7/7/96, PM, Mr. Putney

Outline  Isaiah 40:10-11

I.  The power and authority with which Jesus would come
A.  Ability
B.  Authority
C.  Power

• Jesus' general attention to the whole flock.  He comes as one able to address all their needs.  Jesus has a view for the needs of His whole flock.  Not one sheep is outside His view.
• Jesus' particular attention for the lambs, and those who are with young.  These are more prone to danger.  They (the weak and burdened) are His special attention, the apple of His eye.

Be not afraid.  Fear not.  Be not dismayed.  Matt. 3:7.
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.  And the government shall be upon His shoulders.  And His name sahll be called:  Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
Jesus comes to rule not with an iron rod or with an iron stick.

1.  Jesus will always promote growth and progress in all His flock
2.  Jesus views His flock with a discerning eye
3.  Jesus treats His flock with a discerning hand

He discerns who are weak, He understands who are burdened. 

Our Lord is not driving us to heaven.  He is not a cattle whipper, He is a sheep drawer.  The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy.  He will not always strive with us.  Nor will He keep His anger forever.  He has not dealt with us according to what we deserve, nor punished us according to our iniquity.  He knows what we pass through, He has a discerning eye and a [discerning] hand.

Psalm 103:1-14; 1 John 2:6; Heb. 4:15; Col. 3:21

7/7/1996, AM, Mr. Putney

Why Jesus came into the world

I.  The context of the saying

A.  The pastoral concern
B.  The personal thanks

1.  Men must know that they are sinners through the law.
2.  Men must know that though they are sinners they may receive mercy and grace through Jesus Christ

II.  The contents of the saying
III.  Two applications

A.  This is a truth which must be appropriated at the head of that place
_____________

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy."  Proverbs 27:6
1 Tim. 1:2-7, 15

Paul has a deep pastoral concern.  We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.  The law must do its work before the gospel can do its work.  Christ Jesus came in the world, sinners to save.Come to God as you are right now.  Easy-believism doesn't include the truth that sinners are very wicked.

The Prodigal Son, SEFC 1996, Friday morning, Pr. Fisher

The Prodigal son's father was full of compassion and pity.  god is so moved with compassion for sinners who want Him.

God would have all men to be saved.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

The Father rejoiced and made merry.

Missions, SEFC 1996, Friday morning, Pr. Hamilton

Each and every person that claims to be a Christian has a part to play, has a job to do.  This world is our battlefield, not our playground.

Going someplace or doing something will not make you spiritual.  We must be informed factually. 

Educate yourself and your children regarding the cultures and countries of the world.

We must emphasize missions in our churches. 

We must be interceding fervently. 

We must be investing financially. 

The church must be involved personally.  We need to examine our own lives.

The Second Coming, SEFC 1996, Thursday night, Pr. Hughes

Gen. 6:1-22, Matt. 12, Mark 7:8-15, John 10:30, Mark 12:36

Our Lord always held a high view of the Scriptures.  Moses spoke the truth. 

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."

Evolution is talked as a fact, not a theory.  We must remember that a theory is a theory, not a fact. 

Those that say that what Jesus said about the Scriptures was wrong, are accusing Jesus Himself.

1. God's assessment of the nation In Gen. 1, God looked at all the creation and it was all very good.  Man and man alone is the culprit of wickedness.  As the heart is, such is the man.  It is not what we think that matters.
   
2. God's reaction to man's condition
3. God's resolve to destroy man Nothing is more clear in Scripture [than] that all things belong to God.  He is the sovereign Lord over all things no matter what man's behavior [is].  God can judge the world and He has the right so to do.  The sin of [man] reaches a high water mark.  And He has decided that sin will get no higher, get no wider, go no further.  God's pronouncement was that Ephraim had clung to his idols, [ . . . ]. 
   
4. God's remedy for man's condition

Noah belonged with the sinners, but Noah found grace [in] the eyes of the Lord.  When you read, "Noah found grace," read it as "Grace found Noah," for if finding grace was left to Noah, it would be impossible for him to have grace.  The ark was the ark of Noah's salvation.  There is to be another flood.  God has already scheduled it.  It will not be a flood of water but a flood of fire.  "Rock of ages, cleft for me, left me hide myself in Thee."  That will be our only hope.  That alone can save us.

Missions, SEFC 1996, Thursday morning, Pr. Hamilton

1. Several principles that are foundational
    "Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." 
   
2. The method of missions
3. The nature of missions
4. The personnell of man-power of missions How will they believe of whom they have not heard?  How will they hear without a preacher?
   
5. The aim of missions Missions are aimed at makign disciples and establishing Biblical churches
   
6. The power of missions
7. The motive of missions 

Acts 17:16
"Sing to the Lord a new song.  Sing to the Lord all the earth . . . For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised."  Worship is the fuel of missions.  You can't commend what you don't cherish.

The Prodigal Son, SEFC 1996, Thursday morning, Pr. Fisher

III.  The prodigal son's repentance
There are many ways into sin, but only one way out of sin. 

     A.  Repentance involves an open acknowledgement of sin
- He that covers his transgressions sins -

     B.  Repentance involves contrition, a broken heart
There are two kinds of sorrow, godly sorrow that leads to life and worldly sorrow that leads to death

     C.  Repentance involves actually leaving sin and coming to God
     D.  Repentance involves absolute submission to God
1 Thess. 4:1, Matt. 11, 2 Cor. 7

Lessons
1.  His motives

• His sense of shame
• The considered conclusion that the servants in his father's house had a better life than he did
• The character of his father

We must consider teh danger of waiting to repent and come to God.  There is a time when people who get locked out will be arguing with the Lord.   Why do you wait?  You need to be decisive.  Don't wait any longer.  Don't wait for the last sermon.

The Second Coming, SEFC 1996, Wednesday night, Pr. Wm. Hughes

Matt. 25:1-46

Our Lord wrote the very thing that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote.

The Lord is at hand.  The Lord is coming.  The fact that Christ is coming again can make some Christians dogmatic.  You must be prepared.  "You must be prepared." 

The third servant had a spirit of impertinance and arrogance.

Christ will separate the sheep and the goats.  The sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left.  He shall say to those on His left hand, "Depart from Me." 

All will not be saved.  There will be those who will be cast into outer darkness as well as those who will be put in glory. 

3 Principles

1.  Appearances may be deceptive - such as all the girls were bridesmaids [Matt. 25]

Many people have the appearance of being saved, but really in their hearts they are dead in sin.  Judas seemed to be one of the twelve, but really, when the crisis came, he stood with the enemies.

2.  Confidence may be misplaced

All ten virgins were sleeping confidently with the others.  However, for five of the girls (the foolish ones) confidence was misplaced.

The five foolish girls also thought that grace can be transferred, but that was misplaced confidence also.  You cannot live on another's spiritual reputation.  You cannot think that because your wife or husband is saved, somehow you will get into heaven also.

3.  Judgment is irreversible

There will not be a second chance after death.  When the Shepherd divides the sheep and the goats, it cannot be changed.  Those on the left side cannot escape. 

3 Tests

1.  Godward
2.  Manward
3.  Inward

You can only have salvation by grace.  Salvation is not earned by works.  You do nothing to deserve it.  "My sheep know my voice," Christ says.  The light that shines the farthest shines the brightest right at home.  What is your spiritual condition?  How do I use my time, my resources, my energy?  What are the first things in my life?  Am I putting first things first?  The Lord says that what really matters to Him is the inside.  what a man is on His knees before God, that is what he is and nothing else.  Do I have Christ within me?  One day the Shepherd shall come.  One day the Master shall return.  The bridegroom shall return and the door will be shut.  And it will make an eternal difference which side you will be on.  Where do you stand?

The Prodigal Son, SEFC 1996, Wednesday morning, Pr. Fisher

5.  We should see the evil that may result from a broken relation between a father and adult child.  The sons that Solomon has in mind [in the Proverbs] are not little boys.  They were young adults.  

Scripture: 

• Proverbs 1:4,8; 2:1; 3:1; 4:1, 20; 5:1-2; 7:1; 23:22-26
• Psalm 51:2, 4
• 2 Samuel 12

He was not expecting them to submit to him like a slave.  The spirit of the age is to let young adults do anything they want without their parents knowing. 

Fathers must be open and communicative.  No hiding behind the newspaper, TV, or hobbies.

The sons and daughters must be eager to seek the advice of the parents.

Fathers and adult children must live honestly before God and honestly before each other. 

II. The lost son's awakening
This boy's perception was that complete happiness was having complete independence from whatever his father said.

A.  General awareness of need
B.  God's special providence

There are real fox hold conversions.  God brings horrible incidents into men's lives such as John Newton.  All parents of prodigal sons should be glad to know that God does intervene. 

His job didn't help.  He wanted to eat the husks the pigs ate. 

C.  He saw himself as he really was

• He saw that his own sin was a personal affront to his father and to God
• He saw his utter inability to rescue himself
• He saw his father as he really was
• his father's bounty
• it was better to be a servant of his father than a master of his own destiny

You don't have to be ruined.  You can learn the right way from the bible or from people who have already gone through this.  You can come to God today.

Missions, SEFC 1996, Wednesday morning, Pr. Hamilton

Zeal is a shoot of God's own planting. 

1.  Biblical presuppositions why we shoudl be engaged in missions
2.  Biblical practices for missions
3.  How it is and why it is we should be engaged in the work

We live in a time of biblical and presuppositional debate. 
1. 
The universial condition of all humanity is sinfully depraved, judicially depraved and under God's wrath.  Paul says he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome because he was not ashamed of it.  The gospel is a declaration and a demonstration of the gospel. [?]  "You who judge often practice the same thing.  You, therefore, who teach do you not do likewise? What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all.  For we have previously charged both Jew and Greek that they are all under sin."  All humanity without exception are guilty before God.  Adam and Christ are the two most important men in history, for they both had an abiding and permanent influence on the rest of the people.  All in Adam died.    All in Christ were (will be) made alive.  The universal provision that answers the sole need of men.  Men cannot be saved by Christ without hearing the gospel of Christ. "How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?  How shall they hear without a preacher?"  Who shall be a preacher unless he is saved?

The Second Coming, SEFC 1996, Tuesday night, Pr. Wm. Hughes

1 Thess. 1:3

The work of faith was their turning to God from idols.
The labor of love was their serving the living and true God.
The patience of hope was their waiting for His Son from heaven.
Christians, of all people, should not be troubled with the doctrine of the second coming.
The second coming will be the most staggering event in the life of Christ.
had the faith of those died, vanished because Christ had not yet come back?  No. 

Believers, when they die, are asleep.  Jesus said, believers fall asleep.  There is a clear contrast.  Christ experienced death as the wages of sin.  Those who have fallen asleep in Jesus do not experience death as the wages of sin.

Paul does not say "do not grieve for those who have no hope," he says not to grieve for Christians who die, for they are in heaven.

There are thousands of people who are afraid of death.
Christians do grieve but not as those who have no hope. 
There is a reason for their hope.  The reason is the plain fact that Jesus Himself died.  Even the angels could say, "Come, see where the Lord lay."  The power of death has been broken by Christ.  Christ has won the victory.

The Greeks say, "There is nothing we can do but comfort one another." Paul says, "With what shall you comfort one another?"  There is nothing but the death of Christ.

The Christian's hope, however, is not just the survival of souls, but the resurrection from the dead.

1. The return of the Lord Himself
2. The resurrection
3. The rapture of Christ
4. The reunion of those saved

 1.

• A personal coming
• A public coming
• A glorious coming

Not involving a "secret rapture."  No one will be able to say that they did not know that He had not come.  All the universe will know.  The trumpet will sound.  The saints shall rejoice.  The unbelievers shall stagger in an amazement of terror.  We will actually hear the voice of the Lord.  Then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will descend. 

We will all say, "Oh, that we ever sought beauty of any other besides Christ!" 
"Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord."

2. 
3.  [Rapture] means "to snatch." 

Concerning the day of the Lord

• Day of judgment for some
• Day of salvation for others

The day of the Lord will be like

• A thief in the night
• A woman in labor

There is the day.  There is the hour. There is the moment.
People will be totally unexpectant.
People will be totally unprepared.  
When they say, "Everything is okay," that is when He shall come. 
When people say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction.  Make sure there is nothing in your life that you will dread the exposure of, for all will be brought out into the light.

You can be asleep and seem to be alive and active and awake.  Paul says, "You must not sleep, as do others, but [ . . . ] be awake, be sober!" 

You can be intoxicated by many other things besides alcohol.  Don't take any notice of the one who beats the loudest on the drum.  We are not immune from death. 

Many people wonder if He will come in the day or night.  Both.  He will come in the darkness for those unsaved and in the light for those saved.  Martin Luther says, "There are only two days on my calendar:  this day, and that day."  Just through the veil.  That is how near we are to eternity. 

Missions, SEFC 1996, Tuesday morning, Pr. Hamilton

There are 5.5 billion people in the world.

I.  The Biblical presuppositions that highlight the purpose of missions

• God is worthy to be known and proclaimed for who He is.
• Those who know the most about God are the most responsible and equipped for spreading the gospel.

II.  Biblical practices that [have led us to] avoid the practice of missions
   A.  Why
   B.  What
   C.  How

A.  12 reasons why

1. The missionary enterprise is often teh growing fruit of an established, maturing church.
2. Our concern for Biblical reformation has left us consumed with its multi-faceted application inwardly.
3.  Our reaction to the increased wickedness of a Godless society has driven us through and beyond some legitimate forms of recreation. Jesus was a friend of sinners so much that He ate with them adn therefore was called by the Pharisees a glutton and a drunkard or winebibber.  "Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles." [I believe that this was an observation about the tendencies of Christians concerned about holiness but not about missions.]
   
4. An ironious assumptino that adherence to right doctrine automatically guarantees Christ's [glory].  "All that we need is truth."
5. There may be a narrow perspective regarding the method of ministry in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.  Go and tell.  How will one believe having now heard?  And how will he hear without a preacher?  The answer we all know is, he won't.  Strive together for the faith of the gospel.  One Lord, one faith, one gospel, one church, one mind. 
6. All our young perspective preachers seem to have no feeling, no burden, no call to preach the Word of God where He is not preached.
7. Some of us are infected with an insecurity regarding the unknown, and we are unwilling to give up the comforts and security of American life.  

The Prodigal Son, SEFC 1996 Tuesday morning, Pr. Fisher

Luke 15:11, 2 Timothy 3:4

The purpose of the parable of the prodigal son is to awaken the Pharisees. 
I.  Sin
II. Awakening
III. Repentance

I.  A.  A progression of sin (a desire for the rights of God)

• Beginning - perverted
• He forsook the expressions
• Actual abandonment
• Hardships come

Are we living as those who are living for their own lives?

I. B. Misery of his sin

• Separation from God
• Waste of his goods
• Perpetual dissatisfaction What once satisfied us does not satisfy us any more.
  
• State of shame

I. C. Deception of sin
Sin does not boldly its true colors.  Sin always lies.

The Second Coming, SEFC 1996 Monday night, Pr. William Hughes

Matt. 24:1-51
God carries His purpose forth in history.  Sometimes in very decisive and dramatic events such as the flood, the parting of teh waters, the bringing of the people out of Babylon, etc.  As history moves on, God will bring out the most dramatic and decisive epoch ever.  History is not going around in circles.  It is moving on.

Both believers and unbelievers will be raised from the dead. 

"Take heed that no one deceives you."
"Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."
"Be on the alert."

2 things God makes clear:

1. There are certain things about His comign that you can never be sure about. If a man tries to determine the day God will come back, he is trying to do something very, very serious indeed.  He is trying to pry into something that the Father alone knows.
   
2. There are certain things about which there is absolute certainty.  Though we do not know exactly when it will happen, we know for certainty that it will happen. 

When Jesus departed from the temple after bewailing Jerusalem, He showed that He has despised them, and that they despised Him.

Some of the things refer to the

• destruction of the temple
• second coming of Christ
• judgment of Jerusalem
• the end of the world

There is no clear-cut scene of things, so we must never be too dogmatic.  The signs are preparatory; they are not predictive.  The Lord did not intend for us to find out. 

1. There are signs that are clear
2. Signs that are confusing
3. Signs that are cosmic in their proportion

Signs:  1.  imposters in the church, 2. wars and rumors of wars, 3. times of affliction.
"All these signs are the beginning [not the end] of tribulations."  It is clear for those who have eyes to see.  All is not anointed of God that seems to be anointed of God.  All men are not of God that say they are men of God.  Ignoring the signs can bring terrible consequences.

Intro

For years, this phrase, "Preaching and Hearing of the Word of God," has marked every church bulletin at my old, dear church in upstate New York.  And for years, I have taken sermon notes in church.  I still have piles of notebooks; believe it or not, they moved 700 miles with me when I married my dear husband, John.  What should I do with these things?

Partly, I take notes to help me pay attention, and as such, their purpose is fulfilled.  But I can't bring myself to throw my old notebooks away yet, especially when they are so full of truth. That's why I've decided to start typing them out, little by little perhaps, making use of the tag system a blog provides to help me organize what I've recorded.  It's my hope that, through blogging, I'll have a simple way of going back and making use of the years of truth I've heard.  If anyone else reads them, great!  But if not, I hope that perhaps the simple meditation which must follow the mechanical action typing up of the words of truth will do me some good.

I'll correct spelling errors as I can.  After all, I started this pile of notebooks when I was about 12!  But they will stay largely true to form besides that.  :-)