Sermon Transcript — September 24, 2005
I've heard a term recently in the wake of Katrina, especially, and all the coverage there. It's a term that I'm sure some insurance agents have been pointing out to their customers in the fine print of their insurance policies. It's a term that you hear every time there is some sort of natural disaster. It's a term that I looked up on Google a while back just to find out a little bit more information because I was a bit intrigued by this term.
And of all the information that I found on Google, some of which will also be incorporated in this sermon, I thought I would start with something that I found that was on the humorous side of the issue, and even though it's humorous, its serves to make a point. I'll just read this to you from a commentator.
He said, " I recently purchased a new cell phone and a new cell phone plan from T-Mobile. When the salesman of going on about why I can't use my phone in the shower, or something like that, I was leafing through the nine—page contract I was about to sign. I came across a clause that went something like this. 'T—Mobile, the carrier, is not responsible for any damages arising from — then a whole bunch of bad things — or, and here's the phrase — an act of God.' An act of God.
"Now I've heard a lot about this 'God' fellow, and apparently He keeps up with the times if He's in a cell phone contract. I stopped the saleswoman mid—sentence and asked, 'What do you mean by an 'Act of God' phrase?'
"She just laughed and said, 'Well the company's covering its back.'
"'From what?' I asked. 'What would constitute an act of God? And whose God are we talking about? Isn't that rather presumptuous of T-Mobile? What if I worship more than one god? Does it cover acts of the god of plenty, but not acts from the sun god?'
"She tried to change the subject, and I let her, which was stupid of me. What I want to know it is — what is an act of God? And why would He be messing with my cell phone? I feel like T-Mobile needs to be more clear on these things. They didn't throw in a clause about if you have a bad case of the Mondays, or if you're a klutz, so why are they so religious? What if the devil breaks your phone?
"Was there a clause in here about — acts of the devil? You'd think the devil was more likely to go around destroying phones than God is. I always thought the devil created cell phones really, not because I hate cell phones, you see, but because of those — can you hear me now — commercials. They make me want to hold his head underwater for ten minutes, 'Can you hear me now?'
"Why do most insurance policies exclude acts of God? Excuse me if I'm wrong, but acts of God as seen by insurance companies include such things as earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes, landslides, avalanches etc. So it the Creator God is so benevolent, why is it that those in the insurance business, whether they're Christian or not, refuse to insure against His acts?
"In saying this, I realize that it's simply a way for them to escape large claims for the catastrophes that are caused by these things, but why call them acts of God? Now, that's my question."
He goes on to say, "As an atheist, (even an atheist can ask a good question, you know, now and again) as an atheist, I don't believe there is a God. So if any of these things befall me, why should I not be able to claim it? Would they say at the insurance company that it was an act of whatever?
"So then we who don't hold any religious beliefs are being discriminated against in the name of those who believe in a malignant entity who does these things to us. This is not so much a rant about Theism, but about those who use the 'Theism' for their own ends. I guess that you suffered a loss, and the insurance company refuses to pay on the grounds that the event is an act of God, take them to court. Let them demonstrate the existence of the said God, all along with demonstrating God's malicious intent directed toward the plaintiff and his personal property, and if they cannot so demonstrate, they should pay the claim."
Well a little bit of a funny approach to it, a little bit of a cynical approach to it, but in a sense the core of his article was right. Why call these things — acts of God? If you ever notice, you've probably all had this question, you read it in the paper, you hear it all the time, one article I was reading said, "Journalists especially are prone to use the term when they describe things that they're reporting on." In fact it's even written insurance policies.
Do you also notice that when something good happens, is it ever called an — act of God? If the cure for cancer was discovered tomorrow, do you think we'd be having newspaper headlines talking about — An act of God brought us a cure for cancer? You know when things happen that are really good, it tends to be luck or chance, or even man's great accomplishment, but God seldom gets the public credit for things that go very well.
In general, people are very careless about how they talk about God. It's often very disrespectful, quite often it's simply ignorance, you know, we grow up terms like this that we throw around, and a lot of people don't really think about them, consider what they mean and ponder a fundamental question to what is exactly an act of God versus an act of man? How do we draw that line in there? This is a core question for us, and I'll explain why in a few minutes. But as an example, you could find these on the internet if you went out researching.
Here's a newspaper article from November of a couple of years ago. There was an explosion in British Columbia. And the newspaper said, "BC Gas said a blast that killed two people in Summerland last June was an act of God and likely won't happen again." Well, isn't that something to put together — it was an act of God, but we don't think it will happen again. How do they know what God would do? Again it's careless use of a phrase.
It goes on to say, "Company spokesman, Dean Pelkey says, ' BC Gas believes that its pipeline is safe, reliable and doesn't pose any danger to customers.'" Think about that. Our pipeline is safe and reliable and doesn't pose a danger, therefore if something bad happens, it must be somebody's else's fault. If it was unsafe, as it was this one time, and there's no explanation, Pelkey says, "The blast was a very rare incident, and the company has never experienced anything like it." So if it's rare, we'll just casually bring God into the picture. It's an act of God. And so God was out there blowing people up, or preventing these things from happening that would hurt people and destroy people's lives.
In law, in the legal realm, an act of God is an accident caused by the operation of extraordinary natural force. The effect of ordinary natural causes such as if your rain leaks through your roof, that may be foreseen and avoided if you exercised care, and so if you failed to exercise care, that constitutes negligence. And the party injured in the accident may be entitled to damages. An act of God, however, is so extraordinary and devoid of human agency, that reasonable care would not avoid the consequences. Therefore the injured party has no right to damages.
Accidents caused by tornadoes, perils of the sea, extraordinary floods, and severe ice storms are usually considered acts of God, but fires are not considered acts of God unless they're caused by lightning. So in the legal realm, it's had quite a bit of definition over time. But a very simple legal definition is something which no reasonable man could have expected.
Well I found it very interesting in examining some of this, because there are some experts in the field that are that are even calling the term into question these days. When they start examining the resulting damage of a lot of natural events, there are some very interesting studies that have been done. In fact there's a book written called Acts of God, and it points out that in some of the cases that the human toll that was taken because of something that happened, the responsibility has to be shared at least with nature. Human beings have to share responsibility in this. And they go through a number of case studies that are quite interesting.
For example, hurricane Mitch that killed fifteen thousand people of Central America a few years ago. Most of the people, they say, were not killed by flooding or the rain, tornadoes or anything like that. They were killed in mud slides. Why were there so many mud slides? It was because people had gone in and built so many houses on these sides of hills, poor people, fleeing to the cities. They built houses on the sides of hills, and these hills had the trees taken off of them, sometimes by some of the wealthy people living up top. And so the forests are denuded, the ground is laid bare, at it is just ripe for when the rains come in a heavier than expected amount, the mud slides take place, and humans suffer, and the suffering is grievous, and it's terrible. But that's one example.
One article said forty out of the fifty fastest—growing cities on the face of the earth are built in earthquake zones. People fleeing into certain areas, going to certain areas to try to survive, make a living, but they're going into an earthquake zone. When it happens, when the earthquake happens, the suffering then is magnified, if not multiplied. We have cases where poor flood control along dams built in rivers in Africa, for example, have created much more intense suffering than before because of the way people then change their lifestyles. People who used to go in and farm in the flood plain and then leave in the rainy season go in and stay now, because the dam holds back the water until there is a lack of proper control and maybe an unusual build up water, and then the sudden flood comes unexpectedly. And people get caught because they're out of sync with the way life normally might of been.
There are many cases like this that makes us ask certain questions. You know, people do ask questions when bad things happen. They do what to know — where is God? What is God doing? We have discovered a trend that when we have a nine—eleven, or a tsunami, or a Katrina, it affects what goes on behind these doors over here, because in a short time we will see a spike in literature request for our booklets — "Are We Living in the End Days," "After Death, Than What," "Why Does God Allow Suffering?"
These booklets leap to the front of the list for a while because people want answers, and they need answers, and they try to figure out what is going on. And actually these books do explain that there is a chemistry of events going on; there are acts of God. There are acts of man, and there are acts of Satan. All of them take place, and they explain what is happening in life. These are core questions of human life, questions that relate to — what is God doing, what is a man doing? What is going on here?
Now collectively as a church, we as an entire body over the next few weeks are going to be taking a look at the answers. We're going to be taking a look at the answers, all of us together at some of the mightily important acts of God. True acts of God. The phrase — act of God — is not a bad phrase. It's only that it needs to be put in the context of the truth. What are true acts of God? What is in truth going on that affects human life? That is what is important not to be casual or careless about it.
I want to talk about this today because we're entering a season of commemoration. We are going to commemorate; we're going to think about; we're going to put our minds on acts of God that are yet to occur. We're going to be thinking about and hopefully wrapping our lives around the events, the acts of God that are going to come in the future. Many of these upcoming acts of God we will read in detail, we will be reviewing, we will be reminding ourselves and undoubtedly we will be reading in the book of Revelation some of these descriptions of acts of God, but we know right here today, if you have any familiarity with what is coming prophetically, we know that there will be actions of God that will change the course of nature. They will be in the physical realm. There will be acts of God in the spiritual realm. There will be acts of God involving human interaction with each other and with Him.
I'm not intending to go through all of these scriptures, or even hardly any of them today, but we will be looking at these things. We will see for example, you could easily see as we go through the meaning of the Feast of Trumpets, the events that are going to unfold, leading up to and surrounding and immediately following the return of Christ. Some of those events will alter the course of nature. They will be truly identifiable as acts of God, because He has already told us what is going to take place. It will be supernatural.
On the other hand, a few days later, we'll be at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we will probably be looking at other scriptures that talk about acts of God, that change things in a very different direction, that change the weather patterns to bring the rain in due season and make the deserts blossom like roses and to do all of the things that He will do in a very different environment. We will see acts of nature change.
This morning I was taking a walk through the neighborhood. I've noticed in going through here something I never saw in California. Many houses have these little signs up saying that they have invisible fences. I've looked at these in the hardware store, read about one a little while back, and said, "How do these things work?" And they're pretty nifty. I was being pretty impressed. But I've never tested it until today. And I wasn't planning to test it. I was just minding my business, going for a walk, and all of a sudden here come two dogs. And they're tearing it up, the grass that is, and they are barking, and I looked around, there was nothing but a mailbox for me to hide behind. But you know you could instantly tell one of the dogs in particular meant business. But I couldn't tell enough to know, you know, some dogs are just all bark and they're no bite. And some dogs are all bite and no bark, and some are both. You just don't know.
But it instantly puts the fear into you. I mean, you are vulnerable, you're out there, and here's a big dog, and you're not even thinking that direction. You have nothing with you, and you know that you are vulnerable to the nature of an animal that if it is really ferocious and wants to attack, you are immediately in danger.
Now the lady came out, and I was talking to the dog, you know, as you're supposed to do, talk to it calmly, and it wasn't having, wasn't doing anything to the dog, but he only came so far. He only came so far. He was running up and down in the yard. She called him off. I said, "Is he safe?"
She said, "Yeah, he just a big, you know, he gets excited." (Laughter from the audience.) That helped ease my mind a little bit, but she calmed the dog down. He responded to her, and so I have a little conversation.
I said, "I guess that fence really works, doesn't it." I guess that was a sort of a demonstration of having faith in the invisible things of life, you know, but it was invisible, but it worked.
And she said, "Oh yeah, it works. You train the dogs, and they won't go past that invisible fence."
But I was thinking about that later in the context of the sermon, we live in an age where instantly you can be put in a state of fear due to a threat of a wild animal. Or even a tame animal, a domesticated animal, to say nothing of the really ferocious animals in the wild.
God says He's going to change that. That will be an act of God. Snakes, animals of all sorts, the world will change; it will change that nature. Well, that will be an act of God, too. We're going to be looking a lot of these things. The weather will change, and nature will change, and eventually human nature will undergo its metamorphosis through conversion.
But you know, as we come to the Day of Trumpets, before all of that can take place, there's going to be an act of God that is of critical importance. We read this in Revelation 11, and here's a verse that can summarize all of the specifics, all the various things you can read with the seals and trumpets and plagues and so on. There is a verse that summarizes why God is going to have to act in a certain way.
Revelation 11:17 — We'll come right to the summary. This is at the seventh trump, as a says in verse 15:
Revelation 11:15 — The time when ". . . the kingdoms of this world (have) become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, (and He shall reign forever and ever!)" And He will begin His reign which will last forever.
Verse 17 — "We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
Verse 18 — "The nation's were angry, and Your wrath has come. . ." God does have a wrath. There are things that push Him to this point. ". . .and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth."
When one takes a view of the very worst scenarios that are going to come before Christ returns and the state of conditions as it relates to humans to humans, and humans toward God, there's going to come a time when an act of God is going to include destroying a lot of people. It is going to be a powerful demonstration, and God is going to do this for a reason, though. It tells us that it will take an act of God to stop some acts of man.
God is going to step in, and He will destroy those who are doing their own actions, who destroy the earth. Now the world will not come to this conclusion immediately, that God was doing this for their benefit. They may not even come to it very quickly. Some won't, in fact in other places in this book it says at this time they will blaspheme God even more strongly, but eventually they will come to see why He did this.
We're going to be in a situation on the earth where the destructive forces of human nature will have reached what we would call comparatively a category five situation. It will be the worst of the destructive forces. And it's going to culminate in an end—time, in an intensity of events such as has never been seen. And there'll be many events unfolding, many things taking place leading up to this time, and through it all, there will also be an act of God taking place in the form of the inspiration on these two men you heard about two or three weeks ago in Mr. Pinelli's sermon about the two witnesses. There'll be some acts of God involved there, too, in their lives. The world will be hearing a witness taking place. You can read Revelation 6—9 , those chapters, and you can see numerous physical events taking place ranging from natural forces to warfare between peoples. But the most telling, the most telling event taking place is found in Revelation 9:20 when it describes the human reaction, and it says twice, ". . . they would did not repent."
The acts of man going on during this time are going to be collectively described as — ". . . they would not repent." There will be an act of God's servants going on, but there will not be a response in the overall aspect of the world. Now Revelation here is only filling in in more detail what Christ said in His own words in Matthew 24:22 .
Matthew 24:22 — He said, you know, unless He would return there would be no flesh saved alive. Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened." God is going to step in and destroy those who would destroy the earth in order to save the earth, and for the elect sake He's going to shorten those days so there will be flesh save alive, and His plan will continue to unfold.
Now here's the thing; isn't it a little bit ironic in the course of human events that this has been predicted already? These acts of God have already been predicted. The legal definition of an act of God in something that you can't know is coming. It's a force beyond human reason to be able to prepare for. We can prepare for this. It's already been predicted.
One article said the "Farmer's Almanac" predicted the hurricanes a couple of years ago a year in advance. They predicted when and what category it was going to be. Well that's human's best guesses, but this is the word of God. This is already predicted what is coming. We have early warnings of hurricanes thanks to wonderful technology, and people flee by the millions to get out of harm's way. We have early warnings of both what humans and God will do, and people go, "Ho—hum." What else is new? So many people do not seemingly seek to evacuate their ways of life that are destructive. It's a sad commentary, and it raises a fundamental question of — Why?
Let's look at another verse and put another element in the picture. John 8; this brings a very important element into the understanding of what is happening in life.
John 8:44 — We'll start with the statement, and then we'll give it some context. Jesus said, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. . ." He said, "Now there were some acts of his father the devil, and people want to do the same thing that he did. "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it." It's a very strong statement, strong statement, and it got a strong reaction.
What is interesting is that the context of this statement, if you go back to the beginning of this chapter, there was an event that took place. It was the story of the woman that was taken in adultery.
Now sometimes we stop at that story, but when you read straight through it, there was a longer conversation and dialogue between a number of people that this brought them into. This action and what He did triggered a debate with the Pharisees that begins in Verse 13. Apparently there were others observing because they were also drawn into the discussion as time goes on. Actually we come to Verse 31 and it says something interesting. As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.
John 8:31 — "Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him. . ." This statement in Verse 44 begins back here in Verse 31. He was talking to an audience who believed Him. This was going to change; this nice environment was going to change very quickly because through the discussion, He was going to confront them with some truths that would challenge whether they would really believe Him and follow Him or not. This sounds very good here, but by the end of the chapter even this group turned on Him, and they were picking up rocks and looking to stone Him, and He had to flee for His life. In Verse 45, we read a statement, He said:
John 8:45 — "Because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me." Reminds me of that line in the movie, A Few Good Men , some of you might of seen that. Remember where Jack Nicholson is on trial in this military court, and he leans up out of his chair, and he's asked to tell the truth, and he tells them, "You can't handle the truth." And it really was a pivotal point in that movie. There's a point that humans come to that it is very tough to handle the truth.
Winston Churchill said one time, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened." And they were confronted with the truth. They had to change their way of thinking. They had an opportunity to change it, and that's why Verse 44 is so critical. He was telling them why it is difficult to act according to the truth, because they live in a world that has been influenced by their father, the devil.
That is powerful language, isn't it? That is very powerful, and He said, "Look, we are all influenced by this, and it's very difficult to believe and understand even the truth." This verse is pivotal in understanding the acts of men. It is also pivotal in understanding some of the acts of God that we will see in the future, true acts of God, and He's explaining that there is this element of the acts of the devil. And his acts do a lot to control the course of human events.
The guy who was writing about the cell phone had a legitimate point. Why don't we call things — acts of the devil? Are there acts of the devil in life? You see in Verse 44 when it says that he was a murderer and a liar, murder and lies set off chain reactions. Somebody who lies to you will evoke a reaction on your part. Your reaction may cause a reaction on them or other people. If somebody lies to me and makes me mad, and I come home and I'm still mad, and I yell at my wife and kick the dog, that can set off a reaction in them. It's not as though just one act is limited to the person. It can set off a chain of reactions, murder even more so.
Satan set off a chain of reactions from the time he told the first lie to a human being. When he worked on Eve, and her reaction, the reaction first that began in her mind when she listened to him, started doubting God, saw the tree that it was — "Oh, this is pretty; this is a tree to make me wise, and it was one to be desired." All these triggers set off chain reactions. It led to her reaction with her husband. That led to a reaction to an act of God to put them out of the garden. Their subsequent being cut off from God led to problems.
The first murderer reflecting the mind of their father, the devil, spiritually that way, was one brother killing another. And actions start leaving their trail, and they carry on in their consequences for a long time depending on how far that spirit of influence exists.
It got worse and worse through time. It led to one of the worst times in human history which resulted in what was clearly an act of God. Let's go to Genesis 6, and just notice something here very quickly that illustrates the cause and affect nature of some of the acts of God.
Genesis 6:17 — God made this statement to Noah: "(And) Behold, I Myself am bringing the flood of waters on the earth. . ." This is not a local flood that happens because of natural events in life. This is something I'm going to do, and furthermore He said: ". . . to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; and everything that is on the earth shall die."
Now some people look at that and say, "Well, that's not nice." Critics hold this up as one of the terrible acts of God, place the blame squarely on His shoulders, but backup a little bit to Verse 5. Because you see in Verse 5, we have to understand the acts of man that precipitated this act of God. In Verse 5 we read:
Genesis 6:5 — "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Verse 6 — "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." He was sorrowful: He was grieved; He was angry where they had taken life that He intended to be beautiful and purposeful, and in Verse 11 we read:
Verse 11 — "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." These were the acts of man. Humans had rejected God, didn't want God in their knowledge.
Verse 13 — "And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'" Sounds very much like Revelation 11, doesn't it?
We have repeated a cycle in human experience; it goes in waves, and at times its worse than others, but it's heading in a certain direction. This calls to mind also Christ's words where He said: "As it was in the days of Noah, also will be the coming of the Son of man." Certain conditions based upon the acts of man. These are a couple of illustrations of what we see throughout the Bible. The Bible is a running commentary on the acts of the devil, the acts of man, the acts of God, and Satan's nature and his actions are so absolutely pivotal in the whole scheme of things because man has generally followed his lead. That's what Christ was saying in John 8:44. And that sets off chain reactions.
God gets the blame so often. Even when He doesn't, humans still arrive at the wrong conclusions about Him. So this book of truth explains a lot. It explains a lot about what is going on in the areas of responsibility for actions.
Now what is the relevance of all this today to us? How does this relate to us here? Let's go Proverbs 29:18. This tells us something about cause and effect as so many of the proverbs do, the way life works.
Proverbs 29:18 — "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law." Where there is no revelation, the margin says in the new King James — "Where there is no prophetic vision," people cast off restraint. It tells us something about human nature. We need prophetic vision to keep restrained. Well what do we need to be restrained from? Or what we need to restrain our lives to? Restrain from what? Cast off restraint of what?
Well us sitting here today, we could ask, "What is a we need to be restrained. . .by, for and to?" Does your life need to be restrained? Absolutely. We need restraint in our lives. There is nothing though that is more encapsulating of the core issues of prophetic vision than the holy days.
The holy days capture the core issues of prophetic vision that are so necessary and relevant for humanity. The value of prophetic vision as related here in the proverb is that affects our lives now. It's not vision for vision's sake. It has to do with the way we live our lives, the way we restrain our actions. The way we mold and shape our thoughts, our words, our behavior. This gives a tremendous cause and effect principle here.
In a world that's losing restraint in so many ways, socially, morally, spiritually, philosophically; it seems like so much now is just unrestrained for whatever humans want to do and becoming more so. In a world that is like that, the people of God must be more focused and centered and committed to what is right and stable and strong than ever. We must capture that. We have to keep our focus sharp. We have to know where we're going. We have to know the way to go.
Thomas asked Jesus, "Well, how do we know?"
And He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." We need to know where this ends up and why it is so important to live our lives in a certain manner at this point because the acts of man including God's people, if they conform to a certain way of life that is narrow, that is hard, that is straight, but if they conform to it, it's going to take them to a certain destination.
Prophetic vision is incredibly important to us. That is one of the major reasons why these holy days are so important to us. We need to know where we've come from and where we're going, where God is taking us, and these days keep us collectively focused. It's a wonderful thing.
Everywhere around the world where God's people are on these holy days, you know they're hearing the same message. They're covering the same things. We're looking in the same direction. At other times of the year, you know, different sermons will be preached in different congregations, but when it comes to these days, we all turn our eyes together to the same thing. It helps us as a church; it helps us as individuals.
It helps ground us on the same foundation, on the rock that we were hearing about, the rock of what God is doing. That's the most important thing in life, what God is doing, what He's working out here below. It grounds us on the fundamental issues of salvation. Brethren never, never underestimate the importance of the holy days. Never underestimate the value of what these days mean.
If you've kept them for forty years or fifty years, and you know in advance pretty much what the sermon is going to be, never let it become so familiar that it breeds certainly not contempt, but even if it just breeds — what? General acceptance? Boredom? Same ole, same ole? Never let it do that. God gave these to us for a powerful reason. We find these embedded, the meanings of them embedded throughout the word of God, and He brings us to these holy days for a purpose to give us vision of what is coming, what His great actions are going to be.
Not only does He give us vision of what they're going to be, He gives us visions of what is past, what His acts have been, too. For example, let's go to I John 3:1. If you think about what do the holy days mean; what is their purpose? You find them throughout the Bible here, and we realize so much of what we understand of the plan of God, what we understand about where we're going, what is going to happen to humanity, what's going to happen to each one of us, comes from this regular review of the meaning of these days.
I John 3:1 — He says: "Behold take a look at the what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" That was an act of God. It was an act of God that He bestowed on us that type of love that we should be called children of God. How did we come to be called children of God? Because it was an act of God that called you? It was the goodness of God that leads us to repentance? It is an act of God that imparts to us His Holy Spirit. And it was an act of God that His mercy spared our lives. In this verse we find the meaning of what we consider at the Passover. When we think every Passover about the manner of love that God bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God.
Verse 2 — "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." What holy day does this remind you of? What holy day tells us about when Christ is going to return, when He's going to be revealed to us and to the whole world? And what's going to happen to us on the Feast of Trumpets? What is symbolized by the Feast of Trumpets?
When He comes, and those graves open and those who have died before us in the faith precede those of us who are alive and remain, and then those who are alive and remain, their body begins to morph somehow from this physical state and to be changed into spirit being. And that act of God that you look forward to, and have lived for, for all your life is realized when you are changed. And then, He is revealed.
Verse 3 — "Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." What holy day does that remind you of? Days of Unleavened bread to me.
You see, they all tie altogether because of what is coming, we behave in a certain way now. We purify our lives now because we have prophetic vision, prophetic vision that is emphasized by the holy days.
Verse 4 — "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
Verse 5 — "And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin." Again here we are reminded of what the Passover pictures to us.
Verse 6 — "Whoever abides in him does not sin," Days of Unleavened Bread theme here. "whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
Verse 7 — "Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
Verse 8 — "He who sins is of the devil," An act of man that is sinful traces its roots back to an act of the devil. "For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." What holy day does this remind us of? Atonement. When we think about how God is going to take care of the god of this world and thus lead to the beginning of the reconciliation of humanity to God, it's prophetic vision.
Verse 9 — "Whoever has been born of God does not sin . . ." Takes us back to an intent that is rooted in the meaning of the days of Unleavened Bread.
Verse 10 — "In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
Verse 11 — "(For) this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Verse 12 — "Not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's righteous." Who are the children of God today? It's the church, those upon whom God's Spirit has been poured out, the church, we are reminded in the Feast of Pentecost.
You see, the most critical acts of God are revealed through the holy days. And fundamentally we have this message that the acts of Satan and the acts of man will destroy, and the acts of God will save. If you had to put down one word that describes the theme of the Bible, what would it be? Well I would submit to you that in one word the theme of the Bible is salvation. That's maybe not the only way it could be described, but it is certainly a key way. Let's go to Titus 2:11.
Titus 2:11 — "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men," We just happen to have been blessed, and for some reason God called us. We've had our minds opened to understand this act of God that was extended toward us individually. And every Passover we take this with deep gratitude. Plus we are taught:
Verse 12 — "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age." This is what Proverbs 29:18 is talking about. Where there is no prophetic vision people cast off restraint. But we are restrained to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We're restrained to keep our minds sober and righteous in our actions and godly in the present age.
Verse 13 — "Looking for — prophetic vision — looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Feast of Trumpets theme here.
Verse 14 — "Who gave Himself for us, — Passover theme here — that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Verse 15 — "Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you." Going on.
Titus 3:1 — "Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, and (to) be ready for every good work.
Verse 2 — "To speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men." These are restraints, to live life according to this path, He says. Why?
Verse 3 — "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
Verse 4 — "But when the kindness and the love of God our savior toward men appeared,
Verse 5 — "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, — it wasn't the acts of man that saved our lives — but according to His mercy. — This act of God. — He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 6 — "Whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Verse 7 — "That having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." You see throughout this, we have this blend of what happened, what we're to be doing, where it's going, looking to eternal life and restraining our lives this way. All of these things that are so visionary, what is coming and what has taken place, changes our lives. We conform our lives to fit His standard.
Verse 8 — "This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men."
One of the ways that God has us affirm constantly these things is by having us keep the holy days over and over. Keep the big picture. Understand the acts of God in the past and the act of God right now in our lives and the acts of God in the future. This is why it's relevant ; this is why it's relevant to us today in keeping a holy days and understanding where we are and where we're going.
Brethren, I believe deeply that the holy days are far more important than we know that when kept in the right way, it's not just for explaining what God is doing, but it's for motivating us. It's for keeping us focused.
To quote Churchill again, he said, "The farther back we can look, the farther ahead we're likely to see." These holy days help us look way back to what God has done already and way ahead to what He is doing. When we have that kind of vision, we are motivated to live in the right way. The very nature of the holy days is that they bring to our lives a visionary element, and that visionary element helps us immensely. That's why we should treasure them and reverence God and thank God for them and prepare for them spiritually as much as we can. Think about this, the acts of God as you're going to the Feast.
My wife and I drove up to Akron last weekend. On Friday we were saying, "What beautiful country this is." We just drove out here basically traveling across the whole country, and you look at this country and you realize, it was an act of God that gave us this land. You think of the song, "America, the Beautiful," and you begin to think that this was an act of God to create these amber waves of grain and the purple mountains in all of their majesty. The act of God that gave us life, that gave us the creation, but more so gave us this blessing that we have.
You might call to mind Woody Guthrie's old song, "This land is your land; this land is my land, from California to the New York islands, from the redwood forest to the Gulf stream water; this land was made for you and me." People sing that and maybe they don't realize who made it. Why did He make it? Why was it given? What act of God did it take to fulfill a promise to Abraham that has placed us here today? We should never, never underestimate that.
Katharine Lee Bates when she wrote "America, the Beautiful," included phrases in that that she was hoping would counter the warring tendencies that she saw a building in the country. The clouds of war that were taking us away from an understanding of what God was doing, and she put to music phenomenal words that have a lot of meaning. She said in that song that we sing so often, "God mend thine every flaw." That will take an act of God, and God is going to step in, and He's going to set in motion the acts that will help humanity mend their every flaw.
It says, "Confirm thy soul in self control." Did you ever think about that phrase as a nation. There's a soul to a nation, and you confirm it by self control. Well I'm not sure we have a whole lot anymore as a nation, but as a church, as a spiritual nation, we should confirm our soul in self control, one of the fruits of God's Spirit, isn't it?
Self control, not casting off restraint, but living purposefully and with zeal and with a vision for the right way of life. Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law, the law of God, the way of God. It talks about something we'll be thinking about at the Feast of Tabernacles, ". . .thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears." We're not there yet in this world, but even that song is visionary.
Alabaster is a type of gypsum that smooth; it's white; its transparent, gleaming. It's talking about a vision of a city. We looked to a city whose builder and maker is God in Hebrews . We have our eyes on that future. That's what we're looking for, a place for all of humanity. All of these things we are going to be considering in the next few weeks, and we realize it is all dependent, all of this happening, all of our hopes and dreams being fulfilled is dependent upon an act of God, an act of God being fulfilled.
We can consider, too, that if the acts of man were based upon the will of God how different this world would be. Well, our world can be different. It's been said many times the Feasts of God, the kingdom of God, can change our lives before it even comes if we live to the standards of that kingdom. We are given more and more about that as every year rolls by.
Someday, we're also told as we understand the act of God that will include us in His plan, we're going to be able to have a part in changing the whole concept of the world so that the phrase — acts of God — will be something that everybody looks at as a positive instead of the negative. That when people think of the future about the acts of God, they're going to think about God gave His only begotten Son. They're going to think about the acts of God that led us to repentance, that gave us the way to live, that stopped humanity from killing itself, destroying itself. These are the acts of God we will think about some time. It won't be in T-Mobile contracts or in insurance policies. Every blessing will be called an act of God. That's where we should be right now.
Let's end in Psalm 145. But you see, brethren, between now and then, between now and then this year's holy days should be another in the annual series that keep us motivated to make sure that the way we act is according to the will of God. That the acts of God's people are according to His will. In Psalm 145 , David prayed:
Psalm 145:1 — "I will extol you, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Verse 2 — "Everyday I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Verse 3 — "Great is the (Lord) Eternal, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.
Verse 4 — "One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts." The real acts of God. One generation shall praise Your works to another. Maybe this means different things, but you know when we talk about and think about the Feast of Tabernacles coming, all of you have been in the church for a long time, all of you first—generation Christians should do this.
The Feast is often for many of us a family reunion, a chance we have to be together with our children, and sometimes our grandchildren and great—grandchildren, and one generation ought to tell the next generation the mighty acts of God.
My dad will be now visiting and seeing for the first time his great—grandchild. That great grandchild at six months old is not going to old enough to hear and to understand. But somewhere down the road I want my dad to tell a story of how God called us. And tell it to the next generation to come and the next generation and the next generation. Declare these acts of God to the next generation. Tell the stories.
Verse 5 — "I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your Majesty, and on Your wonderful (wondrous) works.
Verse 6 — "Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness.
Verse 7 — "They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness.
Verse 8 — "The Eternal (Lord) is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy." O, I'm thankful for those acts of God.
Verse 9 — "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
Verse 10 — "All Your work shall praise You, O Lord, (and) Your saints shall bless you.
Verse 11 — "They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your power,
Verse 12 — "To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the (glorious) great majesty of His kingdom.
Verse 13 — "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Verse 14 — "The (Lord) Eternal upholds all who fall," That's another act of God, isn't it? When you fall , and He picks you up. "And raises up all those who are bowed down.
Verse 15 — "The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season.
Verse 16 — "You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Verse 17 — "The (Lord) Eternal is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works.
Verse 18 — "The (Lord) Eternal is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.
Verse 19 — "He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.
Verse 20 — "The (Lord) Eternal preserves all who love Him, but (all) the wicked He will destroy.
Verse 21 — "My (mouth) name shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever."
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