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It Will Be Mighty Sore Where The Eagle Soars!

Obadiah 1:1-21

Pastor Barry Kerner

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, but it covers a lot of ground in only twenty-one verses. Obadiah’s name means a slave or bondservant of Yahweh, a form of Jehovah. Paul called himself a bondservant of Christ and we are to be the same. In that, we have a kinship to this writer.

According to the Talmud, Obadiah is said to have been a convert to Judaism from Edom. He’s said to be a descendant of Eliphaz, the friend of Job. He is identified with the Obadiah who was the servant of Ahab, and it is said that he was chosen to prophesy against Edom because he himself was an Edomite. Moreover, having lived with two such godless persons as Ahab and Jezebel, without learning to act as they did, he seemed the most suitable person to prophesy against the Edomites who were the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau.

Obadiah is supposed to have received the gift of prophecy for having hidden the “hundred prophets” from the persecution of Jezebel. The story of which can be read in 1 Kings 18. It is said that he hid the prophets in two caves, so that if those in one cave should be discovered those in the other might yet escape.

Obadiah was thought to be very rich, but all his wealth was expended in feeding the poor prophets, until, in order to be able to continue to support them, he had to borrow money at interest from Ahab’s son Jehoram. The Talmud goes on to say that Obadiah’s fear of God was one degree higher than that of Abraham; and if the house of Ahab had been capable of being blessed, it would have been blessed for Obadiah’s sake.

Some folks do not like to study the Old Testament. They see no use for it since we are now living in New Testament times which are the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Besides, we are Gentiles and do not need to know all that ancient Hebrew history. This is not a new thing. There was a move among the early church to burn the Old Testament and forget it completely. Fortunately, God raised up many men to preserve the Old Testament for us.

Those that discount the Old Testament forget 1 Corinthians 10:11 where it says, “These things (The Old Testament) happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. They neglect 2 Timothy 3:16 which tells us that,  “All Scripture (Including the Old testament) is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”  Those passages tell me I am not supposed to throw out any Scripture including the Old Testament. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” In the Parable of the Dragnet, Jesus told His disciples, “ the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.” Jesus was speaking of the Old Testament and His New Testament teachings. We need to know both the Old and New Testaments to be approved and to correctly handle the word of truth.

With that said let’s read the 21 verses of Obadiah’s prophesy against the nation of Edom.

The Edomites were kin to Israel because they were descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. Now, we know that Jacob and Esau had a bit of a family feud over a birthright, but they worked it out. Their descendants did not do as well. There was a constant rivalry and just plain bad blood between them. Sort of like the generational feud between the Hatfields and McCoy’s.

Verse 3 reads, “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself. “Who can bring me down?”” The Edomites felt mighty secure in their mountain fortress called Sela’. The Edomites refuge is modern day Petra on Mt. Seir. Petra, meaning “Rock” in Greek, is a deserted city south of the Dead Sea in Jordan. In antiquity it was known as Seir, metropolis of the Edomites. In later times, the Nabateans settled in the mountain stronghold of the dislodged Edomites and called their capital Petra. The city is situated in a rift valley which extends from the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem through the Dead Sea and further south. Indications are that an earthquake and volcanic activity occurred here, forming a big canyon with rocky ravines and steep cliffs. The remains of the spectacular city consist of temples, tombs and dwellings carved out of the sandstone cliffs. The only entrance to the city is through a narrow gorge almost two kilometers in length, which can easily be guarded and even blocked if necessary, thus rendering Petra a very safe refuge.

Some end times prophesies have the remnant of the Jews fleeing to Petra during the Tribulation. In fact, one group has placed sealed New Testaments in the caves of that city so that when the fleeing Jews get there they can read them and be saved. Now that is putting shoe leather to your faith.

With what seemed like an impregnable refuge, the Edomites got to be a mighty proud and haughty. Who could touch them? To attack was certain death and defeat. They most likely even got to believing that God was on their side. But in  2 Chronicles 25:12 and 2 Kings 14:7 is found one of the Old Testament’s colder and more brutal episodes, King Amaziah of Judah (c. 801–783 B.C.E.), after having slain nearly 10,000 Edomites in battle near the southern end of the Dead Sea, is said to have thrown another 10,000 captives from the top of nearby Sela, where they were “dashed to pieces” 

Traditionally, when kinfolk were attacked the rest of the family jumped in on the fight. But the Edomites disliked the sons of Jacob so much that they did not come to help them when other nations fought with Israel. Not only did they not help but verses 12 and 13 tell us that they jumped into the fray, gloated over Israel’s misfortune and seized some of Israel’s wealth for themselves. Kings and Chronicles show us at least three times when the Edomites were against Israel when they should have been by their side. The lowest blow of all is found in verse 14 where they caught the Israelites that were escaping and turned them over to the enemy. Some of you might have relatives like that and understand what Israel must have felt like at these times.

They must have gotten even cockier each time they looted Israel, but they forgot who was keeping accounts. They found out whose side God was really on and that He does avenge His people. In fact Romans 12:19 says, “Avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”  In verse 4 Obadiah prophesies, “Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.” It would get mighty sore where the eagle soars because God was not going to pull any punches.

The Edomites got a lesson in greed. Verse 5 says it’s because they could never get enough and left nothing whenever they spoiled their kinfolk. Verse 10 tells us that God would cut them completely off and destroy them.

They got a lesson in disloyalty. In verses 6 and 7 Obadiah let them know that because they had been disloyal to their family, the groups they had broken bread with and had made treaties with, the enemies of Israel, were the ones that would be used to bring about their demise. Job 18:18 says, “He is cast into a net by his own feet — By his own choice, design, and actions. And he walketh upon a snare.“ Psalm 69:22 warns, “The table set before them will become a snare; it will become retribution and a trap. And, Proverbs 1:31 says, “They will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.” God has been known to allow the wicked to be punished by the very thing they enjoyed doing to others.

They got a lesson in trust and dependence. They trusted in their military, their wise men, and their geography, not their spiritual heritage. God made sure that all three failed them. They should have sought the God of their fathers and asked Him for wisdom. Then they would have reconciled with their kinsfolk and prospered instead of perished. Their trust and dependence would have been in God and they would today have a place in Israel.

They received lessons in what treachery and lack of mercy brings to the perpetrators. Every thing they did, their gloating, rejoicing and boasting over the troubles of Israel; their looting of Israel’s wealth; and the lack of mercy shown to their Israelite prisoners would come back to haunt them. What they did to Jacob would come back upon their heads. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, what goes around comes around. Galatians 6:7-8 warns, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

They also learned that God is in control and that He does avenge His people. His timing may not be fast, so the wicked think God is dead, getting senile or that they are just too slick. Then God makes His move and He does it swiftly. His enemies are consumed in an instant. There are numerous examples of this throughout the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we have the wicked laughing at the concept of Christ returning since He has delayed His return. Therefore, they think Christians are idiots. They think that they are in control and have nothing to fear. But Psalm 2 reminds them, “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? You, my Son, You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”  And, 2 Peter 3 warns, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” In the end, judgment will come to scoffers and evildoers as swiftly as it did to those who perished in the flood. God always gets the last laugh.

The mountain folk in Edom learned it was not good idea to party and plunder on God’s holy mountain. Because of their evilness He would to let the heathen nations party and plunder them on His mountain. Verse 16 tells us that when the party is over, it will be as if the mighty mountain men of Edom had never existed. Great would be their desolation!

In the end, God’s people get deliverance. You see God’s people needed some lessons here as well. I am sure that they cried out to God every time these Edomites and others had plundered them. I am sure they wondered where was the God of Israel. Their enemies asked them that as they conquered them and at those desperate times, they had to have had their own doubts.

Deuteronomy 32:25 explains, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”  Sometimes God tarries but in due time, His time, He repays. Israel learned patience. God avenged them, but in His own time. They learned dependence and to trust in Him. In none of those times did their wisdom or military might deliver them. When they finally did achieve a military victory against the Edomites in verses 17-19 they knew it was from God.

All of this seems to have taught them obedience and repentance since holiness was a part of the deliverance and possession of Edom. They learned again the lessons of Job. They had lost things in the past, but in verses 19 and 20 we see that when God did His work among them, they, like Job, would receive much more than what they had lost to the Edomites. 

Finally, in verse 21, Israel, the saved ones would be judges and rulers in the land of the Edomites but the kingdom will be the Lords. It was not really the Israelites’ kingdom. It is God’s kingdom. He gave it to them and He could take it away. They were merely stewards and recipients of His gift.

Okay, you say, the history lesson was fine. What has all that to do with us? Christians definitely need to learn the lessons that the Israelites learned. We are often as forgetful and as doubtful as they were. Christians and this nation need to learn from the errors of the Edomites as well.

We are a greedy people. Americans consume most of the assets of this planet. We have so much more than anyone else does and yet we demand more. Sadly, Christians are not immune from this sickness. We need to reassess and determine to make our needs equal to Scriptural principles and our priorities those that affect eternity.

As a nation, we have a history of disloyalty. We have made many treaties and broken many promises to our own people as well as to our allies. Christians too have broken many promises. To God, to each other, and to the lost that looked to us in trust because of our profession of faith.

As a nation, we trust in the eagle. We thought ourselves invincible because of geography until technology brought war to our shores in 1941. Now death and destruction can come from anywhere by many more means than ever imaginable in the history of mankind. We trusted in our intellect. Now our education system struggles to even give us functionally literate high school graduates. We trust in our military might yet even our best technology has had failure after failure in battles and conflicts around the world.

American Christians trust in the same things. They think this is a Christian nation. That is true only in name. In practice, we are as pagan and as far from God as ancient Rome or Greece. We are polytheistic worshiping many gods and idols. We worship sports idols, movie stars, sex, money, power and much more. The list is truly unending. Someone recently told me that the great tragedy is that the church pursues happiness instead of holiness. The cause of our problems is our loss of focus and our dependence and trust in things other than God. 2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us that until that changes our nation and churches cannot be healed nor delivered. All those things failed the Edomites who trusted in their eagle’s nest. May our eagle not have to learn the same lesson or suffer the same fate. God can make it mighty sore where our eagle soars as He did in Edom.

As a nation, we have had treacherous politicians and business magnates that have shown no mercy. They have lived for their own profit and programs and woe be it unto any that stood in their way. We may never know the truth about many things that have happened even in our lifetime and we know history has often been revised to protect the guilty. Many loyal workers have been disposed of like leftovers when it suited the company. Politicians have casually broken many promises. We live in an age where none of them are trusted. Although God has always despised child sacrifice, unborn children have been killed and cut away like warts or parasites because their own mothers and lawyer-politicians have no mercy.

When our brothers and sisters err or sin we gloat over them and boast of our own self righteousness. We who have received mercy show no mercy to our own or the lost. Pastors build their kingdoms and not His kingdom, abusing and scattering the sheep they were meant to feed and protect.

We need to relearn the sovereignty of God and not party and plunder in His Church. We are supposed to be a nation built on the foundations of His Word. Yet we have kicked Him out of our schools and courts. Is it any wonder that we have crime in the schools and no justice in the courts? We are a nation built on the right to religious freedom and yet we cannot pray where we want or speak our faith when and where we please. Courts and schools abridge and deny our “inalienable rights.”

Have friends over for Bible study on a routine basis and if the city finds out you will be ruled as a church and be fined for breaking zoning laws. However, a neighbor can have friends over every weekend to drink and watch the game and no one would raise an eyebrow. Our motto is, “In God, We Trust” but, seldom do we rely on Him instead we depend on our own power. Separation of church and state meant that the state had no control over the church not that the church is banned from any influence on the state.

Christians see God as a big Buddy and not the Lord. Men dare to make merchandise of Him and fleece people in His name. We treat Him like a big fire escape and a Divine gift dispenser. We have no fear or awe of Him. Instead of conforming to His image, we have Him all figured out and molded Him into our image. We have His pager number and He is on call 24/7 – just for us. We have no true understanding of sin.

Many Christians just play church. Our fellowships are just parties with a devotional or a prayer tacked on to make it Christian. We have taken control of His church from Him. Many services are sporadic and emotionally dictated. When it is not fun anymore or we are no longer fulfilled we quit. If we are not fed we whine and try a new playground.

The Lord leads us into green pastures. He expects us to feed ourselves and as long as we play and whine, the grass will not be greener on any side of the fence.

No man or organization can replace the King and Shepherd of our souls. He is still seated on His throne. We have just set up a new one and put ourselves on it. We’ve forgotten that His Son is still seated at his right hand with the nations as His footstool. The party that never should have been must end and we must return to fall on our knees before His throne. We need to seek His grace and His help in our present need.

The Book of Obadiah is just twenty-one verses from a servant of God long dead to a people long gone. But, it is full of teachings and warnings directed to America and His church. The recipients of Obadiah’s message learned nothing from it and they perished. Will we take note and learn anything from it? If we ignore it, our eagle may cease to soar and Christians may up end mighty sore. If we repent of the sins of the Edomites and learn the lessons of the Israelites we will know national and spiritual prosperity. May God help us to do so!

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Fourth of July 2021

Acts 4:24-31

Pastor Barry Kerner

Fourth of July fireworks are an American tradition that comes around every year, no matter how loudly or softly Freedom has rung throughout the land in the year since our last display of civic pride. Sometimes the Fourth can feel a lot like Christmas – it can have us wishing we were children again, innocent celebrators of a story, whose symbols are colorful and exciting; young players in a story whose deeper meanings didn’t really concern us kids much. We could simply enjoy the tinsel, or the sparklers, the reindeer or the marching band.

There’s a lot to love about celebrating the birth of our nation and our principled commitment to freedom. Patriotism has a definite allure, it reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves. It makes us feel we belong.

I grew up outside of Pittsburgh in a Borough called Forest Hills. It was a community with good schools and strong citizen involvement. Perhaps it was a bit like Delphi Falls, or the small town where you grew up. Our kids loved the Fourth of July celebration in Forest Hills. Everyone would walk to the high school where the fireworks display drew hundreds of families. We would throw down our blankets beside our neighbors and strike up conversations. All the kids ran freely amid the crowd, yelling and trying not to step on the smaller children. Patriotic music played over the loud speaker. As the sun descended, anticipation rose…things quieted, and the kids found their way back to their family blankets. Everyone settled down, passed around the bug spray, put earphones over the babies’ ears; and the youngest children, a little afraid of strangers and loud booming noises, tried to look brave. As the first rockets flew overhead and burst into color and light…we all looked up.

Looking up into the evening sky, is, I think, a primal human impulse.  We look up at billowing clouds and at menacing ones too – just as our ancestors did on the plains. We look up at the sunset and gaze at the stars in the heavens– as humans have done since the beginning of time.

Job 35:5 tells us to, “Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.”

Psalm 8 proclaims, “1 Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. 2 Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

In Psalm 123:1the Psalmist declared, “To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens!”

Isaiah 40:26 reminds us, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

There are many people who don’t turn their eyes to the heavens which declare God’s glory. Instead, their eyes are cast downward focusing on the things of this world, their cares and concerns, and their circumstances. When that happens we often forget that that the one who gave us life, the one who loves and cares for us is seated on His throne in the heavens and that his son Jesus Christ sits at he right hand.

Proverbs 3:6 reminds us, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Psalm 4:1 implores, “Answer me when I cry out, my righteous God! Set me free from my troubles! Have mercy on me! Listen to my prayer!”

Exodus 23:25 tells us, “But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst.”

Many Christians want God to bless them and to care for them but they fail to acknowledge Him, spend the time to fellowship with him through prayer and the studying of scripture or wholeheartedly serve Him. Think about the difference it would make if we would. The early church certainly experienced the benefits.  Let’s look at an occasion when the Apostles were commanded to preach no more about Jesus.

Acts 4: 24And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. 31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

This exciting Scripture shows us what can happen when you decide to choose to acknowledge, pray and serve the Lord. Today, I want you to think through this text with me and see what God does for his people in a time of peril. He will do the same for America today if we will acknowledge Him, pray to Him and serve Him as the early church did:

WHAT GOD CAN DO: HE ANSWERS THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE

All the incredible things that happened in the above passage, happened because the people prayed. They went to God in prayer. As it has been said, “Much prayer, much power! Little prayer, little power!” Dutch Sheets taught in his book on Intercessory Prayer that there are things that God does for us, that would not be done, if we had not prayed. James wrote in the book of James, “We have not because we ask not.” Whatever your theology, you cannot walk away from a reading of the Bible without admitting that there is a relationship between desperate faith-filled prayer and God’s intervention into the affairs of men and nations.

WHAT DOES GOD DO: HE DOES WHAT HE WANTS TO DO

He alone is the Sovereign Lord and Creator. The early church prayed knowing that their prayers did not violate God’s Sovereignty. He is still God and is not taking applications for His replacement. This is the tension between prayer and Sovereignty. We ask but God is not bound by our prayers. This is actually good news. Thank God because He sees what we don’t and knows what we don’t, and that He will move in our best interest. 

Why pray? Because God in His Sovereignty has chosen to partner with praying men and women in carrying out His plans and purposes. Our prayers do make a difference and our faith in God’s Sovereignty only increases our confidence that God’s will will be done. I also believe that the absence of our prayers can create delays and detours. This again is the tension of human responsibility and Divine Sovereignty. God is Sovereign and Just! He can do what He wants because He is God. He never gets pinned in a corner by man.

There was a time in our nation when our President saw this at work. President Lincoln  during the Civil War saw the Sovereign Hand of God at work.nThe Civil War produced the death of more Americans — almost half a million — than any war before or since. With Americans dying on both sides, the War taxed everyone’s ability to understand what God was doing here. This was no holy war against the pagan infidels; this was a war that turned brother against brother, father against son, and Christian against Christian. This was a God-forsaken war if there ever was one, and yet Lincoln saw God using this war to set straight the course of history.

“Both parties deprecated war,” Lincoln proclaimed in his Second Inaugural Address, “but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came….Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. The prayers of both can not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

“If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.”

“Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’“

WHAT DOES GOD DO: HE  HONORS HIS WORD

The early church prayed the word of God that was relevant to their situation. Believers should seize God’s promises relevant to our nation’s crisis situations as well.

Listen to the words of one of our former Presidents: Woodrow Wilson, the 28^th President of the United States said,  “There are a good many problems before the American people today, and before me as President, but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am in prayer and the study of the Word of God.”

Let’s hold to God’s Word regardless of what the media tells us. Our current circumstances do not make null and void the Word of God. This is the time to demonstrate the power of God’s promises to people.

WHAT DOES GO DO: HE RULES THE RULERS OF THE EARTH

Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

Proverbs 21:1reminds us,  “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it wheresoever he will.”

1 Samuel 13:13  Samuel said, “You acted foolishly, You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.”

Listen to America’s founding President, George Washington,who understood his need for God’s hand upon his life. “Direct my thought, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my  heart by Thy Holy Spirit….Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.”  

Other Presidents understood this as well. Listen to them:

George Bush, 41st President said, “The Lord our God be with us, as HE was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us; so that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways…that all peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.”

Harry S. Truman, 33rd US. President said, “We can all pray. We all should pray. We should ask for courage, wisdom, for the quietness of soul which comes alone in them who place their lives in His hands.”

WHAT CAN GOD DO: HE CONFUSES THE PLANS OF THE ENEMY

The early church prayed, “Behold their threats…” and the plans of those who stood against them were thwarted. In Israel He caused the enemy to turn on himself. Gideon attacked with clay pots and torches and God caused the enemy to be scattered David armed with just with a rock and sling took down Goliath and ruined the plans of the Philistines. God knows and will often reveal what the enemy is up to. The Lord showed Elijah what the king was thinking in his chambers. With God’s help Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar what he dreamed.

WHAT CAN GOD DO: HE PROVIDES PROTECTION FOR US

In 2 Kings 6:16 the enemy had surrounded the Prophet Elisha and the inhabitants of the city.  “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. 16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Our nation’s history is filled with remarkable stories of how the impossible became possible because of God’s intervention. There was a phrase in the 1840’s that was bandied about in Europe: “A special Providence watches over children, drunkards and the United States.” While the comment was undoubtedly meant to be derogatory toward the then-young nation, there is no doubting that there was some truth to it. American history is littered with truly bizarre moments where the U.S. has managed the impossible. Whether because an accomplished enemy suddenly made a rookie mistake, an American got lucky or the weather itself interfered, the United States certainly has some colorful stories that cannot be read as anything less than divine intervention.

WHAT DOES GOD DO: HE RESPONDS TO OBEDIENCE

The early church knew their charge and mandate. To preach the good news of Jesus Christ. When told to stop, they prayed for the power to GO! The place was shaken, the Holy Spirit empowered them and they were enabled to speak the Word boldly

Go: the smallest of words, the biggest of meanings. It may be one of God’s favorite words. Sometimes life is calm. Secure. Peaceful. Nothing scary, each day much like the one before. That’s usually when God shows up. That’s usually when God says, “Go.”

Sometimes God calls dramatically, in miracle and flame. Sometimes He calls subtly, in stillness and whisper, so soft we won’t hear if we aren’t listening. Sometimes through His Word, sometimes through a friend, sometimes through life events.

However He speaks, God calls to us all. We are called for different roles, in different ways, at different points in our lives: one season holds one purpose, the next holds another. We are God’s people, His instruments, and He wants to use us. As Romans 8:28 puts it, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” According to His purpose. God has plans for each of us. He has work for us to do, work He prepared a long time ago, work He has equipped us to accomplish. Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The mandate still remains unchanged for the church. We must collectively come together and rise up through the power of the Holy Spirit and take forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations.

WHAT CAN GOD DO:   HE CAN BIRTH REVIVAL OUT OF THE ENEMY’S ATTACK

This persecution against the early church brought the church together in powerful prayer and precipitated another outpouring on the early church. It’s said that what Satan weaves God reweaves.

Joseph, Son of Jacob, Graduated with honors from the University of Hard Knocks. He went on to become the Director of Global Effort to Save Humanity. How? How did he flourish in the midst of tragedy? We don’t have to speculate. Some twenty years later after his brothers sold him into slavery the roles were reversed, Joseph as the strong one and his brothers the weak ones. They came to him in dread. They feared he would settle the score and throw them into a pit of his own making. But Joseph didn’t. And in his explanation in Genesis 50:20 we find his inspiration, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

We all have heard of Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and their companions who were martyred in the 1950’s.  But through their suffering the Gospel spread among the Auca Indians in South America. Similar stories could be repeated throughout the centuries and around the world.

Through the power of the risen Christ, we too can continue the destruction of the works of the devil. If God be for us, who can be against us? 1 John 3:8 says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Finally, WHAT CAN GOD DO: GOD CAN HEAL THIS NATION.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God tells us, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 

To bring real revival to our nation, we as Americans need to humble ourselves, acknowledge God in all our ways, continually be in prayer and wholeheartedly serve the one true God.

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You Must Be Born Again

Part 2 What Happens At The New Birth?

John 3,  Ezekiel 36:24–28

Pastor Barry Kerner

Today we complete last week’s message on what happens in the new birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” And in verse 3, he told Nicodemus — and us — that our eternal lives depend on being born again. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” So we are not dealing with something marginal or optional or cosmetic in the Christian life. The new birth is not like the makeup that morticians use to try to make corpses look more like they are alive. The new birth is the creation of a new spiritual life, not the imitation of life.

We began to answer the question What happens in the new birth? last time with two statements. First, what happens in the new birth is not getting new religion but getting new life, and second, what happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus, but experiencing the supernatural in ourselves.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and had lots of religion. But he had no spiritual life. And he saw the supernatural work of God in Jesus, but he didn’t experience the supernatural work of God in himself. So putting our two points together from last time, what Nicodemus needed, Jesus said, was new spiritual life imparted supernaturally through the Holy Spirit. What makes the new life spiritual and what makes it supernatural is that it is the work of God the Spirit. It is something above the natural life of our physical hearts and brains.

In verse 6, Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The flesh does have a kind of life. Every human being is living flesh. But not every human being is living spirit. To be a living spirit, or to have spiritual life, Jesus says, we must be “born of the Spirit.” Flesh gives rise to one kind of life. The Spirit gives rise to another kind of life. If we don’t have this second kind, we will not see the kingdom of God.

Then as we closed last time, we noticed two very important things. We saw that there is a relationship of the new birth to Jesus and the relationship of the new birth to faith. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  In 1 John 5:11-12 the apostle John said, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” So on the one hand, the new life we need is “in the Son” — Jesus is that life. If you have him, you have new spiritual, eternal life. And on the other hand, in John 6:63, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” John 3:5 tells us that unless you are born of the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

So we have life by being connected with the Son of God who is our life, and we have that life by the work of the Spirit. We concluded, therefore, that the work of the Spirit in regeneration is to impart new life to us by uniting us to Christ. The way John Calvin says it is: “The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself” (Institutes, 3.1.1).

And then we made the connection to faith like this. John 20:31 says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.” And 1 John 5:4 says, “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.” Being born of God is the key to victory. Our faith is the key to victory. Faith is the way we experience being born of God. To sum up the last message, in the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith.

This brings us now to the third way of describing what happens in the new birth. What happens in the new birth is not the improvement of your old human nature but the creation of a new human nature — a nature that is really you, and is forgiven and cleansed; and a nature that is really new, and is being formed in you by the indwelling Spirit of God.

In John 3:5, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” What does Jesus mean by the two terms “by water and the Spirit”? Some denominations believe that this is a reference to water baptism as the way the Spirit unites us to Christ. For example, one website explains it like this:

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.” Millions of people have been taught that their baptism caused them to be born again. If this is not true, it is a great and global tragedy. And I do not believe it is true. So what then does Jesus mean?

Here are several reasons why I think the reference to water here is not a reference to Christian baptism. Then we will see where the context leads.

First, there Is no mention of baptism in the rest of the chapter. If this were a reference to Christian baptism and it were as essential for new birth as some say it is, it seems strange that it drops out of what Jesus says in this chapter in telling us how to have eternal life. In verse 15 Jesus says,  “Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” In verse 16: he says, “Whoever believes in him [will] not perish but have eternal life.” And, in verse 18, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” It would seem strange, if baptism were that essential, it would not be mentioned along with faith.

Second, the analogy with the wind in verse 8 would seem strange if being born again were so firmly attached to water baptism. Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This seems to say that God is as free as the wind in causing regeneration. But if it happened every time a baby is sprinkled, that would not seem to be true. In that case the wind, would be very confined by the sacrament.

Third, if Jesus is referring to Christian baptism, it seems strange that he would say to Nicodemus, the Pharisee in verse 10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” That makes sense if Jesus is referring to something taught in the Old Testament. But if he is referring to a baptism that will come later and get its meaning from the life and death of Jesus, it doesn’t seem like he would have scolded Nicodemus that a teacher in Israel does not understand what he is saying.

Finally, that same statement in verse 10 sends us back to the Old Testament for some background, and what we find is that water and spirit are closely linked in the New Covenant promises, especially in Ezekiel 36. So let’s go there together. This text is the basis for the rest of this message.

Ezekiel is prophesying what God will do for his people when he brings them back from exile in Babylon. The implications are much larger than just for the people of Israel, because Jesus claims to secure the New Covenant by his blood for all who will trust in him (Luke 22:20). And this is one version of the New Covenant promises like the one in Jeremiah 31:31–34. Let’s read it together. Ezekiel 36:24–28.

“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

I think this is the passage that gives rise to Jesus words, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  In verse 28 Jesus says, “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  Who was he talking to? To the ones to whom he says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness.” And, to the ones to whom he says, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

In other words, the ones who will enter the kingdom are those who have a newness that involves a cleansing of the old and a creation of the new. So I conclude that “water and Spirit” refer to two aspects of our newness when we are born again. And the reason both are important is this: when we say that a new spirit, or a new heart, is given to us, we don’t mean that we cease to be the human being that we have always been.

I was the individual human being Barry Kerner before I was born again, and I am the individual human being Barry Kerner after I was born again. There is a continuity. That’s why there has to be cleansing. If the old human being, Barry Kerner, were completely obliterated, the whole concept of forgiveness and cleansing would be irrelevant. There would be nothing leftover from the past to forgive or cleanse.

We know that the Bible tells us that our old self was crucified (Romans 6:6), and that we have died with Christ (Colossians 3:3), and we are to “consider ourselves dead” (Romans 6:11), and “put off the old self” (Ephesians 4:22). But none of that means the same human being is not in view throughout life. It means that there was an old nature, an old character, or principle, that needs to be done away with.

So the way to think about your new heart, new spirit, new nature is that it is still you and so needs to be forgiven and cleansed — that’s the point of the referring to water. My guilt must be washed away. Cleansing with water is a picture of that. Jeremiah 33:8 puts it like this: “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.” So the person that we are — that continues to exist — must be forgiven, and the guilt washed away.

But forgiveness and cleansing is not enough. I need to be new. I need to be transformed. I need life. I need a new way of seeing and thinking and valuing. That’s why Ezekiel speaks of a new heart and a new spirit in verse 26 and 27: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Here’s the way I understand those verses: To be sure, the heart of stone means the dead heart that was unfeeling and unresponsive to spiritual reality. It could respond with passion and desire to lots of things. But it was a stone toward the spiritual truth and beauty of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the path of holiness. That is what has to change if we are to see the kingdom of God.

So in the new birth, God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. The word flesh doesn’t mean “merely human” like it does in John 3:6. It means soft and living and responsive and feeling, instead of being a lifeless stone. In the new birth, our dead, stony boredom with Christ is replaced by a heart that feels or spiritually senses the worth of Jesus.

Then when Ezekiel says in verses 26 and 27, “a new spirit I will put within you. . . . And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,” He means that in the new birth, God puts a living, supernatural, spiritual life in our heart, and that new life — that new spirit — is the working of the Holy Spirit himself giving shape and character to our new heart.

So now let’s step back and sum up these last two weeks. What happens in the new birth? In the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith. Or, to say it another way, the Spirit unites us to Christ where there is cleansing for our sins, and he replaces our hard, unresponsive heart with a soft heart that treasures Jesus above all things and is being transformed by the presence of the Spirit into the kind of heart that loves to do the will of God.

Since the way you experience all of this is through faith, I invite you now, in the name of Jesus and by the power of his Spirit, to receive him as the sin-forgiving, transforming Treasure of your life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

There is a certain truth about the new creation in Christ which, as Christians, we must be conscious of and live by. These are not promises but they are the truths in the word of God which are realities. If you’ve received Christ into your life, you’ve become new. The Bible says “if any man is in Christ, he ‘is’ a new creation.” That passage is talking of the “present” not “later,” it means you become a new creation immediately.

Another truth is that the word of God is an agent of cleansing, it purifies and makes all things new. John 15:3 says “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” By his words, we are made clean from all that might have stained us which includes our terrible past. We should then not even think of the old but of the present because Christ has made us new and that alone should give us joy. Now that we are a new creation, we are in Christ.  And, if we are in Christ, that which is true of Jesus Christ is true of us as well.

Today, think of yourself as a new creation and never let your past slow you down but let Christ move you forward and faster.

Let us pray.

Father, your Word says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Because Christ lives in us, we can live our lives differently as we put our faith in Jesus and in His power to work in us and through us. Jesus, thank you for giving your life for us so that we are new creations in Christ!  Continue to speak to our hearts through your Word today and help us live like new creations in Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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