Grace Greater Than All Our Sin
Proverbs for the Graduates
Prov. 3:1-10
Introduction: My heart is burdened for the bright wonderful young people who are about to graduate. On the one hand I am encouraged and excited about the possibilities that await them; but on the other hand, I am concerned about their spiritual futures.
The Lord has many warnings to young people in His Word. The Book of Proverbs alone offers dozens of such warnings about everything from choosing right friends to the choosing of a mate to sexual purity.
You will hear many well-meaning people tell you to “follow your dreams” or “follow your heart”. That is not my intention tonight. If you will give me your undivided attention for just a few minutes, by God’s grace I will endeavor to challenge you to follow the Lord, starting now — for the rest of your lives.
I. DON’T FORGET THE WORD! Pro_3:1-2
A. Keep it in your heart.
1. You need to be at church to hear it preached.
2. You need to read and study it on your own.
3. You need to memorize it.
4. You do all this to OBEY it!
B. There are benefits for doing so.
1. Length of days
2. Long life
3. Peace
II. DON’T FORSAKE MERCY AND TRUTH. Pro_3:3-4
A. Bind them about your neck. (Make them a part of you.)
B. Write them upon your heart. (Make it real to you in your inner being.)
C. Benefit – favor and good understanding in sight of God and man.
III. TRUST THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART. Pro_3:5-6
A. Don’t trust your own understanding.
1. Not your thinking
2. Not your feelings
3. Not your experience
Proverbs 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
B. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways.
1. Acknowledge Him as your Lord.
2. Acknowledge His right to you.
3. In all your ways.
a. Picking friends
b. Picking career
c. Dating!
C. Benefit – God will direct your paths!
IV. DON’T BE WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES! Pro_3:7-8
A. Fear the Lord
1. Fear His judgment of sin
2. Fear disappointing our Heavenly Father
3. Respect and reverence all that pertains to Him.
B. Depart from evil.
1. Run from it.
2. Keep running from it.
3. Keep on running from it.
2Ti_2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
C. Benefit – Health (physical & spiritual) *You never have to worry about STD’s if you remain pure.
V. SPEND AND BE SPENT FOR THE LORD. Pro_3:9-10
A. Give God your best all the time!
B. Give God honor with what you have!
C. Benefit – Your needs will be met.
Conclusion:
Ecc_12:1
(1) Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Ecc_12:13-14
(13) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
(14) For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
I beg you by the Word of God to give up control of your future to the Lord Jesus Christ! Obey Him, and decide to live a Christ-dominated life from this day forward. Leave everything to follow Him.
Mar_10:28-30
(28) Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
(29) And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
(30) But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
If you find this too difficult, or if you believe this is unreasonable, perhaps you should check your own hearts to see if you are truly saved. Paul said this was reasonable in
Rom_12:1-2
(1) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
(2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
As we saw in the last post on this subject, David was doing a good thing, for a good motive, but he was doing it the wrong way. In other words, his “good intentions” were not enough to please God. He needed to do the job God’s way. Again, this speaks to methods. Many brethren today will say that the methods used by many “seeker-friendly” churches are acceptable because they “mean well.” David meant well, and Uzzah died.
Let us look at look at a few more details about this “bringing back the ark”. The Ark of God represented the presence of God with the people of Israel. God had promised to “dwell between the cherubim” on the mercy seat of the ark. Exodus 25:22 Inside the ark were three different items:
1) The broken tablets of the Law (representing God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness)
2) Aaron’s rod that budded (representing life-giving, resurrection power)
3) A pot of manna (representing God’s provision) Heb. 9:4
David and the people of Israel wanted the presence of God to return to their midst. I share that sentiment today with many others. Many are looking for evidence of the presence of God by numbers in attendance and “success” in the ministry, i.e. larger church facilities, etc. But God’s presence is promised to His church when they meet together with Him in obedience to His commands. Matthew 18:20 states, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. ” The context is a church meeting together for “church discipline” per the command of the Lord.
So, David heads out to retrieve the ark. He has the ark put on a new cart (only the best for the Lord, you know), and then he proceeds to have a “praise and worship” service to mark this great occasion. 2 Sam 6:5 But, the Bible says that the oxen stumbled, Uzzah tried to steady the ark by touching it, “And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.”
We need to ask ourselves a few questions here:
1) Why did David choose to carry the ark on a new cart?
2) Why was God so angry?
3) Is God still angry when we do things in an unscriptural way or using an unscriptural method?
We will look at these questions in the next post.
In Christ,
Pastor Art Dunham
The Seven Sayings of the Savior on the Cross
#1: The Word of Forgiveness
Luke 23:34
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
INTRODUCTION: The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the single most important event in history. It is the crowning point of God’s redemptive plan and the line that divides those whose sins are forgiven and those who are not.
We will be studying the seven recorded sayings of the Savior from the cross during the next several Sundays. I believe it will be instructive and edifying to see the words God saw fit to record from our Savior at this crucial time.
This week we will look at the first “word” from our Savior on the cross, the word of forgiveness. Webster (1833) defines the word “forgive” this way:
“To pardon; to remit, as an offense or debt; to overlook an offense, and treat the offender as not guilty. The original and proper phrase is to forgive the offense, to send it away, to reject it, that is, not to impute it, [put it to] the offender.”
The Greek word, ephiemi, means essentially the same thing, the idea of not placing the rightful guilt on the person who has done the offence.
One of my great concerns in Fundamental Baptist churches today is the tendency to accept a particular person or persons with bad doctrine or practice because they “mean well”. This is particularly true in the area of church music today.
A very powerful and poignant story in the Old Testament sheds some light on this particular attitude concerning “good motives”. The account is found in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13. It is the story of David bringing back the Ark of the Covenant to the City of God, Jerusalem.
The Bible tells us that:
1) David wanted to do a good thing (bring back the ark)
2) He did it for the right reasons, I believe. Read 1 Chron. 13:1-3
3) But, he did it the wrong way or method.
