The Burden of Debt
Notes
Transcript
In 1990 - the U.S. National Debt was roughly $3.5 Trillion...
The current U.S. National Debt (33 years later) is - $34.2 Trillion
The interest on that debt is - $744 Billion
Debt - in it’s various forms...
Can cripple a nation
Can cripple a business
Can cripple a family
Can cripple an individual
Debt knows no bounds...
It is not prejudice - or partial
Debt is ALWAYS - seeking
Debt - ENSLAVES
SLIDE:
Where there is debt, there is no freedom.
Today we’ll break into chapter 4 of 2 Kings - and we’re going to continue seeing Miracles of God - thru Elisha.
Let’s get to our text:
1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.
6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
There are a couple of high-level truths - found in this account - that I want us to focus on.
And these truths are going to BE TRUTHS that pass to us - EVEN TODAY - thru the passage of time.
1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
IN this story - we see this:
SLIDE:
Physical Death Brought Physical Debt
This prophet - this man of God - had died...
And BECAUSE of that - Debt came (or at least Debt was DUE)
And so - the 2 young sons were about to be sold into slavery…to be able to WORK OFF that debt.
And so - this MOTHER - she felt the WEIGHT of this debt.
And it was a REAL DEBT...
It was OWED.
It had to be PAID...
And so what does this SCENARIO point to - within the overall story of Christianity…?
SLIDE:
Spiritual Death Brought/Brings Spiritual Debt
There is a VERY - VERY - VERY - LARGE blind spot within Christianity!
And it’s this...
SLIDE:
Spiritual Deadness
But why?
Why do you think SO MUCH of Christianity DENIES this truth?
Answer? - Pride
Now - to start our DIVE into this topic...
Let’s actually look at the FLIP SIDE of it.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Notice what Nicodemus says to Jesus -
He addresses Him as - Rabbi…(teacher)
… “WE KNOW…that you are a teacher from God…”
What’s Nicodemus doing here?
What he’s doing is he’s placing himself - along with the other members of the Sanhedrin...
…and he’s placing them on the side of - GOD...
And he’s saying - WE KNOW - teacher - we KNOW that you are from God...
… because we have KNOWLEDGE…and we are on God’s side...
…and we can recognize those on God’s side when we see them...
But how does Christ respond?
He responds by saying - Rabbi…let Me tell you what’s ACTUALLY true...
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
AGAIN - Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin…a RULER of the Jews...
A man of authority...
Nicodemus EPITOMIZED all that was - RELIGION...
One of the MOST religious men - A teacher of ISRAEL...
AND he comes to Jesus and says - Teacher - WE KNOW…we know!!
And Jesus DOES NOT reply by saying - YES! You are correct, you know - if everyone BELIEVED like you, they would have eternal life and live in heaven forever!
NO - Jesus says - UNLESS - THIS is true about you, you CANNOT see the Kingdom of God!
Jesus LOOKED the Most religious man of his day - in his eyes and said - UNLESS you are BORN again..you CANNOT see the Kingdom of God...
YES - I AM from God - i AM God - and you DON’T KNOW what you’re talking about!
You MUST be born again!
Now think about this - WHAT did Nicodemus have going for him?
He was EXTREMELY well versed in Scripture...
A Jew
Fanatical about the law...
A member of the ruling body of the Jews
It’s as if he was the DEFINITION of - RELIGION!
By today’s standards...
Nicodemus probably would have been:
a Pastor/Elder
Had a Master of Divinity Degree
a PhD
A Lifetime in the Ministry
And yet Jesus looks at him and declares - You LACK something Nicodemus!
No - you don’t lack another DEGREE
No - you don’t lack more EXPERIENCE in ministry
No - you don’t lack a Publication
a #1 best seller
No - you don’t EVEN lack MORE willingness to GIVE...
- You LACK - LIFE!
the reason you need to be BORN AGAIN - is because you LACK - life.
You’re DEAD! in your sins!
The New Birth is a call to new life, not more religion
Jesus is saying - YOU MUST be born again if you want to see the Kingdom of God...
This is an ABSOLUTE condition placed on SALVATION!
WHICH means - this CONDITION that Jesus lays out to Nicodemus...
Is the SAME condition that applies to us today!
If a JEWISH rabbi in the 1st Century, who was actually conversing with God in the flesh...
If HE needed to be born again…we ALL need to be Born Again!
This SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT you and I...
Something EXTREMELY relevant for you and your family
and your co-workers, and your friends, your neighbors...
your kids teacher
the mailman
the school bus driver
your boss
your students
your loved ones
your spouse
the cashier at the store
your yoga instructor
your teammates
ALL people
When Jesus Christ said - YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN...
He was pointing to the reality of - BY IMPLICATION, the deadness of mankind!
AND YET - people believe what?
People believe that they themselves can HANDLE getting to heaven!
What are some things that people believe will HELP them get to heaven?
Doing good works
giving money to charity
giving time to help a charity
giving money to the church
Going to church
going to bible study
teaching a bible study
buying lunch for a friend
buying Christmas presents for a family in need
giving up certain foods for a time period
giving up swearing
devoting time to help the church
giving away your old clothes to the poor
buying new clothes for the poor
feeding the poor
HOW ABOUT THIS...
How about not only DOING good works - how about AVOIDING BAD WORKS...
How about NEVER killing anyone
never raping anyone
never spitting in someone’s face
never cheating on your taxes
never stealing
PEOPLE everywhere believe that as long as they DON’T DO these things..
they’ll EARN heaven...
ALL of these things…people CONSIDER these things to be things that will help them get to heaven.
But what does the BIBLE say about this?
See In the beginning, SIN came into the world thru one man - ADAM
...and death spread to all men because ALL sinned...
And SIN - had and has an affect on us...It SEPARATES us from God...
2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Only....evil....continually...NOTHING BUT evil...is the state of mankind....apart from Christ.
But NOT only are we evil...
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Paul here speaking to the church....
You - CHRISTIANS....were DEAD in the trespasses and sins in which YOU ONCE WALKED....
DEAD like the rest of mankind!
Where do we first HEAR of this deadness?
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Did they EAT of it?
YES -
Does God lie?
NO -
They DIED that day!
Literally - they Spiritually died...
And PHYSICAL death was ushered into humanity.
Problem for us?
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
SO - did JUST physical death spread to all men?
NO - Spiritual death as well!
THAT’S WHY - we need to be Born Again…PHYSICALLY??
NO! - Spiritually!
And our Spiritual DEADNESS - brings with it.... what?
DEBT
In God’s economy - in this world...
SIN earns something? What is it?
Sin earns - death
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If a DEBT - is something to be OWED - something to be PAID OFF...
Then we can say that - SIN - renders a PAYMENT DUE.
OR - bringing it back to our TEXT today...
Remember?
DEATH brought with it - DEBT!
And our Spiritual Deadness CARRIES with it - a DEBT to be PAID
Right?
See - in the END - when we come to the end of the age...
ALL SIN DEBTS - will be reconciled!
EITHER - Paid for - by Christ...
OR - paid for by man (in hell forever).
By FAITH in Christ - our SIN DEBT - is PAID FOR - BY Christ!
Without FAITH in Christ - WE ourselves pay for our SIN DEBT.
AND SO - big picture - do you see OUR PROBLEM?
MANKIND - by default - has an ETERNAL DEBT to pay!
That’s a PROBLEM!
And our text today - from 2 Kings - is going to POINT TO - God’s remedy to that problem!
Remember - Elisha comes to a woman who’s husband died - and a CREDITOR is now about to take her young kids as slaves- to pay off her debt...
2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”
3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.”
5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.
6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
So the woman started with ONE jar of oil...
Elisha tells her to gather up MANY jars...
He then tells her to POUR INTO those jars until they are all full.
She does - and it works.
All the jars end up - FULL.
And so - a LITTLE OIL - became - MUCH OIL
Obviously - GOD stepped in!
And I imagine YOU TOO see the similarities between this story and ANOTHER account in the Bible...
15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”
16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”
18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Very popular story here...
HERE - Jesus turns a FEW loaves and fish - INTO MANY loaves and fish...
Enough to FEED the MASSES!!
Enough to - SATISFY them.
In our text today - God STEPPED IN - just like He did with the 5 loaves and 2 fish - and yet this time - Another aspect of REDEMPTION is being taught...
v7 will point to it...
7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
What was the point of the OIL here - SUPPLIED by God?
It would be used to - - Pay her debt!
And so - what we see - and what she experienced was this:
God’s supply paid the debt!
Our first point today was this...
SLIDE:
Spiritual Death Brought/Brings Spiritual Debt
That’s the BAD NEWS...
The good news?
SLIDE:
God’s Supply Pays Our Spiritual Debt
This debt of ours that the Bible speaks about - brought about DUE TO OUR SIN...
Is a debt that we absolutely - IN AND OF OURSELVES - CAN PAY OFF.
The PROBLEM for US - is that this DEBT - in an ETERNAL DEBT.
WHICH MEANS - to pay it off - is to NEVER ACTUALLY pay it off.
BUT INSTEAD to suffer CONTINUALLY - FOREVER - because of it.
Because THINK ABOUT IT...
If SIN brings about the DEBT itself - and it’s LEFT TO US (SINNERS) to pay it off....
Will it EVER get paid off?
NO - our CONSTANT - sinful state - will ALWAYS be in a perpetual state of CREATING DEBT…!
APART from Christ… our EXISTENCE - apart from ANYTHING we EVEN DO - is - SIN.
There’s no POINT in our lives - where we BECOME sinners.
WE ARE sinners....and as we live - we simply come to DISPLAY and PROVE that truth.
Here’s how I think it works...
God is HOLY - without sin
Which means - He is ETERNALLY Holy - Eternally without sin
And WE - are the opposite
WE - are SIN - eternally!
Therefore the DEBT is - eternal!
That’s why it TOOK an ETERNALLY HOLY God / Christ - to REDEEM US...
That’s WHY CHRIST - is - - SUFFICIENT!
His HOLINESS / Work - LASTS eternally!
SLIDE:
The eternal holiness of Christ eternally covers our eternal debt!
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
So BLOOD is a prerequisite - for FORGIVENESS....in God’s economy...
Will ANY blood do?
4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
And so it would take a SPECIFIC KIND of BLOOD...
A SPECIFIC KIND of sacrifice to PAY OFF the eternal DEBT...
An ETERNALLY sufficient sacrifice is what was needed.
And BECAUSE Christ is ETERNALLY HOLY...
[HIS] BLOOD - accomplished the feat.
Listen to how Paul explains this… (explain verse as I go)
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
In v13 we see - the DEATH that sin brought
In v14 we see the DEBT that came with SIN and death
AND in v14 we see GOD’S SUPPLY to pay for that DEBT!
SUMMARY
In our text today - we saw...
…a DEBT come - due to a DEATH
The woman’s husband had died…and DEBT needed to be paid!
And IN THAT - we saw the correlation...
Spiritual Death Brings Spiritual Debt
Mankind - BY DEFAULT - has an Eternal Debt on record.
Each individual has this DEBT.
And IN THE END - all DEBTS will come DUE...
The GOOD NEWS - of the Gospel - is that Jesus - PAYS OFF this debt - BY FAITH.
God’s Supply Pays Our Spiritual Debt
10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The WORK of Christ - in LIFE and DEATH - SAVES!
It PAID the debt we owe!
And BECAUSE He is ETERNALLY Holy - His PAYMENT - will also be Eternally Binding!
Jesus Christ is the ONLY WAY!
In our SIN - we owe a DEBT that is ETERNAL!
In our SIN - we will NEVER pay it off…HENCE - eternal punishment!
9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.
47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
It’s clear - the punishment that awaits those APART from faith in Christ...
Is - ETERNAL
And the REASON = is because the DEBT itself - is ETERNAL!
The call today is - REPENT (turn from yourself) - and BELIEVE...
Put your faith in Christ!
The ETERNALLY HOLY one!
DO THAT - and have ETERNAL LIFE!
Here today - we see God - teaching man about REDEMPTION!
Showing man that HE HIMSELF will supply ALL that is REQUIRED!
And to THAT - we can all say - - AMEN!