Sermons for March 30, 2014

Sunday Adult Bible Class:   Hosea Overview and Jonah Overview

 

Morning Worship Sermon:  Romans 11:24-32

 

 

Israel as a nation is to be saved as the crowning act (those that are elect) of God’s mercy: Romans 11:26-32

26  and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB

• When it says “All Israel shall be saved” it cannot mean that every individual Jew is to come right at last.  Paul’s doctrine is not “That not one life shall be destroyed, or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete;” but evidently that Israel in its national capacity shall yet be gathered home to God. 

 

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Sermon for the Evening Worship Message:

Luke 4  Application Of The Sermon of Jesus

The Purpose of the Ministry of Jesus

Jesus Christ, Perching and Teaching:

 

A vital feature of Jesus Christ’s ministry, focusing on his authoritative proclamation of the kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ’s mission as preaching and teaching

• Luke 4:43; Mark 1:38; Matthew 11:5; Luke 7:22: Mark 6:6; John  7:16 and Acts 1:1

Jesus Christ was regarded as a teacher and prophet

• John 1:38 “Rabbi” was an honorific title given to Jesus Christ unofficially by the people.
• Matthew 16:14; Mark 8:28; Luke 9:19; Matthew 23:10; 26:25; Mark 9:5; 10:51 and John 13:13

Luke 4:18 Jesus is speaking in 18 and 19     

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

1. because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
2. he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
3. to preach deliverance to the captives,
4. and recovering of sight to the blind,
5. to set at liberty them that are bruised, (18)

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Luke here quotes, with a few important variations, from the LXX. of Isaiah 61:1, Isaiah 61:2. The clause, “to set at liberty them that are bruised,” does not occur the present text of Isaiah.

To Explain a Text Many Not Mean Just One Word

Romans 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery –so * that you will not be wise in your own estimation –that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; (NASB) or in NKJV: For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Last Sunday …sermon from Romans 11:25-32 was the goal. What happen I got stuck on Vs. 25 and the first word “FOR” and that is as far as I got after 45 minutes. Now perhaps that is taken the expositional exegesis a bit too far.

My goal was to answer the question  in vs. 26  “All Israel” I wanted to finish this chapter by giving the answer of what does the word “all” means. How many Jews will be saved, and when?

But I never got to that answer.

So here is the Notes that I had on this 25th verse:

For (gar) is a conjunction which means because.

• Whenever you see a verse begin with for, a good habit to develop is to ask yourself “Because of what?” “Why is this for at the beginning of the passage?” “What is Paul linking it with?”
• Observe that Paul has just asked “how much more shall these who are the natural branches (the Jews) be grafted into their own olive tree?” Paul had just explained the olive tree which represents the promises given to the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) which were rooted in the Abrahamic covenant. He had stated that the olive tree was a cultivated olive tree, and that the Gentiles who are participating in it as branches grafted in are not the natural branches, which are Jews.
• In light of this truth, Paul wants the Gentiles to understand that there is greater potential (how much more) for unbelieving Israel to come to faith than there was for Gentiles who are saved by adopting that which has a Jewish “foundation”.
• In other words, Christianity was founded on the OT Scriptures which were the privileged possession of the Jews and we Gentiles have come to believe in a Jewish Messiah.
• Paul’s point is that we Gentiles need to think about this dynamic (for I do not want you brethren to be uniformed…). If we Gentiles who were unnatural branches came to believe in the Messiah as our Savior, how much more likely is it for God to turn unbelieving Jews of Israel to faith in Messiah.
• In other words, the Jews have a much greater affinity and natural connection then Gentiles. And yet we Gentiles (wild olive branches) did come to faith, even though we had less affinity for the natural olive tree. And since this has happened to you Gentiles, don’t be surprised when Israel comes to faith in what is often incorrectly regarded as a “western religion” for in fact more accurately Christianity is in its origin a “middle eastern religion”.

Study the Text For A Sermon

Although your professor may have specific instructions that differ from what this guide presents, here are the basic steps common to most exegesis papers. You may go step-by-step, or jump to the topic of interest to you.

1. Choose a Passage

2. Examine the Historical, Cultural, and Literary Background

3. Perform Exegesis of Each Verse

4. Offer an Overall Interpretation

5. Provide an Application of the Passage

A pericope comes from the Greek language, meaning, “a cutting-out”.  It is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, thus forming a short passage suitable for public reading from a text, that usually refers to sacred scripture.

Why I Don’t Preach Against Going To Movies

 

]Charity and I went to see the film God Is Not Dead. 

My mindset, that of a Christian Pastor/Teacher, has been for 49 years.  My father was a preacher and he was a great preacher and father and husband and friend.  I learned a lot from him.  What I learned from him was as a father, I don’t remember a lot about his preaching.  I learned what he believed by what he would want us to live. 

Dad was not into movies or films or television.  Looking back  to the 60’’s there was not much on TV that was so harmful.  And going to the movies was not something that we did either.  I do remember the first movie I saw at the movie place was “Gone With The Wind>”  To this day I still like that movie.   Jerry Lewis was on at the movies too, but  we just didn’t go a lot. Maybe when we went to visit our Grandparents Greene in North Carolina, we would go see a Jerry Lewis movie with our cousins.

Going to movies was something that we related to as SIN.  Hollywood and the like.  When I first started out preaching and teaching, this was the one topic that you just had to address.  You couldn’t preach without mentioning something that was sinful: movies, dancing, playing cards, drinking beer, having long hair, tattoos, you know the list.  It was not preaching if you did not address all these things that you did not do.   Those were the days. 

Well, finally in 1982 when I was at First Baptist Church, Altoona, Kansas after two years of preaching Jack Hyles type of preaching I went to the Shepherd’s Conference at Grace Community Church, where Dr. John MacArthur pastors, and learned what real preaching was.  That was a shock.

I finally learned what the  onus or responsibility of the pastor was.  I began teaching verse by verse the book of Matthew.  I learned that my onus was to teach the Word of God, to teach from the Bible, and from the book of Matthew to teach what the chapter was saying.

What I discovered was the first chapter of Matthew did not say one thing about dancing, and going to movies, I was shocked,   So the sermon I was told had to give understanding of the scripture that was before me when I preached.  So how am I going to get in the sins I wanted to address, after all I wanted people to live right.

God’s goal is to conform His people into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.   I was told that the means whereby we do this is to use the ancient text called the Word of God. I was to give understanding of what Matthew  had written down in the Gospel of Matthew. That was a shock.

If I was going to help the people learn how to live the Christian life, and become believers that loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all their hearts, soul and mind, then I had to present to them the Word of God as was written in the book of Matthew, Romans, I Corinthians, Acts, etc.

I learned that preaching all starts with a text.  and scripture was to be the predominant medium of divine communication to people who were under our care as a Shepherd/Pastor/Teacher. 

I was told (John MacArthur and the staff) that as a preacher I had this one responsibility and that was to teach the text that was before me each week.

So from October 1982 when I begin to teach expositionally, that is verse by verse.  I made myself say only what the text was saying. 

So from Jack Hyles type of preaching to John MacArthur type of teaching I began this journey that has lasted now for thirty-two years.

Our assistant pastor at FBC was telling the people that I had quit preaching and went to teaching, that I had quit preaching on sin. And I had another preacher friend say, “Charles if you would quit spending so much time studying and start preaching you would have a bigger church.”

I had learned that if the Scripture didn’t say it I was not to preach it. If the scripture that I was to teach didn’t say anything about a specific sin I was not to bring it up. 

Now this was for me  a new special hermeneutics, the science of interpretation of Scripture. Not only how to preach but how to understand  the Word of God.  Learning to say what the author said, rather than what I want to say. 

I  had always believed that preaching the Word of God was preaching on SIN, and getting people saved, and living right, and going out soul winning, and dressing right.  Which is still our goal, but now there is a new way of accomplishing that.  Preach the Scriptures verse by verse.

I learned that as preachers we were to preach the Word and then allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in the lives of those who heard the Word.

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Charity you can stop proof reading now. And thanks, and have I been truthful about what I have said?

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I just read the review from http://www.avclub.com/review/gods-not-dead-mess-even-christian-film-standards-202571 and  which said in the open paragrapha

Even by the rather lax standards of the Christian film industry, God’s Not Dead is a disaster. It’s an uninspired amble past a variety of Christian-email-forward boogeymen that feels far too long at just 113 minutes. Resembling a megachurch more than a movie, it’s been designed not to convey any particular message, but to reinforce the stereotypes its chosen audience already holds. It weirdly fetishizes persecution, and many of its story decisions—like randomly tossing in Duck Dynasty stars Willie and Korie Robertson or concluding on an endless concert from popular Christian rock group Newsboys—seem designed to simply get butts in seats. To say God’s Not Dead preaches to the choir would be an understatement. It’s the pastor, staring in a mirror, preaching to himself.

Another website http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/25/gods-not-dead-producer-answers-critics-who-say-film-is-too-over-the-top/

“Friendly Atheist” blogger Hemant Mehta called the film ”one of those movies ripped right from the pages of Snopes.” And Libby Anne of the “Love, Joy, Feminism” blog said its premise is “so unrealistic as to be ludicrous.”

 

While Wolfe acknowledged that the film is essentially preaching to the choir because it helps “people know more of why they believe what they believe,” he also said that there is potential for “God’s Not Dead” to reach nonbelievers, too.

There is a video of an interview of Kevin Sorbo, lead actor in the God’s Not Dead movie http://godsnotdead.org/

 

PERSONALLY CHARITY AND CHARLES WHISNANT, LIKED THE FILM.

Faith To Keep The Law

 

We are to keep the Law’s of God.  By our new found spirit of Christ we are giving the ability to be obedient to the Word of Christ in our living.

We have the Spirit=aided means of keeping this divine demand, and we have this empowerment that is available to every one of us as believers  to be obedient to the laws of Christ in our lives.

Acquiescence and abiding by divine demand is always to be accomplished not in our own strength, but by the wonder ful grace of God and the means of enablement is of the Holy Spirit, and through the means that we have faith to obey

The Jews tried to keep the Law in an legalistic attempt at compliance with God’s demands and gain His favor . But in Christ as new creators in Christ t0 keep the law is a spiritual one with faith as the instrument and the Holy Spirit as the empowering agent to bring about the desire and ability to keep the laws of Christ..

Those who have been enabled by the Holy Spirit rightly they understand it the right light of Christ and they are acquiescence and abiding in the divine demands of Christ in their lives.

And those who have not yet been enabled by the Holy Spirit do not yet rightly understand the need to be obedient to Christ’s laws unto a holy life in Christ.  They don’t yet understand the law aright in the light of Jesus Christ and yet to be set free to make a beginning of trying to obey it with humble joy.

 

 

 

 

Rivers of Joy Baptist Church, Minford, Ohio Fellowship

Charity and Charles enjoy taking some of our members out to eat the last few Sunday’s

Janet and Bill Ramey have been good friends and good members of Rivers of Joy Baptist CHurch

Charity Whisnant and Peggy Hall good friends at Rivers of Joy Baptist Church

Janet Ramey with the kids, Carlos Grant and Ava Mills and her little brother (baby)

Christian Home Crusade 2014

 

When I hide myself in the Rock of Ages cleft for me!

When I hide myself in the Rock of Ages cleft for me!

(Alexander Smellie, “The Hour of Silence” 1899)

“As the mountains surround Jerusalem–so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore!” Psalm 125:2

God, to the humble heart that leans on Him, is like the mountains which surround Jerusalem. In the mountain there is safety.
In this dangerous world, I am . . .
  pursued and hunted by principalities and powers,
  in peril of traps and snares and temptations,
  unable to secure my deliverance.
But God in Jesus Christ, becomes . . .
  my Refuge,
  my Rock,
  my Fortress,
  my Shield,
  my Deliverer,
  and my Strength!

I flee to Him, and I am in a secure dwelling–there is no evil which can befall me now. When I hide myself in the Rock of Ages cleft for me–who can separate me from the love of Christ? That Rock Himself would have to crumble, before any harm could come to my soul! I am so weak in itself–yet so strong in its Savior.

In the mountain there is assurance. I feel that the ground is solid and stable underneath my feet. My sorrow and sighing should flee away. My fears should be scattered. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are eternally mine! From all forebodings and anxieties, my Lord means me to be set free.

In the mountain there is everlastingness. My soul is wise when it builds its life-house on the Rock of . . .
  God’s promises,
  God’s grace,
  God’s salvation!

The storm will never be able to blow it down.
The gates of Hell will never prevail against it.
Through the countless and varied changes of my lot–through death and through the long eternity that lies beyond–it will endure, incorruptible, immovable, abiding!

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains–where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth! He will not let your foot slip–He who watches over you will not slumber. The Lord watches over you–the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm–He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore!” Psalm 121

Why Do People Feel A Need to Have a Weapon?

Scripture teaches that we are totally depraved, and that includes our intellectual, as well as our volitional and emotional aspects. Yes, our feelings sometimes lead us into sin, but the same is true of our intellects. If we seek to remedy our emotionalism by bringing our emotions into line with depraved intellectual concepts, there is no net gain. Similarly, Scripture teaches that God’s grace saves us as whole persons. Our thinking, acting, and feeling are all changed by regeneration. God’s grace leads us to seek conformity with God’s Word. The important thing is not to bring the emotions into line with the intellect, but to bring both emotions and intellect into line with God’s Word.
– John Frame

What would be the homiletically correct sermon that would give  understand that I could give the appropriate applications that would be relevant for our 21st congregation on the need or right to wear or have a gun that they could shoot a kill or wound another person?

I am not one of those Hollywood people that are against guns and killing deer.  We are in a society today and have always have been a violent society that have little problem in  taking another persons life for drugs, out of greed, anger and a number of other reasons, people want people dead.

There are others that believe that they need to project themselves from drug thugs that want their drugs or money to buy drugs.  There are enough reasons why many people are scared to death about the possibility of getting shot. You go to a movie, go to the mall, go to the part, be in school, walking down the street in your neighborhood,  afraid of picking up a hitchhiker, someone breaking into your home. 

So should a person carry a gun at all times?  How have we developed this mindset that we need to project our self and family from the people who have little regard for life of others?

We have this fear that someone is going to break into our home, and of course many homes have been broken into, like our home was three times.  So many  have an elaborate security system to give warning that

someone is breaking into your home.  Maybe it’s the sane and wise thing to do is to of course. 

There have been a fear put into society that they could be shot anywhere and at anytime, even in a church service or on a hospital bed or at a wedding.  So many live with a fear of getting killed, or robbed. And I would say there are reasons why many are fearful.

What is the phobia for the fear of getting killed?  I have a real fear of any kind of dogs.

Anyway, one of the fear that I don’t have is getting killed, or getting robbed? I sense no real need of having a gun for protection.  Well I think about getting attack by dogs sometimes. 

I sense no fear of someone breaking into our house, or car. While of course it could happen and has happen, and could happen again.  I am glad I don’t live in fear, so why is that?

Would I have lest fear if I had a gun to project again those who have little regard for life? 

So would I be wrong in this view, I will leave it up to the Lord to project our property and life?  Is there a clear understanding in the text of scripture that we should not fear what man do to us?  Are we to believe that we are in the hands of the sovereign God?  Are we being so naïve to think that we can live without fear of what might happen to us?

I believe the answer is why do we want to carry a weapon for protection (I am not talking about those whose job it is to project us like the police, etc. I am thankful for those who have the need to have a weapon.)

Moving In The Right Direction

Scripture teaches that we are totally depraved, and that includes our intellectual, as well as our volitional and emotional aspects. Yes, our feelings
sometimes lead us into sin, but the same is true of our intellects. If we seek to remedy our emotionalism by bringing our emotions into line with depraved
intellectual concepts, there is no net gain. Similarly, Scripture teaches that God’s grace saves us as whole persons. Our thinking, acting, and feeling are all
changed by regeneration. God’s grace leads us to seek conformity with God’s
Word. The important thing is not to bring the emotions into line with the
intellect, but to bring both emotions and intellect into line with God’s
Word.
– John Frame

Today I have downloaded this past Sunday’s A.M. sermon and also P.M. sermon, I have put on YouTube the Sunday A.M. and now putting the P.M. Sermon on YouTube. March 18 2018

To put the whole sermon on YouTube takes 15 hours.  I cut down the sermons into 15 minutes, and this process takes 3 hours.  I must have a low internet modems. 

I must admit I have a problem with liking shirts.  Why this has happen I have no clue.  But I must admit that today I bought eight very nice dress shirts to wear, and I paid the sum of $19.85.  And I remember going to J.C. Pennys and paying $45 per shirt, and the ties were $25.  Today a necktie cost $45.

Then picked up Charity from Union Mills, and we went out to eat. Love the time with my lovely wife.  Came home around 5 p.m.

The Lord is rich in his mercy and gracious in His blessings to us.