Welcome to Bible Study Time. We come to you each Sunday morning on behalf of the Peace Church, and we want to invite you to join us for any of our services. We’re located 8 miles south and a half a mile west of Indiahoma, and we’re just 12 miles east of Manitou right on the Baseline Road. If you’d like more information about the Peace Church, you can find that on our website, which is www.ok-peacechurch.org
Last week we talked about the fact that Jesus Christ was not only the Son of God, but He was God the Son. The Christmas story is all about the fact that the virgin Mary conceived a son by the Holy Spirit so that her son was literally the Son of God. This is a concept that goes way back in Jewish history as well as pagan history.
In 2 Samuel, Chapter 7, God promised King David a son who would establish the throne of David in an everlasting kingdom, and God said that David's son would also be the Son of God. God's promise to David reads like this: When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. (2 Samuel 7:12-14 NKJV).
Well, the devil is the great imposter. He knows the plan of God because He knows how to read the Bible. He diligently researches every word of scripture for clues regarding the plan and purpose of God. Then he uses every resource he can muster to pervert, distort and discredit the plan of God. And this is what happened when God said that David's son would be the Son of God.
About 600 years after the time of King David, a child was born who, according to legend, was not a mortal, but rather he was the son of Zeus. This child grew up and became known as Alexander the Great. Some think that the legend was started by Alexander after he became the king, but others say it was started by Alexander's mother at the time of his birth. Regardless of this legends origin, this is typical of the way the devil works to imitate and discredit the plan of God.
The actual fulfillment of the prophecy that was given to David, was initiated when the Angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary, he said: And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:31-33 NKJV). The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35 NKJV).
Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Therefore, He was the Son of God. But the deeper spiritual truth of Christmas is that Jesus was also God the Son. He was a member of the triune Godhead composed of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As we saw last week, Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God, and He was God. As a member of the eternal, omnipotent, omniscient Godhead, He was God, and He was with God.
In the Bible we see that all three members of the Godhead function with absolute unity in every thought and deed. What one does, they all do. What one thinks, they all think. This is never so clearly seen as in the teachings of Jesus in the book of John.
In John, Chapter 5, Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda and this is John's account: For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. (John 5:16-23 NKJV).
In this passage, Jesus gives us a glimpse into the spiritual unity that exists between God the Father and God the Son. Jesus says that when the Father works, the Son also works, and that whatever the Father does, the Son also does. He says that the Father's love for the Son is unreserved and absolute, and because of His great love for the Son, He reveals everything He does to the Son.
Even when Jesus said that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son, we find in John 5:30 that Jesus says: I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. (John 5:30 NKJV). And in John 8:15 and 16, Jesus says: You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one according to the flesh. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. (John 8:15-16).
This absolute spiritual unity that exists between the three members of the Godhead is a beautiful thing, and it's the kind of unity that God wants to see in His Church today. Believers today are members of the Body of Christ, and we are therefore positioned in the Godhead with Christ. When Christians contend with one another and strive with one another, they are removing themselves from the spiritual unity that is inherent in the fellowship of the Godhead.
That's why Paul says to the Ephesians: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:1-6 NKJV).
To the Philippians, Paul said: Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4 NKJV).
God's desire for the Church which is the Body of Christ is that we might experience the beauty and joy of the spiritual unity that exists within the members of the Godhead. When we seek that unity, when we walk in humility and gentleness with longsuffering, we are walking worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ.
So Jesus Christ being born as the Son of God is the story of Christmas. But the story behind the story is that God the Son decided to leave the glory of heaven and take upon Himself a mortal body, a body of flesh and blood, so that He could die for our sins through the person of Jesus Christ.
Paul said to the Philippians that if we really want to fully experience the spiritual unity that exists between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we need to dedicate ourselves to being like Jesus Christ. He said: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV).
Then Paul said that because Jesus Christ was willing to humble Himself and walk in submission to the will of God, He has been exalted above all people and above all things. He said: Therefore God also has highly exalted (Jesus Christ) and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 NKJV). The implication of this passage is that if we humble ourselves like Jesus humbled Himself, we will not only experience the joy of fellowship with the Father, but we will be glorified and exalted with Jesus Christ.
With Christmas fast approaching, it is good for us to realize that the Good News of Christmas is more than just the fact that God the Son came to earth to live among men; the Good News is that Jesus Christ came to die for our sins so that we could enter into fellowship with God. In his first epistle, the Apostle John spoke of Jesus and said: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life — that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. (John 1:1-4 NKJV).
Many people spend their whole lives running from God. But the truth is that God wants only good things for us. We may think that money and the pleasures of this world will bring happiness, but real joy and happiness come from fellowship with God. God is the source of all true love, peace and joy, and we can only gain access to those things as we enter into fellowship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
When we look at the Bible as a whole, and when we think about the full scope of the life of a believer, we can see that there are actually three distinct stages that people have to go through in order to enter into fellowship with God. These three stages relate to the three major programs of the Bible which are the Old Covenant Law, the New Covenant, and the Church which is the Body of Christ.
The Old Covenant Law represents the time in a person's life when he or she develops a moral conscience. The Old Covenant Law revealed to mankind the righteousness of God, and when I think about the fact that God had Israel live under the Law for 1500 years before Christ came into the world, I have to conclude that this stage of spiritual development is absolutely critical.
That's essentially what Paul said in Galatians, Chapter 3. Beginning in verse 9 we read: Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. (Galatians 3:19 NLT).
The Law was given to teach mankind about God's standard of righteousness. Before people can believe that Christ died for their sins, they must first come to grips with their sin. God gave the Law to teach us about sin, and God gave children parents to teach them about sin. Parents who don't teach their children the difference between right and wrong are actually interfering with the spiritual development of their children.
This aspect of spiritual development is so sadly lacking in our world today. It is so difficult to share the gospel with people today because so many have no real sense of right or wrong. As a result, we have parents who are drug addicts, teachers who are pedophiles, pastors who are adulterers, wall street executives who are thieves, politicians who are liars, and the list goes on and on.
Jesus knew that people need a moral conscience, they need a clear understanding of sin and its consequences before they can understand that Jesus Christ came to die for their sins. But those who do develop a moral conscience are ready to move to the next level in their spiritual development, and that's the level that is represented by the Biblical program known as the New Covenant.
The nation of Israel proved over and over again, that man has no capacity to live by the righteous standards of the Old Covenant Law. So, God judged Israel and while she was away in captivity, God gave the promise of the New Covenant. Through men like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, God said that He would someday give His Holy Spirit to live within the hearts of men and that the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit would give people the power to live according to God's righteousness.
However, the prophets did not actually tell the people all that God would have to do to make the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit possible. They did not mention that God the Son would have to enter into creation with a mortal body in order to die for the sins of the world. God knew that that was the only way to cleanse the human heart from sin, but He kept that secret from the prophets.
So when Jesus was about to shed His blood for the sins of the world, He told His disciples that His blood would be the blood of the New Covenant. His blood would be the instrument that God would use to cleanse the hearts of men from all unrighteousness. And it was the Apostle Paul who taught us that the cleansing power of the blood of Christ is made available only to those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
As a minister of the New Covenant, the Apostle Paul said: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed . . . even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. (Romans 3:21-22).
After people come to grips with their personal sin and believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation, that's when they are ready to move on into the third stage of spiritual development. This stage is represented by the Biblical program known as the Church which is the Body of Christ, and it’s the stage in which a person becomes spiritually one with Jesus Christ in his everyday walk with the Lord. The Apostle Paul was given the special revelation concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ, and according to that revelation, those who believe in Jesus Christ are given the privilege of becoming spiritually one with Jesus Christ.
Paul said: For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 NKJV). Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. (1 Corinthians 12:27 NKJV).
Matthew, Mark and Luke did not talk much about this, but the Apostle John says that Jesus Christ often taught His disciples that they could become spiritually one with Him just like He was spiritual one with His Father in heaven. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. (John 10:27-30 NKJV).
Jesus said: Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5 NKJV). And again He said: If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:31-32 NKJV).
During this Christmas season, we at the Peace Church wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. We pray that God will bless you with a clear understanding of the righteousness of God, of the salvation that is available to us through faith in Jesus Christ, and of the joy that comes to those who become spiritually one with Jesus Christ.
Thank you again for studying with me today. We trust that you'll be able to join us again next week for a special Christmas program with Chas Robbins. Until then, may God richly bless you in every way.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Who Is Jesus? (Radio Lesson 12-11-11)
Welcome to Bible Study Time radio broadcast. We come to you each Sunday morning on behalf of the Peace Church, and we want to invite you to join us for any of our services. We’re located 8 miles south and a half a mile west of Indiahoma, and we’re just 12 miles east of Manitou right on the Baseline Road. If you’d like more information about the Peace Church, you can find that on our website, which is www.ok-peacechurch.org
This Bible Study Time radio broadcast was started by my father, Pastor James Roberts, back in January of 1977. So that was over 34 years ago, but in 1996, Daddy started his series called A Journey Through the Scripture. He led our journey through the Bible from Genesis to the Prophets. In the past three years or so we've been reviewing those lessons that relate to the first five books of the Bible. I hope that you've enjoyed and benefited from that review as much as I have.
As many of you know, my father was struggling with declining health for several years and went to be with the Lord a couple of weeks ago on Thanksgiving Day. We'll miss him greatly, and I want to say how much my family and I appreciate the many ways that so many of you here in Southwest Oklahoma have stood by us and supported us in this time of loss with so many expressions of love. It has meant so much to us. We just have to thank the Lord for you, for your love for the Lord and for your love for us.
A couple of days before Thanksgiving, our family stood around Daddy's hospital bed in the intensive care unit singing songs of praise to the Lord and rejoicing in the goodness of God. Then Daddy stopped us to say that he was prepared for whatever the Lord had planned for him, and he assured each and every one of us that he loved us. Not too many hours after that, he was no longer able to communicate with us. But as I said, on Thanksgiving Day, Daddy entered into the gates of the Lord, and I'm confident that he entered into those gates with thanksgiving. I'm sure that if Daddy could have, he would have called back to us from the heavenly realm shouting the glorious praise of Psalm 100:
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. (Psalms 100 NKJV).
Two days before Daddy died, I copied the last two tapes of Daddy's Journey Through the Scripture series that still had adequate audio quality for reproduction. Those tapes that followed must have been damaged in storage over the years. So as Daddy's journey on earth ended, our review of his Journey Through the Scripture series must also come to an end, and we will therefore embark on a new course of study.
As we move headlong into the Christmas season this year, I thought we'd spend some time in the gospel of John which deals with the birth of Jesus from the divine perspective. Mark doesn't talk about the birth of Jesus at all, but Matthew and Luke present more of a human viewpoint of His birth. They deal with the observable historical aspects of Jesus' birth, and particularly those things that fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. They mention that Jesus was Immanuel or God with us, and they mention that Jesus came to save His people from their sins, but they give no clue as to how that could possibly be the case. However, the gospel of John goes far beyond the human viewpoint, telling us that the Spirit that lived within the mortal body of Jesus Christ was in fact the eternal, creator God who took upon Himself a mortal body so that He could die for the sins of the world.
John refers to Jesus as the Word and says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3 NKJV). When John says, in the beginning, he takes us back to the first verse in the Bible which states: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and John says Jesus was there in the beginning with the God of creation and He was the God of creation.
Now, how could that be? How could Jesus be with God and be God at the same time? That can only be explained by the doctrine of the trinity. When we see that God is actually three people in one being, then of course, Jesus could be with God and still be God at the same time. He was there with the other members of the Godhead, and He was a part of the Godhead. Everything that one member of the Godhead does, all three members of the Godhead do. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen as three different beings who always work together in absolute spiritual unity. No member of the Godhead operates independently of the other members of the Godhead. They are one and inseparable in all things, past, present and future.
What a beautiful Christmas story! God, Himself, manifest in the flesh; the creator of all things entering into His own creation with a mortal body, deliberately choosing to be born to peasants in a humble stable in Bethlehem. The Apostle Paul was one of the first to see the significance of this deeper spiritual reality. In Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul said: To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:8-9 NKJV).
To the Colossians, Paul said: Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17 NKJV).
In Philippians 2, Paul said: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV).
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul acknowledges the difference between the human viewpoint of Jesus and the divine viewpoint of Jesus, and he challenges us to rise above the human viewpoint so that we can take pleasure in the heavenly viewpoint. Paul says: Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. And in Ephesians, Chapter 1, Paul says that Jesus Christ is presently seated at His right hand of the Father in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And God has put all things under His feet, and has given Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Many Christians today acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins, but they haven't really laid hold of the majesty and glory that Jesus Christ enjoyed with the Father before He was born in Bethlehem or the glory that He enjoys today at the right hand of the Father.
The body of Jesus that people saw while Jesus lived on the earth was a mortal body which was subject to death. But just because Jesus looked like everyone else, that doesn't mean that He was like everyone else. Everyone else's body was filled with the spirit of death, while the body of Jesus was filled with the Spirit of life, the eternal life that flows from the heavenly realm.
Unlike Jesus, all of us were born spiritually dead. Our selfish nature leaves us desperately empty and corrupt on the inside. Romans 5:12 says: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men. The spirit of death invaded, dominated and controlled the human experience after Adam sinned against God.
In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul challenges us to do some deductive reasoning. He says, if Jesus Christ died for all of us, then it must be true that all of us were under the curse of death. And doesn't that make perfect sense? Christ wouldn't have had to die for us if we were not under the curse of death. Yes indeed, we were all born under the curse of spiritual death that could only end in physical death and eternal separation from God.
Spiritual death is easily seen in children and adults alike. Uninterrupted and unhindered, it leads to the misery and destruction of every human being. And it would lead to the absolute destruction of mankind, except for the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to interrupt its work. He came to deliver us from death. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Paul said: God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Jesus Christ was able to deliver us from the realm of death because He, Himself, was not born into the realm of death. Though He had a mortal body which was subject to death, His mortal body was not filled with death. It was filled with eternal life. The Spirit of God simply came down out of heaven and manifested Himself in the mortal body of Jesus Christ. Paul said that in Adam all die, but all those who are in Christ shall be made alive.
When a person accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior, God delivers him or her from the Spirit of death and fills them with the same Spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus, the emotions of Jesus, in all of these things we were given windows of opportunity to see the glory of the life that flows from God. John said: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
Today, that life is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, and what a difference it makes in a persons' life. It's the difference between night and day, between life and death, between darkness and light. This difference is what the Bible is talking about when it says that a person must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. This is what the Bible is talking about when it says that all those who believe in Jesus Christ become new creations in Christ. When we believe, we have the potential to become like Jesus was while He was on the earth. He had a mortal body, but He was filled with the eternal life of the heavenly realm.
When Jesus prayed in John 17, He said: Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:1-3 NKJV). To know God through faith in Jesus Christ is to be filled with eternal life right here, right now.
This concept is such a powerful concept when it comes to counseling people with problems. And if we think that professional counselors and ministers are the only people who counsel people with problems, we mistaken. Nearly all of us find ourselves at one point or another giving counsel to others who have shared with us a problem that they are facing. Whether it's a problem with their children, a marriage problem, a financial problem, or whatever it may be, we are in a position of giving advice to people. So this concept of the Spirit of Christ living within us can be so helpful to us as we give advice.
This concept helps us to understand that all problems are a result of the spirit of death that is naturally inside of everyone, but those who know the Lord have access to the Spirit of life. Therefore, if a person does not know the Lord, the first matter of business that needs to be taken care of us that of getting to know Jesus Christ. An unsaved person needs to acknowledge their sinful state before the Lord. They need to acknowledge the fact that they are filled with the spirit of death, and they need to believe in the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to deliver them from the realm of death and translate them into the realm of life. Then, on the basis of that faith, they need to ask God to fill them with the Spirit of life.
For those who are saved, for those who have already been given the Spirit of life, our goal as counselors should be to simply facilitate the power of the Holy Spirit. All people, whether saved or unsaved, will have a tendency to influenced by the circumstances of this life. We will start to get worried about things that we have no business worrying about. And the more we worry, the more we are influenced by the Spirit of death which makes us do things that actually make our situation worse.
So as we counsel with people, we need to help them believe in the power of God. We need to help them live in the peace, and joy and love of the Spirit of God. When we enter into the calmness and the quietness of the Spirit of God, that's when the Spirit of God can actually give us insights into our problems and solutions to our problems.
When we enter into the Spirit of God, we are much more likely to avoid the pitfalls of life and we are much more likely to be able to climb out of the pitfalls of life. We, as human counselors don't actually know the solution to all of the problems that people face, but God does. Our solutions are so often way over simplified. We are more likely to just tell the alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol. We may just tell the wife who worries too much to stop worrying. But such solutions really don't get at the heart of the problem because the problem is usually not just a problem of outward behavior. The outward behavior is just an outward sign of a spiritual problem that eating away at the person on the inside.
When we know the power of the Spirit of life who dwells within every believer, we can take advantage of that power. We know that God gave us that power so that we would be able to take advantage of that power. We can pray with the person. We can read the Bible with the person. We can encourage the person with the truth of God's word that everything is going to be alright because God is in control, and everything that God does is part of His plan which is good. God is good and His plan is good. We can encourage people with the truth that God will never give us more than we can handle. And God will never leave us or forsake us. Regardless of how dark the night, we can always look forward to the morning light. We can encourage people with the words of Nahum 1:7, and this is a verse that my father would so often quote: The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him. As counselors, one of our greatest challenges is to believe in the power of God for someone else. Many times, it's easier to believe that God will help us than it is to believe that God will help others. But God knows those who trust in Him, and He is a stronghold for all those who find themselves in the day of trouble.
During this Christmas season, may those of us who know Jesus Christ be so filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ that all those around will want to know the reason for the season and that they will be drawn to the power of the Spirit of life that is available through faith in Jesus Christ.
Thank you for joining us for Bible Study Time this morning. We hope you'll join us again next week at this same time.
This Bible Study Time radio broadcast was started by my father, Pastor James Roberts, back in January of 1977. So that was over 34 years ago, but in 1996, Daddy started his series called A Journey Through the Scripture. He led our journey through the Bible from Genesis to the Prophets. In the past three years or so we've been reviewing those lessons that relate to the first five books of the Bible. I hope that you've enjoyed and benefited from that review as much as I have.
As many of you know, my father was struggling with declining health for several years and went to be with the Lord a couple of weeks ago on Thanksgiving Day. We'll miss him greatly, and I want to say how much my family and I appreciate the many ways that so many of you here in Southwest Oklahoma have stood by us and supported us in this time of loss with so many expressions of love. It has meant so much to us. We just have to thank the Lord for you, for your love for the Lord and for your love for us.
A couple of days before Thanksgiving, our family stood around Daddy's hospital bed in the intensive care unit singing songs of praise to the Lord and rejoicing in the goodness of God. Then Daddy stopped us to say that he was prepared for whatever the Lord had planned for him, and he assured each and every one of us that he loved us. Not too many hours after that, he was no longer able to communicate with us. But as I said, on Thanksgiving Day, Daddy entered into the gates of the Lord, and I'm confident that he entered into those gates with thanksgiving. I'm sure that if Daddy could have, he would have called back to us from the heavenly realm shouting the glorious praise of Psalm 100:
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. (Psalms 100 NKJV).
Two days before Daddy died, I copied the last two tapes of Daddy's Journey Through the Scripture series that still had adequate audio quality for reproduction. Those tapes that followed must have been damaged in storage over the years. So as Daddy's journey on earth ended, our review of his Journey Through the Scripture series must also come to an end, and we will therefore embark on a new course of study.
As we move headlong into the Christmas season this year, I thought we'd spend some time in the gospel of John which deals with the birth of Jesus from the divine perspective. Mark doesn't talk about the birth of Jesus at all, but Matthew and Luke present more of a human viewpoint of His birth. They deal with the observable historical aspects of Jesus' birth, and particularly those things that fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. They mention that Jesus was Immanuel or God with us, and they mention that Jesus came to save His people from their sins, but they give no clue as to how that could possibly be the case. However, the gospel of John goes far beyond the human viewpoint, telling us that the Spirit that lived within the mortal body of Jesus Christ was in fact the eternal, creator God who took upon Himself a mortal body so that He could die for the sins of the world.
John refers to Jesus as the Word and says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3 NKJV). When John says, in the beginning, he takes us back to the first verse in the Bible which states: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and John says Jesus was there in the beginning with the God of creation and He was the God of creation.
Now, how could that be? How could Jesus be with God and be God at the same time? That can only be explained by the doctrine of the trinity. When we see that God is actually three people in one being, then of course, Jesus could be with God and still be God at the same time. He was there with the other members of the Godhead, and He was a part of the Godhead. Everything that one member of the Godhead does, all three members of the Godhead do. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen as three different beings who always work together in absolute spiritual unity. No member of the Godhead operates independently of the other members of the Godhead. They are one and inseparable in all things, past, present and future.
What a beautiful Christmas story! God, Himself, manifest in the flesh; the creator of all things entering into His own creation with a mortal body, deliberately choosing to be born to peasants in a humble stable in Bethlehem. The Apostle Paul was one of the first to see the significance of this deeper spiritual reality. In Ephesians, Chapter 3, Paul said: To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:8-9 NKJV).
To the Colossians, Paul said: Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17 NKJV).
In Philippians 2, Paul said: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5-8 NKJV).
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul acknowledges the difference between the human viewpoint of Jesus and the divine viewpoint of Jesus, and he challenges us to rise above the human viewpoint so that we can take pleasure in the heavenly viewpoint. Paul says: Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. And in Ephesians, Chapter 1, Paul says that Jesus Christ is presently seated at His right hand of the Father in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And God has put all things under His feet, and has given Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Many Christians today acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins, but they haven't really laid hold of the majesty and glory that Jesus Christ enjoyed with the Father before He was born in Bethlehem or the glory that He enjoys today at the right hand of the Father.
The body of Jesus that people saw while Jesus lived on the earth was a mortal body which was subject to death. But just because Jesus looked like everyone else, that doesn't mean that He was like everyone else. Everyone else's body was filled with the spirit of death, while the body of Jesus was filled with the Spirit of life, the eternal life that flows from the heavenly realm.
Unlike Jesus, all of us were born spiritually dead. Our selfish nature leaves us desperately empty and corrupt on the inside. Romans 5:12 says: Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men. The spirit of death invaded, dominated and controlled the human experience after Adam sinned against God.
In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul challenges us to do some deductive reasoning. He says, if Jesus Christ died for all of us, then it must be true that all of us were under the curse of death. And doesn't that make perfect sense? Christ wouldn't have had to die for us if we were not under the curse of death. Yes indeed, we were all born under the curse of spiritual death that could only end in physical death and eternal separation from God.
Spiritual death is easily seen in children and adults alike. Uninterrupted and unhindered, it leads to the misery and destruction of every human being. And it would lead to the absolute destruction of mankind, except for the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to interrupt its work. He came to deliver us from death. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Paul said: God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Jesus Christ was able to deliver us from the realm of death because He, Himself, was not born into the realm of death. Though He had a mortal body which was subject to death, His mortal body was not filled with death. It was filled with eternal life. The Spirit of God simply came down out of heaven and manifested Himself in the mortal body of Jesus Christ. Paul said that in Adam all die, but all those who are in Christ shall be made alive.
When a person accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior, God delivers him or her from the Spirit of death and fills them with the same Spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus, the emotions of Jesus, in all of these things we were given windows of opportunity to see the glory of the life that flows from God. John said: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
Today, that life is available to all who believe in Jesus Christ, and what a difference it makes in a persons' life. It's the difference between night and day, between life and death, between darkness and light. This difference is what the Bible is talking about when it says that a person must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. This is what the Bible is talking about when it says that all those who believe in Jesus Christ become new creations in Christ. When we believe, we have the potential to become like Jesus was while He was on the earth. He had a mortal body, but He was filled with the eternal life of the heavenly realm.
When Jesus prayed in John 17, He said: Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:1-3 NKJV). To know God through faith in Jesus Christ is to be filled with eternal life right here, right now.
This concept is such a powerful concept when it comes to counseling people with problems. And if we think that professional counselors and ministers are the only people who counsel people with problems, we mistaken. Nearly all of us find ourselves at one point or another giving counsel to others who have shared with us a problem that they are facing. Whether it's a problem with their children, a marriage problem, a financial problem, or whatever it may be, we are in a position of giving advice to people. So this concept of the Spirit of Christ living within us can be so helpful to us as we give advice.
This concept helps us to understand that all problems are a result of the spirit of death that is naturally inside of everyone, but those who know the Lord have access to the Spirit of life. Therefore, if a person does not know the Lord, the first matter of business that needs to be taken care of us that of getting to know Jesus Christ. An unsaved person needs to acknowledge their sinful state before the Lord. They need to acknowledge the fact that they are filled with the spirit of death, and they need to believe in the power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ to deliver them from the realm of death and translate them into the realm of life. Then, on the basis of that faith, they need to ask God to fill them with the Spirit of life.
For those who are saved, for those who have already been given the Spirit of life, our goal as counselors should be to simply facilitate the power of the Holy Spirit. All people, whether saved or unsaved, will have a tendency to influenced by the circumstances of this life. We will start to get worried about things that we have no business worrying about. And the more we worry, the more we are influenced by the Spirit of death which makes us do things that actually make our situation worse.
So as we counsel with people, we need to help them believe in the power of God. We need to help them live in the peace, and joy and love of the Spirit of God. When we enter into the calmness and the quietness of the Spirit of God, that's when the Spirit of God can actually give us insights into our problems and solutions to our problems.
When we enter into the Spirit of God, we are much more likely to avoid the pitfalls of life and we are much more likely to be able to climb out of the pitfalls of life. We, as human counselors don't actually know the solution to all of the problems that people face, but God does. Our solutions are so often way over simplified. We are more likely to just tell the alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol. We may just tell the wife who worries too much to stop worrying. But such solutions really don't get at the heart of the problem because the problem is usually not just a problem of outward behavior. The outward behavior is just an outward sign of a spiritual problem that eating away at the person on the inside.
When we know the power of the Spirit of life who dwells within every believer, we can take advantage of that power. We know that God gave us that power so that we would be able to take advantage of that power. We can pray with the person. We can read the Bible with the person. We can encourage the person with the truth of God's word that everything is going to be alright because God is in control, and everything that God does is part of His plan which is good. God is good and His plan is good. We can encourage people with the truth that God will never give us more than we can handle. And God will never leave us or forsake us. Regardless of how dark the night, we can always look forward to the morning light. We can encourage people with the words of Nahum 1:7, and this is a verse that my father would so often quote: The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him. As counselors, one of our greatest challenges is to believe in the power of God for someone else. Many times, it's easier to believe that God will help us than it is to believe that God will help others. But God knows those who trust in Him, and He is a stronghold for all those who find themselves in the day of trouble.
During this Christmas season, may those of us who know Jesus Christ be so filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ that all those around will want to know the reason for the season and that they will be drawn to the power of the Spirit of life that is available through faith in Jesus Christ.
Thank you for joining us for Bible Study Time this morning. We hope you'll join us again next week at this same time.
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