The Same Way

For each and every one of us, that is one of the reasons I'm giving this. I have a few more to give before I answer all those questions on all those things. But I wanted to cover this before Pentecost as we go into certain things. So the title of my sermon is, he already has it up there, the same way, the same way. I'd like you to turn with me to Matthew. Matthew 7 verse 13 and 14 that I think is a very important part of this. As Christ is teaching the sermon on the Mount, and he says there, enter by the narrow gate, for white is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go to it.

And I love this graphic that I didn't find one of the guys back there put it together. I appreciate it very much because if you really study the graphic, they say a picture's worth a thousand words. I think this one's worth a lot more than that. Because it really shows what we are confronted with. And we're confronted with this, aren't we? Every day. Which way do we go? The world wants us to go this way, and we know God wants us to go this way, and we really want to go this way, but we sometimes we get pulled that way.

As Clive was talking about earlier for our youth, that's why it's so important that we give them the time and the energy and everything we can. Because we can't have a captive audience if you have children, if you are young people, that we need to help go the right way. So that they don't make mistakes that we all made. I remember my father telling me at one time, well, you don't need to do this, you need to do this, and you know, you really should do this when I was 18, when I graduated high school.

I thought, what does he know? Oh boy, did he know a lot more. Could have saved me a lot of trouble, a lot of pain, and made me a lot of money. If I'd have done that. But I love this graphic, because not only did Christ, he said what? In John 14, he is the way, the truth, the life. He is that way, and he went that way, and he wants all of us to go that way, but our life will be better if we'll go that way.

And it's a time of light, not darkness. Let's go down to verse 14, because narrow is the gate, and difficult is a way which leads to life, eternal life, or in the physical life, a lot better life. And there are few who find it.

Absolutely, look at the graphic, because most people, let's go with the crowd. And I wanted to do that, too, when I was younger. And Mark, go with me to Mark 1. I watched my video last week. I watch most of my videos to see what I do right, what I do wrong.

And I realized after watching last week that I needed to be more Indiana Chuck than Tennessee Chuck. Because I just noticed how slow I was talking. And I realized in Tennessee, he was like, you know, he just kind of, let's just all get there together. Yeah, Indiana was, let's all go. Let's go. Let's go there together. Because I was raised, born in Indiana, but raised in Tennessee. So I want to try to speed this up today, so I don't sit and watch this video and go, what's wrong with you?

Speed it up. Mark 1, Mark 1, verse 2 and 3, It is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, Who will prepare your way? It is the way. Christ was coming to show us the way. And so God was going to send somebody to show them people that follow this man, He is the way. It's the same way it's always been with God. New Testament to Old Testament. He wants people to go follow that way so that that way is to the kingdom of God.

That's where He wants you to go. And so here he's talking about John the Baptist. Who will prepare your way before you? The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way. Prepare the way of the Lord. Make His path straight. How is John the Baptist going to make his path straight? Couldn't Christ know where a straight path was? No, it was going to make it easier to follow Christ and repentance was that first step. That's why he was called John the what? Baptizer. Repentance is that part of that way.

Once you get that out of the way you begin, God begins to work with you. And so this is the same way that Christ not only brought us to, but that God will lead us through Christ into the kingdom of God. It's interesting. John the Baptist had an interesting job. Because he had to tell people that his first cousin was God in the flesh. How would you like to do that?

That might be a hard sell. And so John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus Christ to come. He had to live a certain way. He had to talk a certain way. He had a job to do that. And so God gave him to prepare the way for this God who is going to become human. Brethren, we have a similar job. We are here now preparing the way for who's coming? Boy, it doesn't sound like you guys know who is coming. Jesus Christ is coming. Boy, that guy wasted my 12 years here.

But he is. He's coming. We know, will it be in my lifetime? Maybe. Will it be the next 10 years? Maybe. Maybe 15? It doesn't matter. Jesus Christ is returning. He's coming. And so it is our way when people say, well, why do you do what you do? My neighbor goes, it's Saturday and it's hot. What are you dressed up for? I told him three times I'm faster and I preach on Saturday.

But each time he has forgotten. But still this, he still sees. Not my job to convert him. That's his job. My job is to live like Christ. Follow the way. The same way that John the Baptist led. The same way Jesus Christ led. The same way that the prophets all taught. Prepare the way. Are we for our families? Are we for our neighborhood? No, we don't need you to have a banner standing out there.

Going, follow me, I am the way. No. But we need to know about it. We need to be able to teach it when someone asks. Because God does. As I said before, God brings people into your life for a purpose. It may not be for this one right now.

It may not be for today. It may be for a year. It may be for five years from now. But there is a purpose being worked out by God. He is still in control. Let's go. Let's go to Acts. Acts 18. Very interesting thing here. Chapter 18, and let's go over to verse 26. It would help if I got into Acts. There we go. Acts 18, verse 26. Now here we have the story of Apollos who was preaching the Word of God. What he knew was the Word of God. And he understood quite a bit, but didn't totally understand everything.

And so here a couple, Priscilla and Aquila, decided they would help him. And so in verse 26, so he began, as Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla, members of the church, heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way, the way of God. There is a way, the same way today as it was back then. Same way to get to the kingdom, same way to eternal life.

I think it's funny because back quite a few years ago, 13 years ago, when our church decided, we found out that our Good News magazine, we also had the rights to the name, and they were complaining because we used the name. So we had to change the name of our magazine.

So they asked people, asked the people in the church, send in! What do you think we should have the name? Well, I did, and guess what? They didn't use mine. I sent it in again. They didn't use it again. Mine was, I would like to have the magazine called The Way, because the way is the way to truth, the way to life, the way to prosperity, the way to the kingdom. I could think of all these things. Well, I didn't get my way. So, let's read about The Way. To him, the way of God, more accurately, can you do that?

Are you prepared for that? Can you help someone understand The Way more accurately? So, what didn't Apollo understand? Because he had the Scriptures. He had the, chances are, Septuagint at that time, the Old Testament in Greek. That's what he was teaching from. He had the Septuagint. So, he understood the Pentateuch, and he said, oh, here we go. And he's teaching it. So, what was he missing? What was he missing? That they had to tell him more accurately. Well, it actually says, part of it was that he did understand this in verse 27, verse 24. He vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Because the Jews were saying, what are you talking about, Willis? He's like, because they didn't think the Messiah had come, because their teacher said he hadn't come. Hmm. But was there something else missing? That's what I want to go into, because there's something we need to show, preach, and follow that way. And it is that way of Christ. And we need to be able to explain it.

Better than perhaps we would. I want to give a one-word definition that is such an important part of the way. One word! And we find it in the New Testament.

Three hundred times. Three hundred times. A hundred times as a noun and a two hundred times as a verb.

As a noun, that word translated from the Greek is agape. Agape. And in the verb, it is agapeo. Look it up. You'll find in the... You grab an old strong concordance, and you grab another concordance, and you look up the word love. You're going to find that ninety-nine percent of every word used in the New Testament for love is agape.

Agapeo is talking about love.

Go with me. Go with me to Romans.

Let me go to Romans 13. Romans 13.

Romans 13 and verse 8.

Paul is telling the Romans, Oh, no one anything except to... What? Agape. Agapeo. It's a verb. It's an action word.

Oh, no one anything except to love one another. Agapeo one. For he who agapeos, another has fulfilled the law.

The law of God. You see the more perfect way, because a more accurate way, that perhaps Apollos had to learn that also.

Because Christ was about love, wasn't he?

Because he said, How would I know if you're my disciple?

If you do what?

Love one another. Do we?

Do we even, as he said, love your enemies? Which is to me one of the hardest things. I've had a few enemies, and I, boy, that was very hard. You know what I had to do? I finally had to go tell God, Make me! Because I couldn't do it on my own. Make me love that person. You know what I found out? Some people you have to love at the distance. Just saying, my way, not your way.

Sometimes you have to do that.

Okay, let's go down to verse 9. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear frost witness, you shall not covet. And if there is another, any other commandment, which is the rest of them, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Agape!

Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Do we keep the law? Yes! Just knock that off. Yes, we do. We keep the commandments. We keep the law, because it shows love. When I don't go out and kill Neil, I'm showing love.

If I don't go to Patty's house and steal something, guess what? I'm showing love. This is for... So, it is the fulfillment of love. It is the motivation. It is what God wants for us to be. Because when you love people, you're not going to be hurting them. And God doesn't want anyone hurt at all.

And he wants us to do the same thing, go the same way. Christ didn't come by and hurt anyone, did he?

Well, except some pigs. That's the only one you can really find. So, we need to make sure we fulfill the law. Fill it up with love. That's how we do this. And the first four commandments, one of them you're keeping today, is about love, because you love God. And he loves you, so he says, I don't want you to work.

I want you to have some peace in your life. I want you to have rest. And I want you to get to know me better. And if you do, I'm going to bless you for it. How powerful is that? I think it's pretty powerful. Let's go. Let's go to verse John 4. First John 4. First John 4. John wanted to make sure before he left this old earth at 90-something years old after he'd been to the island of Patmos and he had to write for 2nd and 3rd John. And so he wanted to make sure the church got it. Because obviously he didn't because he had to mention it so many times.

How profound. How profound for us. Okay, 1 John 4. Read from the New King James Version in verse 7.

Beloved, let us love one another, God, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. That's how important it is, the fulfillment of the law. We have to do it because God is love, but you can't say, well, I'll just love love then. No, it is his motivation. It is what motivates him.

You don't have your kids educated because you hate them. You have them educated so that they will be better prepared for life. And you're working with them, not just the teachers, because, well, that's the teacher's job. No, but parents do it so that you can give them a leg up, as they say. You can give them a break that maybe you didn't have. And you do that because you love them. God does this because he loves us.

We're going to say, he who does not love does not know God. It means you can say, oh, I have all this, and I keep all the commandments, and I have, I watch what I eat, and I have no pigs, wine, holly, and my system. No.

The Pharisees and Sadducees did the same thing. They kept the law. But did they have love? No! Stoner! Stoner him. Let's kill him. Just read the words of Christ's life. Christ was going down another way. He was teaching another way from what the religious did at that day, at that time. For God is agape. God is love. It's His motivation. It's why He does everything He does. Because He loves His creation that much.

In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, and God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. And then verse 11, which I don't give these guys to put up there, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. God likes us to see what we need to do to another. Do those Bible studies sometimes. See about what another is, what we should do to another. Others, others. This is what He wants us to be.

Question. I ask you to ponder today. Did Agape exist before 27 AD or ACE after the common error that's correctly?

Yes, you did. You're sure? Okay. Because Agape is pretty sure. She looks like I don't want to argue with her. Don, it might be futile. I know. You would know. But she says, no, it did exist. Yes, yes. It's the highest form of love. So, is it possible that we can leave the New Testament and leave that Greek and go to the Old Testament and there is a word like Agape in there? The highest form of love. Is it there? Do you know what it is? There is, as she says, and I'm not going to argue with her today, because she's right, there is a word.

And I want to go there because it's very strange. There is a very powerful word that is in there because Hebrews 13 and verse 8 said that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So, if He's existed forever, that type of love, because He's existed forever. And you know what's going to happen after He comes and sets up His kingdom. And on past that, it's going to be forever. That's why it's important that we follow this way, because if you don't, it's just like missing the tri-rail out here, except there's not going to be another tri-rail coming.

You've missed, but you've missed. They're always late, except when I need them to be late. So, let's look at this word because the word is, hesed. The Hebrew word is hesed. You'll see it spelled H-E-S-E-D or C-H-S-E-D because it's actually pronounced in the Hebrew, hesed. You've got to have that, like you try and get something out of your throat.

Hesed. Hesed. But it's the only... All right, stop your hesed in there. This is the only definition I could really put on the word hesed. That's the longest word I've ever heard, and the reason it's so long is I made it up. Because I was trying to put something together that explained the word used in the Bible, hesed. This was it. Mercy, loving, kindness, gratitude, goodness, and goodness. It's so large. It's such a big word. It's all encompassing.

And if you look this up, in it, in the Old Testament, you're going to see all these various words used as it was translated from the Hebrew. They didn't put hesed. They put mercy, kindness, loving, kindness, gratitude, deep devotion, everlasting love.

It's all wrapped up into this one word. That's why it's so big. But so is Agape, isn't it? You know what's amazing? It's the Septuagint. When it was put together, in case you need to know, somewhere around 250 B.C. after. Alexander the Great had basically conquered the world, and then he died, and then his kingdom was split in four different ways, and Ptolemy, one of his generals, was given the territory of Egypt.

And so his son, Ptolemy II, at around 250, 280, 280, 230, something in there. But during this time, he kept, as Alexander the Great would go all over the world, he would find there were Hebrew texts of the Old Testament. And he says, what was it? Well, this was just a piece of it. This is one scroll. This is one book. This is one... And he said, try to get this together so we can understand it.

And so Ptolemy II goes, well, wait a minute. We're the greatest learning center ever. And he created one of the wonders of the world. And so he said, well, I have all this power now. So I'm going to bring together, according to legend, according to history, according to tradition, because I find this very hard to believe, he commanded that there were brought to him in Alexandria, Egypt, 72 Hebrew men, six from each of the 12 tribes, which some of those tribes were scattered.

I don't know how he did it, but that's the legend. And so he brought them in, and that's why it's called the Septuagint, meaning 70. He brought them in and had 72 of them, and brought them in, and they stayed in this wonderful tower by themselves, fed everything they could do. Just stayed there for 72 days. 72 men, 72 days. And they translated all the Hebrew, what we know as the Old Testament, into Greek, so that they could spread it all over the world, since they'd planned on dominating the world and taking it over.

So that's where the Septuagint comes from. So when they translated this, so many times they came to the word, word, hesed, and they knew exactly what it meant. How do you do that in Greek? See, they had to be Jews who understood Greek, too, and could translate it. So many times you'll find it was translated agape, the highest form of love.

Powerful, I think. But when you go back and you look at the Old Testament text, and you see that over 250 times in the Old Testament is the word, hesed, used. So with what little time I have today, I'm going to go and cover the first and the last of this, to show God's way, the way of love, existed way, way, way, way, way, way back.

It exists now, and it's going to exist way, way, way, way, way in the future. And so we need to follow. It's just like, okay, do you want to go this way? It's going to exist. No, I think I'll go this way. Well, that's not going to last very long. Let's take the nice road. So many times, hesed is translated in English, faithfulness, mercy, loving-kindness, all those things. So any time you read something like that, think about the word. And think about a copy. It's the same way. It makes it really the same thing. So let's go. First thing I'd like to take you to is back to Psalms.

Let's go to Psalm 117, this long chapter. So if you ever wanted to memorize a chapter of Psalm, memorize the entire chapter, this is it. It's two verses. The entire chapter. So I think you could do this. But I'll go to the second verse, the second half of the chapter. Okay. And David is explaining this. For his, who's, God, God's merciful, hesed, kindness, hesed, is great towards us. And the truth of the Lord endures for ever.

Ever, and ever, and ever. What did you say? Olam? Olam. That's the word. Forever and ever and ever, eternity. Go with me to Genesis 19. Let's go to the very first use of the word hesed in the Bible. In the Old Testament, I'll give you the first place and the last place. And then you can go look for the other 250 this afternoon while you have time. Yeah. Okay. Let's go to Genesis. Get out of Exodus, Chuck. And let's go to Genesis 19. And isn't it interesting? The first time this word is used, it's by Lot. After he's been rescued. Why did God rescue him?

Hesed. His love. Did he just love Lot? Yes.

He also loved Lot's uncle. Yes. So, let's go there. Genesis 19 and verse 19. This is what Lot said. Indeed, now your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your hesed. First time it's used, it's because he realized he'd been saved. Everybody in the town wipe out. Other four towns wipe out, burn up, ashes, tremendous fire.

And you walk out of there?

You talk about mercy? I think we have. Anybody here had a car wreck and walked away from a serious car accident? And you're going, thank you, God. Yes, we have one, two, three. That's the only one. In Florida, traffic? Come on. There. The team does. Okay. Now, Bruce said, when you walk away from a serious one, I realized God was working with me long before I really recognized him, because I totaled out three cars in one year. I was 19. So, anybody who doesn't think you have something to learn, come see me. Yes, you realize God has mercy? And I want some of that hessen. But you know what he wants us to do? He wants us to show that hessen, doesn't he? Because we're part of the family. He wants us. He wants that to be a family treat.

Now, let me go back and get on track back where I was. You have increased your mercy, which you have shown me, by saving my life. But I cannot escape the mountains, lest some evil overtake me, and I die. He liked faith. God just showed him, wait a minute. I took you out of this city, but now you doubt that I can even protect you from the rest of the world? From the evil that's out there? Don't we sometimes say that same thing?

Where are you, God? You don't have to ask that, where's your love?

It's hessed. It's hessed. Before I go to the last one, let's go to Exodus 20. That's where the commandments are given. Why did it give the commandments? Didn't you remember him saying it was a fulfillment of the law? Well, so many times, not only the first five books of the Bible are called the law, but it's also the commandments are called the law. Look what he says. Exodus 20 and verse 6, By showing, part of the commandments, I'll let you go back and read it, by showing hessed mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You do this, he loves you. He has mercy. He's going to show mercy. He's going to show kindness and everything else because you do this because he's asked.

Powerful. Let's go to the last time it's used. The last time it's used, Zechariah. Zechariah. Let me get back to Zechariah. Zechariah 7 and verse 9. Last time, in the Old Testament. Verse 8, it says, Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying. So this is God saying this. This is Zechariah going, Let me tell you about God.

No. God told him, this is what he said. Thus says the Lord of hosts, Execute true justice. Remember? Oh, Jesus Christ said what? Matthew 20, 30, 20, 30. Justice, mercy, and faith. The weightier matters of the law, the things that matter. Okay. Execute true justice. We need to treat people right. Even if we're not treated right, we need to execute justice. We need to treat people right.

Show hesed. Show hesed. And hesed. Compassion. It's mercy and compassion. Those are the words for hesed. They're all encompassing. So he's saying, show that. Show mercy and compassion, everyone to his brother. How powerful is that? I think it's very powerful. Mercy. You know, when they translate that to the Vulgate. Somebody say, Vulgate. Somebody, Vulgate. That's the Latin. It's translation of the Bible in Latin.

Okay. In Latin, and we get that even in a song. Oh, you just let us in a song. His mercy never fails. Remember that? And we kept saying it because David wrote it. Because that's the word hesed. His hesed never fails. It's that long word again. It's just who he is. It's just what he is. Matter of fact, in Psalm 136, because we went through this before, so I won't be redundant and do it again, but I just need to remind you. In Psalm 136, he mentions hesed 26 times. His mercy never fails. His hesed never fails. You didn't know I was given a sermon, did you, when you led that song?

He did. So we need to make sure that's a part of us. 26 times in one song. David wanted us to get it. David understood it. David took a lifetime to learn it. And most of us, it will take a lifetime. Before we really see, wow, I need to be just like Christ. I need to be just like God. For you see, excuse me, I'll get my water here. For eternity, God has been the same way.

The same way he wants us to go. For eternity, Jesus Christ has been the same way. Well, he wants us to go. Because I want you to see that God is more than loyal to us. You know what the word loyal means? Faithful. But you see, God is more than that. And look up the difference between the word loyal and devoted.

You see, God is more than loyal. He is devoted to us. And devoted, the word means that there's a zeal. There's a zeal about that that just, it's a dedication. He's dedicated to us. And you know, all he asks us is to be devoted to him.

Because if we're devoted to him, we can understand. Hestit. We can understand agape. That is why I wanted to get this before Pentecost's sermon, because he gave us his spirit so that we could be just like him. He's going to, he put some of him in us so that we could be like him. Patty and Alex. Everybody know Patty and Alex? You need to stand. Everybody knows them, right? Well, you see, they're kids, and there's no question who they belong to. Right? It's like, you know, if Adam had his head shaved, he'd be just like him. Right? But we know who they are.

We know that's their kids. But not just because they look like them, because they act like them. This is what God is trying to do to us, make us in his image. See, he did physically. We read that back in Genesis. But no, he wants our character, that agape, that hesed, to be like that. He wants us to have devotion, brethren, to the same way. Can we have that? Can we set our minds on that? That is how we become part of the family of God.

See, because it's not just about the destination. And too many times in the past, the Church of God has put this as, it's about the destination. Kingdom of God. Kingdom of God. And hey, what did he say? See, he first the kingdom of God. And Israel. Oh, but some people forget about the righteousness part. What is part of that righteousness? Is it? Agape. Because God is righteous. Christ is righteous. He wants us to be righteous in that we show that love.

So it is about the journey, too, that we can show. We can show those incredible words in the same way. So no matter how you spell it, hesset or agape, God's love is the same way.

Let us go the same way. Let us be like our Father, be like our brother, because it is. It is your destiny to show agape, to show hesed. Not just for now, but for eternity.