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Mother Eve Sermon

Monday, April 6, 2009 at 3:20PM

by Pastor Donald J Gettys

Biblical quotations are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted

Mother Eve

Mother's Day brings cards and flowers and love. And we all have a mother. Love messages are sent by snail mail, E-Mail, telephone; every way that you can imagine. Be careful if you get on the computer. But not all love messages are good. A new computer virus sends communications saying "I Love You" and then infects the host computer. One nasty worm is simply known as "Mothers Day." When it poisons your computer, Windows must be reinstalled all over again. So far damage estimates exceed two million dollars. Shame on hackers for misusing "Mother" and "Love. Today I will try to bring to you the true meanings of those wonderful terms. It's sort of like Eve standing under that tree, you know. She thought that was a good apple to eat, but it was the wrong tree. It was kind of bad. Shame on these hackers for using the name "Love" and "Mother's Day" to propagate their evil worm that worms it's way. I think today we need to bring out the true message of what love really means, and mothers. Shame on these people who are hacking away at our mothers. We all appreciate our indispensable mothers. And I am told in a book called Adventist Home by Mrs. Ellen G. White that "the influence of faithful mothers will last for eternity." Isn't that a great thought? When Jesus hears the earnest prayers of a faithful mother, that He gives it special regard. Come over here to EZEKIEL 16:44 (KJV), Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. Like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter. That's the way it is, isn't it. We tend to raise children that are just like us. That might be good, if we're good. There was a little girl, age eight, Diane from Cincinnati, Ohio. She wrote a little note and handed it to her mother, "I hope you like the flowers I got you for Mother's Day. I picked them myself when Mr. Smith wasn't looking". Good intentions, but villainous methodology. A mother is someone who can love and reward the good intentions of a child's best efforts. Ministry of Healing, p 378 (EG White) says: "No other work can equal (the work of the mother) in importance." Do you think father's are more important? Or mothers? I'm afraid it's the mother. That's good. When the kids' hurt, who do they go to? They usually go to their mother, don't they. We are going to study the life of a great Bible mother today whose name is spelled the same backwards as forwards. Several are spelled like that (HANNAH) for example. We're going to study the life a great Bible mother today, whose name is spelled the same forward as it is backwards (a palindrome: also applies to phrases that read either way). I know that instantly you're thinking that it is "Hannah," and it's not Hannah. There are several mothers like that in the Bible. We're going to study "Eve." EVE is the mother of all living. The name EVE means LIFE! She was the beginning, the first woman, the originator of life apart from creation. Genesis 4:1,2 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. We are all Eve's great, great, great, great...grand children! We're all sons and daughters of Eve. Eve was the first woman, the first wife, the first mother, the first grandmother. She was not the first baby. Eve was not the first child to grow up. When she was created, she was an adult already. She was the first mother. Eve was mother to two boys. Has any mother here had children, some of which turned out good, and some of which turned out bad? That has happened, hasn't it. The same mother, and some of them turn out okay and some of them don't. Now, what could Eve blame that on? Surely it could not be the fault of imperfect heredity or genes! Where did she get her genes from? She got them from God. She couldn't blame it on heredity. Maybe she could blame it on a bad environment, I don't know. Blame it on something, whatever. Maybe it was bad environment. Nonetheless, one of her children was good and the other was real bad. And the two hated each other. It was sort of the beginning of the great controversy between good and evil. It is the case that evil hates the good. Eve was a mother of sorrow and Eve was the mother of joy. How can one mother produce a really nasty, evil, bad son and then just a year or two later produce a gentle, kind, tender Christlike child? The same mother! That's what happened to Eve. Someone said that one of Eve's problems was that she raised CAIN around the house! I've seen people do that. I've heard them do that. Fortunately my wife has never raise cain around the house. I appreciate that. Others say that one of Eve's problems was that she did not RAISE Cain (did not raise him properly). Maybe she learned on Cain and did a little better on Abel. Motherhood does not come with training. Nobody really has the experience of being a mother the first time around. I don't know as we do any better the second time around. We give our best I'm not so sure about that. I feel that Eve did the very best job at being a mother that she possibly could for both boys. She raised Cain every bit as good as she could. Eve, fresh from the creation factory, had 10 times more intelligence than modern mothers do. We are not evolving you know. Actually as we increase technology, at the same time we're letting our morals and mores slide downward until today we have very little left. Eve did her best for both boys. She had better information than Dr. Spock. She could consult with Christ Himself. Angels of God were there to help teach her children according to Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 83 - EG White. They taught those boys. They were taught by angels. I think Eve was an excellent mother. She certainly was the best mother the world had ever known. Eve had made a serious mistake back there in the garden. Now, It was not wrong to eat an apple. She just ate the wrong apple. Some things are reserved by God, and we should not touch them, even though normally they would be good. One day she saw a pretty animal up in an apple tree. The beautiful golden serpent spoke to her in a musical voice and said: "Let's see if you are as smart as you are beautiful! I am a lowly snake and I just ate one of these apples here and now look at me. Do you see what happened to me? I can talk just like you! Just imagine what would happen if you ate one! You might become like God Himself!" Then about that time the brilliant flying creature plucked and apple and placed it in her hands. Remember, God had said that she was not supposed to even touch it. "The day that you touch it you will die." And there she had it in her hands. It was touching her! She thought, "Am I dying? Oh, I'm not dying. I'm still here. What is death? I don't know." She was told not to touch it. Remember, she didn't reach out and grasp the apple: it was given to her. It seemed to be just the opposite of what God said would happen. It seemed like she could feel new life coming into her. It seemed like she was achieving a higher plane. She had that feeling. Do we go by feelings? And she turned to Adam and gave an apple to him "This is the best apple I've ever tasted, and she explained it to him and soon Adam joined her in eating some of her apples. And then things started going downhill fast. They lost their clothing, the atmosphere started changing. Eve said: "Adam, it's chilly in here." Adam didn't know what to do so they went to a fig tree and started to sew some leave together. They discovered what cold was because the air lost its mild uniform temperature. Soon their robe of light started to go out like when someone dims the lights. Peace of heart left them and their hands got clammy with a cold sweat. Somewhere back in a forbidden acre of that orchard they could hear in the distance a snake, laughing with great satisfaction. He had done it. "I got her! I got them both! Just where I wanted them to be." That snake was so excited his forked tongue shook like a dog coming out of the water. With the garment of light turned off, for a long time, Eve's pregnancy became even more obvious. A few weeks later the leaves on the trees started to turn an ugly brown and fall off. Genesis 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. "The world's first mother and father grieved more deeply over the changes in nature that they saw than anyone today mourns over the death of a loved one!" - Patriarchs and Prophets, p.62 - EG White. Can you imagine that? Mothers day was not very good. Flowers drooped and died. Things were happening. They began to realize what their actions had done. Not only had their act set into motion the decay process that would end their own life. But the life of every tree, plant, bird, and animal that Adam had so carefully named would die because of their sin. Even their children die because of their sin. The whole world was dying. They had killed the whole planet! The whole planet was in the process of dying. Now let's talk about the world's first murderer. And who is that? Adam! Adam was the first human being to kill, to take life. He had to sacrifice an animal, did he not? And as he sacrificed that animal, the true consequences of death came upon him. "To Adam, the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only God could give. (of a pure lamb) It was the first time he had ever witnessed death." - Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 68 - EG White. You must realize that Adam had a great mind, and he clearly understood that as he took the life of that innocent victim, that someday his personal sin would be responsible for the blood of the Savior Himself, the spotless Lamb of God. Adam understood that. With no modern Kleenex Adam and Eve must have had red eyes for months from so many tears of sorrow. However there was one little bright spot...Eve was pregnant! I wonder if they even knew what that bulge was. I wonder if she thought, "Boy, I'm gaining weight. Adam isn't gaining weight. What's the matter?" But eventually one day, with the first pain of child-birth, out came Cain. The world's first mother named her fifty pound baby, "Cain." What a good name! How many of you are named, "Cain?" Nobody. It was an ideal name she chose. We're told that Adam and Eve were much taller than we are today. Cain was probably about forty one inches long. Imagine a baby like that. A full head of red hair. Eve named him Cain because she thought he would be the Messiah that had been foretold. The name Cain means: "A Man: The Lord!" She thought he was the Lord, the Messiah, the Savior that was to come! The first mother's day must have been a special one. Here she was admiring, holding this little baby, and thinking, "Here he is who will reverse everything that I have done. He's going to make it all right again, all this death that's happening, he's going to restore, and bring back life. He's going to reverse all this damage that I have started." How fitting that she who had messed up, would be given the privilege of bringing the one into the world who would right everything again. What a special mother's day that was! He would restore to humankind the life that she had taken away. But alas how wrong she was. Actually she had given birth to the world's first taker of human life. Later, Abel was born. Imagine the grief that Eve had over the years. Yet as far as we know when we all get to heaven, Eve will be there. Because she was converted. Because even though Christ had was not born yet and did not grow in her womb, yet she had allowed Christ to dwell and grow in her heart. And that's how we can all be saved. We may not give birth to the Savior, but if the Savior is born in us, that's the important thing. After Cain and Able grew up Eve witnessed human murder. I can tell you that it is hard to lose a loved one. I never knew what it was like until two weeks ago. It's very difficult, and you go through stages. If Eve went through anything like I'm going through, Eve undoubtedly thought "What If..." What if, maybe if I had just been there, I could have stopped it." Or, "What if I had been more observant. I would have seen how depressed Cain was and how angry he was. I could have talked with him. Or maybe somehow I could have stopped it, I've messed up here. What if I had prayed harder for Cain. What if... what if..." And you go through stages like that, I can tell you. But, alas, nothing could bring poor Able back. Nothing. Many times Eve must have cried and wished she had acted differently in the Garden of Eden. Look at II Corinthians 11:3 where it talks about Eve. I imagine she regretted deeply what happened in the Garden of Eden and this brings out very clearly what did happen. Paul says, But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. So, today, we like Eve, must also be on our guard. The apostle, Paul, tells you this. "Be on your guard because Eve was deceived. That's what happened there in the Garden of Eden." Eve could not bring Able back. With Able gone, what did Cain do? You cane read it in Genesis 4:16 and 17, here's what happened: Cain went out and started to build a city and he named this city after the descendants of Enoch, not the Enoch that you and I know. Here he was, building up the city, Enochville, establishing wickedness. Eve was overjoyed when her third born son came along and she named him, "Seth." And we are told that taller than Cain and Able (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 80 - EG White). Seth resembled Adam more closely than the other two than the other two ever had. He looked just like Adam. Seth, just like his parents inherited the fallen sinful nature of his parents. Seth received the same instruction and training that Cain had. But Seth turned out to be good. He carried on where Able was not been able to carry on. But sin was spreading like AIDS, spreading fast like a computer virus. For almost a thousand years Adam tried to hold sin off. Adam was the first teacher and he taught all his children and most of his grandchildren. Maybe he was the first pastor, the first preacher. But it was a losing battle. Sin was taking over. And you understand, Adam and Eve were hated by most people. Every time they passed, they would think, "It's your fault. We could be in that Garden right now if it wasn't for you!" They hated Adam and Eve. Often times they were met with bitter words and cursed for the sin that they had brought upon everybody. And so their life was one of Sorrow. They were bowed down with anguish. It seemed that most of their children became sinful. The power of sin is so great. Men used their great intellect to attain deeper and deeper levels of wickedness. Little children were about as intelligent as adults are in today. Imagine the wicked levels they reached. We use so little of our brains today. With minds so great, just imagine what depth of true knowledge of God they could have achieved! Visualize the Spiritual giants they could have become. Do we have spiritual giants today? Yes, we do. Imagine what they could have become. Our first mother took her little children to church every Sabbath. Church was located just outside the gate of the Garden of Eden. As they sat for Adam's Sabbath sermon they could look inside the garden and see the eternal plants with their unfading leaves. They could see the lions and the lambs playing together. In the winter time it was cold where they sat, perhaps some of the warmth poured out of the garden gates. As they sat there in their outdoor church, all around them was dying. Leaves fell, snow blew, cold brought shivers. Mosquitoes bit them but they could look inside the perfect garden that was full of life where everything was wonderful and perfect and peaceful. The contrast was like a sermon itself. You would think with so much evidence it would have been easy to convince the world that God was real. Did they believe in God? Yes, they did. They all believed God existed, but almost all of them hated God. Why did they hate Him? Because He would not let them into the Garden of Eden. Instead all the wicked could think about was their trouble and sweat and pain. Whenever the followers of Cain looked over at Eden they hated God because He would not allow them access any more to the good land. They thought God must be totally unfair to deny them entrance to the Garden of Eden. They despised God. We only know of three of Eve's children although she must have had more. Whenever Eve attended a graduation or a wedding...in fact any crowd she found herself in, everybody there, they were all her children. How many she had we do not know. If Eve had a baby every 5 years during the first 500 years of her life they could have produced 8,000 grandchildren by the time she was six hundred years old. By the age of eight hundred she could have had 500,000 offspring. Half a million! It would have impossible for her to attend all the weddings, or, impossible for Adam, as the first minister to perform them all. Imagine all the baby showers. Imagine remembering the names of the grandchildren. Of course, she had a pretty good mind. Most of our pictures of Eve show her as a young beautiful young woman. I wonder what she looked like at age one thousand? Well, you may say, "Maybe she didn't reach the age of one thousand." Well, we don't know. Most women outlive men by seven or eight percent and Adam lived to be 930, so Eve could have been the oldest human being to ever live. Imagine her birthday cake with a thousand candles on it. Antediluvian Smoke detectors going off! What a cake. What a party! What a mother! Eve, the world's very first mother. A poor snake handler but probably a very good mother. No wonder most mothers still hate snakes! The evil that began in Paradise has extended clear down through the ages to the year 2000 AD. It exists today. Although Adam and Eve recapitulated with sorrow to their children the sad story of how Eden was lost and how it might be regained, their family became a divided family. They had the followers of Cain, and the representatives of Abel. Cain chose to serve Satan, Abel chose to serve God. Now, I think as modern mothers today, we need to realize that we're not perfect. Nobody here is perfect. If you're a perfect mother I'd like to meet you. It just doesn't happen. But we need to do our best. I want to challenge you mothers today to commune with God. Your children deserve the best mother they can have. Shame on you if you're not developing your spiritual powers to the utmost. We need mothers who are mothers of prayer. We need mothers who put God first in their life. The greatest want of the world today is for mothers, since they have the upper hand, since they have the most influence on us, we need mothers who know Jesus Christ. Who know their Bible. "My mother's old Bible is true..." Do you have an old bible? Is it all marked up? Have you read it over and over? I urge you to do that. So, modern mother, even if you came fresh from the hand of the Creator, you are not perfect. Do your best. Commune with God as did Eve, on a daily basis. Be a Godly woman. Live what you want your children to become. Avoid the trash sex novels and afternoon TV soap affairs. Spend time with Jesus and with your family. Get on your knees. Mothers are so special, so special. They work so hard. We love them so much. It is fitting that we honor them today on Mother's day weekend. Six year old Mary Jane was looking at the photograph album and found the pictures of her parent's wedding. Her father described the ceremony and tried to explain its meaning. Suddenly the light seemed to dawn on her. "OH!," Mary Jane exclaimed, "Is that when you got mother to come and work for us?!" Look at Genesis 33. We're going to read a couple of verses. There's a little nugget found in here that I missed. (In Genesis 33:13-14) Jacob is making a statement here about children and animals. Remember, Jacob was fleeing from Esau. There's always problems between brother. It didn't stop with Cain and Abel. Genesis 33:13, 14 (KJV). And he said unto him, "My lord knoweth that the children are tender and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant and I will lead on softly according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir." Do you get the little bit about children here? It says the "children are tender" and because of that, how will I lead? "I will lead on softly." That's a little gem that I had missed. Children are tender, aren't they. "Every daughter of Eve should be so educated that if called to fill the position of wife and mother, she may preside as a queen in her own domain." - Adventist Home, p. 88 (EG White) You can gently lead your tender little flock. Jesus will bless your efforts. I believe that Eve will see Able again, and perhaps many her children in heaven. She'll see Seth if she gets to heaven. Will Eve be saved? Come over here to I Timothy in your bible. This gives a strange thought of how Eve might be saved. I hadn't really thought about that until last night. I Timothy 2:13-15, For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety. You know, I've seen that. I have seen a woman have a baby and suddenly they get to thinking, "You know, I haven't been going to church. Here's this little baby here. I'd better start taking this baby to church." And so the woman starts attending church. The man starts attending church. Have you seen that? That's how that works. It says, "Women will be saved through childbearing." That's an amazing statement If Eve will be saved in Heaven she will be one of many who have sinned, but they are saved sinners, saved by the blood of the true Lamb of God Jesus! That is how we all gain entrance to heaven. Mothers: I appeal to you today to give your life unreservedly, totally, with nothing held back, to Jesus Christ every day. Give your hearts to Jesus, totally, daily, sincerely. Give your children to Jesus every day. Get on your knees and name them one by one to Jesus and your life will be different. We don't want to raise cain in our homes. We want to raise Christ-like children. If we have made some mistakes, let's pray to God for then conversion of our children. That can happen. Let's all join together and help our children on the way to heaven. Happy Mothers Day!

Hymn of praise: #337, Redeemed
Scripture: Proverbs 31:27
Hymn of Response: #551, Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me.

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The Wisest Fool Sermon

Monday, April 6, 2009 at 3:19PM

by Pastor Donald J. Gettys

Biblical Quotations are from the New International Version NIV unless otherwise noted.

The Wisest Fool

Somebody said, "We weren't going to have much of a crowd for church today because of Campmeeting, so your sermon will be a lot shorter. Right?" No, this is going to be a full sermon. So, we'd better get started. We're going to talk about the smartest and wisest fool the world has ever known. I think by now you have guessed who it is. Of all the Who's Who in the Bible, we know about Moses and Jesus and Elijah and David and Paul, and a host of other renowned Bible Heros. About all we seem to remember about Solomon is that he wrote the book of Proverbs and several other books of the Bible. He was a wise man. He was rich. He built a beautiful temple. And he did things like that. You can read also in Ecclesiastes 1: that he is a preacher. In verse 12 he says, "I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem." So, he's not only a preacher but he's a king. Some preachers, I suppose, act like kings. He started out as a good king on his daddy's throne. Now keep in mind that Solomon never had to go out and kill Goliath. He never really did any big battles. He probably didn't even know much about swords unless he just played with them as a baby. He grew up pampered a little bit. But, he was a good king at the beginning. He made Jerusalem to shine like a diamond glistening there between the shimmering blue waves of the Mediterranean Sea and the glimmering salty waters of the Dead Sea. Jerusalem was a crown jewel in Solomon's day. Gold and Silver were as common as dust. Come over here to 1 Kings. We're going to do a lot of study in First Kings. Chapter three and four tell about Solomon. I Kings 4:25 Every man sat in safety under his vine and fig tree. Everybody was safe. It was a great experience. No wars were going on. They were blessed with money and everybody had plenty to eat. They were good times. God was blessing the whole nation. And, you know, God has done that with America. God has blessed this country. But when I look at our lifestyle, I wonder how long that blessing will continue. How long did Solomon's blessing continue? The first thing he did when he got the throne was to put his enemies to death. A little bit of bloodshed there. And then in 1 Kings 3:1, Solomon made an affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David. And he had her there and kept her in the house and married her. Shortly after this God appeared to Solomon to give Solomon a request. Sort of like a genie in a bottle here because look at what God says. Look in I Kings 3:5. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." God is lavish with His people, isn't he. He loves His people. He wants to give us great gifts. Continuing with verse 6, Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father, David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?" The Lord was very happy, wasn't he, with that request. God says, "Well, since you asked for this, you didn't ask for a long life. You didn't ask for wealth. You didn't ask for things for yourself. You didn't ask for the death of your enemies. I'm going to give you this type of wisdom. Verse 12: "I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will you what you have not asked for--both riches and honor--so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my says and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life." That's an amazing blessing, isn't it. Now, before David died he cautioned His son Solomon in I Chronicles 28:9 "And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." Oh that Solomon had been more Solemn and attentive to David and to God. He was the wisest man in the world, but even that can be lost. You know, you can lose your wisdom. There was a sign on a school bulletin board: "Free! Wisdom on Mondays through Fridays. Bring your own container." You've got to want wisdom and you you've got to contain it or it will be lost. King Solomon showed rare wisdom one day when two women came before him. These two ladies were having a squabble. Both claimed to be the true mother of a child. In I Kings 3:24-25 Solomon said: "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other." Well, I want to tell you that very quickly the real mother was discovered. She said, "Oh, no! Don't do that. Let the other lady have the baby." But the other said, "No! Cut her in half." All Israel saw that Solomon fantastic wisdom. He had extraordinary quantities of God's wisdom. In fact it was so great that the Bible says: I Kings 4: 29-31 God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Now, that's pretty intelligent, isn't it. I don't know what his I.Q. was. It may not have been very high, but he had a lot of common sense and a lot of wisdom, at least at the beginning. Verse 30, Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man... Nobody was wiser than Solomon. After he killed all his enemies, the next thing he did was to build up his own house so that he (verse 26 KJV) had four thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horses horsemen. Imagine having four thousand garages for your Porsches and your Corvettes. Any cars you can afford because you've got all the gold and silver in the world. Four thousand garage doors to open with your remote. Which car shall I choose this morning? That's Solomon, you know. He had all those horses and twelve thousand horsemen. He had wisdom and riches and fame. Finally Solomon got around to building the glorious temple. His workmen cast two pillars of brass for the temple that were each 27 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter! Each would weigh 20 tons! (I Kings 7:15) What a temple he built. The temple was one of the wonders of the world. And what craftsmanship there was. I Kings 6:7 says that the stone was prepared at the quarry so that the hammer or any iron tool was not heard during the construction of that temple. Just silent, holy, a holy place. Isn't that fantastic? I want to tell you today that we are the temple of the living God. II Corinthians 6:16 As you spend the days of your life, as you spend the time God has allocated to you, are you building a solid structure of materials that will last, or are you building with inferior materials? We need to build a solid temple. Are you using jewels or junk in the constructing this temple? Do not cut corners in our spiritual life because you are building the temple of God. God wants to live in your heart. Build your body temple not our of junk, but out of jewels. At the dedication of the Temple Solomon preached the sermon- (I Kings 8:12-21). Solomon concluded with a wonderful prayer and a sacrifice, dedicating that temple to God. His fame spread around the world. He had a tremendous palace, he had all these garages with all these Volkswagens in there, whatever they were. He was famous. One day the lovely Queen of Sheba heard so much about Solomon that she wanted to come and see what made this man so wise and what brought him such blessing. And so she came and I think the Queen of Sheba was searching for the truth. Maybe she was honestly searching for a relationship with the God who she had heard about, the True God. 2 Chronicles 9:3-8 When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servant in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me: you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness." Solomon impressed the queen of Sheba with his wit and his wealth, and even his God. I want to ask you, when company comes over to your house, what do you show them? Do you show them all the doodads? all your stuff? Or do they see your Jesus? They ought to see Jesus when they come to your house. She went away very impressed with Solomon, but not with Solomon's God. She came all the way from Africa to find God and true wisdom, and she found Solomon. Solomon started slipping down into a steep spiritual decline. You can read this in I Kings 11:1-11. King Solomon did not fall suddenly. It happened gradually. But when he did fall, it was from a great height! Remember he was the richest and the wisest man that ever lived. He went from being the wisest to being the most foolish. Perhaps the praise of the thousands who thronged around Solomon to catch the pearls of genius as they poured forth from his royal mouth, that all got to him and was more than he could stand. It changed him and puffed him up. Come over here to Ecclesiastes 2 in your Bible. In Ecclesiastes we see a lavish list of Solomon's quest for meaning and happiness. He tried everything. Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 (NAS) "All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them." Isn't that amazing. Anything he saw he, did it. If people were taking drugs, if they were doing anything, he saw it and he tried it. You can read the list of the things he tried. He tried money. Does money bring happiness? (Who said no!?) Are you sure? If you had more money would things be a little bit better? Money is sort of a condensation of your life. But the love of money doesn't bring happiness. And the misuse of money doesn't bring happiness. And the excess of money does not bring happiness. But prosperity did not work. Pleasure! He tried laughter, leisure, liquor, licentiousness, labor, lucre, lovely ladies, he tried it all. And he got bored. He was an unhappy camper. He says in Ecclesiastes 2: 10,11 "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." I think that when everyone is doing your work for you, you probably get that feeling. I think honest work brings happiness and reward. You work hard, you gain something, that something is valuable to you. If you get it all given to you, it is not valuable to you. I think you will find that when you lose Jesus, you will eventually have an empty life. And Solomon lost God. How did Solomon begin this downhill path? It started back when he married the wrong person. We have a chart at our house of the things that make a person happy. The number one thing on that chart is that ninety percent of the happiness or grief in life comes from marrying the right or the wrong person. You need to marry the right person. Who did he marry? Solomon married a heathen: Pharaoh's pretty daughter. And aren't the heathen beautiful? Why are the heathen so beautiful? They are! He married Pharaoh's pretty girl. Forbidden fruit looks better?! Cows try to eat the grass on the other side of the fence. It looks better over there. But she had heathen idolatry in her heart. She had idols packed in her luggage. And he brought her home and she brought a lot of stuff into his house that he did not need. And it rubbed off on her Solomon. Please marry someone who can help you on your journey to heaven. Don't even date somebody that's going to take you the other way. She may be pretty, but if she's a heathen - the wrong direction. Solomon began to worship the gods of his wife and to burn incense on High Places. I Kings 3:2-3. It was different and cute. But it had its effect. Stealthfully, and imperceptibly like a spreading infection, this thing got hold of Solomon's heart. Sin got a foothold in his life. There it festered and spread throughout his body, throughout his soul without check, until toward the end of his life its malignancy had eaten to the core of his spiritual life. He was dead spiritually toward the end of his life. Look at another thing he did. In I Kings 9: 10-13 we see Solomon's friend Hiram being paid for his beautiful cedar lumber. At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings--the temple of the LORD and the royal palace-- King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and pine and gold he wanted. So this was payment, this was his pay. "I'm going to give you twenty cities." But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. "What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?" he asked. And he called them the Land of Cabul, a name they have to this day. You know what Cabul means? Worthlessness. Maybe swamp land or flood land, a bad place. No good. He cheated Hiram. And I think there's nothing worse than somebody who cheats you in your business. You charge them a certain amount and they don't pay. They owe you. They're a cheapskate. When you cheat others in shady business dealings, you begin to go down the path of Solomon. Oh that we were honest! I Kings 10:22 Solomon had a fleet of trading ships that sailed with Hiram's fleet. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded down with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Peacocks for pleasure and apes for frivolous entertainment and other purposes that you don't want to know about. Here the whole world was looking on and what does Solomon exhibit before them? In I Kings 11:1,2 he imported "fast women" into his kingdom. King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter--Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not inter- marry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. I think here it would be fair to exchange the word sex for the word love. He held fast to them alright! I don't think it was love. Oh that he had held fast to God. Verse 3, He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. Solomon's sensual sweethearts spoiled his spirituality. Slowly but surely sexual seduction shriveled up Solomon's sense of sin. Scorning scripture, staunch Solomon slid speedily on sinking seriously into the swamp of separation from his Savior. The wisest man in the world, the one who had the answer to the hardest questions, had flirted with sin too long. He had worked almost eight years building the glorious Temple as a place for God and His word to dwell, but did not want the Scriptures to dwell in his heart. Jerusalem, that holy city, was where God lived! It was made holy by God's presence. Solomon lived in the Holy City but even though God lived in town God was not welcome in Solomon's heart. His heart was already full of lust and an obsession for pretty women. Solomon was not holy because God did not live in Solomon's heart. God needs to live in our hearts. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines! Solomon collected beautiful women like some people make it a hobby to collect antique automobiles. It was a hobby. Every day he was surrounded with one thousand of the most beautiful women in the world. He didn't get junk. These beautiful women disconnected him from heavenly things. I want to say something about us. If you sit there and watch sensual women on TV, and if you do it enough times, you will slowly be changed. If you stare at enough lewd pictures and movies, you will also go down that same road that Solomon went down. You be careful what you look at. I Corinthians 10:11,12 gives us some advice. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! It could happen to you. Solomon should have been more Solemn! Instead he fastened his eyes on wild wicked women and his women friends took him away from God. Wise Solomon was outwitted by food, frolic, fortune, fame, and females. When you go to Egypt (not the country today), the heart of wickedness to seek a bride, you go to the wrong place. You will bring home with you a force that can undo your connection with God. Albert Einstein said: "The greatest tragedy of life is when growth stops and decay sets in." This can happen in the teenage years. You teenagers, you can get up, grow up, be just fine and all of a sudden get a hold of something that is going to decay you to the core. How many shining youth are led over fools hill by drugs, alcohol, or a wild life. Or ruination can happen during the mid-life crisis of a persons life. Affairs or reversion to old habits knock out many a person in mid life. But with Solomon his decay got totally out of hand in his old age. Now you would think that when a person gets past sixty they have survived the temptations of life and have smooth sailing into the beautiful sunset of their life. But rocky roads await even the senior saints. I Kings 11:4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. Ashtoreth was the sex goddess which sanctioned sexual activity of any variety. Molech worship included child sacrifice. Solomon was doing all of that. Do you think you're going to meet Solomon in heaven? Heathen genes mixed in with Hebrew genes and from this point the kingdom of Israel was never the same. Rehoboam and Jeroboam led the whole nation into deep sin. The Kingdom was divided into the ten tribes and the two tribes. War and bloodshed came in never to leave. It all started with Solomon, the wisest fool. His sons followed suit. You know, there's a lesson in that. If you have children and you fail in mid-life, if you fail in your older age, what is that going to do to the generations that follow you? Did you ever think about that? You're going to flounder, and in all likelihood, that's what happened here. He sons followed suit. Friends, your spiritual example or lack of one can have devastating effects or fantastic effects on your descendants. You cannot afford to slip into sin. Your ungodly example may lead hundreds into the quagmire of eternal loss. Solomon sowed a lot of wild oats, especially in his latter life. Solomon died. His children, indeed the whole nation reaped a harvest of strife and bloodshed. His mistakes were so costly. Hosea 8:7 They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Lord Byron, the English poet wrote:

"The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree I planted, 
      they have torn me  
            and I bleed:  
I should have known what fruit would spring from such a
seed."

How God must have looked to Solomon for something special and He didn't get it. I think today that God is looking for godly men and women. God want people with integrity. He doesn't want you out there feasting on the music channels and the HBO channels. He doesn't want you out there filling your mind up with lust and sin. He wants you feasting on His word. He wants you on your knees. He wants you to talk to Him, to be Holy and pure and like Him. Now if your father was immoral, maybe your father was an alcoholic. You can break that cycle. It doesn't have to continue on and on. You might say, "My daddy did this, therefore I'm doomed." You can break that cycle through Jesus Christ. It can happen. It doesn't have to be propagated on generation after generation. You don't have to have a hot temper. You don't have to gross sinner. You can avoid alcohol. You can be like Jesus. You can do it through Him. Today is the time to be a follower of God. If you have failed God in the past that is irrevocable. What is done is done. It can never be changed or recalled. Lord Byron, the English poet, once wrote, "No hand can make the clock strike for me the hours that are past." But today, and every day forward, you can decide for God. Don't put it off. Listen to some of Solomon's last words: Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them. Verses 6,7. Remember him--before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Verses 13,14. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. I want to tell you that in my opinion, Solomon was the greatest failure in the whole Bible. He had more intelligence than any other person who ever lived. Luke 12:48 "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." No one who ever lived had any more opportunity than Solomon, the world's wisest fool. You can be wiser than Solomon. And you are wiser than Solomon when you give your heart to Jesus Christ and stay loyal to Him all the days of your life.

Hymn of Praise: #337, Redeemed!
Scripture: 1 Kings 2:1-4
Hymn of Response: #306, Draw Me Nearer

McDonald Road Sermon

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The Reluctant Servants Sermon

Monday, April 6, 2009 at 3:17PM

by Pastor Delmar Anderson

Biblical quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV).

The Reluctant Servants

It was about the close of Jesus' ministry that He instituted the ordinances of the church. We read of the occasion in the book of Mark. I'd like to turn and notice that if you'd open your Bibles to Mark 14. We'll begin reading with verse thirteen. Mark 14:13-16. So He sent out two of His disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and there a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water: follow him." "And wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I shall may the Passover with My disciples?" ' " "Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us." And His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover. Now, this is really an unusual experience. Christ told His disciples to go into town. He didn't tell them any particular spot. He didn't tell them anything about this man other than he was bearing a pitcher of water. "You follow him and he"ll go into a certain house and then you ask the master of the house if we can use the upper room." Now, that's very unusual. Don't you think that really helped the disciples know that Jesus knew the future and they could really trust Him? You know, I like those words, "and found it just as He had said to them." You know, dear friends, one day soon you and I are going to see the promises of Jesus fulfilled just as He had said. So they made ready for the Passover. It was the custom of that day that at such a meeting there would be one that would wash the feet of the guests. Travel in that day was largely by foot in the dust and grime of the earth. But on that particular occasion there was no servant. And as the disciples looked around and saw the situation they began to wonder what was going to happen, because if there was no servant one of those present at the meeting usually served as a servant. So, they wondered who Jesus would choose to be the servant. Now, James and John didn't want to be the servant because they had just asked for the highest place. And I suppose that the other disciples were kind of hoping that maybe Jesus would choose them because they were a little jealous that they had asked to have the highest positions in the new kingdom that thought Jesus was going to set up immediately. Perhaps some thought Judas should be the servant. And there was jealousy among them. How would Jesus solve the problem? What would He do? Notice in John 13:3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose up from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured out water into a basin and began to wash the disciple's feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. But when came to Peter, Peter said, "No, you're not going to wash my feet." Jesus said to him, "If I do not wash your feet you have no part with me." Peter thought a minute and then he said, "No part in this supper?" "No part." "No part in the covenant?" "No part." "o part in heaven?" "No part." Peter said, "Well, Lord don't just wash my feet then. Wash me all over!" Verse 10: Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you." And then Christ gave this instruction to His disciples, to His all of his followers, to you and me here today: John 13:13-17, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." Notice that He repeated the command three times that we should celebrate this ordinance of the foot-washing. And you notice He says, "Happy are you if you do them." You know, this should really be a happy occasion. Even though it's a time of humbling ourselves, it should be a happy occasion because we know that we have a Savior, we know that we are cleansed by His precious blood and that we have eternal life. Yes, this service is a service of cleansing. It's a time of sincere repentance. That's why it is called the "Ordinance of Humility." It is a time of surrendering ourselves completely to God and accepting the forgiveness and the cleansing that He has provided. That is really the meaning of this service. Jesus said, "If I do not wash you, you have not part with Me." So, as we partake of this Ordinance of Humility, it is an outward symbol that we have accepted, we have accepted in our hearts the cleansing that He provides. And as we do that we know that our sins are forgiven, and that He covers us His robe of righteousness and we stand before God as thought we had never sinned. We stand before Him in absolute perfection. Because in Christ we are perfect. Yes, this is the meaning of this service. It's the symbol of this experience of cleansing through the blood, an outward symbol of an inward experience, of accepting and receiving that cleansing that He provides. And when we do that then we are prepared to receive the Lord's supper. And as you partake of the emblems of the Lord's supper, the bread that you eat is assimilated into your body and it becomes a part of you. It becomes a part of your body. And the wine that you drink becomes a part of you. Paul said in Colossians 1:27, ...which is Christ in you, the hope of Glory" As the bread and the wine becomes a part of your body, they symbolize Christ dwelling in you. And how is that Christ dwells in us? We're told in that wonderful book, Desire of Ages, p. 677, (EG White), "It is through the Word that Christ abides in His followers." Through His word. You know, Jesus said in John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth. Your word is truth." And Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He is the truth. His word is the truth. So, as you receive the bread and the wine, it is a symbol that you have received the words of Christ which are really His character in written form. It is a symbol that you are receiving Christ, His words. You know, we're told in Desire of Ages, p.677 that "The words of Christ are spirit and life." His words are spirit and life. They are His character in written form. And receiving them you receive the life of the vine. You live ...by every word that proceeds from of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). Then Jesus said unto them, "Most assuredly, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:53,54). Notice He said, "Has eternal life" not will have it. "He has it," because as you receive His words, as you receive Christ into your life, that is the beginning of eternal life. You have it now. It is yours. And you can be assured that you have eternal life. The Lord's supper is a symbol of this experience: receiving the words of Christ you receive the life of the divine. Now, the Lord's supper also points to His second coming. This is a part of the purpose of this ordinance; To ever keep alive in our hearts the hope and the assurance of His coming. Jesus said in John 6:53,54, "Whoever eats My flesh eats and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Notice he says, "...the last day," pointing to His coming. 1 Corinthians 11:26, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. He is pointing forward to the time when He will come in the clouds of heaven. Jesus said there in Luke 22:15,16 Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." And then He said in Mark 14:25, "Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." He said to His disciples, "As you take this bread and this wine I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in My kingdom." Pointing forward in time that he would come in the clouds of heaven and take His family home, and then they would sit down and eat and drink together. Now, the fulfillment of those words of Christ is found in Luke 12:37. "Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them." This is the observance of the Lord's supper. You know, one of the first meetings in haven will be to observe the ordinance. Notice it says, "He will gird himself." Christ says, "I have waited a long time for this." You know, the disciples will be there, and perhaps they will arise and say, "Lord, Lord, let me serve. I want to serve." How different than back there at the first Passover with His disciples. But what does Jesus say? It says "and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them." Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He goes forth to serve. Christ says, "I will not take part in this service until the family comes home. And you know dear friends, I'm quite sure they are preparing for that service over there right now. I'm sure they are making the preparations, and I don't believe it's going to be long until we will all go home and take part in that service. I want to be there, don't you? And this is my prayer today. We're going to separate at this time for the Ordinance of Humility. As you remember, the ladies will go to the fireside room and the men to the room adjoining the fireside room. Married couples to the upstairs room and also down this hall to the right. Also another room for the men across the hall on the left. As you return to the sanctuary, please sit in the center sections so the deacons can serve you more easily. Let us prayer. "Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for that precious blood that was shed that we might have eternal life. As we partake of this Ordinance of Humility, may our hearts be humbled before Thee. May we, at the same time, rejoice that we can know that we have the gift of eternal life. Dismiss is now as we partake of this service in Jesus Name, Amen." (Our church has open communion, that is, anybody is welcome to participate, whether they are members of our church or a non-Adventist church. The Ordinance of Humility, the foot-washing part of the service, may seem strange to some outsiders, but many have enjoyed and appreciated the service. Adventists feel that the Ordinance of humility really helps us prepare for the "Bread" and the "Wine" later. This is a precious time for all of us.) (We separate to the various rooms where we wash each other's feet. As each couple finishes, they bow their heads and speak to God in prayer. For most of us this is a solemn service because it implies that we have asked forgiveness for any trespasses that we may have done and we want to have our hearts cleared of the guilt that may have accumulated there. Confession and forgiveness returns us to equality and we can again look our brother in the eye.) (Everyone is returning to the sanctuary now, and the organ is quietly playing as we take our places. The ministers and deacons come down the aisle and take their places before the platform.) Elder Bennett speaks: The reference to the first communion service, 1 Corinthians 11:23.. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." And that's what we do today. I invite you to bow your heads as we pray. "My heavenly Father, we're so grateful to You for what has been accomplished for us on the cross, the resurrection and for that intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit in Christ. We thank you, Father, that by the grace of God we have been washed clean and we stand in Your presence today in all humility, but in all gratefulness and joy. Clean as though we had not sinned. I pray that You will seal You presence and purity in our lives. Help us as we leave this service to know that we have Jesus in our hearts and that we're lifting Him up wherever we go through the week that lies ahead. Bless these emblems that we receive that they will renew our commitment, our faith and our confidence in You, in Jesus Name, Amen." (We have eight deacons who all stand and wait. The two ministers take the tops off the stacks of trays and break some of the bread. Then they hand a tray to each deacon. Then the deacons turn to pass out the emblems to the congregation. The trays contain both the bread and the wine, so each person takes both. When everybody is served, the deacons return to the front where they hand their trays to the ministers, each taking from their own tray their emblems. When the last tray is about to be put on the stack, the ministers each take turn taking their emblems from the other.) Elder Anderson speaks: Jesus said, "Take, eat. This is My body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of Me." (And we all eat the bread together.) "Amen!" Elder Anderson again speaks: He also said, "This cup is the New Testament in My blood. This do as often as ye drink it in remembrance of Me." (And we all drink the wine together.) "Amen!" (The tops are replaced on the stacks. And Elder Anderson reminds us that the deacons will be waiting for an offering for the poor as we leave. We sing one verse of Faith of our Fathers as the ministers and deacons file out.) (I hope you have enjoyed following our service all the way through today. Bob Beckett, Sermon Editor for our web page.)

Hymn of Praise: #73, Holy, Holy, Holy
Scripture: John 5:54 - 56
Hymn of Response: #300, Faith of Our Fathers

McDonald Road Sermons

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Abraham's Risky Faith Sermon

Monday, April 6, 2009 at 3:16PM

by Elder Steve Bauer,

Biblical quotations are from the New International Version NIV unless otherwise noted.

Abraham's Risky Faith

The book of Romans struck fear into the hearts of many people, especially Seventh-day Adventists, worried about that message of grace interfering with the keeping of the Law. And, indeed Romans can be a challenging book, but it doesn't have to be. If we take a moment to think about how the book of Romans came about and why, it may help us understand a little bit better its message for us today. The church in Rome, like most churches of the first century, started out of the Jewish synagogue and therefore most of the members and leaders of the original church and house-churches of Rome would have been Jewish. And then as the Gentiles were added to the church they were kind of second fiddle out on tertiary edges with the Jewish core providing the leadership, but then Emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews out of Rome. Suddenly the Christian house-churches had only Gentiles, and these Gentiles suddenly had to take over the roll of elder and deacon and so forth: the various leadership positions. For five years it went like this. And they were feeling pretty good about their ability to lead the church. And then emperor Nero decided to let the Jews back in. So, these Jewish Christians who had gone came back to Rome. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't expecting to slip right back in to their old role and restore things just the way they had always been. But those Gentile Christians were used to running things now, and the transition wasn't as easy as those Jewish believers had expected. You add to this the controversy that had now developed in the Christian church over Jew versus Gentile, and how much of the Jewish ways did the Gentiles have to adopt in order to be a Christian. And things were not going well in Rome. The apostle Paul is worried because he wants to go west to Spain but he needs Rome for a launching pad. But Rome is not in the condition to be a launching pad. And so, Paul writes the book of Romans to try to stabilize this theological and ethnic controversy so that he can go west from Rome with the gospel and with their support. That is the context in which he writes and obviously in this Jew- Gentile issue the nature of salvation was the central point of controversy. In Romans 1, Paul addresses the Gentile audience and he says, "You Gentiles are guilty before God because you rejected what God revealed about Himself through nature." That's the basic gist of Romans 1. Yes, he talks about what happens because they rejected this revelation of God through nature, the various things. But the basic point is what could be known of God through nature they consciously rejected and therefore they stand guilty before God. And then in chapter 2, he turns to the Jewish half of the audience and he says, "You've done the same thing the Gentiles have done." And they said, "Who? Us?" and he says, "Yes. Just as the Gentile rejected what God revealed about Himself in nature, you have rejected what He has revealed about Himself through law, the Torah. Therefore you Jews are equally guilty before God." So, guess what! Jew and Gentile are in the same boat. Both have rejected God's revelation of Himself, one through nature, one through the law and both stand equally guilty before God. "There is no difference," said Paul. Romans 3:9 (NLT) Well, then, are we Jew better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. So stop being proud that you're Jewish or Gentile or better than each other. And then he proceeds to explain that both Jew and Gentile, since they have all sinned the same way, by rejecting God's revelation of Himself they will all be justified the same way, by believing a promise. You can't earn it. You have to believe God's promise. You have to trust His integrity to do what He said He would do. And Paul brings this argument to an apex in chapter 3, verse 28- 30. I'm reading from the Revised Standard Version: For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is one; and He will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised on the ground of their faith. It's a very clever argument of Paul here. He basically says we have the same problem, right? We both rejected God's revelation and we have one God. Since there's one problem, one God, there's one way to be made right with God and that way is through faith, believing. Well, I can just see our Jewish half of the audience getting real nervous here. "What about the Law? If I don't have to keep the Law to get right with God, what do I do with it?" So Paul adds a balancing statement now in verse 31: Do we then overthrow the Law by this faith? By no means! or as the King James puts it: God forbid! This is the strongest way of saying "no" in Greek. You can't make it any stronger. On the contrary, this faith that justifies a sinner in God's eye keeps the Law, it upholds it. Aw! A sigh of relief! But Paul isn't finished making his argument to bring two into one and obviously he is anticipating a greater battle with the Jewish half of the congregation and so what way, better way to appeal to the Jewish mind than to appeal to father Abraham. And so he goes to the example of Abraham to give us an illustration of righteousness by faith in action, an object lesson. Romans 4:1- 3: What then shall we to say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh. If Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. He's quoting Genesis here. First question: Who did the believing? Abraham believed God! And it was credited to Abraham, not to somebody else. Abraham believed. God credited it to him as righteousness. Paul says, "See, Abraham... and later he's going to argue Abraham before he was circumcised was justified by believing the promise of God. The Law does not go away with a promise. We need to ask ourselves another question here. He said Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. Here's our question: What was the promise Abraham believed for which God credited him as righteousness? What was it that Abraham believed in for which he credited righteous? Let's turn the question around. What wasn't it that Abraham believed for which he was credited with righteousness? The promise that Abraham believed, the specific promise that Abraham believed for which it says God credited him as righteousness was not a promise about substitutionary atonement. Now, did Abraham believe in substitutionary atonement? Yes! How do we know he believed? Sacrifice of Isaac? God will provide for Himself? The lamb, right? Abraham believed that. But the object lesson is not built on Abraham's belief in substitutionary atonement, it was built in his belief on something else. So, what is this something else that Abraham believed? A promise about what? Having a son. Paul is going to use Abraham's belief in God's promise for a son as the object lesson of our believing in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. Let's unpack this object lesson to see what it tells us about the faith that justifies. Paul take care of some other business and then he comes back to this faith around verse 18 in our scripture reading here. Romans 4:18 In hope he believed against hope that he should become "the father of many nations," as he had been told "so shall your descendants be." There was the promise. Verses 19-21: He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. You should be asking yourself, "What about Hagar?" Didn't Abraham waver? How is it that Paul could say, "He never wavered?" Particularly in light of this Hagar business. So, we need to ask ourselves another question: What was it about Abraham's life in regard to this promise of a son that makes Paul conclude that he never wavered in faith? Let's go survey Genesis and see if we can find out. Genesis 15. Now in chapter 14, Abraham just went and rescued Lot and all the inhabitants of Sodom and the sister cities. What do you think he might be worried about? Revenge? That the kings he defeated are going to re-organize and come and attack him in revenge for his attack and freeing of their hostages and booty and so forth? And so Abraham is a little worried and God comes to him in Genesis 15:1 (KJV) and He says, Fear not Abram: I am thy shield, "I'll protect you from those kings. And Abraham basically says, "Thanks a lot, God, but a great reward is meaningless unless I have a son to give it to. And right now all I have is Eliezar, my servant.." And so God come back to him and He says, "Abraham, Eliezar will not be your heir. You will have a son out of your own bowels or loins. You will sire a son. Look at the stars, Abraham. Can you count them? That's how many descendants you'll have." And there it is, verse 6, And he believed the Lord. And it was counted to him as righteousness. So far, so good. What kind of belief was this? Let's add to the chemistry, now. The next thing that happens in chapter 15 is that God tells Abraham to conduct a covenant ceremony. "Take some animals, kill them (certain kinds), cut the carcasses in half, lay them out in two rows with a little swale, valley, ditch, between them. And as the carcasses drain their blood, it runs down in pools in the little ditch. This is a covenant between a greater and a lesser. Who's the greater? God. Who's the lesser? Abraham. Everybody knows that the lesser goes between the pieces, walks the bloody valley, wading in the blood, chanting to his Greater, "May you do this to me and more if I do not keep the covenant. You can cut me in half like these animals. Everybody knew that. Abraham goes through the pieces. The Bible doesn't tell us that. Patriarchs and Prophets (by EG white) does mention it. But now something very unusual happens. God appears in the form of the Shekinah torch, the smoking pot, and the Greater passes between the pieces effectively saying to Abraham, "Abraham, if I don't give you a son you can cut Me in half and kill Me." God guaranteed this promise with His very life. What a God! So, God had just guaranteed this promise with His very life. What's the next thing I expect to happen? I'm expecting to see a baby show up, right? God has taken a pretty big risk here. Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children. That's not what I was expecting. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my maid. It may be that I shall obtain children by her." Question number one: In the Biblical text, has God given any indication of who the mother would be at this point? No! He's only told Abraham, "You will father a son," but He has not named the mother at this point. Point number two: Sarah makes this announcement to Abraham. "God has prevented me." Why doesn't she make that statement a chapter or two earlier, or a chapter or two later? In other words, something has happened that has caused Sarah to conclude that it must not be God's will for her to be that mother. I wonder what that something could be? Perhaps Sarah's body chemistry has changed and she's stopped having certain experiences that women have. When women stop having that experience they are no longer fertile. And so she come to Abraham and effectively says, "Abraham, I've started menopause. I'm finished. It's impossible. God must have a different way. Let's try Hagar and keep it close. Maybe I can sort of surrogate, you know." A perfectly logical assumption that God is going to bring this baby through a fertile woman. I do not believe that Abraham's taking of Hagar was so much a lack of faith in God, as it was an assumption on how God must work. And how often do we limit God because we assume He has to work a certain way. And the assumption is that God had to work through a fertile woman. Still trusted God. And it was such a logical assumption. They don't bother to check with God to see if their assumption is right. Have you ever done that? You assume that God has to work a certain way? You forgot to open the Book and find out if that's the way God really works? A very important lesson for us. And so, Abraham follows through on this assumption that God must not have willed it through Sarah but through some other way. He takes Hagar, and slam, bam, she's pregnant like that. And she delivers a son. Abraham says, "Praise the Lord! He delivered my son. Thank you." And at the end of chapter 16, how old is Abraham when Ishmael is born? He's eighty-six. Now we'll go one more verse: Genesis 17:1. How old is Abraham now? He's ninety-nine. How many years have passed in one verse? Thirteen. Thirteen years in one verse! Thirteen years with no supernatural revelations from God. Thirteen years of enjoying Ishmael, thinking this is the fulfillment of the promise. God does nothing to correct it. Thirteen years of menopause for Sarah. If she was infertile, she's really infertile now. It's impossible! But, praise God we serve a God who loves to do impossible things. God show up and renews the covenant with Abraham. He introduces circumcision and then He drops the bombshell. By the way, why are thirteen years so important? Think Jewish, now. Bar Mitzvah? Legal adult now? God waits until Ishmael is installed as a young man, no longer a boy. And then He shows up and says, "Abraham, you did a wonderful job, but that's your work, not Mine." Now I'm ready to work. About this time next year Sarah is going to have a son." "Oh! Isn't Ishmael good enough." "No, that's your work, not Mine." About this time next year Sarah is going to have a baby boy." And when Abraham realizes God is serious with this promise he laughs. He laughs so hard he can't stand up and he falls on his face. He really laughed! And God said, "Do you think this is funny, Abraham? When this baby is born, here is what I want you to name him: Isaac (Which is the third person singular of the verb, to laugh: "He laughs."). God had the last laugh. Every time they called, "Isaac, come here," God was having a last laugh. And so, it happens, and Sarah has a baby at ninety years old. But now tension develops between Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac. What was the infant mortality rate back then? Not as pleasant as it is now, right? If you had to bet you inheritance on a young man, legal adult, thirteen, fourteen, now maybe sixteen years old, healthy, strong, versus betting it on a little year and a half, two-year old child, that could easily catch a disease and die, which is the wiser one from a worldly perspective to put your hope in? Wouldn't it be the sixteen year old? And yet, Abraham, because God said this little two year old is the promised one, sends away the sure bet and puts all his eggs in the risky basket because God said something, because God promised something. That's faith. And indeed, that faith was rewarded, and that little boy grows up. But now we have to ask another question: Have you noticed that Abraham doesn't have children by any other means now that Isaac is born while Sarah is still alive? No record of any other children. Abraham was to be the father of many nations. And Sarah was to be the mother of man nations. Is it possible that Abraham said, "If God could thirteen years in menopause and bring a baby through her, is it possible now that she's fifteen or sixteen years He could bring another one? No more assumptions. So Abraham sticks with Sarah until she dies. He marries off Isaac, and in chapter 25:1, what does he do? He marries Keturah. Six strapping sons. Abraham is going to have those many nations. And so he re-marries and gets to work, but he does it after Sarah is not even a supernatural option now. Which brings us back to our question: What is it in Abraham's life that Paul saw, that makes him conclude that he never wavered in faith? What is it about this object lesson of Abraham that illustrates righteousness by faith? Might I suggest to you that Abraham stuck with Sarah risking no children to give an inheritance to. We had the little problem of the assumption, false assumption which was corrected by sending away Ishmael and putting all his eggs in one basket. And then when push came to shove, God comes to Abraham, He says, "Take that visible manifestation of my promise and give it back to me and trust me to fill it anyway. Sacrifice your son up on Mount Moriah. And Abraham trusted God enough to fulfil that promise anyway. As he lifted the knife to leave himself no visible evidence that God would fulfil the promise, hear heard the bleating of a ram caught in the thicket. Romans 4:22. It is precisely because Abraham risked it all on God's promise, not making any contingency for God to fail the promise. So Paul says, "This is why his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, because he trusted God more than he trusted his own ability to figure things out. He trusted God more than what he saw, more than what he heard. If God promised him descendants, then God had a way he didn't know about. But he never doubted that God would do it. And he structured his life around that promise with no contingencies. And that, says Paul, is why the faith as righteous. You see, let's apply this to righteousness by faith. The faith that justifies is not simply a faith that says a little magic formula. "I believe in Jesus. It is a faith that is foolish enough to take a promise and structure the life around it." How many of you have been up to heaven to verify that God has entered "Forgiven and saved" by your name in the books? Anybody here been up there to verify it? I mean, you have to trust a promise? Now let's get one step further. The promise is: If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17. Now we're getting into some dangerous ground. Not dangerous but comfortable. Do you believe you're a new creature? Do you always feel like a new creature? I don't always feel like a new creature. Can you believe that God's promise that you are a new creature is more real than what you feel? Can you believe it so much that when temptation comes you choose to structure your life around God's promise that you are a new creature instead of structuring it around your feelings? That's righteousness by faith. That is the faith that justifies. The faith like Abraham that risks failure goes for broke. I don't have to feel like a new creature to be one. I don't have to see it to believe it. Blessed are those who don't see, but still believe. For you see, my friends, some day soon all the visible evidence for our faith is going to be taken away from us. We're not going to be able to buy or sell. They're going to want our head on a platter. And there'll be no visible reason for keeping the Advent faith. Can you trust God anyway? Is His promise more reliable to you than what you see with your eyes, hear with your ears or feel in your heart? That's the faith we need for these last days, and we develop it in trial and test when God doesn't seem to be dong what He said He would do. But we trust He'll do it anyway. And that is the faith we need not only to be justified, but for these last days. Are you ready to trust God with a radical, risk-taking faith? Let's commit ourselves to having Abraham's risky faith, what do you say?

Hymn of Praise: #516, All the Way
Scripture: Romans 4:13-22
Hymn of Response: #518, Standing on the Promises
Transcribed from first service)

McDonald Road Sermons

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