ONLY TWO SERMONS!

ONLY TWO SERMONS!

James 1:22-25

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

James 4:11

11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

Twenty years ago there was ample warning of our society’s slide into darkness. One marriage in three ended in divorce. Today one in TWO marriages ends in divorce. Sexual permissiveness was generally ignored and today pornography is a multi-billion (with a B) dollar enterprise. Our children know more about sex today than many of us knew on our wedding night – or a few weeks thereafter! The answer is not more education and enlightenment. The answer is to DO WHAT IS RIGHT.

This coming May I will mark forty-two years in pastoral ministry. Let’s see…a minimum of three sermons per week times fifty-two times forty is 6,552 sermons. That’s a lot of preaching but I really only have two sermons – and here they are – forty-two years of ministry in a nutshell.

GET SAVED!

James 1:21

21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

James was pretty keen on this topic! Stop sinning and receive simply the Word of God which is able to save your souls. If you do not you will remain eternally doomed and damned! The grip of sin will tighten on you until you are strangled by it. GET SAVED! For heaven’s sake, get saved! Repent, turn from your sin and your sins and run into the waiting arms of a loving Savior! I cannot overemphasize the urgency of it. GET SAVED!

DO RIGHT!

My second sermon is to those who have claimed to have obeyed the first one. Like an ineffective vaccine, their professed salvation did not even raise a scab! Their sinfulness continues unabated, their morals are more at home in the barnyard and their language belongs in the gutter. Greed grips their finances, lust drives their relationships and pleasure and amusement determines their life choices!

James is clear that the Bible is sufficient as a life guide but if a man looks into it like a mirror and does not respond to its challenges he walks away as dirty and disheveled as before! The mirror has done him no good because of his willful disobedience.

Some have become “editors” of the Word according to chapter four and verse eleven. They have become a judge of the law instead of the other way around. DO RIGHT! For crying out loud, do right!

Isa 1:16-18

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Dear Lord, I want to understand and to do what your Word says. Thank you for forgiveness which you purchased at so great a cost. AMEN

HE IS OUR PEACE!

HE IS OUR PEACE!

Eph 2:14-19

14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 

18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

          Paul addressed a mixed congregation of Ephesians. Part were believing Jews and the rest were believing Gentiles. The “middle wall of partition” between them was “the law!” The Jews continued to feel privileged because of their Jewish heritage and failed to fully assimilate into the new Christian community. To correct this division, Paul explained a few things to both groups.

          Peace is not in precepts but a Person! He is our peace. In fact He has “broken down” (the Greek luo means to dissolve or to melt) that middle wall. The remaining language is just as graphic. The word “abolished” in verse 15 means “to render useless.” The word “ordinances” is the word dogma and refers to ceremonial ritual. The word “slain” in verse 16 means “to kill outright.”

          The rallying point is not in a list of laws but in “one body by the cross.” We are reminded of this every time we take the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said: “this is my body which is broken for you” and “this cup is the new testament in my blood.” It is clear that the cross and not the law unifies all men, all cultures and all conditions. So stop feuding over critical and cultural differences and come together at the foot of the cross.

          “We both have access!” That is the message of verse 18. The word is prosagoge which simply means “admission.” The result is that we are fellow citizens, literally “natives of the same town” and of the same “household.” This equality under the blood removes both shame and pride. Having gained admission, we now reside under the same roof. We call each other brother and sister for God is our heavenly Father.

Dear Lord, thank you for melting the wall and paying the price of admission for me. AMEN

FREE TO CHOOSE!

FREE TO CHOOSE!

Josh 24:14-15

14 Now therefore fear the Lord , and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord .

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord , choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord .

          John Calvin, in his Prefatory address to King Francis when he wrote his Institutes, referred to a prevailing attitude of the time. He called it “The Appeal to Custom against Truth!” There is enormous pressure to conform to the cultural model of belief and behavior even when there is clear instructions to the contrary in God’s Word. In order to be “cool,” or simply to live in peace with fellows, we ignore and discard God’s clear directives to follow the crowd.

Man is morally free to make his own choices and to suffer the consequences of those choices. Man is responsible for his conduct. The social history of the world, the universal consciousness of man, and the concurrent teachings of the Bible all show this. Man is responsible for his destiny. Character is constantly being formed: it will emerge either marred or perfect, depending on whether you submit to the Divine will, or resist the influences He brings to bear upon you.

God condemned the world with the Flood but kept Noah and his family alive. The world drowned as a mob but each man died as an individual for his sins. (see Genesis 7:1 and Hebrews 11:7) James S. Hewett said: “evil custom is nothing but a kind of public pestilence in which men do not perish the less though they fall with the multitude."

Dear Lord, I will be presented with many choices today. When I make those choices there will be consequences as a result of my choosing. Please, let me see the snare and not simply the bait. AMEN