Family Life Baptist Church Sermon Audio

The plan of God is not without trials and tribulations, not without problems and pitfalls, not without degradation and disappointments, but at the end of the plan, it says, ]And the third day, He will rise again.^ And it is not just speaking about Jesus.

Jesus was willing to follow the plan of God. Although He had committed no sin and although His crucifixion would be the greatest miscarriage of justice of all times, Jesus was willing to accept crucifixion because His death on the Cross would fulfill the plan of God to save the souls of all of those that believe in Him.

Our entrance into Heaven does not depend upon how well we compare to other people, but how well we compare to the absolute standard of sinlessness. But God, in His wisdom, developed the sacrificial system, and Jesus Christ's sacrifice satisfies the sentence of every single sinner. God will not condemn Christians regardless of what sin we commit, as long as we believe in Jesus Christ and do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

These Jews have had their trial before God. They thought that they were trying Jesus, but the fact is that God is trying them, as He is trying all of us. The evidence for the Messiahship of Jesus Christ is before all of us, and all of us have to vote to either accept or reject Jesus' statement that He is the Christ. It's not just the Jews that have to vote on Jesus; we all have to vote.

All of us are sinners, and we have all earned eternal suffering for our sins in Hell. But just as God made a way for the Israelites in Egypt, God has made a way for us.

We ought not pray only when we have trials, but we should recognize that every decision that we make, regardless of how trivial it may be, is a better decision if it is covered with believing prayer.

God wants to be our friend. God wants to commune with each of us personally, on a daily basis, not just to give us instructions, but to both talk to us and listen to our inmost thoughts.

The Holy Spirit is the intelligence of God that is always looking for ways to bring life, meaning reconciliation, to man from God. Those filled with the Spirit of God focus on salvation and reconciliation, just as Jesus brought salvation to reconcile us to God, not condemnation to the world for sin.

He that chooses the things of the world over the things of God will show his hatred for God once God denies him something that he wants, just as a spoiled child throws a temper tantrum when he does not get his way. But that is where discipline comes in. Just as Jesus chose to make the ultimate sacrifice for us, we can choose to serve God and not be spoiled children.

God created us with the capacity to think and to choose, because He desired that His relationship with us be one of mutual love as well. To God, how we choose, rather than what we say, is the essence of our expression of love.

The devil can certainly devise a temptation that we lack the strength to overcome, so we must simply avoid being available when temptation comes. We may find ourselves disobeying God if we overestimate our strength and fail to heed the admonition of God to avoid temptation rather than to try to resist it.

The admonition to love one another is placed directly after the admonition to not compete, because it is difficult for love and competition to coexist. One of the most destructive things to a marriage that a married couple can do is to compete with one another. God does not tell a man and woman married to one another to become a team, or to work together, but to become one.

The unsaved are lost, not because of their sin, as we are all sinners, lost or saved, but because of their arrogance, in that they refuse to recognize that they are not good enough to merit God's Kingdom. Heaven is not a place for good people, but only for the humble people, because only the humble can be saved.

Many people confess Christianity but are not committed to it because they are not really convinced that they need salvation. They may know that Romans 3:23 says that all are sinners, but they hold the preconceived misconception that God would not send everyone to hell and since they are as good as anyone else, God won't send them to hell either.

The simple reason that we should devote ourselves to living by Christian principles is that the end time is coming, and we don't want to be caught off guard. Sin of every form distracts us from being watchful, and dealing with the negative consequences of sin will have us looking the other way as the Day of the Lord comes upon us. Jesus is telling us that it is wise of us to be obedient to the Bible, which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, in an informed, insightful and intelligent manner, so that we do not miss the signs that the end of time is coming.

Let us reject the pride and the sin of the world and espouse humility before Christ, let us reject the arrogance of the world to espouse faith in Christ, and then, let us endure the persecution of the world, because of our testimony of the deity of the Christ. The kings will come against us, and the world will persecute us, but it is only by giving our lives in defense of the Christ that we can become victorious heroes in the army of the Lord.

The praise of God, although delayed until His plan is completed, is better than the immediate gratification of the praise of men. The reward of God, although delayed until His plan is completed, is better than the immediate gratification in the reward of men. Belief in God's plan, although His plan may be delayed, is better than the immediate gratification of belief in the plans of man. The authority of God, although delayed while He is completing His plan, is better than the puny authority of man.

A good marriage is a prerequisite for good parenting, and a good marriage is the joining of two minds, bodies, souls, spirits, hopes, dreams, needs, personalities, and two very different genders into one entity.

Once we have become righteous to God through our acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we then have the responsibility to mature; to grow, to understand, and to teach others the pitfalls of license and the benefits of maturity.

Jesus is the seed; He is the first cell of the body, and He must die and be buried before He can reproduce. Jesus has committed no sin, and so is not eligible for the penalty of death. However, Jesus lives among plenty of sinners, all of whom are eligible for the penalty of death. So Jesus voluntarily takes on our sin; He pays the penalty of death that we owe for the sins that we have committed.