Sermon in Rockford 06.11.2016

Amen. Holy and righteous God, our beloved Heavenly Father, as we pause before your holy word this evening, we thank you for the blessings of this day. You have given us all that is needful for this body and life. You have gifted us with believing friends and family. You have provided food and clothing in abundance. And in all things of necessity, you have taken such good care of us. Even in times of trial, we have experienced your loving hand helping us and encouraging us as we journey homeward.

We thank you for the blessings of this day. We also thank you, dear Father, for giving us your kingdom, a kingdom where we can dwell as your children, walking with believing friends, escorts, hand in hand, encouraging one another as we take steps home. But most of all, this evening, dear Father, we thank you for giving us your Son, whom you sent into this sinful world to suffer, to die, to be resurrected on our behalf, so that we tonight can believe upon him, and that we have faith and hope of one day joining you there in the glory of heaven.

So this evening, dear Father, as we gather before your word, we pray for your service blessing. You know the needs of each of us. And so we pray that you would give words to speak, that you would give ears to hear. But most of all, dear Father, that you would give hearts to believe. Break those crumbs of grace small enough that the weakest and poorest might be nourished and fed, that the most precious of all may be the grace of God around your holy and precious word. All of this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

This evening, dear brothers and sisters, I will read a few verses that are recorded in the second epistle of Timothy, the fourth chapter, verses 6, 7, and 8. They are words that have been assigned for this Sunday when we think about the theme of today, from death to life. I'll read these words in Jesus' name.

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all of them also, that love his appearing." Amen.

This very familiar portion of God's word are words that the Apostle Paul spoke to a young servant, young man, whose name was Timothy. Paul wrote a few of these pastoral letters as he was very near the end of his life. He was in Rome. He would have remembered Timothy, a dear friend, a dear brother, a dear servant of the word and the work of the vineyard. And he wanted Timothy, as a father would make those kinds of final preparations for their son if the father knew that he was passing from this life to eternity.

Some of you probably would know the situation that was in Colorado some years ago where there was a 15-year-old son who had been diagnosed with cancer. He battled valiantly against that illness. But after some time, he succumbed to that. It wasn't necessarily the cancer, but complications due to the treatment. Shortly before this son passed, he and his father had a final visit together. And so I asked the father, what did you speak of? What would you, as a father, speak to your son or your child, knowing that your days were numbered, and you are soon going to see your son pass from this life to eternity? Someday maybe you'll get that kind of an opportunity to visit with this father. I won't share his personal visits. But it was this kind of visit where he said, surely we spoke of the most important matters. We spoke of heaven.

When Paul wrote this epistle to young Timothy, Paul was nearing the end of his life. And Paul had that kind of a life that it would take some days and weeks to share or even to visit about Paul's life. It was such an interesting life. He was born. His name was Saul. He was born in the city of Tarsus. Therefore, he's known as Saul of Tarsus. He was born as a Jew. And he learned in the city of Tarsus very, very well and very much about the customs of the Jews, the Jewish people. He studied scriptures. He was a very diligent student of the Word. It says in the Bible that he studied under High Priest Gamaliel, one of the very well-renowned priests of that day. And he was very instrumental in teaching Paul everything that he knew.

But one thing was missing from Paul, from Saul. And that was living faith. By Paul's own admission, he was a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, meaning that he had studied and learned as well as any. He knew Mosaic Law. He read and studied much about what was written. He was so learned and knowledgeable that he didn't need anything else. In fact, he was so sure and confident of his own understanding and position in life that he was even persecuting the Christians of his day. They were the followers of the way of the cross.

When he had heard of Jesus, perhaps, and it was such a thing that if someone had died the death of a cross in those days, it was a shameful death. It was because of some very heinous crime that they had committed. And this is the life that Jesus had endured. And so when he would have heard of this Jesus, it would have been a shameful thing for him to think of why Jesus would have suffered that kind of a death. And then this would have been a very difficult thing for Saul or Paul for perhaps his whole life because it was something for him to consider.

Because of the persecution of the believers, Paul was at first, for sure, not well liked after his conversion. He went into hiding for some time because of those that were, because he was fearful for his life. But this teaching of the cross, as he writes in the epistle to the Corinthians, was foolishness. But then he also realized that this became the way of salvation.

So how was it that Paul, or Saul, was granted grace to believe? You remember on the way to Damascus, as he was there with letters, bringing them so that he would take more and additional Christians captive to bring them back and to persecute them. When Jesus appeared to him on the way there, and there when Jesus appeared, this was after Jesus' ascension into heaven, the Lord appeared to Paul. And we can read from the book of Acts of that account.

And it's interesting that I suppose in many ways a person can be called into God's kingdom. So why was it that Paul was blinded? Not everybody that's called and granted grace to believe is blinded. But I thought maybe it was this way that Paul was so wise in himself, or Saul, we should say, at this point, he was so wise in himself that he had his own understanding and his own vision as to what was right and what was wrong. And even Paul's own understanding needed to be stripped away so that he would become a child of God.

So God calls men, God calls people, in many different ways in life. We know and believe that every person that is born into this world is born heaven acceptable. A baby born into this world is that kind of a heaven acceptable guest. It defies human understanding. How can this be? This baby, they don't know anything. How can they be heaven acceptable? It's because they believe. They have that kind of simple, childlike faith that is required for salvation.

Paul was able to learn of this much later in his life, this matter of faith, and how he writes in the book of Romans that we are justified by grace through faith. So, when that child is born, that child is born with two portions. It is born, of course, with the new man, but also with the old man. That old Adam, that sin-corrupt portion, that none of us have been able to escape.

When the psalmist David writes in the 139th Psalm, he speaks about, "In sin my mother conceived me." We are, as God's children, sinners and righteous at the same time. And it's such an interesting and difficult thing to comprehend that how can it be that we are not able to escape? That we are corrupt, but also righteous. It is because of the merit work of Christ. But if we didn't have faith, and we didn't have our sins forgiven, then we would be, as those on the outside of God's kingdom, we would not be heaven acceptable.

So this is where Paul found himself when he was on the road to Damascus, and he was struck blind there. The Lord said to him, "Isn't it hard to kick against the pricks?" And I think part of that was this, that Paul was now being called into God's kingdom. He felt the hand of God very closely in calling him. Is it the book of Hebrews that says, "Harden not your heart when you hear the voice of God calling." So when God calls a sinner, don't harden your heart, but rather, ask this kind of question, as Paul ended up asking, "What must I do?"

And so Paul was led, Saul was led, into the city of Damascus, and there he was for those three days. He was blind without his eyesight. You know, if it was so that Paul would have been granted grace to believe in any other way than through repentance or the preaching of the gospel, God, who appeared to him there on the way, would have forgiven him for his sins. And so, but he sent Saul into the city of Damascus, and there, we see the grace order of how it took place.

God then sent a man, a believing man, to go and to look up this Paul and speak to him. When this believing man went there, he did. He laid his hands on Paul. And Paul was granted grace to believe. His sins were forgiven through the preaching of God's word. This remains the same grace order of God's kingdom yet today.

If there is one who is seeking for God and for a righteous God and a way to make it to heaven, one must first find God's kingdom here upon earth. God's kingdom has been left here. God has ordained it so. And God gave that power to his kingdom to preach the word, to forgive sins, and so on.

At the end of both the gospel of Matthew and also John, Jesus said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations and baptize them." And in the book of John, he explains how he entrusted that Holy Spirit to his disciples. "And whosoever sins you remit or forgive, they are forgiven unto them. And whosoever sins you retain, they are retained."

So this kind of mission command was left to his kingdom. It was that same mission command that was given to that believing man that went to visit with Paul. We can read from the book of Acts a couple of different places where Paul was very... He explained it so well of how his conversion took place. And we marvel as to how this was with Paul.

But God told Paul that he has things that he must do. And he was going to show Paul things that he needed to endure for his name's sake. So when Paul was called to be a believer, now he embarked on a journey, a journey of living faith. He was a servant of the Word. He traveled. He traveled throughout many different countries. Many different service trips he was on. His life was not easy.

And when we read from his epistles, we find that Paul's life was very challenging. And when we read from the 12th chapter of or the 11th chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks a little bit about what he needed to suffer because of this call. For example, he says, "I speak as concerning reproach as though we had been weak, howbeit, where in soever any is bold, I speak foolishly. I am bold. I speak foolishly. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. And labor is more abundant and stripes above measure and prisons more frequent and deaths oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold, in nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of the churches, who is weak, and I am not weak, who is offended, and I burn not. If I must glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities."

He suffered, this dear brother, for the work. For the kingdom. But yet when we read from this portion of God's word that we used as our text this evening, he's writing to Timothy. And he could have been very discouraging. And he could have told Timothy, "That's not worth it. Look what all I've had to endure. If you travel on that same road, you're going to have to endure the same." But that's not what Paul told young Timothy. He knew that the end of his life was near. And he said, "Now I am ready to be offered. And the time of my departure is at hand. And I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith."

What was it that enabled Paul to continue? It wasn't his own strength at all. But it was a strength that God gave him to endure. He wanted to remain as a believer. And God blessed that. Through all of those perils and difficulties, God blessed him. And now he says he's ready to depart from this life.

So we could, of course, visit about Paul's life for a long, long time. But dear brothers and sisters, this evening, each one of us also has been given our life to live. I spoke recently, maybe I even shared it here, of how sometimes these great revelations come upon me. And I don't know where they come from, but they're these kind of foolish thoughts.

I was thinking about my life. And I was contemplating how God has cared so perfectly for me. And I thought that, you know, I've lived every day of my life. But what I was thinking was this, that I'm the only one that has experienced it, what I've lived, as intimately as I have. And it's the same, it's the same for you, brothers and sisters. It is your life that you've lived, that God has given you to live. You've lived your life also every day. And you know what your life is.

Paul was tempted. Paul was tried. Have you? Too often we think of, you know, these big lies. You know, and I think Paul is, is maybe, well, for sure he's one of the most well-written in scriptures. He wrote how many epistles. And Paul's life is left for us to study and examine. But what about those lies that we think to be less important or honorable? You know, Paul in one of his epistles also, when he speaks of this, he says those things that are less comely. We should heap more praise to that. Those things that we think in our minds to be something smaller, maybe we've got to think more on that.

And so, this evening, dear brothers and sisters, you have been called to be a child of God. It's not a small matter. It's a matter. I don't think there's a bigger matter in all of the earth than this, that you have been called to be a child of God. Do you realize that your soul, God loves just as much as your soul? As any others. He created you for eternity. He created you to be His own. And He would like nothing more than one day for you to be gathered into the granary of heaven.

So, your soul is not a small matter. It is as important to God as any others. So, that I think is what seems to be so important to me this evening. That God has called us in His place and His time. Paul himself, he said he was once dead to sin. He didn't understand what sin was until he was awakened to it.

So, if we understand what sin is, I think it's a great blessing. I don't like it. I've been like Paul. I've prayed many, many times that the thorn that is in my flesh would be removed. I don't like it a bit. I don't like it. I would much rather that my journey of faith would be flat, simple, and I could make it from here to the destination with little or no problem. But I have found it to be different than that.

Our journey is that kind of a journey that is through wilderness. It's through a battle. Our faith, the faith that we own in our heart, it must be something because the enemy of souls wants to take it from us so bad. He creates doubts. He creates temptations for us. He uses our own sin-corrupt flesh to war against that simple, childlike faith.

So it must be something that is so enviable that he wants it destroyed. Because he knows if he can destroy your faith, take your faith from you, or that you give it up, he knows that he's gained a victory. He also battles valiantly against God's kingdom. The enemy does. So God's kingdom also must be something special.

And how have you found it, brothers and sisters, to be? Have you found God's kingdom to be this kind of a place where there is grace and forgiveness? And there's peace there. There's joy there. There's righteousness there. Paul writes that God's kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. But the devil, the enemy of souls, hates God's kingdom. He hates our faith, and he does everything in his power to destroy it.

So it is this kind of battle that we are on. So are we hopeless or helpless? Not at all. But rather, as God's children, we are of all men most fortunate. How has it been that God has carried us and protected us in faith? He's given us everything that we need.

Now, when you reflect on your life as a little boy or little girl, and as I was reflecting on my life not too long ago, born and raised in a believing home, I don't understand the blessing that this is, or that this was. I hope in heaven I'll understand more perfectly. But in that believing home, there's the gospel preached. There's mom and dad that are willing and ready to forgive sins.

And perhaps your life has been much different than mine, but maybe not. You needed, I know I needed as a little boy, that gospel many, many times. You know, I can relate so clearly what the apostle wrote when he said, "The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do."

Countless times in my life I can ask myself the question that, why? Boy, are you so dense that you haven't learned your lesson yet. But I've struggled. But I've needed to learn how to use the gospel. It's not a bad thing. We've needed the gospel.

And Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, he found how important that gospel was. Where he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of strength to all who believe." For the believer, the gospel is a source of strength. You've experienced that, I'm sure.

And so this, as we heard through our dear brother this morning also, we've also heard that the gospel is a source of strength. And so this, as we understand the gospel, I think it's a source of strength.

I was in the store and I didn't have any money. And I stood in front of that candy rack and, oh, I was tempted. And I listened to the teaching of the enemy of souls. And I took some candy from that rack and I put it in my pocket. And I was getting ready to leave the store and I felt this big hand on my shoulder. And I looked up and it was the store owner. I was terrified. I didn't know what to do.

And so he asked me, he says, "Young man, do you have any money to pay for that candy?" And I said, "No." And so he took me into the back room there and he made all kinds of promises that he's going to call the police. And I was trembling. I didn't know how I was going to get out of this mess.

And I knew I should. I knew I should have listened to the devil because he'd tricked me before with those same kinds of sermons. But I listened again. So then this store owner, he asked this question, "What's your name?" Well, you know where this goes. I didn't tell him my proper name. I wasn't going to have him call home and talk to my mom and dad. I knew how disappointed they would have been.

And he said, "Where do you live?" And I said, "Well, I live in Michigan." Another lie. And one thing led to the next. And pretty soon I had this whole big mess. That, how do you get out of this? And finally, he never did call the police. But I left that store and I felt so pitiful.

And I went home. I was staying at my cousin's place that weekend. And I didn't go home until the end. I was staying there the weekend. And I told myself that when I got home, I was going to go straight and visit with mom and dad and put that sin away. And I didn't. The devil had said that, you know, you can carry that. It's not a big deal. But boy, the journey of faith was so difficult.

Day after day, I can relate exactly to what David wrote in the 32nd Psalm. Where is? The moisture turned to the drought of summer. Heaviness. And nobody else, I'm sure, had ever done anything as corrupt and as evil as I had. Night after night went by and I prayed that somehow, someway, I'd be given strength to speak of that which was burdening my conscience.

I tried to believe. I went to church on Sunday and believed the gospel. There was general proclamation of the gospel. And nothing helped relieve that pain that was there from the conscience. Until one day, I just decided it doesn't matter anymore. Whether or not mom and dad loved me or would shout me out of the house because I'm such a sinful child.

God gave me the strength to go into their bedroom and speak of that matter that it burned. And then I found what was so interesting that the devil was a liar from the get-go. Because he had told me that they wouldn't love me any longer. Well, this wasn't the case. They forgave me those sins. And to this day, have still carried me as one of their poor children.

We face, brothers and sisters, on this endeavor of faith. From the youngest time in our childhood, when we first start to experience the temptations that come to our flesh. And from the enemy of souls. That kind of battle that the enemy wants to tug us out of God's kingdom. But God holds tight to his own.

As we go from childhood and those childhood temptations into young adulthood. You, dear young believers, know what it is in your journey of living faith to feel tempted. You carry, also, your own sin-corrupt flesh. None of us can avoid it. We carry this treasure of faith in earthen vessels. That the excellency would not be of ourselves. But of God.

We have nothing that we can offer. But we can only rely on that which Jesus has done for us. Paul said he fought a good fight. It doesn't mean that he was successful. He was a good believer. But rather it means that it was a fight worth fighting. It's a good fight. It's a good battle, brothers and sisters, that we're on. Because God has called us into his kingdom. To be his own.

And at the end of this journey, there is a home waiting. What is that home like? You decide. I don't know. I wish I could be given a small glimpse. This morning again when our brother spoke of that. The experience that that mother had when her daughter was given life. Or her father.

I remember of that kind of trial that I had as a young man. When God took our two-month-old baby home. The trial was so, so difficult. And I remember thinking as I waited for the coroner to come. About two hours it took for them to come from the funeral home. I kept waiting and waiting for some kind of a miracle to happen. That I would hear my baby crying in the bedroom. But she never did.

The coroner came. Very respectfully. Very respectfully. A raptor. In that blanket. Took her out of my house and put her in his car and drove off. It was surely a trial of my faith. You brothers and sisters also experience similar trials in your own life. You are not alone. You are tried. Because God loves you. Those that He loves, He tries. But He doesn't either allow more trials than you can endure.

Well, that's what we say. Because it's so easy to believe that. Too often we feel almost that this trial that we're experiencing today is oppressive. Where I can't bear under it. But yet on the other side of that trial when we look back and the fresh air blows again and that trial is passed, it reminds us how closely God came and cared for us through that difficulty.

And He sends those escorts, those loving, believing friends to help us through those times. They come. They uplift. They carry. They preach the gospel. And we're given strength to take another step towards heaven.

So when we think from our life, from our childhood, through young adult, trials and temptations of youth, parents, accepting children, feeling the experiences and difficulties that come through raising those children, feeling the heartache that comes for those unbelieving young ones or those children that have denied faith, health-related issues, all of this we experience as trials.

But it keeps us mindful. How scripture says that here we have no continuing city, but we seek one that is to come. And then we reach that elderly part of life where we wait for that call to come. Think what it will be for us, brothers and sisters, when we have faith in our hearts and we're near the end of the journey and we can close our eyes to this life and we can sleep away in faith and the angels will come to usher us to the glory of heaven.

I think this is what Paul was able to see. "I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." Amen.

There, that faith will be changed to a crown of righteousness. Paul writes in the epistles to the Corinthians how there in heaven we will be given a new body. I can't imagine what that would be. But I know there in heaven there will be no sin. Amen. There will be no temptation. There will be no sorrow or sadness. And all is that worthwhile, brothers and sisters, endeavoring towards.

That's what Paul was able to see. And he wanted to encourage his young fellow co-worker, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all of them also that loved his appearing. That means us. Those of us who have been called into God's kingdom to be his own. That's what God has also in store for us.

So this evening, dear travel friends, be not faithless but believing. Do not doubt and worry that how will your journey end. God has called you until this day. He will protect you in living faith all the way until the end. All that is required of us is that we believe. It seems so simple. Just believe. But brothers and sisters, that's all. Nothing more. Nothing less. Simply believe.

This evening, dear travel friends, uplift your heart and believe that your sins are all forgiven in Jesus' name and precious atoning blood. Do you think Paul, who had been called out of darkness, called to be one of God's own, was able to live his life in such a miraculous way in his own time and in the time of the Lord to be able to live, to be able to be free, to be able to be whole, to be able to live?

And to be able to live, to be able to live. How did he contrast that which he had to what he was given? Immeasurable grace. Immeasurable forgiveness was granted him and also to us.

This evening, we have great hope. The journey of faith is a journey. It's a struggle. But it's a worthwhile struggle. You know, as kids we were always told anything that's worth having is a struggle. Things that are good and important require effort. And it's no different for us when we think about this journey of living faith.

Remain traveling and trusting in God's grace and His goodness. He will carry you home to the glory of heaven. But brothers and sisters, this evening, it's much easier in some ways to speak of those assuredness, promises of God, than to believe them.

I find myself so often doubting. And I don't doubt God's goodness. And I don't doubt the merit work of Christ. I don't doubt that for one moment. But what I doubt, at times, is that I'll make it to that glorious place of heaven because I am such a sinner. I feel my own corruption so close.

That then is the reason why I find myself doubting. Can I also, this evening, believe my sins and God's forgiveness? I want to believe just as you believe because I know and believe that God's goodness is good. I believe that God's goodness is good. And believing this way, we will all make it one day to the glory of heaven. In Jesus' name, amen.