The Law of First (Part Two)

WELCOME EVERYONE!

SHOW PICTURE OF DARIO & ABBI’S NEW BABY (Alina Brielle Perez) She was born March 3, 2021 and she was 7.14 lbs and 20.75 inches in length!

(SHOW PICTURE OF LOCK-IN) Since we are mentioning kids, I wanted to share with you about the children’s lock-in that our children’s church held this past Friday evening. They had 21 kids that night to feed and entertain and love on! We are so proud of Tabitha Webb, our children’s church pastor and the amazing job that she is doing with your children in teaching them the truth of the Word of God and also in loving on them and showing them what Christian unity and family in the church looks like!!

If you have your Bible with you this morning, or your tablet or smartphone, would you please turn with me to the epistle of Colossians chapter 1, verses 15-23. Now, I would like to ask everyone to please stand with me and let’s read our declaration together, before we engage in the Word this morning.

“This is my Bible. I believe that this book and every word found within it are truly the living, breathing Words of almighty God! I know and believe that when I speak the words written in this book over my life and over my family, that I am literally bringing the authority and power of heaven into the midst of our lives and into whatever situation may be taking place. I believe that Jesus the Christ, is the Son of the living God and that He is the living, breathing Word of God! The Word of God is life, it is love, and it is power! This book was written with me in mind! Thank you God for your Word! Amen!”

Now, as you remain standing, we are going to do our cooperative reading of God’s perfect Word together. I will start with the first verse and then you will all read together the next verse and we shall repeat this until we read through verse 23 in our scripture reading this morning.

Does everyone have Colossians 1:15-23 in their Bibles? Then let’s begin with our reading. I will be reading from the ESV and we will have the passages on the screen in the same version, if you would prefer to read the same version.

Colossians 1:15–23 ESV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

“The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God shall stand forever!” Amen!!!!!!

You may be seated.

This past Sunday, I began a message entitled, “The Law of First”. This morning, we are going to continue that message.

I’m going to recap for everyone, the basics of what was said last week, so that we are all on the same page this morning and then move forward. Capeesh?

Last week, I asked everyone how many of you liked to be first in life at certain things, if not most things!

Like in playing sports, playing board games, engaging in arguments and debates, etc.

You would hard pressed to find people who actually desire to lose, or fall short of 1st place.

You see, as humans, this fallen state of sin that we are born into, by nature, makes us prideful creatures.

And because of this, thinking of ourselves first and wanting to see ourselves excel above others, is only natural for us!

We are born to look out for our own selves first.

And it becomes only natural for us to want to see ourselves come out on top of others at whatever it is that we are going up against them in!

Now, two things about this before I move forward.

First, I’m not saying that it’s wrong to want to compete and try to win.

Fun competition is a healthy and very rewarding thing in our lives, if we know how to approach it and if we understand that losing and learning to do so gracefully, is also a healthy part of our lives.

Second, I am not saying that everyone is a pure narcissist who will make it their one goal in life to always best everyone that they come up against!

The main thing that I want everyone to understand, is that our carnal nature is not wired to seek the good of mankind and others first.

We are always warring against the flesh and as such, we are always going to fight those carnal tendencies of seeking “me” first, before the good of others!

As I mentioned last Sunday, Paul said in Romans 7:21-25,

Romans 7:21–25 NLT

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Jesus said it this way to His disciples on the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Our flesh will always strive to draw us back into that mindset of seeking “self” first, above others.

And sadly enough, that means that we seek self above God and His will and His desire for our lives as His children!

You may not think that you’re a person who would ever operate as a prideful, self- seeking person and who would openly rebel against God and His Word and His will.

But let me ask everyone in this room a question, “How many of you have went for at least one month without committing one sin in your life?

OK, how about 2 weeks? How many of you have been able to go 2 weeks without committing a single sin?

Alright, have you been able to last for one week, blameless and without any sin in your life?

How about one day. How many of us can go one day without ANY form of sin being found by the Lord God in these earthen vessels, we call our bodies?!

My point is this. Our flesh and our spirits are always at war with one another for control of our minds and our thoughts and our hearts!

And every-time that we yield to the flesh and we sin, we are putting ourselves first and that ultimately means that we have decided to put God as second place in our lives!

That’s what sin is, rebellion against God and putting our wants and ways above His!

The emphasis of these messages I am giving right now, is that God is to ALWAYS be first in our lives.

In everything that we do and with everything that we are and that we have!

We must put God first!

When I say that we must put God first in our lives, that means completely and in every way. God and His Word clearly state that He is to be preeminent in our lives. It is the first commandment given to Moses in the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before Me”!

Listen closely to me this morning friends; anything and anyone who you put first in your life before God, has become an idol, a god in your life! And whoever, or whatever becomes an idol in your life, receives your worship! And of these idols in our lives, God said to Moses, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”

When God says that He is a “jealous God”, this does not mean the petty, usage that we many take it to mean, as in our own natural relationships.

God is not naturally suspicious, distrustful, or wrongly envious of the success of others, as we might use the word to apply in our own lives and in our own relationships.

The word “jealous” used here for God, expresses His intolerance to a person, or to a people, who would give their worship to any other god, because there ARE NO OTHER GODS that truly exist!

Only Yahweh is the ONE TRUE ETERNALLY EXISTING GOD and He knows this.

Any worship given to anything, or anyone else, is not tolerated, because it is giving something to someone else to whom it doesn’t belong.

Namely His eternal glory and honor and esteem and worship, that belong to Him and Him alone!

And when you give what belongs to Him to another, you are no longer walking in His blessings for your life.

Putting another idol, or god before Him (be it TV, music, sports, social media, money, etc.), anything else, is a serious matter in the realm of spiritual offenses.

In fact, to the nation of Israel, God’s own chosen people, because they were doing this very thing, scriptures says that they had committed spiritual adultery to God!

Our worship is to be given to the Lord God alone and no other.

Our worship, like everything else that we have and can give, belongs to Him to already!

And that is why we are focused on this teaching right now, “The Law of First”.

God not only needs to be first in your life, but in fact, God MUST be first in your life!

In every other thing in our lives, we understand that there is the principal of “firsts” and hierarchies.

In science and chemistry, if you add one chemical or compound first in an experiment before another, the outcome can be devastating.

In basic mathematics, we must use the order of operations when solving basic math, because no matter how right it may seem to you, if you do place one operation before another, it goes against the laws of math and your answer will never be right!

In music, although certain chords go together, if you play one chord first, before it is supposed to be played, the music will not be right!

In marriage, (for all of the married gentlemen in the room, as well as those young men who aspire to have a wife one day), when your wife asks you about spending time together on a Saturday (which hardly ever happens), and your answer is something like, “OK, but FIRST I want to watch the ball game”, or “FIRST, I want to go and hang out with the guys”.....................well, I think you know how that situation is going to end up!!

My point is, we all know and understand in life that certain things MUST come first, if you are to attain the proper outcome, right?

Well, then you must know and believe and understand that the one true God, who created everything, MUST come first, in your life and in my life!

This is not an option and it is not some Old Testament legal rhetoric!

This principle has always been in place and it always will be, for all eternity!

This is one of the ways that we know that Jesus’ fulfilling the law, did not cancel out everything pertaining to the law!

People like to say, “Jesus fulfilled the law and we are no longer under it”, right?

And when it comes to sacrifices and rituals that pertained to Him and His coming to this earth, that is true.

BUT...........some parts of the law and commandments will always continue.

The Law of Moses was given to guide us and direct us towards God and keep us forever seeking His will first.

It was like a babysitter for us, as Paul says of it in Galatians 3:24-26,

Galatians 3:24–26 ESV

24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

We are no longer under the weight of the law, because if your are in Christ, you have had that burden and weight lifted, but the focus of that law is still in tact.

Which was to keep God as the central and core figure in our lives and keep Him first in all that we do!

The Spirit within us, by the GRACE of God, serves now as that guardian in our lives, but the emphasis and His role in us is the same.

To always point us to God and keep God FIRST in our lives!

I like the way that John Hagee said it one time, where he said, “Putting God first in your life establishes His Lordship. If He is not first, He is not Lord. If He is not Lord there is no blessing, no favor. There can be no true prosperity in your life if you have chosen to put something else before your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And in saying that God is to be FIRST in our lives, means in everything and with everything, because it all belongs to Him to begin with!

The big picture can be seen through Psalm 24:1-2, which says,

Psalm 24:1–2 ESV

1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Who created and thus owns the earth and everything in it?

Now let’s get a little more detailed as to how the Lord looks at us as stewards of His creation.

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 says,

Deuteronomy 14:22–23 NLT

22 “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. 23 Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

Leviticus 27:30 says,

Leviticus 27:30 NLT

30 “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.

The passage that we have read for the last two weeks, Proverbs 3:9-10,

Proverbs 3:9–10 ESV

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; 10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Honor the Lord with the “second and third fruits?”

No, with the “first fruits” of what you take in!

If you remember, last week, I mentioned about Cain and Abel and their offerings to the Lord.

Why didn’t God accept Caine’s offering?

Genesis 4:3-5,

Genesis 4:3–5 ESV

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

Abel brought to the Lord, as an offering, of the “first born” and their best portions.

Cain, on the other hand, simply brought some of the produce before the Lord as an offering.

A second best, after thought offering, which the Lord rejected!

So, God expects the “first” of our increase, to be given back to Him.

And not just the first, but according to Exodus 23:19, “The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.”

A quick question about giving back the tithe of the firstfruits to God.

Why did God say to Joshua and the children of Israel, before they went in to take Jericho, that they were not to take any of the gold and silver and everything made of bronze and iron, but they were to place them in the treasury of the Lord?

Simple, because Jericho was the “first’ city that Israel took going into the promised land!

And the firstfruits of everything, goes where?

Right........to God!

As I mentioned last week, the giving to God offerings and tithes existed long before the law was ever out into place.

In fact the first three offerings and tithes shown in the Word of God, were free will offerings.

There was that of Cain and Abel as we just mentioned.

There was also that of Abram tithing to Melchizedek in Genesis 14 as we also mentioned last week.

And then there was the that of Noah, in Genesis 8:20-9:1 we read,

Genesis 8:20–9:1 ESV

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Do you see what happened in this passage?

Noah, as soon as he got off of the ark, built an altar and offered up to God burnt offerings on that altar.

And its aroma pleased the Lord and He blessed Noah and the earth for it!

Through Noah and his offering to the Lord, God blessed Noah and the generations that came after!

And here is a point that I will make. You never know how many blessings you are living under right now, because of the sacrifices and offerings that others have made in generations in your past, where their hearts to please God and put Him first, may have been imparted the favor and blessings of God to you and upon your life!

As God said, “I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”

You and I live under the blessings of the offerings of those in the past generations!

What are those who come after you and I going to experience from what we have done?

Do you put God first and seek to offer up to Him the first and the best of all that you increase in, in tithes and offerings?

Now, I want to show you something this morning about the faithfulness and goodness of God, in talking about how He wants us to put Him first and give back the best of the firstfruits to Him.

Back in the passage that we read earlier in Deuteronomy 14, where God instructed the people of Israel to tithe one tenth of their crops, He also says this, “This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds.”

Now watch this part, because, as I told you last week, I am going to show you how God was putting into operation something that He, Himself would do, centuries later!

In Exodus 13:11-13 we read,

Exodus 13:11–13 ESV

11 “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12 you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. 13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

Now what does this mean?

Well, the certain animals were considered clean to God and certain animals were considered unclean to God.

A donkey, was an example of an unclean animal.

If someone had an animal who gave birth to its firstborn and it was an unclean animal, it had to be either redeemed from the Lord, since the firstborn belonged to Him, or it had to be killed.

So, God said that the people could redeem back the unclean animal with a clean animal, like a LAMB!

Does everyone see what I am saying so far?

Now, let me ask you a question, knowing what we know about the Bible and as to how spiritually, we were all born into the same condition, as Romans 3:23 tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, would you says that we were born as “clean”, or “unclean” before the Lord?

Right.......we were ALL born unclean!

Now, let me ask another question, was Jesus, the Son of God, born as a “clean”, or as an “unclean” person?

Yes and amen.........Jesus was born as the only “clean” human to ever be born!

Now watch this.........the unclean had to be redeemed by the CLEAN!!

Does everyone see what God was doing when He established this thousands of years ago, and what He ultimately did 2,000 years ago with His own Son?

God tithed of the firstfruits and of the first born, just as He asks of us!

He withheld nothing from you and I. He gave His best for us, so that we might become His children!

And as Paul said in Colossians 1, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

Jesus, in being the firstborn of from the dead, fulfilled the firstfuits offering to God and from that, God would then bless the harvest that comes after it.

In other words, you and I and everyone who comes to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, is part of that great harvest!

Romans 8:28-30 tells us,

Romans 8:28–30 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Praise God, because of Jesus becoming the sacrificial Lamb of God and redeeming you and I, we have now stepped into and inherited the rights of the “firstborn” according to God and His Word and His will!

We may go into who we are in Christ as the “FIRSTBORN” next week!