The Good News God

I see y'all stepped out of the hot box to come to church today.

Is it a little loud out there, just a little yeah, we'll get

that. Mighty thank you. I think you have it there, eh,

Andrew. I'm glad i'm here, Frankly, and I'm glad you're here too.

And this is the first communion Sabbath we've had where we've watched our feet

and it was different, wasn't it? But good? Yeah, let's pray,

dear Father God. We want Jesus, not some fate Jesus, not

Jesus that would let us live like the world and not love you really,

but one that changes the heart, subdues the conscience, makes us joyful,

gives the heart something to sing about and feet to dance and with joy for

salvation song. So Father, help us to know you in Jesus name.

Amen. How many of you ever go shopping atalities? Okay, some of

you do. I went shopping atalities this last week. And I go there

because my wife sends me on these little love trips. Honey, would you

go get this, go get that? And I say yes for the most

part, but sometimes I go because I want something. You know, I

have this resolution that I don't eat ice cream anymore, but I have fudged

every now and then at Aldies. It's usually fudge ice cream. Now I

don't know why, but it seems that I tend to run into people when

I go abroad on these little trips. Have you ever noticed the Lord of

ranges your life, so you meet people that are important to meet at certain

points in time. And I remember, it's a hot summer day, just

just last week. The rain was pouring down at times, and I wanted

to get back home where the air condition hear works and the air is cool

and calm in my easy chair. But that day, like so many recently,

I found myself scurry back and forth. The rain was falling, and

I was trying to get in and this kind of thing. And I got

to the front of Aldies, and as I landed right there at the door,

there was this lady, kind of short Chinese woman, standing with these

things in her hands, a lot of them, and she was standing there,

but she seemed tall in spirit, like she was on a noble task

to help me and anybody else who came through the door. Now I've later

learned that she was a practitioner of the relatively new Chinese religion called Following Gong.

Have you ever heard of that? May eve heard of that? On

the bad side of her religion, it has a faith leader who has claimed

to be a divine person, a gift from God to the universe. Thus

he's kind of a demigod, wisdom speaker of sorts. On the bad side,

that's the bad side of religion. And it's kind of arrogant to think

that. But she wasn't arrogant. She was really nice. But on the

good side of her religion, it advocates the three noble virtues of truth,

benevolence, and forbearance. How many of you like those three virtues? The

rest of you are in deep trouble, okay. But for those of you

who raised your hand, I'm with you. I can agree with that religion

those three points. Her religion arose early in the nineteen nineties, and almost

immediately the Chinese Party targeted it for instant persecution and ultimate extinction. Get those

people out of the way. It is a product of the hopelessness that grips

many Chinese people today in the hard life of atheistic communism. If you think

life is easy in China. You got it wrong. Atheistic materialistic communism breeds

misery. There's a hopeless generation in China wanting freedom, the freedom that we

enjoy in the West, and so this religion is a product of hopelessness.

Her outlawed religion is a mixture of Buddhism and Tatist dualism, forming a unique

modern mix with a little bit of martial arts blended in. That has raised

the eye of the CCP, the China Communist Party. The CCP is an

acrimonym that she mouthed in my presence like it was a cursed word, CCP.

I learned that there are millions of adherence this new religion China in different

places of the world, and they want the CCP to come to an end.

And she was there to make that statement very clear. When I talked

to the woman, I learned a little more from her. I could see

that she believes very strongly in her religion, in its philosophy, just as

I do in mine. I'm a seventh Devan's Christian. I believe Jesus is

coming. Are you with me? I believe God raised up this church to

help the world get ready for that coming. I believe that we are the

heirs of the third Angel's message. It is our destiny to proclaim that on

the eve of the Mark of the Beast, and through the Mark of the

Beast, and out of our faithfulness, I believe God will raise up from

the Evangelical, Christian and Catholic world the fourth Angel's message that will finish the

job, and God's people will be one at the coming of the Lord.

If I didn't believe that, I would go do something else with my life.

I mean this idea of being a pastor just so I can draw a

paycheck, which isn't that big anyway, and I can do this, and

that it just is not worth it. Friends, we are called with a

message for the world and the everlasting Gospels wrapped around it. So when I

talked to the woman, learned a little more from her. I began to

talk about her religion mind back and forth, and in her religion, you

can be a Christian or a Jew. So I could be a seventh Avenue

and her religion. As long as I got along with their philosophical meditation scheme

for a following gong, I could blend in. And she was asking me

to join. I could see that she is motivated by a deep sense of

hurt, a need for justice. She feels that her people have been persecuted

and she wants peace in China for her people. That's a noble thing.

And didn't take long for her to say why she is so mad at the

CCP. She confessed with force, conviction, and anger. The CCP,

she says, is all about lies, lies, lies, lies, and

then she added the word murders. She said, they lie and they killed.

They lie, they lie. She said, CCP kills people and they

lie. She kept on saying it with conviction strength. Soon she said,

the Communist have killed so many of my people. And I'm asking you to

join our meditation practice. That's their equivalent of prayer for truth, benevolence and

prebaritance parents, so the universe will bring peace to China in the world.

And she also asked me to sign her online petition to end the CCP,

the China Communist Party. She was a missionary boy. I wish we'd get

Avidenced out there passing out brochures like this and promoting the message because she believes

in what she is saying. Now, if we are united and we think

in meditative heart on truth. She was implying that somehow the cosmic forces of

kindness would bring about kindness. I assured her that I am no communist.

I said, I'm not a communist, and I said, I'm sorry for

what's happened to your people. I indicated that it hurts me too. I

read the news. I don't try to read the surface stuff. I know

what's happy in Shina. It's awful. And I assured her that I believe

communism is an evil philosophy. None of you said amen of that. You

know why I said it, because it arose because of the atheism of the

French revolutions, a direct fulfillment of Bible prophecy, to be a direct attack

upon the Bible and the Word of God at the time of the end.

It is incompatible with Christian religion. Atheistic materialism has wrecked one country after another

with this philosophy. Over one hundred million people have died in the last one

hundred years because of it. It is not a philosophy we can afford to

ignore. I believe the principles of our Church's message of the Bible stand against

it. I said, I hate communism and what is done to people so

you don't have to convince me that communism is evil. She then handed me

these three brochures that I have in my hand. I brought him to church.

I'm not going to pass them out, but I'm gonna tell what was

in some of them. I looked at the top of one that read CCP

lies people die, So I didn't make that up. I took some time

to share with her, then I'm a Christian, and that Christians are persecuting

China. She said, yeah, they are, so she agreed that they're

persecuted too. I share with her that we may never get peace on earth,

but we believe that Jesus is coming, and when Jesus comes a quaring

the Bible, he will bring peace. And if we are part of his

kingdom, we're gonna be a part of a kingdom of forbearance and kindness.

She kind of perked up at that and liked it. Now, if I

wanted to sprinkle an he if you all for baptism. I got half of

my bottle on the ground. That works, doesn't it. Oh watch this,

I'm gonna put a few of these wonderful napkins right on it. Okay,

Now, what am I asking for truth, benevolence, and forbearance.

Right, that was what she was talking about. I share where the christis

coming. It's a king of kindness, I said. We can pray for

that kingdom. We can live for others in the meantime, but don't think

you'll get it here. You may, but never overthrow the communist empire,

so to speak. I could see that she was not satisfied with that answer.

She wants it right now. With the end of the CCP, I

had a little prayer for her. I could tell she was reluctant to receive

the prayer. She didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't like the

name Jesus that much, but she wants something better in her life. And

then I left and that was it. I brought these prochures today a different

kind of meeting. Yesterday morning, I was catching up with some news clips

where I took the time to listen to part of an interview of Elon Musk

by Tucker Carlson. Elon Musk, the industrialist and billionaire, was being asked

by hard questions by Tucker Carlson about AI, artificial intelligence and what impact it

may have on the world and the nature of information the modern world. Elon

confess to Tucker that he believes that there is a real threat that AI can

indeed take over the world, that he can destabilize Western civilization, can kill

millions of people. And then he got to the heart of the problem as

he sees it now. He said, the problem is that we as programmers,

we as the industrialist who have created the technology, are deliberately teaching AI

artificial intelligence to lie. Wow. And when you teach AI to lie,

we're in big trouble, because then AI can kill, AI can do anything.

He said that we need a future where people tell the truth, and

where the news tells the truth, and political leaders tell the truth, and

AI tells the truth. And for that end, Elon must promise that he

would do his level best to make a difference in the world. He's getting

into the AI business, the truth telling business, he says. Now,

as I pondered the concern of my little Chinese friend and Elon's interview, also,

it seemed to me that we are living in a world that eagerly yearns

for the truth, and it seems that no one knows exactly how to tell

the truth. There is a clamoring for justice and truth in our world today.

Both the Chinese woman and I met and Elon Musk are yearning for a

better world. Now I can say, as a Christian, I am yearning

for a better world. Also, I want a world where a fake religion

does not exist, where a Christian lives like Jesus. A Christian values the

kindness of Jesus, values the fact that Christ was in the world, but

not of it. He said to you, go on kindness, forbearance and

the like. Friend. You cannot have these precious virtues that Elon and the

Chinese lady and her religion was seeking after her, that we're seeking at after

unless the essential virtue of truth is in your religion. When I left alties,

I went home and I opened my mailbox to take my mail inside.

It's funny how everything kind of comes together when you're moving around. There was

a little brochure in the mail that I stuffed together with the three brochures that

will let Chinese lady gave to me, and I set them on the counter.

Or yesterday, as I sat down to write my sermon, I noticed

when it had come in the mail. Next to these brochures, it was

a house cleaning brochure from the company called Cleaning Authority. Anybody worked for cleaning

authority around here? You work for a cleaning authority, James is this year

brochure? Oh you, I thought you may have come to my house to

stick it in the box. Noticed that I need a little cleaning around the

house, right this kidding? Well, you're professional cleaners, but I took

note of it. It says peace of mind starts with a clean home.

Take the next step. Now call my little Chinese friendI I must don't have

the answers, but I know who we can call on today. We can

call on Jesus. Jesus is the person is the answers. Jesus is the

answer. Take your Bible's turn to Romas one. Sixteen seventeen, Apostle Paul

said, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it

is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the jew

first, and also the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God has

revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live

by faith. I mean this passage gave us the Reformation the sixteenth century.

This passage taken to heart transformed Western civilization. It turned Luther from a fearful

Christian to a buoyant, faith filled, Bible believing, joyful Christian. And

he had the heart set free because of this verse. By faith we have

Jesus Christ. He discerned its importance. Friends, the gospel. It's God's

power to save every one of us if we let him. You hear me,

the gospel means good news. The power in Greek is dunamus. We've

heard this said before, dynamite kind of faith power. Paul says that he

was personally proud of this gospel because it is for everyone, and because at

its very heart and or it reveals God's righteousness. In the Book of Romans,

the Gospel is the Gospel of God. Says that more than any other

thing God, God, God, it is God's gospel. It comes from

him. It is a revelation of his righteousness, of his character. It

is the revelation of his character in Jesus. For us. It reveals that

God is a good news God and not an old, grump kind of God

who is trying to keep us out of heaven. Now, if you're a

worshiping of God, he is a grumpy, mean God, You've got the

wrong God. It does not line up with the Gospel. It is the

revelation that God loves every one of us, and that God has made a

provision for every one of us to be saved who has faith in Jesus Christ

as they're savor from sin and sins. And He will save the people who

are yearning for Christ who have never heard of him too. He says that

in Romans too, people have never had the law can be saved somehow by

Christ. So Christ is the way. Paul says that this gospel first came

to the Jews, but God meant it also for the whole world by giving

it to the Gentiles. God's Gospel is for the jew first, and then

the Greek and everyone else who believes in Jesus Christ as their savior. Now

I'm going to raise my hand and say I choose by faith to be in

that club. I'm not going to be passive with this kind of information.

Those who are saved and those who are lost will be separated by one single

thing, faith or unbelief. That's it. And so it is that faith

overcomes the world, John says, and makes us children of God through God's

grace, God's kindness, God's forbearance, God's love in Jesus, the good

news that is God himself revealed in Jesus. But not everyone will be saved

because everyone wants to be saved, to have faith and to believe that God

really does love them and that Jesus savior. If someone wants to ask me,

pastor, I'm like, what's the gospel? Have you ever had anyone

ask you that question? Yet all these philosophical answers, the Bible is abundantly

clear. It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that's the

heart of the gospel. Paul says, the first importance that he died for

our sins. That means he took my place. Have you got a theology

so fancy and complicated that Jesus doesn't die for your sins. You've got the

wrong theology. It's not the Apostolic gospel. We are sinners. He died

for me. Takes a humble heart to admit that he was buried. The

Bible, says John will say, he loosed us from our sins. He

took him into the grave, he left him in the ground, and then

he was raised on the third Day, in accordance to the scriptures, the

third element of the Gospel, and Paul will say in Romans four twenty five

that because of Jesus resurrection we are justified, that we are accepted. He

was raised for our justification, so condemnation for our sins at the cross,

acceptance in the resurrection, we are set free in Jesus. Did you hear

me? In Christ? We have a new life. In Christ. We

don't live with the burdens of the past. We move forward, accepted as

if we were the very son of God in the heart of God. That's

what justification by faith is about. But in the Gospel, God's wrath is

revealed as God's loving discipline that gives people up so they'll return to God and

repent for their sins. Now, this is not a passive God who cannot

judge evil. Some people say that that's not biblical. But God uses events

in your life. God allows things to happen, and God himself withdraws his

presence at times so that you will feel your need and come back to God.

But when it's impossible to return because of a hardened heart of unbelief,

that goes the full distance that resists God until he won't have any more of

him. God will one day give that person up for good and say goodbye

forever. And what kind of God will do that same God that gave his

son on Calgary's cross. That's why a good news kind of God doesn't.

In the end, he cries. He weeps with tears for the loss of

his children who would not come home Romans one eighteen. For the wrath of

God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. It's not just the righteousness of

God, but the wrath of God has revealed in God's righteousness against all ungodliness

and righteousness of men. So every sin we've ever committed, believe or not,

God's wrath is against sin. Don't think it Isn't it is. And

everyone says, who suppresses the truth and unrighteousness, that's all of us.

Because what may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has

shown it to them. We all know God exists deep in the heart.

The soul must be honest. There's a God pricking at the conscience. Paul

in the context argues that there is a knowledge of God in nature that is

good enough to keep us from worshiping nature. In verse twenty one, he

says that mankind started out knowing God, but they weren't thankful in their knowledge

of God, and thus there without excuse for rejecting him a God. He

says, their foolish hearts were darkened when a person chooses to live without God

by going their own way, taking Christ for granted, as if it doesn't

matter that He died for them, getting so philosophical in their framework. They

can't let their heart be broken by a savior who died for them and loves

them. That person chooses to be a fool if they turned their back on

a God like that and to embrace the night in their life. It happens,

It's happened in my life before, and I'm glad God gave me up

so I would see the sense of the light of the Gospel. Paul says

that unbelief is rooted in an unthankful heart that does not regard the privilege of

knowing God as something that is good to know, that the knowledge of God.

We keep it away, failing to give God thanks because he is God.

He says, they became unbelievers with no faith in God. So you

can kind of gage your experience. If you have an unthankful experience with God,

you're not really praising God in your life. You're on the road to

unbelief. Paul says, they claimed to be wise, but in rejecting God's

revelation of himself in nature, they became fools and worshiped nature instead of God.

And that is how we got an eco religion our day. Also,

we live in a time where people worship nature, the environment of the environment.

I care about the environment, but it's not God. Communism is a

modern manifestation of this kind of unbelief, a materialism of evil, and it

will link up prophetically with the beast power in the Book of Revelation to form

a union where unbelief, belief that is not consecrated to God's word, will

impose the mark of the Beast in the near future. Paul describes many modern

tragic lost souls well in verse twenty five. Look at Romans one twenty five,

who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the

creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Two things

stand out and start contrast in verse twenty five. First, it is the

truth about God that we must cling to. And yet they chose the lie,

the truth the lie. You cannot have both in your life. You

can't compromise with a lie and have the truth. You have to choose between

the truth that is God himself and the lie that is not God at all.

In the Gospel of God, we come to know the good news that

God who loves us in Jesus, the God who gave himself for us.

In Jesus, is the God who would go to hell to save us from

it, in Jesus, who loves us more than his own eternal life,

his own eternal being. Paul says that God was in Christ not counting men's

trespasses against them and romans to Paul calls this gracious quality of God the pinnacle

of his character. He calls it kindness. In truth, we worship a

kind God who loves us with a supernatural kindness beyond belief. Have you ever

had time in your life you felt like God and like you? We have

a few people here that could admit the truth. BEARI felt like it.

God was out to get you. Would you let this happen to me?

God lost Grandma, Grandpa, boy or girl, or maybe at a moral

fail in your life, or you blew it bad, you blame it on

God. Well, you know, the truth is God loves you. God

is kind to you. God cares for you more than He cares for God.

That's why he gave the Son of God, who is God, for

you. God was in Christ, Paul says Romans too for or do you

despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance and lung suffering, not knowing that

the goodness of God leads you to repentance can be called the kindness of God

leads you to repentance. It is possible life to reject the best gifts in

life and to forget God and neglect the truth that God loves you, That

God is rich in goodness, rich in forbearance, rich and lung suffering for

you. That the truth is He loves you more than you will ever know,

and for all eternity you'll still be finding out how deep is the wealth

of His love for you. It is possible to be ignorant of this most

important truth. Theologians sometimes help us be ignorant of this fact because they make

that simple, buoyant truth complicated. It's beautiful, simple, profound, like

a jewel. The gospel of God's forgiveness in Jesus is God's love for us.

I don't ever get tired of John three sixteen. Do you guys,

remember how it goes? For God so love the world that he gave his

only begotten son, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting

life. For God's so love the world that he gave. What's love?

Giving? Love is to find as the gift. But he gave his only

son, and monaugay we ask, is unique, one of a kind son,

none like him in the bosom of the father he gave God in trist

to us and the world, and the world he gave Jesus for is defined

not in the plural but the singular. For God so love the world,

that whosoever, the one person as important as the whole universe, the whosoever

believes in him, should not perish. Friends, salvation is about the one,

and in saving the one, he saves the many, and he preserves

the universe. Jesus died for the one, and that's what was in his

mind. You were in his mind on Calvary's cross when a manner woman comes

to Jesus and lays those sins at the foot of the cross and kneels there

before a humble God who gave himself to save us. That manner woman finds

freedom forgiveness, a good news God who loves him, and he or she

is adopted into the family of God by the love of God. Romans eight

one, Paul says, there is therefore, now this is a radical verse.

There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, how

much nation zero, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according

to the spirit. That's the later manuscript edition. It's true, nonetheless.

Verse two. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

See, you got to be in Christ. And that's what faith does.

It puts us in Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life in

Christ, Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Faith in Jesus gives us the right now righteousness that's good enough for the judgment

day and good enough for every day of our life. Faith in Jesus gives

us the Holy Spirit, so we can know God as abba Father. Faith

in Jesus overcomes the world, and thus we are overcomers of sin through the

faith that is in Jesus. The exact center of the Book of Romans,

the Caiastic center is Romans eight fifteen. I know because I have worked it

in the Greek to that great center. Aba Father, Abba Father, because

it is the Gospel of God. Part of the Book of Romans. Abba

means daddy, Baba, Papa, Abba Father, God, Daddy God.

The good News God is Abba Papa, Daddy, Father God, Romans eight

fourteen fifteen. For as many as are led by the spirit of God,

these are the children or sons of God. For you did not receive the

spirit of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption.

Ba whom we cry out Abba, Father, Abba Father. A baby when

it's born will say Abba Abba Baba, Papa Dada. That when we're born

again we say Father, Father, Abba, Daddy, Father God. And

Jesus is the way that gets us there. The good News God, Abba

Father. That's what the cross is really saying. It's saying that we have

a father who loves us more than he loves himself, and loved his own

son. He gave himself for us as much as Jesus. Take it to

heart and live forever. Dear Father, we don't want to be saved by

anything other than Jesus. We don't want a righteousness made of rags that somehow

are good things. Trying to impress you, we can't. Father, Thank

you for Jesus, Thank you for his blood, thank you for his broken

body, Thank you for his resurrection. He lives for us. You've accepted

us in him, and Father me, Every saint who brought their sins to

Jesus today, who laid him at the altar, go home, knowing that

they are saved by grace in Christ for all eternity. Keep him that way,

Lord, Keep him from arrogance, keep him from worldliness, keep him

from anything that drags him away from Jesus. And Father you drag him to

heaven in Jesus name. Amen,