John 14:12-23-(NOT TO BE MISTAKEN FOR THE TEN ONLY)
14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it].
14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
14:17 [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
14:20 At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
14:22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
intro
Jewelry question and answers
The rules in the bible, were they made by God or by man( church)?
A. If this is God’s word, then they must have been made by God.
Are Gods rules to prohibit us or protect us?
A. if God is loving (and He is) then the rules that He has left for us is to protect us.
For those of us who say that God is prohibiting us, “Why would He prohibit us?” Would that not be infringing on our freedom of choice if he were prohibiting us.
On the other hand, if He is protecting us, what is He protecting us from?
A. from self (matth15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:) All these are sin and the wages of sin is death.
Taking a closer look at sin
Was there anything wrong with eating fruit in the garden of Eden?
A. No only a specific fruit was it wrong to eat.
Why was it wrong to eat this special fruit?
- The only reason why it was wrong, was because God said so.
What is sin?……we are guilty of sin when we willfully/knowingly transgress against God’s word.
1 john 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Was God prohibiting Adam or protecting him when He said “do not eat of this fruit”? If protecting him How was he protecting him and from what?.........protecting the world from getting to this point!
A sacrifice has been made to reconcile man to God…but 1 sam 15:22 Obedience is better than sacrifice—
Let us pray
Let us turn to or subject at hand….wearing of Jewelry
Is there a direct command from God not to wear Jewelry? Yes there is turn to
Ex33:5-6
33:5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye [are] a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.
33:6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.
God spoke directly to Moses, so if you deliberately ignore this command from the Lord there is only one declaration that can be made about you.
Duet 30:19….. if you want to live Obey me-says the Lord.
Heb 10:26-31
Part2
How many of us know the song “Gimme that Old time religion? How much of us have ever sang it? Did you mean the words that you sang? Did you know that God requires of us the words that come out of our mouth? Duet 23:21
Did Sis White collaborate this thought? In Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 146. (1857) {Ev 508.2} we read..
With Heart and Understanding.--I saw that all should sing with the spirit and with the understanding also. God is not pleased with jargon and discord. Right is always more pleasing to Him than wrong. And the nearer the people of God can approach to correct, harmonious singing, the more is He glorified, the church benefited, and unbelievers favorably affected. –
What do you think the 9th of the ten commandments was speaking to when it said thou shalt not bear a false witness.
Church of old
Did you know that the church of old forbade the wearing of jewelry so much that it was apart of the baptismal vows then?
Read the vow…(from hymnal) Are you willing to follow the Bible rule of modesty and simplicity of dress, refraining from the wearing of earings, necklaces, bracelets, beads, rings, etc….and from any lack of dress that is out of keeping with the bible rule of modesty?
……..we have softened our requirements, since then, and to a large degree that is the reason why there is so much grey areas in the church today.
But if you sing the song gimme that old time religion and you do not want to mock God then the old time religion did not believe in the wearing of jewelry.
Let us even go back to the church in Genesis, did God like the wearing of Jewelry back then? Notice what Jacob says to his family when they were about to go worship?
Gen 35:2-4 (bethel-house of God)
35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that [were] with him, Put away the strange gods that [are] among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which [were] in their hand, and [all their] earrings which [were] in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which [was] by Shechem.
The bible calls jewelry a god, so when you wear jewelry you are showing allegiance to a false god……this is a study by itself but let me give you a little peak in to that study.
Compare rev 17:4, ex 25: 4, (validate the colors) numb 15:38-40, (looks who is described as a whoring in numbers) Ezek 28:13-15 (infamous text referring to Lucifer-king of tyrus)
See who is the one wearing jewelry?
A.Lucifer
So when we adorn ourselves with jewelry, (not only are they diverting the praise of God to ur selves, but we also look more and more like Lucifer, with jewelry adornment.
Part 3
The Christian life is a-Life of sacrifice-not a flowery way of ease.
matth 7:14, luke 9:23 .
Consider the stalwarts of the bible all suffered persecution. (shedrach meshack and abenego –daniel-joshua)
The rich young ruler-was asked to sacrifice his wealth, the one thing that he could not do to gain eternal life.)—what are you not willing to sacrifice for Him. Song-I gave it all for you (281)
How are we saved? By grace! Has always been and will ever be. There is no work that you and I can do to receive grace, but there is a lot we can do to reject it.
My question to you today is? Why do you come to church? If we are coming to church just because we don’t want to be lost……….the truth is that this type of thinking is a losers way of thinking.
If in contemplating the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for me is not enough, it means something is wrong; it means you do not understand sin and the true consequences of it, nor do you understand the magnitude of Christ’ sacrifice.
Only one question should be on our minds. “What can I do to please God who for me paid such a great price?” Our meditation should never be ……“How much sin can I commit and still enter heaven?.......Because the truth of the matter is that no sin can or ever will re-enter heaven.”
Story of man looking for limo driver.
The story is told of an old rich man that had a house on the very top of a very steep hill. The road that wound its way around the hill was so narrow that only one car could safely travel on the road at any point in time, whether it was coming or going. The fact that there was no guide rail at the edge of the road made this danger even more pronounced.
This did not bother the millionaire as he was the only person that lived on the hill and his limo driver had driven it for years. By some strange turn of events however, his limo driver died and he was forced to seek another.
So he put and advertisement out for experienced limo driver and 3 applicants were interviewed.
The first applicant was happy that he had received the interview and wanted so much to impress the rich old man that he deliberately drove about 4 feet from the edge all the way up and down the Hill, trying to show the rich old man that he was a good driver. But the little old man just said “I’ll call you!!”
The second driver heard about the feat of the last driver and wanted to do better, so he drove a little slower of course, but kept the limo’s wheels just outside of a foot away from the edge. Still the Old man said the same words, “I’ll call you.!!!”
The third driver heard about the other two drivers, but he proved to be no competition for them. He was so scared of falling off the edge that he hit the sides of the limo several times going up and down the hill. Disappointed he just merely returned the keys to the Old man…but the old man did not take the keys. He said you’re hired.
With a look of bewilderment the driver looked at the old man, only to hear him say. “I do not want drivers that are going to experiment with death, instead I want a river that is going to stay as far away from it as possible.
If you truly love God you should be doing all in your power to please him; to stay as far away from sin as possible.
Abstain from even the very appearance of evil 1 thess 5:22
As God’s representatives on Earth we must be peculiar/different.
We must not look like the world, act like the world nor talk like the world. If we do then our fate can be nothing else but the world’s fate. James 4:4
Part 4
If you truly love me………………..
The most unhappy relationship in the world is for someone to be married to a person they don’t love. However this is the problem with a lot of people today…..they are married to Christ through baptism but they do not love Him. That is why their Christian walk is so burden some. They became joined to Christ because of what he offers…….because they don’t want to burn in the fire. Whereas this is a good reason to join up with Christ, it is going to take much more than that to stay in the marriage with Him and be happy. It is expected that at some point you should get to know and love Him.
Conclude
I will share 2 more texts with you and then I invite your questions.
1 tim 2:9-10
2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
2:10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
1 peter 3:3-4
3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward [adorning] of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
3:4 But [let it be] the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, [even the ornament] of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
The conclusion of the matter is that we should not draw attention to our selves at the expense of giving glory to God. (cars can be jewelry, houses, clothes)
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