fear of death is unnatural, therefore, for the children of God. It's unnatural. Now, I didn't say it's unheard of. I've actually seen children of God die poorly. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. I don't know why it is. Why should we die poorly? We should be ready to die. We should be eager in one sense to die. Reluctant as Paul was in Philippians, that his earthly service and the benefits that come to earthly people would end, and that's reasonable, but glad to go in the presence of Christ. Because Christ has set his eternal love on us as his dear children. Because Christ was willing to be a partaker with us of our flesh and blood nature. Because Christ, gladly, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame. Because Christ thereby destroyed the devil and all of his accusations against us, and we are free forever from condemnation because of his death, because Christ has therefore delivered us from the devil's dark kingdom, because of all of this, fear of death is unnatural and inappropriate, wrong for a child of God. Now it still happens, you've read Pilgrim's Progress, you know there's two that cross the river, Christian and Hopeful, and one of them does very well, Hopeful, and one of them does very poorly, Christian. He can't feel his feet under him, and he's struggling, and before they even get in the river, they ask the angel, “Is there no other way?” They said, “There's no other way. You've gotta go through it to get to the Celestial Kingdom. You've got to die.” And he said, “Well, how deep is it?” And the angel said, “I cannot tell.” He said, “What do you mean you cannot tell?” He says, “It'll be deep or shallow to you in proportion to your faith in the king of that place. The stronger your faith is, the easier the process.” And so Hopeful is going right through, and Christian is all he can do, not to be swamped through doubt and despair and through the false accusations of the devil. So it is true that Christians sometimes die poorly, but they don't need to. They don't need to. A year ago, I read a series of quotes about how some of our brothers and sisters have died and I wanna finish with those. Spurgeon said, “Every day Christ is overcoming death, for he gives his Spirit to his saints, and having that Spirit within them, they confront death with songs. They face death with a calm countenance and they fall asleep in peace. ‘I will not fear thee, death. Why should I? You look like a dragon, but your sting is gone.’ For these saints, to die has been so different a thing from what they expected it to be, so lightsome, so joyous, they have been so unloaded of all care, have felt so relieved instead of burdened, that they have wondered whether this could actually be the monster they've been afraid of all their days. They find it a pin's prick when they feared it would be a sword thrust. It is the shutting of the eye on earth and the opening of the eye in heaven.” Isn't that a great quote? Thomas Goodwin said, “Ah, is this dying? How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend.” William Preston, “Blessed be God, though I shall change my place, I shall not change my company.” So much for Mark Twain, he's gonna stay in the same company, right on into heaven. Charles Wesley, “I shall be satisfied with thy likeness, satisfied, satisfied. Oh, what a beautiful way to die.” Adoniram Judson, this is probably my favorite quote, “I'm not tired of my work, neither am I tired of this world, yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away on the last day of school.” Remember that feeling, final day of school? The joy of being free. So that's what it's gonna be like for me. John Pawson says, “I know I am dying, but my deathbed is actually a bed of roses. Heaven for me has already begun.” And then one other, William Everett just said, “Glory, glory, glory,” for 25 minutes till he died. Don't you wanna die like that? So filled with faith and trust in what Christ has done at the cross and at the empty tomb, that you go right into the presence of God with, it seems almost hardly a hitch. Application How then shall we conquer fear of death? How can we do this? How can we conquer fear of death? First, you have to be a Christian. I mean, there's no escaping it. You've got to be a believer in Christ through faith or none of the encouragement I've given this morning is for you, none of it. You've got to come to Christ. Secondly, you have to consider that the devil's power over you has been broken forever. It has no right to accuse. Christ's blood has been shed and all sin is forgiven. Thirdly, therefore, we should value the blood of Christ as sufficient forever to cover all your sins and those with a thousand worlds besides. It's enough. You're justified. Fourth, you should look on death as the finish to a race well run. And then fifth, you should run the race well. You should keep your conscience clear and do the things that God's commanded you to do. Be faithful to use your spiritual gifts. Run the race well with endurance, lay aside the hindrances of sin and that which so easily entangles us. And sixth, you should grow constantly in Christ-like character. 2 Peter 1, it says, “Therefore my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never fall and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Seventh, celebrate frequently the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf. And eighth, saturate your mind in scripture. Just keep going over the promises of God again and again, and you will face death unafraid, unafraid. And any burden that the actual process of death brings you through, Christ's power within you will be more than sufficient to meet. Well, what should we do with such a fearlessness? Now that we're this fearless, what should we do with it? Well, I think we should be willing to lay down our lives for Christ here on earth. I think a very specific example, I know that some of us are considering going overseas even to Asia as missionaries. And you know, you've heard in the news about SARS and the danger there is, and I'm not saying we should or shouldn't go, that's going to have to be a decision that we make, but we should be unafraid, unafraid. That's all I'm saying. It gets very specific, doesn't it? We have to be willing to lay down our lives as witnesses for Christ, even to face unafraid something like SARS, the great unknown. And that's just a symbol, isn't it, for anything that would hold us back from being witnesses for Christ and serving him in this world. With this fearlessness, our brothers and sisters in Christ have conquered the world up to this point and so shall we.

An overview of the Book of Isaiah and the scope of the Kingdom of Christ that extends to the end of the world and the end of the ages. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - I hope you've all gotten one of these green sheets, the ones at the bottom of the pile of white, and we haven't gotten there yet, so they're all green, if you need one, we've got some up at the front and you'll want them, you'll also want your Bibles, we're gonna be looking through the book of Isaiah. I did not put all the quotes in the green sheet, we're gonna have to follow along. Ordinarily, I'm going through the book of Exodus, and I hate to digress, but I just felt compelled, I was just so excited by this study that I did earlier. I was challenged recently as I was preparing for a talk that I'm gonna give to some ministers tomorrow, about the role of the word of God in the ongoing devotional life and healthy spiritual life of a pastor. By the example, I had forgotten, but of the example of George Muller, who read through the Bible 100 times in his life. Now, you may not think that's any big deal, but have you ever tried to read through the Bible once in a year? And he went, read through it 100 times, so that's on average, about twice a year for him, and maybe a little faster. That's incredible. And just the scope, what that does for you, you see, in-depth memorization of Scripture, memorizing whole books of the Bible gives you knowledge and depth, you take one book and you study it carefully and you go as deeply as you want with that one book. Reading through the Bible in a year or reading through it 100 times gives you the overall breadth, the scope of what God is doing, and you just keep learning new things, so I thought, "Well, I'll see if I can combine it,” and I've really never been able to do that before, is read through the Bible in a year and memorize books of the Bible, it's really hard to do, but I thought I'll keep going until I just can't do it anymore. And so I was going through Genesis again and some things started to click into place, and it started with the passage in Isaiah 42, which I preached on this morning. Now, you see in your outline there, this morning's quote from Matthew 12. In Matthew it reads, "Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight, I'll put my Spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out, no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed, he will not break, and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out, until he leads justice to victory. In his name, the nations will put their hope." Now, in the Isaiah passage, if you look, especially at verse 4, you see a difference, he says there, “He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.” And then it says, “In his law the islands will put their hope.” It's kind of interesting, isn't it? Matthew brings it over as nations, and really the scope, and it ends up about the same, but there's a detail or a specific understanding of islands in the book of Isaiah, I spent about a year and four months doing scripture memorization in Isaiah, and I'll tell you what, the things that are there, in the book of Isaiah, it's like I've likened it before to the new world, when Columbus landed, or when Lewis and Clark went across on their expedition, there's so much to learn in the book of Isaiah, so many details. And you could take one theme, like I've done here, this is really just a word study on the word island, in Isaiah, and you would see the riches there. But that's what we're gonna do this evening. “In his law,” it says, “the islands will put their hope.” Now, Isaiah, if you look at Isaiah 1:1, it's there on your sheet, or you can turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 1:1, either way is fine. But it says, “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” Now, this is important, in two senses, number one, that Isaiah is, I think of all the prophets, all the Old Testament prophets, the most visionary, by far, what I mean by that is, you could close your eyes, and listen to someone reading Isaiah and streams of visions, would come into your mind, pictures really. He was a very picturesque writer, you know, you're gonna see images of streams in the wasteland, of the desert blooming with crocuses, you're gonna see the shadow of a great rock in a dry and thirsty land, a voice crying in the wilderness, for example, or you're going to see great, mighty tall sailing ships with tall masts being toppled over, an image of the humiliation of human arrogance and pride, there's lots of images that come in, one of them in chapter one is the daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. You can imagine a melon field, and so it's just flat and there are vines everywhere and there's a hut, perhaps a shelter to rest in the middle of the field, and so you can imagine the starkness of that, there's this hut, sitting all by itself, and then just a field all around it with nothing else there, and that's Jerusalem when the Assyrians came in and conquered everything but that one city, Jerusalem, and there was nothing left, and so Jerusalem was left alone, isolated like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. So you see the images there, or at the end, “You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water, the mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark, both will burn together with no one to quench the fire.” Speaking of idolatrous Israel and their works being really like drying leaves ready to burn and crackle with a fire, and that fire is coming, so they're images. It's a visionary book, and one of the images he gives us again and again is this image of the kingdom of Christ, the overall glory of the kingdom of Christ, and he gives that probably most clearly, I think in Isaiah 9, very familiar to us. Verse 6-7, "To us, a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.” And here it is, it says, “He will reign on David's throne, and over his kingdom.” You see that, now, the kingdom image for Christ and the Messiah is not strong in Isaiah, but here it is clearly taught, that the coming Messiah, the descendant of David, “will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness,” it says, “from that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Accomplish what? Well the kingdom of Christ, from the time he comes, from that point on, the kingdom will reign and it will grow and get stronger. And so that's what we have in mind, the increasing glory and the eternal glory of the kingdom of Christ, and Isaiah gives us the scope of that vision, the geographical scope is what we're really kind of looking at tonight, to the ends of the earth or to the distant islands, will be his reign. We're gonna talk about that. The ethnic scope, it includes the Gentiles, the strongest verses on God's saving intentions to the Gentiles in the Old Testament are found in the Book of Isaiah. And we're gonna look at some of them tonight. The nations, he has in mind, the nations, and also the timeframe, he's going to go from that time on and forever, right to the end of the world. So we have the scope here of Christ's Kingdom, to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age. That is the scope of Christ's kingdom. "To the ends of the earth and to the end of the age; that is the scope of Christ's kingdom." Now, the roots of this are the beginning, namely the original creation mandate. In Genesis chapter 1, God after creating man, male and female, in his image and after his likeness, gave them this commission. “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.’” Now, what does that mean, “Fill the earth?” It means, “Replicate, have more of yourselves, have lots of children who are also created in the image of God, and then just be there, be all over the world, everywhere that I've made, live there, and see what I've made.” The glorious creation, and be there as worshippers of God, those that take in the glory of God, that see it, that admire it, and that reflect it back up to him in knowing worship, something nothing else in creation can do, that's something we alone can do, we who have been taken from the Earth, physically, created out of the dust of the earth. We can stand on the ground and we can look around us and say, "This is my Father's world, God made this, and he's glorious, and he's majestic." That was our job. And so God intended, I believe, from the beginning, that the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and that we would do that, that we would have children and grandchildren, Adam and Eve would, and they would fill the earth with the knowledge of his glory, and that all over the world his image would be there, standing on this spot, or on that spot, or on this hill, or that mountain, we would be there all over the world, and we would see what God has made and we would honor him and we would give him glory and praise, for he made it. But sin ruined everything, didn't it? In one sense, sin interfered, sin stepped in and made us selfish and made us wicked so we could not see his glory, we became blinded because of sin, we were cast out of the garden of Eden. Genesis 3:23, "The Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken." So we had to wrestle with the dust and with the thorns to make a living, and so everything changed when sin entered, we changed and our task changed. And so we see at this point, the idea of scattering coming in. Now this is very interesting, so I've only begun to have these thoughts over the last two days, so this is very undeveloped for me, but the idea I have here is that God still wants the world filled, even sinners that we are. And so what he's gonna do is he's gonna scatter people all over the earth. He's gonna spread them everywhere, even though they don't know him or acknowledge him, they're going to be there, but they're not going to acknowledge him. Then he's gonna go get them, with the gospel. That's the kind of the big picture here. He's gonna send them out there, they're gonna be there, and then the gospel is gonna come after them and transform them into worshippers of God. You see what's gonna happen. So that's his second plan, and obviously he knew that the fall would happen, I'm not getting into that, but the idea is he would scatter them to the ends of the earth, and they would populate those places, and then he'd come after them with the gospel. Cain was the first who was scattered, if you look at his situation, that he murdered his brother, over worship really, and it says "The Lord said, 'What have you done? Listen to your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground, now you are under a curse and driven from the ground which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand, when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you,'" and then it says, "You will be a restless wanderer on earth." That's very important, isn't it? Who does that remind you of, a restless wanderer on earth? Isn't that the devil's role? You're very demonic, at this point; he's a restless roamer over the surface of the earth, that's what Cain would be like. But that's a sense of the scattering, he's gonna go out and move out at that point, and he's gonna have cities and he will, and his descendants will as well, and they're going to set up cities and they will populate them. We see the same thing happening after the flood, Noah's flood, in Genesis 9:18-19, “The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Ham was the father of Canaan. These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.” do you see that? That's very interesting, Genesis 9:19, from these three sons of Noah came the peoples who are what? Scattered over the earth. What is he doing? He's spreading people all over the world, scattering them. Now, when did that happen? Well, in Genesis 11 it happened with the incident of the Tower of Babel, you remember that story? And they had the technology, they developed a technology on how to build bricks and bake them thoroughly, and when I preached on Genesis, you remember in Genesis 11, I talked about that, why is that important? Well, it had greater compressive strength, you see, as an engineer, I can stand here and tell it, and when you bake them thoroughly, and all the moisture gets out and you can stack one on top of the other, and when you can do that, you can build tall towers and great cities at that point. And so at this point, we look in and we see what is their motive? And in Genesis 11:4, it gives the motive, “Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may [number one] make a name for ourselves and [number two] not be scattered over the face of the earth.’" They're doubly thwarting the plan of God. Do you see that? They're not going to be spread or scattered all over the Earth, they don't want that, they wanna come together and be in this one place, and why, so that they could glorify themselves; make a name for themselves. And so in this way, it's frustrating the plan of God, who would have them fill the Earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Exactly the opposite, of what he intended, and then in Genesis 11:8-9, “So the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth and they stopped building the city, that's why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world, and from there, the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” that's twice now, in two verses and three times, in this account, in Genesis 11, this idea of scattering, the people are being scattered all over the Earth. God did it. It's not an accident. He intended it to be done. He scattered the people. Where did they go? Well, Acts 17:26 tells us where they went. What does it say? It says, "From one man, he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole Earth." What does the word, that, mean in that sentence? God intended that people be all over the earth, he intended that. “From one man, he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live.” So where did they go? They went where God determined that they should go, they spread out, and they took their place on the earth where God intended. Alright, well, the descendants of Japheth were particularly interesting to me as I went through the table of nations, “The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras, and the sons of Javan were Elishah, and then Tarshish, it says, Kittim and Rodanim,” now, Tarshish and Kittim are particularly interesting to me, but I'm gonna keep reading, “From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.” These were the maritime peoples, what does that mean? They got into ships and sailed to places you couldn't reach except by ships. Well, how do they know how to do that? Well, Noah built an ark, a very impressive ship, I must say, and so it wouldn't be so shocking for his descendants, a few generations later to know enough to build sailing vessels that could take them anywhere on the surface of the earth, they could go anywhere. And so they did. And so they peopled, among other places, the islands, the distant islands, and there would be people there, and they would have their own culture, and their own language, it says. Now, Tarshish is the most distant populated colony of the Mediterranean Sea, perhaps as far as Spain. You remember Tarshish, in that Jonah tried to flee there from the presence of the Lord. Well, the problem was that he hadn't read Psalm 139, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” “If I go to Tarshish, you are there. It doesn't matter where I go, you're there,” but he thought he would flee from the presence of the Lord. Was he going as a missionary? No, it's more of that scattering. He's just going. He wants to get away. It has nothing to do with being a missionary; it has to do with just running away from the presence of the Lord. Well, God didn't intend that Jonah go to Tarshish at that point, he said, no. Alright, now, Kittim is the general term for the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, but especially Cyprus, I think, in particular Cyprus, that's gonna play in later, again, when we see the fulfillment of the islands, I'm just setting the table right now, say, “Well, when are we gonna eat the course?” I don't know, but we're getting there, we're getting there. Okay. So the descendants of Japheth peopled the islands of the sea. Now, Israel was called out. You know after that, shortly after the Tower of Babel, God called a man, Abraham, from Ur of the Chaldees and set his love on him and made a covenant with him, that through his offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed, right? And so God would bless the whole world, all nations on earth blessed through Abraham, and he was the father of the Jews, the Jewish nation. And so he made a covenant with him and that they would have the Promised Land, but it wouldn't be until after the events of Exodus that we're studying, when God would lead them out with a mighty hand, outstretched arm, into the Promised Land, and they would take that Promised Land, but with a conditional covenant. What do I mean by conditional covenant? Well, there are unconditional covenants, like the covenant that God made with Noah after the ark, he said, "Look at the Rainbow. There's the sign, I'm never gonna do this again." Okay, That's unconditional covenant. God makes it, that's it. We don't need to agree or disagree, obey or disobey, he's just not gonna flood the earth anymore, like he did that one time, that's what, a uni-directional covenant. Okay, but this one, when they entered the Promised Land was not like that. It was a conditional covenant that if they disobeyed, he would do what? He would scatter them. He would kick them out of the Promised Land and scatter them to the four winds. And so it says, in Deuteronomy 4:25-31, "After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and provoking him to anger, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, you will not live there long, but will certainly be destroyed." And here in Verse 27, "The Lord will scatter you among the peoples... " See that, kind of hard to miss, I put it in bold, underlined. But there it is, “the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. There you'll worship man-made Gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear, eat or smell, but if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all of your heart and with all your soul. And when you're in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey him." Very big theme in the book of Isaiah, namely the re-gathering of Israel back to worship in the Lord and back to the promised land, very big theme, if from there, you turn, he will bring back... Now, we're studying this in Sunday school, aren't we? With the books we've been doing recently with Haggai and Zechariah and all these, but that was just a token, you have to understand that. You have to understand that's just the first fruits, that was not the ultimate, I think, re-gathering, that's prophesied in Isaiah, and others might disagree, but I think that the scope is so huge in the book of Isaiah that there's something else yet to come, and I'm excited about that. It's remarkable because, I'm just tipping my cards right here, you know who's gonna be bringing them back? It's the Gentiles who're gonna bring the Jews back. They're already out there, they're gonna hear the gospel, they'll believe it, and they'll carry the Jews back to the Promised Land. It's a remarkable thing, and Isaiah gives us the whole vision, but he says, "I'm gonna scatter you," and he did, didn't he? Song of Moses predicted all of it, they did rebel, they did become idolatrous, and he did scatter them, to the four winds, it was called the diaspora. And they were spread everywhere. The Jews went everywhere, and yet remarkably, they maintained their Jewish identity, in all the communities they went, whether it was Russia, or Greece, or Rome or whatever, they continue to be Jews, which is very interesting how God maintained that identity, and yet they're rejecting Christ, fascinating thing, but he scatters them out. Now, Christ comes, in the fullness of time, at the right time, he enters in the world, and one of the things he's here to do, I would say one of the ways he's here, that one of the ways we speak of his mission is that he is here to re-gather. And we're gonna get to this shortly, in Matthew 12, if you look down on the third quote there, Matthew 12:30, Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me... " Does what? “Scatters.” So you're either, in one of two categories, you're either a gatherer or a scatterer. That's it. “Well, I like a third category. Some grey area. I mean, isn't it possible for me to be kind of an in-between? Kind of a semi-gatherer?” No, you're either a gatherer or a scatterer according to Jesus. Okay? Jesus came to gather. Well, what did he come to gather? Well, look at that verse in Isaiah 11:12, we'll get to that in a minute, but it's so fantastic, “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel. He will assemble the scattered peoples of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” Isn't that fantastic? He's gonna raise up a banner and say, “Here I am, I'm the Messiah!” and they're gonna come, from the four quarters of the earth, they're gonna worship Christ. Or in Matthew 3:12, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering up his wheat into the barn but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” What is he gathering? His wheat, just another image of the same thing: his people. Or then in Matthew 24:31, this is at the end of the age, “He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect, from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Well, that's a big gathering, and you don't wanna miss that one, folks. Okay, don't miss that one. That's the final gathering, when the angels come. So through faith in Christ, he'll come and get you and he will gather you. But you see the gathering going on, he's bringing them back together, not only Jews are gathered, but Jesus has, according to John 10:16, other sheep as well. And you remember that passage? John 10:16, “I have other sheep that are not of the sheep pen, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Isn't that fantastic? He said, “I've got sheep out there, I've got people that are mine, my chosen ones,” his elect, it says in Matthew 24:31, “but they're mine, I'm gonna go get them. They're not of this pen, but they will come and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, there's one new man, believer in Christ, that's all, and so he's gonna gather them together into one flock, the gathering is only spiritual at this time, not physical. People stay where they are, and know God, aren't you glad? You don't have to go to Jerusalem like the Muslims go to Mecca? It would get really crowded if all Christians went physically to Jerusalem. And I'm so glad we don't have to do that. Now, the Jews did. You remember that? Physically, three times a year, they had to go up to Jerusalem. We don't need to do that. Jesus said so in John 4, “Woman, believe me, the time is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” What is he saying? You don't need to change your location. Not at all, God must change your heart, and if God changes your heart, you will be a spirit-filled knowledgeable worshipper of God, right where you are. And guess what, when that happens, what's gonna happen? The Earth will be a little more filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord because you are converted, you are transformed, and you'll just look at everything differently. "He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, there's one new man, believer in Christ, that's all, and so he's gonna gather them together into one flock." What do you mean everything? Well, the other day I was driving to a friend of mine's house, and as I was driving I noticed a turtle on the road, I don't know if they're out these days, 'cause I've seen three in the last two days. Now, I am not a tree hugger, okay? But I just felt a stewardship responsibility to pull over and move that turtle to the side of the road, and it was actually one of my more spiritual moments in the last several days, it was like an act of worship, "God, you made this turtle, I would hate to see it crushed." And so I picked it up and I moved it to the side, and I said, "Go on your way, off you go, whatever it is you do, you know? Go be a turtle somewhere, but just don't get crushed, this is not a good place for a turtle." And so I felt a sense of the glory of God in that turtle, and the Lord made it. And so that's it. I think the thing is, when the Lord transforms your heart, you see everything differently, “This is my Father's world, and we're here as stewards, we're not here to kill and to destroy, we're here to serve” like Adam was supposed to in the garden. And so there it is, we are transformed and right where we are, we can worship God, who is spirit and truth. But yet there is in a metaphorical sense, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, our hearts face there now, don't they? There's been a streaming of the nations with the advance of the Gospel, and so in one sense, every new Christian, wherever they are, their hearts are moving towards Zion, we're looking there for our lawgiver, Jesus to give us the law and tell us how to live. He becomes our ruler. Now ultimately, we will be gathered in the New Jerusalem and yet filling the whole earth with the knowledge of God, and this I haven't fully developed yet. That cubicle, New Jerusalem, a thousand stadia, or 10,000 and all that, that's hard to understand, there are depths here that, see, we're all in one place, and yet we're filling the new heavens and the new earth, so we'll work on that later. Let's move on before we get too, whatever, the islands of Isaiah; let's look at the first one. Turn to Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11. And we're looking at verses 1-12. Now, my watch here says three till six, is that what you guys have? Is that? Okay, yeah? Okay, alright, now that's good, that's right, I appreciate that. Why are you laughing? Okay, alright. I don't know how we started so early to... And I'm grateful for it though; I think we did well starting at five and getting going, so I'm excited. Alright, Isaiah 11, it says, "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding- the Spirit of counsel and power- the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord." Who is this? This is our Messiah, the anointed one. This is Christ, the shoot from the stump of Jesse coming up. “He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy. With justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.” He's a king. This is what he does, he rules; he reigns. “He will strike the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked.” He's a righteous ruler. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness his sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isn't that marvelous? What a prophecy. “In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the Gentiles;” or the peoples, “the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” So he's gonna stand up there and everybody's gonna rally to him, and it's gonna be a glorious place of rest. Look at verse 11, “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim,” one could also say, re-gather, “the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, from lower Egypt, from upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” Wow, they've gone a long way, haven't they? Yes, he's gonna reach out and he's gonna reclaim them, he's gonna bring them back, “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel. He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. And so the root of Jesse will come and establish his kingdom, the remnant of Israel, and God's chosen people from the Gentiles will be gathered from the distant corners of the earth.” Second, Isaiah 24:15, turn there if you would. Now, Isaiah 24 is a picture of judgment. The Lord's devastation of the whole Earth, “See, the Lord is going to lay waste to the earth and devastate it, he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants, it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor, the earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word.” and brothers and sisters, this is gonna happen. 2 Peter 3 talks about it, how everything is going to be destroyed in the fire, it's all gonna go. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people, they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant, and therefore a curse consumes the Earth, and its people must bear their guilt, therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up and very few are left. The new wine dries up, the vine withers, all the merrymakers groan, the gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent, no longer do they drink wine with a song, the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they all cry for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord's majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, [Where?] in the islands of the sea. What's going on? There's this huge devastation, and yet there's celebration right in the middle. These are the people who love God; these are the worshippers of the Lord, and where are they? Well, first of all, there are as far as in the east and the islands of the sea, verse 16, “From the ends of the earth, we hear singing: ‘Glory to the righteous one.’” Stop there. What's going on? The ends of the Earth, the distant islands are praising the God of Israel, they're worshipping. They're giving honor to him. That includes us; I would think we'd be kind of like ends of the earth to Jerusalem. Durham, North Carolina. Where is that? If you had asked Isaiah and said, "We live in Durham, North Carolina." "Oh, that's the ends of the earth as far as I'm concerned." They're singing to God. Wow. Next, Isaiah 40:15. I'm actually gonna begin at verse 12, verse 11, sorry, “He tends flock like a shepherd and gathers his lambs in his arms,” isn't that wonderful? He's gathering them. “He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters.” He's gathering, gathering people together. “He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him understanding?” Now look; verse 15, “Surely the nations, are like a drop in a bucket, they're regarded as dust on the scales, he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.” Isn't that remarkable? We'll just stop there. The basic idea here is clear. The nations are as nothing to him. He's immense, he's powerful, and he takes these distant islands and weighs them like they're dust on the scales. They're just small, compared to his immense power. Look at the next one, Isaiah 41, next page, verse 1-9. This is what he says, “Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment. Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to wind-blown chaff with his bow. He pursues them and moves on unscathed, by a path his feet have not traveled before. Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord- with the first of them and with the last- I am he” The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They approached and come forward; each helps the other and says to his brother, “Be strong!” The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says to the welding, “It is good.” he nails down the idol so that it will not topple. “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham, my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” What is this teaching? Well, the distant islands are guilty of idolatry, most of them are idolaters, they're idol worshipers, and so they set up an idol, so it won't topple, they nail it down, and they encourage one another, but they're trembling in fear, why? Because God sends forth judgment, first of all, their own hearts condemn them, that their idolatry is wicked. But secondly, events happen. One from the east comes, who is this, well there's different interpretations, but I think it's a military conqueror, it could be like Cyrus who comes and he gives over the lands, the islands into their hands, and so there are under the sway of the rise and fall of history and of empires that rise and fall, and they're always afraid, they're idolaters, the ends of the earth, the islands. Let's not think of the islands of the earth as though they're the noble savage, who don't need the Lord, oh they're idolaters and they're wicked, and they're under the judgment of God if they won't repent, but God's gonna bring them the gospel, isn't that wonderful? They're gonna see the light, and they're going to believe. Look at the next one, Isaiah 42:1-12, this will sound familiar, I hope., Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed, he will not break, and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope. Stop there for a moment. Who are we talking about? Well, this is Jesus Christ, he's going to come, the servant of the Lord, and he's gonna establish his kingdom, and in his sovereign reign, in his law, the islands will hope. They'll find their hope. They will trust in him. Now, it's interesting, Matthew translates it, "in his name the islands will put their trust or their hope." But is there really a distinction between law and name? “Open up in the name of the king.” It's the same thing, right? And so the king, with his name and with his authority and with his law will come and the islanders are going to accept, they're going to yield. They'll submit to the king of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus Christ. Continue reading, verse 5, “This is what God the Lord says- he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on it”. Verse 5 says, “I made them, I made the islanders. I created them. I formed them in their mother's womb.” Verse 6, “I the Lord have called you in righteousness, I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, and free captives from prison, to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place and new things I declare; before they spring into being, I announce them to you.” Verse 10, “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and all who live in them. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the islands.” Isn't that wonderful? Let them praise and exalt God in the distant-most reaches of the earth. Will they? Is this a prophecy, a prediction? Is this actually going to occur? Oh yes, it will. I'm telling you it has. It's already happened. It's not done yet, but it's already happened, it's already occurred. Even over the last century and a half, these prophecies are being fulfilled right in our own time. But they're very specific, aren't they? Look at Isaiah 49:1, "Listen to me," it says, "You islands; hear this, you distant nations," by the way, who's writing this? This is Isaiah. Where is he? He's probably living in Jerusalem. When? Seventh century BC, and he's writing down on a piece of scroll or parchment or something like that, "Listen to me, you islands." Now what are the odds, humanly speaking, that they'll ever hear anything he says? The answer is zero, humanly speaking. What are the odds, divinely speaking, that they will read this and hear it and believe it? 100%. And so he's speaking to them, he's addressing them, "Hear, O Heavens and Listen, O Earth for the Lord has spoken." He says, "Isaiah, just write this down. Let me take care of the delivery. I'll get it there, you just write it down." Okay, alright, Isaiah, what do you say? "Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations." Now he is speaking as a prophet, and he's speaking Christ's words here. Isn't he? Listen. Before I was born, the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.” [Verse 4] But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I've spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God.” And now the Lord says- he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring back Jacob to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength- [I love verse 6] he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Now, this has gotta be Christ. In one sense, you could say it's Isaiah who's writing it, but it's got to be Christ, because Simeon said that Christ would be a light for the Gentiles. And so Christ is the light for the Gentiles, and God, the Father has spoken to him and said, “It's too small a thing for you to save Israel only. It's too small; I will make you a light for the whole world. Even to the distant most islands of the earth.” Isaiah 51:5, look at verse 4-6, it says, "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait and hope for my arm. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath, the heavens will vanish like smoke. The earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants die like flies, but my salvation will last forever. My righteousness will never fail." So this is a strong exhortation to the islands to trust in Christ, why? Because they're vanishing like smoke, the heavens will disappear, there'll be no place to live any longer. And so come to Christ. Now, what's interesting is in Isaiah 51:1-3, it says, "Look to the rock from which you are cut, to the quarry from which you are hewn, look to Abraham, Your Father and to Sarah, who gave you birth." This is a Jewish Messiah. And so, “Salvation,” said Jesus, “comes from the Jews,” and so all the islands, the distant lands are gonna look to a descendant of Abraham, the rock from which they were cut, they're gonna look to him and trust in him and find their salvation there. Isaiah 59:18, now, Isaiah 59 speaks about sin. Verse 1, it says, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that you will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin, they're swift to shed innocent blood." That's quoted from Romans 3; he quotes it there. What is this talking about? It's talking about the universality of personal sin, and when they try to cover themselves with their deeds, cloak of righteousness, you're gonna stand before God on judgment day with your cloak of righteousness, it's gonna be like covering yourself with cobwebs. Your righteousness is nothing. You've lived the life of an adder, of a snake, and so there's no righteousness to cover yourself, and that's true to the ends of the earth. Look what it says in verse 18, "According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due." Do you see that? Judgment comes even to the islands, to the Jew first, and then what? To the Gentile, and that includes the islands. So they have personal sin, and if they do not repent and trust Christ, if they do not accept the gospel, then they will come under vengeance, they will come under vengeance, 'cause judgment reaches to the ends of the earth. Nobody escapes. Isaiah 60, magnificent chapter, the glory of Zion. "Arise and shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn." This may be the most important chapter in our study tonight. Concentrate now on verse 4, "Lift up your eyes and look about you, all assemble and come to you, your sons come from afar and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant. Your heart will throb and swell with joy." What are we talking about here, Zion? What is Zion? Well, in one sense, it's Jerusalem, the center of Jewish worship. This nation that's been trampled by the Gentiles, stripped and ruined and the walls are cast down, what does he say here? You're gonna look good, you're gonna be dressed up and you're gonna be dazzling and glorious, You'll look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord. All Kedar's flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar and I will adorn my glorious temple. “Who are these that fly along like clouds, like doves to their nests? Surely the islands look to me; in the lead, are the ships of Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar, with their silver and gold." Now stop there. This is fascinating. The people from the islands, Tarshish, are sailing to Zion, aren't they? And who are they bringing with them? Your sons, who are the sons? The Sons of Zion, they're Jews. And how... In what sense are they bringing them back to Zion? Well, who do you think is gonna lead the unbelieving Jews to Christ? Some Jews maybe, Jews for Jesus do that. It's mostly Gentiles though. We're the ones that make them jealous according to Paul, and we have the gospel. And who do you think in the end, when all Israel will be saved and there's a great in-gathering of Jews is gonna be, are gonna be the witnesses, the evangel, those that are taking the gospel? Is it not the inhabitants of the islands, among others, who will bring them to personal faith in Christ and bring them back home? Why don't you read the whole chapter when you have time, we're gonna finish with Isaiah 66:18-22, turn there. And it says there, this is the new heaven and new earth, "And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them and will send some of those who survive to the nations- to Tarshish [that's that distant island], to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, [these are all Gentiles, by the way] and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. [Now listen] They will bring all your brothers, [these are Jews] from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord- on horses, in chariots and wagons and on mules and camels, says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord. “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, 'so will your name and descendants endure.'" This is the eternal state, isn't it? And what's happening is, again, these Gentiles from the distant lands from Tarshish, from Lydia and all of these other places, are going to bring Jews back to Jerusalem to personal faith in Christ. Now, I wanna add a quick footnote on how this has been fulfilled. In Acts Chapter 13, when Paul and Barnabas went out on their first missionary journey, where did they go first? Does anybody know? They went to Cyprus; that was their first place, they left Joppa and went to Cyprus. That's Kittim, that's their first place that they preached the gospel, that's the beginning of the missionary endeavor of the church of Antioch, they go to the island of Cyprus and they begin preaching there. And then at the end of Paul's recorded life in Acts 28, he's shipwrecked and where does he end up? Malta, an island off Italy, you remember? And he gets to witness there to the governor and they come to faith in Christ because of a miracle he does there when he shakes off a snake and he heals some people there. Malta. Maybe that was even Tarshish, I don't really know what Tarshish is, just the distant islands in the Mediterranean, that's pretty distant. Paul intends to go even beyond there to Spain, and perhaps as far as what he intends in Tarshish. That's the apostle Paul. What about in our day? Well, perhaps you've heard of John Paton, he went to the New Hebrides in the 1850s and '60s, and led them to Christ. They were cannibals. They ate the last missionary that was there, you remember the story, and the ship that had left the missionaries on the beach sat there and watched from the shore or from the distance with their telescopes as these cannibals ate them, John Paton was the next missionary at that stop. Now, that took incredible courage, didn't it? He went there and he led them to Christ, they became an offering to the Lord and they worshipped God, and that beautiful island there that God had filled with his glory so long ago, those islanders, they knew his glory. The Earth was filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And after World War II, when soldiers had gone island-hopping with General MacArthur, after the war was over, they said, "Hey, let's go back, let's go back as witnesses," MacArthur called for thousands of missionaries to go to Japan, we've been there, Jordan and I and others have gone to witness to that island, that counts, it's an island in the sea. And there are Christians there. And also Irian Jaya, like Don Richardson, brought those islands idol worshippers to faith in Christ. Now, there's still work to be done, isn't there? But this is... I'm arguing from the greater to the lesser. If God cares about little dots and islands in the ocean, he cares about every square inch of this earth, and the earth will most certainly be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.