SALVATION AND FAITH SERMONS
He Came Because He Loved Us
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There was a water channel near our old house. We used to pass by their when my wife and I went out for a walk. The green reeds would rise up way past my head to the sky. Turtles would sun themselves on moss-covered rocks poking up out of the water. Ducks would come there. Unfortunately there was also garbage in the channel. The channel wasn’t a clean thing. There would be no thought of going into the channel to cool off. Without necessity no one would go down into the channel.
On June 30, 2015 in the Fethiye township of Muğla three year old İsa Can Göp fell into the water channel which was two meters deep. After the water dragged little İsa 500 meters downstream a citizen pulled him out. İsa’s heart had stopped. He was quickly taken to the intensive care unit where hospital personnel started his heart again. Salvation!
Let’s imagine that we are interviewing the citizen who save the child.
“Sir, the water channel is a really dirty thing. You got your pants and your shoes really dirty. You risked your own life. Why did you intervene?”
“It is the duty of mankind! How could I have passed by the drowning child as if I didn’t notice? Of course there was risk. But to save the child I had to get dirty and risk my own life” he says.
Yes, to save someone’s life we don’t think about our own comfort.
One day I was at an event. I was talking with a youth. He asked, “Are you a Christian?”
I said, “I am a Seventh-day Adventist.”
“But are you a Christian?” he repeated.
I said ,“We are a Christian denomination but we don’t countenance the crusades, using churches as command centers and weapons storehouses for insurrection, occupations and exploitation.”
“You don’t count those things as Christianity?” he said.
I said, “Do you consider ISIS as part of your religion?”
He said, “No."
“Then we understand each other” I said.
“Do you believe in the Trinity?” he asked.
“There are a lot of various ideas on that subject but in general I would say yes” I said. “We call it the Godhead.”
“What is that?”
I opened the Bible loaded on my telephone. I read the following text:
‘Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Look. My wife is sitting over there. She has a body, I have a body. But God, through the prophet Moses says that we have one body. He didn’t say, ‘One thought.’ He didn’t say, ‘One emotion.’ He said, ‘One body.’ That is interesting. How can two people be one body? This is a mystery. Shall I say to God, ‘You can’t count’? Never. The word ‘one’ in this text is the same word that occurs in this passage: Deuteronomy 6:4 ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!’ I can’t explain God’s nature to you. But I don’t really have to solve it” I said. “God did not command that I do so.”
I said, “Jesus existed before He came to this world. The Bible says it this way.” I turned to 1 John 4:2.
“1 John 4:2 ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.’ ”
I continued by saying, “Although He was in the form of God, He came to this world to live in a man’s body.”
The man said, “No one would want to do such a thing!”
“This is love” I said. “The character of the God we worship is this. He could not leave us in the pit of sin. Certainly He had to intervene. Two save us, two things were necessary. First, the price of sin must be paid. If God forgave sins without recompense then His law would have no meaning. Every sin must meet its punishment. Jesus paid the price of sin on the cross in our behalf. To do this for all of us, He had to be one of us. Thus He came in the form of a man. When we accept the Spirit of Christ into us, we become one with Jesus. His crucifixion becomes valid for us.”
“Then He rose from the dead. Only someone who possessed eternal life in himself could rise from the dead after paying the penalty of sin. Thus Jesus’ divinity is necessary. If He didn’t possess divinity He could not have done this. Humanity would have remained in sin. We would all have paid the price of eternal death.”
There was another thing necessary to save us. God must set us free. Do you know why?”
The young man in front of me shrugged his shoulders.
“God is love. He can only accept a service that comes from love. If there is fear, that means that love has been compromised. If you don’t know that your sins have been forgiven whether you know it or not, whether it is conscious or unconscious, your service to God and others is mixed with wrong motivations. It isn’t pure. You have motivations that are either to gain heaven or shun hell. If I asked you, ‘Are you going to heaven?’ what would you say? ‘God knows.’ You have no assurance of salvation. Then your service is mixed with doubt, fear and feelings that are not love. You must be set free. Look, what does the Bible say, 1 John 5:13 ‘These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.’ ”
“Friend, you must know that your sins are forgiven and that God accepts you. This is why the Bible says,
‘1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.’ ‘
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ”
“So this is why we preach Jesus Christ. He is the sin offering. He is our assurance. For our salvation, His divinity is required. There is no other sin offering that God will accept.”
The young man’s head probably began to hurt because he said, “Thanks, big brother” and he went.
It is not important that we know when Jesus was born and that we celebrate it otherwise the Bible would have commanded it. There is none. But Jesus’ coming in human flesh is extremely important.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
The young man had said to me, “No one would want to forego the greatness of God and come to this world.” That is correct. It was risky. It required humility. But if a citizen passing by a water channel and seeing a child that he doesn’t know drowning, if he can forget himself and intervene, is not God’s love for us greater? Is it not?
Do not make light of the filthiness of sin. Sin is a big thing. Sin is so great that in order to maintain the validity of the law and at the same time show mercy to us, God, who has endless knowledge and infinite power, could not save us without giving Jesus Christ who is a part of Himself.
Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Micah predicted thus:
Micah 5:2 " But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."
Both the Old Testament Hebrew prophets and the New Testament Jewish prophets point to Jesus’ eternal aspect.
Matthew 1:18-23 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."
We proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. Accept it and be saved.
On June 30, 2015 in the Fethiye township of Muğla three year old İsa Can Göp fell into the water channel which was two meters deep. After the water dragged little İsa 500 meters downstream a citizen pulled him out. İsa’s heart had stopped. He was quickly taken to the intensive care unit where hospital personnel started his heart again. Salvation!
Let’s imagine that we are interviewing the citizen who save the child.
“Sir, the water channel is a really dirty thing. You got your pants and your shoes really dirty. You risked your own life. Why did you intervene?”
“It is the duty of mankind! How could I have passed by the drowning child as if I didn’t notice? Of course there was risk. But to save the child I had to get dirty and risk my own life” he says.
Yes, to save someone’s life we don’t think about our own comfort.
One day I was at an event. I was talking with a youth. He asked, “Are you a Christian?”
I said, “I am a Seventh-day Adventist.”
“But are you a Christian?” he repeated.
I said ,“We are a Christian denomination but we don’t countenance the crusades, using churches as command centers and weapons storehouses for insurrection, occupations and exploitation.”
“You don’t count those things as Christianity?” he said.
I said, “Do you consider ISIS as part of your religion?”
He said, “No."
“Then we understand each other” I said.
“Do you believe in the Trinity?” he asked.
“There are a lot of various ideas on that subject but in general I would say yes” I said. “We call it the Godhead.”
“What is that?”
I opened the Bible loaded on my telephone. I read the following text:
‘Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Look. My wife is sitting over there. She has a body, I have a body. But God, through the prophet Moses says that we have one body. He didn’t say, ‘One thought.’ He didn’t say, ‘One emotion.’ He said, ‘One body.’ That is interesting. How can two people be one body? This is a mystery. Shall I say to God, ‘You can’t count’? Never. The word ‘one’ in this text is the same word that occurs in this passage: Deuteronomy 6:4 ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!’ I can’t explain God’s nature to you. But I don’t really have to solve it” I said. “God did not command that I do so.”
I said, “Jesus existed before He came to this world. The Bible says it this way.” I turned to 1 John 4:2.
“1 John 4:2 ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.’ ”
I continued by saying, “Although He was in the form of God, He came to this world to live in a man’s body.”
The man said, “No one would want to do such a thing!”
“This is love” I said. “The character of the God we worship is this. He could not leave us in the pit of sin. Certainly He had to intervene. Two save us, two things were necessary. First, the price of sin must be paid. If God forgave sins without recompense then His law would have no meaning. Every sin must meet its punishment. Jesus paid the price of sin on the cross in our behalf. To do this for all of us, He had to be one of us. Thus He came in the form of a man. When we accept the Spirit of Christ into us, we become one with Jesus. His crucifixion becomes valid for us.”
“Then He rose from the dead. Only someone who possessed eternal life in himself could rise from the dead after paying the penalty of sin. Thus Jesus’ divinity is necessary. If He didn’t possess divinity He could not have done this. Humanity would have remained in sin. We would all have paid the price of eternal death.”
There was another thing necessary to save us. God must set us free. Do you know why?”
The young man in front of me shrugged his shoulders.
“God is love. He can only accept a service that comes from love. If there is fear, that means that love has been compromised. If you don’t know that your sins have been forgiven whether you know it or not, whether it is conscious or unconscious, your service to God and others is mixed with wrong motivations. It isn’t pure. You have motivations that are either to gain heaven or shun hell. If I asked you, ‘Are you going to heaven?’ what would you say? ‘God knows.’ You have no assurance of salvation. Then your service is mixed with doubt, fear and feelings that are not love. You must be set free. Look, what does the Bible say, 1 John 5:13 ‘These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.’ ”
“Friend, you must know that your sins are forgiven and that God accepts you. This is why the Bible says,
‘1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.’ ‘
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ”
“So this is why we preach Jesus Christ. He is the sin offering. He is our assurance. For our salvation, His divinity is required. There is no other sin offering that God will accept.”
The young man’s head probably began to hurt because he said, “Thanks, big brother” and he went.
It is not important that we know when Jesus was born and that we celebrate it otherwise the Bible would have commanded it. There is none. But Jesus’ coming in human flesh is extremely important.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
The young man had said to me, “No one would want to forego the greatness of God and come to this world.” That is correct. It was risky. It required humility. But if a citizen passing by a water channel and seeing a child that he doesn’t know drowning, if he can forget himself and intervene, is not God’s love for us greater? Is it not?
Do not make light of the filthiness of sin. Sin is a big thing. Sin is so great that in order to maintain the validity of the law and at the same time show mercy to us, God, who has endless knowledge and infinite power, could not save us without giving Jesus Christ who is a part of Himself.
Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Micah predicted thus:
Micah 5:2 " But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."
Both the Old Testament Hebrew prophets and the New Testament Jewish prophets point to Jesus’ eternal aspect.
Matthew 1:18-23 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins." 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."
We proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. Accept it and be saved.