Bro Gary Sunday AM 4/17/11
Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
Last Sunday we dealt with the thought of the Old Testament atonement. On the Day of Atonement the priest bathed and changed his clothes and then offered a sin offering for himself and for his family. He took of the blood of the offering and two handfuls of spices with fire in his censor and went into the Holiest of Holies and put the herbs on the censor so it would offer up a sweet offering before God. The sprinkling of blood he put upon the mercy seat and the golden altar and then he would come out and make another offering.
They would offer an offering of thanksgiving and praise. Then there were two goats brought and lots were cast to choose which one would live and which one would die. The priest would take the goat that would live by the horns and confess the sin of the people. After confessing all he knew of the sins of the people they would tie a crimson cloth upon the goat. They would lead the goat way out into the wilderness and let the goat free. This scapegoat represents the thought of our sins being forgiven and never remembered against us again.
This parallels the provision made through Christ not only that we could be saved but also that we could made a new creature and go and sin no more.
I enjoyed preaching that message, and I confess that the half has never yet been told. It is more glorious than man can understand. Thank God for the Gospel Day. The Old Testament was a shadow of the things to come and the very beginning of those things.
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
This new way brings a new covenant. The Law can now be written on our hearts and mind. It is no more the blood of animals that makes an atonement; it is no more for the priest to find a bullock or the poor to find a pigeon to sacrifice for our sin. It is the Blood of Christ and the offering of Jesus that makes a perfect atonement.
This new and living way is something that never grows old. There is something about an aged Bible that is precious. There is something precious about the Bible of those that have gone on. I have my mother’s bible and my dad’s bible. They are worn out, but the truths they contain never wear out. This new and living way never grows old.
If you are here this morning and you have prayed and read the scriptures every morning and night for years, isn’t it wonderful that it never grows old? It is amazing that with every message there is something that is new to us, not that it was not in the gospel before; it just never grows old.
The Word of God is alive today. Everything that has to do with Jesus Christ is alive today; faith is very alive today.
If it wasn’t for Jesus Christ there would be no way for us to know anything about the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus Christ is the One Mediator. There is one God and one mediator between God and man (1Tim 2:5). As I looked at that scripture, I was awestruck with God. God was the Holy One; man was nothing. God looked down and reached down.
This living way is always alive, never grows old, and never decays. There will be times in your life when you’re mentally exhausted and physically exhausted. There is a resource you’ve laid up because of reading and receiving from the Word of God and you go back to that resource and are refreshed.
Psa 87:5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.
Psa 87:6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.
Psa 87:7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
Have you ever felt that “I’m so tired, I’m going back to one of those old springs that has been good over and over again.” and it never grows old.
God, Christ the head of the church, and the church the body are all sufficient (2 Co 9:8). It wasn’t this way in the Old Testament time. They would begin and then go back to the way they were before. This is the new and living way.
I am the way (Jn 14:6). This way never changes. (Any that will add to or take away from this Word his name blotted out. Rev 22:18,19.
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
This changes lives.
A highway shall be there (Isaiah 35). There are a lot of highways, interstates, and roads. People like to think that there are a lot of roads and they all lead to heaven, but that is not the way it is.
This is a new and living way. Jesus Christ is the way. This is not some sort of drudgery of “I’ve got to pray this certain prayer” or “I’ve got to do this certain thing.” Prayer is an expression from the heart. First of all prayers, thanksgiving, supplication, and giving of thanks... (1 Tim 2:1).
Prayer is not saying the same thing over and over again as in repeating the Lord’s Prayer. You’re alive. At age 10 the prayer of a child will encompass her parents, her brothers, her sisters. Her heart will reach out in prayer for her teacher, her family and friends and her current concerns. This is all good, but she will not be praying those same prayers at the age of 20.
The God that made a new and living way for us will still be alive 10 years from now and she can still be spiritually be alive and her prayer may involve going to college or a job or her younger sister getting married. Today the mother and the father pray for their family. Every child should have someone pray for them. 10 years from now they will have a different prayer. No longer praying, be with my little daughter in the fourth or fifth grade, instead they may be praying, as many of us, that the prodigal would come home.
All of us that are at least 60 and above have found that there are aches and pains in our body that we knew nothing about before. Part of our prayer is, “Lord, help me in my body.” In this new and living way He has promised that there would be grace for whatever we may face.
This new and living way is living because it opposes death. You choose life when you choose to serve God, when you choose Jesus Christ, when you come to Him repenting and confessing from your sin, when you acknowledge that beyond a shadow of a doubt there is a hill called Mt Calvary and there the precious blood of Jesus Christ was spilt that we could be on this new and living way.
The enemy will present the most unreasonable thing in the world to see if there would be any sympathy in us toward that. The song writer says, “The things that once I loved I now hate.” You don’t have to be a drunkard or a druggy to have sinned. We all have sinned. The conviction has fallen on us and we may have said, “I’m not ready to get saved yet.” This is a scary attitude. We don’t want to ever leave God.
Deception is one thing that you want to avoid for your soul’s sake. Be honest. He that deceives shall be deceived (2 Tim 3:13). Many times people don’t want to be upfront with what their motive is. We need to be up front with our motives. This new and living way hates deception.
Christ gives spiritual life. It is wonderful to be alive in Christ this morning. It gives spiritual life. Christ is the mediator between God and man.
I remember being convicted of my sin when I was a little boy. I remember the spirit of Conviction coming and when I would lie I felt bad about it. Discipline was never left out of our household. We were spanked for doing wrong, but this did not take away the guilty feeling that I had when I had done wrong. I remember when I cheated in school. I felt so bad that I went to the superintendant and told him that I had cheated. He told me that I shouldn’t have done that and asked if I’d learned my lesson. He said, “Don’t go that way young man.”
Conviction is a wonderful thing. Do you owe an apology? Don’t tell yourself what the other person did that caused you to act that way. You say, I’m the boy or girl; I’m the man or woman; I’m the one that has done wrong.
I cannot tell you how this all takes place, but when I came confessing and repenting of my sin, something marvelous took place in my life. It was not just an effect on earth; something was also taking place in heaven. The bible tells me that there are books in heaven. While we were confessing of our sin here on earth, while we felt that blood cleansing us, while we felt that weight of sin being lifted something was going on in heaven. God promised that our sins and iniquities He’d remember no more so the record of them is removed from the books we will be judged by and our name was written in the Lambs book of life. (Rev 20:12-15)
Some men’s sin goes before them to the judgment (1Tim 5:24). This means you’ve confessed to God and God removes your sin from the book and casts it as far as the east is from the west never to be remembered again (Psalms 103:12, Heb 8:12).
On this new and living way it is wonderful to know that you’ve faced your sin. You’ve acknowledged that you are guilty and have no one to blame. I’m going to the judgment and my sins have already gone; I’m free from the guilt. There are others that their sins follow them to the judgment. Here every provision has been made for salvation through Jesus Christ and if you refuse to serve Him, He will be your judge.
This new and living way removes our sin and gives life eternal. I was trying to remember who I could remember farthest back that is in heaven. In the 50’s Bro Boland pastored in Kalispell and he and his associate were hunting, Bro Boland killed an elk and his hunting partner thought he saw an elk and shot Bro Boland. He had life eternal. It is just a little span of time that he missed here.
Everything that is living gets hungry. No matter what you grow, it must be fed. I’m alive and I like to eat. This living way gives such a hunger. I’ve been so hungry spiritually lately. The more I eat; the hungrier I get. The more I read the word of God, the more I hear Sunday school lessons or hear others preach, I get hungrier and hungrier. I go to the table offered by the Word of God; I come to the house of God.
Sometimes I wake up hungry. I woke up the other day from my nap and I was hungry. The words came to me, “God can do anything with anything.” I’m not sure how many times they came, but finally I realized that they came from a song that the saints from Athol, ID sang.
This living way makes us hungry for God. Make sure living in the world does not take away from you your hunger for God.
God will take care of me. He’s been doing it for years. I remember when Karen and I got married; we lived in a little upstairs apartment with slanted walls. It cost 67 dollars a month to rent. I was so sick that I didn’t think that I would live to see my little baby born. I got a scripture form God, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” I finally got strength enough to go back to work. I was a logger and I was so weak that the compression on the saw was almost too much for me to pull the rope to start the saw. That was back forty years. My daughter was born September 22, 1972. God has been so good to me.
Remember Elijah and the widow that was gathering sticks to make two cakes for herself and her son. The prophet said, “You make me a cake first.” The rest of the story is that the oil and the meal didn’t run out.
God can take care of our emotional needs too. Life is such that it can leave us emotionally drained. Jesus said, “I’m going to heal the broken heart and let the oppressed go free.” Luke 4:18
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Jesus did this for us. He didn’t do this for Himself; He was already the son of God. He was already blameless; He was already harmless. He did it for us, He gave his flesh.
Heb 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
Believe God.
Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
We have need of patience. Everyone that has ever run ahead of God regrets it. Don’t ever run ahead of the will of God again.
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Perdition means destruction. This is no tug-a-war. It is not “I’m thinking about letting God have His way.” When God speaks to us we need to say, “God your ways are right and I’m going to walk in them.”
We are not of them that draw back to destruction. Jesus asked some of His disciples, “Are you also going to leave and go away?” They replied, “Where would we go for thou hast the words of eternal life.” (Jn 6:68)
Read Hebrews 10 and let God complete the message that I began this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment