ROM-74-150125 - length: 67:23 - taught on Jan, 25 2015
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us a lesson about the coexistence of slavery and freedom in the world. Matthew, Chapter 13, beginning at Verse 24…
Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”
“But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.”
“But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.”
“The slaves of the landowner came to the man and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? If so, how then does it have tares?’”
“And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather the tares up?’”
“But he said, ‘No…for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.’”
“Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Now the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, explains the parable.
Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Jesus and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus Christ)…”
“…and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom (believers in Christ…children of God); and the tares are the sons of the evil one (Satan)…
…and the enemy who sowed the tares is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age (unbelievers will be gathered up and burned with fire).
The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks (unbelievers), and those who commit lawlessness (unbelievers)…
…and will throw (unbelievers) into the furnace of fire; in that place (the Lake of Fire) there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Welcome, wheat stalks, believers in Christ, to a place where you can get the spiritual nourishment you need to thrive until the harvest.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
I Will
The opening song for this lesson is I WILL.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful Heavenly Father for the privilege of studying the absolute
truth...the Word of God…
Help us to value your gifts…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s name... Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
What do you do to despise God’s gifts?
When we despise something, we regard it with contempt…we consider it distasteful…we treat it with disgust…we treat it with disdain…we loathe it. When we use our freedom to take advantage of God for selfish ends, we are really demonstrating a loathing for his gifts, among them the gift of freedom. Our error is not, however, a cause for self-loathing…Roman, Chapter 8, Verse 1…
…there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.
…nay…our treatment of God’ gifts is a cause for self examination. What is the proper use of your freedom? Despising gifts from the source of God is not the proper use of your freedom. We’ll continue our study of freedom in this lesson. First, a few announcements…
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The Next Lord’s Supper Celebration
February 8, 2015
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There are nearly 2700 people that have signed up to be a part of our online community. Get your friends to join our on line community today. Welcome to Tracy Bixby who coordinates our Facebook Ministry.
REMINDER
Check In On Facebook
Before Church Service
Ask the Pastor
Resident Congregation
Last Monday…great time.
Ask the Pastor
Non-Resident Congregation
February 2
7:00PM MST
Let me know if you need a link.
Congratulations!
BRIAN and SUSANNA DAVIS
IT’S A GIRL!
Suzannah Annie Grace Davis
9 pounds 3.4 ounces
21.5 inches
Happy Birthday!
Meredith DeSmets
January 22
The big 4-0…happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Jackson DeSmets
January 24
Celebrating his third birthday…he checked in at three pounds and was born at thirty weeks…and now he’s thriving! Happy birthday little man! They’ll be here visiting February 22nd.
Next Deacon’s Meeting
February 7
7:30AM MST
THE OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
Let’s take the offering. This is the time when you get to make a sacrifice on behalf of all the people around the world that can’t afford to pay to study the Word of God. Your generous contributions make it possible for them to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ free of charge by means of internet teaching or by means of face-to-face teaching.
Let’s remember to give with the motivation suggested in Scripture
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful (grace oriented) giver.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall.
THE OFFERING
Deacon Denny Goodall
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though we are sanctioned by God to charge for the many things we provide so you can worship God, we choose not to exercise our right. Therefore no price appears on any material from Barah Ministries so that anyone who desires biblical teaching may have it free of charge.
Barah Ministries Financial Policy
Even though the materials we provide are free of charge, they are not free of cost. We appreciate it when the Word of God motivates you to give financial support so as to provide biblical teaching, both for yourself and for others. Please be generous in your support of God’s work through this ministry.
OFFERING VERSE
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.
OFFERING SONG
Glory
TODAY’S STUDY
What do you do to despise God’s gifts?
A great question to ask yourself…
QUESTION FOR REFLECTION
What do you do to despise God’s gifts?
As Christians, we focus a lot on our mistakes…we focus a lot on our sins… Satan has us worried about living in sin and adultery and homosexuality… but what about these three?
CHRISTIAN MALADIES <REVEALS>
Ingratitude
Entertaining False Teachers
Disunity
The Improper Use of Freedom
But are our sins as bad as these maladies that plague the Christian? Turn in your bibles to Galatians, Chapter 3…let’s continue to contemplate the proper use of freedom as the Galatian believers teach us what not to do…in Chapter 3, Paul is on a rant…
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you (put you under a spell), because before your eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified…
Satan had diverted the Galatian’s eyes, through false teachers, away from the Cross and onto the Law. He’s asking, “Do you want to believe a gospel message that makes Christ’s death unnecessary?” May it never be! Would the Sovereign God of the universe do anything that was unnecessary? May it never be! It shows us just how low we are willing to sink when we use our freedom improperly.
How often, every day, does Satan divert your eyes from the things that are precious to you to something else, so that you despise what is precious to you? Pretty often I’d say. Now Paul asks the question for introspection, as he continues to dismantle the argument of those opposed to the Lord’s thinking. First, Paul is asking, “Galatians…how did you receive the Holy Spirit?”
This is the only thing I want to find out from you Galatian believers: did you receive the indwelling and the filling of God the Holy Spirit by means of the works of the Law, or by means of hearing the gospel with faith?
Second, Paul is asking the Galatians…how are you sanctified? Are you saved by faith and sanctified by works? Hardly!
Are you so foolish? Having begun your salvation by the agency of God the Holy Spirit, are you now being perfected in your spirituality by the flesh?
The funny thing here is that the Galatians were Gentiles…they weren’t
under the law anyway! Their salvation is not in question. Their use of freedom is in question. They are just like us believers today. What is the proper use of your freedom? It is certainly not to despise the gifts of God.
Take a five-minute break.
BREAK
Glory
Welcome back! Next Paul asks them, “Are you suffering for the sake of Christianity needlessly?”
Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain?
Paul is asking, “Why the move to Christianity by faith alone in Christ alone when it put you at risk of being murdered…when you could have kept the law all along and not suffered a bit of persecution?” That would be pretty stupid for them to do, wouldn’t it?
So then, does the God who provides you with the Holy Spirit and the God who works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by means of hearing the gospel mixed with your faith?
The miracle is salvation. Evidence please Paul?
Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD (faith alone in Jehovah Elohim alone), AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith alone in Christ alone who are sons of Abraham.
The Scripture, foreseeing (with omniscience and foreknowledge) that God the Father would justify the Gentiles by faith, it preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.”
So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.”
Now that no one is justified by the Law before God the Father is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”
Only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ results in justification.
However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM (the laws) SHALL (have to) LIVE BY THEM (these same laws… which they can’t do)!”
But salvation…
The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE…”
The Lord Jesus Christ “redeemed us” means he broke us out of the prison of the law…the right-wrong life…the law does not justify…it only condemns! The curse of the law was transferred from us to Christ. God the Father’s wrath was directed to Christ.
…in order that in (union with) Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, in order that we (those in union with Christ) would receive the same promise as Abraham through the agency of God the Holy Spirit through faith alone in Christ alone.
Can faith and law be combined, or are they mutually exclusive? They are exclusive, like night and day. What is the problem with those who follow the law?
Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.
When people can’t follow laws…they add to them! OMG!
Now the promises (of Jehovah Elohim…God the Son) were spoken to Abraham and to his seed (the righteous ones). He does not say, “And to seeds,” as if referring to many seeds, but rather the reference is to one seed, “And to your seed,” that is, the Christ (the Messiah).
What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later (after the promises to Abraham), does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God with Abraham, so as to nullify the promise.
The covenants of God are immutable…they do not change…He does not change…once God makes a promise, it’s a guarantee.
For if the inheritance of Abraham is based on law (and it isn’t), it is no longer, then, based on a promise from God; but fortunately God has granted the inheritance to Abraham by means of a promise.
Why did the Law come in then? It was added because of transgressions (to make sin obvious), having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed (the Messiah) would come to whom the promise had been made.
Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only for one party.
God did not give us a salvation promise through a mediator, just like Abraham was not given promises through a mediator.
Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life (and of course it can’t), then righteousness would indeed have been based on law (but it is not…it is based on faith).
But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (through faith alone in Christ alone).
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed.
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
The law was a warden of prisoners…the Lord Jesus Christ freed the captives.
For you are all sons of God the Father through faith alone in the Lord Christ Jesus alone.
For all of you who were baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek (no racial distinction), there is neither slave nor free man (no social distinction), there is neither male nor female (no gender distinction); for you are all one in (union with) Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ (and all believers do), then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
Funny thing…as a man of God, Paul brought a message of freedom from God…the Galatians accepted and became believers…the false teachers came in and turned their heads away from the truth…and now Paul has to spend all his time and all his attention to turn their heads back to where they belong. So much work for Paul…so much work for God…when all we have to do it believe God more than we believe Satan. Who do you believe more? Do you despise the gifts from God and embrace the lies of Satan. When you admit that you are doing this, how fast are you willing to stop it?
The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ
When God makes a promise…
it’s a guarantee!
“Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today…”
He gives strength to the weary, to him who lacks might He increases power.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God the Father, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
CLOSING SONG
God’s Property
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS
INTERCESSION
PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your person, Your thinking, Your work, and Your essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming!
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for listening!
www.barahministries.com
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1220 S. Alma School Rd. Suite 201 Mesa, AZ 85210 |
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(480) 237-9903 |
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info@barahministries.com |
