Measuring Up To Christ

We are to be filled up with the knowledge of the Son of God until we come to the full measure of the stature of Christ. We need to measure up to His work in us.

What does this mean? It means that we need to know our spiritual need for Jesus and that He has provided for our every spiritual need. It means that as we come to Him, He transforms us into His image so that we learn to love Him and His people the way that we should. It means that we come to the unity of the faith so that we can build one another up in the love of Christ, speaking the truth to one another in love. 

         How do you measure up to Christ? By humbling yourself before Him, receiving His body and blood given for you and then rejoicing in His work in the lives of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This is what it means to grow up in Christ.

Communion Prep

Almighty God, we thank You for inviting us to sup with You at this Table of the Lord. We remember the faithfulness of Jesus, even to death on a cross, that He might adorn His bride and make her beautiful, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. As we eat and drink, strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit, that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, that we might lead faithful lives, giving You the honor through our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Thanks

Our Father, we give You thanks for providing for our every need. We give a portion of our substance back to You to acknowledge that all of our substance is blessing from You. O Lord, please use our tithes and offerings to advance the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth. And use us as Your faithful witnesses to proclaim the glory of Jesus Christ to all men everywhere. Amen.

Praise

         O Lord our God, creator of Heaven and Earth and all things visible and invisible, glory to Your name. Your creation is good and You have so loved the world that You gave Your only Son to save it. In Him, we live and move and have our being. We thank You that in Jesus Christ, we are not condemned by our sins but saved from them. Grant us eyes of faith to trust all of Your promises to us and to the world through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Fill us with great hope in Jesus. All glory, laud and honor be unto You, now and ever. Amen.

I Can Do It Myself!

All of us parents know the cuteness of a little one when he exclaims, “I can do it myself!” Of course, to some extent, we encourage this independence. We want them to try. We want them to learn. We even want them to try and to fail at that trying.

The reality is that they cannot do it by themselves. Even if they finally learn to tie their shoes and are able to do it by themselves, they did not get there by themselves. They were taught. They needed someone else.

The illusion of independency is exactly that, an illusion. None of us are independent. We are not independent from God and we are not independent from one another. 

This interdependency is a design feature that reveals the character of God. He is three and one. We are many and one and we cannot do it by ourselves. In our time of need, in our hour of humility, as we are experiencing in many ways right now, we see the reality of our need for God and for one another. We thank Him for His kindness in giving us one another. 

Our National Feast

The Lord promised to make Abraham a great nation. He has done so. The New Testament tells us that all those who have faith like Abraham are children of Abraham. The promises to Abraham always looked forward to the day when God’s promises would be fulfilled in the Earth through Jesus Christ.

         Can we now count the number of God’s people? In the living and the dead, the number is in the many billions, like the stars in the heavens and the sand on the sea. We are that great nation and this meal is our national feast.

Transforming Food

Our Father, we are pleased that You have invited us to Your Table to sit down to this meal with You, with Your Son, and with Your Holy Spirit. As we eat this bread and drink this wine, transform us into the image of Your Son. Remind us that our sins are nailed to the cross and that we are raised to new life in the risen Lord Jesus. Fill us and empower us to live righteous and holy lives through the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Thanks

O, Lord our God, we give You thanks for all things, for we know that for us all things work together for good. You grace and kindness is extended to us, even in the midst of sorrows and suffering. You are a good Father and so we rest in Your goodness towards us through Your Son. We give a portion of our earnings to You to express that we give You our whole selves. Build Your kingdom through us we pray. Glory be to You, now and ever. Amen.

God's Forgetfulness

It is good to remember God’s forgetfulness. In reality, He does not forget. He knows all things. But as far as our sins go, if we are found in Christ Jesus, then our Heavenly Father chooses to not remember them against us. 

         It is good for us to confess our news sins to Him. We should always be convicted of our sins and quick to confess and repent. But we should not live in a state of regret reminding ourselves of our past sins. God has cast them away from us as far is the east is from the west and He chooses to no longer hold them against us. We should forget them, too, as we stand before Him in this peaceful state of grace.

Praise

         Our Father, Your Son was with You in the beginning. He was the Word through which You spoke all things into existence. He became flesh and dwelt among us. All things were made by Him and without Him, nothing was made. In Him is life and that life is the light of men. His light shines in the darkness even though men cannot comprehend it. Jesus is the light of the world for every man. Every man that believes on His name is given power to become a son of God. These men, women and children are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but are born by You through the power of Your Holy Spirt. We glorify You for all of this, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

God's Memorial

God remembers us like He remembers His promises in the rainbow. It was His memorial, His mnemonic device. He has given other symbols to remember. He looks upon the bread and wine and remembers the obedience of His Son, even to death on a tree. And as He looks at these symbols, He remembers us who are in His Son.

         This meal is not just something that we do to remember God but something that God does to remember us. This should be very encouraging to us. As long as God looks upon these memorials, He will never forget His promises to us. Take courage. Eat and drink knowing that your God in Heaven is a covenant keeping God. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He has promised in His own dear Son.

Seated in Heaven

Dear Saints, We have humbled ourselves before God as sinners. We were born as sinners and still sin, even in our state of grace. We must continue to acknowledge that our only hope in life and death is the Lord Jesus Christ. And having done this and having cast all our sins on Him on the cross, we rise up before the Lord cleansed in the blood of Christ.

Thus, the Father receives us and bids us to stand before Him and draw near. He proclaims us His children and is glad to receive us into His presence with rejoicing. He has prepared the perfect lamb and bids us to a feast of rejoicing. We were not fit even to be servants of the Lord but He has made us sons and daughters. He has seated us with Jesus at His own right hand and pronounced upon us an eternity of blessing.

Ten Words

We like to flatter ourselves that we are not like the other sinners. We might do little sins but not the big ones, stealing, adultery, idolatry. But the Ten Words really cover all sins. To some degree, we have sinned in these big ways. Jesus said that to look upon a woman with lust in your heart is to commit fornication. He also said that anger at your brother is murder in the heart. 

We erect idols, tell great big little white lies, steal ideas and time and time really is money. We make light of the day of worship. We show disrespect and dishonor to our parents and to others to whom honor is due. We do a lot of these sorts of things.

But thanks be to God that grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. He is the truth and when He reveals these truths to us, we do not have to despair. We cling to Him and plead the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for sinners. And God is faithful and just to forgive repentant sinners. So, let’s be that. Saints, that are repentant, forgiven, sinners.

Grace and Truth

We must remember the Lord’s Grace and Truth. We Christians love the truth, even if it sometimes makes us miserable for a time. The truth reveals the glory of the Lord Jesus, the awesome power and holiness of our Father, the comforting and convicting work of the Holy Spirit.

         These things are both wonderful and fearful. God knows the truth about us and that might frighten us. But then we turn to His kindness, grace and mercy in Jesus Christ, and we are comforted and emboldened to come and sit down and eat with the Creator and Lord of the Universe. 

         We love the truth because Jesus, Himself, is the way, the truth and the life. And in His name, the truth of God’s grace is manifested in us in great glory.

Genesis 7-8 Sermon Notes

Genesis 7:1-8:22

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Saved by the Ark

4/29/2018

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         We saw in previous sermons from Genesis, that God created the universe about 6000 years ago. He created all that we see, the sun and moon and stars, the earth and sky and sea, all the flora and fauna and mankind to subdue and rule the earth.

         Adam and Eve sinned. Sin and death entered the world and this was personified tragically in the person of Cain, who killed Abel. After that, God gave Eve a son, Seth, to replace Abel. But the Cainites persecuted the Sethites. Eventually, the godly seed is mixed with the rebellious ones and the result is an Earth filled with violence and men, women and children whose thoughts are only evil continually. 

         God regrets that He has made man and decides to wash the evil men and their sins off the face of the Earth through a flood. There is only one righteous man on the Earth, Noah, who can find no rest in the Earth. His righteous soul is vexed by the sins of man.

         God determines to destroy the Earth and kill all men, women and children and all the animals of the Earth. God saves Noah and his family and all the animals in an ark. 

         Noah builds the ark over a 100 year period of time, all the while preaching repentance to his friends and neighbors. But they do not heed him and the judgment of God comes in the flood.

         Like previous sermons, we should see the manifold grace of God in these events. We should also see His awesome power and His willingness to punish sinners.

         In God’s statements about men, we should learn that all mankind is guilty before God and deserving of God’s wrath and curse. We see this play out in the flood. While humanity was at its worse at this time, we can still see how wicked man is, especially when man is separated from God, His Word, His Son, His Spirit. In such a state, mankind is wholly undeserving of God’s favor. Thus, man must be a recipient of God’s grace and mercy.

Benediction

Dear Saints, Receive the charge and benediction of the Lord.

Jesus is risen from the dead. All authority in Heaven and Earth belong to Him. Therefore, go out into the world in His name until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. The grace and peace of the Lord Jesus go with you all. Amen

A Sweet Savor

Noah sacrificed to God and the Lord smelled a sweet savor. If the Lord received Noah’s offering, how much more will He receive ours? We offer Him the only perfect and permanent sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Himself.

         And in Jesus, we offer the sacrifice of praise. Our prayers ascend into Heaven, where our Father receives them as a sweet smelling aroma, and He is pleased with us. 

         And then we come to this meal, the meal of thanksgiving, where we remember the Lord’s kindness to us in Jesus and offer thank offerings to Him and the Lord gladly receives a humble and thankful heart. It is a sweet savor to Him.

Freely Forgiven

Our Father in Heaven, we come to this Table believing in the risen and living Lord Jesus. We are His witnesses in the Earth that He was raised from the dead, the victor over death. We remember also His death for us sinners, that we might be freely forgiven in His name and welcome into Your presence. He is our elder brother, You are our Father and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. Thank you, Father, for all of Your glorious work through Your Son, our Savior. Amen. 

Thanksgiving

Our Father, during Easter season, we celebrate the glory of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that You did not forsake Him but raised Him from the dead that we might have life in Him. You have provided for us completely through Jesus Christ. We give You thanks in His name. We pray that You would keep us in the palm of Your hand and deliver us from every foe. Use our gifts and talents to expand the kingdom of our Lord to the ends of the Earth, to the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

God's Olive Branch

We hold out the olive branch when we want to make peace. It is a sign that the troubled waters are over, that the issues that divide us can cease, that we have given up our sinful struggle and that we desire to settle down and rest. 

This is what happens when we confess our sins and repent. God hears us. He forgives. He holds His olive branch out to us. Take it. Stop striving. Settle down. Rest.