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Psalms 77:11-20 I will
remember the works of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I
will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders; You have declared Your strength
among the peoples. You have with Your
arm redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw You, O
God; The waters saw You, they were afraid; The depths also trembled. The clouds
poured out water; The skies sent out a sound; Your arrows also flashed about.
The voice of Your thunder was
in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and
shook. Your way was in the sea,
Your path in the great waters, And Your footsteps were not known. You led Your
people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron. Father, we give you all the praise and
thanks for all you do in our lives. We ask that you give us a simple child like
mind to believe with. Open our ears so that we can hear your calling to us. I
pray and ask that you touch the heart of each and every person that reads this
message and as a result they give their heart to you Jesus. We give you all the
glory and praise. Amen!
Romans 10:5-15 NKJV
This week’s lesson explains to us the simplicity of
salvation. It is a simple child like mind that can hear something and believe
it with their heart without question. How many times have you witnessed a
little child make claim to something their parent has said and that child is
immovable. Have you ever tried to reason with a little one that believes
something their mommy or daddy has told them? You don’t get very far do you?
They believe what is said by adults without questioning the fact. It is only
when a child reaches the age of accountability will the child start questioning
what adults say. It is this type of faith we all need in order to believe and
be saved. We need to throw out our beliefs and man’s beliefs like Paul did and
use a pure child like frame of mind to believe in every Word of God. Philippians 3:6-8 NLT I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the
church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 7 I once
thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because
of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared
with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have
discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain
Christ. It is that
simple, but we as humans make it so difficult because we think we have to do something
to earn salvation. Father God we pray that you make our minds simple and pure
as a little child so that we can believe what your Holy Word says without
question and experience you magnificent gift of grace, salvation.
Romans
10:5-15
5 For Moses
writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "THE MAN WHO DOES
THOSE THINGS SHALL LIVE BY THEM." Here again Paul is stating that the law's way of
making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. A
person has to keep each of the moral laws, the Ten Commandments flawlessly, as
Jesus did in order to obtain salvation. This is impossible for human beings to
do, due to the fallen nature of man. Paul quotes scripture from the Old
Testament pertaining to the capitalized part of this verse. It is taken from Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My
judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD. God is stating here that if one can
keep each and every law perfectly, they will be granted eternal life.
6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this
way, "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' "
(that is, to bring Christ down from
above)
7 or, " 'WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE
ABYSS?' " (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
8 But what
does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"
(that is, the word of faith which we preach). These three verses Paul is quoting
from OT scripture so that his audience will realize that he isn’t making up
what he is saying. It gives credibility to what he is speaking. Deuteronomy 30:11-14 "For this commandment which I command you
today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should
say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear
it and do it?' 13
Nor is it beyond the sea, that
you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we
may hear it and do it?' 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may
do it.
In
verses 6 and 7 the phrases, “WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN”; “'WHO WILL DESCEND
INTO THE ABYSS”, is
an expression used in OT times. This expression was used among the Jews to
denote any difficult undertaking. To say that it was high as heaven, or that it
was necessary to ascend to heaven to understand it, was to express something of
highest difficulty.
The
fact of the matter was, and still is, that to understand the message of the
Cross, was to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus our Saviour and to
place our faith in this act of love that Jesus has done for us. It was that
simple for the Jewish people and us, it does not require deep research, long
journeys, religious ways, or painful toil. There is no need of crossing seas,
and going to other lands, of looking into the profound mysteries of the high
heavens, or the deep abyss, but they were near them and even us today. The
truth has been plainly set before them and us, and is easily understood. The Word
is very close at hand, it is on our lips and in our hearts and that Word is the
very message about faith that is preached. The Word being Jesus Christ and the
message of Faith, not of our Works.
9 that if you
confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES ON
HIM WILL NOT BE PUT TO SHAME." One of the key words in these verses is, “confess”.
Confession is defined as an open
profession of faith (Luke 12:8); an
acknowledgment of sins against God (Leviticus 16:21;
Ezra 9:5-15; Daniel 9:3-12), or a neighbor whom we have wronged (James 5:16; Matthew
18:15). All the verses listed here make reference to someone
speaking and not just thinking the words. It means, “to speak something in agreement
with others that they speak or hold true”. Therefore confession or profession
expresses our agreement or belief with what God holds to be true, and what he
declares to be true. It denotes a public declaration or assent of words
expressed by one’s mouth. A profession of belief and faith then denotes a
public declaration of our agreement with what God has declared, and extends to
all his declarations about our lost estate, our sinfulness, and need of a
Saviour. It pertains to His doctrines; about His own nature, holiness, and law;
about the Saviour and the Holy Spirit; about the necessity of a change of heart
and holiness of life; and about the grave and the judgment; about heaven and
hell. Normally when a moral person makes a statement verbally or out loud they
mean what they say, it is from the heart, but not in all cases.
Many times throughout my
life in supervising people a new policy may be introduced into the workplace
and after the explanation I have gone around the room and asked each individual
to profess out loud their agreement. I don’t know why but that open profession
means more than just a head shaking up and down and this is why the Bible
states one must confess with their mouth, meaning a verbal profession. Just
like what Jesus stated in Matthew
18:15 "Moreover
if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him
alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. If we walk up to someone that we have
an issue with and just stand there in
silence and think about the situation and turn around and leave, what good have
we done? The heart and mouth have a direct relationship to each other. What
proceeds from the mouth is what is in ones heart. Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth
good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. So simple, yet so difficult, if we
openly confess Jesus is our Lord and Saviour and we believe God raised Him from
the dead, we will be saved.
The other key word is believe, defined by Strong’s Hebrew and
Greek Dictionaries; From G4102; to have faith (in, upon,
or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication
to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): - believe
(-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with. We have to believe with our heart
and not with our mind. Head knowledge is good and necessary to bring us to God,
but when one reads and hears the truth, they must replace all the false
doctrine in one’s heart with the truth of the Gospel and believe. As Paul
stated in last week’s lesson he had to throw out the garbage that man has
polluted his heart with and replace it with God’s Holy and True Word. If Paul
could do it with the strong religious background he had, you can do it!
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.
13 For "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD
SHALL BE SAVED." These
two verses don’t need any explanation, except that Greek should have been
translated Gentile. What they say is what they mean. God will pour out His
grace to all if they come to Him with a sincere heart. If a person believes
that Jesus died on the Cross for them, was raise from the dead, and is seated
at God’s right hand then they can call out to God, profess they are a sinner,
ask forgiveness, repent of their lifestyle, and ask Jesus to come into their
heart to rule and reign one’s life from that day forward.
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have
not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? Paul is throwing out some questions
here in order to stir some minds or to answer some questions before they are
asked. The questions are directed at Jew and Gentile. The Jewish people have
rejected Jesus as the Messiah and the Gentiles have their own pagan gods they
worship, so how or why would they call upon Jesus to save them. As far as they
are concerned they are right with God and that is where the next two questions
come into play.
A person needs to hear the
Gospel and what it truly means so they can understand what is being said even
though Paul stated in chapter one, no one is without excuse of not knowing God,
but a person needs more than just a head knowledge of God. Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse,
This is why it is so
important for the Church (believers) to go out and preach the Gospel. This is
why Philip went to the Ethiopian eunuch, because he was reading scripture, but
couldn’t understand what he was reading. After Phillip explained to him the
Gospel the eunuch understood and believed, and then he wanted to be baptized. Acts 8:29-37 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and
overtake this chariot." 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the
prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are
reading?" 31
And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked
Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this:
"HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER
IS SILENT, SO HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH. 33 IN HIS HUMILIATION HIS JUSTICE WAS TAKEN AWAY, AND
WHO WILL DECLARE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS TAKEN FROM THE
EARTH." 34
So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the
prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" 35 Then
Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to
him. 36
Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said,
"See, here is water. What
hinders me from being baptized?" 37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all
your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God."
As Christians we are to go
out into the world and preach the Gospel so people can hear, understand, and
believe. Without hearing the truth of the message of the Cross, then someone
may be eternally lost. It isn’t up to just the denominational churches to
preach to people, it is our Christian responsibility if we are truly saved to
preach the Gospel. If we are truly saved we will have a desire to do this. Mark 16:15-20 And He said to them, "Go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who
does not believe will be condemned.
17 And these
signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they
will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up
serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." 19 So then,
after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down
at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them and
confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As
it is written: "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL
OF PEACE, WHO BRING GLAD TIDINGS OF GOOD THINGS!" Paul is quoting Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of
him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who
says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
How is
the Gospel of Jesus Christ sent into the world? It is sent in many forms;
missionaries, TV, radio, internet, blogs, emails, etc. In some of these medias
a vast number of people with many different skills are required and God calls
these individuals to help support the preacher or means of spreading the
Gospel. These individuals are just as important as the preacher in getting the
Word out, because without these people it would not be possible. So spreading
the Gospel comes in many forms and all are necessary and very important.
I must
warn you though, not all that are out there preaching, are messages of the
Cross. Many are messages of good feeling, prosperity, false doctrine, believing
in self, works, etc. Some don’t even preach salvation through Jesus Christ. So
beware and verify what is being preached with God’s Word. There are many wolves
in sheep’s clothing.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is
the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…...
Psalms
51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit
within me.
John 3:3 Jesus
answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say
to you,
unless
one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill Wiesbrock
Last Week’s Trivia: Who was Abihu?
Answer: Abihu was one of Aaron’s sons. Abihu
was a priest who accompanied Moses to Sinai, but who later died with his
brother Nadab when they offered unholy fire to the Lord. Exodus 6, 24, 28; Leviticus
10:1; Numbers 3, 26; 1 Chronicles 6, 24:1-2
This week’s Trivia: Who was Abimael?
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