ࡱ> e   !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdfghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~Root EntryZ O2 j.ZCONTENTS CompObjVSPELLING . Maybe it would be very hard for someone to convince this atheist of the reality of the One Living Almighty God he, never-the-less proved that the Bible is not only completely true but, also contains true wisdom. Because we are told in 1 Corinthinas 1:18: (1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV) For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:19 KJV) For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (1 Corinthians 1:20 KJV) Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Corinthians 1:21 KJV) For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:22 KJV) For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: (1 Corinthians 1:23 KJV) But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1:24 KJV) But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. This guy ridiculed the cross and those that believe in Jesus. His heart was harder than granite. To him the cross was a thing of disgust and perversion. Yes, I imagine that he believes that he is wise and smart and Christians are stupid and dumb. He believes that man has all the answers and God is nothing, but his wisdom and the world s wisdom will mean absolutely nothing at that dreadful day when he and others like him stands before the judge of all mankind to give his accounting for his being an enemy of the cross. What is he going to tell Jesus the reason why he CHNKWKS TEXTTEXTʖFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPPFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPCFDPC FDPCFDPC FDPCFDPC FDPCSTSHSTSHhrinthinas 1:Romans Chapter 8 verse 7  Come Forth and Live (Sunday Morning) 11-1-09 Davis Creek Good Morning Everyone! God is Great! Amen! I hope everyone had a good weekend. This morning is my daughter s birthday and on Tuesday it will be Phillis birthday. To celebrate they wanted to go to Branson to go shopping so that is where we were yesterday. What was funny was that Phillis spent more money on me than she herself. She got me a couple of sport coats and some dress pants. This morning we continue in our journey through Romans. The name of this morning s sermon is  Come Forth and Live . Please stand while we go to the Lord in prayer and while we read God s Holy Word. Prayer~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please turn your Bibles to Romans Chapter 8:7 (Romans 8:7 KJV) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Paul has been very adamant that a person cannot live in continual sin and still walk in the spirit. A person cannot be a true child of God and still wallow in darkness and sin. I had a person, who is not saved, tell me that not all people who say they are Christians are truly saved. Unfortunately she hit the problem right on the head. There are going to be many, many people who are going to hear Jesus tell them to depart from Him because He never knew them. Why? Although they claim the name Christian they are not really saved. And then there are those that refuse to believe in God, such as the guy that left a comment on an article on the internet that I read. He claimed that no one could prove to him that God was real. He said that a person was a fool to believe that the Bible was infallible and true. He asked how anyone could follow a god that tortured his son on a crossridiculed Him? I wish I could preach to him and people like him the Gospel in such a way that he would have to understand and he would have to repent and have faith in the one true Savior, but unfortunately no one can come to Jesus on his own, nor will anyone want to come by their own will. A person can come to Jesus only if the Father draws him. (John 6:44 KJV) No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. I looked up the Greek for draw to see what the original meaning was. The Greek word is helko and it means 1) drag off 2) metaphorically, to draw by inward power, lead, impel So God by a supernatural inward power causes someone to come to Jesus. It is only by God that the bondage from Satan can be loosed. You can see that the Greek word helko does not mean a wooing or an enticing of someone. It is an effectual call from God that compels someone to come to Jesus. What that means that you do not have the ability to come to Christ without the effectual drawing power of God. As if to prove the point even further, Paul states in Romans 8:7 that a person that is carnal, that is not saved, is an enemy of God and is not subject to God and cannot be even if he wanted. (Romans 8:7 KJV) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The word carnal refers to an unsaved person. It is a person that is not redeemed and the word enmity means a deep rooted hatred. So a person that is not saved has a deep rooted hatred for God. That is pretty strong language, but the truth is, a person who is not born again has a mind that is always full of perversions and fleshly compulsions. His mind is always about gratifying himself. He has no desire to please God, only himself. A person who is not saved not only does things with his or her body that is not pleasing to God, but also uses his or her mind in ways that are not pleasing to God. How you use your mind can be just as sinful or even more sinful than what you do with your body. Murder is a sin, adultery is a sin, but hating is a sin too and lust is a sin and I dare say that a person dwells on sin in his mind longer than the actual physical sin. So those secrete things that you think that no one will ever know about. God knows and on the last day, you will give an accounting of them. A person might look and act very religious and proper, he may go to Church and even know some of the Christian catch phrases, but the truth is, if he is not truly saved, then he is enmity with God because he does not obey God or give God glory in anything that he does. Even though a person may claim that he or she believes in God and even proclaim a love for God, the fact remains that an unsaved person s mind is in constant war with righteousness and the perverse things that goes on in his or her mind is evidence of the hatred they have for God. Even the deeds that a person would consider to be good are not fulfilling God s law because is done in the flesh and not in the spirit and it is done for their own selfish desires, for their own glory and not for the glory of God. A person that is not saved does not have a heart for God, but has a heart that is in rebellion to God and is an enemy of God. But even more than that. Not only is a carnal person at enmity with God, but he can no nothing else but be at enmity with God. The natural man sees the things of God and righteousness as being foolishness. The will can only decide to do things of unrighteousness. The will does not have the power to turn to God because it is under the bondage of Satan. It is only by the mighty power of God that breaks those chains of bondage and draws people to Himself. It is for God s glory that people are saved. If we could save ourselves with our feeble will, then we would be entitled to a little bit of glory, but we have nothing to boast about for our justification. And that is the problem of many of our Churches across America. They have promoted easy-believism that leaves God out of salvation. They do not have Church services, but a Jesus Entertainment hour, with a killer band and a comedian for a Pastor. These Churches do their best to appeal to a person s flesh; the Church appeals to the selfish desires of people to answer their felt needs. A lot of people go to these six flags over Jesus Churches not to worship and praise God, but to be entertained. I was told by one person that a Church in Springfield was better than going to a show in Branson Mo. Why spend all that money on a show in Branson when you can watch one in a Church on Sunday morning. Maybe drop a couple of bux in the plate& .after all they deserve that, right? As a matter of fact if someone actually came in their Church to preach the cross and preach salvation he would probably be driven out of the Church. Maybe you think I am exaggerating. I am not! We used to go to a Purpose Driven Church where the word hell and the word repent were rarely brought up. A person was considered saved as long as he had signed a card sometime in the past. One Sunday, a couple of years ago, there was a guest speaker who was a solid Bible preaching Sovereign Grace minister and people were so upset about getting their toes stepped on, many of them left! They got up in the middle of the sermon and left and a couple of people put leaflets on people s cars criticizing the preacher! Wow, It makes a person wonder, what would they do if Jesus were to appear at the pulpit and started preaching about heaven and hell, salvation and grace. Would they walk out of the service? Or put leaflets on cars criticizing Him? Anyway, I listened to the sermon and let me tell you this preacher was rock solid. What he was preaching about was that being saved is more than signing a little card and sitting in a pew on Sunday. It is more than a simple little decision. I gave these two verses last week, but I think it bears repeating! (2 Timothy 4:3 KJV) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (2 Timothy 4:4 KJV) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. The Church in America for the most part today is about filling the felt needs of people; it is about making their flesh feel good. Church is not about filling a person s felt needs! It is about filling a person s spiritual needs! It is about preaching the cross and the whole counsel of God! How are people going to be truly redeemed if they never hear the gospel correctly; if all they ever hear is that the way to salvation is to say a little prayer and sign a little card? And how are the lost people going to be saved if they never hear anything about a heart felt repentance to God and having faith in Jesus Christ? I am afraid that if you are here to have your to have your felt needs met, you are not going to like my preaching. A lost person is someone who is an enemy of the Cross of Christ. (Philippians 3:18 NASB) For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, (Philippians 3:19 NASB) whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. If you are not saved, then you are an enemy of the cross and the god you worship is the god of flesh and the god of this world which is Satan. But does not the Bible tell us these very things will be happening in the end? Not only will people not endure sound doctrine in the end, but they will only have a form of godliness and not true righteousness. They will be hypocrites who try to act like they have a love for God but in truth they are enemies of the Cross. (2 Timothy 3:1 NASB) But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. (2 Timothy 3:2 NASB) For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, (2 Timothy 3:3 NASB) unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, (2 Timothy 3:4 NASB) treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (2 Timothy 3:5 NASB) holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:6 NASB) For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, (2 Timothy 3:7 NASB) always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. I think the last verse tells it all. Always learning but never being able to come to the knowledge of the Truth. The truth is Jesus is the only way to be saved. Any other way ultimately leads to damnation and Hell. You cannot simply have a form of godliness to be saved, but you must be made righteous, you must be justified, and that can only happen if you repent and have faith in Jesus. The atheist claimed that there was no God and no one could prove God to him. He has the wisdom of the world and he pursues the knowledge of the world but, he does not know the true knowledge and true wisdom of God, nor does he want to know; his heart has been hardened because of his bondage to sin and to Satan. (1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. If you are lost you do not know the truth because you are carnal and the truth can only be obtained spiritually and you are spiritually dead! You cannot choose God, if you are spiritually dead and you are in bondage to sin and to Satan. Yes, you do have a free will, but if you are spiritually dead you cannot choose something that is spiritually discerned! It is a work of God to make a dead person alive in Christ. It is God that draws you to Christ. It is God that reaches down and plucks that old sin filled wicked heart and puts in a new spiritually alive heart that will keep God s precepts. When you are born again, it is Jesus that called you. It is not us that go after God, but it is God that seeks after us. (Luke 19:10 KJV) For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus seeks after those that are lost and He calls His sheep to Himself. It is not a passive, wooing call but it is an effectual call that draws His sheep to Himself. Jesus is the good Shepherd and He will not lose one of His sheep that He calls to Himself. When Jesus calls it is not the type of call that I give every Sunday morning. My call is a general call for you to come to repent and put your faith in Jesus. It is a call to receive Jesus. My call cannot save you, all I can do is to plead with you. But Jesus call is not a general call. It is a specific call for His sheep to come to Him to be healed from the horrible disease of Sin and it s effects which is eternal punishment in Hell. When Jesus calls it is akin to the call that He made to Lazarus. You remember the story in John. Lazarus had died and had lain rotting in the grave for four days, but Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would rise again. (John 11:39 KJV) Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. (John 11:40 KJV) Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? (John 11:41 KJV) Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. (John 11:42 KJV) And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 11:43 KJV) And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Did Lazarus make his own rotting flesh whole? No! Did Lazarus make himself alive? No! It was Jesus that healed his rotting flesh and made him alive. How did Jesus cure Lazarus from his deadness? Jesus called out in a loud voice LAZARUS, COME FORTH!!! Lazarus was dead, but Jesus made him alive! When you are carnal, you are dead in your sins, that means you are spiritually dead, and just like Lazarus you cannot make yourself spiritually alive. You cannot make your rotting smelly self-righteousness alive. Your heart is like a stone and it needs to be made alive and only Jesus can do that. You can only be cured of your spiritual deadness by Jesus Christ, God in the form of man. When I was saved, Jesus cried out, Alan come forth and live! Alan COME FORTH!!! I was dead in my sins. I could not save myself. I was an enemy of God. And when you are saved Jesus calls out: Come Forth and Live! Come, Come, I am calling, Come into my joy. And not only that but, when Jesus calls, it at the perfect time for you! (Romans 5:8 KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:9 KJV) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:10 KJV) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:11 KJV) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. In order to be saved you must repent and have faith. Where do you think your faith comes from? Even your faith is not of yourself; it is a free gift from Jesus. (Hebrews 12:2 KJV) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And it by the goodness of God that we can repent of our sins. (Romans 2:4 KJV) Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Salvation is such a wonderful gift. And there is nothing that you can do to earn it. Great deeds will not give you merit for your salvation and small deeds will not give you merit for your salvation. God will not be a debtor. He will not give you the gift of salvation because of He owes you something. To Say that all you have to do is to make this itty bitty decision for Christ belittles Christ and makes His sacrifice meaningless. No! You are saved entirely by God s grace. He gives His grace freely to you, not because he owes you a debt. (Romans 4:4 KJV) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. (Romans 4:5 KJV) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. It is by grace you are saved. Repent and have faith and Jesus will cry out. Come Forth. COME FORTH my child and live and have eternal life. Repent and live, Do not wait another day if your are not sure of your salvation. Make your election sure today. The alter is always open for you. Come to the alter to confess your sins to God and repent and have faith and have eternal life or do it right where you are sitting or in your car or in the comfort of your home. But the important thing is to get right with God before it is too late. Don t wait too long! Jesus is Calling: Come, Come Forth. Come into my Joy! Repent and have faith TODAY! 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