Preacher: Pastor Mike | Series: Basic Christianity

10.02.16 ~ The Fundamentals of Prayer

Through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, every person who repents of their sins and confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, comes into an intimate relationship with God the Father, who loves us eternally and unconditionally.

Prayer is communicating with God, and God loves to hear your heart in prayer. He loves to answer our prayers according to His own mercy and grace.
Isaiah 65:24, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”

See Acts 12, especially verses 12-17…

See Matthew 6:7-15… Our conversations with God should not be filled with “meaningless repetition” like the pagans (v. 7), who babble with many words.

Nowhere in the NT is a prayer repeated or used in a repetitious and/or ritualistic manner. We don’t need to try and convince God of a need we have (v. 8); for He knows what we need, even before we ask Him!
Matthew 6:9a… This is how you should pray: The Lord’s Prayer is given as a guide on how we should pray. There are six petitions in this prayer; three toward God’s Sovereignty, that being, His Name, His Kingdom, and His Will; and three toward Man’s needs, that being, daily bread, forgiveness, and protection from evil. Matthew 6:9b… Our Father in heaven: God is the Creator of all but the Father only of those who come, through faith in Jesus Christ, into the Family of God, born of God’s Spirit (cf. John 1:12-13; 3:5-8).

Matthew 6:9c… Hallowed be Your name: God is Holy and we are to revere, honor, worship, and glorify Him. We must prayerfully acknowledge Him in every detail of our thoughts, our words, and our actions (1Corinthians 10:31), “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Matthew 6:10… Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: Those who belong to Christ will want to live in a manner that expresses God’s rule in their lives, as He already rules in heaven. You see, God’s ultimate will is not being exhibited on earth: men sin, men die, and men go to hell. But God’s will is that people won’t sin, die, or go to hell. We pray for God’s will be done on earth:

God’s will is for everyone to repent, believe, and be saved (see 1Timothy 2:3-4; 2Peter 3:9-10).

Those who are saved, all true believers and followers of Christ, will seek to obey God, with willing hearts, in all that we do (see Romans 12:1-2; 2Peter 3:11-12).

We are to faithfully pray according to God’s will, while seeking to obey God’s Word.

Matthew 6:11… Give us today our daily bread: Bread here is symbolic of the food we need, not just for our physical needs, but also our spiritual needs. Bread was a staple food, eaten daily, in Palestine for biological life. Jesus is the bread of life who has come down from the Father to grant us spiritual life, sent from the Father to supply all our needs.

Philippians 4:19, “God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (cf 2Peter 1:3).

The schedule for God’s provision is clearly a daily one, meaning, we need to come to Him on a regular, day-to-day basis for the provision of our needs, not weekly, monthly, or yearly…but daily.
Matthew 6:12… And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors: This is not talking about financial debts, it is talking about sin — our moral and spiritual debt to God, paid in full by Christ.

Sin separates man from God and is man’s greatest enemy. Therefore, man’s greatest need is forgiveness, and that is what God provides when we confess our sinfulness (Romans 10:13), “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”; (1John 1:8-10), “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness.”

The Father is forgiving, His children are also (Ephesians 4:32), “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Matthew 6:13… And lead us not into temptation, but rescue us from evil: This has to do with trials and testing, through which we are enticed to sin. God tempts no man, but He does allow us to be tested (see James 4:7-10). We pray for God to place a guard over our eyes, ears, mouths, feet, hands, minds and hearts — so that, we will not give in and do that which is sinful (see 1Corinthians 10:13; Romans 12:9).

There is really only one hindrance to prayer: SIN!
Psalm 66:18-19, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.”

What you believe and how you behave will affect your prayer life. Prayer is conversation with God; we share our heart and mind with the Father, asking Him to forgive our sins and to equip us that we might forgive others; we ask Him for the wisdom to know and the courage to obey His will; so that He might receive glory, honor and praise, in every situation of our life.

We live in a cursed world, evil is all around us. Our flesh is weak and we are not equipped in our humanness to combat sin, and so, we should confess our need for the protection and deliverance only God can give.

This sovereign lesson in prayer concludes with a reminder of how our forgiving others is an illustration and reflection of the Father’s forgiving us.
Matthew 6:14-15… For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses: Please don’t misunderstand what this verse is saying. God has forever removed the penalty of sin from all true Christians (cf. Romans 8:1). However, sin does effect our present joy and ability to serve God, therefore, we confess our sins in order to remain cleansed from sin’s corruption, much like washing our face, hands, and feet when they have become soiled by dirt or contaminated in some way.

Having been cleansed by God, i.e., having received God’s forgiveness, we forgive others; for an unforgiving spirit is inconsistent with one who has been forgiven (cf. Matthew 18:21-35).

Why should we pray? Well, first of all, God commands us to pray (1Thessalonians 5:17), “Pray continually!” And also, prayer unburdens us from our anxieties and fears; in fact (Philippians 4:6-7) tells us that through prayer we receive “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,” and this “will guard [our] hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer allows us to draw close to and realize God’s presence; that we might know Him more intimately and (Hebrews 4:16), “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

What do we pray? That God’s will might be done in and through every situation in our life and in the lives of God’s children; so that men, women and children of age might come to know Him now and forever (Ephesians 3:18), “together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

How do we pray? Constantly and reverently, laying our requests and our praises before Him, so that everything we do, think, and say, is prayerfully communicated to God, for He is sovereign in all things (Jeremiah 33:3), “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

Let me ask you something – have you ever wondered whether or not there is a right or wrong physical position to pray in? The Bible records a variety of positions in which people prayed: Genesis 18:22 says Abraham prayed standing up; 1Chronicles 17:16 says King David prayed sitting down ; Matthew 26:39, says Jesus prayed while lying face down on the ground.

The physical position you pray in isn’t important; but your spiritual position is very important – only Christians can pray to God, and we pray out of reverence for God’s holiness, with honest recognition of our own sinfulness, for only then can we truly be thankful for His forgiveness, His mercy, and His grace.

The Holy Spirit will instruct us to pray for those things that bring glory and honor to God, as we exalt the character and nature of God: Who He is, How He has revealed Himself to us, Why He has saved us, and What He desires us to do, as we live out our lives on this earth, expressing thanksgiving toward Him for His mercy and grace, while trusting Him for our eternal life in heaven.

Prayer is the means by which we come into and remain in God’s presence, while separated from Him on earth.
Revelation 21:3-4, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear form their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for he old

order of things has passed away.”
Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above with wisdom power

and love, our God is an awesome God…

Pastor Mile <‘(((><

Bible Text: Topical Study | Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

“The Fundamentals of Salvation”

In previous studies we have looked at the Work of God in Salvation, the Work of Christ in Salvation, and the Work of the Holy Spirit in Salvation.

We have studied how God the Father initiated salvation (by sending His Son), how God the Son paid the full price for our salvation, taking our punishment (by His death on the cross), and how God the Holy Spirit made our salvation effectual (birthing us into God’s family by indwelling us and making us a new creation).

But today, I want to look at salvation from a little different perspective with you. I want to consider what the Bible says about our salvation being real, being eternal, and also being experienced while we are still on this earth.

What makes all of mankind guilty of sin (Romans 5:12-21)?

Salvation is never accidental! No one has eternal life, no one goes to heaven, neither by mistake or coincidence, for to be “saved,” “born again,” “born from above,” or “born of God,” is sovereignly done by God (John 1:12-13; 14:6).

When a person acknowledges and repents of their sin, believing in and confessing Christ as Savior and Lord, they are eternally saved (John 3:16; 11:25-26; Romans 10:9-10, 13).

Biological conception is often the result of accident, mistake, or irresponsible behavior, as is evidenced by the 1.6 million abortions each year.

Spiritual birth is never a mistake; but is the result of God’s mercy and grace being accepted by faith.

Every person born into the family of God, personally receives God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life, this can never be lost by us, given back, or taken away from us.

What about someone who says, “I used to be a Christian” (see Romans 8:28-30; 1John 2:18-25). Can a true believer in Christ ever depart from saving faith? (See Romans 8:35-39;11:29).

Listen, salvation can’t be received by a nation, a race, a family, or a group; it must be accepted one person at a time; just like coming through the small gate onto the narrow road (cf. Matthew 7:13-14).

We have a great example of what is necessary for salvation, in the story of a jailer in the book of Acts (see 16:25-33). Notice (v. 30), the jailer asks Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?”

The jailer in Acts 16 was just doing another nights work when his whole life (and that of his whole family) was about to be changed: there was an earthquake, prisoners were freed, and the jailer was going to end his own life. At that moment, God reached out to the jailer’s heart and offered him forgiveness and eternal life.

Many times it takes a tragedy or calamity before a person gives any thought to God’s existence, let alone to His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

The jailer was at the point of death (v. 27) when he asked what he needed to do to be saved, Paul and Silas replied (v. 31), “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved — you and your household.”

Most humans have never come to the point of realizing, let alone acknowledging, their need for forgiveness, the payment Christ made for their sins, let alone that they must believe in and confess Him as their Savior and Lord, and then follow Him by obeying God’s Word.

There was urgency in the jailer’s question!

Less than four months ago. Moon Kim, a dear sister in the Lord, died and went to heaven. She fell asleep, and she woke up in the presence of the Lord.
Psalm 17:15, “And I—in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.”

There are many people who walk away from an encounter with the gospel message who don’t have a tomorrow or another chance to accept God’s offer.

Salvation is the most important thing in all of eternity.
On October 8, 1871 D.L. Moody had just given a stirring message to challenge the hearts of his listeners in the large meeting hall in Chicago, IL; in closing, he said, “I want you to take home the question ‘What shall I do with Jesus?’ and come back next week with your answer.”

That very night (in fact, screams and sirens could be heard at the closing of Moody’s message) the great fire which destroyed Chicago began to rage.

Many of the people Moody challenged to come back the following week with their answer concerning what they would do with Jesus, well, they didn’t have another week, for many of them died that very night, apart from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Never again did Moody close a message without making clear the urgency with which every individual must personally decide, “what they are going to do with the gospel message about Jesus Christ.”

The jailer in Philippi had no desire to wait until tomorrow or next week. He wanted to know right then, right now, what he had to do to be saved. Every man, woman, and child of age must personally respond to this very same question and believe in Jesus Christ.

Paul didn’t tell the jailer he needed to change jobs, take a bath, or start going to church. Paul directed the man to Jesus and told him that he must believe in Jesus Christ, the only One who could set him free, forever.

Not only the jailer (vv. 32-33), but every member of the jailer’s family also “believed” was “saved,” and immediately identified with Christ in baptism.

In John 11, Jesus was speaking to Martha about Lazarus who had been in the grave for four days:
John 11:25-27, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told him, I believe that you are the Christ the Son of God.”

In John 11:43-44, Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave and he came out, alive!

There is not a more important question to ask than this one, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer has always been the same, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

If you want to spend eternity in heaven with God, you must believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
1John 5:11-12, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Jesus never has, nor will He ever, turn anyone away who is seeking forgiveness for their sins through Him; after all, He is the Savior, God’s Salvation.

You can study the fundamentals of salvation indefinitely, but the question you must answer is this. Have you received it? Have you asked Jesus Christ to forgive your sins? Have you believed in Him as Savior and Lord? I urge you today, if you have not already done so, to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Do you remember why God’s Son was given the name Jesus? When the angel Gabriel came to Joseph in Matthew 1:21, he said, “You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
Acts 4:12, “There is no other name under heaven given to men, by which they must be saved [only Jesus Christ the Lord].”

The fundamental teaching on salvation is expressed in Acts 2:21, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” and Acts 2:38, “Repent… in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”

Why does God save us? So we will tell others the message of salvation, that they too might be saved.
2Corinthians 5:14-21, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

The Holy Spirit is God, He is one of the three Persons of the Godhead, existing as one God, and yet a Trinity, made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the

Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit as God… He is also called the “Spirit of the Sovereign

LORD” (Isaiah 61:1), the “Spirit of God” (1Corinthians 2:11), the “Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9), and the “Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17).

The traits attributed to Him are the same ones attributed to God: Omniscient = all-knowledge (see Isaiah 40:13-14)
Omnipotent = all-power (see Romans 1:4; 1Peter 3:18) Omnipresent = all-present (see Psalm 139:7-8)

Eternal = no beginning or end (see Hebrews 9:14)

Some statements on the deity of the Holy Spirit: 2Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit.”

See Isaiah 6:8-10; Acts 28:25-27.

In Acts 5, when Ananias and Sapphira sold some property and brought what was thought to be all the money from the sale to the Apostles. In verses 3-4, Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Both Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead that day, because lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God.

The Holy Spirit as a Person… He is characterized as a male (as are all of the members of the Godhead).

See John 14:17, personal pronouns “He” and “Him” are used 4-5 times, depending on the translation you have. As a person, there are certain attributes and characteristics clearly expressed by the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at a few:

Intellect… The Holy Spirit is able to reason, for He has intelligence and understanding, and He makes judgements based on sovereign wisdom.
John 14:26, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Romans 8:27 tells us the Spirit has a mind, and He “intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

In 1Corinthians 2:9-16, we are told that the Spirit makes known to us the mind of God, “as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ — but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words

taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

Emotion… The Holy Spirit both experiences and enables emotions. Ephesians 4:30 tells us He can experience grief. And Galatians 5:22 tells us the effect of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Free Will/Volition… The Holy Spirit deliberately and intentionally determines and or acts accordingly.
1Corinthians 12: 7, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 11, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines.”

Remember in Acts 13, the church in Antioch had several prophets and teachers, and in verses 2-3 it says, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”

The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Creation…

Remember Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Check this out! Psalm 104:1-29 reminds us of all the marvelous things God has created — the heavens and all that is in them, the seas and all that is in them, the earth and all that is upon it — and then, speaking of all that was created, verse 30 says, “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Prophecy – both the spoken and the written Word of God.
2Peter 1:20-21, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit as the Witnessing Agent of Christ.

John 15:26, Jesus said, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth [Holy Spirit] who goes out from the Father, He will testify about Me.”

Again in John 16:8-9, “When He [Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me.”

And again in John 16:14, “He [Holy Spirit] will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”

The Holy Spirit as the Agent of Birth into the Family of God and God’s Kingdom.

In John 1:12-13, we are told that “to all who received Him [God’s Son], to those who believed in His name [Jesus-Savior], He gave the right to become children of God– children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

In John 3:1-8, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, telling him that no one will enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again, and that he must be born of the Spirit of God. must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit [born of God, born from above].”

Romans 8:9 declares that the Holy Spirit lives in all those who belong to God, because you see, the Holy Spirit guarantees our salvation by marking [sealing] us as God’s possession, filling us with Himself, and placing us in the Body of Christ, the Church, which is the living and eternal family of God.
Ephesians 1:13-14, “You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession–to the praise of his glory.” 1Corinthians 12:13, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” Colossians 1:18, “And He [Christ] is the head of the body, the church.”
Ephesians 5:23, “Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.”

In closing today, I want to try and help you grasp and understand the eternal and intimate relationship within the Godhead, in reference to the salvation and eternal exaltation we have freely received, because of God’s loving mercy and grace.

Think of it this way — God the Father initiated the plan to save us; God the Son fulfilled the requirements for our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit effectually and eternally transformed us from those who were dead to God in sin to those who are alive to God in Christ.

Titus 3:4-7, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

Last week we studied the Person of Jesus Christ: Jesus is His human name [meaning Savior] and Christ is His title [meaning the Anointed/Chosen One of God]. Jesus Christ is God’s Son, God’s Servant, God’s Savior, and God’s Sovereign Ruler and King over all Creation.

Today we are going to study just what Christ did for us. In 1Corinthians 15:3-5 Paul tells us, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.”

That says it concisely: we are all sinners deserving death, so Christ died for our sins, just like the Scriptures say He would; then He was buried and on the third day He came out of the grave alive, just like the Scriptures said He would.

Why we need the Work of Christ (see Romans 3:10-12). 1.

2.

there is no one righteous, not even one

there is no one who understands

3. there is no one who seeks God

4. All have turned away

5. they have together become worthless

6. there is no one who does good, not even one

A little farther in 3:23-24 we read, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of

God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by

Christ Jesus.”

God’s marvelous grace has come through Jesus Christ, apart from which we

would receive death, for James 1:15 tells us the result of sin is death.

There are many Christians in this room, everyone who has sincerely confessed

their sins to God and heartfully believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, is

a Christian, for a Christian is one who has received forgiveness for sin and eternal

life through Christ (cf. Romans 10:9-10).

Before you accepted the work of Christ in salvation, you were dead to God

because of your sins, in fact (Ephesians 2:1-3), “we were by [our sinful] nature

deserving of [God’s] wrath [His punishment],” which is (Romans 6:23a) “death,”

and (2Thessalonians 1:9) adds, sinners deserve to be “punished with everlasting

destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord.”

But thanks to God (Romans 6:23b), “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus

our Lord,” (Romans 5:8), “While we were still sinners Christ died for us,” (Romans

5:10), “We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.”

1. 2. 3. 4.

Apart from the Work of Christ on the cross, there is no hope for anyone!

And God’s Son did this at great cost to Himself (see Philippians 2:7-8).

He made Himself nothing, setting aside His majesty

He took the form of a slave

He put on flesh

He humbled Himself and willingly died on the cross

This is hard to fathom, God put on human flesh, only to become (Isaiah 53:3),

“despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”

Christ’s major Work was to pay the divine price required by God for our sins

(1Peter 1:19), “the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Hebrews 9:22 says, “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with

blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:12

says Christ has, “once for all by His own blood,” obtained eternal redemption for

those who believe in Him (1Peter 3:18), “For Christ died for sins once for all, the

righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”

The Work of Christ forced the Son to be separated from the Father, for the one

and only time in all of eternity. That is why Jesus, while on the cross, cried out

(Matthew 27:46), “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” You see, God is

holy and righteous and perfect, and sin can not coexist in the same space as God.

While Jesus was on the cross He became sin for us (Isaiah 53:6), “the LORD

has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:10), “it was the LORD’s will to

crush Him and cause Him to suffer, …making His life an offering for sin.”

Sin must be punished, and the punishment for sin is death; if Christ didn’t take

your punishment for sin, you will personally be found guilty and sentenced to an

eternity in hell, because (Ephesians 1:7), “In Him [Jesus Christ] we have

redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

John 16:8 says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of its guilt concerning sin,

and John 16:9 makes it clear that sin is simply not believing in God’s Son.

John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the

Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”

The Work of Christ is to make us acceptable to God by the sacrifice of Himself,

to redeem us from this corrupt world, in order that we might serve and worship

God honorably, bringing praise and glory to Him.

Galatians 1:3-4, “Jesus Christ, …gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

2Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of

God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for

life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and

goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so

that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the

corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

Christ’s substitutionary payment for your sins must make a difference in your

life. Paul writes (Romans 6:5-14), “If we have been united with him like this in his

death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know

that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away

with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has

been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live

with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die

again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin

once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves

dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your

mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to

sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who

have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as

instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not

under law, but under grace.”

The Work of Jesus Christ is not only the divine solution to man’s problems, it is the only solution to man’s problems. Remember back in Romans 3:10-12:

1. 2.

there is no one righteous, not even one

there is no one who understands

3. there is no one who seeks God

4. All have turned away

5. they have together become worthless

6. there is no one who does good, not even one

In Christ alone we are made righteous, given understanding, compelled to seek

and turn toward God, becoming precious to God (Ephesians 2:10), “created in

Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Why did God send His Son to save us, besides the obvious fact that we are

sinners, unacceptable to God, deserving of God’s condemnation and eternal

punishment? Because He loves us, and there was no other way for us to be saved

(Acts 4:12), “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under

heaven given to men by which we must be saved [only Jesus Christ the Lord].”

Why did the Son of God willfully set aside His own majesty, put on flesh, live

among us, allow Himself to be rejected, arrested, mocked, unjustifiably sentenced,

severely beaten, and then hung on a cross until He died? Because He loves us, and

there was no other sacrifice acceptable to God, no other payment that could be

made to God for our sin debt.

Hebrews 9:26-28, “He [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to

do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Just as man is destined to die once,

and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins

of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring

salvation to those who are waiting for Him.”

The night Jesus shared communion with His disciples, changing forever the

Passover meal to the Lord’s Supper, He explained to them that it was His own body

that would be given, and His own blood that would be shed, to save them and to

provide for them, now and forever.

John 14:1-6, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In

my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am

going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I

will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. You

know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t

know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am

the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

Listen, if you have never asked God to forgive your sins, confessing Jesus Christ

as Lord, and believing in Him as Savior, do it now!

2Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him [Jesus Christ] who had no sin to be sin for us

[taking our punishment, paying our penalty], so that in Him we might become the

righteousness of God.”

1John 5:11-13, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this

life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of

God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the

Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Why did Christ come to earth? What did Christ do for you?

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who is both Lord and Savior, has provided forgiveness

for your sins and eternal life. He has made you acceptable to God [righteous], and

He has provided a way for you, and for all who believe in Him, to have a personal,

intimate and eternal relationship with God, as dearly loved children of God (John

1:13), “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s

will, but born of God.”

Pastor Mike

<‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

Jesus Christ is the most central figure in all of human history, there has never been anyone like Him. He has been hailed as a good man, a great teacher, a prophet, a religious leader, the Son of God, and even God Himself.

Jesus Christ is God’s Son, God’s Servant, God’s Savior, God’s Sovereign Ruler. Jesus is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Yeshua [Joshua]. This is the

name that the angel Gabriel commanded Joseph to name Mary’s child (Matthew 1:21), “You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

The name Jesus means “The Lord Saves” or “The Lord Is Salvation,” or “God’s Salvation,” or “God Saves” often it is shortened simply to, “Savior.”

“Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning “anointed one” or “chosen one.” This is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word “Messiah.”

“Jesus” is the Lord’s human name, “Christ” is His title, for Jesus was sent from God to be a King and Deliverer [Savior] (cf Daniel 9:25; Isaiah 32:1). “Jesus Christ” means “Jesus the Messiah” or “Jesus the Anointed One.”

Jesus came into the world in the flesh of a human baby, (Luke 1:34-35) conceived in the womb of a virgin, named Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit; to Mary Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” This is called the “incarnation,” in that, Jesus was both fully man, while also being fully God.

John’s Gospel tells us (cf John 1:1-4) that Jesus is the Word of God, that He was with God in the beginning, that He is the Creator, that “in Him was life, and that life was the light of men,” and (v. 14) that He put on flesh and lived among us, (v. 18) in order to show us, and make known to us, the Father, who no one has seen.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ voluntarily set aside the independent use of His divine attributes and took the form of a human creature, submissive to the Father while He was in human flesh (see Philippians 2:6-11).

Concerning Jesus’ humanity as a child, Scripture says very little, but we do know (Luke 2:40), “the child became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him,” (Luke 2:52), “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”

Scripture tells us some marvelous things about the person of Jesus Christ: Mark 4:38 says, when Jesus got tired He slept.
Luke 4:2 says, when Jesus went without food He got hungry.

John 4:6 says, when Jesus traveled far, He became exhausted and needed to rest.

John 11:35 says, when Jesus suffered grief, He wept.

Jesus acted like a man when it came to normal responses to normal life situations and experiences; and yet, He was fully God.

Hebrews 13:8 tells us He is Immutable [unchanging], “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Colossians 2:3 tells us He is Omniscient [all-knowing], “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

2Corinthians 5:21 tells us He is Perfect [without sin], “God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

John 6:69 tells us He is Holy, as Peter declares, “You [Jesus] are the Holy One of God.”

Revelation 1:18 tells us He is Eternal and is, “alive for ever and ever!”
John 11:25-26 tells us He grants eternal life to those who believe in Him. Matthew 28:18 tells us He is sovereign, “all authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to [Him].”

Jesus Christ demonstrated His omnipotence [all-powerful nature], in a variety of ways, while He was living on the earth:

Mark 4:39 tells us He had power over creation, even commanding the wind and the sea to be still, and immediately the storm was calmed, to which the disciples pondered (v. 42), “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

John 5:8-9, tells us He had power over disease and sickness, healing a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.

Luke 4:33-36 tells us He had power of demons, casting them out of a man.

John 11:43-44 tells us He had power over death itself, calling Lazarus, who had been dead and buried for four days, out of the grave alive.

Mark 2:1-12 tells us He had authority to forgive sins, and since God alone can forgive sins; Jesus Christ is God!

There are marvelous Titles/Names of Deity given to Jesus Christ:

Matthew 1:23 says He is Immanuel, which means, “God with us,” the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14, proclaiming that the Lord God Himself would give this sign to the world, “a virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and she will call Him Immanuel.”

In Acts 2:36 says Jesus is both Lord and Christ, and Paul (Philippians 2:11) says, “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

John 8:58 says He is there great “I Am,” a name that is reserved for God alone (Exodus 3:14), “I AM WHO I AM,” in Revelation 1:8 He declares, “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the beginning and the end] says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty!”

There are some magnificent statements in the Scriptures declaring the Deity of Jesus Christ, let’s look up a few of them: Colossians 1:15-20; 2:9-12; Romans 1:1-4; Hebrews 1:1-3.

Titus 2:11 says, “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” 13, “the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Jesus Christ is God’s Salvation, God with us, He is both Lord and Christ, as the Scriptures declare about Him:

John 1:29 says He is the Lamb of God, coming into the world to die for our sins.

John 6:35 says He is the Bread of Life, providing everything we need for eternal life, now and forever.

John 14:6 tells us He is the only Way, only Truth, only Life from God, and therefore, no one receives forgiveness, no one is acceptable to God, no one has eternal life, and no one goes to heaven, except through Him.

Jesus Christ is (1Timothy 6:14-15), the King of kings and Lord of Lords, and Daniel 7:14 says He has been given all glory and power, His authority is eternal, and His kingdom can never be destroyed.

See Revelation 1:5-8, 18a; 5:1-14
Jude 24-25, “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before

His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory , majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!”

Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Bible Text: Topical Study | Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

In today’s world, as well as in the world of the past, there are many so-called

gods, and just as many theories and opinions as to what God (or god) is like. These past few weeks we have studied about the Bible, God’s Word revealed to

us. It is clear that God spoke through men long ago and used them to reveal to the rest of us just what God wanted us to know.

The validity, veracity, accuracy, infallibility and sovereign nature of God’s Word is without a doubt undeniable and has been overwhelmingly demonstrated and proved time and time again.

The Bible claims to be the revelation of the one true God, and it never attempts to prove His existence, but just begins (Genesis 1:1), “In the beginning God…” Exodus 3:14, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” This title implies and presumes self-existence.

Isaiah 43:10, “…Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me.” 13, “Yes, and from ancient days I am He.”

God states that there is only one God, and He is the only true God, and yet, in Genesis 1:26 He refers to Himself in the plural, as “Us” and “Our.” This of course is a mention of the Trinity, which we will study in much more depth as to just how (Deuteronomy 6:4), “The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and yet the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all claim to be God, three distinct persons, and yet one God. Again, more on that in the weeks to come.

God says the most important thing that a person can boast about is (Jeremiah 9:24), “that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD.”

Psalm 19:1 says, “the heavens declare the glory of God; “the skies the work of His hands,” 4, “Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

God has clearly revealed Himself to humankind in creation itself (Romans 1:20), “God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen… so that men are without excuse.”

God has also (Romans 2:15) revealed Himself within the very conscience of every person and made known to us what is right and what is wrong. In fact, knowing good from evil is a characteristic of God (Genesis 3:22), “The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good from evil”.

So, we see God revealed in creation, and we have God’s revelation to us in our conscience. But God didn’t stop there in revealing Himself to us (see John 1:1-4, 14, 18; 14:7-10)? We will study the deity of Christ in much more depth when we study the person of Christ in a future lesson.

Let’s consider some of the attributes of God:

God is Holy and this is the most repeated attribute of God in the Scriptures, for God is absolutely pure and perfect, He cannot be stained or corrupted by evil. Exodus 15:11, “Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

Psalm 99:9, “Exalt the LORD our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.”

Revelation 4:8, “”Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Because we are God’s children (cf. John 1:13), “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God,” we are exhorted (1Peter 1:15-16) “just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”

None of us could obtain holiness by our own merit, but (Hebrews 10:10), “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

God is Righteous and Just — both of those words come from the very same root word — righteousness expresses that God’s nature and behavior are in perfect harmony, and justice describes the manner in which God legislates [makes and decrees] His laws, statutes, commands and judgements, i.e., God is always perfectly right and just in the way He deals with humankind, for God can do no wrong (see Psalm 89:14-16; 119:137-138, 142, 144).

Because God is righteous and just, He must judge sin, the penalty is death (cf. Romans 6:23), but for those who trust and believe in Christ, the penalty has been paid by God’s own Son (2Corinthians 5:21), “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

God is Sovereign — this means He is subject to no one, He is the highest in command and authority, there is no higher power and He is superior to all others. Deuteronomy 6:13, “Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only and take your oaths in His name.”
Isaiah 43:13, “Yes, and from ancient days I am He. No one can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
Isaiah 45:22-24, “Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked; before Me every knee will bow; by Me every tongue will swear. They will say of Me, in the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.”
Isaiah 46:9-11, “…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.” “…I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” “…What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”

Because God is sovereign we are assured (Romans 8:38-39), “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God…”

God is Eternal — there has never been a time when God did not exist; He had no beginning and He has no end.
Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…”
Isaiah 44:6, “…I am the first and I am the last; apart from Me there is no God.” Revelation 1:8, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” 17, “…I am the First and the Last.”

Because God is eternal, we can trust that (Deuteronomy 31:6), “He will never leave [us] nor forsake [us].”

God is Immutable — God never changes in His character, nature and purpose.

Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?”
Malachi 3:6, “I the LORD do not change!”

In Hebrews 6:13, we are told, “When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater than [God] to swear by, He swore by Himself.” 17-18, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear… He confirmed it with an oath,” and “it is impossible for God to lie.”

The immutable character of God is a great assurance concerning the forgiveness and eternal life God says He has granted us through Jesus Christ (Romans 11:28-29), “As far as the gospel is concerned… …God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” [i.e., they can’t be lost, taken away, or given back, salvation is eternal]. 32, “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that He may have mercy on them all.”

God is Omniscient — God is all-knowing, He knows all things past, present and future; He has all knowledge (see Psalm 139:1-6, 13-16).

God knows the worst and the best of all of us, yet He unconditionally loves us! God is Omnipresent — God is all-present, He is everywhere in the universe

(see Psalm 139:7-12).
Proverbs 15:3, “The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”

So, you can’t be hidden from God, neither can you be lost, for He always knows where you are!

God is Omnipotent — God is all-powerful, there is nothing that is beyond His strength and power to accomplish.
Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

Because God is all powerful and we belong to Him, we have nothing to fear (1John 5:4-5), “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

So, what is the ultimate message from the holy, righteous, just, sovereign, eternal, immutable, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God?
1Timothy 2:3b-4, “God our Savior [who] wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”

2Peter 3:9, “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” 13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

Audio Recording Available soon..

It is my desire for you be amazed by God’s Word, that is, the revelation of God given to us in the 66 Books of the Bible; the most awesome Book…

Think about it. The words were sovereignly “breathed out,“ originating from and authored by God, who used some 40 different human authors, on three continents (Africa, Asia, Europe), written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), over a period of about 1600 years, and as originally given, is without error. How is that possible?

2Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed…”
2Peter 1:20-21, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Revelation 22:18-19, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

Today I want to excite you about the Bible, by sharing with you some examples of just how God’s Word speaks to the past, the present and the future.
A Common Flood Story: There is a Sumerian king list from c. 2100 BC that divides itself into two categories: the kings who ruled before a great flood and those who ruled after it. One of the earliest examples of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh (from ancient Mesopotamia, c. 2100 BC, describes a great flood sent as punishment by the gods, with humanity saved only when a great ship is built.

A later Greek story, tells of a couple who survived a great flood sent by Zeus. Taking refuge on the top of a tall mountain, they survived, and supposedly they repopulated the earth by throwing stones behind them that turned into human beings.

A story from China records that Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped a great flood and were the only people alive on earth. After the great flood, they repopulated the world.

Hawaiians have a flood story that tells of a time when, long after the death of the first man, the world became a wicked, terrible place. Only one good man was left, and his name was Nu-u. He made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. The waters came up over the earth and drowned all the people; only Nu-u, his family, and the animals with them were saved.

One of the strongest evidences for the global flood which annihilated all people on Earth except for Noah and his family, has been the ubiquitous presence of flood stories in the folklore of people groups from around the world. The stories have a common theme, except for various details and cultural differences, and they seem to be telling a very similar story.

As the story of the Flood was verbally passed down one generation to the next, over hundreds, thousands of years, some parts of the story would no doubt have been lost or altered in some way (the telephone game).

But did you notice the Hawaiian patriarchal survivor’s name Nu-u, is very similar to Noah.

Hebrews and Bricks: See Exodus 1:11; 5:10-21…
The Bible says when the Hebrews were slaves under pharaoh in Egypt, they built

cities using bricks of clay mixed with straw, then clay and stubble, then clay alone. In 1883, Henri Édouard Naville, on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society of London, was the first to identify and examine the ruins of Pithom, mentioned in the

Bible, as one of the treasure cities built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews, prior to their Exodus from Egypt.

Neville excavated all three types of brick at this site, just like the Bible said. The Hittites:

In 2Samuel 11:3, David is inquiring about “Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
Genesis 15:18-21, “The LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates — the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites…” Numbers 13:29, …“The Hittites… live in the hill country.”

Joshua 3:10, …“God will drive out …the Hittites.”
The Bible frequently mentions the Hittites, but for centuries skeptics of the Bible

pointed to the lack of any evidence of the existence of the Hittites, alleging that, the Bible was in error.

But in 1906, Hugo Winckler excavated Hattusa, the Hittite capital that once rivaled both Egypt and Assyria in its grandeur (See Biblical World, pp. 290ff.) Extensive evidence of the Hittite nation was uncovered, validated, and catalogued. Chariot Wheels in the Red Sea:

Although most secular historians consider the parting of the Red Sea (for the escaping Hebrews) and the drowning of the Egyptian armies (by God, to protect His people), to be a fable or a myth.

Chariot wheels, axles and other artifacts were found in the Gulf of Aqaba in the late 1970’s, the place most Biblical Scholars believe the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea to escape the the Egyptians. The artifacts found here were covered in coral, which made it difficult to see them clearly, but they found numerous wheels – some were still on their axles, and some were off, they also found chariot cabs without the wheels (See Exodus 14:21-28).
Nebuchadnezzar’s Brick’s: Nebuchadnezzar II, also spelled Nebuchadrezzar, was king of Babylonia from about 605 BC to 562 BC; he is mentioned by name about 90 times in the historical and prophetic books of the Bible, but mostly he is referenced in the book of Daniel, as the main character alongside Daniel, in chapters 1–4.

Nebuchadnezzar served as God’s instrument of judgment on Judah for its idolatry and disobedience;in fact God refers to Nebuchadnezzar as “My servant” three times in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6; 43:10).

Nebuchadnezzar is famous for conquering Judah and destroying Jerusalem about 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan, his general, completely ransacked and destroyed the temple along with most of Jerusalem, deporting the majority of remaining Jews to Babylon.

Fired clay bricks with Nebuchadnezzar’s name were excavated in the 1800’s, dated 580 BC, now displayed in the London British Museum.
Walls of Jericho: (See Joshua 6:20), “So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.”

Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”

Several archeological excavations were done in Jericho in the 19th and 20th centuries in which much has been discovered; most amazing, the walls on the hillsides seem to have fallen out, not in, creating a ramp for the Israelites to easily enter the city.

Dead Sea Scrolls: In 1947 a Bedouin herdsman near Qumran, stumbled upon ancient scrolls when he tossed a rock into a cave opening and heard the sound of pottery shattering. This discovery led to the search for more scrolls, and between 1947-1956 some nine hundred manuscripts were discovered in eleven caves around Qumran, along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Over two hundred scrolls were portions of the Bible itself, dated 250 BC–AD 68, meaning that we now had copies of the Old Testament 1000 years older than current copies, and yet there were not any notable discrepancies when comparing the older with the currently held copies of the Old Testament.

In addition to the people and things recorded in the Bible that I have already mentioned, places such as Haran, Megiddo, Shechem, Shiloh, Gibeah, Beth Shemesh, Beersheba, and many other cites and urban sites have been excavated, not to mention that archeological findings have also validated many of the nations and people groups mentioned in the Bible, e.g., Assyrians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Amorites, Philistines, etc., demonstrating that fact, not myth or fable, is what is recorded in the Old Testament historical narratives.

Also, consider the following quotations from prominent archeologists:

“…it may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.” — Dr. Nelson Glueck (Rivers in the Desert, p. 31) “…archaeology has confirmed countless passages which have been rejected by critics as unhistorical or contradictory to known facts … Yet archaeological discoveries have shown that these critical charges … are wrong and that the Bible is trustworthy … We do not know of any cases where the Bible has been proved wrong.” — Dr. Joseph P. Free (Archaeology and Bible History, pp. 1,2,134)

Consider Science?
Job 26:7, “[God] stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on

nothing.”
Isaiah 40:22, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”

Both Job and Isaiah wrote long before scientists or explorers firmly proved the earth was round.

Today we have pictures from space to show the earth’s circular shape, and yet Job (4000 years ago), and Isaiah (3000 years ago) knew the earth was round, long before technology confirmed what God said through them.

Throughout history men have professed many beliefs about the heavens and the earth, but God revealed His truth through His prophets, in His Word.
Psalm 8:3-9, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

Men didn’t know of any “paths in the sea,” until Matthew Maury read this verse and determined to find them, discovering the ocean currents, he became known
as the Father of Oceanography, writing the first textbook on modern oceanography, in 1855 (Impact, 9/91, pp. 3-4).
Ecclesiastes 1:7, “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.”

Today we understand he three major processes of the water cycle, i.e., evaporation, condensation, precipitation, to which I will add accumulation and circulation of water. The cycle of evaporation, condensation, precipitation happens over and over. How did Solomon know this long before hydrologists studied and verified these cycles? God’s wisdom was given to him, just as it was to Job, Isaiah and David, among many other prophets of God!

What is written in the Bible has never contradicted any proven scientific fact; and yet it has miraculously stated many scientific truths centuries before men knew, let alone could validate such proven scientific evidence.

While the Bible has been repeatedly proved accurate, those who criticize the Bible have never been able to disprove it. This fact alone ought to strengthen our faith to accept and believe the Bible.

Consider Prophecy?

Isaiah 42:8-9, ”I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

God predicted future events. It takes a Supreme All-knowing Being to foretell the future accurately. If the God of the Bible can do this, then He must exist and must be the true God.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22, “The prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak… that prophet shall die.
…When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come true, the LORD has not spoken.”

If a man attempts to predict the future and fails, that man is not speaking for God or by God’s power, and so, when the Bible writers correctly predicted the future, this indicated that God was working through them.

The Bible foretells the coming of God’s Son (Luke 24:25-27, 44-48). The Old Testament Scriptures spoke about Him, and He fulfilled all they said about Him.

The Apostles often quoted Old Testament prophecies declaring Jesus to be the Messiah, both Lord and Savior [see Acts 2:25-36; 3:18- 26; 13:27-39].
A few of the Prophecies about and fulfilled by Jesus:

His Place of birth: Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1-6).
To be a Virgin Birth (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25).
Entry into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-9). Crucifixion (Psalm 22:16-18; 34:20; John 19:18-37).
None of His bones to be broken (Exodus 12:24; Psalm 34:20; John 19:33, 36) Died for the sins of hers (Isaiah 53:4-12; 1Peter 2:21-25)
Buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60).
Resurrection (Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:24-32).
For a man to a fulfill just one or two of these prophecies would be amazing, but

to fulfill all eight of them would be astronomical (if one of ten tickets is marked and placed in a hat, you have a 1 in 10 chance of blindly reaching in and getting the marked ticket. For one man to fulfill all eight of the above prophecies would be expressed as a 1 in 1017 chance (100,000,000,000,000,000), verbalized as a one in one hundred quadrillion or one in one hundred thousand billion chance.

Mere men, writing by their own human wisdom, could never have perfectly revealed the past, present and future like this, but the Bible writers did so time and time again, about people, places, things, events, science.

The witness of Scripture testifies that God exists and that He spoke through these men, and Jesus is the Lord and Savior God sent into the world, the Living Word, and all the people in this world will be judged by how they respond to God’s One and Only Son, Who, by the set plan, purpose and power of God fulfilled all that was written about His birth, life, death and resurrection.

You can completely trust that everything the Bible says is absolutely true and will come to fulfillment in and through Jesus Christ: crucified, resurrected, and coming again to bring eternal condemnation in hell to all those who have rejected Him, and eternal exaltation in heaven to all those who have received Him.

Acts 10:43, All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him

receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

Last week we began our study into some of the major doctrines of Christian
theology.
Hebrews 1:1-2, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.”
When it says, “in the past,” it seems to be speaking of the Old Testament, and when it says, “in these last days,” it seems to be speaking of the New Testament.
Last week we considered how God reveals Himself through General Revelation (Creation and Conscience), and Special Revelation (Theophanies, Miracles & Signs, and His Word). God has given us external evidence (creation, Romans 1:18-20), and internal evidence (conscience, Romans 2:14-15).
Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Robert Jastrow, astrophysicist and Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, died in 2008, said:
“Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world… The essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same. Consider the enormousness of the problem: Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks what cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter and energy into the Universe? And science cannot answer these questions…”
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been there for centuries” (God and the Astronomers [New York: Norton, 1978], pp. 14, 114, 116).
Giant telescopes are able to view stars and galaxies billions of light years away – light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so, a light year, in distance, is 5.88 trillion miles. How big is the universe? Only God knows.
The earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference, weighing 13 septillion pounds (13 with 24 zeros), and it just hangs in space at a 23.5° tilt (causing the sun’s light and energy to hit the different regions of the Earth at different angles throughout the course of the earth’s daily rotation and yearly orbit). Spinning at about 1000 miles per hour, the earth is moving in a rotation around the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour (at an average distance of 93 million miles from the sun), in an orbit that is 580 million miles long.
How can such mass, speed and power, be intricately and harmoniously held together on a precise course? A Master Designer, Creator, and Sustainer is the only plausible answer to what we see and now know exists!
The name Helen Keller is probably familiar to most of you, popularized in the 1962 movie, Miracle Worker. Helen, born in 1880, was a normal baby until about 18 months of age, when she contracted scarlet fever, leaving her blind, deaf and mute. Her family hired a young teacher named Ann Sullivan to be her care giver, through whom Helen learned how to communicate via touch, and eventually she learned to talk.
When Ann Sullivan first tried to tell Helen about God, the girl responded that she already knew He existed, but she did not know His name (The Story of My Life [New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1905], pp. 368-74).
Do you remember howPaul reveal God to the pagan philosophers on Mars Hill in
Athens (Acts 17:23-28)? Paul said he was going to introduce them to the
“unknown” God, telling them that God “is not far off from anyone.”
Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-
edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
There is a preponderance of evidence about God displayed in creation, there is also the internal witness of our conscience, making us justifiably guilty if we reject Him; and yet, God mercifully and graciously reaches out to us, by sending His own Son to save us, by dying for us, and all this is written in God’s Word.
God’s Word tells us that God loves us, has revealed Himself to us, and wants us to have a personal and eternal relationship with Him.
Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I
take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!’”
Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek me with all your heart.”
1Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
2Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Wow, so although mankind is conscious of God’s existence, most of mankind will not glorify Him, the majority of the billions of people who have lived on this planet (which was made especially for them, by God) have rejected Him, unwilling to acknowledge, let alone to honor and worship Him.
Psalm 29:2, “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in
the splendor of His holiness.”
1Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Man doesn’t thank God for all he has received from God (life, food, water, purpose, pleasure, a future and a hope); the majority of mankind is indifferent toward God, leading them to foolish thinking, allowing their hearts to become darkened, separating them farther from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
2Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
When men reject or suppress the knowledge of God as displayed in creation and written in their consciences – they remain guilty, without excuse, utterly deserving of God’s righteous judgement to be condemned to hell!
John 3:16-18, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because He has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” 36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
God mercifully put on flesh (Isaiah 7:14), lived among us (John 1:1-4, 14), took our punishment for sin (Romans 5:8), and even removed sin’s curse, from all who confess Him as Lord & Savior (8:1; 10:9-10).
Christians serve and honor God best by knowing and proclaiming God’s Good News, that God’s Son came to save us, that we would continue to proclaim the message of salvation to all who will listen.
Romans 10:13-15, ”’Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Basic Christianity

Today, as we begin our study, Christian doctrine of theology. I think it isimportant that we define some of the key words before we get started:
Christian – an adherent of Christ i.e., a believer & follower of Christ, who lives in, belongs to, and exemplifies Jesus Christ .
Doctrine – the incontrovertible beliefs, teachings, commands, precepts, and principles that one acknowledges and adheres to.
Christian Doctrine – the body of instruction that Christians ought to believe, revealed in the Bible.
The Bible – God’s revelation to man, given by God, contained in the 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament Books. It is our primary source for God’s instruction and intent, it provides our understanding of God, from God.
Faith – (Hebrews 11:1), “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” i.e., faith is trusting and believing in something that you cannot explicitly prove.
Christian Faith – Believing in the finished work of Christ for everything we need to know God in this life and to live with Him in heaven.
Theology – formed from two Greek words: Theos = God, and ology = study or science of, i.e., theology is the study of God’s nature and character; His purpose, plan, provision and destiny for all that He has created.As we study the teachings [doctrine] of the Bible, we are able to form a Christian Theology that equips and encourages us to actively apply our Christian faith to our daily life where others see us, leading to opportunities for us to serve as witnesses of Christ (see 1Peter 2:11-12; 3:15-16; 4:7-11).

We must understand and acknowledge that God reveals Himself to us, and apart from Him initiating the relationship, we could not know Him (see John 1:1-4, 14, 18; 1John 2:6; 5:11-13).

Let’s consider the two main ways God reveals Himself to us, known as Natural Revelation and Special Revelation.

Natural Revelation, also called General Revelation, speaks of how God reveals Himself in both creation and conscience.

Creation (see Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:18-20)

What does creation reveal about God? His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and His divine nature.

Conscience (see Romans 2:12-16)

What does our conscience reveal about God? Con = with; science = knowledge, God placed knowledge of His law in our hearts that we might know good and evil (Genesis 3:22-23), “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil… So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”

The problem is no one does good, no one keeps the law; all sin, all deserve death (see Romans 3:10-12; 19-20, 3:23; 6:23).

Think about it — creation declares that God exists and He is sovereign. Our conscience tells us what is right , yet we do wrong; both creation and conscience cause us to seek a fuller revelation of God, to know how we can be saved from our sin.

Special Revelation allows us to know God more fully and personally.

Theophanies are appearances of God to man in a form that can be seen (Greek Theos – God, phainein – to appear or to show). God appeared to Abraham (Genesis 17:1; 18:1), to Isaac (Genesis 26:2), to Jacob (Genesis 32:30), and to Moses (Exodus 3:2-6; 33:18-23).

Miracles and Signs is another means through which God expresses Himself, as through the Flood (Genesis 7), the Burning Bush (Exodus 3), the Egyptian Plagues (Exodus 7-13), the Parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14).

God’s Word is the living, eternal, spoken and written revelation from God to man, about God and man (John 1:1-4; see Hebrews 1:1-2). Long ago God spoke through the prophets (Old Testament). In these last days He has spoken through His Son (New Testament).

See 2Timothy 3:14-17…

Paul writes to Timothy (vv. 14-15), who could only have had available the Old Testament, as a child, as the New Testament had not yet been written.

But, ALL Scripture (vv. 16-17, OT/NT) is God-breathed, authored by and originating from God, as God’s sovereign instruction (see 2Peter 1:16-21).

Genuine Christianity holds up the Bible alone as the revealed Word of God, and although it was written by men, God Almighty is the author.

God-breathed means that the origin of Scripture is God, not man! (2Peter 1:21), “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

The human speakers/writers were moved by God to proclaim God’s revelation. God did not use robots, androids or puppets to write the Bible; He used men with individual personalities and idiosyncrasies to accomplish His will, yet God’s control was always on them, resulting in the Bible–the Word of God in the words of men.

God authored the Bible, and because He is perfect, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, the result is inerrant, infallible, authoritative.

The Bible was written over a period of about 1600 years by about 40 different human authors, e.g. Joshua (a military general), Daniel (a prime minister), David (a shepherd King), Nehemiah (a cup bearer), Luke (a physician), Paul (a tent maker), Peter (a fisherman), Matthew (a tax collector).

The authors of the 66 books wrote from a variety of places: Moses, from the desert wilderness; Paul, from a Roman prison; John, from the island of Patmos.

They also wrote from three different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe), in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek).

The Bible is all about Jesus Christ, God’s Son (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 53). From beginning to end, the Bible is the unfolding inerrant, infallible, sovereign story of God’s love for mankind, through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of God’s Only Son, Jesus the Christ.

John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”
John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through Me.”

The Bible is a complete harmony that cannot be explained by coincidence or collusion, its unity is a strong argument in favor of its divine inspiration. There are other good reasons that also support the Bible’s claim to be the
divine and complete Word of God:

The testimony of the early church
The witness of history and archaeology
The evidence of changed lives throughout the ages The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in one’s life

This sovereign and supernatural book is quite unique; for it speaks with authority of that which is known and that which is unknowable, of that which is delightful and that which is damning, of man’s successes and his failures, of eternity past, present, and future! No other book has such credentials, and although it has been attacked relentlessly, its opposers have been silenced.

You can trust the Bible. More on that next week.

Today we celebrate Communion [the Lord’s Supper] here at First Baptist Church, as we do the first Sunday of every month.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ, as God’s Son, is both Lord and Savior, Creator and Sustainer, and the Ultimate Judge over all, as He punishes and praises. He is the Living and Eternal Word of God, the fullest expression of God in human

form; and as the Lamb of God, He has taken our punishment for sin, so that we might not be condemned to an eternal torment in hell, but instead live joyfully in heaven with God forever, no more death or crying or mourning or pain.

Colossians 1:15-17 tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and that all things were created by Him and through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

God has made peace and reconciled all things to Himself through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

That is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Have you repented of your sins? Do you believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, confessing Him as Lord and trusting Him as Savior?

If not, why not? We are all sinners, get over it! But realize that although the penalty for sin is death, God offers the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ to all who call upon Him, and He turns no one away!

The Lord’s Supper remembers the sovereign sacrifice and supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ: crucified, resurrected, and coming again.

1Corinthians 11:23-26, “when Christ had given thanks, He broke the bread and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me’ and they each one took of it and ate it. After supper Jesus took the cup and passed
it …saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood shed for you; do this, in remembrance of Me.’ And they each one drank it. Whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He returns to take us to our eternal home; let each of us continue to obediently serve Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, as He enables us – until that day arrives.

And all God’s people said? Amen!

Pastor Mike <‘(((><

Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale

Who/What Should You Vote For?
America’s greatness parallels her acknowledgement, application, and adherence
to certain basic principles of the Judeo-Christian Faith. The philosophy and practice
of our founding fathers was guided by Biblical principles, and we need to vote for
those who hold these principles dear.
1. Sanctity of Human Life…
The Bible condemns murder.
Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
Exodus 21:22-23, “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives
birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined
whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is
serious injury, you are to take life for life.”
Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to the people long
ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to
judgment.”
Psalm 139:13-16, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my
mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your
works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when
I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the
earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written
in Your book before one of them came to be.”
America once led the world in regards to upholding the dignity and value of
human life; but today it legalizes the murder of millions of babies through abortion,
and the death of many sick and elderly through assisted suicide.
And so, we end up today with a society that shows more concern for the
protection of plants, animals, fish and birds, than it does for that of human life.
2. Marriages and Families…
God ordained marriage between a man and a woman.
Genesis 2:21-24, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man,
and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The
LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and
brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of
my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ For this
reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and
they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis 4:1-2, “‘Now 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.”

This was the first family – a husband and wife, soon to be mother and father, to
fulfill God’s desire for them to have and raise their children in accordance with the
principles and precepts God has revealed in His Word.
Ephesians 5:22-25, “Wives, submit your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church… as the church
submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their own husbands. Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,”
Ephesians 6:1-4, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor
your father and mother’— which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘that it
may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not
exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of
the Lord.”
A society is only as strong and healthy as the individual marriages and families
within that society. Marriage as God ordained it, is the union of one man with one
women, committed to one another in Christ; family as God ordained it, includes the
children given to the man and woman by God, who are to be raised to know and to
honor God.
Common law marriages and same-sex unions are not recognized by God as
marriages, and the godless notion that it takes a village to raise a child is an
abomination to God and a detriment to our society.
3. Common Decency and Modesty…
Common decency begins with the covering of human body parts that are
associated with male and female sexuality, as was exemplified in the story of
Creation.
Genesis 2:25, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Genesis 3:1-11, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the
LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat
from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit
from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree
that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You
will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you
eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to
the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also
gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then their were
opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and
made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from
the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man,
“Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid

because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Genesis 3:21-23, “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife
and clothed them. And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of
us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take
also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’”
The loss of human innocence and decency is clearly shown in America today,
where modesty, chastity and abstinence are mocked, while pornography is a billion
dollar business – our news stands, television shows and theaters flaunt obscenity,
profanity, nudity and sex.
2Timothy 3:1-5, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-
control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its
power. Have nothing to do with them.”
God’s people are to live in a manner much different from those who reject God.
Ephesians 5:1-17, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and
live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of
sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are
improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse
joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure:
No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words,
for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you
are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all
goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have
nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is
shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything
exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible.
This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on
you.” Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the
most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish,
but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (See Romans 12:1-2).
4. God-centered education…
God always intended for Biblical instruction to be given to our children, both in
the home and out of the home, as we teach them through doctrine and modeling.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when
you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as
symbols on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframe of your houses and on
your gates.”
Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he
will not depart from it.”
In the beginning, all the schools in America used the New England Primer as
their text book – every page of that little book proclaims God’s sovereignty in
creating and maintaining the heavens, the earth and all that exists.
In recent decades, God has been removed from our public education system,
prayers to God have been banned at school, the history of America’s founding
fathers’ deep appreciation and reverence for God’s Word has been deleted from the
text books — and in God’s place, secular humanism has been raised up, resulting in
moral decay, escalating violence at school, lower academic performance, increasing
number of drop outs and teenage pregnancies, and a drug & alcohol epidemic.
5. Work Ethic…
Since the very early days of creation, when the curse of sin began to bring
consequences upon our world and all that lived in it, man was forced to work for his
food by the labor of his hands and the sweat of his brow.
Genesis 3:17-19, “To Adam [God] said, ‘Because you have listened to your wife,
and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it All the
days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the
plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return
to the ground,since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall
return.”
But you know, even life’s most mundane tasks and simplest pleasures can bring
great joy and fulfillment to a person who is in a right relationship with God.
There is dignity to be found in hard work, dignity that a welfare system, which
gives something for nothing, expecting nothing in return, has stripped away from
millions of Americans.
America’s free enterprise system of capitalism, was meant to encourage
ambition, incentive, competition and hard work; but even so, without God’s blessing
no one will find pleasure or fulfillment in their work.
2Thessalonians 3:6-10, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you,
brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according

to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to
follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat
anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day,
laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this,
not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves
as a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this
rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and
find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without
Him who can eat or find enjoyment?”
6. God’s Covenant People/God’s Church…
Long ago God told Abraham that out of his offspring would come a great nation
of people through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Genesis 12:1-3, “The Lord had said to Abraham, ‘Leave your country, your people
and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into
a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a
blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and
all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’”
God made an eternal covenant with Abraham, to be shared by every true
believer and follower of Christ.
Genesis 17:7, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between
Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your
God and the God of your descendants after you.”
Galatians 3:29 says, “If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s seed
[offspring or descendant], and [therefore] heirs according to the promise [of God].”
Jesus tells His disciples (John 14:16-17), “I will ask the Father, and He will give you
another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.” In verse 26 He
adds, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will
teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
Ephesians 1:13-14, “You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a
seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until
the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of His glory.”
1Peter 1:3-4, “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead., and into an inheritance that can never
perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.”
John 1:12-13, “to all who received Him [Jesus the Christ], to those who believed
in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of
natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

This new birth is from God, Who wants a people of His very own, a people who
will honor and obey Him.
1Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God.”
2Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and
godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
goodness. He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that though
them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the
world caused by evil desires.”
God established the church, so that His people might know Him, belong to Him,
and serve Him through an eternal spiritual body, of which Christ is the head.
John 14:19-20, “Because I live, you also will live. …I am in my Father, and you are
in Me, and I am in you.”
Colossians 1:16-18, “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all
things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all
things hold together. And He is the Head of the body, the church.”
Ephesians 2:19-22, “You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens
with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him
the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives
by His Spirit.”
1Corinthians 12:12-14, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts;
and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we
were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or
free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of
one part but of many.” 18 “In fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every
one of them, just as He wanted them to be.” 20 “As it is, there are many parts. but
one body.” 27 “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
7. God’s Civil Government/the State…
God also established human, civil government.
Romans 13:1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for
there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that
exist have been established by God.”
1Peter 2:13-17, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority
instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to
governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend
those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the

ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a
cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love
the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.”
And so, we are to pray for the leaders placed over us; but we must obey God’s
Word, first and foremost, above all authorities on earth: Jesus said (Mark 12:17),
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s.”
Ultimately, everything is God’s to do with as He pleases — marriages, families,
churches, communities, institutions, organizations and nations will all fail, when
God’s sovereign Word is not acknowledged, revered, and applied!
We live in a post-Christian America where the majority of its citizens are either
aggressively opposed to God or overtly indifferent toward Him.
Peter Marshall, a Scottish-American Preacher, twice appointed Chaplain to the
US Senate (1947-1949) declared, “The choice before us is plain, Christ or chaos,
conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing
about our rights and privileges as American citizens. The time is come, it now is,
when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.
America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s
government.”
America’s greatness is equal to each of its citizens who acknowledge, apply,
promote and proclaim, God’s plan, purpose, and provision of forgiveness for sins
and eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord.
America is in a spiritual crisis that is not going to end well, no matter who is
elected into whatever positions of authority; but we, as servants of God, should
make the effort to find out what the various candidates believe, and how they have
voted, in reference to God’s principles, as we have studied them today.
Galatians 6:9-10, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time
we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let
us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”