What is a biblical Church? Part I – 1 Thess. 1:1-10

6 07 2009

What a biblical Church believes.

A biblical Church has doctrinal beliefs that come from the Bible

  • A biblical church stands on the Bible 6
  • Bible comes first in many statement of beliefs because if you get away from the Bible you eventually get away from the truth about God.
  • You must believe the Trinity, Gospel, Jesus, the Bible
  • Jehovah’s witness are not a true church
  • Mormon or the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints is not a true church
  • it is one thing to interpret the Bible differently – it is another thing to change it altogether.

A biblical church has a correct view of salvation

  • Salvation comes by Faith alone 8
  • Salvation is through Christ alone
  • Salvation is by grace alone 4
  • Those who are saved will repent producing a changed life. 9-10

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God to the Rescue! – Gen. 12:10-20

8 02 2009

What was the problem?
1.There was a Famine. 10

  • Just because you meet opposition does not mean you are not in God’s will.
  • Just because you meet opposition does not mean that God is punishing you.

2. Abram didn’t’ consult God about going to Egypt. 10
3. He lied. 12

  • Sarai was actually his sister – deceptive. – “I didn’t lie”
  • People lie to make themselves look better than they really are.
  • People lie to avoid making themselves look bad.
  • People lie because they are worried about what other people think of them.
  • If you have to sin to survive you have failed to trust God.
  • When the lips lie its because the heart is dry.
  • Lying usually comes from a selfish heart.
  • Lying many times gives you immediate positive results.
  • Our plans are no substitute for trusting God. Our schemes are inadequate to accomplish what God would have if we would have simply trusted Him.
  • He makes is selfishness sound noble.

4. He used his wife for selfishness sake. 13

  • Selfishness and Humility do not live in the same place.
  • He was thinking of himself more than his wife.
  • Men don’t sacrifice your wives on the alter of your selfishness – Give your life for her.
  • The Lord opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Why did he act this way?

  • It was not because he lost his salvation
  • Abram acted this way because he was still a sinner. He had trusted God, but he was still a liar; a sinner.

What is our only Hope?
1. God to the rescue.

  • The Lord intervened – The praise the Lord moment.
  • His hope did not come in his own goodness. Abram didn’t confess. His faith was falling apart and would have crashed, but the Lord hit ALT CNT DLT and rebooted his system.
  • He got caught. Praise the Lord!!!
  • Our faith does not stand on our ability to keep it.
  • Our faith stands on God’s intervention.
  • God intervened to call Abram and God intervened to keep him.

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God’s Choice to Bless – Gen. 12:1-9

5 02 2009

Here is a small segment of the sermon


It’s about God.

1. His work in Abram

  • Sometimes when we look at the story of Abraham we look at how great he was.  When tend to make the story about him and by default his God.  The story of Abram is not mainly about him, but God and his choice to bless Abram.  If God would not have acted, then we would not even know who Abraham was.

2. His work through his people

  • It’s not even about what God is doing in one person, Abram, but about God’s gracious plan for a people he is choosing to be His.

3. His work in the world for all time.

  • The story is even much bigger than God’s choice of Abram and his descendants.  It is a prophecy of Jesus.   Jesus is how God is going top fulfill the promise “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

It’s about God’s call of Abram.

1. It’s a call from his people.

  • God called Abram to leave everything he had ever known.  God called Abram to leave is people who worshiped idols.
  • Sometimes we must get out from under the influence of those around us so that we begin to grow.  God called Abram to leave because he was calling him to be different.  He was calling him to godliness.

2. It’s a call to God.

  • It is not just a call away from something, but its mainly a call to God.  There is no way of going toward God in obedience without leaving behind the old way of life.

3. It’s a call to action.

  • God’s call of Abram was not a call that simply needed a verbal recognition, “Yes, Lord.”  It was a call to do something.  Abram could have said, “Yes, Lord” and not done anything, but that would not have been answering the call.  He had to act in order to follow God.  It is no different today.  The beginning of believing is leaving.

Why did God call Abram?

1. Was it because Abram was a righteous man already?

  • He came from an idolatrous family – Joshua 24:2-3, 14 – Laban still had god in Gen. 31
  • He was even the most righteous man at the time – Melchizedek, Job?
  • God’s choice was not based on Abram’s goodness in the past.

2. Was it because God saw that Abram was going to be a righteous man in the future?

  • Some people will acknowledge that it wasn’t because Abram was good in the past, but then they say that it was because God looked into the future and saw that Abram was going to be a good person.
  • First of all we see that he was a liar after God called him. 12:13, 20:2
  • Later he failed to trust God to provide a son by is wife so he slept with his wife’s servant.
  • So, God’s choice was not based on Abram’s goodness in the future.
  • We know that the Bible teaches us that we are not saved by work past present or future. Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:4-5
  • Abraham is called upon as an example in the New Testament more than once to show that we are not saved by works. Rom. 4:1-5, Gal. 3:7-9

3. Then why?

  • Because of God’s merciful decision alone.
  • Rom. 9:15-16  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
  • Abram would have never met God if God had not come to him.
  • God called Abram.  Abram did not go looking for God.

It’s about God’s promise of blessing.

  • God is the only one who can truly say “I will.”
  • God’s promise is unconditional.
  • consider the obstacle to God fulfilling the blessing he promised.
  • We must understand the blessing of God.
  • Until a person has a right understanding of the blessing of God they will always choice sin over God. They will love the so called happiness of sin rather than Jesus.
  • Do you think that leaving the sinful life behind for God is going to be a loss for you? Not at all! It is like leaving the fire of Hell for the beauty of Heaven. It’s like leaving a roach infested one bed-room apartment for a mansion. It’s like leaving homelessness to go live with the King.

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Drawn by Jesus – John 12:27-50

20 08 2008

We are drawn because we are separated from God.

  • If we were already with him we would not need to be drawn.

We are drawn because we don’t come on our own.

  • Rush of Fools “For those”
  • Lord, we know it’s for those You’ve come
    Lord we know it’s for those You’ve given Your Son
    Lord we know it’s for those who can’t come on their own
    That You’ve come, You have come for those

  • “baby Jessica” fell in a well in Midland, TX. She was trapped 2 ½ days. On Oct. 16 it will have been 21 years since she was rescued.

  • We have fallen in a deep well and we must be drawn out.

We are drawn by love. – Sacrifice.

  • It showed the depth of his love that he was troubled but still did it. 27

  • Jesus did what he didn’t want to do for the sake of our salvation and He liked it.

  • Christians ought to be the kind of people who do what they don’t want to do for the sake of showing the love of Jesus and like it.

  • It showed the depth of his love that he was died

The effect of being drawn is believing and confessing. 46

  • Believing without confessing is not receiving Jesus. 42

  • Rom. 10:9-10, 13

  • A person will not come to Jesus until their fear of God is stronger than their fear of man.

  • A person will not come to Jesus until their sin is seen as worse than their life without Christ.


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How do people respond when the blind can see? – John 9:8-34

30 04 2008

Some respond with Skepticism.

  • These are generally the people who know you best. – neighbors
  • They deny it no matter how much proof they have.
  • These are generally good moral citizens.

There are good and bad skeptics.

I am a natural born skeptic.

  1. A bad skeptic

  • denies no matter how much proof they have.

  • The man who was blind probably did change in appearance some, because he could see what he looked like now.

  • They ask questions wanting to prove it is not true.

  • They try to explain it away. 9

  • The explain the gospel away.

  • The explain the results of the gospel away.

  • Even if they talk to the man himself they do not believe it.

  • They always want more proof.

  1. A good skeptic is

  • one who care about God being glorified.

  • They ask question in order to make sure everything is on the up and up.

  • They may want further proof, but not because they don’t think God can not do it.

  • They have seen too many fabricated conversions – which makes them want to make certain.

  • A change that is genuine is a change that lasts.

Some respond with religious arrogance.

These are the kind of people who think they know God, but don’t.

  • They profess to know God, but deny him with their actions.

  • They don’t understand God’s character. 16

  • They don’t understand Jesus. 24

  • Jesus is not a sinner.

They misunderstand themselves.

  • When you don’t see God right you will not see yourself right.

  • They think they are not sinners. 34

They don’t care about people. 14-15

  • There is no compassion.

  • The way people talk about emigration illustrates this.

  • They only care about the law. –

  • They want to argue about something that does not matter and ignore the things that do matter.

  • When they cannot win they criticize. 34

Some respond with ignorance – Disciples

They may misunderstand at first but they learn.

They may learn to trust more deeply in the mysterious power of God.

How does a believer handle this situation?

  1. Answer them honestly. – Never get tired of telling how God gave you sight.

  2. Keep giving the credit to God.

  3. Never think that God can’t use you to reach others.

  • God used a blind person to teach his disciples.

  1. Remember they are be questioned because of Jesus.

  2. Continue to Believe.

Some respond by Believing.


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From Blindness to Belief – John 9:1-7, 35-41

22 04 2008

Why was this man born blind?

Because his parents sinned – No

  • Some sickness is because of direct sin, many are not.

Because he sinned – No

  • The blind man was not even born yet how could his blindness from birth be because of his sin?

So that the works of God might take place – Yes!

What is the work of God?

  • The work of God is not simply physical healing.

  • If the work of God was only physical, then God’s work would be temporary.

  • If the work of God was only physical, then God’s salvation would be seen as physical healing. And everyone who has been physically healed would think they were saved.

  • When you try to interpret life without the word of God, you end up with backwards reasoning.

  • The work of God is believing in God.

  • John 6:29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

  • Rom. 14:20

  • Illustration – Joni Earikson Tada

 

Jesus was teaching them something spiritual (salvation) from something (physical).

Physical blindness represents spiritual blindness

  • Just as physical blindness is something that prevents sight, so spiritual blindness renders people unable to see on their own.

  • Spiritual blindness is so severe that people who have it think they can see when they cannot.

  • Just as sure as Jesus is the only one who can cure physical blindness he is the only one who can cure spiritual blindness.

  • Those that don’t think they are blind don’t think they need healed.

Belief in God leads to better worship when it believes in election.

  • This man did not go looking for a healer, the Healer came to him as a stranger.  Salvation happens when the Healer comes to heal our blind hearts.

  • This man believed because Jesus chose to heal him and would not have been saved unless Jesus removed his spiritual blindness.


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