Coffee House Chapel #3

[blackbird]

Monday, March 1, 2004

"Birthmarks of a Believer"
1John 5:1-4

They say that every person has one! A physical birthmark! A place somewhere on our bodies where there is a marked difference in melonin---either more than usual or less than usual. These unusual places on our skin are sometimes called a Birthmark!

And just as people display physical birthmarks--the epistle's writer, John here is showing us what I call "Spiritual Birthmarks" that are displayed by the Born-again Believer!

In verse 1 the word talks about those who are "born of God." Who are these people?? And are you "Born of God?" The phrase "born of God" speaks of those people who have had a "Born-again" experience! A time in their lives when they have repented of their sins and received Jesus by faith as personal savior and Lord!

"Born of God" is of the same vocabulary that Jesus used in His conversation with Nicodemus! He told Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again!" The Greek word for "again" is Anothen---and means "from above." You have to have a birth from God! You have to be born of God---spiritually---just like you had a physical birth! You can't get into Heaven until Heaven gets into you!! If you have been "Born Again"---you are part of who John refers to here in verse 1 as being "born of God."

But God gives several character traits of those who have experienced a "birth from above."

I. THERE WILL BE A LOVE OF THE FATHER

Verse 1 says that those who have been "born of God" will LOVE the one that gave them spiritual birth!

Now, my mom and dad "birthed" me physically! And because they did that--it would be odd for me to love my next door neighbor! And as I grew as a child into my teen years and on into adulthood---because I was "born of" my parents--I grew to love the things they loved and to hate the things they hate!------just so with the "Spiritual Birth"---when we are "Born of God" God becomes our Father---and as we grow and mature as Believers--we grow to love the things the Father loves and to hate the things the Father hates! And the love the Father loves us with is given to us in order that we can love Him as much as He loves us!! Because I have been "Born of God" I can love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind!---just like He commands me to.

II. THERE WILL BE A LOVE OF THE FAMILY(v. 1)

Because you love the Father as a Believer---you will also love "the Father's only Begotten"---who is Jesus! And here's the good part!! The Father loves YOU as much as He loves His Son, Jesus!!

And guess what else?? As Born Again Believers---we will also love "him also that is begotten of Him"---what does that mean?? It means that just like the Father saves you---just like you have been "born of God" through a new birth experience----God saves others just like you and brings them into the family of God as well---just like He did you when you repented of your sins and received Jesus as your savior and Lord!!

And the verse is telling us that another of the Birthmarks of Believers is this---we will love the Family of God equally as well as we love the Father! You are going to love God's only begotten as much as you love the Father! You are going to love the others to whom the Father "Begats" as much as you love Jesus!

IOW--To the extent that you love Jesus---you are going to love me!! And that's "Visa Versa" there too! You are commanded to love me as much as you love Jesus! And I am commanded to love YOU as much as I love Jesus!! Now, there may be somebody that you believe is impossible to love---"I just can't love them like I love Jesus!!"---thats not true! The problem is--You CAN but you won't!!!

Suppose I told you that when you get saved---that Jesus begins to share with you---everything He has--belongs to you---share and share alike!!???---See, a lot of people abuse the "heirship" verses---where we are given everything from Heaven through the life of Jesus----folks think its gonna make 'um "physically rich"---monatarily somehow!!----but really, what happens when God saves you is this---He opens up the resources of Heaven and give you the resources you need---and the number one resource He gives---is the sweet love of Jesus!!! He pours it on you---which enables you to pour it on to others!! He makes it possible for you to love OTHERS as much as He loves you!!----the thing we have to do in order for others to see Jesus through us---is to "die daily"---to the point where its no longer "I" who lives but its Christ who lives through us!!

When you say "I can't love so and so like that!"---yes you can!! Die today to self!! Like John the Baptizer---"I must decrease! He must increase!!" Will you do that today?? I pray we will!! Amen??

Draw a circle around your heart and ask yourself

"Do I love the Father as much as He loves me??"

"Do I love others in His Family as much as I love Jesus??"

 

[Dan Todd]

An important lesson - thank you Blackbird!

 

[Dr. Bob]

Two in a row? This IS an "odd" year!

Thanks, BB.

 

[Dan Todd]

Doc,

Unless something comes up - Blackbird does the odd days - and I do the even days.

Today is odd - yesterday was odder!

Dan - look for me tomorrow - Lord willing!

 

[Dr. Bob]

Right - and that happens on the many 31-day months too.

I'm a little slow catching on!

 

[Dan Todd]

March 2

Romans 11:2, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

Paul’s first proof that God has not permanently set aside Israel was himself. He was an Israelite, and he had come to Christ, the Messiah.

The second Proof that God’s setting aside of Israel is not permanent is that God has always preserved a remnant of Jews for Himself. On the day of Pentecost, when the church was born, all believers were Jews. For the first few years, the entire church consisted of Jews who had trusted Christ. It was not until the great persecution started (with Saul/Paul being one of the chief leaders) that the church began to fulfill the commission given to them by the Lord, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. In Acts 10, Peter went to Cornelius and in Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas went on the first missionary journey. After these two events, more and more Gentiles started coming to Christ, and by the end of the first century, the vast majority of believers were Gentiles.

Because of the acceptance of Christianity by the Gentiles, the Jews rejected Christ. They so hated the Gentiles, that anything that the Gentiles believed, they considered anathema. But from the day of Pentecost, to the present day, there have always been Jews that have accepted Jesus the Messiah. There have not been many, but there has been some, a remnant as stated by Paul in verse five of our text.

In our text, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew,” Paul gives an emphatic answer to the rhetorical question with which he opened the chapter! Cast away means rejected, but not rejected in the sense of not receiving - as in rejecting an application. Rather the phrase means to not cast away from oneself - as in rejecting what once had been received. “It is not that God has never received His people, but that He will never completely and permanently cast away those whom He foreknew from eternity past, and whom He long ago received to Himself through His covenant with Abraham.” (MacArthur)

The people God foreknew (in our text) are not individual regenerate Jews or Gentiles, though the basic promise of not casting away those individuals is most certainly true (Romans 8:1, 38-39, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”). The reference here is to Israel as a nation - the entirety of God’s chosen people. Israel - the nation - is the focus of Roman 9-11.
The people mentioned in Romans 11:2 are the disobedient and obstinate that Paul referred to in Romans 10:21. God’s integrity is based on His keeping His promises to Israel. If God changed His mind about Israel, after the unconditional promises He made to them, then He cannot be trusted to keep the promises He’s made to the church. But if God’s keeps His promises to Israel, then we can trust Him to keep His promises to the church.


Next time, Lord willing, we’ll embark on the interesting word, foreknew.

Adapted from “Romans” by MacArthur.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

[Watchman]

Thanks Dan.
What I said in The Coffee House seems appropriate here:
His word, and the promises in His word has no statute of limitations.
That's true for Israel, as well as us!

 

[blackbird]

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

God Is . . .!
1John 4:6-12

All throughout the Bible--the word from the Word gives us several aspects, or character descriptions of Almighty God. Lets look at a few before we get into our main text above.

THE LORD GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD Exodus 34:14

Now, keep in mind---the Lord God is jealous FOR His children. There is a difference between "jealous for" and "jealous of."

In this text---God was about to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage. He would not have His children serving other gods or being where they did not belong. God's flameing passion was for His children and when He saw Israel in the arms of the Egyptians---He demonstrated His jealousy! He rescued His children and executed His wrath against Pharoah and the Egyptian nation.

THE LORD GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE Deut.4:24 & Heb. 12:29

All throughout the Bible, fire is a picture of judgment. When Sodom and Gomorrah fell into wickedness and refused to repent--God as the Consuming Fire enveloped the whole city limits! Sodom and Gomorrah fell under God's judgment!

The New Testament teaches that we as believers can be "purged as by fire" when we let the living word of God envelop us---and burn out all impurities and make us as silver refined by fire.

THE LORD GOD IS FAITHFUL 2Thessalonians 3:1-3

This simply means that God is going to do what He says He's going to do. Philippians 1:6 says, "He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." God was faithful to Israel for 400 years---what makes us think He'll be any less faithful in our 60 and 70 years??

THE LORD GOD IS LIGHT 1John 1:5

There is no area of God's life where there is no light!

If you expose God into every area of your life--you can watch evil run like scalded dogs!! Evil cannot be in the presence of God!

THE LORD GOD IS LOVE 1John 4:8

God wouldn't be jealous, He wouldn't be a consuming fire, He wouldn't be faithful, He wouldn't be light---if He wasn't LOVE!

You hear folks say all the time, "God is a God of love!" Friend, He's more than that!!! He IS love!! And He came to this earth to expose us to Himself! Friend, listen! Jesus is God's love in the flesh!!!

You know what I've learned through years of study of the word?? That God the Father loves His Son as much as He loves Himself!! And that when He created man--God chose to love man as much as He loves His Son!! God loves us as much as He loves Jesus!! The same yardstick He uses to measure His love toward Jesus---is the same yardstick He uses to measure His love toward us!! And friend, He doesn't love us because we're valuable---rather, we are valuable because He loves us!!

This text tells us this---Today---God wants us to love others-----as much as He loves us!! Look at verses 11-12!! Our love of others is proof that we love Him!!!

How about it today?? Is it your desire to love others to the degree that God loves you??? To the degree we don't, listen, we are in rebellion against God!! We don't want to be rebels, do we?? Ohhhhh, we want to show Jesus' love to our family, our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, the strangers we contact with----lets do that today!!! Lets let God's love permeate every area of our life---lets deny self and serve Him and see if His sweet love will work its way out of our lives and in to the lives of someone who may NEED His love today!!!!

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Amen! What a challenge to show the LOVE of God. Pardon the "parrowphrase" but Jesus said that people will know that we are His disciples by the love we show to each other. Sadly, there sometimes there is not a lot of evidence of "disciplehood" among us.

 

[Dan Todd]

I suspect that we preachers should be preaching on this subject - more often!

Dan

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Found Galatians 5v15-16 a REAL challenge to my own heart when I preached on it a few weeks ago - OUCH!

 

[Dan Todd]

March 4

Romans 11:2, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

As promised we will look at the word foreknew. This word is used several times in Scripture, and there is a great deal of disagreement over what the word means. The Armenian school of theology would describe the word something like this: foreknow = to look ahead in time and see what will happen. The Armenian view is that God looked into the future, saw who would believe, and based on that knowledge, elected those to salvation. Now in my humble opinion, a God who would base His choice on that scenario is a pretty wimpy God!

The following verses suggest to me a strong, decisive, and sovereign God, who leaves nothing to chance, but is rather in control of all things:

John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

Ephesians 1:4-6, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”

Foreknew is from the Greek word proginosko. MacArthur writes that is “does not simply mean to be aware of something beforehand, but to determine that it will come to pass. Ken Wuest writes, “This word in its verb and noun forms is used seven times in the N.T., twice in connection with man (Acts 26:5, II Peter 3:17), where it signifies foreknowledge based upon previous experience, and five times with reference to God (Acts 2:23, Romans 8:29, 11:2, I Peter 1:2, 20), where it means ‘foreordination.’ The word translates it with respect to our Lord (I Peter 1:20). The word occurs first in Acts 2:23 where it is associated with the words ‘determinate counsel’ by Granville Sharp’s rule which requires that the word ‘foreknowledge’ refer to the same thing that the words ‘determinate counsel’ refer to, and is a further description of it. The words ‘determinate counsel’ refer here to the council composed of the Persons of the Triune God in council convened to select and appoint from among their number, the One who should be the Lamb for Sacrifice. This action is foreordination, the appointing of a person to a certain destiny. The word ‘foreknowledge’ (A.V.) is part and parcel of that act and partakes of the meaning of that act, namely, that of foreordination.”

In Scripture, the phrase “to know” often carries with it the idea of intimacy, an intimacy characterized by devotion and love. Genesis 4:1, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Please do not think even for moment that when Adam knew his wife - that she was just some casual acquaintance of his. It’s not that they had met sometime, say fourteen years ago, and he remembered her. Adam and a intimate loving relationship with Eve - that’s what the word means.

Now lets take that over to God’s foreknowledge. When Scripture says that God foreknew - it is much more than just God looking ahead to see and “choosing” those he saw, it is God intimately and lovingly choosing someone to be His own. Paul says God chose us before the foundations of the world, Ephesians 1:4. MacArthur says that “for God to foreknow is to predetermine and preordain.” The Geneva Study Bible says, “Whom He loved and chose from eternity past.” So God foreknowing is God intimately loving us beforehand.

Peter speaks of believers as those - who are Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father - 1 Pet. 1:2. This is what we get when we put this all together - God’s foreknowing those who will be saved is the same as His predestinating those who will be saved.
Rom. 8:28-30, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow [intimately love beforehand], he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

What a blessed and humbling thought, that God, before there ever was time, intimately love me and chose me to be His own. This one thing I know for sure, had God not chosen me, I never would have chosen Him.

Adapted from various sources!

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

[Watchman]

Thank you Dan.
And I do mean that. I regard Calvinist's as brothers and love all of you the same. One of the reasons that I don't care for that forum is because it seems, at times, like civil war; Another words, brother against brother.
But, while I don't like labels, I guess I must be in the Armenian school. IMHO, there are too many passages in scripture that point the other direction. This is not a debate forum, and so I will leave it there. Peace

 

[blackbird]

Friday, March 5, 2004

God's Methodology of the Cross
Matthew 27:31

Sing these lines with me from Fanny Crosby

Jesus keep me near the cross/there a precious fountain
Free to all a healing stream/flows from Calvary's mountain
In the cross, in the cross/be my glory ever
Till my raptured soul shall find/rest beyond the river

"And after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, and put His own raiment on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him."

Imagine that! Its the first time since Eternity Past that Jesus was led by man! He'd never been led by man before! He had always been accustomed to LEADING the way! Interesting---the first time that God allowed man to lead---and man led God to a cross!! To a crucifixion!

We know what the crowd was doing to Jesus at the cross!! Man was there--doing the worst that he had ever done!!

But what was God doing at the cross!!??

I. THE CROSS WAS GOD'S METHOD OF RECONCILEING MEN TO HIMSELF

Read Colossians 1:19-22

"reconcile" means, "a restoration of a relationship of peace which has been disturbed."

You see, when man disobeyed in the Garden of Eden, he became an enemy of God. Sin brought seperation and it was there that God withdrew fellowship. God was at emnity against man!!

But all throughout scripture---like a crimson thread being needled through man's heart---God told the world through the prophets that there was coming one who will restore peace! God was taking the initiative in restoring and reconciling.

Read Micah 5:2-5

I like the last phrase of verse 5 "and this man shall be the peace."

Read Ephesians 2:13-18

Jesus' message from the cross was--"This way to the Father! This way to Peace with God!" The cross was God's method of bringing peace between God and man! Imagine that??? God was on the cross--bringing peace between God and man!!

2Corinthians 5:18-19

II THE CROSS WAS GOD'S METHOD OF REDEEMING MAN TO HIMSELF Matthew 20:28

This word "redeem" is also worded in scripture as "Paying a ransom" and "to atone" And it means to pay the required price to secure a release of a captive. Old Testament law says that God's demand was a "life for a life."

Theologians also refer to the words "Expiation" and "Propitiation"

Expiation means "the removal of guilt through the payment of the penalty"

Propitiation means "the appeasement or averting of God's wrath and judgment"

Now, we need to understand! God is holy and pure and just. He will not tolerate sin! He cannot dwell with sin! And in His holiness He demands that sin be paid for! He's not going to let us get away with it!! The word says, "The soul that sinneth shall surely (what?)---DIE!!"

But God is also Love! And because of that---the sinner can be accepted IF the claims of divine holiness are recognized!!

See?? God demands absolute holiness! Absolute perfection! God demands flawlessness!

Well, guess what? No man born of the 1st Adam can claim absolute holiness! We are all born "into sin." So, we're stuck, aren't we?? In Adam---all have sinned! In Adam--all die!! We are dead in trespasses and sin! Who will come along to satisfy sin's debt??

1Corinthians 15 says that Last Adam did!! Jesus came and satisfied God's demand for holiness and paid sin's debt to God!!

Jesus---Word of God---creator of the universe---"became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."--John 1:14

In Matthew 20:28---Jesus came to ransom sinful man! To pay a debt to God! He came to give His holy life--to pay a debt He didn't owe--because we owed a debt we could not pay!!

What was God doing on the cross??? God was on the cross "doing business" with God!!! God was on the cross satisfying man's debt to God! God was on the cross satisfying God's holy justice! God, in a finite period of time on the cross---paid a debt that I would have had to pay---stretched out over an infinite period of time!!

Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Bible Church in Chicago asks the following question and then gives an answer as to God's methodology of the cross:

"Did God whip His Son, and put the nails through His hands and feet? No, to be sure, this cruelty was done by wicked men. And yet these sinners did what God purposed to be done. We must accept as a fact the mystery that the blame for Jesus' death belongs to the evil people; and yet, the plan was God's."

Acts 4:28 reads, "They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen."

Halelujah! What a Savior!! You can rejoice today! Jesus satisfied the debt owed to God! He made peace with God upon the cross on your behalf and on mine!! Lets worship God together through Jesus today!!

 

[Dan Todd]

We must accept as a fact the mystery that the blame for Jesus' death belongs to the evil people; and yet, the plan was God's.

There are many things that our feeble finite minds cannot understand with human logic - yet God says they are true.

Let God be true and every man a liar!

Thank you Blackbird!

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Halelujah! What a Savior!! You can rejoice today! Jesus satisfied the debt owed to God! He made peace with God upon the cross on your behalf and on mine!! Lets worship God together through Jesus today!!

Amen and Amen!

 

[Dan Todd]

March 6

Romans 11:2, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

Generally when Scripture speaks of the foreknowledge of God (God’s determination to choose and love someone before the foundations of the earth were laid down), it refers to individuals. There is one notable exception, and that is found in our text. Israel is the only nation God foreknew and predetermined that they should be His people, the recipients of His love and grace.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8, “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

The veracity and truthfulness of God hangs on what He does with Israel. The promises of God were to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their seed according to the flesh. That means those promises were to the nation of Israel, not the church of Jesus Christ. Understand that I am not saying that God has not made promises to the church, because He has. The church is the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jehovah, God the Father, also has a wife, and that wife is Israel. Jeremiah 3 and the Book of Hosea pictures the relationship between the Father and His bride. The Father’s bride was/is an adulterous wife (Jeremiah 3:9, “And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks). The Father pleads with Israel to return to Him (Jeremiah 3:14, “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion”). This restoration will come after the great tribulation of Revelation. When Christ returns to set up His millennial kingdom, Israel shall see that she killed her Messiah, Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” She shall wonder at His wounds, Zechariah 13:6, “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

The promise to Abraham of seed, land, and blessing belong to Israel, not the church. Because God foreknew and predetermined before the foundation of the earth to set His special love upon Israel forever, He can never totally reject them. If the church, sometimes called “spiritual Israel,” has replace “physical Israel,” then the divine promises to physical Israel have been invalidated. That would mean that God cannot be trusted. That His divine faithfulness has been nullified. His divine integrity would be discredited and His divine love compromised.

“One of the greatest evidences that God has not totally rejected Israel is the continual remnant of that people whom God has graciously preserved for Himself. From the day God called Abraham until the day Christ returns in glory and judgment, there has not been and will never be a time when the earth will be without believing Jews.” (MacArthur)

Friends, because God has kept, is keeping, and will keep His promise to Israel, we can trust Him to keep His promise to us, the blood bought believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is that promise?

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:1, 38-39)

2 Timothy 1:12, “ For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

Because God is faithful, I can say with the Apostle Paul, that I too am persuaded that He will keep that which I have committed unto Him.

Adapted from “Romans” by MacArthur (with a lot of Todd thrown in).

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

[blackbird]

J. Vernon McGee once said that there is yet to come the most glorious gathering of Jews back to the Land of Promise than ever before in man's history!

Thanks, Bro. Dandy Dan!! Casper and Corrie Ten Boom loved the Jews---and Bro. David does, too!

 

[Dan Todd]

Blackbird - I agree - we ain't seen nothing yet!

 

[Dr. Bob]

Amen to all. Thanks, for the good messages each day!