(# 293) Romans 8 - Many of Our Trials Are UndeservedWelcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark. At Barah Ministries we are “pursuing the truth through the study of the Word of God.” Because of the gracious provision of the internet, from our omnipotent God, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Barah Ministries has a worldwide reach and an intimate impact on lives. Thank you Lord for providing a way for anyone, anywhere to be reached with Your Word.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Many of Our Trials Are Undeserved
It’s time for me to take a trip to Napa, California…to wine country… because a walk in the vineyards always grounds me. I am reminded of John, Chapter 15, Verse 5 as I stroll there…
John 15:5 I (the Lord Jesus Christ) am the vine…you (believers in Christ) are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
As I look at the vine and the branches and the fruit, I am reminded of my life as a Christian.
VINE-BRANCHES-FRUIT SLIDE
I was born unattached to the vine…instead attached to sin…I was “in Adam” and set for a horrible destiny…First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22…the first part…
First Corinthians 15:22a For all “in Adam” are set to die the second death (in the Lake of Fire) Then someone introduced me to the Christian Way of Life by telling me about the gospel message…that I am a sinner…that I need a Savior…that God the Son came to earth to tabernacle in the flesh, thus creating the unique Person of the Universe…100% God and 100% Man in one person forever… the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…and that by believing in Him I could be saved…Him who died for my sin…and was buried…and was resurrected from the dead…who ascended to heaven…and who is seated at the right hand of God the Father because His work on behalf of all mankind is finished…as He stated as He hung from the Cross… “It is finished…” I am a believer. Christ is my Savior.
As a result of believing in Him I became a resident in the Christian Way of Living. I have spent years trying to get my arms around the Christian Way of Living, only to find that I cannot get my arms around it…I cannot reduce it to my level…I cannot diminish it to fit my scheme…I can only be expanded by it.
When I stroll through the vineyards of Napa, I look at the branches, and they are so small compared to the vine. The vine is sturdy and strong and has to be able to hold the weight of the branches and the fruit. The branch, in and of itself, is able to do nothing. Could this be why the apostle Paul begged desperately for understanding in Romans, Chapter 7, Verses 24 and 25…
Romans 7:24 (Amplified Translation) Oh what a pitiable and unhappy wretch of a man I am! Who will release me and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death?
Romans 7:25 (Amplified Translation) Oh thank God! He will deliver me through the Lord Jesus Christ!
Thus the reason why I can’t get my arms around the Christian Way of Living…my arms too short to box with God.
It is the God the Father who invites us from spiritual death to spiritual life…it is the Lord Jesus Christ who paid for the passage to the Christian Way of Life through His death on a Cross and His resurrection from the dead…another death which leads to life…all we have to do is believe…we stand amazed at grace…and it is God the Holy Spirit who leads us through the years of struggle and failure at our attempts to get our arms around the Christian Way of Living…through the realization that we can’t get our arms around it…please don’t be surprised this…then the Spirit introduces us to the New Self Life, and teaches it to us one painful step after another painful step at a time. The Spirit of Truth is the one who keeps on providing the sap to our branches…the nourishment, through the Word of God, that allows us to produce fruit.
And as for us, we never quite feel that anything we are doing is worthy or worthwhile. Yet the vine continues to supply the branch, and the fruit maker continues to produce the fruit…Galatians, Chapter 5, Verses 22 and 23…
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (in yourselves), patience, kindness, goodness (toward others), faithfulness…
Galatians 5:23 …gentleness, self-control (with God); against such virtues there is no law.
The believer in Christ does not produce this fruit…it is produced by the Spirit…fruit “singular” to speak of the fruit’s unity…and believers in Christ simply manifest the fruit of the Spirit by allowing God to work through them…one painful step after another painful step at a time. These are the things we are learning as we close out our study of Romans, Chapter 8.
Welcome to a place where we can see the Spirit’s work in us through the many deaths we experience, day by day.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
THE LION AND THE LAMB Crystal Lewis
The opening song for this lesson THE LION AND THE LAMB by Crystal Lewis.
OPENING PRAYER Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Father, for those of us with “the flesh” who are still listening to its voice, doing Your will is hard…but we know from studying the Word of God, that You hold every card…so we have no trouble drinking the cups of poison you send our way…to let them burn us…to let them beat us down…because we know who You are and we trust, in faith, what You are able to do…
Help us to accept those things You send…help us to thrive as a result…help us to go through the trials, whether we think they are deserved or not, with the confidence of knowing we are doing Your will, and that Your judgments always have the perfect result.
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name... Amen.
A few announcements….
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! No Face-to-Face Teaching NEXT WEEK! July 3, 2016
Enjoy the time off.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Next Deacon’s Meeting July 9 7:30A-9:00A
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Cliff Spier July 5
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Many of Our Trials As Christians Are Undeserved
We continue our study of Romans, Chapter 8, with Verses 35 to 37…
Romans 8:35 WHO will separate us from the unconditional love of Christ? (Or WHAT will separate us?) Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword separate us from Christ’s unconditional love?
As we learned the trials of the Christian Way of Living in Verse 35 we saw them increase in intensity. So it is as the world progresses in history…
Romans 8:36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all the day of grace long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us unconditionally.
As you can see, for believers in Christ our story ends well, but while we are living the story, the Christian Way of Living, there is much to endure. As American Christians, the real trials are just beginning…as we watch a fascist government being born right before our very eyes. Our brethren throughout the world are experiencing things that are much worse than we have it, and they are experiencing it right now.
The very real experience of those of us who are believers in Christ is that we are KILLED PERPETUALLY and we are SHEEP FOR SLAUGHTER. What is perpetual?
Perpetual Continuing forever…enduring forever…lasting for an indefinitely long time
As a young man living in Chicago, I spent a quite a bit of time working at the International Amphitheater on 42nd and Halsted Streets on Chicago’s South Side. In fact, I was working there the day Jim Croce died, and I remember that being quite an emotional day for me, as I am a Croce fan. The Amphitheater’s primary purpose was to host the International Livestock Exhibition, but as time moved on it was used for many more things. Behind the Amphitheater was the Union Stock Yards…the meat-packing district for Chicago.
Hogs and sheep were butchered there. If you visited the stockyards on butchering day, in the pig pen you would hear blood curdling shrieks and screams coming from the pigs as they were being slaughtered. In the sheep pen, you would hear nothing. As the sheep were being led to slaughter, they were silent. It reminds us of Acts, Chapter 8, Verse 32…
Acts 8:32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so the Lord does not open His mouth.”
There is a ruthless hatred for God’s saints in this world…it is sponsored by Satan, the enemy of God…he has a communication system … “the world” … which indoctrinates everyone against believers in Christ…Revelation, Chapter 12, Verse 9…
Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down (from heaven), the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his (fallen) angels were thrown down with him…
…a future event…as believers in Christ we have been enduring the hatred of “the world” in the past and we will keep on enduring this hatred into the future, as will the saints who live after us Church Age believers, while we are long gone to heaven…and they will continue to endure the hatred perpetually, just as we have, for an indefinitely long time.
Revelation, Chapter 13, Verses 1 to 8 describe the future of the world after this Church Age…
Revelation 13:1 And the dragon (Satan) stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast (the Gentile Anti-Christ) coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.
Revelation 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon (Satan) gave the beast his power and his throne and his great authority.
Revelation 13:3 I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast…
Revelation 13:4 …the whole earth worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”
Revelation 13:5 There was given to the beast a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months (three and a half years) was given to him (by God).
Revelation 13:6 And the beast opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, blasphemies against those who dwell in heaven (God and the elect angels).
Revelation 13:7 It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and every people and every tongue and every nation was given to him.
Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain (the Lord Jesus Christ).
The counterfeit trinity…Satan…and the Beast (the Anti-Christ…a Gentile)…and the False Prophet (likely a Jew) will rule in the Tribulations period. And their rulership will prove what Satan is…a tyrant…unfit to create a free world or to govern a free people. “Make himself like the most high?” Never. Not possible. He has no integrity. He has no power.
We have to revisit Psalm 44 shortly…a look into the future of Israel…the place where an attempted holocaust will happen again during the great tribulation period in the age that follows the Church Age (the age we are in right this moment). The Age of the Tribulation is described this way…Matthew, Chapter 24, Verses 1 to 27…
Matthew 24:1 Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.
Matthew 24:2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”
Matthew 24:3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and what will be the sign of the end of the age?”
The Lord describes the Tribulation period…the first half first…
Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.”
Matthew 24:5 “For many will come in My name (at that time), saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.”
Matthew 24:6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.”
Matthew 24:7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.”
Matthew 24:8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”
Now the second half…
Matthew 24:9 “Then they will deliver you (believers in Christ) to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”
Matthew 24:10 “At that time many will fall away (from the faith) and will betray one another and hate one another.”
Matthew 24:11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”
Matthew 24:12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love (for the Lord) will grow cold.”
Matthew 24:13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved (delivered).”
This is not a reference to salvation…the people being referred to here are already believers…
Matthew 24:14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)…”
This is a reference to the Anti-Christ’s broken treaty with Israel…the Anti-Christ will set up an image of himself to be worshipped…
Matthew 24:16 “…then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”
Matthew 24:17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.”
Matthew 24:18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.”
Matthew 24:19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!”
Matthew 24:20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.”
Matthew 24:21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”
Matthew 24:22 “Unless those days had been cut short (by the Second Coming of the Christ), no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect (believers in Christ) those days will be cut short.”
Matthew 24:23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him.”
Matthew 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Matthew 24:25 “Behold, I have told you in advance.”
Matthew 24:26 “So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”
Matthew 24:27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the (second) coming of the Son of Man be.”
Let’s take a music break and then we’ll continue.
MUSIC BREAK ALREADY THERE Casting Crowns
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON Many of Our Trials Are Undeserved
Romans, Chapter 8, with Verses 36 and 37…
Romans 8:36 Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all the day of grace long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us unconditionally.
As Christians, we are being KILLED PERPETUALLY and we are SHEEP FOR SLAUGHTER. A revisit to Psalm 44, Verses 17 to 26 describe things undeserved…and based on the things we studied earlier in this lesson we may now have a new perspective on this passage…
Psalm 44:17 All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You (Lord), and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.
Some of our trials are undeserved.
Psalm 44:18 Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way…
Psalm 44:19 Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
Psalm 44:20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or extended our hands to a strange god (idolatry)…
Psalm 44:21 …would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
Psalm 44:22 But for Your sake (Lord) we are killed all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Psalm 44:23 Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever.
Psalm 44:24 Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?
Psalm 44:25 For our soul has sunk down into the dust; our body cleaves to the earth.
Psalm 44:26 Rise up, be our help, and redeem us for the sake of Your lovingkindness.
In the tribulation period, the Anti-Christ will hunt down believers in Christ, especially Jewish ones, to kill them…and God will allow it up to a point…and the persecution will feel quite undeserved.
Many Christians think God has abandoned them when they experience trials that seem undeserved. Yet what ever happens to us that we don’t deserve? A fair God would never let us be tormented needlessly. So we can assume that our God has a purpose for everything in the matter of us and that He is working those things together for our good. And here is how we know… Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 37…
Romans 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us unconditionally.
There is a feeling of powerlessness that permeates the Christian psyche in this world…we feed much of it ourselves with our obsession concerning being perfect in God’s eyes through things we do, instead of realizing that in union with Christ, we are already perfect in the Father’s eyes. As we come upon the election of a new President, there is a part of us that is hoping one of these evil leaders will turn things around. They won’t. The world is continuing to shape up for the times the bible is describing earlier in this lesson. We must prepare ourselves for this eventuality. As Christians, we are being KILLED PERPETUALLY and we are SHEEP FOR SLAUGHTER. Yet we feel this way…as Paul suggests, in Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verses 7 to 12…
Second Corinthians 4:7 But we believers in Christ have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…
Second Corinthians 4:8 …we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing…
Second Corinthians 4:9 …persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…
Second Corinthians 4:10 …always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
Second Corinthians 4:11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
Second Corinthians 4:12 So death works in us, but the resurrection life works in you.
I am please to die daily in the insignificant ways that I do, knowing the victory the Lord has planned in the past for my absolutely certain future. How about you?
GOD WANTS YOU! Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
Matthew 22:42 “What do you think about the Christ (the Messiah)…?”
Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given to mankind by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Acts 2:21 ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation will be saved.’
CLOSING SONG WALK IN THE LIGHT June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening!
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