“Big Words – Propitiation” – Romans 3:25-26

I mentioned to you a couple of weeks ago about my run-in with law enforcement.  For those who weren’t here, let me just say that I have to admit to being a lawbreaker.  I am an outlaw, a desperado, a malefactor and a perpetrator.  I walked my dogs without leashes or even collars.  I admit it.  I was guilty and I deserved to pay the price but I was shown great grace.  Some of you might can relate.

But this was not my first time to get in trouble with the law.  In fact, it’s not the first time my dogs have been part of the problem.  But I don’t blame them.  We all make our own decisions but that’s a message for another day.  Anyway, years ago, I had some workmen come into my yard to do something and they didn’t shut the gate when they left and my dogs got out. (River Oaks – JD, Rusty and Abby)

When I got home I couldn’t find them so I went to the pound and there they were safe and sound but I had to go to the city judge to pay a fine for my dogs getting loose.  (I told you I’m a desperado.)  I could have just paid the fine there but I wanted to see a judge because I had not given these guys permission to come into my yard nor was it my fault they left the gate open.  I wanted justice and if not justice then at least have some mercy.  Some of you might can relate.

So, after waiting my turn listening to all the other offenders plead their cases before the judge, it was my turn.  He read the charge and asked me how I pleaded.  I said I plead not guilty and told him why.  I hadn’t even finished my explanation of what happened and was in the middle of a sentence when the judge banged his gavel down on his big oak desk and hollered out, “The only good dog is a dead dog!  Pay the fine plus court costs.  Next!”

Before I could say anything or do anything else somebody else was standing there talking to him.  There was no more explaining.  There was no appeal process.  There was nothing I could say or do.  I wanted to tell him that my dogs said that the only good judge was a dead judge but I didn’t.  I just went and paid the fine plus court costs.  I went there looking for justice and mercy and found neither.  That judge was not merciful and he was not just.  Some of you might can relate.

Thankfully, we serve a God Who is both merciful and just, right?  Is He merciful?  How do you know?  Is He just?  How do you know?  For God to be both merciful and just is a real problem for us.  How can God be just and justify a sinner?  How can God be righteous and declare a sinner righteous?  Or, if I were turning it in the modern language of our courts, “How can a judge do right and allow a felon to escape free?”

There is no law without a penalty.  There is no such thing as a law being a law without a penalty.  If the legislature were to convene and pass laws with no penalty, they might be recommendations, they might be good wishes, they might be fine hoped for things, but they wouldn’t be laws.  For a law to be a law, it demands that when it is broken a penalty be paid.  And God’s universe is like that: that’s where the state got its idea of justice.  Justice lies in the character of God.  God’s universe is moral; it is governed by law.  And law to be law demands a penalty. (THE GOD OF JUSTICE AND LOVE - Dr. W. A. Criswell)

 

We saw last week in Romans 3:23 that we are all sinners.  We have all broken God’s law and God could be all justice.  He could say that since we have broken the law that we all deserve eternal death and separation from Him and He would not be wrong.  That is what we deserve just like it says in Romans 6:23.  The wages of sin is death.  But that wouldn’t be merciful.

Or God could be all mercy and just say, “Aw, it’s ok.  I forgive all of you no matter what.  I didn’t really mean what I said about breaking those laws.”  But that would go against His nature of being just.  So, what did God do?  God solved that problem by sending His Son, Jesus, to be the propitiation.

 

“Propitiation”.  That is our big word of the day as we continue our sermon series entitled just that: “Big Words”.  We looked at the word “redeemed” last week.  Does anybody remember what that word means?  It means to convert into something of value and that is just what Jesus did for us.  We are redeemed or converted into something of value, not just to this world, but to God Himself and that should make us holy, joyful and peaceful.

 

Now, while last week’s big word describes us, this week’s big word describes Jesus Himself.  Let’s look at it continuing in Paul’s book to the Romans in chapter 3, verses 25 and 26.  On page 797 in the Bible in the back of the pew in front of you. Romans 3:25-26 in the NIV says, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

 

Now, some of you who might have been following along in the NIV might have been looking for that big word, “propitiation” and never saw it.  The NIV interprets that word, “atonement”.  Does that help any?  Do you know what “atonement” means?  No?  Well, let me help you by reading some other translations.  How about “expiatory sacrifice”?  Not really?  “Appeasement”?  Is that a little better?  Actually, Webster does a pretty good job of this when he defines “propitiation” as “gaining or regaining the favor of.”

 

If you really enjoy reading through the book of Leviticus you may need therapy but you may also see how it pertains to us today and how “propitiation” pertains to us today.  All through the book of Leviticus, Moses gives laws and commands and many of these pertain to how to offer sacrifices correctly.  You may remember that in the Old Testament, before the sacrifice of Jesus, people had to sacrifice animals for their sins.  They would take the appropriate animal to the priest and the priest would sacrifice it for them on the altar and the blood would be sprinkled over the Ark of the Covenant, specifically over the top of it which was called the mercy seat or the atonement cover. (Lev. 16:14)  This would signify that the sins of the people had been “covered over” and removed from God’s sight and they would be in God’s favor again.

 

Now, look again at the passage in Romans.  It says that God presented Jesus or set Him forth and those words were used to describe what you would do with the awards that were to be presented to the winners of a race.  You would show them to everybody; present them to all who would look.  In other words, God made it obvious to everybody that Jesus was the sacrifice, but more than that the sins were not just covered over but Jesus was actually punished for those sins and the sins were removed – gone – and because of that our faith in Jesus puts us back in perfect favor with God.  Jesus was the propitiation for our sins.

 

That’s almost more than I can take in.  I can’t comprehend why Jesus would do that for me.  I can’t read this without asking the question, “Why?”  Thankfully, God answers that question in this same passage.  Continue reading in verse 25 where it says, “He did this to demonstrate his justice (or righteousness), because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.”

 

There is another big word in that sentence.  “Forbearance” means refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.  So, what this means is that because God is patient He had allowed people in the Old Testament to make sacrifices to cover over their sins but because He is just there had to be a sacrifice that was good enough to appease God’s anger at sin and so God sent His own perfect Son to be that sacrifice and in doing so we see that, not only is God loving and merciful, but He is also just.

 

Verse 26 says, “He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”  He is merciful and just and all we have to do – the full extent of our responsibility – is to believe it.  But what does that “belief” look like?  It looks like someone who trusts in Jesus and Jesus alone for not only their salvation but for their very life and support.  It looks like someone who doesn’t always understand what is happening or why it is happening but does understand that God is totally in control and loves us as His children and wants the best for us.

 

It looks like someone who doesn’t look like everybody else; someone that is holy, separate and different than those around him.  Believing in the blood of Jesus is life-changing.  You can’t look the same afterward.  Your life will be different.  It will affect how you look, how you talk, how you dress and where you go and what you do because true belief in Jesus understands that He died for us as the propitiation for our sins and He took what we deserve.  He paid the price we could not pay and that will manifest itself in worship in spirit and truth.

 

A true believer will worship with other believers because of the gratefulness he has because of what God has done for us through His Son Jesus and when that believer can’t join in worship, it should grieve him and pain him.  It’s not trying to repay the debt.  That has already been done in full.  It is about loving the One Who loves us.

 

1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  That’s why we worship.  Let’s continue doing that now.

 

Lord’s Supper

 

 

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

“Big Words – Redemption” – Romans 3:19-24

How many of you remember the old S&H Green Stamps?  For those too young to remember back to the sixties and seventies, lots of grocery stores, gas stations and department stores would give out a certain number of these little green stamps with every purchase.  Then you would save up these stamps and put them in little books that they also gave out until you filled the book or books and then what would you do?

You would “redeem” those books of stamps, either at a Green Stamps store or by mail through their catalog and exchange the stamps for some product that you wanted; usually some kind of housewares or maybe a toy or something.  Now, each stamp was marked with some kind of numerical denomination (not like Baptist or Methodist) but a number like 10, 25 or 50 if I remember right.  But how much was each stamp actually worth?

If you were to try to use one of those stamps to purchase something at the grocery store, how much value did it have?  Absolutely nothing, right?  The stamps, in and of themselves, were completely worthless.  Their value was only realized when they were redeemed but when they were redeemed you could get some nice stuff.  Can I repeat that again for those who think I’m actually talking about stamps?  Their value was only realized when they were…redeemed.

We are starting a new sermon series today entitled, “Big Words” and we are looking at some verses that are at the very core of the Gospel in the book of Romans. Martin Luther labeled them as “the marrow of theology”.  Barnhouse called them “the heart of the Bible”.  Without having a grasp of some of these big words, one cannot grasp the Gospel.  We may not ever completely understand the full eternal significance of some of these words but it is vital to our relationship with God through His Son Jesus and it is vital to our eternities that we have some understanding of them.

Now, we could just look in the dictionary and that would be a good place to start but, again, to get a grasp of the full eternal significance we need to see what Paul said in the New Testament book of Romans, specifically for today’s study, the third chapter, verses 19-24, as we look at the word “redemption” or what it means to be redeemed.  The dictionary defines the word “redeem” as “to convert into something of value”.  Repeat.

Be looking for the word “redeem” or “redemption” and keep that definition in mind as we read these most important words in Romans 3:19-24.  Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.  ²¹ But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Our last sermon series was about how God used common people to get His will accomplished and we saw lots of people who were nothing special and had no great gifts or talents and yet God chose them to be His mouthpiece or used them to save the world in which they lived in spite of not being talented or gifted.  Paul was not one of those kinds of people.

As I said, God specialized in using people who were common so that God got the glory and it is the same way today but sometimes God does choose to use highly intelligent and capable people and that is who Paul was.  We know Paul was well-educated and very experienced and influential and we would think that would be a good thing but I think that is exactly why, just after Paul was converted, God told Ananias in Acts chapter 9 to go get Paul so that God could show him just how much he must suffer for the name of God (Acts 9:16).  Paul had a lot to be proud of but God wrung all that out of him and in the process Paul was able to understand great truths and write about them as he does in this passage.

So, if when we read that it sounded like a smart guy talking it is because he was.  But with just a little bit of effort we will be able to fully appreciate Paul’s meaning and will be greatly rewarded as we study what “redemption” really means and what it will mean to us as we leave here and live our lives.

I think it is fascinating that all through the Bible we see the bad news first and then the good news.  If you think about it, the Old Testament was bad news.  It is full of laws and commandments that are impossible to keep.  Following the law involved sacrificing all kinds of animals.  It meant trying to live up to a standard of living that was literally impossible.

But then came the New Testament and it was full of grace, not law.  Jesus changed everything.  He didn’t abolish the law but He said He came to fulfill it and that was the Good News.  Well, Paul lays out this theology in the same way.  He starts with the bad news in verses 19-20.  In fact, most of the first three chapters of Romans up to verse 21 are bad news.

He talks all through here about God’s wrath and the righteous judgment of God is coming and he carries it through to verses 19-20.  In verse 19, Paul basically holds the Old Testament law up as a mirror and he says that every mouth will be silenced.  Nobody can say anything about how good they are or how their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds or how they deserve anything but death and Hell when compared to God’s standard.

We are going to be held accountable to God one of these days and when He judges us by the standard of the Law that Moses wrote so many years ago then we will be completely unable to answer Him.  No excuse, no reason, no fancy lawyer-speak or loop-hole will get any of us out of what we deserve and that’s bad news, right?  In verse 20 he goes on to say that nobody is righteous, an echo of what he says in verse 10 that is also a quotation of what is said in Ecclesiastes 7 that says, “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.”

Well, if God’s standard is being sinless, then this is bad news!  It’s horrible news!  What are we going to do? In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah sees God in a vision.  He says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

And what does Isaiah say when he sees all this?  Look at it!

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah saw who God was and he saw who he was.  He saw the glory of God compared to himself and can’t you just hear the despair in his voice when he says, “I am ruined”?  That’s me, too!  That is how I feel when I realize the gulf, the chasm that is between me and holy God.  I am ruined!  I am no better, no more valuable, no less fragile than one of those green stamps.  I am a ruined man.

Here lately, it seems like everybody is offended by something.  People are all the sudden offended by things they were never offended by before.  They are offended by flags and words and phrases and people and groups and they want them all banned.  Get rid of them!  But these people aren’t truly offended.  Their feelings aren’t really hurt by these things.  I’ll tell you what the problem is.

God has put inside every one of us a desire to know Him and to seek Him and to be like Him.  It says in the very first chapter of the first book of the Bible in Genesis 1 that we were made in His image.  Like a little boy wants to grow up to be like his daddy we want to be like God.  But today, people look in the mirror and they don’t see God or anything like Him and it scares them. Deep down they know better.  They know something is wrong and instead of changing themselves, they want everybody else to change hoping that will make them feel better but they are ultimately and eternally ruined and there is nothing they can do about it.

Paul says in verse 20 that none will be declared righteous by looking at the mirror of the Law.  Nobody can keep even the 10 Commandments completely, much less all the other Mosaic laws.  According to a 3rd century rabbi, Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David reduced them to 11 in Psalm 15. Isaiah made them 6 (Isaiah 33:14, 15). Micah 6:8 binds them into 3 commands. Habbakuk reduces them all to one great statement: The just shall live by faith. 

That is the Old Covenant but then came Jesus Who didn’t abolish any of those laws but He fulfilled all of them including being the One in Whom we have our faith.  Do you see it in verse 21?  Look at the very first word of verse 21.  Underline that word “But”.  Put an exclamation mark next to it.  Do a little dance next to that word because it changes everything!

The word “But” right there means that, yes, everything before it is true and it is really bad news for everybody and yet there is good news and Paul is working his way toward it.  I get excited and I want to yell out the word “redemption” but Paul is getting there.  Read it again.  Verse 21 says, “But wait!  There’s more!  Look!  I found a way to be right with God and it is exactly what the Old Testament has been pointing to all along.”

I said before that the Old Testament or Mosaic Laws are like a mirror that shows us where we are dirty and where we have messed up.  When you look in the mirror and see a spot of dirt, you don’t take the mirror off the wall and rub it on your face trying to clean yourself up.  That’s not what mirrors are for.  In the same way, the Law was not meant to save us or make us clean.  It was just meant to show us our need for cleansing and Paul, here in verse 22, says, “Hey, y’all, look!  I found the cleanser!  I found the way to be righteous or right with God and it comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”

Then we come to verse 23.  We are getting closer to our ‘Big Word” but first Paul goes back to the bad news for emphasis.  He closes verse 22 by saying that all of us are the same.  There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles when it comes to our need for cleansing in the sight of God.  Then he writes that famous sentence in verse 23 that says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Do you remember how Brian encouraged us to witness a couple of months ago when he preached?  If you are starting with your testimony you want to start with the bad news first.  It helps people to understand what kind of a person you were before you met Jesus.  Tell them briefly about the bad news of who you used to be and then get to the good news of who you are today. 

Or, if you start with scripture, Brian told us to start with the bad news as well and this verse is the verse he chose that says it best.  The bad news is that we are all sinners and then read Romans 6:23 that says that because of our sin we deserve death.  That’s the bad news.  That’s just what Paul is doing here.  He’s following Brian’s guideline!

Then Paul finally comes to verse 24.  Now, if this was me writing, I would have said, “Hey, now, y’all listen to this!  This is the most important thing in the history of the world!”  But Paul just calmly makes the statement that all of us are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  Talk about big words!

“Justified”, “freely” and “grace” are all huge words that we could spend a lifetime of sermons on and we will talk more about “justification” in a few weeks although we will never do it justice.  “Justified” means to be declared not guilty.  “Freely” means there is nothing we can do to work for it or earn it.  “Grace” means we don’t deserve it and “redemption”…as we saw earlier, “redemption” means, “to convert into something of value”.

A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn't read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!" His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."  Our Daily Bread, June 7, 1994.



I love books and I can’t imagine what the value of a book like that might be if one were actually found.  I have a couple of books that are very valuable to me.  This one is a Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Bible Commentary that my dad gave me a few years ago.  My grandfather gave it to him in 1963 after he used it for years.  I love looking through it knowing the history and the helpfulness it has been for all these years.  It is very valuable to me.



But one of these days, this book is going to rot or be burned or lost and forgotten like everything else in this world and its value will be lost.  But when Paul talks about us being redeemed or being converted into something of value he means that we will have eternal value not just for today or for a few years and that – get this – we are valuable to Almighty, Holy God.  Can you believe that?  Now, that’s good news!



But what does this mean for us tomorrow?  What does it mean to be valuable to God and how should that affect us as we go about our lives when we leave here?  Well, when you have something of value, what do you do?  Do you throw it out in the yard and hope it’s there when you go look for it later?  Of course not.  You make a special place for it and you keep it separate.  You put it in a different place than all of your other common stuff, right?



That is exactly what God does with us.  He makes us holy.  That’s what it means to be holy – to be set apart or different and to be used for God.  We are not perfect but God sees us as something very valuable.  We are valuable because Jesus redeemed us and converted us into something of value and because we are valuable we should be set apart from the rest of the world who are trying to make everybody else look worse than they are so they can feel better about themselves.  But being better than the next guy is not going to get us to Heaven.  We get to Heaven by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.



That should bring us great joy!  We should have great peace knowing that we don’t have to be good enough and we don’t have to worry about our good deeds being better than our bad deeds.  How should this affect us as we go about our daily lives?  People should be able to spot us a mile away because we are the ones who have peace and joy even in the bad times.  We are the ones who look different than the rest of the world.  What is offensive to them is not necessarily offensive to us but other things may be.



We are holy.  We are joyful.  We are peaceful.  I used to be a ruined man…BUT now I am a redeemed man!



How does one become redeemed?  How do we go from ruined to valuable?  Only by putting our faith and trust in Jesus and asking Him into our lives to rule over our lives forever and to change us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, repenting or turning away from our sin and then confessing with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord.  Do that today.

“Nothing Special” – Amos 7:7-9

How many of you consider yourself to be fairly aware of current events?  You catch the news every so often and know a little bit about what is going on in the world.  Everybody else, we appreciate you leaving your caves this morning and coming into civilization.  If you are somewhat aware of what is going on you know that the United States has some enemies in this world, not to mention the ones we have even in this country and maybe even in government.  There are people who would love nothing more than to see the United States crumble and fall off of the map.

How do you feel about those people?  If you love America, and I assume that all of us here do, then what are your thoughts toward a group of people who, for whatever reason, want us to be killed?  “You first!” right?  You think something along the lines of, “I hope your suicide vest goes off the first time you try it on.”  Have you seen the video of the guy trying to shoot at the U.S. soldiers with a bazooka and he pulls the trigger but it doesn’t go off?  So, he puts it on the ground and looks into the barrel and the next thing you see is just a bunch of dust.  Yea, that’s what I’m talking about.

How would you like it if we had an evangelist come speak to us here at Christ Fellowship who started out his message by saying he had received a message from God that the Iranian government and military was going to be completely destroyed?  “Amen, brother!  Preach on!”  Right?

Then he said that the Russian government and military would soon collapse.  God had revealed that to him.  Then the North Koreans would be next and the Chinese after them and all our enemies would soon be destroyed.  You would applaud and cheer and thank God for bringing this man to us.  You would be thinking, “Let’s boot out that bum Todd and get this guy to be pastor!”  Wouldn’t you?

But then the evangelist ends his sermon by saying that God had also given him word that the United States would also be wiped out; not just the government and the military but completely wiped off the map except for just a remnant of the population and that it will happen soon because of our love for money and love of self.  Now, who is saying, “Amen”?  Now, how do you feel about that preacher?

Well, I want to introduce you to that preacher.  His name is Amos.  His story can be found in the Bible between Joel and Obadiah in the Old Testament.  Some of you may never have even heard of Amos, much less Joel or Obadiah.  In the Bible in the pew in front of you it can probably be found on page 651.  We are concluding our sermon series entitled, “Nothing Special – Common Men and Women God Used” with a look at the prophet Amos.

Now, previously we have looked at some other Old Testament characters who were nothing special because sometimes we all feel like we really don’t have much to offer; like we have no great talents or gifts and can’t figure out how God could ever use us.  Like I said before, though, when we get to that place, I believe that is right where God wants us to be because He specializes in using the ungifted, untalented, poor, and ridiculous and the short, fat and bald because that way, when something great happens, God gets the credit.

But we have seen that while most of these people had nothing really special about them, most of them had something.  Last week we saw that Esther was good-looking.  Shamgar had an ox-goad.  Ezra had good handwriting and Gideon at least had a wine press.  But today poor old Amos has nothing but bad news given to him by God and the purpose of his life is to preach that bad news.

It says in chapter one that Amos was a shepherd.  That’s all that was on his resume.  He sticks up for himself later in chapter eight where he says that not only was he a shepherd but he also tended sycamore-fig trees.  So, he had that going for him.  But I think we can all agree that Amos would not be on anybody’s most-influential list.  But God saw him and said, “That’s the guy I need to preach to my chosen people.”

So, Amos was obedient and he started preaching.  He went to the middle of town and commenced with his message proclaiming that Damascus was going to be destroyed by fire.  “Amen, preacher!  Amen!” they said.

Then he preached that God had revealed to him that Gaza would soon be destroyed as well.  “Yes, preacher!  Preach that word” since the Israelites couldn’t stand Gaza.  Then Tyre, then Edom, then Ammon and Moab and all the other enemies of Israel and I’m sure the people hearing him were thinking just what a great and powerful speaker this Amos was.  Where had he been?  “Honey, let’s invite him over for lunch after the service!”

But then, continuing to be obedient to what God had told him to do, Amos preached – in Israel, his home – that all of Israel would soon be destroyed as well.  *Gasp!* “How dare he?  We don’t have to stand here and listen to this.  Honey, let’s go back to our big, comfortable house and drink our wine and eat our choice meat.”  But Amos continued to preach and, by the way, everything he prophesied came true, of course. 

I’m sure this was difficult for Amos.  He loved his country.  He didn’t want this to happen.  In fact, because of his prayers for his country Israel was saved from worse fates when God heard his prayers.  In chapter 7, God shows Amos a vision of why God is going to destroy Israel and Amos couldn’t argue about it.  It was plain.  God is a God of love and mercy and kindness and generosity, as we all know, but He is also a God of justice and His patience has a limit.

Let’s look at Amos chapter 7, verses 7-9 to see what God shows Amos.

 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸ And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”  “A plumb line,” I replied.  Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.  ⁹ “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”

How many of you have ever seen one of these (plumb lines) before?  Have you ever actually used one?  I’m sure there are more modern ways of building things now but for centuries this ingeniously simple little device was the tool to use to make sure the building or the wall you are building is straight and true or “plumb”.  It was used by masons and carpenters to establish a true vertical.

If the building was not true and plumb then it had to be torn down and rebuilt before it could be used.  That is exactly what God is showing Amos right here but the wall to be torn down…is Israel.  Now, I am not standing before you today as a prophet saying this is going to happen to America any time soon.  I don’t know that.  I will say like Amos did that I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet (7:14) but I do know that God does not change.

God is the same as He was in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and in the days of our parents and the same today.  He is still merciful and loving and generous but He is also still just and His patience with the United States has a limit.  I told you about the faulty thinking I have had for a while thinking that just because times were getting bad that Jesus had to be coming soon because surely God wouldn’t let us as Christians go through anything any more difficult.

Nobody knows when Jesus will come back and it may be before I’m finished here and I hope it is but if the Israelites – God’s chosen people - had to be disciplined with death and slavery, who do we think we are to avoid such things if we keep doing exactly what they were doing? 

God was showing Amos how He was holding a plumb line up to Israel to see if they were true and He still holds a plumb line up to us today individually, as a church and as a country to see if we are true.  He is holding His written and revealed Word up to all of us today to see if we match up and if not then biblical history would have us to believe that we can expect to be torn down just like Israel was.

If we do keep up to date on what is happening in our world then this would be a hard pill to swallow.  That makes this message sound pretty depressing.  We started off with, “Better is one day in your house” and now we’ve come to, “We’re all gonna die!”  Well, I don’t want to sugar coat anything or take away from the seriousness of the situation.  I’m not going to go all “Joel Osteen” on you here but I do want us to see that, like Amos, we have a message to tell our country but it’s not all bad.

When God says He is holding a plumb line to Israel He means He is comparing them to His Word and for us today He is doing the same thing.  He is comparing us to what is written in the Bible.  So, our message to our country is that we should be biblical.  We should be a people of the Word.  We should know it, understand it and apply it to our lives.  It should change our lives.  It should make us uncomfortable because change is always uncomfortable.

Now, let me just stop right here for a second because I need to know something.  First I need to know that you are listening and then I need to know that you believe me so far.  If you believe what I have said so far that this country is in dire shape similar to where Israel was at this time and that God’s patience won’t last forever then raise your hand, please.

Ok, good.  Now if you believe what I have said then I need you to believe that becoming “plumb”; becoming biblical as individuals, as a church and as a country is not going to happen by coming to church on Sunday mornings.  If that is all you do to be biblical then put your hand down and go ahead and leave now because you’re not going to be able to do anything else God has for you in this message.

If you really believe what I have said then you will spend time on your own in the Word.  You will have a daily quiet time where you can read and study for your own pleasure and for your own knowledge, understanding and edification; for your own building up.  It will happen.  I know you’re busy but this country and your kids and grandkids can’t afford for you to not be biblical so it’s time to make that a priority.

Then right away we need to start making disciples just like Jesus told us to do in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19.  Go into all the world making disciples.  Do you remember what it means to be a disciple?  It means to learn from Jesus and then teach and encourage others with what you learn.  You don’t have to be anything special.  You just have to be biblical and you have to be a disciple who makes more disciples.

Next, like Amos, we not only have a message to be biblical but we have a message to be bold.  Look again at verse 9.  When God mentions the high places of Isaac and the sanctuaries of Israel, He is talking about the places of worship; the so-called holy places and the places of sacrifice.  Can you imagine what kind of boldness it took for Amos to go to what we would call the local church and tell them that God was displeased with them?

Who does he think he is, right?  I forget the name of the old-time evangelist (not as old as Amos but still pretty old) who said that when you preach people should either be offended or changed.  That’s what should be expected when we tell people the Gospel.  That is going to happen when we hold up the plumb line and quote scripture that condemns homosexuality and abortion.  People are going to be offended or they are going to be changed when compared to the standard of God’s Word.  Expect it and be bold because the Bible is our rock.  It is our light and a lamp to our path and this country and your kids and grandkids can’t afford for you not to be bold.

I have heard it said that men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it contradicts them and that includes all of us as members of Christ Fellowship.  Amos wasn’t afraid to tell the religious people that God was going to judge them and the reason God was going to judge them was not because they didn’t participate in the worship.  It wasn’t because God loves hymns more than He loves modern stuff.  It wasn’t because they called it Sunday School or Sunday Not School.

God was going to judge them and He is going to judge us, not on what we do or don’t do on Sunday mornings but on what we do or don’t do every other day of the week.  Our Sunday worship time may not be the biggest, best, brightest, latest, greatest thing going but it is worship in spirit and truth to the best that we know how and God is honored in our worship.

The problem is that every other day of the week we, as a church and as a country look just like the rest of the world.  We do the same things, say the same things, go to the same movies, have the same hobbies and tell the same jokes.  Inside the church we are plumb but outside the church we are crooked.  That’s like putting a fresh coat of paint on the inside while the outside walls are collapsing and God will not have His bride, the church, looking like every other hooker on the street corner.

Our message is to be bold and it is to the world as well as the church as long as the church looks just like the world.  As long as we keep doing the same things and saying the same things and sleeping with the same people and killing the same babies then God says, as He did in Isaiah 1 that our meetings together disgust Him and we should quit trampling His courts because our sacrifices are detestable to Him.

The plumb line is being held up to us, Christ Fellowship, and it is time to be biblical and surround ourselves and smother ourselves with biblical truth.  God says in Deuteronomy 6, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Our message, like the message of Amos is to be biblical and it is to be bold.  Satan wants nothing more than for you to be quiet but our children and grandchildren can’t afford for us to be quiet.  You don’t have to be specially gifted to make disciples.  You just have to learn from Jesus and teach and encourage others with what you learn.  So be biblical and be bold but we also have to be beneficial.

Our message, like the message of Amos, has to be beneficial to our hearers.  It has to be spoken with love.  Earlier in the same chapter of Amos, God tells Amos that Israel will be destroyed but Amos begs and pleads and God shows mercy.  It broke Amos’s heart to see the country he loved have to suffer and while he was obedient to say what God wanted him to say, Amos continued to beg God for mercy and grace on behalf of his family and friends.

You may be speaking biblically and boldly but unless it breaks your heart to say then you can’t say it in a way that is beneficial and you need to keep your mouth shut until God gives you the correct motivation.  Because speaking the truth without love is just arguing and no amount of arguing is going to change anybody’s mind, much less their actions.  But how can we do this?  How can we really speak biblically and boldly and in truth with love.  That sounds to me like somebody trying to teach me to golf.

Bend your knees, head down, shoulders back, left arm straight, right arm bent slightly, eyes on the ball, follow through, hold the club firmly but not too hard…good grief, I give up.  Well I can’t play golf at all and I struggle like everybody else with being biblical, bold and beneficial but here are three practical ways we can speak the truth in love.  First, Paul says in Romans 12:3 that we should avoid thinking too highly of ourselves.  Speaking the truth in love is impossible if you are proud.  Realize who you really are by comparing yourself to the plumb line of God’s Word.

Next, James 1:19 says, Know this my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak.  If we are going to be able to speak the truth in love we first have to listen to the other person to be able to know where they are really coming from and we also have to earn the right to be heard ourselves.  Listen before you speak the truth in love.

Lastly, another thing that we can do to help us as we speak the truth in love is to speak it in private as much as possible.  Matthew 18 tells us that the first thing we are to do is go to the offending person in private and speak the truth and if that doesn’t work then we get others involved.  But privately is best when dealing with one person’s problems.

There are other things we can do to help us to be biblical, bold and beneficial and do you know where they are found?  They are found in the plumb line of God’s Word.  You don’t have to be something special.  You just have to be obedient like Amos and Esther and Gideon and Shamgar and so many others all through the Bible who had nothing special about them and yet God used them to change the world.

This world needs to be changed.  Our country and our community needs to be changed.  Are you willing to do whatever God tells you to do to change it?  It starts with having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  It starts with accepting Him to be Lord as well as Savior and as Lord, He has control of every aspect of your life, making you more and more like Him every day.

Ask Him for forgiveness of your sins and then repent – turn away – from those sins.  You will never be perfect until you get to Heaven but you can be holy even though you, like all of us, are nothing special.  Make that decision today.

“Nothing Special” –Esther 4

During the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln found refuge at the midweek meetings of a Presbyterian church there in Washington, D.C.. He would go with an aide, sit quietly with his stovepipe hat in his lap. He would listen intently as the minister would open the Scriptures and teach God’s Word and lead the congregation in worship.
The war was tearing the nation apart and it tore at his soul as well. He’d just lost his own son, and now Lincoln was grieving, and needing solace and sustenance for his soul.
The preacher finished his message and the people began to leave.
The president quietly stood up, straightened his coat, took his hat in hand and began to leave.
His aide stopped him and said, "What did you think of the sermon, Mr. President?"
Lincoln answered, "I thought the sermon was carefully thought through, eloquently delivered."
The aide said, "You thought it was a great sermon?"
Lincoln replied, "No I thought he failed… he did not ask of us something great."(Bruce Larson, What God Wants Us To Know)

The preacher hadn’t asked his congregation to do something great.  He hadn’t challenged the people, or the President of the United States, to do more with their lives. And that disturbed the President, because Lincoln saw his nation being torn apart and saw himself struggling with a deep pain and loss. 

That is a struggle that almost all preachers go through, I believe.  We want to be clear and we want to speak well and we pray always for truth and sometimes even if we can do all of that, we fail to ask or motivate people to do anything to change themselves or others.

Then there is also the even greater problem that occurs when the preacher actually does ask or motivate people to do something!  How can common, ordinary people really do anything to change their own circumstances, much less the world?  How can ordinary people do anything great?  I mean, if we were Abe Lincoln then maybe we could do something great but there is nothing special about me.  How can I change the world?

“Everybody thinks of changing Humanity and Nobody thinks of changing Himself.”  L. Tolstoy.  If we are going to do something great then we have to be ready to change ourselves; to get out of our comfort zones, make some sacrifices and be who we are supposed to be so that God can use us and work something great through us.  We don’t have to be great.  We don’t have to be powerful and influential.  If you weren’t on the stage last Thursday night with the Republican presidential contenders, it’s ok because you can still change the world.  You just have to start with you.

Now, when I say that, it might not be enough persuasion to make you really want to do something great.  You’re pretty satisfied with where you are.  You’re not too bad a person.  Things could be worse for you and you’re pretty comfortable.  Sure, you wish this world was a better place but it’s not enough to make you really want to change much about who you are or what you do.  I understand that.

We are continuing our sermon series entitled, “Nothing Special – Common Men and Women God Used”.  We took a little detour away from it last Sunday but we’re back today looking at a beautiful passage in the book of Esther.  If you have never read the story of Esther, I would encourage you to start at the beginning.  I did that a couple of weeks ago and literally couldn’t put it down.  There is only 10 short chapters and it makes for a great story.

To me, it is the funniest book in the Bible.  I honestly laughed out loud several times reading it and I knew the story.  If you like to see the underdog come out on top and you can’t stand when arrogant and self-important people get away with things then this book is for you.  I won’t tell you the whole story but I will give you enough background to help you understand what is going on in the small passage we are going to read in Esther 4:9-17.

Esther is in the Old Testament between Nehemiah and Job.  We don’t know who wrote it although it may have been Mordechai who is one of the main characters.  Mordechai was part of the group of Israelites who were taken into slavery by the Persians but he had been there long enough he had some standing in his community.  He had basically adopted his young cousin Esther and had raised her as his daughter and it is said that Esther was very beautiful (2:8).

Her beauty is brought out in the book because that is what got her to the position of queen.  The king basically had a beauty contest and she won so now she’s queen whether she wanted to be or not.  Now, being queen was great for Esther but she still had very few rights because she was a woman.  She couldn’t even go to where the king was unless he specifically asked for her.  You know, guys, back in the good old days.  J

The problem was that one of the king’s right hand men had sent out a decree in the name of the king that all the Jews were to be killed on such and such a day.  The king didn’t care and didn’t know that his own queen, Esther, was a Jew so he was all for it.  When Mordecai heard about the decree he sent word to Esther through a man named Hathak that Esther was going to have to go to the king and beg for mercy for her people (4:8).  It was time for little ol’ Esther to do something great for her people.

That is where we pick up in Esther 4:9-17.   Hathak went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, ¹¹ “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”  ¹² When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, ¹³ he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”  ¹⁵ Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”  ¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.

That’s pretty courageous, isn’t it?  “If I perish, I perish.”  It reminds me of a similar thought expressed by the three young Hebrew boys, “I know He can and I know He will but even if He doesn’t…” still I will be obedient.  That takes a lot of courage just to say it; even more if you mean it!

Adrian Rogers told about the man who bragged that he had cut off the tail of a man-eating lion with his pocket knife. Asked why he hadn't cut off the lion's head, the man replied: "Someone had already done that."  Eddie Rickenbacker said, “Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.”  Do you think Esther was scared?  Sure she was.  She had good reason to be scared.

If Esther catches the king in any kind of bad mood at all, she will be killed.  If she doesn’t go into the king to beg for mercy, she and all her family and every Jew in the land will be killed.  So, yea, she had reason to be scared.  The only hope she had was that the king would see her and extend his golden scepter towards her meaning she could come into his presence.  I know some of you men are wondering where you can get one of those scepters.  J

But today we don’t have to worry about that kind of thing.  We don’t have to worry about a government official sending out a decree that all Christians are going to be killed on a certain day.  We don’t have to be afraid that our lives will be taken away from us just for being of a certain belief.  What we do have to be afraid of is not that Satan will kill us…but that he will silence us.

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Satan wants to devour you.  He wants to kill you.  He wants you to no longer have any influence on anybody else ever again and so his preference is to kill you dead.  But if God won’t allow that then he will settle for you keeping your mouth shut.

Satan is just fine with you being a Christian and going to church and praying and reading your Bible.  That doesn’t bother him at all as long as you don’t go telling other people about Jesus; as long as you don’t go making other disciples by learning from Jesus and then teaching and encouraging others with what you have learned.

Satan is just fine with you keeping your mouth shut and not wanting to create conflict by standing up for your beliefs based on biblical truth.  Don’t go quoting scripture that says people who practice homosexuality will not inherit the Kingdom of God like it says in 1 Corinthians 6:9.  Don’t go quoting one of the 10 Commandments to the abortion supporters because if they hear, “Thou shall not kill” they might actually have to admit that it includes the unborn and Satan sure doesn’t want you quoting John 14:6 that says, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  That might offend somebody.

But Esther was courageous.  But then again, she had a lot to lose and maybe you don’t.  In verse 15 we also see that not only was Esther courageous but she was also selfless.  It says, “Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do.”

This is an interesting and telling verse because nowhere in the whole book of Esther is God mentioned.  It is unique in that fact.  But fasting is prayer and as a Jew we know she would be praying to Yahweh God.  Fasting is more than just missing some meals and the Bible tells us we are expected to fast and pray.  I have to say I don’t recommend fasting for three days with nothing to eat or drink except in life or death situations, which is where we find Esther.

Fasting for one meal is difficult.  Fasting for 3 days with nothing to eat or even drink would be very difficult, almost impossible and would be unhealthy but Esther was so selfless she cared more about hearing from God about what she was supposed to do and how she was supposed to do it that nothing else mattered to her.  She cared more about her family and her countrymen than even her own health and she was willing to do whatever it took to know and to make sure that she was doing what God wanted her to do.

That is what fasting is for and you can fast from other things besides food.  Fast from TV.  Fast from internet.  Fast from friends.  By taking our eyes off the things of this world, we can more successfully turn our attention to Christ. Fasting is not a way to get God to do what we want. Fasting changes us, not God. Fasting is not a way to appear more spiritual than others. Fasting is to be done in a spirit of humility and a joyful attitude. Matthew 6:16-18 declares, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”   http://www.gotquestions.org/fasting-Christian.html

But fasting is a very selfless act.  It is putting hearing from God above even one’s own needs and Esther was obviously selfless but then again, she had a lot to lose and maybe you don’t.  Esther was courageous and selfless and we also see in verses 13 and 14 that she was also very motivated.  I think it was Mordecai’s words that motivated her when he said, “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Now, it’s good to know that somebody has been listening to me.  Obviously, Mordecai has heard me say over and over again that God’s will is going to be done.  It was done all through the Old Testament and it was done all through the New Testament and it has been done in our lifetimes.  He said to her that relief and deliverance will arise from another place – obviously a reference to God – but Esther, if you don’t do what you are supposed to do; if you are not obedient, then you will miss out on the blessings when God’s will is accomplished.

You can get on board and get blessings of obedience or you can be disobedient, scared, selfish and unmotivated and get the consequences of that disobedience.  See, even Mordecai knew about BOOCOD!  (Benefits of Obedience and Consequences of Disobedience)  But Esther was courageous, selfless and motivated and she did what she had to do to be who God wanted her to be so she could change the world in spite of there being nothing special about her.  But then again, she had a lot to lose and maybe you don’t. 

Or…maybe you do.  Maybe you do have a lot to lose.  Maybe if you remain scared, selfish and unmotivated then you could possibly have a whole lot to lose and the people around you that you love could have a lot to lose as well.  Because Esther was courageous about doing what needed to be done and selfless about finding out what God wanted and motivated enough to be obedient, God worked through her and the Jews were saved from certain destruction.

You say, “But Todd, nobody wants to kill Christians here in America.  What can I do?”  Well, my first response is “Yes, there is.”  Because Satan wants to kill Christians in America but we are no match for Satan.  He is bigger, stronger, faster, and meaner and he has been doing this a lot longer than we have so the only way we can fight him is to tuck ourselves under the protective wings of Jesus; to get so close to the Lord that He protects us and fights for us.  You have heard it said that there is no place safer than the will of God.

So, then, while you are there, close to Him through prayer and personal Bible study every day, you ask Him what you can do.  I don’t know what His will is for you individually.  Maybe it is just inviting someone to church and being selfless enough to offer to drive them here.  Maybe it is nothing more than speaking Jesus to your neighbor or family member.  If you want to change the world, what better way than to change somebody’s eternity?

Also, if you think nobody wants to kill Christians in America I would also point to radical Islam.  I could point to the news media that wants to make Christians look worse than ISIS, or to our government that has sent our country off of the financial and moral cliff.  What can you do about all that?  Maybe it’s time for you to fast and pray and decide that you will stand up for what’s right because the only hope this country has; the only hope your children and grandchildren have is Jesus.

Maybe you need to be the one who brings Jesus back into the schools and to our government and to the media.  Maybe it is time that all of us did what it says to do in 2 Chronicles 7:14.  “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Let’s do that right now.  We have too much to lose and it is time that the common people did an uncommon thing right here starting with us at Christ Fellowship.

Ask Jesus to come into your heart to be Lord of your life and to forgive you of your sin and then repent of that sin and turn away from it.  Do it now.