Questions Answers round 1
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05-31-2020
Welcome
Well I was actually supposed to be on a boat up near alaksa right now
But I am not
This morning will be a different sort of a sermon and I pray it is not a soap box sermon but more of a voice of reason sermon and that it will answer some questions
Before we get into the sermon I wanted to share with you how I arrived at this morning
I am frustrated like some of you with the current condition of our county, state, and country
I am frustrated that you don’t know who or what to believe and that is consistently changing and then actually going back and forth and back and forth
I am not going to get into a debate with you about what I think we should be doing or even about what I believe about the virus and everyone’s response to the virus pandemic
And it was actually during this time of being frustrated that during my walk with God that God would bring scripture to my mind
And if fact I believe I have mentioned some of those scriptures to you when sharing my frustrations about all of this
The thing that continued to come to mind was John the Baptist
Some of you are starting to wonder about my frustration
And it is simple but right now and in the past 2 months it doesn’t seem that we have had a voice of reason
It doesn’t seem like there has been any voice of peace or calmness or reason coming from anyone
I mean pastors and church leaders I getting super upset with each other, and political leaders are throwing each other under the bus
And through all of the this difficult and unique and very challenging time it doesn’t seem that there has been a voice of reason from anywhere
23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
What John told people when asked who he was
1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’ ”
More description of who John was
We know that John was the one who came before Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus
See I believe John was a voice of reason during a unique and challenging and difficult time
It was defiantly not the easy thing to do what John was saying or what he was doing
It actually cost him his life
See John stood in the face of the political leaders, and even the religious leaders and spoke truth
Spoke absolute truth
That right now is something we are lacking very much
We are lacking the people who are willing to stand up and speak absolute truth in todays world
It is evident when you watch the news
So this morning and maybe fore the next few weeks we are going to do just that
See I believe it was Tuesday there was a particular news article from Fox News that caught my eye
Not sure if you read this one
Jon Steingard
Not sure if you know who he is but if you don’t he is the lead singer in the Christian Band Hawk Nelson
And Jon put a few articles out this week stating that he no longer believes in God
I was caught off guard and a bit heart broken when I began to read this post explaining why he doesn’t believe in God
Then I immediately went to where is the voice of reason, where is the person who will stand up and answer this mans questions
And that brings us to today
Well here I am lol
Not sure how well I will do at this but
this morning we are going to take a few of his questions and begin to answer them with absolute truth this morning
We are going to be a voice of reason and truth for those out there as he stats who are struggling with the doubts and questions
This is not to condemn those who have questions this is to be a voice of reason and calmness and peace to speak truth when you need to hear truth the most
Jon’s asks the following questions
If God is so loving why is there so much evil in the world?
Can He do anything about it?
Does He choose not to?
Is the evil in the world a result of His desire to give us free will?
What about the famine, disease, floods, and all the suffering that isn’t caused by humans and our free will?
If God is loving why does He send people to hell?
Why is God so angry in the OT and then all of the sudden a loving Father in the NT?
Why does He say not to kill but then instruct Israel to turn around and kill men, women and children to take the promised land?
Why does God let Job suffer horrible things just to win a bet with Satan?
Why does He tell Abraham to kill his son and then basically say just kidding, that was a test?
Why does Jesus have to die for our sins?
If God can do anything, can’t he forgive without someone dying?
Is the Bible true?
I am not sure we have the time today to answer all of them but some of them
Understand that this is not an argument and to argue with truth you and I will lose each time
So if we intend to use the Bible to answer these questions we need to show that it is the truth from Gods lips Himself
Also because Jon seems to think the answers are not found in Bible
Is the Bible true?
Yes
On to the next questions
Just kidding
But Yes the Word of God is true and truth and can and should be trusted
First you must believe that there is a truth and the truth is real and reality and what is unreal is false
Once you determine you believe in truth then you can begin to determine that yes the Bible is truth and is real
See we know the Bible wasn’t written by God but by humans who were inspired by God to write these things down
We know that it was written over about a 1500 year period and from about 40 different authors
And if you are questioning if the Bible is true or not you begin to read it and if you begin to see things that are false or didn’t happen
that is a clue
That is a clue to not believe it anymore
See if I go and tell you the sky is green and not blue
You will go outside and say no the sky is blue, Jeremy you must be wrong
And if I continue to go about telling you false information then you begin to not trust me
But if I tell you truth and continue to tell you truth then you can begin to trust me
The Bible is the same way
And through out the Bible from Genesis to Revelation the Bible preaches Christ
The central theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the World
So lets look at some of the things the Bible has to say
Daniel’s Prophecy about the Christ
20 Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21 while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 23 “At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. 24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. 25 “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.
in 445 BC the order was given to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and then the clock starts ticking till Jesus arrives
In Daniel 9 Daniel gives us almost the exact date of the coming Christ
vs 25 7 weeks of years is 49 nears, and then 62 weeks of years is 434 together that gives us
483 years from the decree to rebuild the temp in 445 BC the Christ will come back and make atonement for sin
483 minus 445 is 38 and they say Jesus was born around 4 AD so
Daniel is predicting that in 38 AD the Christ who will be about 33 years old will come and make atonement for your sin and my sin 483 years before it will ever happen
And then shockingly it happens
There are 322 Messianic prophecies
The probability of those 322 Messianic prophecies being found in just one man is 1 over 84 with 100 zeros
And all 322 were found in Jesus Christ
Bruce Metzger Scholar from Princeton, when you take the 20,000 lines of scripture from the New Testament it is safe for any scholar to say that there is a 99.6% accuracy of those scriptures from the New Testament
There are over 5000 supporting documents of the Word of God
No other book written has more supporting documents in the world than the Bible does
So yes the Bible is true and can and should be trusted
Now that we have that out of the way
On to the next question from Jon
If God is so loving why is there so much evil in the World?
21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Paul answers that question
The evil was passed down to us through Adam
And the verse also goes on to explain that Christ also handed down something to us if we so choose to accept that free gift
Along with this question Jon adds more to this particular question
Can He do anything about it?
Does He choose not to?
Yes God can do something about it and in fact He did do something about it
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.
God sent His son Jesus to die for your sin and my sin
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Gods love for you and I was so great that while we were still sinning
While we were still destined to Hell and eternal separation from God He still chose to die for you and I to make it possible for you and I to spend eternity with Him in Heaven
God did something about the evil in the World He sent His son to deal once and for all with evil problem
The ball is in your court now if you so choose to do anything about it
Is the evil in the world a result of His desire to give us free will?
Yes in the Garden God gave strict instructions on how to live in the garden with God
God gave us that choice so that we would not be robots
We are His greatest creation
What about the famine, disease, floods, and all the suffering that isn’t caused by humans and our free will?
But it is
Sin like cancer and it effects the world we live in
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” 16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
God hands out the consequences for not obeying Him
See God is a good patent and He wants the best for His children
And do that there must be consequences for not listening to your parent!
If God is loving why does He send people to hell?
God is very loving and God does not send people to hell
God is a very loving God
But God does not love everything, in fact He hates sin
God can not and will not be a part of sin
So God has to do something with sin
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
God prepared Hell for satan and his angels
And remember God hates sin and yet loves you and I so much that He fixed the sin problem
Remember that
9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
God desires all people to come to repentance and enjoy eternal fellowship with Him in Heaven!!!
but sadly some won’t come to repentance because it would seem they love their sin to much
Best Answer to this question
From an article from harvest.com
If you end up in hell you will practically have to climb over Jesus to get there
So God doesn’t send people to Hell
In fact remember He sent Jesus to give us a way out of going to hell
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because of Jesus’s death on the cross we can have freedom from sin and we can enjoy fellowship with a loving God
It is through the acceptance of the free gift of Jesus’s death on the cross
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; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
That to be saved you have to believe in your heart Jesus was raised from the grave by God the father
and confess Jesus as Lord of your life, in doing that you repent from your current lord which is sin
turn away from sin in your life and turn to freedom
It also goes on to say that whoever believes in Jesus will not be disappointed! 100% guaranteed
and that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!
See God doesn’t send people to hell they make that decision themselves
and as we move into this time of invitation
we want to make that invitation to you this morning
maybe you have never accepted that free gift of Jesus dyeing on the cross for your sin
we would like to invite you to do that this morning
or maybe you have struggled with these questions and simple need to spend some time quite before the Lord at the altar
or maybe you need to make some other sort of decision this morning
the altar is open
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” 16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”