Uncertain Times Part 2 - God's Invitation
Notes
Transcript
Text
Text
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Acts 7:
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Introduction
Introduction
Where is God - Why does it seem he is so far away?
Where is God - Why does it seem he is so far away?
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In the days we are living and of course at other times as well, men have asked the question... “where is God?”. Perhaps you are wondering the same thing today. As we look around and observe suffering, political unrest, media hysteria and fear, we might wonder ourselves.... “where is God?”. Why isn’t he doing anything?
I want to challenge our ideas about God because many times we simply do not understand him. This is not because he does not want to be understood and it’s not because we cant know him (although our understanding is always limited by human intellect and we can never fully grasp the magnitude of his power and knowledge).
So what is it exactly that we are missing?
Why did they stone Stephen
Why did they stone Stephen
Why did they stone Stephen
In the text we examined last week we looked briefly at a sermon preached by a man names Stephen in . Immediately following this sermon he was stoned to death and the reason why can help us frame the foundation for what we are talking about today. The distance between God and man!
Created to be in fellowship with God
Created to be in fellowship with God
You see, throughout human history men have ignored God. We haven't ignored religion or a sense of trying to impress others with our knowledge of spiritual things we have simply ignored God. The Bible teaches us that men were created by God and we were created for his pleasure.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
From the beginning man was created to worship and fellowship with God-
From the beginning man was created to worship and fellowship with God-
From the very beginning God created man for himself but he created man with the ability to obey him or reject him. In other words he did not create robotic droids that had to obey his every command, he created man with a will and a soul because he desired the fellowship that would come out of his creation willingly worshiping him and desiring him.
Example: In the garden he created man and woman and set them in an environment that was perfect and with only one law.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Evil was present but it took the decision of man to inject it’s deadly curse into the human race
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
The immediate response of man is to run and hide from God because of the presence of sin
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Man has been running ever since....
Man has been running ever since....
God spoke to Adam
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
God spoke to Eve
Notice...
God condemned the Serpent
I. The Resistance
I. The Resistance
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
This is what Stephen was talking about when he was preaching in . Listen to his words:
So God solved the sin problem by
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
They were perpetually resisting the reconciliation that was being offered to them by God
They were in effect “distancing themselves from God”
II. The Request
II. The Request
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden”
A. The direct nature of the request - “come unto me…”
A. The direct nature of the request - “come unto me…”
The details of the request - “all ye that labor and are heavy laden”
Jesus is calling man to himself - not to a church or to religion but to himself!
B. The details of the request - “all ye that labor and are heavy laden....”
B. The details of the request - “all ye that labor and are heavy laden....”
This has the idea of a load that is just to great to bear
Illustration: Driving on Interstate 10 that runs from LA to Phoenix you can witness all kinds of overloaded vehicles - small little pick up truck with 10,000 pounds of whatever in the back - that look like they are ready to buckle under the pressure of the load. This is the weight of sin in the life of man - it is a weight - a weight to great to bear.
III. The Result
III. The Result
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“I will give you rest”
“I will give you rest”
“and ye shall find rest for your souls”
Illustration: The zero gravity bed. I was in a store recently looking for a bed and they had one sitting on a mechanical frame that would lift up the legs and tilt up your head and basically configure to any position you can imagine with the touch of a remote control. On the remote it had a button called “Zero Gravity” - I asked the salesperson what it did and he said “it will out the bed in a perfect position that will give you perfect rest” - wow!
We might find “perfect rest” for our weary backs and necks in a comfortable bed positioned exactly at zero gravity but the kind of rest that jesus is calling us to is a rest for our souls!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Israel resisted God - many times we do the same thing
God is still calling men to come “come unto me”
When we do come we find rest for our souls
So How Do we Come?
So How Do we Come?
We must recognize the truth that God gives us in his word:
1. God is holy and we are separated from him by sin
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
2. Sin must be judged and the penalty paid
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
3. Jesus paid the penalty through his death burial and resurrection
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4. We are called back to God by repentance from sin and faith in God
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;