by Howard Watson
On September eleven much of the world remembers the suicidal burning
of the Twin Towers in New York City. Many of us who watched on television,
in horror, the fiery burning attack, will never forget the sullen
moments spent in a daze and thoughts of the great death toll. While
thousands got out and survived, several thousand died. We were reminded
that fire means injury and death to the human body. The fire and
smoke distinguished the stricken buildings. Yet, in the Bible (Daniel
3), we read of men who endured fire without injury and death.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon had ordered that those who did not
fall down in worship of his image would be put to death in a fiery
furnace. Three Hebrew men refused the king's command and were cast
into the fiery furnace; only they did not die. They survived, totally
unharmed by the command and presence of God/Jehovah with them. That
was a fiery and real trial of their faith and trust in God.
Another example of fire in the Bible is when the young man Isaiah
was called to be a prophet. This was not a "fire of testing"
but a "fire of cleansing." In Isaiah 6:5f..."Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,...Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken wth the tongs from off the altar; And he laid
it upon my mouth, and said: Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and
thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged"(KJV). Not
only does fire test and cleanse it also separates (fire of separation)
in a friction of truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness,
obedience and sin, faith/belief and disobedience or unbelief.
Jesus said to His hearers in Luke 12:49 "I am come to send
"fire" on the earth; and what will I, if it be already
kindled?"(KJV) Because of the fiery anger of the rulers of
the Jews at Jesus whom they had called a blasphemer, WHO MADE HIMSELF
TO BE THE SON OF GOD the Messiah, he was crucified in the heat of
the friction of unbelief with TRUTH. But the fire of death's Hell
(Geennan)could not hold Him. He arose in purity and holiness with
a great victory. Jesus is the Son of God; victor over Satan, death
and hell.
He, our Lord, endured the "fiery judgment" of our sins
and by His stripes we are healed and saved through our faith in
Him. We are secured from the coming purging of the disobedient/unbeliever
from the saved ones who have passed the fiery test of faith in the
saving power of the blood of Christ poured out in a holy sacrifice
on the cross. We are set free by our faith, alone in Him, to save
and purify us for Himself. We will never experience the "fiery
pain" of torment and the "separation of fire" in
the lake of fire which is the second death (Revelation 20:14,15).
FIRE SERMON
Our God is a consuming fire for it says in Deut. 4:24: "for
the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" NIV.
The Lord Yehovah tolerates no other gods in our lives as His children
and people. Truly, there are no other real gods but people make
gods of many things that are material and not spiritual. Our Lord
God is Spirit and life- giving.
Fire shows God's presence in His holiness and purity of being. It
shows His nearness and knowledge of His people. Fire shows God's
concern and protection of His people. He gave Israel a pillar of
fire by night (Ex. 13:21). It shows that He will accept atonement
for sin which must be forsaken in repentance and paid for (Lev.1f,2f;
Jos. 13:14).
Finally there is strange fire which is not of the Lord's doing,
presence and will (Lev. 10:1). This is sin's fire of disobedience
to the Lord, and it defiles and destroys. It is not a blessed burning
away of the effects of sin on the sinner, but it brings loss and
death. The fire of God's Holy Spirit will take away/burn away our
evil desires and give to us a new love and desire to please and
praise our God and Lord (Acts 2:1f).
You need the mighty power of God's presence and fire of purging
of sin's dross to make you a flame of His presence in your daily
life, while giving the light of Christ to your community and neighborhood.
GALATIANS MESSAGES
THE GOSPEL
The Apostle Paul was not only an evangelist and church planter,
but also an ongoing pastor to believers. Wherever he was, he would
always remember those young churches of converts to Jesus Christ.
Their needs and faithfulness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ were
his daily concerns.
Jesus Christ, the anointed and risen Saviour, God's only eternal
Son, solely paid the price of each believer's sin debt. Instead
of, in our place and for our sins, Jesus died and arose. In Galatians,
chapter one, verses one through five, the Apostle Paul summarized
the basic history of what happened in Christ Jesus for the sins
of the world.
First of all, Paul was specifically called to apostleship and the
Gospel ministry by Jesus Christ , when he was not yet in full understanding
of what his young life would all be about. We find this in Acts
chapter nine. Other men, no high priest, no Jewish Pharisee or ruler,
called and made Saul, the young aspiring pharisaical man to serve
the cause of Christ. All of them were opposed to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. They did not want the Jewish people to become followers
of Jesus of Nazareth. It was Jesus Christ Himself, according to
the will of God the Father, who called Saul, the young man, to become
Paul and to give his lifetime to preaching Jesus is the Christ.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead by God the Father,
was the miracle which Paul personally received witness of. This
was the momentous great miracle that came to grip Paul's life. Paul
says plainly and forthrightly God raised Jesus: "... whom the
Father raised ("egeipantos" Gk. from "egeiro"
to raise up) from the dead " ("nekon"Gk. from "nekros"
meaning dead or without life) in verse one. Jesus had literally
died physically, as each human being dies in physical death. Saul/Paul
had no doubts to the fact of the death of Jesus on the cross at
Calvary. However, he was met by Jesus Christ while on the road to
Damascus to arrest Christians for teaching a resurrected Jesus.
Today many of us read and listen to words of the Scripture and neglect
to fully consider the great effect the resurrected Jesus had on
the believers in the early days of the Church. I think in America
we don't appreciate the resurrection message of Christ Jesus to
its fullest. Why don't more people go through a great change of
life today, as the Apostle Paul did upon meeting Jesus, through
the message of the Gospel? People are not getting the point of the
message. And that point is: each one is truly a sinner deserving
death and its hellish consequences. But, then Jesus has died an
awful death in the sinner's stead, paying sin's penalty for each
one who would call upon the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord. And,
God the Holy Father raised His only begotten Son from the sinner's
death grave, accepting Christ's full and justifing death in our
stead. He gave His life's blood for us.
The only way our individual lives on earth can come to please God,
is through Christ Jesus totally saving us from our sin debt and
by His continuing to save us today to serve Him by His great presence
and power. Each one must repent and turn to Jesus so that he will
be blessed with the great peace of God, in this troubled world of
sin and strife. It is glory and praise to God alone, through Christ,
that we can be marvelously saved for today and forever.SAVED BY
GRACE
People in the world religiously try in many ways through human effort
or works to find favor with God as they have heard of Him. The Jewish
people had received the Law of Moses about four hundred years after
they had grown into a nation of people who had descended from Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. Although they had the law, they transgressed the
Law and came under its curse.
The Law could not save or justify a sinner to make him/her pleasing
in the sight of Jehovah God. Sin's penalty must be paid by a sinless
one, who could bring the sinner before the Heavenly Father as redeemed.
Jehovah God had called and had made a holy promise/covenant with
Abram/Abraham in Genesis 12, 15, 17 and 21. This covenant was fulfilled
in Christ Jesus who through faith in Him saves everyone who believes/trusts
in Him.
In Galatians one Paul affirms that this is the one true Gospel of
Jesus Christ and God. Some false brethren had gone to the young
believers, spoken of in Galatians one, and had told them they must
practice the customs of the Jews including circumcision and certain
aspects of the rites/ritual/laws of the Jews to be saved and to
be part of the blessings of God upon the Jewish nation. Paul points
out to his readers that even Peter and Barnabas were caught up in
this false perversion of the Gospel when some Jewish preachers falsely
and secretly came and made a distinction between Jewish believers
and Gentile believers and would not share together with Gentiles
in full fellowship and communion.
The Gospel of Christ which Paul received by revelation while alone
in Arabia, is a message of grace and liberty/freedom to serve God
in the power of the Holy Spirit's work in the hearts and lives of
Christians. The Gospel of Christ Jesus is not a new Gospel or a
sudden and late change but a true fulfillment of Jehovah's plan
throughout the Old Testament, to bless and to save a people of God
who in the faith of Abraham would become heirs of sonship/adoption
into the family of God. Paul calls us the Israel of God. See Galatians
6:16.
The Jewish people were taught and had sought to live according to
the Law and its practice/promises until the Christ/anointed savior,
who would fulfill the requirements of the Law, came as promised
in the Holy Scriptures. In the redeemed family of Christ and God,
Gentiles (non Jews) are in Christ Jesus joint-heirs of the promises
of God as given to the Old Testament saints. We Gentiles do not
need in some way to become Jewish in order to be part of the family
of promise/faith and the sons of God.
In Galatians chapter two verses sixteen through twenty-one Paul
tells us that justification of sinners in found through faith in
Jesus Christ and not in works of the Law. Justification ("dikaioutai"Gk.
from "dikaiao" being declared righteous) is not of self
but of God in Christ. The language here is passive voice meaning
that the sinner does not actively save himself but in faith is saved
by Jesus Christ. Paul says that in Christ's crucifixion he (Paul)
died to and for the Law's penalty. He died in Christ and through
Christ's resurrection he now lives ("zao" Gk. meaning
to live) in Christ. Paul now lives and serves Christ in his fleshly
("sarki" Gk. fleshly body, which without regeneration
would live a life prone to sin) body. See verse twenty.
It is the love found in Christ Jesus which brings salvation for
the sinner about, in the holiness of the Holy Spirit, of Christ
and God the Father, living in each believer. Our new life in Christ
is a free gift of love ("agape" Gk. God's love as found
in John 3:16).
There is one true people of God and they are individual people who
repent of fleshly works and turn to a new life in Christ by their
faith in Him as Savior and Lord. Have you received the witness of
Christ living in you by your confession of faith/commitment in Him?
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