R19@Papatoetoe Community Church: The Sheriff

Ray Comfort, the well known New Zealand evangelist from Christchurch living in America wrote this week of recent research conducted by Dr. George Barna revealing that at least one-third of senior pastors in the United States believe we can earn a place in Heaven by being a good person. Other pastors said that moral truth is subjective, fornication is “morally acceptable,” and biblical teaching on the slaughter of babies in the womb is “ambiguous.”

As Ray said, these findings reveal that these pastors are not regenerated by the Holy Spirit otherwise they wouldn’t reject the Word of God so badly.

They are teaching what the world believes rather than what Jesus taught. They, therefore, believe in a different Jesus and preach another gospel:

2 Corinthians 11:13-16

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

The 10 commandments - how many do you know?

I have 2 markers one for the positives and one for the negatives. We’ll use the coding for DC wiring, RED is positive and BLACK is negative. This is why Accountants will confuse you as they think being in the black is positive 😂

A lot of people would have trouble listing the 10 - see how many you can get from the list. Will you score more than 4? I hope so!! At least that would be a pass ; ) In Summary;

You shall have no other God’s before me.
You shall not make idols
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour your father and your mother
You shall not murder
You shall not commit adultery
You shall not steal
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour
You shall not covet

Now if you remember, God wrote the 10 Commandments on 2 tablets of stone himself. Some people believe that there were 5 on each. Some people say they were duplicate versions with all on one and all on the other as in when you make a legal contract, one for each party.

However, remember how Jesus summarised the law by explaining the 2 parts in Mark 12:28-31

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

I personally agree with the film The 10 Commandments starring Charlton Heston where God wrote the 1st 4 on one tablet and the last 6 on the 2nd tablet. There is good reason to believe this since the 10 are basically divided into 2 groups - the first 4 relate to God, and the last 6 relate to People.

So I’m going to put the 5th Commandment on the other side and it’s one that comes with a promise, listen carefully all ages while you have time;

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Exodus 20:12

With the other positive commandment, the 4th,

God says in Exodus 31:13

“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.

So the Lord closes off the first 4 by saying that keeping the Sabbath is a sign, a conclusion if you like to those which are about our relationship to God. The 4th also acts as an introduction to the remaining 6 as Jesus also said that the Sabbath was made for Man and not the other way around. God is very kind isn’t he?

Now I want to ask you another question. If I took a commandment from each of the 2 groups and went out to the general population and surveyed people, which ones do you think they would agree with? For example

From God's List : "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" - Agree / Disagree
From the People's List : “You shall not steal" - Agree / Disagree

I would be pretty sure that most people would completely disagree with the ones that relate to God and would agree with (and remember) the ones that relate to people.

But I want to give further evidence on why this is how they are divided.

I want to share with you from Matthew 19:16 - 21. Please listen carefully...

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’ ”“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?

Jesus tested whether the man truly loved God as he claimed.

” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this point the man’s heart sinks as he realises he falls short of the requirement of the Law.

Jesus subtly but powerfully told the man he is God (v17) “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
Then, when asked which commandments to keep, which ones did Jesus say? That's right - only the ones that relate to people. Jesus didn't mention ANY from God's list (v18-19). Since Jesus is God, doesn't that tell you how loving and kind Jesus is to not even mention the laws which people break every day that hurt and offend him. Think how hurt and offended you are when people break the laws from the people list against you!
The man knew something was missing. Jesus answer was to sell everything "then come follow me" (v21). The thing that was missing was the man had no relationship with God! Jesus wanted the man to come and follow him and in doing that he would fulfil the remaining 4 commandments from God's list!

WOW!!! - that’s amazing isn’t it ?

In the Old Testament, right after giving the 10 Commandments to Moses, the Lord goes into great detail to define the tabernacle and the ark and the clothing that the priests were to wear and they are all exceptionally beautiful and made from the finest quality materials.

The Law itself is glorious and tells us something about the beauty and holiness of the Lord as it came from Heaven itself down to Mount Sinai. But there is a problem isn’t there. We fail to live up to it and if we are honest with ourselves like the rich young lawyer was forced to be, it only serves to remind us of that fact that we are bad people. When Ray Comfort witnesses to people, he gets them to confess one by one that they have broken at least 4 commandments normally out of the peoples list. And based on their confession, he asks them what the judgement should be - Heaven or Hell and there can be only one judgement… Hell.

Paul teaches that we are all lawbreakers and guilty before Almighty God our Judge.

Romans 3:9-31

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

This is where the Governments and Churches of our time are failing, they are not upholding the law. In fact, laws that have been in place for generations are being overturned because they believe that man is essentially good when the Bible, as we have just read, says the opposite. For example, the Western Governments think that to win the war on drugs you must legalise them and not add to the addicts pain.

The Police are underfunded and there are calls to defund them.

This overturning of the law is a sign of the coming Antichrist. The Bible says that there will be a time of great rebellion (against the law) and then the man of lawlessness will come.

Daniel 7:25

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

But the King James Version says something different in verse 3 that implies the Church is caught up in this same rebellion in the end times. It says;

2 Thessalonians 2:3

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Notice that this time of rebellion against the laws of God is associated with a time of falling away. The Church will not win converts by being cool and just like the World. In fact as we also reject God’s Laws, the opposite will happen and Christians will fall away from the Faith and open the doorway wide to Satanic deception in the Church.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Isn’t that exactly what we are seeing now ?

This time of rebellion against the laws of God that we are in is proving to be a time of great delusion and fantasy. Here in New Zealand, the change of laws allowing people to change their identity on their birth certificates, that so called marriage between 2 people of the same sex is the same as marriage between a man and a woman, that gender is between the ears not the legs and so on and so on. It is amazing to see this scripture being fulfilled before our eyes. Wake up ! We can see this delusion worldwide on a scale never seen before.

The Bible says the real reason they reject the truth is because they want to carry on with their sin and now God is allowing them to be convinced by lies. Can they even be saved ? Who can save you out of this delusion, this madness. Only Jesus - the Way, the Truth, the Life. Jesus is coming soon!

Conclusion, even though this is hard Labour, we must struggle and uphold God’s law. We acknowledge we are all weak, we are all sinners but we are grateful for the mercy of God shown to us by Jesus dying on the Cross for our sins. But we can never throw our the Law. Grace is meaningless without the Law.