All The Counsel of God

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you … ” (James 4:8)

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17).

If we are to grow in our prayer life, there are five things that are necessary: The first of these is TIME. Like everything else, prayer requires time; daily time, like the other essentials of eating and sleeping. It needs to be time enough to forget how much time it is, even though duties call you away. So it must be planned for, sometimes well ahead, so no duty is slighted. One must take time. No one worth while has time for all that comes crowding to his door. Something must be left out, so time must be taken from something else, yet less important. Prayer does need time.

The second thing prayer needs is a PLACE. You can pray anywhere – on a train, walking down the street, working in the kitchen, or doing the shopping; but you are less likely to, unless you have been shut off in some quiet place with the door closed. Jesus said, ” … when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret … “ (Matthew 6:6) -the world is shut out, but you are shut in with your heavenly Father. It does not matter where the place is. The comer of a kitchen is as good as the cloistered comer of a cathedral. It is the recognized presence of our blessed Saviour that makes holy ground, whether kitchen or cathedral. The real rare blessing of the daily quiet place is not only that you actually pray, though you will; not only that you read the Book, though you will; it is this, there is someone else there. When sitting quietly in His presence, thank Him that He is there, and that He died for you in the love of His heart, maybe sing Him a soft hymn of praise; this is the real blessedness of that bit of quiet time in the shutaway comer. Prayer needs a place, and prayer hallows the place- any place.

Third – prayer needs a book, THE BOOK. The Bible is the basis of prayer. Bible reading is the listening side of prayer. In the Bible, God speaks to us. In prayer, we speak to God. What He says to us radically affects what we say to Him. Prayer needs three organs of the head- an ear, a tongue, and an eye. The ear to hear what God says, the tongue to repeat His promises as our petitions, and the eye to look out expectantly until the result comes. Thoughtful Bible reading is giving God our ears. What goes in at the ear, warmed up as it goes through the heart, comes out at the tongue in simple, expectant, warm prayer, communion and petition and intercession.

Yes, give this Book a place in your prayers. What God says here will change what you say, and so wholly change the results. The Bible will shape and mold your praying. Let it!

The fourth is particularly important- LET THE TEACHER TEACH YOU. There is One who in particular is the prayer teacher- the Holy Spirit. It is He who puts the desire to pray in our hearts. He will direct all our praying, as a wise father directs his son. Where is the Holy Spirit? He is in every one whose heart has opened to the Lord Jesus- not because we are good or deserving or saintly, but because He is faithful to His promise.

Yes, let the Holy Spirit teach you, as He is eager to. When you go into the quiet school room, with the school book open, ask this Teacher to teach you, and He will. You may be a bit slow and stupid most of us are, but He is very gentle and patient.

You will likely find your praying change some. It will become simpler – more confident, and personal, and practical. Some things you will stop asking for – they will slip out of your thoughts in that Presence. Other things will come in- certain things you will pray for more boldly and confidently and expectantly.

The fifth need is to cultivate an OPENNESS OF SPIRIT – I mean that habitual openness of mind that opens up more and more as clearer light breaks in. It begins with that first surrender to Christ as Master, but must continue to be an habitual surrender in the actual practice of daily life. As clearer light comes in on this habit, that line of conduct, that problem, you yield and actually live the surrender you made in the initial act.

Stubbornness, sifted down, is simply refusing to yield to the new bit of light that comes. Openness to light is the one doorway to growth. We will welcome the light by obedience, we will pore thoughtfully over the Bible to get its meaning clear, we will cultivate thoughtful meditation to get things clearer and clearer.

So these are the needs of praying – prayer TIME, a prayer PLACE, a prayer BOOK thee Bible, the prayer TEACHER- the Holy Spirit, and the habitual OPENESS OF SPIRIT to more light. Let us all start into school afresh.

The richest quality of love is sacrifice, and the noblest credential of any work is the spirit on the part of its members, which has laid every selfish interest down at Jesus’ feet, counting all things loss for Christ; which holds its money, its friendships, its life, all subservient to the Master’s claim, and living a dying life, at last gives life itself a willing offering to Him who gave His life for us.

In this selfish and luxurious age, it is the rarest quality to be found, but it is the most needed; and as the end approaches, and the last tribulation draws near, the age of martyrdom will reach the climax, and the tears of sorrow and the blood of sacrifice will be transformed into the jewels of the Coronation Day.

It requires a greater sacrifice sometimes to live than to die; and those who will be found one day ready to die for Christ are those whose lives are now laid down in ten thousand little tests that come to us from day to day.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27).

Text: 2 Thess. 2:10-12 

• Intro: In the Christians life the five Ds are words that start with the letter D that can ruin your walk with God –
  • You have to really watch out for these.
• Deception – 2 Thes 2:10-12 –
  • You and I have been given the truth in the King James Bible –
• We must humbly read it, believe it and follow it –
• It is the one thing that can keep us from deception.
• You can deceive yourself – 1 Cor 3:18
• Your own heart can deceive you – Jer 17:9-10
• Others can deceive you – Rom 16:18
• Churches can deceive you – Eph 4:14
• The devil can deceive you – 2 Cor 11:13
• Riches can deceive you – Mk 4:19
• Sin can deceive you – Rom 7:11
• Lust can deceive you – Eph 4:22
• Discontentment – Heb 13:5 –
  • When you are discontent you are not satisfied with what you have, your home, your spouse, your job, your church, your friends, your possessions, etc. –
  • You think you need more of or better than what you have –
  • You are like the Jews in the wilderness who were much better off than they were in Egypt but because they were discontent, they didn’t think so –
  • You miss out on all your blessings that you do have when you are discontent – Paul said that he “learned” to be content [Phil 4:11-13] –
  • Godliness with contentment is great gain [1 Tim 6:6].
• Discouragement – Deut 1:21, 28 –
  • It is so easy to get discouraged –
  • Discouragement usually stems from unfulfilled expectations or not living up to your own standards –
  • Sometimes it stems from depression –
  • Sometimes others can discourage you –
  • David’s men were discouraged when they returned to Ziklag and rather than become discouraged also, David encouraged himself in the Lord, instead [1 Sam 30:6].
• Division – Rom 16:17-18; Acts 20:29-30 –
  • God divides things that should not be together and joins things that should be together –
  • The devil is just the opposite –
  • He divides things that should be together [like churches and families] and he joins things that should be separate [like nations]. 
  • You need to stay connected in the body of Christ [Eph 4:2-3].
• Distraction – 1 Cor 7:35 –
  • There are many things going on in the world that keep you distracted –
  • A lot of entertainment is for the purpose of distraction –
  • But while we need rest, we do not need distraction –
  • We need to be wide awake and vigilant [Eph 5:14-16] –
  • Remember, magicians use distraction so you will look at something other than what they are doing in order to pull off their tricks.
• Conclusion: You must be guarded against these five D’s in your Christian life –
• They will take you down and ruin your fruitfulness and your testimony for the Lord.

Text: Matt 23:33

• Intro:
  • How many times have we heard people say, “I just don’t see how a merciful God can throw people into hell.”  
  • Or they will ask, “How do you reconcile the love of God with the wrath of God?”  
  • I’ll grant you, for many people this is a dilemma.
• Right now, most people who aren’t saved see God’s wrath as something we preach to manipulate them into “getting saved.”  
  • And many resent that pressure.  
  • They experience the same resistance to that pressure as they do when they are pressured to do other things.  
  • When you are being pressured by a salesman, for instance, you feel the resistance to his pitch welling up inside of you.  
  • You resent being pressured to buy, even if its something you want.  You push back against the pressure applied by hawkers and beggars.  
• Likewise, some people push back against the pressure of preaching on hell, when they feel like they are being pressured by the threat of spending an eternity in hell.  “
  • You better decide today or God’s gonna throw you in hell,” some preachers may be inclined to say.  
  • And then they’ll quote Matt 25:41 with a vengeance.  
  • They might throw in Psa 9:17 or some similar verse for good measure.
• Now, I’m not against preaching on hell.  
  • But I am against pressuring and manipulating people.  
  • So, I believe it will help us to get a different perspective on this subject of hell.  
  • Then maybe we’ll have a different perspective on our merciful God and his mercy.  
  • And the two may be much easier for you to reconcile.
• First, I believe we must understand what happened when Adam and Eve sinned.  
  • Sin entered the universe and death came in with it [Gen 2:17; Rom 5:12; Jas 1:15].  
  • Adam and Eve weren’t the only ones affected by death when they sinned. Death affected all of creation [Rom 8:20-22].  
  • You know that everything dies and continues to die, even to this day. 
• The only thing that will remedy the effect of Adam’s sin is fire.  
  • This universe is heading for a major melt down after Jesus reigns on tis earth for 1,000 years [2 Pet 3:10-13].  
  • And the devil and his angels are heading for the lake of fire [Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10].  
  • And because all men are affected by Adam’s sin and all have sinned, they’re all heading for fire, as well [Rev 21:8].  
  • That’s the way it is for everybody and everything.  
  • All men are condemned and under the wrath of God, because of sin [Jn 3:18; 3:36].  
  • That’s the consequence of sin, God’s judgment against sin and God’s remedy for the effects of sin.  
• So, what God did is that he became flesh.  
  • Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life and then took our sins upon himself and died to pay for all sins and the effect of sin.  
  • He even went to hell between his death and his resurrection.  
  • And then he rose from the dead. 
  •  And what God did is that he has given you the opportunity to trust what Jesus did for you to escape the condemnation and wrath that are already in place, that came as a result of what Adam and the devil did.  
  • That is God’s mercy.
• So, we don’t wave you over the flames of hell to pressure you.  
  • We preach hell so that you will know what is already going on and what is going to happen in the future of every human being. 
  •  God intervened and gave you the way out through his mercy.  
  • That’s why we ask what Paul asked in Heb 2:3.
• You’re not being pressured by us to do anything.  
  • You have been informed about the truth and about the mercy of God.  
  • The decision is yours to make whether you want to continue under condemnation and certain destruction or whether you want to accept God’s mercy and escape the damnation of hell [Jn 3:18, 36].
  •   Hell and mercy are both reality; they are both in place right now. 
  •  You may argue about it, if you like, but those are the two options.  
  • There are no other, no matter how many different ways the devil tries to confuse you and distract from the truth.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me,” [Jn 14:6].  
  • He is the only one to pass through this sin saturated universe unaffected by sin, who then died to remedy the sin problem and rose from the dead to prove his victory over sin and death and hell.  
  • If you want to reject his remedy, no one is going to stop you. 
  •  You have the freedom to decide as you please.  
  • We pray that you will decide to accept his mercy in Jesus Christ.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

These are times of moral and religious confusion, and it is sometimes hard to distinguish the false from the true. Our faithful Lord has tried to save us from the consequences of our own blindness by repeated warnings and many careful instructions. It will pay us to give close attention to His words.

Toward the end of the age, we are told, there shall be a time of stepped-up religious activity and frenzied expectation, growing out of the turbulent conditions prevailing among nations. The language is familiar to most Christians: ” … wars and rumours of wars … nation shall rise against nation … famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places … Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations … And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matthew 24:6-10).

Concurrent with this state of affairs will be a great increase in religious excitement and supernatural happenings generally. “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5); “And many false prophets shall rise … ” (Matthew 24:11 ); “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23-24).

PRAY FOR DISCERNMENT

Many Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality, but in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit. Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be.

” … try the spirits … “ is a command of the Holy Spirit to the church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine, and the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love, and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.

How can we tell whether or not a man or a religious demonstration is of God? The answer is easy to find, but it will take courage to follow the facts as God reveals them to us.

The tests for spiritual genuineness are: First, the leader must be a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. Christianity is nothing if not moral. No tricks of theology, no demonstrations of supernatural wonders, no evidences of blind devotion on the part of the public can decide whether or not God is in the man or the movement. Every servant of Christ must be pure of heart and holy of life.

While sinless perfection is not likely to be found among even the best of men, still the leader to be trusted is the one who lives as near like Christ as possible and who knows how to repent in sorrow of heart when he sins against his Lord by any act or word. The man God honors will be humble, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, modest, clean living, free from the love of money, eager to promote the honor of God, and just as eager to disclaim any credit or praise on his own part. His financial accounts will bear inspection, his ethical standards will be high, and his personal life above reproach.

THE ACID TEST

But the test of moral goodness is not enough. Every man must submit his work to the scriptural test. It is not enough that he be able to quote from the Bible at great length or that he claim for himself great and startling experiences with God. Go back to the law and to the testimony, if he speak not according to the Word, it is because there isno light in him. We who are invited to follow him have every right, as well as a solemn obligation, to test his work according to the Word of God.

We must demand that every claimant for our confidence present a clean bill of health from the Holy Scriptures; that he do more than weave in a text occasionally, or hold up the Bible dramatically before the eyes of his hearers. His doctrines must be those of the Scriptures. The Bible must dominate his preaching. He must preach according to the Word of God.

The price of following a false guide on the desert may be death. The price of heeding wrong advice in business may be bankruptcy. The price of trusting to a quack doctor may be permanent loss of health. The price of putting confidence in a pseudo-prophet may be moral and spiritual tragedy. Let us take heed that no man deceive us.

By A.W. Tozer

Text: 2 Peter 3:9

• Intro:
  • This verse says that God is willing that all should come to repentance. 
  • You have heard the word repentance before and you may know something about it. 
  • But the question is How to Repent. 
  • What good is it if you can win a theological debate about what repentance means if you still need to repent? 
  • It is the doing of repentance and not the knowledge of repentance that God is interested in.
• So, here’s how to repent:
• First, there must be an honest recognition of what you are doing wrong – Rev 2:21-22, Rev 9:20-21 etc –
  • There was something specific that each was doing and that they needed to stop doing –
  • You may recognize something wrong in your life but you may not be honest, at all, about how much you need to turn away from it –
  • Often the thing you need to quit is connected to other things in your life –
  • Honest recognition finds all of these components so that you can deal with them all –
  • A fellow who lusts after women must also honestly recognize the sins in his thought life, the sins he commits with his eyes and the sins he commits in his flesh in order to fully repent –
  • You cannot leave any part of the examination of your life undone when it comes to repentance –
  • You must be as thorough as an IRS agent looking for a dime.
• Second, there must be an honest recognition that what you are doing wrong is sin – Lk 5:32 –
  • The thing you are doing wrong is not just a bad habit or a problem or a flaw in your character –
  • It is sin –
  • And the sins you are committing are the direct result of what you are –
  • You are a sinner –
  • Few preachers are willing to deal with the subject of sin and sinners anymore 
  • They want to take people who are sin sick, fluff them up with some “feel-good” preaching, accept them just the way they are by telling them that God loves them just the way they are and then bring them in and make them part of the family of God with the leprosy of sin all over them –
  • You kill the rest of the flock doing that –
  • A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump –
  • You will see what that means in time –
  • Listen, you must deal with SIN –
  • Call it what it is, just the way the Bible does, and deal with it.
• Third, you must confess to God the sin that you are committing – 1 Jn 1:9 –
  • Confessing your sins to the Lord is simply a matter of acknowledging before God that you agree with Him and his judgment against you –
  • It is an admission of your guilt –
  • It is a confession that you have a particular sin in your life that you are going to get out of your life –
  • It is not part of the prayer you pray before a meal like “and, Lord, forgive us of our sins.”
• Fourth, there must be a sincere desire to get this sin or these sins out of your life – 2 Cor 7:9-10 –
  • This desire to get rid of the sin is often accompanied by sorrow –
  • But don’t think that sorrow alone is repentance –
  • Many a sinner has cried in remorse over something stupid only to go right back to it another day –
  • The godly sorrow accompanying repentance is a sorrow that yields a resolve to do whatever is necessary by the grace of God and by the presence of Jesus in you to rid your life of that sin.
• Fifth, there must be a willful turning away from the sin – 1 Thess 1:9 –
  • Too many people confess to God that what they are doing is sin and they even struggle with trying to quit it to a certain degree –
  • But in reality they sit around waiting for God to deliver them from their sin while they continue to do it day in and day out –
  • Smokers are some of the worst about this that I have seen –
  • They keep on smoking while they wait for the Lord to deliver them –
  • Put the stupid cigarettes down, fool –
  • You are not going to get deliverance if you haven’t already gotten deliverance –
  • You need to take everything out of your life that contributes to this sin – Acts 19:18-20.
• Sixth, there must be reliance upon the Lord to help you stop this sin – 1 Thess 1:9 –
  • See how the Thessalonians did it –
  • They turned to God when they turned from their idolatry –
  • You cannot do this on your own –
  • You must yield to the righteousness of Jesus in you so that he can strengthen you against this sin –
  • Rom 6:12-13 –
  • He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin –
  • Since he didn’t commit them when he was here, he can help you keep from committing them now that he is living his life in you.
• Conclusion:
  • Now this is how to repent –
  • And we might add that it helps immensely to become content with such things as ye have –
  • That is you want to get to the place where you are content without the sin in your life –
  • Paul said he learned how to be content.

“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me” (Ezekiel 3: 17).

“If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou has attained.” (1 Timothy 4:6).

We are living in days in which the faith is being assaulted and the attacks against it are much more subtle than in any other period of time in history.

The agnostic thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did not pretend to defend “the faith of their fathers,” they openly opposed the Christian faith.

The agnostics, Descartes and Kant, presented themselves as they were. The pantheistic Spinoza never claimed that Christianity was his faith.

But today the scene is completely changed. Inside the churches, the so-called theologians, as their great leaders, are manipulating ecclesiastical politics and are imposing their ideas on them, making this twentieth century Protestantism a scandalous ecclesiasticism, a cover made of pieces of different philosophies and religions of the world, a thing that made an atheistic Swedish professor of philosophy to ask with rudeness, “Are these theologians atheists disguised as bishops and clergymen?”

It is a real scandal for the so-called Christian theologians to speak in such a way that an atheist could ask, “Excuse me, are you really atheistic?”

That is the picture of the church over all the world.

Today atheistic and agnostic theologians, by using the Christian tradition of the church, are able to present themselves around the world as great Christians.

By the grace of God, He placed all over the world little groups of watchmen who are giving warnings from God, and who are exposing themselves to the devilish hate and to the fiery darts of the wicked.

The old devil is using all his means to intercept their action. As it always happens, the fight starts with persecution, with threats, growing into excommunications of all those who take a clear stand and warn the people about the perils to which they are exposed. Actually, these methods work for good by helping to establish with more firmness the watchmen of God in more towers than were in existence before. So the devil changes his aspect into the shape of an angel of light, and he presents saintly Christian doctrines, such as prayer and sanctification, trying to enslave distracted Christians in order to reach his goal of overcoming the Christian testimony.

As Sanballat, he uses the dangerous weapon of ridicule by calling attention to the fact that we are a little group, and that we are building on sand our wall of defense of the faith, and that our wall will fall down under the first impact of a fox. Unnumbered foxes have precipitated themselves over our fortress only to discover that our wall is built upon a Rock.

Some evangelistic campaigns are used as a means of hostility to those who preach ” … the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). Many revivals are used to try to mix our people with the enemy, intending to deceive the simple members of our churches who love the lost and pray for them.

However, the mass evangelism of our day gathers together Christians with idolatrous Mary worshippers and rationalists who deny the divinity of the Lord. Then when someone makes a decision, they want us to send the decision card of this newly converted one to churches that deny the faith we preach.

See – 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

The Apostle Paul wrote the church Corinth, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

The lives of Christians are about the only Bible which the world will read today, when what we has more weight than what we say and when deeds speak more loudly than words.

Dr. S. D. Gordon speaks of four great tests Character.

First, the home test: how a man treats those with whom he lives.

Second, the business test: how a man conducts himself towards his customers and employees.

Third, the social test: how a man acts towards those who do not enjoy the same social advantages as himself.

Fourth, the success test: how a man behaves himself when favoring circumstances bring him wealth, power, position, and honor.

It is told of a great artist that he was wandering in the mountains of Switzerland, when some officials met him and demanded his passport. “I do not have it with me,” he replied, “but my name is Dore.”

“Prove it, if you are,” said the officers, knowing who Dore was, but not believing that this was he. Taking a piece of paper, the artist hastily sketched a group of peasants who were standing near and did it with such grace and skill that the officers exclaimed: “Enough, you are Dore.”

The world cares little for mere profession. But the man who successfully passes the four-fold test laid down by Dr. Gordon, shows without a doubt that he is genuine.

• Intro:
  • If we can disclose your typical responses to sin, we may be able to shed enough light on it to help us break some of the bad habits weu have.  We’re going to look at what you do when you sin:
• You Hide Yourself – Gen 3:6-10 –
  •  “he that covereth his sins shall not prosper,” [Prov 28:13] –
  • you’ll hide when you first commit certain sins and then you’ll hide and pretend that you didn’t.
• You Excuse Yourself – Gen 3:11-13 –
  • you’ll admit that you did something but you will blame someone else or something else for it –
  • people commonly excuse their sins by saying things like:
    • I didn’t know [God’s ready for that one Rom 1:18-21]
    • I can’t help it
    • Everyone else is doing it
    • God won’t deliver me from it [so it’s his fault]
    • I didn’t mean to
• You Justify Yourself – Job 32:1-2; 35:2 –
  • you reason that you are justified in doing what you’ve done –
  • you’ll say things like:
    • There’s nothing wrong with me or with what I’m doing
    • Who are you to tell me that what I’m doing is wrong
    • You think I’m bad; you ought to see what he’s doing
• You Deceive Yourself – 1 Jn 1:8 –
  • you’ll admit to yourself that there’s no use fighting this sin; you’re just going to have to live with it –
  • or you’ll go like the rest of modern Christianity and think, “God loves me and doesn’t mind what I’m doing –
  • some will even go totally doctrinal and think, “I’m already righteous and I’m already forgiven so there’s no need to do anything about this sin because it is already done at Calvary.”
• You Sacrifice for Yourself – Ps 4:4-5 –
  • it’s kind of like penance, the habit we got into in Catholicism, confession on Saturday, Eucharist on Sunday, and business as usual on Monday –
  • sacrifices don’t make you righteous –
  • you are righteous and then you offer sacrifices –
  • look at Jesus; compare Abel and Cain [Heb 11:4; 1 Jn 3:12] –
  • compare Saul [1 Sam 15:22-23] and David [Ps 51:17-19] –
  • look at Christians [Heb 13:15-16; 1 Pet 2:5] –
  • so for you to do some sort of “make-up” deed for Christ to relieve your conscience until you commit that sin again is not working –
  • Heb 10:10-14 is all that God will accept –
  • he doesn’t want your sacrifice so that you can feel righteous; he wants your obedience.
• Conclusion:
  • You Need to Confess and Forsake Them – Prov 28:13 –
    • to confess your sins is to admit HONESTLY before the Lord that you sinned and then you are, by God’s blood, grace, fear and love, to forsake your sin. 

Quit those merry-go-round habits you do and respond God’s way!

Text: Heb 12:1-3

• Intro:
  • Paul told us to rejoice evermore [1 Thes 5:16].
  • We have some reasons to rejoice. We should rejoice in the cross. 
  • When Jesus went to the cross there was joy set before him. 
  • There is a great cloud of witnesses from Heb 11 who are there to encourage us. 
  • They suffered for what they believed.  
  • Jesus suffered and so shall we. 
  • We must endure suffering in our race.  
  • Because of the cross:
• Jesus now rejoices – Heb 12:2 – “the joy that was set before him.” 
  • The cross represents the depth of his suffering that is followed by the height of his glory [1 Pet 1:11]. 
  • In Phil 2:8 he humbled himself to the death of the cross and now enjoys a name that is above every name [Phil 2:9-10]. 
  • He’s sitting at the right hand of God; his work is done. 
  • Through his death, burial and resurrection he led captivity captive [Eph 4:8-10]. 
  • Through the same, he’ll destroy the devil [Heb 2:14; Col 2:14-15]. 
  • Through the same, he’ll restore Israel [Acts 1:6]. 
  • Through the same, nature will be restored [Rom 8:19-23]. 
  • Through the same, he will deliver up the kingdom to God [1 Cor 15:24-28]. 
  • You talk about joy.  We should rejoice in all that God has done through Jesus and will do through him because of the cross. 
  • If it weren’t for the cross none of this would be possible.
• Heaven can rejoice – Lk 15:7, 10 –
  • There wasn’t much rejoicing going on the day that Jesus died. 
  • You must know that the angels were ready at any moment to intervene [Matt 26:53]. 
  • As soon as the devil left Jesus alone in the wilderness after his temptation, the angels came and ministered unto him [Matt 4:11]. 
  • When the devil and his angels fight in the Tribulation, Michael and his angels will fight and prevail against them [Rev 12:7-9]. 
  • But all they could do at the crucifixion is watch. 
  • There was a reason.  Jesus had to finish his work [Jn 19:30]. 
  • And once he rose, the rejoicing began. 
  • Now every time a sinner gets saved, there is rejoicing in heaven in the presence of the angels [Lk 15:7, 10]. 
  • That’s why the soul winners crown [1 Thess 2:19] is called the crown of rejoicing. 
  • If it weren’t for the cross there would be none of this joy.
• We can finish with joy – Heb 12:1-3 –
  • The Lord set the example for us. 
  • We are encouraged by the cross to lay aside every weight and the sin that besets us and run with patience. 
  • When we finish, we are promised that we can enter the joy of the Lord [Matt 25:21, 23] if we suffer with him now [Rom 8:17].  
  • And the depths of our suffering are not comparable to the glory that follows [Rom 8:18]. 
  • Paul endured much suffering but never grew weary or fainted [Heb 12:3] because he knew he could finish his course with joy [Acts 20:24]. 
  • And finish he did [2 Tim 4:7]. 
  • Likewise, we are encouraged to finish our course with joy. 
  • If it weren’t for the cross we wouldn’t have this example and this assurance.
• Conclusion:
  • The cross was a gruesome way for Jesus to die. 
  • But in that cross, there is rejoicing because of the subsequent exaltation of Jesus Christ, the reconciliation of man to God, and the endurance of suffering that is followed by glory. 
  • The cross is an encouragement to us to tell others about Jesus and to endure our race without fainting till we finish.