It is wonderful to be here. With all of you, we have a
wonderful crowd. We have visitors that are among
us and we want you to feel as you are and that truly is our
honored guest and we say welcome, I'm thankful to be able
to be here. I'm very honored to be your
speaker and I hope and pray that what we have to consider for a
little while this morning would be edifying and encouraging to
you from the word of God as an introduction.
I want to say two things. Number one, I want to give you
the objective. Of of our lesson.
As you can see, on the screen, the title of our lesson is
serving God without restraint. So the objective of our lesson
this morning is this I want to do my very best to show the
importance of serving God without restraint through
corporate worship. What does that mean?
Corporate worship. What I mean by that is exactly
what we're doing right now. We come together in one body in
the assembly, for the purpose of serving.
Irving God, for the purpose of worshipping God, as our brother
prayed already in spirit. And in truth, please understand
that as we've assembled here, collectively, as the body of
Christ today in this assembly, understand number one.
God is the recipient of our worship.
Number two, God is The Spectator.
Not us. And number three, we are the
participants And we're here to put our all together and worship
god with everything we've got in spirit.
And in truth, I want to talk about the importance of doing
that today. Now here is the reason for the
lesson A sister texted me about some passengers found in second
Chronicles chapter 6 and she requested that I perhaps preach
on this subject based upon those passages.
Second Chronicles chapter 6, please do not turn to 2nd
Chronicles chapter 6. I'm going to narrate a few
things, but I'm going to ask you to do this in your own time.
Please read second Chronicles, chapter 6.
It's an amazing prayer and it was an amazing prayer.
That was Prayed by a great king. And his name was King Solomon,
King Solomon was one of the wisest man that ever lived.
Why do I say one of the wisest men?
The Bible describes him as the wisest man.
Well, when you say wise, man I got to give all the boats as my
dad would say, to Jesus Christ. Jesus were second to No One.
Jesus was God. The son on Earth.
Jesus was deity. Jesus was everything he had the
Holy Spirit without measure as he lived on this Earth.
Jesus gets all the votes he had to be the wisest so the second
wisest let's just give her to someone, okay?
King Solomon, when he prayed a very special prayer and second
Chronicles chapter 6, it was a prayer of dedication for the new
Temple. And the Bible says this, he
bounces down before the altar. He lifts his hands up toward the
heavens and he prayed a prayer that was amazing out loud in the
presence of all the assembling You know, if you read that
prayer and when you do that later, read that prayer, please
understand that I think Solomon understood something very
important. I think Solomon understood, the
importance of God's people being united in corporate worship and
not just on their own. I know there's a lot of folks
today that think they can do it on their own Solomon, understood
that God's people must be United together in corporate worship.
Okay. In second Chronicles chapter 7,
a little later on, we're going to find something very
interesting. Resting.
We're going to find God's response to that prayer.
We're going to find God's response to the prayer that
Solomon made a long time ago and God's acceptance of the temple.
Before God responded notice, please notice what happened.
When Solomon had finished praying fire came down from
heaven and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices get this
and the glory of the Lord filled the temple and the priests could
not enter the house of the Because the glory of the Lord
had filled the Lord's House. When all the children of Israel
saw how fire came down and the glory of the Lord, on the
temple. They bowed their faces to the
ground to the pavement and worship and praise the Lord
saying for he is good for his Mercy, endures forever.
I want you to get that. When the people recognize the
glory of God, they were so overwhelmed.
They bowed their faces to the ground.
They put their faces to the pavement and they worship god
without restraint. What an amazing concept.
They worshipped him without restraint.
You know, in like manner. I think when we hear about what
God has done for us, When we hear about the grace of God and
the mercy of God, we talked about that recently, by the way.
God's grace, is God. Giving us what we don't deserve
that salvation. God's Mercy is God not giving us
what we do deserve and that's to be lost when we read in the
scriptures about what God has done for us and a very familiar
passage that everybody in the world knows for God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten, son, that
whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have everlasting
life. When we read passages like that,
and we understand that shouldn't it cause us to want to worship
and serve him for the rest of our life without restraint, too.
It should cause us to want to serve him.
Without restraint, okay, I think today when people hear the
preaching of the Gospel, I really believe that there's
three responses and you might be surprised at the responses, but
stay with me. I promise I'm going to clarify,
there are three responses to the preaching of the Gospel that
people have. I think today, Here they are
some hate. Some love.
And some pretend that's the three responses to the preaching
of the Gospel, some hate, some love, some pretend, now we all
know what pretend is, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on
pretend today. We get that.
That's the person. That's faking it, right?
We get it. So I'm not going to spend a
whole lot of time that can lock and spend any time on that we
already understand that. What I want to do is I want to
talk about. What does it mean to hate?
And we'll spend a little time on that, but we're going to spend
the majority of our time on. What does it mean to love?
And when I say love, I'm talking about love for God, these are
three responses that people have in the preaching of the gospel
and it's nothing new. Let me show you what I mean by
that, going all the way back when Jesus Was preparing to die
on the cross. There were three responses to
that preparation, one hated one loved and one pretended three
responses Being new okay. In Matthew chapter 26, beginning
in verse 1. Now it came to pass when Jesus
had finished all these things that he said to his disciples,
you know, that after two days is the Passover, and the son of man
will be delivered up to be crucified.
First of all, let me say you cannot have Christianity without
the Cross of Christ, it is the very focal point of everything,
right? Do you know when Paul says, I
determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified? Remember that.
You know, Paul wasn't saying, I'm never going to preach on a
different subject matter than Jesus Christ.
And him crucified, what he was saying is Jesus Christ.
And him crucified is the very epitome of Redemptive truth.
It's the basis for everything without the Cross of Christ, by
the way, nothing in the world matters.
Nothing and there is no hope it is all based upon that.
So in Matthew chapter 26, as This Was preparing for that,
great event to die on the cross. There were three people that had
three distinct roles in that preparation three responses,
three elements, three perspectives here, they were
number one. There was hateful, rejection
number two, there was loving worship and number three, there
was betraying hypocrisy. Okay, remember what I said,
nothing new people hear the gospel today.
Some hate some love, some pretend, all right.
Three responses still exist. Today, I'm going to talk first.
Talk about an example of hateful rejection.
We might think, you know, we would never be guilty of that.
I mean awful thing, wouldn't it hateful, rejection?
Matthew 26 and verse 3. Then the chief priests the
scribes and the Elders of the people assembled at the palace
of the high priest who was called, Caiaphas when they met
their, they had one thing in mind and that's verse for the
very next verse notice verse 4 says this, they plotted to take
Jesus by trickery and kill him, okay?
One thing in mind they got together.
Caiaphas that evil crumb that he was got the people together for
one purpose. We got to do away with Jesus
Christ and we're going to do. So by trickery, by the way, the
very next verse, this is verse for verse 5 says they didn't
want to do it right away. They didn't want to, they wanted
to wait until after the feast and that's the Feast of the
Passover. So I think there's an
interesting side point here. They wanted to wait eight days.
Why? Because they thought there'd be
an uprising among the people. If they crucified Jesus during
the feast, what did God say? God says know.
It's going to happen in two days.
What man meant for evil. God meant for good.
Man's plan was eight days, man's not going to win.
God's plan was to days, and God always wins.
And by the way, let me just also add, let me just add this.
When you think about God's plans of what God does.
In all the things that God does in our life, we can have all the
plans that we think that we want.
We can have all the plans that we think, we could think that
we're going to plan our day. We're going to do all of this,
but the Bible is very clear about that.
We should say, wait a minute. What?
When you're making your plan, say, the very important words.
If it be God's will, you know why?
Because God will always win, okay?
Caiaphas and their plans of a man of man's plans was we got a
crucified Jesus, we're going to get it done about eight days.
We do so by trickery and we talked about Caiaphas for just a
moment. Caiaphas was threatened.
Caiaphas was insecure a Ittle bit about Caiaphas back,
Caiaphas is background the famous historian.
Josephus, says that his real name was Joseph Caiaphas and he
described him as cunning treacherous Wicked and
deceitful. And by the way, every time
Caiaphas is described in the Bible, he has only one role and
that's getting rid of Jesus. He's either planning it or he's
executing it. That was his one role that we
read about in the New Testament. One scholar said, you know, he
really bought his way into the position of high priest.
You know, why he marries the daughter of his predecessor?
He marries the daughter of anise.
Now, interestingly about anise. There's a lot I could say about
him. I'm not going to do it on a
time, but Ernest was high priest, by the way, historians,
tell us from six ad until the year 1500 ad.
Okay. His successor, Caiaphas comes on
the scene marrying, his daughter and now he's high priest from a
D15 to a d 37. That's 22 years and you might
think, man, what's the big deal preacher?
I'll tell you Caiaphas must have been quite the politician to be
able to coexist with Rome for 22 years and this is what I mean.
Historically speaking in the Hundred Years surrounding the
life of Jesus Christ, okay, there were 28 high priest.
Caiaphas was high priest by himself for 22 of those years.
Interestingly you might be interested to hear the successor
to Caiaphas that took on the scene as high priest.
After Caiaphas, you know how long he lasted 50 days, quite
the politician. This man Caiaphas was buying his
way in Mary, the daughter of and is now he's got more power than
anyone else and he wants to get rid of Jesus.
Now folks, I'm going to tell you this is hateful, rejection.
We give you an example though. Do you remember when Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead? An amazing story when Jesus
raised Lazarus from the dead, okay?
Now I'm going to say this Caiaphas knew and believed that
Jesus actually raised him from the dead.
He believed that Now, it's one thing for somebody to reject
something because you don't have the evidence.
We can understand that. In other words, somebody rejects
an idea or rejects an ocean because they don't have evidence
or they don't have enough evidence.
We can understand that at least, right?
We can also understand that somebody might reject something
because they have the evidence but they don't believe it.
And by the way, the Bible is evidence.
The Bible is factual evidence and whether you and I believe it
or not is irrelevant to whether it's true or not.
It is true. But at least we can understand
in our mind, if somebody rejects it because they don't believe it
it's wrong, but we can understand It's still another
thing though, to have the evidence in full view to believe
the evidence completely and still reject it.
That is what Caiaphas did? That is hateful, rejection, that
is willful ignorance. Do you remember what Caiaphas
said than two? We got to do away with Jesus.
He's going to bring in this Jesus movement.
He's going to get in the way. We got to do something about it.
You know what he said? I love this because he had no
idea what he was saying, is no clue.
But again, God's winning here. Remember what ky4 said?
It's better that one man dies. And a nation be spared.
What you thought was is what he thought he was saying.
It's better that we get rid of Jesus and the nation of Israel,
be spared and our former sense of values and our former sense,
of lifestyle and religion, is intact, we just got to get rid
of Jesus. That's what he thought he was
saying, but being high priest that year, he didn't realize
what he really were saying prophetically, and what God
wanted him to say. It's better.
That one man dies on the cross, please get this And the rest of
us can be spared. He had no idea what he was
saying. Again, God wins Caiaphas it's
hateful rejection. All right, we get that.
But the question is this, How does one hate the Lord today?
I mean, nobody's going to say I hate Jesus.
Nobody says that right? How is where you going to hate
the Lord today? Here it is.
Deny him. Ignore him.
And reject him. If you deny him, ignore him and
reject him. You hate him.
How do you deny him, how do you ignore him, how do you reject
him? Very simple, you deny him, when
you deny his word, You ignore him when you ignore his
teachings. You reject him when you reject
his Commandments. Those are the epitome of things
of that, the Bible describes as hate.
How do I know that? I'm going to go back and quote,
the greatest one ever. I'm a name, drop here, I'ma call
out Jesus. What did Jesus say about this?
So I didn't just come up with this.
Jesus said, if you love me what, keep my Commandments.
He also said this, if you love me, keep my words.
And if you keep my Commandments, you will what you will abide in
my love, as I can. My father's Commandments and
abide in his love. So if we say that, we love
Jesus, let's not deny him. Let's not exhort and ignore him,
let's not reject him. Okay, enough of that, let's talk
about a better response to Jesus Christ and the cross.
And that is this because Caiaphas was all about hateful
rejection. But here's another one, it's
about loving worship. Please get this.
It is about loving worship. We go to Matthew 26.
In verse 6 there. And when Jesus was in Bethany at
the house of Simon the leper, now let's back up just a little
bit. We're now going back to Saturday
before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which I do believe.
You heard me preach on this. Not going into this today, but I
do believe that was on Sunday. And on Saturday at the house of
Simon the leper Jesus was over at the house to some dear
friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Remember that his dear friends by the way, that's the same
Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead that I just mentioned a
moment ago. Okay, so Jesus is over there and
Simon the leper, invites him over to his house.
Interesting about Simon the leper.
Simon the leper was a man that had leprosy, but obviously Simon
the leper did not have leprosy at the time of this Gathering.
You know why? Because nobody would have been
there. Nobody would have gone to Simon
the lepers house at this time. If he, if he currently had
leprosy, I think he's called Simon the leper for another
reason too. I think it's to emphasize that
that was the man that was described as the leper and Jesus
healed him. I think that's important too.
Okay. So they're invited over to Simon
the lepers house on this Saturday, for this great event.
We also find Mary Martha and Lazarus are also invited and
also the 12 apostles, furthermore, in Matthew 26 and
verse 7, notice a woman came to him having an alabaster flask of
very costly fragrant oil and she poured it on his head as he sat
at the table now, please follow this closely, An alabaster
flask. It was very thin, it was very
costly. What was inside of it?
I am told, by the way, it was fat at the bottom and round and
it came up to a narrowing at the top and in the top they had a
cork. They didn't have, by the way
they have caps like we have on perfumes today that had a cork
and they would cork it inside there.
But inside this particular Alabaster flask which by the way
the King James calls it an alabaster box, you know the best
English Each word that's translated for that word in the
original is an alabaster vessel. And inside this vessel of glass
Alabaster, I guess you would say very thin very costly fragrant
oil was placed inside. It was very rare now.
Inside was precious perfume, how precious marks account tells us
how precious it was. Mark's account says it costs 300
denarii I which is a Year's wages.
Remember, we've said this recently one Denarius Was one
day's wages 300 denarii. I would be about a Year's Wages.
That's how much it cost notice, what she does.
This is amazing by the way. And, you know, really, this is
very important. First of all.
Why do they have it? Somebody might ask.
Well, first of all, number one to have such a costly thing.
Obviously, the family was wealthy.
That's number one, true. But number two, it was very
customary and common to have it. Do you know why?
Because guess what, They didn't have deodorant back then, right
and garden Speed Stick. We're a long way off, okay?
You know what happens when you walk around in the desert it
gets hot. We don't even have showers.
Like we have readily available, they didn't have deodorants like
we have readily available. She'll people would do they'd
walk around and get hot. They sweat and guess what?
They stink, Somebody would have a get-together, a host would
invite people over and guess what they would do, they would
have this fragrant oil for the purpose of disguising.
The smell. It was a common courtesy of
common gesture of kindness and by the way, it was for the
people, not only the person that stunk but it was also kind for
the other people that had to smell the person that stunk
Okay, so it was very common to have this perfume.
I want you to notice what happens though, what this woman
does in Matthew 26 and verse 7, in our passage here, a woman,
Matthew doesn't tell us who it is, but Mark does.
I'm sorry. John does John chapter 12 and
verse 3 we find it is Mary. The sister of Martha.
And that was a dear friend of Jesus.
And for some reason, she's given the task of going around and
anointing. The guests.
What's she supposed to do is this take a little bit of the
oil and go to Jesus first? Then the next one, then the next
one. And then the next one, it was
customary. It was common to do that.
You know what she does? She gets to Jesus, she comes to
Jesus and she can't contain herself.
She can't go any further. She doesn't go any further than
Jesus. She doesn't care about the other
guests that were there. She understands something very
important is about to happen that he's heading toward his
death. She has to prepare him for that.
She knows that it's hurt Redemption and when she starts
she can't go any further. John's account says she shatters
the whole bottle interestingly, in Matthew's account, it says
this, she took this costly fragrant oil And she puts it on
his head. Another gospel writer says she
took it and she put it on his feet.
When you put it all together, you know what she did?
She put it on his whole body. Unrestrained devotion.
She understood what he was about to do in the significance of it.
He was to die for the sins of the world including and
especially her own sins, and she knew that and she had to prepare
him for that and she didn't care about anything else.
She worshipped him without restraint.
Without restraint. Why?
What made her do that? It was an act of love.
It was an act of honor, it was an act of unrestrained worship.
She was completely controlled by service so much so that she
couldn't deal with restraint. I'm going to ask you a very
personal question. I'm going to ask you a question
from the bottom of my heart. Do you serve God like that?
By the way, I'm asking myself that too.
Do you serve god with unrestrained devotion?
Or do you hold back? Is it okay to serve God when
it's on your terms, when you work him into your busy
schedule? Or is he truly number one in
your life? Do you serve him?
but with restraint, do you serve him with you with your all?
Are you content with just giving him the bare minimum working at
me into your schedule? If that's the case, you're
serving him with restraint, Going to say something else,
too. Okay.
If you are Sunday morning, Christian only okay.
Please don't turn me out. if you are Sunday morning attendee,
only, And it's because of extenuating circumstances beyond
your control. Maybe, for example, health
issues, keep you from doing more.
Maybe it's because of age issues, keep you from doing
more. Maybe it's other.
Truly extenuating circumstances that are beyond your control.
And by the way, only you and God know if it's beyond your control
that's just that's just I'll leave it there, okay?
But if that's the case, that's one thing.
And maybe you're doing everything you can.
But if you are a Sunday morning Christian, only a Sunday morning
attendee only and that's your life.
And the reason for that is because that's what you think is
all that's required of you. And you're content with doing
the bare minimum requirement. You are serving God with
restraint. And folks, doesn't he deserve
more than that when he gave us everything he had in his best.
I want to say something about God's blessings K.
Everybody wants God's blessings. If I were to ask you, do you
want God's blessings? You would say yes.
Give it to me in abundance. Yes.
You would until we die. Nobody's gonna say no.
Not me. Just give me a little bit.
Everybody says, no, I want God's blessings in abundance.
Everybody does because we all want that.
That's number one. Number two, I don't believe that
God blesses us as payment for serving him.
I don't believe that either, but I do believe that God does bless
those, that put him first. And Jesus said that, in Matthew
chapter 6 seek, ye first, the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
If God's number one, Jesus says, don't worry God's going to take
care of you. He's going to bless you and take
care of you. Okay, just a little observation
and I'm done with this part of the lesson.
Just an observation. Don't expect God's blessings in
abundance. when you're content with serving him with restraint,
he's got to be everything you got.
He's got to be more than that. Mary poured out her love of
compassion with unrestrained devotion.
She was honoring the one that was to die and rise again.
For her salvation and bare her sins.
I want you to notice something the responsive others to her
devotion. Do you know that some of the
Lord's own disciples got mad at her?
You know what they said? It is a waste.
Wow. Somebody does something in great
extreme devotion for the Lord. And some of the other disciples
followers of Jesus, they said it's a waste and they got mad at
her. Notice what happened?
In Matthew 26, beginning of verse 8, but when the disciples
saw it, they were indignant saying what purpose is this
waste. This fragrant oil might be sold
for much and given to the poor Let me back up.
Make one little Point here. Okay, about criticism.
Have you ever been criticized? Have you ever been criticized
for being a Christian? I'm going to tell you this.
If you live your life with unrestrained Devotion, to
putting God first in your life, somebody that you know whether
it's in the workplace or whatever somebody that you know,
is going to make fun of that and they're going to criticize you
for that. I had one friend of mine, say
what time I think you're taking this thing too far.
People are going to criticize you for that.
So we get that. And we understand that and we
all say and I'm going to say if somebody criticizes you like
that. So what But doesn't it hurt,
especially more when the one criticizing is a Christian too.
That's painful. And sometimes when fellow
Christians criticize, you for your service, just remember,
this chances are, they're criticizing you because your
devotion and diced them for what they're not doing, and they may
criticize you for your enthusiasm, don't let it Curb
Your Enthusiasm. Now, don't let it stop.
You just keep on going and realize what it is.
But when you do something great and when you do something to put
the Lord first in your life, somebody is going to criticize
you. That's just the way that it is
and they called it a waste. They said, it could have been
given to the poor. Let me say something about the
poor. It is very important to feed the
needs of others and feed the needs of the poor.
Yes, it is. But what she understood is she
understood it wasn't time to feed the poor.
It was a Time To Worship the Lord.
Worship is the single most important thing in our life.
Serving God, through worship I'm gonna get back to feeding the
poor and taking care of the needs of others and just a
moment. But let me just notice and chat
and John chapter 12 and verse 6. Then he said not that he cared
for the poor. But that, because it was a thief
and the money box and he used to take what was put in.
In other words, the one that came up with this idea.
This objection was Judas. He didn't really care about the
money to give to the poor. What he cared.
About was this. Let's sell the perfume.
Give me the three hundred denarii.
I let me stick it in the bag and put it in my robe.
He had already been deciding to betray Jesus.
That is betraying hypocrisy. That's a fake.
So he really wasn't trying to feed the poor.
He just wanted the money. Okay.
That's by the way, I'm done with The Pretender, that's it.
I told you I'd be a small part of our lesson.
That's it. He pretended.
So remember the three responses, some hate that was Caiaphas some
love. That was Mary and some And that
students. But let me notice the Lord's
response. Matthew 26 and verse 10, when
Jesus was aware of it, he said unto them.
Why do you trouble the woman for?
She has done a good work for me. She's done excellently.
She gave all she had. Do you know what she did?
She did the same thing that Jesus described with that widow
woman that we just talked about last time that gave to my tips.
Jesus said, and all the money that was given she gave more
than all combined. Why?
She gave out of her necessity. They gave out of their
abundance, she gave all that she had for God.
And by the way, it's not the amount, because you remember how
much in monetary measure? Two mites were 1/4 of a penny.
But Jesus said she gave all she had and it was way more
important. That's what this woman did.
That's what Mary did she gave all she had in her service to
the Lord. Jesus said this do about the
poor Matthew 26 and 11. You have the poor with you
always. But with me you do not have
always. Ways.
No, it is important to take care of the needs of the poor and
Deuteronomy, 15 and 11. And Jesus is actually borrowing
this passage. As he's made that statement and
Deuteronomy 15:11. He said, for the poor will never
cease from the land. Therefore I command you saying,
you shall open your hand. Why do your brother to you're
poor and you're needy in your land, okay?
So helping the needs of others is important but please
understand the ultimate priority of life is worship.
And nothing should stand in that way.
That's going to be number one in our life, okay?
Supreme Act of a Christian then in verse 12 of Matthew 26, this
is what Jesus says more that she was doing in this for importing
this fragrant oil on my body. She did it for my burial, then
in verse 13, assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is
preached to the whole world. What this woman has done will
also be told as a memorial to her.
In other words, when anybody reads this, they will know that
her act was the memorial or an act of loving worship and she
served the Lord without restraint.
Okay? Do you remember in our
introduction when I said that the objective of the lesson is
to show the importance of corporate worship and not just
on our own, okay? And we go to Second Chronicles
chapter 7. This is God's response by the
way to the prayer that Solomon prayed and it Chronicles chapter
7 and it's verses 12 and verse 15.
Here it is. Then the Lord appeared to
Solomon by night and said to him, I have heard your prayer.
And I have chosen this place for myself as a House of sacrifice.
Now my eyes will be open and my ears attended to the prayer made
in this place. Did you get that police which
was on the screen? This.
Place. There was a time when this place
mattered, there was a time when the temple itself and the
structure of the temple and the Old Testament mattered and was
significant, God said, I've heard their prayer, I will hear
their prayer in this place. But folks did you know this that
this building that we're in right now is not significant.
The building is not significant anymore.
I got to say something about our building.
We have a beautiful little building, we really do, and we
are thankful and blessed that we have it.
We've got a nice place to come together and worship.
Is it scriptural to use the church treasury for the
building? Yes.
Do you know why? Because it's not a necessity,
it's an expedient, it expedites. The process, God has commanded
us to worship the building expedites the process of
worship. But, you know, this, we don't
need the building the worship because all that matters is not
the structure anymore. It's the assembly and we can
assemble in this place. We can assemble outside.
We can assemble it a barn, somewhere.
It doesn't matter. So yes it's second Chronicles
chapter 7 with the temple and the Old Testament.
God said what is significant? Is this place?
But not anymore and I want to make one more point.
Please about the treasury and how the Lord's money is used
with regards to things like this.
I've heard for all my life. We need to keep a large balance
in the treasury. In case something emergency hits
like the parking lot goes out. Folks do you realize we can jack
hammer that Park parking lot out in park on the dirt still
worship God. You realize that?
We don't need that. It's not a necessity.
It's a blessing. Is it wrong to have a nice
parking lot? No.
But let's not put so much emotional emphasis on buildings
and parking lots. At the expense of preaching, the
gospel, amen. That's what matters.
Foremost. First and foremost, right?
The assembly. What matters in the New
Testament? What matters in the New
Testament? As Chris parade.
It's to worship Him in spirit and in truth, as we've come
together in the assembly, in John chapter 4, Jesus, having a
conversation with the woman at the well, and beginning in verse
19, the woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you are a
prophet, our fathers worshiped in this mountain and you Jews
say that in Jerusalem, is the place where we ought to worship.
Okay. Here's the response of Jesus,
John 4 verses 21, 23 and 24. Here it is.
Jesus said to her woman, believe me the hour is coming.
When you will neither worship on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem,
worship the father, but the hour is coming.
And now is when the true worshipers will worship the
father in spirit, and in truth, for the father is seeking such
to worship him. God is a spirit and those who
worship Him must worship. Up him in spirit and in truth.
One scholar said a spiritual being like God can only be
pleased with worship when it comes from the heart.
When it comes from the right place, when it comes from the
right Spirit. When it comes from the right
motive, and when it's according to reveal truth, According to
the scriptures. Let me close with this.
As we've said several times, there's three ways to respond to
the Cross of Christ. We know that some hate some
love. Some pretend, we all know about
The Pretender, that Pretender in our story was Judas.
And that's the hypocrite. That's The Pretender.
But hate is rejection. So, let's get specific rejection
of what? Hate is rejection of the Gospel.
The good news of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. The New Testament pattern
whereby we must be saved. When the gospel is preached and
people hear the evidence of the Gospel.
Now, by the way, I understand sometimes people delay, that's
not what I'm talking about. Because sometimes delaying your
responses because you're counting the cost and Jesus said
that was a good thing. Not talking about that.
I'm talking about ultimate rejection of the Gospel, you've
heard the evidence. Not I'm done.
That's hate. That's hate.
What is love? Love is obedience and love is
obedience demonstrated by loving worship and it begins with
obeying, the gospel. What's the first thing?
You must obey? You must obey the gospel in
Romans 10:17. Paul said, so faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Jesus said in Mark 16:16 that you have to make a choice when
you hear the word of God and today you've heard the word of
God. And you got to make a choice.
Jesus said, he who believes and is baptized will be saved.
He that does not believe will be condemned.
What is belief mean? Belief means having the forced
to obey another words. I read about what Jesus has done
for me, and I believe that Jesus is the son of God.
Not just the concept of it, but I believe it.
So strongly. I'm willing to do whatever he
wants me to do. I'm going to obey him.
What else did Jesus say? You have to do to be saved?
Jesus said you got to repent? What's that mean fancy word?
It just means I got to change. What's wrong with change?
We change all the time. How about change for good?
Repentance means this. I'm I've been going in this
direction but I'm no longer going to do that.
I'm going to change my life and I'm going to follow Jesus
Christ. Jesus said, I tell you know, but
except you repent you will all likewise perish.
He further said, if you'll confess me before men, I will
confess you before my Father, which is in heaven.
What's the confession? Here it is Acts chapter 8.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
If you hear believe, repent, confess.
Those are prerequisites to going to the point of salvation, but
you're not saved yet. You haven't obeyed the gospel
yet. A person obeys the gospel, when
they go down to the Waters of baptism and have their sins
washed away. Jesus said, he that believes and
is baptized will be saved first, Peter 3:21, the like figure,
whereunto, even baptism doth also.
Now, save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's how you obey the gospel.
That's how you respond to the preaching of the cross.
That my friends is what you have to do to be saved.
May I ask you a question, are you saying today?
If not, you could take those steps, we would love to assist
you in that you could be saved today.
Maybe you've taken those steps of obedience, but maybe there
are things in your life that aren't right?
Maybe there are things that you need to correct.
That be the case come repenting of those things confessed.
Those things will pray with you and for you and God will forgive
and restore. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional
information, or you would like to receive a free Bible
correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at her
Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.
Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and
Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.
We would love for you to be our honored guest.