25-1026a Transcript

(2:27) Thank you, Roger. I know that was a lengthy (2:29) reading. Sorry. But it has purpose. When you look around, you see that we’re a tiny little flock, (2:41) but Christ in Mark chapter 13 said, All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to (2:52) the end will be saved.

I believe we are in the end times, and I believe that we have to encourage (3:04) each other to remain faithful. If you notice, since COVID, not just our congregation, but (3:15) congregations worldwide has really taken a hit. The faith of many was destroyed.

And if you’ve (3:29) noticed that as a demarcation point in history, you’ll see that violence has really ramped up. (3:39) I mean, we’ve lived in a violent world to begin with, but it just seems like as of late, there (3:47) is such hatred and vitriol that only comes from one place. That comes from Satan.

Satan is stirring (3:58) the pot of division, and that’s what he’s done since the beginning. Feed him a lie, cause division, (4:09) divide and conquer. So mankind has always had a sin problem because of Satan.

And if you detected (4:21) the theme of global punishment of mankind in the scripture readings this morning, you’ll be right. (4:31) In the short time it took man from the beginning of creation up until the time of Noah and his (4:38) family entering the ark, the once godly moral character of man had devolved to resemble that (4:48) more of animal-like behavior. How did that happen? Well, we know.

I’m going to give you (4:58) sort of a history as we go through this. And the point is we need to get out and speak on God’s (5:07) behalf. Let me go through this.

I believe it was due to improper reasoning to truth, which led (5:17) people to make bad moral choices that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. (5:23) When they didn’t question the serpent to the validity of his claim, they should have said, (5:29) no, but God said this, and I’ll stand on that. But they didn’t.

And when it came to worshiping God, (5:39) Cain, Adam’s firstborn son, worshiped the way he wanted to worship, will worship at his call. (5:48) He offered something God didn’t want, whereas Abel did. And so Cain’s offering was rejected, (5:58) and Abel’s was accepted.

So Cain was very angry and jealous of his brother, (6:05) and rather than dealing with his emotions correctly, he got caught up in the emotion of it (6:15) all, and that gave Satan an in to really wreak havoc in his life. He bubbled and stood and got (6:27) his brother out in the field and murdered him. Could you imagine the very first family, (6:36) the first two children, and one of them murders the other? (6:44) Violence.

Where did that come from? Well, what did God tell Cain? Sin is crouching at your door. (6:53) It desires to have you, but you must master it. The devil, because of this, has been called a (7:06) murderer from the beginning.

He’s the troublemaker. And trust me, he’s not on vacation. (7:13) He’s working overtime to divide and conquer each and every one of us, our families, our congregations, (7:23) our countries.

He is the author of chaos. So God punished Cain and banished him (7:42) to be a wanderer for the rest of his life. His actions caused there to be two camps (7:50) of people in the world, those who forsake and disobey God in one camp and those who faithfully (7:59) follow God in the other camp.

We know this to be true because Cain’s family tree, which is listed (8:08) in chapter 4 of Genesis as being distinct from Adam’s family tree, and he is listed as the head (8:19) source of that family line. And his family line was also to be called sons of men in opposition (8:29) to Eve and Seth’s line, who were called the sons of God. So the start of Adam’s line is also (8:40) mentioned in chapter 4. And a new son was born to him by Eve in Genesis 4, 25 and 26.

It says, (8:51) Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, (8:56) for God has given me another child in place of Abel, for Cain killed him. (9:04) A son was also born to Seth and he named him Enosh.

At that time men began to call (9:13) on Yahweh’s name, on God’s name. Eve’s comment reflected her understanding of the prophecy (9:22) given to her by God in the garden after they sinned, and we call it the seed promise. (9:30) The Messiah who would crush the head of the serpent would come through her bloodline, (9:37) along with all of the people who look forward to the Messiah are part of her seed.

(9:44) In chapter 5 of Genesis, Adam’s full bloodline is given and Cain, his true firstborn, (9:53) is not even mentioned there. That’s confirmation of the two camps. They’re in opposition to each (10:04) other, the godly and the ungodly, those who obey God and those who don’t.

The kingdom of God (10:12) versus the kingdom of Satan. After some time though, the sons of God of Seth’s bloodline (10:20) started marrying the daughters of the sons of men from Cain’s bloodline, and this intermarrying (10:29) started the moral decay that took place that led to the flood. Evil companions corrupt good (10:39) behavior, and so of mankind it was said, Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great on the (10:50) earth, that every imagination of his thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.

(11:03) Have you ever been around an evil person whose thoughts are continually evil? It’s not pleasant. (11:15) I’ve worked with such people. I’ve known such people.

Also, it says the earth was corrupt before (11:24) God, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth and saw that it was corrupt, (11:31) for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. So we see this devolving (11:42) nature of man’s character, becoming animalistic, if you will.

Animals do things out of instinct, (11:53) the way they were programmed by God to do. But he gives us intelligence, he gives us moral (12:03) character, and when we start living according to the flesh, those natural impulses, (12:12) we become more like animals than being created in God’s image. So God delivered on his word.

(12:22) There came a point when he saw that man was beyond redeeming. Can you imagine that? (12:32) Wow, these people are so evil, they can’t be saved. So he destroyed the world by water, (12:40) by bringing the global flood that killed not just all mankind, but all life that lived out of the (12:50) ocean.

I’d imagine also that much life in the ocean died, because what happened was so violent (13:02) that even the oceans were stirred by the global flood. And the very water that purged the world (13:17) of wickedness is the same water that saved Noah and his family from that wickedness. (13:27) That is why Peter made the connection of typology between the global flood and water baptism.

(13:35) Peter told us in 1 Peter 3, 20 and 21, talking about Christ, he went and preached to the spirits (13:45) in prison who formerly were disobedient, when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of (13:53) Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through (14:01) water. There is also an antitype which now saves us. Baptism.

Not the removal of filth from the (14:11) flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. So the entire global flood was a foreshadow (14:23) of baptism. Wrap your head around that.

Baptism washes our souls clean of sins, giving us that (14:40) clean conscience Peter talks about, so we can serve Jesus confidently. Presently I feel we are (14:50) so close to Christ’s return. The times are now like the times of Noah.

The earth is filled with (14:59) violence. Just look around. Reading once again Peter’s warning in his second letter, (15:22) they deliberately forget that long ago, by God’s word, the heavens existed, (15:26) and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

By these waters, also, the world of that (15:33) time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for (15:40) fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. So all believers (15:50) should have a sense of urgency in telling others of this impending doom.

God delivers on his word. (15:59) Ask Noah. Well, we can do that up there.

But God delivers when he says, I am going to bring (16:09) destruction. Believe me, he’s going to bring destruction. We all have faced the possibility (16:22) of going to hell at one point in our lives when we were outside of Christ.

If we would have died (16:31) and not had Christ as our Savior, guess where we would wake up? When we exhaled that last breath (16:39) on earth and drew in our first spiritual breath where we are in eternity, as in Lazarus and the (16:50) rich man died and immediately found himself in flames. That’s just while waiting for judgment (17:01) day. You go to one of two places.

You go to paradise, Abraham’s bosom, where Lazarus went, (17:11) or you go immediately into hell fire, where you wait for your judgment. That’s your choice. (17:25) Or you can just say, well, I don’t believe any of that.

Well, guess where you’re going, (17:29) whether you want to believe it or not, at the end of your life. (17:40) After the flood, Noah repopulated the earth through his family, and it didn’t take long (17:47) for the two camps to form again. That’s how Satan works.

He saw the eight survivors. Okay, (17:55) who’s the weak link here? He divided and conquered. Noah cursed his son Ham and his child Canaan (18:05) for their evil behavior, and that started mankind once again down the wrong path, (18:16) and the disobedient people who forsook God became the other camp again.

So Noah and his son Shem (18:25) and Jephthah were believers, a camp who believes. Then the other camp of people who separated off, (18:33) they became the unbelievers. Those camps are alive and well today.

Guess who has the bigger camp? (18:44) Broad is the way, but narrow is the path. They would go on to become the Canaanites (18:53) who inhabited the promised land, who utterly polluted the land with their perverse sins. (19:01) They degraded so much that they ended up doing human sacrifice of their children, (19:11) passing them through the flames to Molech, a false god.

Ultimately, Molech is Satan. (19:26) Still not a god. Powerful, but not a god.

The other camp, the faithful one that was of Eve’s lineage, (19:38) was established through Noah’s son Shem and his bloodline. Through Shem, several generations later, (19:45) came Abraham, whom God promised he would bless all the nations of the world through. (19:53) Again, that was a reference to the Messiah, Jesus, that who would come to save the world from sin (20:02) through the line of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his 12 sons.

The nation of Israel was (20:11) established. Once Jacob became a true believer in God, God changed his name to Israel. By God’s (20:22) providence, they traveled to Egypt to avoid starvation and ended up staying there.

And after (20:29) a short period of time, once one pharaoh died off and another came in, he didn’t remember the (20:36) kindness of Joseph and the Israelites, and he enslaved them because they had become so many (20:44) he was afraid of them. So by God’s providence, they traveled to Egypt to avoid that starvation, (20:53) became slaves, and so God raised up Moses, who was a type of Christ to come, (21:03) to lead his people out of bondage, to lead his people out of sin. (21:10) Here, God starts calling men to go and be his mouthpiece to the world.

(21:18) One of the first times we read of God sending someone to speak to another on his behalf is (21:26) when God sent Moses to go to Pharaoh to get him to release the Israelites from slavery. (21:34) And what we first notice when Moses and God are having a conversation in Midian by the burning (21:44) bush, Moses, when asked to do this great task, starts making up excuses why he could not do what (21:54) God was commanding him to do. In Exodus 4, 10 through 17, Moses said to Yahweh, (22:03) O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now nor since you have spoken to your servant, (22:10) for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.

Yahweh said to him, Who made man’s mouth? (22:19) Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, Yahweh? Therefore, (22:26) go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. He said, O Lord, (22:34) please send someone else. Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, What about Aaron, (22:42) your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well.

Also, behold, he comes to you, (22:49) to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in heart. You shall speak to him (22:55) and put words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and his mouth, and will teach you (23:01) what you shall do.

He will be your spokesman to the people, and it will happen that he will be (23:08) to you a mouth, and to you, you will be to him a God. You shall make this rod in your hand, (23:17) take this rod in your hand, which you will do great signs with. (23:24) So, if we’re honest with ourselves, and Kevin and I were talking about this this morning, (23:32) isn’t there a little bit of Moses in all of us? Oh, Lord, send someone else.

(23:42) What? I gotta give up and come up here and give a sermon? Knees are knocking. That’s (23:48) why they have podiums, so you don’t see people’s knees knocking together. (24:06) Moses said, I’m not eloquent.

I’m slow of speech and tongue. (24:12) Well, we know those were just excuses because centuries later, just before he was martyred, (24:21) Stephen, who was one of the seven deacons, was dragged before the Sanhedrin, and he revealed (24:29) to us while he was before these Jewish leaders an interesting fact about Moses. (24:37) In giving his defense, Stephen said, while being under control of the Holy Spirit, by the way, (24:44) so this is truth that he’s speaking, he recited Israel’s history, and when he got up to the (24:51) history about Moses, he said, and Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, (24:58) and he was mighty in his words and works.

Being an adopted son in the Pharaoh’s household, (25:08) Moses no doubt was a graduate from the most elite school and teachers of that day. Pyramid Tech. (25:23) Sphinx Poly.

Wherever he went to school, probably right there in (25:31) Pharaoh’s courts, being taught by all the wise magicians, (25:37) he was likely trained in their sciences, military, and religion, so we can assume that Moses was (25:44) well-educated. So after Moses threw out his excuses to God, God told him, (25:52) who made your mouth? He was sarcastic with Moses because he knew Moses was shuffling a lot of (26:05) work. Isn’t that what we do sometimes? Who made your mouth? So then Moses became honest with God (26:22) and stopped the pretext, and he came right out and said, please send someone else.

There it was, (26:30) and that got God really angry at Moses. Well, after much haggling and wrangling with Moses, (26:37) God finally got him to do what he wanted. By God’s divine providence and intervention, (26:44) who happened to be strolling along at that exact moment out there in the middle of the (26:50) Median wilderness over 300 miles from Egypt? I measured in my little map in the back of the (26:58) Bible.

Hundreds of miles Aaron walked to be there with them, so he had to excuse himself (27:07) from turning out mud, bricks for Pharaoh under the watchful eyes of some very cruel taskmasters, (27:16) just happened to go and be right there at the exact moment they’re having this conversation. (27:24) Look, it’s Aaron! You know, Aaron walking along. Oh, what is this? My brother.

That wasn’t by chance. (27:33) He wasn’t just out strolling. God, through his divine providence, knew Moses was going to be (27:43) full of excuses why not to do what he wanted him to do.

So he called, he drew Aaron. (27:52) Perhaps Aaron and Miriam talked to, hey, let’s go check out Moses. Okay, you cover for me.

I’ll try (27:59) and slip out without being seen as a slave. Get past my taskmasters, go 300 miles, and (28:09) that was all God. God drew Aaron.

You know, Aaron probably was going through the desert. (28:21) But knew, I gotta go see Moses. How did he know where to go? (28:30) God’s divine providence and intervention.

This was God’s plan. So even though Moses was actually (28:41) a very good speaker, I think it’s clear to see that it’s human nature to be apprehensive (28:48) to go and speak in front of others. Moses, the greatest prophet, didn’t want to be a public (28:57) speaker.

So what did God do? God saw that too. But he had to give Moses the choice first (29:11) to accept this challenge on his own, which he didn’t do. So he gave him a travel buddy, (29:17) his brother Aaron.

Moses and Aaron worked well together for the Lord, (29:24) and they went down to Egypt together, and they spoke to Pharaoh as God’s representative, (29:31) and they were successful. Moses delivered God’s people, Israel, out of bondage. (29:38) And the rest, as they say, is history.

This may have set the precedent why God normally sends (29:47) men to go out two by two when they go into the world speaking, and we see that even today. (29:59) There is wisdom in sending people out two by two. Two heads are better than one, (30:05) and there is comfort and safety in numbers where one may be lacking, the other might supply, (30:12) and vice versa.

It’s similar to how a good husband and wife relationship works well together, (30:21) with the help, encouragement, and counsel that they provide for each other. (30:25) And Jesus used the two by two method when he would send his followers out to speak (30:32) to others about the gospel. He used it in sending his apostles, and he used it when he sent out the (30:39) seventy.

In Mark 6-7, he said, and he called the twelve to himself and began to send them out (30:47) two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. Luke 10-1, after these things the (30:55) Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before his face into every city (31:02) and place where he himself was about to go. And have you noticed in the Gospels and in the New (31:11) Testament, Jesus never had to deal with insubordinate followers who were reluctant and (31:19) warned about going to speak to others.

Lesson learned with Moses, okay, we gotta send them out (31:28) in pairs if you want to get things done. And not only that, what does God say about establishing (31:37) truth? Two or three witnesses. So there’s great wisdom in sending people out two by two.

Besides, (31:51) the men he called to be apostles and those who were willing disciples of the great Master and (31:58) Teacher were excited. They found the Messiah. This is something you want to share with people.

(32:07) We found the Messiah! Isn’t that what Andrew said when he found…​ first thing he did was (32:12) look up to his big brother, hey, hey, hey, we found the Messiah! And what was his reaction? (32:19) Hold on, the fish are starting to bite. No, he dropped what he was doing and ran and met Jesus. (32:34) The men he called to be his apostles were excited to serve their Master.

Before Jesus ascended back (32:42) into heaven, he gave his apostles their marching orders to speak on his behalf. And Matthew 28, (32:50) 18 through 20 says, then Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has (32:58) been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the (33:07) Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have (33:16) commanded you.

And surely I will be with you to the very end of the age. So here we have Jesus (33:25) giving what’s called the Great Commission for others to speak on his behalf. (33:33) His disciples were to go out and speak to the lost sheep of Israel first, and to make disciples (33:41) out of them, and then from there to the ends of the earth.

And in turn, (33:48) those people that were taught are also to make disciples. And so we have this generational (33:56) making disciples. Guess what? That lands right at our feet.

It’s also our job to make disciples (34:07) in somehow, some way. Excuse me. In 1988, a fella named Ivan Stewart wrote a book titled (34:23) Go Ye Means Go Me.

And the title says it all. I don’t have to tell you what the book is about. (34:32) So the Go Ye, when Jesus said, go into all the world, that means I should go into all the world.

(34:39) But am I an apostle? Am I not? Am I personally an evangelist? Well, I’m without excuse (34:48) for evangelizing, but it is beholden upon me to use the mouth God gave me in some capacity. (34:59) In some way, I am to share with others in my little orbit, in my sphere of influence. (35:08) What is that? It’s my family, my friends, the people I work with, the people around me, (35:18) my neighbors.

Share the word. Plant the seed. You don’t have to get up on a soapbox and start (35:26) preaching.

You can share the word. When Jesus healed the man possessed by all those demons (35:40) called Legion, because they were many inside him, once he was of his normal mind and Jesus (35:49) was about to leave, he begged Jesus that he could go with him. But Jesus said, no, (35:56) but you go into the city, the Decapolis, and tell everyone what the Lord has done for you.

(36:04) How much did Legion know at that point? Did he know the full plan of salvation? (36:11) Did he know the history from creation up until that point? Talk about what you know, where you (36:20) are. If you know a little, talk about that little. If you know a lot, pour it upon them.

(36:33) Speak from where you are. You know, to teach others, we’re without excuse. (36:42) The command, go ye, pertains to go we.

And if the people you might be talking with (37:00) don’t want to hear about it, they reject you or your message, they try to shut you down, (37:07) don’t worry about it. They rejected Jesus first. Don’t take it personally.

(37:14) Go on to the next person, the next opportunity. On the other hand, you may win over somebody and (37:25) save a soul from the impending doom that is coming. That’s something that we as people tend (37:38) to do, is be in denial about some horrible thing.

And trust me, Judgment Day is going to be a (37:47) horrible thing. Most of the inhabitants of the world are going to be burned to a crisp (37:57) and end up where they’ll be burned for eternity. I know physically fire hurts.

(38:08) You burn your hand on the stove, that lets you know you’ve been burnt for quite a while afterwards. (38:17) I don’t know about the soul being burned, but I can imagine that is horrible and painful as well. (38:26) The soul is the eternal part of us that goes on.

That’s what will end up in eternity, (38:36) one of two places. So it’s beholden upon us to at least share the gospel (38:44) with someone, all as he was training up Timothy. And you can hear in the urgency of what he said (38:57) in 2nd Timothy 4, 1 and 2, I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will (39:04) judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.

Be urgent in season (39:12) and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all patience and teaching. There’s another (39:23) argument Paul makes for believers to preach or teach some lost soul.

In Romans 10, 13 through 17, (39:32) it says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call (39:39) on one whom they have not believed in? How can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? (39:45) How can they hear without someone preaching to them? How can they preach unless they are sent? (39:50) As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. But not all (39:58) Israelites accepted the good news, for Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our message? (40:04) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of (40:09) Christ.

Be the wise watchman and warn people about the impending doom, the judgment day. (40:20) Tell them the good news of Jesus Christ, that he loves you and that he died for you to take (40:28) your sins away, to make you right with him so that on judgment day, you have a place in heaven (40:36) and can avoid eternal disaster. So as believers, we got to be like Isaiah when his soul was (40:49) taken up into heaven and when he got his commission and he heard the voice of the Lord (40:55) saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And after he had had the angel touch his lips (41:02) with the coal of fire from the altar, making him clean, he joyfully said, there am I, send me.

(41:12) Do we have that kind of burning desire to be sent to speak to others? We should. (41:21) So right now I’m going to give the invitation. If anybody has any reason (41:26) that they need the prayers of the saints, you can come forward at this time.

(41:29) If you’d like to be plunged into the baptismal waters to have your sins taken away as Jesus (41:36) commanded, we can do that for you too. Whatever your need is, come as we stand and sing the song (41:43) of invitation.