Do Not Pass Go

Back to the Basics

Good morning and thank you for joining us online at Freedom Biker Church Arkansas. A few weeks ago I was sent an meme with Forrest Gump saying, “and then all of a sudden, every preacher was a televangelist.”

Some of y’all hear televangelist and you think of Billy Gram. I don’t. I think of the ones that only like to preach about giving them you money and have a prayer cloth and anointing oil for sale for 19.95 plush shipping and handling. So, I have been reluctant to doing the online services. And like I mentioned last week, I really should come with my own warning label. But we are here for two purposes. 1. To share the good news of Jesus Christ, and 2. So that while we cannot be together physically, we can use this platform to still feel connected, with the intent of lifting one another up, spurring one another toward good works, so that even during this current crisis, we can be obedient to the Word by not forsaking us gathering together.

When I was a kid we use to have a time that at the beginning of service that we would get up and shake hands and greet one another. In that tradition, if you are joining us on line live, tell each other good morning.

With the response to Covid 19 a lot of the things we did have been stripped away. Every Sunday after Church, we would go out to eat. Several days of the week there was a bike night somewhere, that we could get together, there were planned rides and events that we would attend. Because of “social distancing” and the mandate to limit gatherings, most of that has been stripped away.

But, I isn’t all bad. My wife and I have talked about us needing to eat out less and cook more. We have had dinner together most every night at the dinner table. We have spend more time with out family. People’s prayer lives have improved. Some of the things that we though were so important, like professional sports, we have realized are not what is necessary for life. We have in a way, gotten back to the basics.

When I think of that term, back to the basics, sports is what comes to mind. My dad was a high school football coach and I remember him talking about how important it was to stay with the fundamentals. Blocking, tackling, holding onto the football.

I also am reminded of learning to ride a motorcycle. Clutch, throttle, brakes and balance. Looking where you want the bike to go, not looking at trouble. Looking as far ahead as you can, so you can see pot holes, animals, or even worse, grass clippings.

You know, Michael Jordan, one of, if not the greatest professional basketball player got there not because he went so far beyond the fundamentals of basketball, but because he performed the fundamentals of basketball better than anyone else. Dribbling, shooting, passing, rebounding.....He was better at those things.

We for the next few weeks I want to look at the fundamentals of the Christian faith. I want us as a church, to get back to the basics.

For example, when I was younger, I was led to believe it was a sin not to attend Sunday night service. You wont find anything in here that says that. You have to wear you best clothes to church on Sunday, so you can look good for the Lord. But my bible says that the guy in the worst clothes, should get the best seat in the house. If certain people were watching this morning, they would be greatly offended and tell you I was committing a sin because I am preaching behind a springer front end wearing a t-shirt.

Well Church, It is time we get back to the basics. Instead of relying on how others think we aught to live, let’s go to the source.

Let me pray for us.

So where do we start?

Proverbs 9:10 NASB95

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

You can’t fear God, if you don’t know the attributes of God.

If you know the attributes of the living God, you would know that he is a righteous God. And if you know that He is righteous, you would know that you should fear Him.

Compare yourself to the Standard.

I remember going to Disney as a kid. And like anyone at that age, you compare yourself to other kids, I was taller than some and shorter than others. The question was am I tall or short? Is it purely subjective, or was there are standard. The standard, as it turns out was Mickey Mouses hand, which was beside a sign that read, “you must be this tall to be on this ride.” Mickey had set a standard that at the time, I couldn’t meet.

God set and even higher standard. Perfection.

Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and separated from God’s presence, not because the killed someone, not because the repeatedly disobeyed God’s rules. They were kicked out and the whole world was cursed because they disobeyed God one time by eating a piece of fruit that God said not to. And you can’t reclaim perfection.

Since God demands perfection;

For the wages of sin is death.

and since none of us can be perfect;

Romans 3:23 NASB95

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:10 NASB95

10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;

Socrates in 500 BC came to this conclusion: “It may be that God can forgive sin, but I can’t see how.”

Socrates wasn’t taking a stab at religion, he was logically trying to reconcile how a Holy God can forgive sin.

He would argue that if God is righteous and holy, he must judge sin, or give up his righteous.

Now you should understand Proverbs 9:10

Proverbs 9:10 NASB95

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Matthew 10:28 NASB95

28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

But no-one can know God, you can’t prove God really exists.

No Excuses!

The Bible was written by men, and men are all fallible, so how can I trust it?

To deny God exists, you have to be willfully ignorant.

Agnostic- Greek to not know.

Why not use the latin origin?

Ignoramous

Romans 1:20 NASB95

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Aristotle: 📷

“Should a man live underground, and there converse with the works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a Being as we define God to be.”

Whether you look through a telescope at the complexity and beauty of the heavens, or a microscope at the equally complex and beautiful cells, you can only come to the conclusion that it was wonderfully designed.

So you understand that God exist, and that a righteous God must judge sin.

The rub

But Todd, I understand how a righteous God must judge sin, but how can a Loving God allow people to suffer eternal punishment for their sins?

So we have a paradox.

If a Judge had his own child in-front of him having commited the same crime that he put other people to death for, he has a choice to be either a righteous judge, and condemn his son to death, or a loving father, and set his son free. But he can’t be both.

There is a way that the Judge can be both, but it comes at a great price! The judge could condemn his son to death to maintain his righteousness as a judge, and then willingly take his son’s place on death row to maintain being a loving father.

That is how a holy and righteous Father God solved the paradox; through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 3:21 NLT

22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

This is Go! This is ground zero for the Christian faith.

Jesus, and his finished work on the cross, is the cornerstone. The foundation on which everything else is built.

Matthew 7:24–27 NASB95

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Most of you are probably thinking, I know this already! I got saved, not get to the part where you tell those sinners how their supposed to live.

NO!

You need to understand. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that bad people would become good.

Jesus died on the cross so that dead people would become alive!

It ain’t about making those other people act like church folk, so that you will feel more comfortable around them. It’s about replacing a man’s dead and decaying heart and replacing it with a new living heart.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not something to accept and move past. It is the foundation of the the Christian faith that should be relived and remembered every second of every hour of every day.

Now believers, I understand, we can get to the point where we say, OK, I got it. But do not let yourself ever move past the gospel.

David got to that point.

Psalm 51:12 NASB95

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.

The third verse of the hymn Amazing Grace drives home that point.:

Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found T'was blind but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear And Grace, my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed

Through many dangers, toils and snares We have already come. T'was grace that brought us safe thus far And grace will lead us home,

For those that have not yet accepted Christ:

It doesn’t matter how you act, what you do, how many people you help. You will never be good enough to get to heaven without accepting Jesus, but the good news is, you can never be to bad that the blood of Jesus can’t save you.

But Preacher, you don’t know what I’ve done. You’re right, be God does remember he said:

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Isaiah 1:18 NASB95

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.

Romans 10:8–9 NASB95

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

To Believers:

We have been warned by doctors about Covid 19. We have been told it is deadly and dangerouse and we have completely changed out way of life becasue they believe this virus is a terrible thing to be feared.

You say that you believe that everyone that dies without knowing Jesus will spend an eternity separated from God in a place that we call hell.

Who have you warned? Who have you told? Who have you said this is my foundation and I think you should make it yours?