Sermon Notes & Videos
2023-11-24 | Romans 3:21-31 | The Romans Rollercoaster
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It’s the Romans rollercoaster. It happens throughout. One minute he seems to be saying one thing, the next something completely opposite. Up and down and up and down, some of the peaks so high you are all but certain, then the breakneck rush into the valley, only to be at the peak again before you can take a breath. Phrases like “the righteousness of God apart from the law” pepper Paul’s letter, but just when he knows your brain is settling in one direction, he drops a doctrinal truth bomb into your faith garden. “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
There is such a heavy emphasis on righteousness, faith and grace in Paul’s writings, as well there should be, when you consider historically how poorly God’s people understood righteousness, handled faith, and how often they abused grace. It’s true even today. Yet, at the same time he is forced to temper his emphasis on righteousness in Christ through faith and his beautiful explanation of God’s grace, with occasional reminders that imparted righteousness still demands obedience, faith does not replace law, and grace cannot redefine sin.
The delicate balance necessitated by the large rollercoaster-like peaks and valleys in Romans requires Paul to accentuate that where sin rises, grace rises even higher, but that does not make it right to purposely indulge in sin, just to witness the power of grace in action. Sure, the penalties for your sins are covered, but you can’t sin sloppily, or even worse purposefully, with confidence that God’s grace will just smooth it over for you. You were delivered from the penalties for your transgressions, not from the law which defines them. The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is not just a sign you’ve been forgiven, it’s evidence you’ve been empowered to obey God’s commands before there’s a need to be forgiven. The best way to wrap your mind around these deep revelations is to go back to the root. Search the Old Testament Scriptures; they testify of Christ. Yes, the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms were written concerning Christ. Let your mind be opened to understanding from that perspective and you just might truly comprehend the Scriptures.
2023-11-17 | Romans 3:1-20 | Wrongthink & Thoughtcrimes
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At times, the very language we speak contains no single word to best describe the ideas coming forth so, as a necessity, new words are birthed into our language. Here are a few words that have been added in the past and some brand new words, hot off the press. You might find them a bit amusing, yet, they are very serious because they address grave issues. Ultimately, it is the meaning, the high concepts we are after to help open your mind.
We begin with thoughtcrimes. In the dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1949), by George Orwell, a thoughtcrime describes a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, beliefs, and doubts—ideas that contradict the tenets and dominant ideology of the ruling elite. A thoughtcrime describes the theological practice of “disbelief” or, in other words, the rejection of current orthodoxy and ideology!
Y’shua Himself would have been accused of thoughtcrimes every time He said, “You’ve heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you… ‘You murder each time you have rage; you commit adultery each time your wandering eyes lust after a woman; you lie each time you look for a loophole to break a promise; you are guilty each time you just can’t let go of your desire for revenge.’ Y’shua rejected the current orthodoxy and said, ‘Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you.’” Y’shua was the chief offender; He committed thoughtcrimes regularly and consistently exposed wrongthink, especially the orthodoxy of the ruling religious class.
Wrongthink is a close cousin of thoughtcrime. Think of it as the opposite side of the coin. It is when a belief or opinion is identified that should be condemned as socially, ideologically, politically, morally, theologically, or spiritually unacceptable. It specifically points to a skewed way of thinking that would lead to some very bad choices. Paul spent much time exposing wrongthink in an attempt to correct erroneous reasoning. This is a perfect example; “If my wickedness ultimately accentuates God’s virtue, I can be as wicked as I’d like. It will just make God look that much better!” That is quintessential wrongthink. Now, here are a few new words hot off the press:
- [Yahoracles] the oracles of God; Divine revelation recorded by man and preserved in writing.
- [Foulthink] a stinking thinking brand of wrongthink with thoughts that are so badly infected that they have become putrid, wicked, immoral, disgusting, revolting, repulsive, repugnant, detestable, awful, dreadful, horrible, hideous, appalling, atrocious, vile, and abominable.
- [Quotefest] a feast of biblical references used to explicate a doctrinal statement, with the intent to analyze and develop an idea or principle in detail, in order to reveal its deepest meaning.
- [Underlaw] the requisite condemnation for sins for which there is no remedy.
And now that we have our new vocabulary, let’s dive in. What advantage has the Jew? Much in every way!
2023-11-10 | Romans 2:17-29 | Circumcision Reimagined
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Those who have been instructed from the Torah, traditionally the Jews, by inference practice what is, “the excellent and superior way of life,” and by extension say, “they know God’s will.” Someday in the millennial kingdom, Christians will rule and reign as overseers with Christ within God’s governmental system, which naturally uses His laws as the framework for a well-functioning and healthy society. So, it must stand to reason that being well-versed in the grace-empowered administration of God’s commands is necessary.
Presently, many who come to Y’shua from the Jewish faith should have an advantage, having been raised in a biblical law based culture. The opportunity to become teachers and mentors to others, who have come to faith in Christ, but from a pagan world, is vast. Faithful Jews simply have the upbringing, background, and previous knowledge to do it well. Wouldn’t it be prudent to develop a duplicatable system that institutes God’s laws in a fresh new way? It must be inspired and empowered by God’s grace, not the same system that, in many ways, blinded Jews from recognizing Y’shua.
However, if you claim to represent God, while living in habitual disobedience, your hypocrisy can damage new converts, either by teaching them that authenticity and integrity are unnecessary, or by misrepresenting the intention and application of God’s commands, causing those weaker in the faith to stumble. What is most critical to recognize, however, is that obedience to the Law is a matter of the heart. Your motivation, intention, inspiration, and what empowers your obedience is what is most important. That does not discount the value of actually obeying God’s commands; it just emphasizes that how and why you obey matters more.
Paul is not teaching anything that is not completely consistent with the writings of Moses. Your discipleship training is really rulership training for God’s kingdom, and leadership training for your personal development. You are supposed to learn how to apply the power of God’s grace toward His divine instructions: spiritual practices, lifestyle laws, and even the physical laws of the universe. To do so you should practice implementing grace-empowered obedience right now, here on earth, during this life. That is what will insert the government of heaven into everything you do; that is what will bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
2023-11-03 | Romans 2:1-16 | Vernacular
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It can all be very confusing and that is why words matter. A common language is critical because without it nothing we express has any chance to offer shared meaning. Words matter and so does vernacular. How does the ordinary person speak? What does the everyday man believe a word means? And when we look back and study or even translate the words of a people or culture not our own, what terminology were they using when they engaged with the subject matter in which we now have interest? And if you are the one responsible for transmitting meaning across time and cultures, you must be careful to consider what the words meant to those for whom you’ve taken the authority to represent.
“The cat got my tongue” may mean something very specific to you, but if you preach to another people from a different culture who speak a different language, it’s not safe to assume a direct translation of “cat” and “tongue” will get the job done, if you suddenly find yourself short on words. Ah, there’s another one, “short on words!” Maybe, “the thief stole my voice” is what they would understand to mean the same as “the cat got my tongue.” And that is precisely the point: thief replaces cat; stole replaces got; and voice replaces tongue—same meaning, completely different vernacular.
Can you imagine how often that happens in Bible translations? Just listen to this. “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” How does that sit with your current understanding of the path to eternal redemption according to good Christian doctrine? “For by grace you have been saved through faith; …it is the gift of God, not of works.” Both of these phrases are credited to the same author, Paul. Yet, moments later in the same letter where he claimed “the doers of the law shall be justified,” he wrote: “Therefore by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” And in the same letter he wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; …it is the gift of God, not of works,” he continued with, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
Don’t you think it would be a good idea to understand a Jewish man’s vernacular in the first century when we contrast, in the English language, “doers of the law and works of the law?” One paves the way to eternal redemption; one doesn’t. “The cat got your tongue?” Well, on a topic this important, words and vernacular are the difference between life and death!
2023-10-27 | Romans 1:18-32 | In the Image of God
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Set-apart from all other creation, God uniquely created mankind to truly know Him. For that to happen, He created us “in His Image.” First He created Adam, who had within him, both male and female DNA. All men do! And even before Adam had a companion in the garden, God called Adam “them” and said, “This is My image,” and told him/them to multiply and fill the earth. For that to be possible, hidden within Adam, this visible male, was both a woman and child. Even while he was standing alone in the garden, they were inside him already, just not visible. But, they could not remain invisible if mankind was meant to know God, to understand what it means to be created in God’s image. His invisible attributes had to become clear for everyone to see He is the only real God. After that, no one could offer ignorance as an excuse.
So, God took some female DNA from Adam and fashioned a woman. In a very real sense He “extracted” the woman from the man to make her visible. Now we could see the man and the woman separately with all their distinct characteristics. “This is His image.” And He commanded that they marry and be fruitful and multiply, thus completing the family—the perfect image of the Creator Himself. God is a Divine Family, the Father, Spirit and Son, thus His expressed image needed to be represented by all the same separate and distinct family members. As such, the human family was created in God’s image, the man—a husband and father; the woman—a wife and mother; and the children as the fruit of their marriage. Do you see it: Father, Spirit and Son?
When you contemplate the existential crisis of our day, you can simplify it into two opposing beliefs. One position believes men and women are distinct and definitive, marriage is a holy union between them, and children are the blessed fruit of that union. The other position believes any or all of the following: gender is not determined by genetics; it is a social construct and there has never been a distinction between a man and a woman, nor is gender limited to male or female, or even the idea that you must pick only one. Marriage is unnecessary, or if desired, may take place between any genders or no genders at all. And of course, the unborn child is the fruit of nothing. It is not even human or alive, and has no rights to live, other than what the person carrying that clump of tissue permits. By the way, the person incubating that amorphous cluster of cells can be a woman or a man or neither, just to clarify.
One side believes in the family, as God presents it to us, as His visible image. The other has rejected any or all aspects of the family, and by inference has rejected the image of God Himself. In other words, there is no God! Could opposing beliefs be any more contrary? The destruction of the family is the enemy’s chief strategy and thus the restoration of the family to the image of our Creator is the most important work on earth today. The wrath of God is coming against all who oppose this reality.
2023-10-20 | Romans 1:1-17 | From Faith to Faith
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It’s a mouthful, but if you can’t string these words together and understand what they mean—grace-empowered-faith-based-obedience to God—then it will be impossible for you to understand the Book of Romans, and more importantly, how those words unpack, “The just shall live by faith.” It’s a life of famous faith; that’s what it will take, faith imparted and faith practiced. You can’t practice the faith necessary to save you; that brand comes gift-wrapped from heaven. And you can’t bury that gift in the sand and believe your life will be pleasing to God. Your faith must be practiced—demonstrated by obedience.
From faith to faith explains what those ancient words mean; “The just live by faith.” That is how the righteousness of God becomes evident to others. By God’s grace, through faith, you received a free invitation into His family. But, you must be aware that the gift also confers upon you a responsibility; you are justified by free faith to then live by faith—you must practice your faith. And you practice your faith by purposely accessing God’s grace. That is how your faith-filled-grace-empowered life reveals God’s righteousness to the world—from faith to faith. It’s the life of grace-empowered-faith-based-obedience to God.