Wednesday Night Bible Class - September 29, 2021

oh [Music] of god who [Music] of god [Applause] [Music] he picks me up whenever i fall and through his love he helps me to stand tall yet he told me that he would never leave me no forcing me for god so loved the world that he gave us life that we might be free every every every every time i kneel down to pray my god is with me he's with me each and every day who can separate us [Music] [Music] in my life [Music] it gets so hard but nothing can separate us from the love of my god my [Music] he's there he's there all the time and whether it be persecution and whether it be strife i know that my god will give me [Music] oh my gosh [Music] of god [Music] the parade [Music] separate us separated [Music] separated [Music] separated [Music] from the love of god [Music] of god i want to say good evening to everyone it's a joy and a delight to be with you on tonight once again and to be able to talk to you about god's word what a joy and pleasure it is to always be able to share with you a word from the word a message from the lord i want to welcome all of those who are visiting with us from tonight as always we want you to know you are indeed our honored guest and for the church members as always we are delighted to have you as a part of this viewing audience and we want you to know that we love you we miss you and we long for the day that we will be through with all of the covet restrictions and we'll be able to come back together again in person as the full body of christ at east side so we look forward to that with great anticipation and tonight we trust and pray that your day has been wonderful and in spite of all of the challenges you have seen the good hand of the lord in your life personally and i trust and pray that you would decide that tonight if there is something in your life that you need to correct that you'll correct it and for those who are not members of the body if you're listening tonight we trust that something will be said that will cause you to want to be obedient to the gospel of jesus christ not tonight i'd ask that you bow with me for a word of prayer and then we're going to launch into our message for tonight you should have received the notes from last wednesday and the notes for tonight unfortunately last wednesday i i i was trying to get the notes ready to send and i had them ready and somehow or another i accidentally deleted the message or those notes actually what i did was i i said replace the existing file and i thought i was replacing and the old one that i had to make corrections on and in in reality i did away with the right one instead of and so i thank god that uh chris was able to sales was able to capture the notes from the video itself and enabled me to try to recreate those and give them to you and so i trust and pray that you have those notes and that you have the notes for tonight as well and so i i i pray now that we can begin our study together of romans chapter 1 as we dive into the text so let us bow forward of prayer our kind father in heaven how great thou art thank you for being such an awesome god such a merciful kind gracious forgiving god lord where you to give us what we deserve what we are worthy of we would all go to hell but because you don't give us what we are worthy of instead you give us grace instead you give us mercy and because of your long-suffering with us we thank you because of that lord we have opportunity now to be in fellowship with you and we also have opportunity to be with you in the hereafter in heaven lord we pray for every person who's listening tonight i know not the elements i know not the issues i know not the challenges but i know that you do time and time again we read in your word that you already know what is transpiring lord when you told the man of god to go and cry out against the altar of jeroboam you already knew where that altar was and what he had erected lord when you told the prophet to go down and speak to ahab you said he is in nabot's vineyard you already knew where he was and time and time again lord you keep showing us that you are always aware of what is going on in our lives there is nothing that you are not aware of not even the smallest thing lord the most minute thing you are aware of you know about every tear that falls from our arms you know about every sad moment that grips our heart lord you know about our fears our failures our faults our doubts you know about our struggles and you know why we struggle like we struggle but you also know our joys and our delights and our happiness and you know lord our strengths we thank you for that and lord because we know that you know us we know that you're able to help us and so lord now as we prepare to study the book of romans we pray lord that what we say will be in agreement with your word and your will and that it will bless someone's life on tonight may someone obey obey the gospel and may someone's life be restored in the name of jesus we pray amen okay we're going to start by looking at the greetings in romans chapter one as i said you should already have the study notes in romans chapter 1 and these are the notes that i sent you for wednesday september the 29th uh 2021. in romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 7 paul a bond servant of christ jesus called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of god which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son jesus christ our lord who was born of the seed of david according to the flesh and declared to be the son of god with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name among whom you all so all among whom you also are the called of jesus christ to all who are in rome beloved of god called to be saints grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord jesus christ i want to focus on some key words in paul's opening greetings to the church in rome i want to focus first of all on bond's servant paul said paul a bond servant he identifies himself as a bond servant the greek word for that is doulas it is one who gives himself up this is important holy to another person's will paul sees himself as a slave as a bond servant of jesus christ the term dulos focuses attention primarily upon his belonging to christ and or to god now let me talk a little bit about that because i want you to understand when we talk about being a bond servant it is basically saying that you voluntarily you have chosen through your own will and volition to acquiesce to give yourself to another to give up your rights to give up your will and your way to be a servant of another so in essence what you're saying is you're choosing to serve someone else with your complete self denying yourself the pathway that you want to walk that would be contrary to the way that god wants us to walk so the key to this is that it is something that we choose to do but not only is it something that we choose to do but you need to understand that it is something that we wholeheartedly do it is to totally lose your will in the will of another so tonight the challenge is to ask yourself the question are you truly god's bond servant or is there a part of you that you refuse to give over to the lordship of jesus christ now don't forget that jesus said why do you call me lord lord and do not the things which i say so it's not just about calling on the lord or saying that you are the lord's servant it is about your life it is about what you do in actuality and so the challenge tonight is going to be to you are you truly god's one servant or are you only a servant in word entitled but not indeed galatians chapter 1 and verse number 10 paul says this for do i now persuade men or god or do i seek to please men for if i still pleased men i would not be the bond servant of christ but this is a challenge here because paul said to those galatians that if i were seeking to please men i would still be doing what i was doing prior to obeying the gospel of christ i would still be trying to to promote and to support judaism i would still be seeking to destroy christians and to do damage to the church of christ but paul says i'm not interested in trying to please men i'm interested in pleasing god so so here is the first thing you need to ask yourself is god your number one priority in life as it relates to pleasing are you more concerned about pleasing your wife or your husband or your children or your parents or your family members or your boss are you more concerned about pleasing your friends than you are about pleasing god paul says listen i'm not i'm not seeking to please men i am seeking to please god why because i am his bond servant and as his bond servant that simply means that i have chosen to give up my will in the absolute total service of the lord so his will becomes my will it's not the other way around my wheel becomes his well sellers have this mistaken notion that whatever i will god ought to acquiesce to my will that god ought to do it my way but that's not how it works in the kingdom of god god says if you're going to be my servant my deulose then you must decide that my will takes precedence in your life and that no one is above me and no one is to be sought after before me and nothing should be sought after before me and there should be no greater desire to please anyone else other than the desire to please me in other words the desire to please me should be greater than your desire to please anyone else including yourself because self is usually the difficult the most difficult one to deny and so the question is are you god's one servant if you are his bond servant then that is but to say that your greatest desire and your greatest pursuit is to serve god to say speak lord for your servant hears and will obey i just got to get a little bit more personal in just a few moments because see when it's about god it becomes less about you see when it's about you you are easily offended when things don't go your way into church the first thing you want to do is pack your bags and go somewhere else the first thing you want to do is get upset and say well i'm not going to do anything because i can't do what i want to do but when you are the servant of christ your attitude is lord where do you want me to serve and how do you want me to serve because your servant hears and will obey paul said i'm seeking to please god not men who are you seeking to please listen to titus chapter one in verse one paul said a bond servant of god and an apostle of jesus christ according to the faith of god's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness again paul just identifies himself as a bond servant now let me say this to be god's slave or bond servant is an honor it is an honor because we are in the same boat with christ and other great servants of the lord i know that talking about being someone slave especially to those of us who are in the african-american community and that's kind of on the edge and there is a sensitivity to that language it strikes a nerve because of the history of slavery in this country but i'm gonna show you tonight that you are someone slave or you are the slave of something whether you want to be or not everybody is a slave to something or someone but here we are as the slaves of god we have a chance of our own will and volition to be a slave of the lord or a bond servant of the lord and in reality i'm going to show you that when you are the lord's servant when you are the lord's slave you are actually free and see that's that's that's the inverted paradigm the shift of the paradigm is that that when you decide that you are going to be god's servant you actually become free and it is because god has freed you that you voluntarily serve it reminds me of a story i heard and this is this will bring it home it was in the days of slavery and there was a slave who was on the block to be auctioned off and the man had been auctioned off so many times that he had just become jaded that he was tired of the whole show and the whole chagrin he hated this whole system rather of what was transpired and he had just said basically i'm not participating in any more whatever whatever punishment i'd have to receive i i'll receive it and so he stood on the auction block and they began to bid for him and he said i won't work i won't work i won't work so you can buy me all you want to but i won't work and that was a young abolitionist who wanted to buy this slave and so he bid it and he kept bidding until he won the bid and he purchased the slave and that's what he kept saying to him i'm not going to work for you i told you i will not work and that young abolitionist said sir i want you to understand that i did not purchase you to enslave you i purchase you to free you and the slave said for you i will work you see this is what god is saying because we have been freed from sin we ought to joyfully gleefully and gladly serve the lord because being in his service actually means freedom and we're going to show you that in just a few minutes as we go further into this lesson on this word bond servant so we're in good company when we talk about being the lord's servant if you look at what paul said about jesus christ in philippians chapter 2 in this great text on what theologians would call the kenosis or the emptying of christ now some debate whether whether or not uh he emptied himself of his deity and divinity or did he just empty himself of his heavenly glory and esteem and that's easy to answer because god cannot stop being god so if he's god he is eternally god he can't ever stop being god and so we understand that christ did not stop being divine he did not stop being deity but he gave up his heavenly glory and esteem that he had and took upon himself our form i know that because in his high priestly prayer in john chapter 17 and verse number five and he says and now father glorify thy me with the glory that i had with you in the beginning so he gave up that glory and that heavenly esteem to take upon himself the form of a servant so he did not empty himself of his divinity god cannot stop being god if he could he never was and so friends it's absolutely ludicrous for someone to say that jesus stopped being god he became a man and so you know i had a discussion one time with with someone who said i i have a problem with christianity because it was a muslim that i was talking to but he says i have a problem with christianity because you guys teach that man can become god and i said no you have it wrong we never have taught that man can become god but what we have taught is that god became man and because he is god he has the ability to do whatever he chooses to do that is not in contradiction to himself and so jesus became what we are notice in philippians 2 5 let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus who being in the form of god that is in the exact he was an exact he was exactly in other words he was what god was he is what god is because he is god being in the form of god did not consider it robbery to be equal with god the bible there plainly teaches that christ was equal with there is co-eternal co-equal and co-substance he is divine divinity deity but he did not think it robbery to hold on to in other words he didn't want to hold on to his heavenly esteem he chose to give it up so that he might become god's servant in this physical arena to bring about the salvation of humanity watch this bible says in verse number seven but made himself of no reputation taken the form he didn't just appear to be a man just like he didn't just appear to be god he was god and he is god in the flesh but he also took upon him in addition to his deity and divinity he took upon himself the form of a servant a bond servant he became what we are in the likeness of man he became what we are and being found in the appearance or appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross let me talk about that just for a minute because when we talk about being god's bond servant it is but to say they are willing that we are willing we are willing to give everything we have in the service of the lord including our lives jesus became a man he walked in our flesh he was real flesh and blood that's what john is dealing with in in the gospel of john sometimes but but specifically when he deals with first john and he's talking about first john and second john when he deals with this this this gnosticism and it was in his early stages and john said i want you to know that the word in the beginning the one that we he was god he was not some some phantom he was not some ghost he was real he says the word of life we handled him we looked upon him with our own eyes and we felt him with our own hands and we heard him with our own ears so you gnostic teachers and you do set us who believed that jesus was just a phantom and that's the cynicism he says i want you to understand that he was a real man flesh and blood but he was not just a man he was god and notice now friends that jesus gave up his glory to become a man in order that he might serve why did he do it as a servant he became a bond servant to carry out the will of his heavenly father that was decided upon in eternity past before he ever created the world that one would come and die on the cross for us and christ was the one who volunteered to do that and he did it he gave up everything he gave himself and lost himself completely in the will of his father and so when jesus was faced with the cross in the garden of gethsemane the flesh and the spirit were wrestling against one another and jesus prayed in that garden father if it is possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but your will be done that's the voice of a servant that's the attitude of a bond servant a bond servant said even though this task is not what i want to do even though this task is arduous even though this task is painful even though this task is brutal i'm willing to give up my will that your will might be accomplished even if it means i must suffer are you god's one servant christ went to the cross he went all the way to the cross because it meant serving serving the father letting go of your meal that his will might be done now let me challenge you here we're quick to say yes i'm i'm a servant of god but we are not willing to make any sacrifices for god we won't make the least sacrifice for god we'll sacrifice for our jobs oh yes we'll say what do i need to do what do i need to do what do i need to do to get a promotion what do i need to do to keep my job what is it that i need if you need me to work 12 hours a day i'm going to do it but let god ask me to give him two hours that's too much it's too much for some it's too much listen to me it's too much for some to even have their children to get on zoom on the lord's day to attend bible classes for their children oh but they'll make them go to bible class i mean they'll make them go to geometry and math the trigonometry calculus whatever they got to do they'll make them go to biology class they'll make them go to english class you're going to go to school and if even if the kids were to say i don't like it it's boring you are going because it ain't about you you will get it but when it comes to god we give them options shame on us shame on us what sacrifices are you making for god as a servant of god because we want to call ourselves a servant but we are not willing to sacrifice anything for god i'm not coming back to worship i don't i don't that's too much trouble i've got it easy now and it's not because you are afraid some of you some some song i'm not judging you must look into your own heart you must determine that not me i'm just simply saying are you god servant this is a challenging message one servant jesus went to the cross he said not my will but your will be done that's what a bond servant says father lord not my will but your will be done let me help you to understand something to be a servant of god means that you must have some humility it means that you got to get out of yourself it means that you got to stop talking about who you are and how big you are how important you are in life see a servant of god is not too big to serve anywhere if you need me to serve teaching little children i'm not above that but some of us have the attitude if i can't teach the group i want to teach that i'm not going to serve that's not the attitude of a servant see you haven't humbled yourself the servant's attitude the bond servant's attitude is lord where do you want me to serve if you want me to serve in the capacity of teaching children that's where i'm serving if you want me to serve in the capacity of waiting on the communion table that's where i'm serving what do you want me to do for some of us we have decided what we want to tell the lord we want to tell the lord where we want to serve and the lord sends back his message and say i want you to no lord i don't want that assignment don't want that assignment kind of like ananias when when the lord said ananias you go down and tell some that there's saul saul is down there and and he's praying and fasting and he's waiting for you to come and that and i said lord are you sure that's the right you sure lord i'm not i don't know if i want to do this but but he said yes he's a chosen vessel you go and ananias went because the lord said do it sometimes god gives us some difficult challenges and tasks but as the servant of god our attitude again and speak lord for your servant hears and he will obey are you willing to serve are you willing to serve or you just want to serve where you want to serve and not what god wants you to serve when you're willing to serve you simply say where do you want me to serve lord and let me say this too sometimes people have this mentality you gotta ask me you gotta ask me to serve if you don't ask me to serve then i'm not gonna serve i'm gonna sit back and do nothing i'm gonna sit on my talents i'm gonna sit on my time i'm gonna sit on my skills and i'm not gonna do anything but listen the attitude of a servant is lord where do you want me to serve the attitude is to say brethren i'm here i'm ready to say i'm willing to say put me to work and let me go a little further and see it like this when you get discouraged you don't stop serving the lord because you recognize your service is unto the lord and not unto men remember galatians 1 10 for do i now persuade men or god or do i seek to please men for if i still pleased men i would not be the bond servant of christ see when you're trying to please men then you serve for the accolades and the praises and for your name to be mentioned from the poor people or in the bulletin but when you serve for the lord you don't do it for the glam and the glory and the glitz but you do it because you love god and you want to be his servant because he did so much for you we all get discouraged i get discouraged but i tell you what i'm not quitting on the lord because the lord did not quit on me i'm not quitting on the lord i'm not going to give up preaching the gospel because somebody doesn't like the way i preach or teach i'm not going to do that because the lord did not stop going up calvary's christ because they were talking about him and mocking him and ridiculing him some of us are too fickle and too thin skinned but every time we get criticized where every time something doesn't go our way i'm quitting but jesus didn't quit and if jesus didn't quit neither should we quit he went all the way to the cross and they nailed him to that cross and though he had the strength and the power to come down from that cross he stayed on that cross because he was god's servant and isaiah says he was in essence his suffering servant isaiah 53. so the challenge tonight is all your servant are you really his servant or do you just say that in name well brother williams i'm not going to serve anymore because the elders upset me well tell that to the lord tell that to the lord he went to the cross for you do you ever upset the lord you think you upset the lord yes you do but did he still go to the cross yes he did does he still love you yes he did does he still work on your behalf every day yes he does and for you to have the audacity to say i'm quitting because somebody discouraged me because i don't like the way somebody spoke to me or treated me shame on you you need to look back to the cross and see the ultimate servant that is jesus that's god's wrong servant and we are to be like jesus paul said i am his bond servant let this mind this attitude this disposition dnu which was also in christ jesus now some of the greatest men of god were known as servants joshua chapter one verses one and two and all through the book of deuteronomy god causes the cosmos all through the old testament god speaks of moses as the servant of god the bible says in joshua chapter one verses one and two after the death of moses what was moses the servant of the lord it came to pass that the lord spoke to joshua the son of none moses assistant said moses my servant is dead now therefore rise go over this jordan you and all this people to the land which i am giving to them the children of israel lord have mercy it's enough for me to be called the servant of the lord i want god to say george is my servant and i'm happy with that what an honor it is what a privilege it is to serve the king of kings and the lord of lords to serve the creator of the universe to be in his servant in his service is a blessing is a blessing is a blessing and i hope trust and pray that you understand that joshua was considered to be a servant of the lord joshua 24 and 29 after these things joshua son of nun the servant of the lord died at the age of 110. these two great men were called servants of god luke chapter 1 mary considered herself god's servant the bible says and mary said behold the bond slave of the lord may it be done to me according to your word and the angel departed from her new american standard updated version king james says the maidservant of the lord but that word is that word the feminine word for servant and it is he she's saying i am god's servant and what did she say lord listen you need my body because the angel said you gotta you gotta be pregnant and she said how can i be pregnant when i have known no man lord and the angel said the holy spirit of god shall come upon you and you will be with child and that child is going to be the holy one of god and mary said my body is yours use it for your glory god see the servant's attitude is even if i must be discomforted i'm willing to serve in spite of it all i gotta i if i have to let my body be used for you and your glory lord that's fine and i know that i've not been with a man but you if you implant that child that baby in my belly i'm still going to serve you my body belongs to you use it as you please and see the attitude of the child of god the attitude of a servant is this lord my time belongs to you lord my body belongs to you lord everything i have my my mind blown my intellect it belongs to you my education belongs to you everything my talents belong to you lord it all belongs to you i belong to you a hundred percent because what you are saying is remember this bond servant simply means to lose your will in the wheel of another let me hasten to conclude here you are a slave to someone or something whether you like it or not you are a slave see everybody is a slave tonight you don't like that word but you are a slave one way or the other john chapter verse number 34 jesus summed it up jesus answered and said to them listen jesus answer them most assuredly i say to you whoever commits continually sin is a slave of sin sin here is personified as a master and when you continually give yourself to sin then sin is your master listen paul in romans chapter 6 as paul says the same thing in romans chapter 6 and verse number 17 through 23 paul says but thanks be to god that though you used to be slaves to sin [Music] you hold-hauntedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted watch this now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness see you are set free you remember that illustration i gave earlier about the slave who said i won't work but then when the man set him free he says for you i will work you see when you've been set free from sin slavery to sin which is destructive and you now have been freed from that you gladly serve righteousness or living a life that is in the right way in the direction of god you live your life according to god's will and god's word instead of in rebellion to god's will and god's word are you his servant because if you're god servant you are living in agreement with and your life is congruent with the will of god living a righteous life does not mean that you never make a mistake that you've never seen but you are walking in the right direction it is a pathway it is a lifestyle it is a pattern of living that is consistently in the direction of god so now verse 19 he says i put this in human terms because you're weak in your natural selves as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness paul says the same fervor you used to use when you're out there in that world serving sin living to get drunk on friday living to go to the clubs every saturday night living in this world to satisfy and please and gratify the flesh he says have the same fervency when it comes to living a righteous life that life that you lived before led to more and more wickedness and it was destructive in nature it destroyed relationship it destroyed your relationship with god you had no relationship with god it did damage to you physically it did damage to you emotionally but listen to me to be a servant of righteousness will lead to more holiness a right living a life that is separate from sin and not entangled in sin oh yes sin touches us and yes we fail from time to time but we are not servants of sin watch this verse 20 when you were slaves and sins you were when you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness you can't have two masters jesus already said that you cannot serve two masters you're gonna give yourself to one or the other now watch this now he says when you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness righteousness had no control in your life sin was at the helm sin was king of your life sin was lord of your life righteousness was not a part of it then he says in verse number 20 verse 21 rather what what benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of those things result in death so what did you really benefit what did you gain from living life like that what did it benefit you only thing now you can do is say you look back on that life and you are ashamed of the way you lived but now paul says verse 22 but now thank god for but now but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to god the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life for the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord when you live for sin and you are a servant of sin the result will be eternal separation from god but when you live for god and you are god's servant the end result will be eternal life with god you are somebody's slave tonight you're somebody's bond servant you're either serving the devil in sin or you're serving god unrighteousness my question to you is whose servant are you who's bond servant of you listen to what peter said as i close in second peter chapter two and verse number 19 they promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him friends listen to me tonight you are either the servant of god or you're serving someone else or something else you are somebody's or some things bond servant it's better to be a bond servant of god because if you're a bond servant of god you live a life that's holy and righteous and good and clean and upright and pure wholesome it blesses you now it blesses others around you it blesses your family it blesses your friend it blesses your neighbors it blesses the church but ultimately blesses you because it not only leads to a good life here but it leads to eternal life in the hereafter with god but if you serve sin and the devil it leads to wickedness and you become a curse to your family a curse to your friends a curse to your children and curse to the church because you live a life that is destructive and it will do damage to you now and to others and ultimately it will lead to eternal destruction paul said i am the punishment of christ the bomb servant of the lord my question to you is are you the lord's bomb servant i challenge you tonight and i trust and pray that you will accept this challenge and that you will decide tonight i'm sick of serving sin and one of the things you have to do with sin you have to get sick of seven sin because sin will not get sick of you you have to let go of sin because sin will not let go of you you have to leave the devil's camp because the devil is not going to send you away you need to be god's servant to be the servant of the lord is a blessing to be the servant of the lord is to be freed from sin and its consequences if you want to be god's servant this is how you do it you must believe that jesus christ came he suffered he bled that he died on the cross for your sins he was buried and he rose again first corinthians 15 1-4 those are the facts of the gospel if you believe that message be willing to repent of your sins look 13 3-5 acts 17 30 and 31 confess with your mouth that you believe that jesus christ is the son of god acts 8 36-38 the eunuch said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and then be baptized in water for the remission of your sins acts 2 38 and the lord in heaven will add you to the church acts 2 47. you'll be god's servant you'll be the lord's servant and what a blessed it is to say i am the lord servant and for the lord to say my servant george my servant gail my servant john my servant susan whatever your name is for god to say that's my servant is a blessing from god thank you and have a wonderful and blessed night you

Channel: Church of Christ at East Side

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Length: 75min 30sec (4530 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021