March 16, 2008
Scripture:
Scripture:
This morning we have been thinking of the Man; I have a thought from Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Here we see that it took only one man to bring sin in and affect the whole world. Now read v. 19: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”We have been thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Man who took our place on the cross of Calvary and redeemed us. As a result, that Man has brought many others to glory; He is the Captain of our salvation. What a change! One man brought sin upon the whole world; one Man made many righteous. We are counted righteous in the sight of the Lord; our natural minds can’t grasp what it was to be changed from a sinner to one righteous. All of us will be raptured to Heaven; and Heaven will be filled with sinners saved by His grace. What a difference we will see between this sin-cursed world and a perfect Heaven, where we will be forever full of joy! There will be no room for anything else, we will be so filled with praise for the one Man who made it all possible.
EG Hymn 16 – God in mercy sent His Son,
Prayer
What day are we on? Today we’ll look at day 3 of Creation. On day 1, God made light; on day 2, he created the heavens. Last time, we talked about the four things you need to keep a plant alive: water, air, light, soil. God has already made three of those in our study, and today we’ll see the last one, soil. Read Genesis 1:9 & 10. God made two things on day 3, we just read about the first. God gathered the waters that covered the whole earth together and dry land appeared. What is the significance of that? Well, this is the third day; does that mean anything to you? The Lord rose from the dead. We know that His death was important; it washed our sins away. Was His resurrection important? Yes, it showed that He had victory over death. If I sent someone $1000 in the mail and I never heard from them, I would wonder if they got it. It’s that way with salvation: if we trust the Lord to save us, but He never rose from the dead, we would wonder if our sins were really washed away. Because He rose, we can have full assurance; we’re standing on solid ground. We know the story of Jonah; the big fish vomited him out onto dry ground; he didn’t have to swim to shore. So we know dry ground as a safe and solid place to put our trust. Now read vv. 11–13. God now has all the elements needed to grow plants, so that is what He does. But notice that He doesn’t just say, “Let there be plants.” He tells the earth to grow the plants; He mentions grasses, shrubs, and trees. With each of them, the “seed was in itself.” This means that they would carry seeds of their own kind in them. The plant would grow and go to seed; you plant the seeds and they will grow again. So what does this have in it for us? We saw how day 1 is typical of seeing the light. Day 2 is when we make a choice to live for the Lord or not. Now, with day 3, we realize that our salvation is sure, on dry ground, and that God wants us to bear fruit. We can bear the fruits of obedience, kindness, helpfulness, and so on. Also, if we look around we can see a number of generations of Christians; the gospel seed has been passed on and it has borne fruit. But we can pass it on to others as well; there’s always enough seed!
I Peter 4:17–19
Last time we ended by looking at the beginning of v. 17, and how judgement must begin at the house of God. The last half of the verse asks what will happen to those that are unsaved. It doesn’t say here, but we know from Revelation, and it is a solemn thing: an eternity spent apart from God, an eternity without relief, an eternity full of regrets.
V. 18 mentions the righteous. This is speaking of those who are saved; God has made them righteous. Yet it says that the righteous will scarcely be saved; how is this possible? Will we have any trouble getting to heaven? This is actually speaking about the salvation of our lives. A person can be saved, but then waste their life away. Our enemy is always trying to hinder us; if he can’t get us to reject God’s offer of salvation, he’ll try all he can to get us to give him our lives. To live for God is hard; it takes much spiritual energy to arrive in glory with a saved life. Peter knows this well; he got side-tracked too; but he was restored. Yet we can’t go along in life; it is only through God’s power that we can go on for Him.
V. 19 reminds us that God does allow suffering in our lives. The paramount example of this is the Lord Jesus Christ, suffering for us. Those who are faithful to the Lord will suffer. But in all cases, these sufferings are a blessing. We may not always feel they are, but it is true. When adversities come, they can either bring us closer to the Lord or drive us farther away from Him. God will never forsake us in our trials; He is always ready to help and comfort us when we call to Him. They only exception to this was when the Lord, the most faithful One ever, was forsaken by God. God’s will is that we be sanctified (I Thessalonians 4:3), and we must let Him work that in us through the trial. It has been said that the peace of God is not the absence of trials, but the presence of God through our trials. If God’s will for us includes sufferings, it may not be what we would choose; yet we are exhorted to commit our souls to God. You might think the verse would tell us that He cares for our souls as a loving Father, but instead it says a “faithful Creator.” We know the little story of the boy who makes a boat, loses it, and then buys it back. He tells the boat, “You’re twice mine: once because I made you and once because I bought you.” That’s the way it is with us, too. God made us and then He bought us. The “faithful Creator” gives us the made aspect of this: He created us and He cares for us.
EG Hymn 370 – Yield not to temptation,
Prayer