God is Great
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Judah has continually ignored the Lord and His warnings to repent. God has given them over to the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. The King has taken two waves of exiles captive. Then
A picture of good figs and bad figs...
1 After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.
2 One basket contained very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they were inedible.
3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs! The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are extremely bad, so bad they are inedible.”
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God asks Jeremiah, “What do you see?”
He sees two kinds of figs placed in front of the temple...
With this picture, God wants to show His people His character. He wants them to know Who He is. This picture remains for us.
I want you to walk away this morning with a fresh reminder of exactly who God is.
God is perfect in Justice.
God is perfect in Justice.
God knows who has rejected Him.
1 The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”
The good and bad figs are pictures. We are going to take a look at the good figs in a moment, but let’s look at the bad figs first. I want you to see God’s perfect justice.
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1 “At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves.
2 They will be exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky, which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the soil’s surface.
3 Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
4 “You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says: Do people fall and not get up again? If they turn away, do they not return?
5 Why have these people turned away? Why is Jerusalem always turning away? They take hold of deceit; they refuse to return.
6 I have paid careful attention. They do not speak what is right. No one regrets his evil, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has stayed his course like a horse rushing into battle.
7 Even storks in the sky know their seasons. Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes are aware of their migration, but my people do not know the requirements of the Lord.
8 “How can you claim, ‘We are wise; the law of the Lord is with us’? In fact, the lying pen of scribes has produced falsehood.
9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and snared. They have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they really have?
10 Therefore, I will give their wives to other men, their fields to new occupants, for from the least to the greatest, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.
11 They have treated the brokenness of my dear people superficially, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.
13 I will gather them and bring them to an end. This is the Lord’s declaration. There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.
14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities and perish there, for the Lord our God has destroyed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
16 From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all its residents.
17 Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed. They will bite you. This is the Lord’s declaration.
18 My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick.
19 Listen—the cry of my dear people from a faraway land, “Is the Lord no longer in Zion, her King not within her?” Why have they angered me with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?
20 Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved.
21 I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?
1 If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people.
2 If only I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a solemn assembly of treacherous people.
3 They bent their tongues like their bows; lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land, for they proceed from one evil to another, and they do not take me into account. This is the Lord’s declaration.
4 Everyone has to be on guard against his friend. Don’t trust any brother, for every brother will certainly deceive, and every friend spread slander.
5 Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong.
6 You live in a world of deception. In their deception they refuse to know me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
7 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies says: I am about to refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of my dear people?
8 Their tongues are deadly arrows— they speak deception. With his mouth one speaks peaceably with his friend, but inwardly he sets up an ambush.
9 Should I not punish them for these things? This is the Lord’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?
10 I will raise weeping and a lament over the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness grazing land, for they have been so scorched that no one passes through. The sound of cattle is no longer heard. From the birds of the sky to the animals, everything has fled—they have gone away.
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, an uninhabited place.
12 Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13 The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it.
14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them.”
15 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.
16 I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
17 This is what the Lord of Armies says: Consider, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women.
18 Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us so that our eyes may overflow with tears, our eyelids be soaked with weeping.
19 For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion: How devastated we are. We are greatly ashamed, for we have abandoned the land; our dwellings have been torn down.
20 Now hear the word of the Lord, you women. Pay attention to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament and one another a dirge,
21 for Death has climbed through our windows; it has entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets, young men from the squares.
22 “Speak as follows: ‘This is what the Lord declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field, like newly cut grain after the reaper with no one to gather it.
23 “ ‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.
25 “ ‘Look, the days are coming—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:
26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’ ”
1 Hear the word that the Lord has spoken to you, house of Israel.
2 This is what the Lord says: Do not learn the way of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them,
3 for the customs of the peoples are worthless. Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.
4 He decorates it with silver and gold. It is fastened with hammer and nails, so it won’t totter.
5 Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them for they can do no harm— and they cannot do any good.
6 Lord, there is no one like you. You are great; your name is great in power.
7 Who should not fear you, King of the nations? It is what you deserve. For among all the wise people of the nations and among all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
8 They are both stupid and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
9 Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. The work of a craftsman and of a goldsmith’s hands is clothed in blue and purple, all the work of skilled artisans.
10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at his wrath, and the nations cannot endure his rage.
11 You are to say this to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”
12 He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding.
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.
14 Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.
15 They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.
16 Jacob’s Portion is not like these because he is the one who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the Lord of Armies is his name.
17 Gather up your belongings from the ground, you who live under siege.
18 For this is what the Lord says: Look, I am flinging away the land’s residents at this time and bringing them such distress that they will feel it.
19 Woe to me because of my brokenness— I am severely wounded! I exclaimed, “This is my intense suffering, but I must bear it.”
20 My tent is destroyed; all my tent cords are snapped. My sons have departed from me and are no more. I have no one to pitch my tent again or to hang up my curtains.
21 For the shepherds are stupid: They don’t seek the Lord. Therefore they have not prospered, and their whole flock is scattered.
22 Listen! A noise—it is coming— a great commotion from the land to the north. The cities of Judah will be made desolate, a jackals’ den.
23 I know, Lord, that a person’s way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps.
24 Discipline me, Lord, but with justice— not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t recognize you and on the families that don’t call on your name, for they have consumed Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off and made his homeland desolate.
8 ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”
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Justice
Websters Dictionary: the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments
Synonyms: right, truth, equality, fair
Antonyms: corruption, partiality, unfair
In order for there to be perfect justice you have to have two things:
A law (or standard for truth). You have to define the truth. You have to have right and wrong defined.
A Judge. There has to be a final authority on the interpretation of the law. There has to be a Judiciary who determines what the reward is for doing right and what the punishment is for doing wrong.
Every nation on the earth has some sort of justice system, but because each system is governed by humans (who are all messed up sinners) there is no human justice system that provides perfect justice.
The great failure of all human justice systems is the fact that sometimes the innocent are punished and the guilty go free. In this passage God wants us to know that He never makes that mistake!
Back to Jeremiah. He is looking at a basket of good figs and a basket of bad figs. What does God want His people to understand about Him?
The first words of the Bible: In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.
God is Creator. He created everything that exists. He made the rules. God defined what is right and what is wrong. He created man and woman in His own image so that we would be able to understand the rules, know who He is, and discover reality as it is…in other words God defined truth and made us to be able to understand reality as He has defined it.
He created light and then created boundaries between light and darkness.
He created the stars and the planets. In doing this He created millions of systems that all have boundaries and are all interrelated and dependent on one another.
He created life. In doing this He created the system of reproduction. There are boundaries that he placed around this system. No woman has ever been afraid that when they got pregnant that a baby turkey was going to come out…they may have questions later when their baby grows up.
In all of these systems, God defined what is right and what is wrong.
Example: We can predict the minute that the sun is going to appear above the horizon…because it is a system that has to obey the rules of the system.
When God created Adam and Eve, He also gave them boundaries. He commanded them to obey the boundaries of the system. He told them not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden or they would die.
God defined what was right and wrong. He created the law. Adam and Eve understood the law. They also understood that there was a punishment for breaking the law.
When Adam and Eve broke the law, God provided justice. Adam and Eve died eventually instead of living forever in the Garden.
Back to Jeremiah. He is looking at a basket of good figs and a basket of bad figs. What does God want His people to understand about Him?
He wants them to understand that He is Creator. He made the rules. He established the Law. And He is the Judge over that law.
He told them in the law that if they followed other gods, He would scatter them to the nations as a conquered people. They had broken the law.
But God wants them to understand that He is perfect in the justice that He provides. He knows who has reject Him completely and utterly.
He is not going to mistakenly punish someone who is innocent. He is not going to execute judgement and make a mistake about who deserves it and who does not.
These figs that a bad…they are really bad. And I know who they are. I have separated them out from the good figs.
EXAMPLE: I can reach into this bowl without even looking and enjoy this good fig…they have already been checked!
God is perfect in Justice.
This should bring joy to the one who loves the Lord and orders their lives around obey His word.
This should terrify the one who has no trouble continually breaking the law.
to illustrate God’s perfect justice let’s conduct a test. Imagine, the city of Memphis has issued information that they have place cameras and radar in Satellites and have gone back to look at the last 20 years of driving from Slayden to every part of the Memphis area. They know every time a person has gone over the speed limit. They are going to issue $100 fines to every one for every time during the last 20 years have driven over the speed limit.
Now, who in the room is at peace, and who is not? It is well with your soul?
You see, what God is telling Jeremiah…they don’t think I have been watching, but I have.
God knows who has rejected Him. He knows who is playing church. He knows who is pretending to be righteous.
God is sovereign in Grace.
God is sovereign in Grace.
In Scripture, God demonstrates that He is sovereign in all things. He is the Boss. Period.
God obligates Himself to covenant-breakers to demonstrate His Grace and Mercy.
4 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.
6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.
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4 The word of the Lord came to me:
5 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.
6 I will keep my eyes on them for their good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not demolish them; I will plant them and not uproot them.
7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.
Jeremiah is looking at a basket of good figs and the Lord wants him to understand that He has set aside the majority of the people for good.
jer 24 4-7
God is sending them into captivity for their own good. They will not be in Jerusalem when it is burned.
He has good intentions for them, even though they are covenant breakers.
In this time of Judgment, look at what God is doing in grace toward His people.
God is using Jeremiah in Jerusalem to encourage everyone who has been taken into captivity in Babylon.
But don’t get the wrong idea about this good basket of figs. God is not doing good for them, because they are more worthy or because they deserve mercy.
God sends Ezekiel to the exiles to preach a message of repentance over and over for 22.5 years.
1 He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak with you.”
2 As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I listened to the one who was speaking to me.
3 He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebellious pagans who have rebelled against me. The Israelites and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this day.
4 The descendants are obstinate and hardhearted. I am sending you to them, and you must say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’
5 Whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.
Do you see what is happening here? God is preserving the majority of the people even though they are rebellious and stubborn—even though they are law breakers who deserve death.
v4 God calls them obstinate and hardhearted. This is a picture of a parent that keeps giving the child another chance. Chance after chance after chance.
Let’s be honest. God could have drawn the line in the sand right here and executed sweeping judgement of death on all who had disobeyed Him…but He didn’t.
Couldn’t God do that right now? Couldn’t He call out to us: Time’s up! Everyone who does not follow Jesus or obey His commands…(gesture: cut throat)
But God is sovereign in grace. All throughout Scripture, God choses to have mercy and forgive rather than judge.
He knows who have rejected Him completely and those who might just be ignorant or have gotten caught up in bad leadership. Throughout Scripture there are three things that infuriate God to the point of executing swift judgement:
Sexual immorality
The murder of innocent people
A lying tongue
Idol worship
The murder of innocent people
A heart that devises wickedness
Feet that quickly run to evil: primarily sexual immorality
A false witness, against those who are innocent
One who sows discord among the people of God.
But you don’t have to commit those specific sins to be guilty before God. Sometimes even when people are 100% guilty, God choose to extend grace to give them more time to repent.
He didn’t kill Adam and Eve immediately.
He gave the people in Noah’s day 120 years to repent.
He did not execute Abraham when he gave his wife to Pharoah.
He gave the people a chance to repent after they built a golden calf at Mr. Sinai.
He sent Judges to them every time they repented in the book of Judges to deliver them from their enemies.
He promised David that the Messiah would come from his descendants before David sinned with Bathsheba.
There is not enough time to list even some of the times God extended grace when He could have swiftly executed judgement!
Church, for everyone in this room, the fact that we are alive and Jesus has not returned yet is the result of God giving us more time to respond to His message of repentance!
if you come to church regularly, but still have not submitted yourself to the Lord. If you are not living out a commitment to spend the rest of your life learning how to obey Jesus, why are you waiting? Scripture says that today is the day of salvation!
Let’s also think about the people in our community. Peter says:
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
We are just like Ezekiel in his day. We are sent to this community to preach the message of repentance over and over until that trumpet sounds!
We are bad about saying:
They have already heard it.
They have already rejected it.
I think in our day, we have lost our burden for lostness and we either don’t care about them or we say: they are mostly good people and probably ok.
Ezekiel said:
5 Whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.
We are just like Ezekiel. We have one job to do! God is sovereign in grace…He has withheld His judgement to give people more time!
We must pursue people in obedience and in faith saying until we loose our voices…repent, repent, repent…Jesus is coming…I can help you give your life to Him!
pI am not talking about beating people over the head with the Bible. Every time I acknowledge that homosexuality is wrong, I am reminded that there is sin in my life as well.
(We proclaim repent from a position of humility…we proclaim repent as we are repenting. We are not better than anyone else…we should never be guilty of saying we are more worthy than you.)
God is mighty to save.
God is mighty to save.
Because we are sinners, God acts to give us a heart to know Him.
God wants to show His people something amazing about His character…I want us to understand this as well.
Today, the church is attempting to define the difference between a saved person and a lost person. What is the difference? After all, I gave my life to Jesus at an early age…but I am still a sinner…I struggle with sin…and you do too.
You have seen the bumper stickers…”I am not perfect, I am just forgiven.” This is true in a sense. But understand the Bible does make a distinction between the lifestyle of a saved person and a lost person. We can’t hide behind the “phrase, I am no different than you…I am just forgiven.”
The difference between me and the lost person is not that I am more worthy of salvation…the difference is that God promised to all who meet His terms for salvation that He would give them a new heart…a heart to know Him, to obey Him.
If I have the self control not to:
Engage in sexual immorality…it is because I repented of my sin and God gave me what He promised…a heart to know Him.
To abstain from foods and drink that are harmful to me…
To read through the Bible over and over so that I can explain it…
To loose my temper and act out in a rage…
To entertain the latest gossip and tear down my brothers and sisters in Christ…
Let me show you how this works!
7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.
When we run into verses like this, we walk away with the idea that God is promising to flip some switch and mystically and forcefully make them love Him.
What is God promising when He says: I will give them a heart to know Me?
Let’s read this verse carefully. This verse unpacks what God d
I want you to see that God is promising to save a people who return to Him with their whole heart. His is promising to do something in the future that will seal His people so that after they turn to Him, they will never again fall away…they will never again reject Him.
Why is He promising this? Why does He need to promise this? Why does God need to Act? Is He unable to save His people?
From the very beginning mankind was caught up in a sin cycle: They would turn from God, They would repent, God would forgive them, they would prosper, they would forget God and turn away from God, God would judge them, then they would repent again…starting the whole cycle over again.
Is He unable to save His people?
God is promising that this cycle is going to stop…that He is going to Act to stop this cycle. He is mighty to save!
This is not a new promise. I want you to see how God has made this promise…then I want you to see how God fulfilled this promise!
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6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.
The people turned to idols in Egypt, but God judged Egypt and brought them out with signs and wonders.
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
40 “I will make a permanent covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me.
They sinned against God in the Wilderness, God judged them and they wondered in the wilderness for 40 years.
19 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
They entered the Promised Land, but turned to idols, God judged them over and over again by giving them into the hands of their enemies.
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So God promised to stop the sin cycle by removing our heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. He promised to put a new spirit in us…that when He does this, we will never turn away from Him again!
God made them the greatest nation on the earth, but they turned to worship idols again, God judged them by scattering them and removing them from the Land He had given them.
Jesus confirmed this promise by telling His disciples:
This cycle repeated itself over and over. But God has promised to end the cycle with an Act.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.
17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
This is not a new promise…God has been promising to completely and utterly save His people from the
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
John 16
And on the day of Pentecost, the Lord Poured out His Spirit on believers. He promised that anyone who repents would receive the Holy Spirit:
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Act 2
The reason Paul said that the Holy Spirit has sealed us for salvation is because the Lord promised to end the sin cycle. After Jesus died for the forgiveness of sin and rose from the grave in power, God fulfilled His promise to put a new heart in everyone who believes…in everyone who repents!
13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
eph 1 13-
Invitation
Invitation
God is perfect in Justice: He does not make mistakes.
If you have rejected Him, He knows it. If you are playing games, He knows it.
When He executes final judgment, He will separate the good figs from the bad figs.
God is sovereign in grace: God has chosen to extend grace to all people by giving them more time to repent.
Today is the day of salvation.
Don’t wait to give your life to Jesus.
Don’t wait to share the gospel in this community over and over and over.
God is mighty to save: Be assured of this:
He has sent His Spirit to live in you.
25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation about Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages
26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God to advance the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles—
27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ—to him be the glory forever! Amen.
He has given you a heart to love Him…to want to serve Him…to want to obey Him.
Surrender to him today. surrender to Him every day.