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Sermon
of 08-18-01 Scripture – Gal. 2:16; “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works
of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Have
you ever been to a church service or an evangelistic service where
someone stands up and ask: “If Jesus was to return tonight would you
be ready to meet Him?” And then they have the nerve to ask you to
raise your hand if you think you are ready. And if your neighbor sitting
next to you raises their hand you feel you should too. If
you have ever experience that before then I think you probably
understand why you had the desire to hesitate. It was because you
remembered how you blew it yesterday. You remember how you have already
blown it today. And you feel pretty confident you will blow it again
tomorrow. Which by the way means that you are basing your hope of
eternal life on what you do or what you do not do. Some
years ago someone penned a beautiful song entitled “Are You Ready
For Jesus To Come?” It will be our closing song. Not a bad title.
Not a bad question. The song has some other key questions. Questions
like: Are you faithful in all that you do? Ouch! Have you
fought a good fight? Have you stood for the right? Ouch again. Have
others seen Jesus in you? Ouch Ouch!! Now
friends, pleased don’t misconstrue what I am saying. I’m fully in
favor of being faithful in all we do. I’m in favor of fighting a good
fight. I’m in support of standing for the right. And I believe we must
let others see Jesus in us. I’m 100% in favor of all these things. But
the point I would like to ask this morning is this: Is doing these acts
of goodness the way we are saved? Every
since I can remember growing up in the church I was taught by well
meaning saints that God doesn’t love little boys that do certain
things. God only loves little boys that good and well behaved in church
and home. I grew up with the belief that if you do this or don’t do
that then Jesus doesn’t love you. I was taught that Jesus would take
my name out of the Book of Life if I weren’t always good. And friends
I have to confess, I struggled as a young boy with that sort of
teaching. I still struggle with it today. In fact, now years later I
find out that our church has struggled with that understanding and
teachings. Now
I want to ask you a question. It’s not a trick question. But does
Jesus stop loving us when we blow it? When we slip up now and then? No,
of course not. Please
hear this if you hear nothing else I say this morning. Jesus never ever
stops loving us for any reason. He may not like or love what we always
do. But He still loves us as His child. I’m even convinced that Jesus
will never stop loving His children that never accept Him and are lost.
Listen to Isaiah 49:15, 16: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not
forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [my] hands;
thy walls [are] continually before me.”
Today
I feel we have had an over dose of behavior centered religion. A
religion where the only way we are saved is by what we do not by whom we
know. Now before I go any further and have the chance of someone
misunderstand what I’m saying let me read a quote to you from 1st
Selected Messages page 377. “While good works will not save even
one soul, yet it is impossible for even one soul to be saved without
good works. God saves us under a law, that we must ask if we would
receive, seek if we would find, and knock if we would have the door
opened unto us.” In
other words only Gods Grace through Jesus Christ will saves us. But we
have a part to play. We are to obey Jesus in all things. Why? Because we
love and want to please Him. Our good deeds come automatically. We do
not do good deeds to be saved. We do good deeds because we are saved.
There is a huge difference. It’s
like a saying I have. You do not have to attend church to be a good
Christian. But I’ve never met a good Christian that didn’t attend
church. Let me try to rephrase it. You don’t have to do good
deeds to be a good Christian. But I’ve never met a good Christian that
didn’t do good deeds. Understand
the significances, the differences? I think that was what the quote I
read you was trying to say. In other words; It’s not what we do that
will save us but who we know. And because of who we know we will want to
do good deeds. Friends
there is a huge differences between behavior centered religion and
relationship-centered religion. I hope you are clear on that before I
continue. Let
me give you a quick study on what took place when our church came about.
When our fore fathers first started this church they knew and loved the
Lord. They had a love relationship with Him. But they wanted to study
deeper into Bible prophecy. As they did so they discovered many Bible
truths that had become lost through time. People had walked away from
keeping God’s Commandments. People were taught that the Sabbath had
been changed. So they started teaching the Bible truths whey were
discovering. But they started leaving Christ more and more out of their
preaching. So much so that in late 1890’s they were told that they had
preached the law so much they had become as dry as the hills of Gilboa.
(see R& H 1890–03-11) Many
times when I take a walk through our Adventist Book Center’s (ABC’s)
and look at the different titles of books I see that we are still
struggling over how we are saved. And because of this struggle is why
some of us are worried whether we are ready for Christ to return. Friends,
anytime our focus is behavior centered as our basis for being saved then
we are in grave danger of having a misunderstanding about Salvation. I
believe it is time to shift from this sort of thinking. It’s time to
accept and believe that it is not what we do but who we know that will
save us. So that when someone asks you if you are ready for Christ to
come you need only to ask yourself these questions. Do I know Him? Is He
my Lord and Savior? Did I talk to Him this morning as I would my best
friend? Now
I want to ask a question. I want to make sure you are listening to what
I am saying. Do our good deeds or our obedience or our victories
or our over-comings have anything to do with our being ready for
Christ to come? This
question was once asked at a workers meeting. The ministers pondered on
the question for a moment but finally said, “No, it has nothing to
do with us being saved.” They remembered what Paul said in
Galatians 2:16, our scripture; “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ,” Right
after every pastor agreed that works does not save us another question
was asked. Then do our bad deeds, our disobedience; our failures
and our shortcomings have anything to do with what causes us to
be lost? When this question was asked there a long silence among the
pastors. Then the question was asked. “If the first is true, then
isn’t the second also true?” Our bad deeds, our disobedience;
our failures and our shortcomings have nothing to do with
what causes us to be lost. This was almost more than what those pastors
could handle. But
friends, I ask you today; if the first is true then isn’t the second
also true? There is only one way we are saved. Not by what we do, but
what Christ has already done for us. We only have to accept His gift.
Our good deeds or our bad deeds are simply the results from our
relationship we have with Jesus. I
visited a woman in a hospital by in Iowa one time and she wanted me to
assure her of her Salvation. All she could tell me was all the good
deeds she had done her entire life. Never once did she mention her
relationship with Jesus. When
we start basing our Salvation on our good deeds, then we will struggle
with the promise of our assurance on whether we are saved or not. The
Bible has always tied obedience to a love relationship. Any real born
again Christian will never find it hard to obey and keep God’s
Commandments. They will count it a joy. Born again Christians will
search the Bible daily to find ways of how they can please God. In fact
1 John 3:22 says; “And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Psalm 40:8 adds; “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my
heart.” Have
you ever had the idea that during the Pre-Advent Judgment the Angels
will take out their Heavenly adding machines and start adding up all
your good and bad deeds you have preformed over your life? And you pray
that your goods deeds add up more than your bad deeds so you will be
allowed into Heaven. I
used to have those thoughts. And if Heaven called names in alphabetical
order, then I wanted to change my name to Zarmer instead of Farmer. That
way I would have a little more time to do some more good deeds hoping it
would take up the slack of my bad deeds. But when I started hearing and
studying about Christ and His Righteousness and what He has done for me
and is currently doing for me, when I discovered that if I accept Jesus
and keeping accepting Him daily, then I don’t even have to worry about
the Day of Judgment. Listen to John 5:24; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come
into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Picture
this if you will. Just before Jesus returns, my name comes up in
Judgment. My name is called; David Farmer, please come forward. Now
I’m in big trouble. I know my record. I know my past, present, and
probably what my future will be like. I’m guilty of sin. I’m evil
through and through. My thoughts are evil continually. But instead of me
stepping forward, someone else does. My best friend ever, Jesus Christ.
A voice is heard; “Where is Farmer?” Then Jesus says; “I’m here
to represent him. He is my friend. He accepted my Grace and asked for
forgiveness. And because he did, I told him he didn’t have to be here
this day.” Incredible… my friends. You
know, I would like to be in the bleachers sitting that day. The day when
Christ stands in my place during Judgment. But because I can’t be
there, during those 1,000 years in Heaven, you want to know what I’m
going to be doing? I’m going down to God’s local Blockbuster Video
Store and checking out the Oscar winning video; “The Day Jesus
Stood in David Farmers Place!” Then I’m going to watch it and
watch it again. When you come to my Heavenly Mansion for a visit, I’m
fore warning you right now; you will have to watch the video with me. Well
I need to start wrapping this up. But before I do I would like to ask
you three questions and then examine your answers. The three questions:
Have I been saved? Am I being saved? And third; Will I be saved? If you
are like me, you have wondered those questions before. First
question; Have I been saved? This one has another question that goes
along with it. Have you ever accepted Jesus before? If you have then
don’t forget the words of Christ in John 6:37; “…
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Then over in Romans 3:24 we read these words; “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus:” Do
you know what “Being justified” means? It means we can stand before
God as if we had never sin before. And friends we are justified the
moment any of us accept Jesus into our life. Second
Question: Am I being saved? This question is as equally important as the
first question. The first had to do with coming to Jesus, the second has
to do with staying with Him. 1 John 5:12 says: “He
that hath the Son hath life; [and] he that hath not the Son of God hath
not life.” In other words my friends, he that has eternal life is he or she
that has an on going, day by day relationship with Christ. This is solid
proof that a person can be saved and change their mind and walk away
from Christ and lose their Salvation. We must accept Jesus and we must
continue daily building our relationship with him. Third
question. Will I be saved? In John 11:25,26, Jesus says: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die.” OK.
Now if you answered the first two questions with a yes, then there
should be no doubt to what the answer is to the third question. To
close let me tell you one more example. It is a story about Bill Gates.
Ever heard of him? He is one of the richest men in the world. One day he
received a letter from a small girl named Emily. The letter simply read;
Dear Mr. Gates. My name is Emily and I live in a small mid-western
town. I have a science project and it will cost $7.50. I was told you
have lots of money so I thought I would write you and ask you if you
could help me? Signed, Emily. Well,
the story goes that Bill Gates climbed aboard one of his many jets and
flew there. He found Emily’s 6th grade class and asked if
he could talk to Emily. He said, Emily, I’m Bill Gates. Here is the
$7.50 you asked for. He then asked to speak to the school principal and
called a school assembly. He told of the letter and then said he wanted
to donate 20 million dollars for a new Science Center. But it was to be
named after Emily. When
I heard that story something clicked in my mind. I have this project. I
want to get from here on this earth to heaven. But this is more than I
can accomplish by myself. So I contact this rich man that owns the
cattle on a thousand hills and ask Him if He could help me? Jesus takes
a long trip from heaven to this earth. He comes to my home. He tells me
that He has come to help me with my project. And not only that, He gives
me the resources that will guarantee me a mansion in heaven forever. Friends,
He is offering you the same resources this morning. All you have to do
is ask, accept and believe in Him. Will you do so today? If there is
anyone here that has never accepted Jesus as your personal Saviour or
has walked away and would like to return to Him, please pray this prayer
with me. Then see me after church so we can pray together again. Father
– thank you for not holding it against us for being born sinners.
Lord, if there is anyone here this morning that is asking you into their
hearts, please hear their prayer and answer it according to your love
and mercy. Thank you for the promise that soon, and very soon, You are
coming to take us home with you. In
Jesus name I pray, Amen.
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Printed From Texarkana SDA Church Website http://www.tagnet.org/texarkana |
