Forecasting Hope 4: America Under Attack (Pastor Greg Hudson, 10/13/24)

We've said that if you come seven times, seven nights, then you'll have a book, Understanding

Daniel and Revelation, that we'll be giving out.

So this is night four.

Some have been here every night.

A couple have missed one night.

And after tonight, when do we meet next?

Thursday night.

So we're going to take some nights off.

You can rest and relax and do some yard work or whatever you might need to do.

Or just sleep a little bit earlier, if that'll work.

And we'll be back here on Thursday at what time?

Seven p.m.

And so as we've gathered three nights now, we've talked about signs of the times.

We talked about the image of Daniel chapter two.

We talked about the battle between the devil and between Jesus Christ.

And we choose which side we're going to be on.

We talked about the second coming and what that's going to be like, some way that Jesus

will come.

And so we're going to continue on tonight.

We're going to look at America under attack.

Now did we pass out new?

Okay, you've got a new card.

So if you have any questions, we didn't have any questions for today, but if you have any

questions, write those on there.

If you have any prayer requests, we've been praying for different things, for family members,

for sickness.

We know there's so many things to be praying for in our world today.

So feel free to put that on there as well.

And let's bow our heads and we'll get right started and carry on.

Dear God, we thank you so much.

For all that you do for us.

We thank you for bringing us through this weekend.

And we know that there's work that people will be going to tomorrow and maybe school.

But I know also that some schools have fall break, so maybe some young people can have

some days off.

But Lord, I just pray that you'll be with us as we open up your word, that you'll help

us to know more about you and to know you better and that you will continue to guide

us and change us and change our heart.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

So tonight's topic is about the law that anti-Christ hates.

We're going to look at things here as we get started that I don't like to talk about, except

there are things that happen all too frequently.

You can go back to Valentine's Day.

This is in Pittsburgh on a Jewish synagogue and a stranger burst in with some different

firearms and people tried to barricade themselves in the closets.

Call 911 and before that event was through, 11 different people were shot.

11 people were killed and 6 people were wounded.

And then it was Valentine's Day in Parkland, Florida and people perhaps had love on their

mind except for at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Once again, firearms.

Once again, many people were harmed and killed as one person pulled the fire alarm and so

as students and teachers flocking the hallways, people shot and within 6 minutes, 17 people

are killed and 17 more are wounded and families are devastated.

And it became the deadliest high school shooting in US history.

2017 in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

A gentleman rented a room, a 64 year old begun to carry, once again, all kinds of different

weapons up there and people didn't notice.

The day came when down below the hotel was a music festival and shots began to rain out

on October 1st in 2017 and in just 10 minutes, over 1100 rounds were shot and 58 people were

killed and over 400 were injured and as people were fleeing and running, hundreds more got

injured and stampede.

The motive was unclear and this became the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in

US history.

And of course, you can go back just a few weeks right here in Georgia, just outside

of Atlanta, another high school, 4 people shot, 4 people killed.

And we wish that we could say these are isolated incidents, that it's a rare thing.

It doesn't happen often.

But if I said that, you would know that I wasn't telling the truth because you watch

the news, you read the newspapers and we know that crimes like this are happening on a regular

basis and not just that type of crime, but you can look at statistics.

That there's over a million violent crimes every year, over 250,000 robberies take place.

A burglary occurs every 13 seconds.

10 million people in this country are abused.

Statistics are horrific.

That's every 20, every minute, 20 people for some type of abuse.

In fact, over 400,000 people are victims of some type of sexual abuse.

And then there's blue collar crime and white collar crime.

There's dishonesty and corruption.

And people that we're supposed to trust lie to us on a continual basis.

Pornography is a multimillion dollar business.

About half of marriages end in divorce.

And the statistics could go on and on and on.

But society in America does not seem to be getting better, but it seems to be getting

worse.

It seems as if these problems are increasing in frequency and in scope and in multitude.

And it seems like while technology is advancing in many ways, that morals in our nations seem

to be plummeting to even lower levels.

And we can wonder why, and we can say what is going on.

And we can see that the Bible prophecy not only predicted this, but it gives some explanation

and can give even some hope.

So we're going to start today and go to a book of the Bible that we haven't gone to

yet.

And that's the book of Hosea.

Now Hosea is in the Old Testament.

And if you go to Daniel, which we've gone to several times, the very next book after

the book of Daniel is the book of Hosea.

We're going to go to Hosea chapter 4.

Hosea 4 · chapter mention

We're going to look at Hosea chapter 4, and we're going to pick up the story here because

Hosea 4 · chapter mention

this is a foundational text as God speaks to this prophet Hosea.

God is looking down from heaven and he begins to see, he begins to describe what he sees.

So in Hosea chapter 4, we're going to pick up the story in verse 1.

Hosea 4 · chapter mention

So the Bible says,

Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel.

For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land.

There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.

It goes on and says, By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery,

they break all restraint with bloodshed upon bloodshed.

So this is what God is seeing as he looks down.

And we could think, well maybe he's looking at one of the pagan nations, which is around

Israel, but no, he's actually talking to his own people.

And yet it sounds like that we could be happening in our world today.

But that's not what's happening.

It's happening to God's people right here in the book of Hosea.

And it goes on and says, God says he is seeing this lying and this killing and this adultery

and this bloodshed upon bloodshed, and it's happening to God's people.

And then notice just a verse or two later, verse 6, God says, the Bible says, My people

are destroyed for, for what?

A lack of knowledge.

For a lack of knowledge.

And it says, Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest

for me.

And then notice what he says next.

It says, Because you have forgotten, what's it say?

The law of your God.

So this group of people, the Israelites, the people of God, they were supposed to be, as

he said, a priest so that other nations could look to the way that Israel lived and they

could see what it meant to follow the true God.

And yet these people were not doing what they were supposed to be doing.

And it gave two reasons there that we just saw.

There was a lack of spiritual knowledge.

They weren't paying attention to what God was saying.

They were turning away from the principles of God.

And then specifically, they had forgotten the law of God.

They had forgotten what God had instructed them to do.

God had given them principles, principles to live, principles for happiness.

And God said, If you honor these principles, then as an individual you'll be blessed, as

a family you'll be blessed.

But if you set aside those principles throughout the Old Testament, it talks about there's

going to be curses, there's going to be consequences of what's going to happen.

And that's exactly what happened to them.

Things begun to fall apart.

God had given them His law and they had forgotten it, rejected it.

And God says that's the problem that they're facing.

And I think in our world today we could agree that most of our secularized world has set

aside God's word, has set aside God's law, has set aside, for instance, the Ten Commandments.

And because of that, morals are decreasing, society is plummeting down, and we find ourselves

as a world, as a nation, further and further from God because we've forgotten the law of

God and we're lacking in spiritual knowledge.

Now God could have said, I've created you, you know, good luck, you're on your own.

Enjoy.

I hope things work out for you.

But God loves us so much that He gave us specific principles of how we're supposed to live our

life.

If you've ever looked in the glove box of your car, there's probably lots of things

in there.

Maybe some napkins from McDonald's or something, or maybe an old lollipop or something that

your kid stuck in there.

But likely down under all of that stuff is a little booklet.

It's an owner's manual.

And you look in that owner's manual and it tells you what you're supposed to do for your

car.

Are you supposed to use gasoline or are you supposed to use diesel?

What kind of oil are you supposed to use?

How often are you supposed to change your oil?

And the closer we stay to what God says, the better your car is going to do.

And that's a little bit about like what God did for us.

He gave us principles of happiness and principles of life that will bring blessings if we follow.

But if we don't as individuals and as a society, we can get in trouble if we go the other direction.

And we see that our world has rejected them.

Now why are we talking about this?

We're going to see in just a moment that God's law is a big issue in the book of Revelation.

And some verses in just a moment.

And we're going to see that a crisis that takes place in the world is going to reflect

which choice people are making.

Are they choosing to let God guide them or are they choosing to go in a different direction?

And so in order to fully understand that principle, that idea of what Bible prophecy is talking

about, we've got to explore and see what is this law about?

What is God's law even talking about?

There's many people that would say, oh in our society today, we don't need that.

That's old-fashioned.

It's not relevant for us today.

So let's take just a couple minutes.

We're going to go real quickly through these ten principles that God gave us and let's

see if they are relevant for us.

So these can be found in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy chapter 5, but we've just got them summarized

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

up here.

So the first commandment says, you shall have no other gods before me.

If we're following God, does that make sense?

Yes.

We don't want to, God doesn't want us to chase after other things.

Just like Satan did, remember we talked about Lucifer who wanted to put himself on the throne.

God wants us to be faithful to him.

And the second one is very similar.

It says you shall not have any graven images, any idols.

Don't make an idol.

And that makes sense.

If God is our creator, if God is the one that sustains this earth, then why would we want

to try to worship something that I've created or that you've created?

So that seems to still make sense.

So number three, it says don't take the name of the Lord in vain.

If we're following God, why would he speak ill of him?

Why would we say his name in a bad way, use his name as a swear word or whatever we might

want to do?

Speak in a profane way.

And then it says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

As God is our creator, that's a way to remember and to rest and to grow in our relationship

with him.

And then number five, honor your father and your mother.

Is that still relevant?

Definitely so.

If you still have a father and a mother, honor them.

If you are a father or a mother, be an honorable parent to those that come after you, to your

children.

The number six, you shall not kill.

Very relevant.

If everybody just followed this one commandment, think how the world would be totally different.

If everybody just did that one thing, the world would be a completely different place.

You shall not commit adultery.

That's certainly relevant in our society because broken marriages, marriages that have fallen

apart, that leads to pain in individuals, pain in family, pain in children.

And we go on.

You shall not steal.

We have things.

Respect what other people have.

That still makes sense.

You shall not bear false witness.

Tell a lie.

That seems pretty sensible.

And we wish that the people we did business with, we wish that they're telling us the

truth.

The politicians, we wish that we could trust that they were telling us the truth.

Our neighbors, we wish that we could trust that they're telling us the truth.

And then finally, don't covet.

What's that mean?

Well, just be happy with what you have.

Be satisfied with what you have and don't think you have to try to get what somebody

else has.

And so just looking at these 10 things, they still make sense.

And many of them not only make sense, but they're part of our laws in our nation and

many other nations.

And you could go back about a hundred years.

We taught the Ten Commandments, appreciated the Ten Commandments, families taught it to

their children.

People memorized the Ten Commandments.

You could go to churches and they talked about the Ten Commandments.

You could see it in a government building, the Ten Commandments.

They were preached about.

They were taught to individuals.

But in the more recent times, there's been a shift in thinking.

There's been a shift in attitude.

There's been a shift in homes.

There's even been a shift in churches about whether or not people will talk about these

things because sometimes we have excuses about why we don't need these things anymore.

And you can see some that are there.

Some would say, that's really, those things are really just for the Jews, right?

They're in the Old Testament.

So that isn't really needed anymore.

That's only for a different nation, for somebody else.

And yet we would say, did God only want the Jewish nation to be happy, to have positive

principles in their life?

And some would say, oh, those are outdated, but we just look through those.

Or some would say, they're nailed to the cross.

They're done away with.

And I would say, they're definitely not the way that we're saved.

And we're going to explore this in just a moment.

And some would say, well, we're under grace now.

So that doesn't matter.

We don't need those things anymore.

As if to say, God's principles for happy living aren't needed.

So we're going to take a couple minutes here and we're going to explore, does the Bible

teach these excuses?

Does the Bible teach that these things are still needed?

Does the Bible teach that these things are done away with?

Because in Bible prophecy, we're going to see that God warned that this shift would

take place.

Because if God's law is about the character of God, then wouldn't antichrist want us to

forget God's law?

Because we would forget the character of God.

In fact, let's go to Daniel.

We're going to go to the book of Daniel.

So if you're still in Hosea, go back just one book and we're going to find ourselves

in Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

Now, next week, well the next week after that, we're going to explore this chapter in great

detail in Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

But we're going to look at Daniel 7 and verse 25.

Daniel 7 and verse 25.

And it talks about a teaching of the antichrist power in the last days.

And notice what it says in Daniel 7 and verse 25.

Daniel 7 25 says, he shall speak pompous words against the most high, this is the antichrist

power, shall persecute the saints of the most high and shall intend to change times and

laws, or the King James Version says, shall think to change times and law.

And so this antichrist power is in a way wanting to change God's time and God's law.

And we're going to dig into this in much more detail, but we're seeing that the antichrist

is working against two different groups.

It's working against the most high and working against God's people.

And he wants us to forget, he wants us as God's people to forget about God's law so

that we'll be pulled in to following something else.

And so Bible prophecy is telling us that this antichrist power wants to swerve, wants to

deceive, wants to pull us away from God's law.

And we've said that night by night that for every truth that God has, Satan has a deception,

Satan has a counterfeit, Satan wants to pull us away from finding joy in God.

And let's go to Revelation because we're going to see what a picture of God's people is like

in the last days.

We're going to go to Revelation chapter 14.

Revelation 14 · chapter mention

We've been here a couple nights, but we're going to go to a different verse, Revelation

14 and verse 12.

It's describing God's people here, Revelation 14 and verse 12.

Revelation 14, 12.

It says, here is the patience of the saints.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

So it's describing people, the saints, the holy ones.

It's describing what they are like in the last days.

Just a few minutes of this, there's a verse that talks about we need to worship God as

our creator.

And then there's a warning about worshiping the beast and his image.

And we'll talk about that on a future night.

But what we see here is that in the last days, there's two groups of people.

There's going to be a group that's following God.

This beast in his image and this essence of God's people, the saints, is that they're

going to keep the commandments of God and they're going to have faith in the saving

blood of Jesus Christ.

So in a way, the final crisis is going to revolve around man and God's law.

So let's explore what the Bible says about man's law and about God's law.

We can't say, oh, God's law is nailed to the cross.

It's not important anymore.

We don't need to keep it.

We're under grace.

We don't need to look at any of that stuff because the book of Revelation describes God's

church in the end times as keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

So we need to make sure what the Bible teaches about this.

So we're going to go back to the Old Testament here and we're going to see what God says

about his law, about its consistency, about its permanence, about where it started and

where it ends or doesn't end.

So let's go back to Exodus chapter 31.

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

If you want to read those Ten Commandments, as I said, they're in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5, but we're going to look at Exodus 31.

Exodus 31 and verse 18.

Notice what it says.

The Bible says, and when he made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he, God,

gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

Okay, so what do we got here?

We got God giving something to Moses.

He's giving him tablets of what?

Tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

Think about those two elements there.

God did not give him a scroll made of papyrus or of animal skin or of paper that crinkled,

that burned, that could get wet and mold away.

He gave him something written in stone.

And, you know, we still use that description.

If we say something is permanent, something is important, we say, well, that's written

in stone.

And then this was written by what?

By a pen?

By a chisel?

No, written with the finger of God.

This isn't how most of Scripture is written.

In the New Testament it says the Spirit moved the men of old and they wrote as God moved

them.

People wrote down the words of God as they heard them and then interpreted them.

But in this case, it seems as if God wanted to make sure that nothing was amiss, that

nothing was mistaken, and he wrote it with his own finger.

This is the only part of all of Scripture that is written by God himself.

Written in stone, written by God, and God didn't even trust humanity to write it themselves.

God wanted to make sure that we got it because it was that important.

But let's go back a little further.

Let's go back to Genesis chapter 26.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

Okay, so we're in Exodus, right?

And now we're going back.

We're going back to Genesis.

If God gave the tables of stone to Moses in Exodus, what could we maybe find in Genesis,

even before Mount Sinai?

Notice Genesis 26 and verse 5.

Notice what the Bible says in Genesis 26 and verse 5.

It says, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statues,

and my laws.

You know, Abraham, we sing songs about Father Abraham, Father of the faithful, you could

see.

So even before Moses, even before Mount Sinai, God already had a law.

And it says that Abraham kept God's law.

But did you know God's law even existed for Abraham?

We can go back further.

Let me picture up.

Do you know what Bible story this might be describing?

Can you see that well enough?

There's two people, what was it?

Cain and Abel, that's right.

Two young men, one carrying a rock.

You remember the story of Cain and Abel.

They both brought a sacrifice to God.

And God had commanded them to bring a sacrifice of a lamb, of an animal, that pointed forward

to Jesus, the one who would be sacrificed.

And Abel brought a lamb, but Cain brought something else.

What did Cain bring?

He brought some fruits and vegetables, the work of his own hand, as if, look, I can earn

my way, I can save myself through my own actions.

And God accepted the lamb of Abel, but he did not accept the fruit of Cain.

And Cain was not very happy about that.

And so Cain killed his brother Abel.

So was that a sin for Cain to kill Abel?

Did Cain break God's law?

He did, he was punished for that.

He had to go away.

Even though there was nothing written in stone yet that said, thou shalt not kill, still

Cain was punished for breaking the law, the commands of God.

How could they have known what these commands were?

So who Cain and Abel's parents?

Adam and Eve, they were in the Garden of Eden.

The Bible says that God came and walked with them in the cool of the day.

And so they knew right and wrong.

They knew, and we talked about a night or two ago about how they chose to follow the

voice of Satan.

They chose to go in a different direction.

And those commands existed before they were written on the stone, before the law was written

on the stone.

Why do you think God finally realized, let's write these in stone?

Could it be because we humans are forgetful?

Adam and Eve forgot what the voice of God said.

Cain forgot what the voice of God said.

Just a chat with you later, the whole world forgot what the voice of God said and God

sent the flood.

Even after that, again, the world forgot again as they tried to build the Tower of Babel.

They kept forgetting and God realized that I've got to write this in stone so that even

if they forget, they can look back and see that it's there.

But even after God wrote it in stone, they forgot.

So soon, within 40 days, because that verse that we just read in Exodus 31, that's actually

the second time God gave those commands in stone.

Because after he gave it the first time, as Moses is still on Mount Sinai, that's where

the people down below are dancing around the golden calf.

And they hear the sound and Joshua says, that sounds like a battle, something's going on

in the camp.

And they come down and they see the people disobeying God and Moses takes those stone

tablets and what does he do?

He throws them down, he breaks them, he crushes them.

And so God had to give those stones again.

He had to write that again because over and over humanity forgot.

But believe it or not, God's law goes even before Cain and Abel, before Adam and Eve,

before the Garden of Eden, because God's law existed in heaven.

Who was the first to break God's law?

Satan or Lucifer, we talked about that the other night.

In Revelation 12 there was war in heaven and they were cast out as Lucifer was trying to

convince these other angels that God's way was not the best way and he had lost his love

for God and they were cast out of heaven to earth and brought this sin and suffering down

here.

And if you think about it, you can even begin to recognize some of the commandments that

Lucifer broke.

Lucifer broke that first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me.

How did he break that one?

Well he wanted the God before God.

He wanted to sit on God's throne and this is the one that sometimes we struggle with.

And you might say, whoa, whoa, wait a second, I don't want to call myself God.

I don't want to sit on God's throne.

But do we ever hear what God is asking us to do?

And we say, well, maybe I don't want to do that.

Okay, God, I see what that says in your commandment, but you know, that's not convenient for me

right now.

I'm going to go in a different direction.

And so we may not say those same words as Lucifer, but that same principle.

We can say, place myself in your place.

I want to be more important than you.

And we should be saying, as it says in Ephesians 5, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We asking God to fill us with his Spirit day by day and helping us to change from that

selfish heart, but instead letting God transform us and to write his law on our heart.

And then it goes on and some other commandments that Lucifer broke.

You shall not bear false witness, tell lies, because Lucifer came to the other angels

and lied to them and said, you know what, my way is better than God's way.

And then the 10th commandment, don't covet.

He coveted God's authority.

He coveted God's throne.

He coveted God's power.

And that led to that full scale rebellion that ended with them being cast out.

And Lucifer wants to do that same rebellion on this earth.

He wants to turn us away from the principles of happiness that God has given us because

he wants our homes to be a disaster.

He wants our schools to be a disaster.

He wants our communities to be totally messed up and far, far from God.

And you've seen it, whenever tragedies happen, whenever things happen, who's the first person

that gets blamed?

God, how dare you let this happen, even though so often we're moving in a totally different

direction.

We tend to think that God just wants to, you know, cramp our style, us from having fun.

Oh God, you have all these laws and these rules and these regulations.

How dare you?

And yet, as we look at parents with children, parents, do you ever have any rules or regulations

that you instruct your children?

Don't chase the ball into the street when the car's coming.

Don't touch the stove when it's hot.

And we could say, oh, you party poopers, how dare you not let your children play in the

street?

And children may say that when they're at a certain age, but as they get a little bit

older, they realize, no, that's a guard rail.

That's for protection.

That's for safety.

Thank you, parents, for helping me.

If you just let your kids play in the street, if you just let your kids do whatever they

wanted, people would think, oh, you're an awful parent.

You're a terrible parent.

Because we need to give children guidelines and instructions and boundaries, and that's

what God has done for us.

He loves us so much that He wants to give us a boundary that we can thrive in, that

we can find joy in, that we can live our life in, and He gives us principles.

Okay, so this is what we've seen in the Old Testament, but some people say, oh, the Old

Testament.

So let's look at the New Testament.

Let's go to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Now, as you turn to Matthew chapter 5, you might notice that there's three chapters in

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

a row, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and they, at least in my Bible, those words are all in red.

What does that mean?

That's what Jesus said, and those three chapters together is the greatest sermon that you can

ever read or ever hear.

And it's known as the Sermon on the Mount, and it gives us an incredible foundation for

what Christianity is supposed to be about, as Jesus shares so many essentials of what

it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And we're going to look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Notice Matthew 5 verse 17, written in red, words of Jesus.

Matthew 5:17

Jesus says, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to, to do what?

Fulfill.

For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will

by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

Think about that.

What is a jot or a tittle?

We don't use that word very often.

I saw a quotation mark.

It's like some punctuation.

It's like we would say dot the I and cross the T. You know, if you're signing a contract

or something, you want to make sure that all the words are spelled correctly, that the

punctuation is there.

And Jesus says that until heaven and earth pass away.

Have heaven and earth passed away yet?

Not yet.

And he says, until that happens, not one part of the law is going to pass away.

It's all going to continue to thrive, continue to be a part of what God says.

And then notice verse 19.

Notice verse 19.

It says, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall

be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I think that's messed up up there.

I apologize for that.

So whoever teaches men to break these will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

That basically means they're going to be in the kingdom of heaven.

Now as a, I see a couple teachers in here and as a pastor and a teacher, this is a pretty

serious statement here.

Because it's saying that if I'm teaching somebody to do the wrong thing, then there's a woe

or a judgment passed upon me.

Because let me tell you, it would be a lot easier as a minister to just tell people,

oh, don't worry about that law.

It's done away with.

It doesn't matter anymore.

It's nailed to the cross.

It doesn't matter.

You know, pastors, ministers, we have a trait.

Like most people, we appreciate people.

We want people to like us.

We want to not have people angry at us.

So it would be much easier to not talk about this.

It would be much easier to be popular, to not step on toes, but this is a warning, a

judgment here to challenge people to look at the whole message of what the Bible says,

of what Jesus says.

The word of God tells me that I can't skip something just because it might be difficult

to hear.

And so I can't say, don't worry about it, because the verse right before that, it says,

till heaven and earth pass away, one jot and one tittle will by no means pass until all

is fulfilled.

Let's go over to the Gospel of John, John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Because Jesus, as he often does, as he usually does, he makes it absolutely clear.

John chapter 14 and verse 15, the Gospel of John chapter 14 and verse 15, Jesus says,

John 14 · chapter mention John 14 · chapter mention

if you love me, what does he say?

Keep my commandments.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

Now he doesn't say, if you love me, if you want to earn your way to heaven, keep my commandments.

He doesn't say, if you want to receive my righteousness, keep my commandments.

He doesn't say, if you want to gain perfection, keep my commandments.

He says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

If you appreciate what I've done for you on the cross, if I appreciate the grace that

I gave you so that you can enter the kingdom of heaven in response to that, he says, keep

my commandments.

We don't honor God's commandments to get saved.

No, we're saved totally by the blood of Jesus.

We're saved by the cross.

We're saved as we confess our sins before him.

But he invites us to live life to the fullest, to keep his commandments, to honor him and

to serve him.

Now we can think about a marriage relationship.

You can think about a relationship that you have.

Many people here are married.

I'm married to Jolie.

I've talked about her before.

Do you think I love my wife?

I hope that you think that I do.

Yes, I do.

So when you get married, there's now certain things that you have to do or that you're

supposed to not do.

You know, I have to love myself.

That means I'm not supposed to flirt with other people.

You know, now that I'm married, the old saying, what I have, she has.

Our belongings belong to each other.

And we treat each other nice.

I'm not supposed to go on dates with other people.

Those are certain expectations, certain laws of marriage.

Now I do not have a sheet of paper in a file cabinet where every morning I go and I read,

okay, what do I have to do again?

Don't go on dates with other women.

Don't flirt with other people.

Treat Jolie nice today.

I don't have to remind myself of those expectations of those.

Because they're in my heart.

They're what I want to do.

I want to show her love.

I want to show her appreciation.

I'm not going to do anything that might hinder that or might hurt that.

It's a natural thing, that law, that those ideas are written in my heart.

And that's how it is with God's law.

Because of what Jesus has done for me.

He's died for my sin.

He lets His perfect life count for my life.

When God looks at me, He doesn't see my mistakes.

He sees the perfect life of Jesus.

He loves me and I love Him.

And if I love Him, I can respond to that.

I can keep His commandments.

Let's look at another one.

Let's go to 1 John.

Little John, back by Revelation.

1 John.

This is one of those ones that isn't the easiest one to read.

Because like I said, I don't want to step on people's toes sometimes.

John here says it a little harsher than maybe I would.

But in 1 John, back by Revelation, 1 John chapter 2, notice verse 4.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

1 John chapter 2 and verse 4.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

Now this is John.

John was a disciple.

Do you think John was there when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount?

And he said this law is going to continue?

John was there in the upper room when Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments?

I think that he probably was.

So notice what he says here.

I think this is saying the same thing but in a different way.

A little harsher way.

1 John 2 verse 4, the Bible says, he who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments

1 John 2:4

is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Ouch.

So that means if we say that we're a follower of Jesus, I know him, I'm a Christian, but

does not keep his commandments, then it says we're a liar.

Now I don't think this is talking about as we go through a day and we make a mistake,

we honestly make a mistake and sometimes we come to the end of the day and we're like,

wow, I shouldn't have spoken that way.

I shouldn't have acted that way.

And when we have fallen short, when we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,

what can we do?

We can confess that sin and Jesus promises to forgive us.

This is more the idea of when we know what God wants us to do and we hear what God is

saying to us and we claim to be a follower of Jesus, but we say, you know what?

Not today, God.

Not today.

I'm not going to do that today.

I'm going to choose to do my own thing.

He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is

not in him.

What did it say in Revelation 14?

Here is the patience of the saints, God's people, the holy ones.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

This is a description of God's people in the last days.

And so we get to choose which side are we going to be on?

Are we going to listen to the voice of the antichrist, which says, no, God's law is done

away with.

It's not important anymore.

It's archaic.

It's irrelevant.

Or can we hear the voice of Jesus, which says, if you love me, keep my commandments?

Because the antichrist wants us to forget about God's law, wants us to pull away from

God, and so that's why he's desperate to wipe out God's law.

So what's the purpose of God's law?

Let's look at one more verse, then we're going to do a little illustration here.

Romans chapter 3 verse 20.

Romans 3:20

Romans 3 and verse 20.

Notice what it says in Romans 3.

The Bible says, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his

sight, for by the law is the what?

Is the knowledge of sin.

The law does not do anything to save us.

The law does not make us righteous.

The law does not perfect us in any way.

The law just reminds us of where we fall short of God's glory, and it points us to the cross.

It points us to Jesus.

And that's why the antichrist hates God's law, because anything that's going to point us

to Jesus, antichrist does not want us to have anything to do with that.

And that's why in Daniel, in Revelation, it tells us that in the end, God's law is at

a central point here.

And we get to choose, are we going to heed God's grace and follow him today?

So I'm going to do something here.

I'm going to disappear for just a moment, but I'm still going to be here, okay?

So I'm going to step right back here.

So just wait one second.

Hold on.

I'm stepping back here.

Perhaps maybe I'm doing things that I shouldn't be doing.

I'm involved in some nefarious things that could get me in trouble or will definitely

be against what God wants me to do.

So now I'm coming back, and how do I look?

Same?

You don't see anything?

You don't see any marks on my face?

You don't see anything?

Oh, let me turn this way.

So I got a little dirt on my face, but I had a microphone on this side, so I couldn't put

it over there.

So perhaps, you know, maybe I was out mulching, weeding today, working on the car or something,

and I come in and I've got dirt on my face.

How do I know that?

I can't see that I have dirt on my face.

So if I want to see that I have dirt on my face, oh, I do have, yeah, see I can turn

this way.

I do have some dirt on my face.

So the mirror tells me that I'm dirty.

God's law is like a mirror.

That's what James calls it.

It says that I'm dirty when we've fallen short of God's law.

So do I take the mirror and do I rub it on my face?

Is that how I would get clean?

How would I get clean?

Maybe some water or something?

Well, let's see, I've actually got some water here, so I'm going to kneel down.

I'm going to try not to get the microphone wet.

So let's see if we can wash this dirt off.

Let's see what we can do here as we come to the foot of the cross and we ask Jesus for

forgiveness, for salvation.

So what do you think, am I clean now?

What's that?

Look in the mirror.

Okay, so now I can look in the law, look in the mirror.

Looks like I got it all.

And I can see that in God's eyes, because of God's grace, because of God's forgiveness,

the sins, the dirt is washed away.

The mirror does not cleanse me.

The law does not make me clean.

The law shows me that I'm in need of a Savior.

The law points me to the foot of the cross.

The law reminds me that I need something outside of myself.

I need to go and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

The blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins is the only thing that can wash me and make

me clean and make me whiter than snow.

That's what God's law is all about.

That's what the purpose of it is.

Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

He doesn't say if you want to be saved, keep my commandments.

And as I recognize what Jesus has done for me, as I allow the Spirit to write God's law

upon my heart and upon my mind, then I can come back and I can look at God's law.

Say thank you, Jesus, for cleansing me.

Thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your blood.

Help me to have that law in my heart and to walk with you each and every day.

And that's why the devil hates God's law, because it shows us of our need of a Savior.

It points us to Jesus.

Jesus said in the contemporary English version, he says, if you're tired from carrying heavy

burdens, just come to me and I will give you rest.

If you're tired from carrying heavy burdens, Jesus says, come and I will give you rest.

I will forgive.

I will take those burdens away from you.

I will take those sins away from you.

My life was laid down so that you might live and God will look at you as if you have never,

ever sinned.

Would you like to have that walk with Jesus, that connection with Jesus to allow Jesus

to transform you, that you might walk with him?

If you do, just raise your hand with me.

Let's bow our heads.

Thank God, what an incredible story of salvation that Jesus died for each one of us.

And Lord, we've looked at this foundation piece because we've seen that in prophecies

ahead that there's going to be sides to be taken.

We get to choose to recognize your love for us.

We get to choose to look at the times that we have fallen short and see our need of a

Savior.

So Lord, thank you for your blood.

Thank you for your grace and your forgiveness.

And Lord, fill us with your Spirit that we might walk with you, that we might serve you,

that we might love you.

Be with each person here, each individual that's here tonight.

Guide and bless them.

In your name we pray.

Amen.