Bro Bill Sunday School 9/23/12

Bro Bill Sunday School 9/23/12

It seems that more people today that backslide still claim to be right with God than ever did before.  We must live by the standard of the Word of God.  Nothing else will hold water.  The Word will be all that will matter in the Judgment. 

Isa 62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.

Pro 28:13  He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

There is just something about confession before God, acknowledging that “God I am a sinner; I am guilty before thee.”  This is before you got saved. 

If you are saved, don’t belittle what God has made available for you.  God sent his son, it was pretty precious to God to send Him, and Jesus shed his blood that we could have the experience of salvation: deliverance from sin. 

In the Old Testament time, people endeavored to live according to the law.  When Jesus came, he didn’t do away with all that.   He fulfilled some of it: we no longer make a blood sacrifice for our sin, etc.  But we must still live according to the Word of God. 

Since Jesus came, we have the law in our heart and He writes it on our mind so that it is a more natural thing to live according to the Word of God.  We must still resist temptation and have our devotions.  There is a part that we must do but the law is written on our heart; this is the New Covenant. 

Yes, there are trials that come to us where we are really in a battle and we must resist, but a lot of the work to living by the Word of God is gone; it comes more naturally because of the work that God does in our heart.

When you see people out in the world that don’t get the groundwork laid right and then just take up a profession, they try to serve God in their own strength.  In doing this, they are still trying to do it the way that they did under the Old Covenant. 

When people get saved and have the law written in their heart and in their mind, then they have on the inside the New Covenant experience that God has available for them.  Today is the day of salvation.  Today is the day of deliverance.  We can have that experience now.

We must be humble, not only when we start, but we must stay humble all along the walk.  If you lose that then you will be sunk.  Today we have access to His spirit within.  In the old covenant way they didn’t have access to that. 

People today are still trying to do this the old covenant way.  We need to be careful too.  Even though we are saved, we can go back to doing it in our own strength.  It must be a continual recognition of our needing the Spirit of God working within.  We need to daily avail ourselves of this for it is only by God’s power and God’s spirit that we can live and walk this way.

God has made it this way so that we always realize our dependency on God.  “God I need you even though you have saved me and given me this experience in my heart, without you I’m going to fall flat on my face.  I need you.”  Any of us can fall away from God if we don’t take care of what we have.

Psa 38:1  A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

To bring to remembrance:  We brought out last week that David confessed and humbled himself when he’d done wrong.  I want this attribute of David.  Saul messed up and did not humble himself.  He put the blame on the people and did not confess and come clean.  David had the proper attitude; Saul did not.

David said, “I am the man.”  He did it right.  This Psalm was good to me as I read it thinking on the attributes of David.

Psa 38:1  A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

Psa 38:2  For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

Have you had that when you’ve done wrong and you felt this way?  Even having false accusations in my mind, it drives me crazy to have this feeling.

Psa 38:3  There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

Psa 38:4  For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

David felt unrest.  Maybe we should pray this way for sinners.  Not in a harmful way, but we don’t want everything to go just fine for them until they pass through the gates of hell.  If we love them then we want them to get stirred up.  We don’t want them to be able to rest until they get right with God.

Psa 38:5  My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

Psa 38:6  I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

Psa 38:7  For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

Psa 38:8  I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

Such feeling of turmoil in the heart because of sin! 

Psa 38:9  Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

Psa 38:10  My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

He had a cloud over him, the light of his eyes gone from him.  That happiness that he’d had before was gone because of his wrong doing. 

Psa 38:11  My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

Psa 38:12  They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

Psa 38:13  But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

Psa 38:14  Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

David’s focus was not on what was going on around him.  He was so focused on what he was going through because of his sin.  His focus was completely on his need.

Psa 38:15  For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

The need is for us to get though to people, “There is hope for you, there is deliverance and victory.”

Psa 38:16  For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

Psa 38:17  For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.

Psa 38:18  For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

David said, “I am going to confess before God, own up to Him and get things right before Him.”  I want to have the attributes of David.

Psa 139:7  Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

God knows anyways.  The darkness hides not from Him.  The darkness is the same as the light for God. He knows a man’s sin already.  He is waiting on mankind to humble himself.  He is ready to do his part.  He is waiting for the sinner to do their part.

Psa 32:1  A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

‘Blessed’ means to be happy.  How happy to be free from that guilt.  It makes you wonder if David wrote this after he had cleared things.  “I’m happy now that there is nothing between me and God.”

1Pe 3:10  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:

1Pe 3:11  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

God desires honesty.

Psa 32:2  Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Psa 32:3  When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

Psa 32:4  For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

Psa 32:5  I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

When David confessed, God forgave the iniquity.  When people are forgiven then it opens the door to good things:

Psa 32:6  For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

Psa 32:7  Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

You cannot rely on God unless you get saved.  When people get right with God, it opens the door to a multitude of blessings.

Psa 32:8  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

With sinners, if they will not come to the realization that they are lost, then how can you help them?  Until they come to the place where they say, “Lord I need to be saved”, how can you help them?

Read chapter 2 to see that we cannot continue in sin and be saved.  Verse 8 taken out of context is misused.  In chapter one it is talking of people that are walking in darkness and say that they have light.  If people are walking in sin and saying that they are ok, they cannot say that they have no sin.  Today there are people that think that something is only sinful if they think that it is sinful. 

People take one scripture out of context whether it would be to support them or convict them.  We deceive ourselves by thinking that nothing is sin.  When it comes down to the end of the road we are going to be judged by God’s standard. 

If we don’t have respect to the Word of God then there is no truth in us.  Some would look you right in the eye and say, “I don’t consider what I did sinful.”  David could have no reproof for a sinner while he was in sin.  The mouth of the righteous talks of judgment, the law is in his heart.

David didn’t want to come up with an excuse for his sin, or try to show that the accusation was false or try to cover up his sin.  He said, “I am the man.”

Luk 15:11  And he said, A certain man had two sons:

Luk 15:12  And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

Luk 15:13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

This young man really went out into sin. 

Luk 15:14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

Luk 15:15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

A swine herder in Egypt was not permitted to mingle with society.  Even the dregs of the people had no matrimonial connection to them.  For the Jews it was a terrible thing to be a part of them.

Luk 15:16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

If people would just come to themselves!  It is an attribute of people that they try to blame their sin on someone else.  The prodigal son did not do this. 

Did he say, “If my father hadn’t pampered me so much then I would have been better prepared for society; if my older brother would have just more time for me; the father owes it to me, I am his son; If it wasn’t for this one or that one…?”  No, He didn’t do this.  He said, “At my father’s house it was pretty good, even the servants had enough and to spare.  Things are not going well for me, here.  I will return to my father.”

Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Luk 15:20  And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

Luk 15:21  And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

He wasn’t even there yet and his father came to meet him.  ‘Kissed him’ here means to kiss again and again and again, kiss tenderly, “My baby is home, I know what he did to his life, but he is home!”  Forgiven!  

The Father interrupted the prodigal; the son didn’t even get to finish what he’d planned to say, “make me as a hired servant…”  The father said, “You’ve told me the important part, you’ve sinned.  Servants prepare a fatted calf.”

Luk 15:22  But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

Luk 15:23  And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

Luk 15:24  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

Let us not be like the older brother.  God forgives.