The First Promise of a Redeemer

First Sunday of Advent 2025

 

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The Season of Advent is the time provided us by the Christian church to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christ’s birth. The word itself means the ‘arrival of something or someone important.’ Christians gratefully celebrate the Lord’s first advent because He came from His throne in Glory to rescue us from God’s eternal wrath because our sins. And in our celebration, we also look forward to His promised second Advent when He comes to rule on earth with a rod of iron as the Psalmist tells us in the second psalm.

 

Although we celebrate Christ’s birth of December 25, Jesus did not become flesh on that Christmas day. He actually entered humanity nine months earlier – in March of that year – when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin womb of Mary, His mother. It was at His conception that Jesus became fully human while always remaining fully God.

 

As I prepared myself for this message, I thought this season would be a good time to remind us of some of the prophecies throughout the Old Testament that promised humanity a deliverer, a rescuer from God’s wrath against us for our sins. Many Bible scholars count more than 300 such promises. Today we’ll examine the first of those prophecies. We find it in the third chapter of Genesis, the context of which takes place in the Garden of Eden, after God created the heavens and the earth in six days.

 

Chapter three tells us of Satan’s seduction of Eve into questioning God’s word about the Tree of Knowledge. His deceptive innuendos about God’s trustworthiness led to her disobedience. Moments later – or so it seems from the text – Adam joined her in eating the forbidden fruit. As a result, Sin entered the world, and with it, incalculable grief and bitterness, disease, terror and murder, loneliness and death spread through all Creation. St Paul tells of the ongoing aftermath of their sin:

 

“For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:22-23)

 

After our first parents swallowed the Serpent’s bait, God cursed the Serpent, whom Scripture identifies as the Devil, and Satan (See Revelation 12:9), saying “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

 

Many Bible scholars call Genesis 3:15 the ‘protoevangelium’ – meaning, ‘the first gospel.’ It is in this text that God makes His first of hundreds of  promises to send humanity a Redeemer to rescue us from Satan’s chains of physical, spiritual and eternal darkness; Genesis 3:15 is God’s first promise to send a Redeemer who, although wounded by the Serpent, will ultimately deliver a crushing defeat to the Devil.

 

But before we move further into the first promise of Christ’s advent it’s necessary to first address the challenge many make regarding the literalness and the historicity of those first chapters of Genesis. We do this

because if Genesis One is anything other than accurate history, if Genesis One does not faultlessly describe the six twenty-four hour days of creation, if Genesis one and the succeeding chapters are simply allegory or metaphor to explain Creation and the entry of Sin into the world, then the promise of Genesis 3 – and ALL the other promises of Christ’s first advent melt into what will easily become deadly spiritual confusion.  

 

In other words, if Genesis 3:15 and chapters one and two are allegory, you and I cannot have any confidence that light WILL overpower darkness. Neither can the child of God have confidence that the promise of Revelation 12:11 is our future: “And they overcame [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.” (Revelation 12:11)

 

Many scientists believe Genesis One should not be taken literally. They believe the creation days spanned eons of time. They preach their evolutionary theories as if they are undeniable truths.

 

But what they teach should not surprise us because many of them don’t even believe in God. And because their evolutionary theories comprise a huge part of the ‘religion’ of Humanism, even a growing number of seminary students have been – and are being – seduced by their godless professors to scoff not only at the literalness of Genesis One, but to dismiss the idea of Scripture’s full inerrancy, infallibility, and divine inspiration. Therefore, it is no wonder that so many in the pews are also bewitched into believing lies about God’s promises and His immutable commandments.

 

My purpose today is to not go into a great amount of detail regarding the first chapter of Genesis. We don’t have time to do a proper examination of the contrary opinions about God’s word. And besides, with the easy access many of us have to the internet, it’s simple enough for those who are interested to conduct their own research into the debate on both sides of this question. I suggest using key words in your search, such as, “Creation Science,’  ‘Young Earth Scientists,’ and ‘Creation vs. Evolution.’

 

But while I won’t spend a lot more time with Genesis One, I will ask and then answer two important and related questions: Should Christians really care if Genesis One is literal or allegorical? And should Christians care if the earth is young or billions of years old?

 

Yes. We should care. Why? Well, for example, if earth is billions of years old, that would mean there were billions of years of death and disease before Adam and Eve fell. And THAT would directly contradict the entirety of Scripture’s testimony that sin is the cause of death. Furthermore, if sin was not the cause of death, then Jesus’ substitutionary atonement was completely unnecessary, and the promise of Genesis 3:15 is a non-issue.

 

Secondly, at the end of Genesis one, God called His entire creation “very good.” But if the earth is billions of years old, and death occurred before the Fall, then God called death, disease, starvation, and all other kinds of tragedies ‘good.’ And that would render the promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3:15 pointless.

 

Thirdly: When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, the Lord reiterated to Israel: (Exodus 20:11) “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”

 

But if Genesis chapter one is not literal history, then God lied to Moses and to the entire nation of Israel. And if He lied about the six twenty-four-hour days, then what else of the Ten Commandments are untrue? And if God lied to Moses about Genesis chapter one, then we have no assurance that He didn’t lie about Genesis 3:15.

 

And finally, for our purposes today, the Lord Jesus quoted from Genesis chapters one and two when He reminded the Pharisees: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4)

 

But if Jesus was mistaken about those first chapters of Genesis, then what ELSE was He wrong about?

 

The last several points I’ve tried to make remind me of what the apostle Paul said during his defense before the Roman and Jewish leaders: "Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8)

 

It was a reasonable question: Why is it considered incredible that the Almighty God could raise the dead? And Christians today should ask a similar question of the naysayers and scoffers: Why is it so incredible among you people if God created the heavens and the earth in six 24-hour days? After all, He is God.

 

Every rational person will immediately recognize that the works of Almighty God extend infinitely beyond any human capacity to understand. And that should not surprise us, because if finite and pathetically limited Man was able to understand the infinite and utterly unlimited God, then God would not be God.

 

Genesis 3:15 is God’s first hint that He had good news for fallen humanity. The horrific and all-encompassing sin of our first parents did not catch God by surprise. Do we not believe the Omniscient God knew what would happen in that Garden? Of course He did. And that’s why Scripture tells us that His plan for Mankind – trapped by our inherited sin nature – that is why His plan for our rescue and redemption from eternal death extends backward into eternity past – long before He created the heavens and the earth.

 

John tells us in the Revelation that Jesus was ‘slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) And St Paul reminds the Christians at Ephesus that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4)

 

In other words, before God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence, and before our first parents brought calamity to planet earth, God, in His omniscience knew what would happen in the Garden. And already knowing what would happen, He’d already planned redemption and salvation for all who wanted redemption and salvation.

 

And, speaking of God’s omniscience, let’s bring that point home to our own lives. Do we not realize that – even before Genesis one – do we not realize that He knew our names and where we would be on this first Sunday of Advent in 2025?

 

And do you not realize that our omniscient Creator directed your steps throughout your life, even to your decision to move into Ashwood Meadows?

 

Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking you’re here because you or someone else researched the available independent living facilities, and chose this one. No, you’re here because God orchestrated the research, just as He also orchestrated your decision to come to this service today so you would hear this message.

 

Listen to Proverbs 16:9 “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Several verses later in this same chapter of Proverbs we read: (Proverbs 16:33) “The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord.”

 

Which brings us back to the Almighty and Sovereign God’s orchestration of the events in Genesis chapter three that led to that first gospel message of hope and promise for fallen men and women. We need to know in the depths of our souls that the unfolding story of Adam and Eve holds enormous significance for everyone in the sanctuary.

 

Why?

 

Think for a while of the sheer and incomprehensible magnitude of the consequences and the repercussions of Adam and Eve’s sin. Those ripples have spread like tsunami waves throughout the thousands of years since the creation. Their waves of devastation continue to this very moment and will continue to do so until the second advent when the King of kings returns to create a new heaven and a new earth.

 

But – and this is an extremely important point – although their sin, like an overwhelmingly deadly virus, resulted in overwhelming disaster for all creation throughout history – nevertheless, God‘s grace toward them was greater than their sin.

 

I need to repeat that. God’s grace was greater than their sin.

 

I hope you remember the story in Genesis. God covered their naked bodies with the skins of animals He had to slay. And that picture ought to send our thoughts to Calvary, where God – who became a Man – shed His own precious, divine, and eternal blood to cover the naked sins of every man, woman, and child who comes in repentance to the Cross. God’s own blood clothes the penitent sinner with His righteousness infinitely more effectively than the animal skins that covered Adam and Eve’s naked bodies. And so, Scripture assures the Christian: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)

 

And “He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.” Isaiah 61:10

 

Which brings us now to this point of application: What sins have YOU committed in the past – perhaps especially those whose consequences and repercussions extend even to today?

 

This is really an important question because UNLESS we believe God’s grace was greater than Adam and Eve’s sin, and even so His grace is greater than YOUR sins – unless we believe that Biblical truth, we can never hope to find true rest for our souls.

 

Do you see why it is so important for the Christian to accept the literal and historical Biblical record of Creation and the subsequent chapters in Genesis? If it’s all metaphor and allegory, then we have NO reasonable assurance of hope for forgiveness and eternal life.

Once again, we should ask the scoffers and deniers why it seems so incredible for anyone who believes in the God of the Bible – why should it seem incredible that He created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, as He tells us in that first chapter of Genesis?

 

And why should it seem incredible that the God who loves us so passionately would set in those early chapters of Genesis the first of so many promises of a Redeemer who would, at His first advent, set in motion the divine rescue of men, women, and children from Satan’s darkness?

 

The Serpent introduced seeds of doubt into our first mother’s mind – doubts about God’s commandments and His trustworthiness. And Satan still operates by the same playbook, introducing seeds of doubt into our minds about God’s commandments, His trustworthiness, and the inerrancy, infallibility and full inspiration of His written word we call the Bible.  

 

Christian! For good reason, the Holy Spirit warns us today: “Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

 

Sacrifice of Praise

Thanksgiving arrives on Thursday this week. Many of us have fond memories of the holiday and look forward to building more good memories this Thursday. But I suspect Thanksgiving might hold bittersweet memories for some of us, and you are not as excited about this Thursday as you have been excited in the past.

 

And so, it is about thanksgiving – not the holiday, but the attitude of thanksgiving that I want to speak about today. To that end, let’s look at Hebrews chapter 10. If the text seems an odd way to introduce Thanksgiving, please be patient. All will be explained.

 

The community to which this letter was written was suffering persecution. Some of it was severe. Many had had their possessions stolen. Some were imprisoned for their faith. And consequently, many were becoming demoralized. Some were drifting from their faith.

 

Listen to what the apostle wrote by way of encouragement: (Hebrews 10:32-36) “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”

 

As I said, the writer was concerned – rightly so – that persecution or affliction was turning some away from the faith – just as we today ought to be concerned about the same things, that persecution and sufferings and various disillusionments have turn some Christians away from Christ.

 

I sometimes think about that when I read 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I also think about it when I read Paul’s letter to the Christians at Ephesus: (Ephesians 5:20) “Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” 

 

I memorized both of those verses decades ago. But every so often – because I forget so often – God focuses my attention once again on them. And I confess to you how frustrating it is to me that God must remind me of the same things He’s has already reminded me of a hundred times in the past, that being to give God thanks IN all things and FOR all things – for this is God’s WILL FOR us in Christ Jesus.

 

All things. For good things like health, prosperity, dreams come true, hopes realized. But also to give thanks in and for bad things – accidents, deaths, illness, chronic pain, loneliness, loss of income and so forth. For all things and in all things. Which brings us to the thanksgiving point of my message today.

The writer tells us later in Hebrews: (13:14-15) “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Let’s talk a few moments about a sacrifice of praise. It is NOT a sacrifice to thank God when things go well. A sacrifice is not a sacrifice if it costs us nothing. I can give a dollar to someone in need, and I wouldn’t think about it twice.  But if God called me to give someone ten thousand dollars – well I can tell you, THAT would be a sacrifice.

 

Here is only one example of the Biblical principle behind sacrifices: The backstory of David’s sin of overwhelming pride takes up a full chapter in the Scriptures. (By the way, this chapter is not talking of David’s sin with Bathsheba. That happened earlier in his reign as king). We won’t take the time to rehearse what 1 Chronicles 21 tells us. You can read it yourself, if you like. But what I will focus on is the last part of this story where God demanded of David a burnt offering sacrifice for his sin.

 

David went to a man named Ornan, who owned the site David wanted to use for the burnt offering. But Ornan, a loyal and faithful servant of King David, said to him, “Take it for yourself; and let my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I will give it all.” But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.” (1 Chronicles 21:23ff) 

 

Listen to David again: “I won’t offer a sacrifice to God that costs me nothing.” That is, of course, the definition of sacrifice. It costs us something. And so, we ought to expect a sacrifice of praise to cost something.

 

It’s is no surprise to anyone here that life is full of trouble and heartache. Job had it right when he said: (Job 5:7) “Man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.” In chapter 14:1 he continued: “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.”

 

So, what shall WE do when life picks us up and smashes us to the ground? What shall we do when we pray for our beloved sick, and they don’t get well – or they die?  When we pray for family reconciliation, and it doesn’t happen?  When we pray for the salvation of our family – and they never, so far as we know – come to Christ. When we pray that we might have children, and we remain barren all our lives?

 

What shall we do? God tells us what He’d like us to do: “Persevere” as we read in that opening text from Hebrews 10. It’s what Scripture tells us to do in Paul’s letters to the Christians in Thessalonica and Ephesus as I read earlier. “Give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

 

Is that easy? Of course not. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. But is giving thanks in all things and for all things necessary?  Yes, absolutely. If it were not necessary, God would not have commanded it of us.

 

So, why does He command it? Why is it necessary? Because not only can prayer change situations, prayer can also change US. And that is part of God’s plan for you and me – to change us, to conform us to the image of His Son. That’s what God tells us in the eighth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome – and this is important to grasp with our hearts and not only theoretically with our heads. And oh! How well I know that theoretical knowledge does not keep us at peace when things go terribly wrong.

 

Being conformed to the image of Jesus will not happen without successfully persevering through trials and tests. As we learn from Hebrews 5:8, Jesus (remember, Jesus was 100% God and 100% human at the same time) – Jesus the Man learned obedience from the things he SUFFERED.

 

That’s surely one reason God tells us through the apostle James, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

 

For years I thought I had it all together. I had lots of head knowledge, but through life-experiences, I learned much of it was theoretical – and not at all in my spirit. But my failures aside, and YOUR failures aside, here is what God wants us to know that can help us when life’s fires and floods and storms again break loose against us. Many of you will recognize this passage from Romans 8:28-39

 

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . . What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? . . . . Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Neither good things or bad things, neither death or life, neither storms or nightmares or floods or fires – nothing can separate us from God’s immeasurable, indescribable love.

 

A sacrifice of praise means giving God thanks and adoration and exaltation even when our hearts – as Tevye sang in Fiddler on the Roof – even when our hearts lie panting on the floor. It means giving God praise even when we don’t feel like praising Him. It means giving God praise even when we don’t WANT to praise Him.

 

Why do you think the psalmist wrote more than once in the psalms: “Bless the Lord, Oh my soul. Bless His holy name”? The word David used in those texts is in the imperative form of BLESS; It’s a command from our mind to our soul to bless His Holy Name.

 

In other words, David commanded himself to praise God – even when his life was such that he didn’t feel like praising God. Nevertheless, he’d grab himself by the proverbial scruff of the neck and require of himself to praise God who, simply by virtue of who He is, is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving.

 

The more I think about the idea of a sacrifice of praise, the more I get agitated by a specious, deceptive theology floating around among many churches which falsely promises that God wants us happy, prosperous, healthy, and wealthy.

 

The roots of this damnable doctrine are traceable to at least the 70s. All we need, so they say, all we need is to have is enough faith, and God is obligated to His word (as they say) – God is obligated to make our life a proverbial Rose Garden without even thorns on the roses.

That false theology, often called, “Name it and claim it” theology, is as far from Biblical truth as east is from west. And of course, advocates of that theology find all kinds of biblical texts – always taken out of context – to support their view.

 

But tell that lie to those who suffer martyrdom today in places like Egypt, China, Russia, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, and on and on. Tell “Name it and claim it” to those who suffered those events described in chapter 10 of Hebrews that I read to us at the beginning of this message. Tell it to those in the next chapter, chapter 11—the so-called Heroes of Faith chapter – where we find listed famous Old Testament saints whose faith “conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword . . . and on and on.

 

But then we find in the next verses these words: (verses 35-39) “and others were tortured . . . and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated - men of whom the world was not worthy - wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised . . . . .

 

Talk about a sacrifice of praise. Talk about giving thanks to God in all things – in good times and in very, very bad times.

Many of our Christian brethren throughout history, from the earliest days of the apostles, many lost everything. Theirs was never a “name it and claim it’ faith as promised by so many modernists who either haven’t a clue of the whole of Scripture, or Church history –past or current – or they simply will say anything people want to hear.

 

Biblically based faith is and always has been rooted in a total trust and love for God, a faith rooted in “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” – and not “my kingdom come and my will be done.”

 

Does any of this suggest we should not ask God for healing of our body? Or the reconciliation of our families? Or the salvation of others? Or a job? Or anything else important to our lives?

 

Of course not. The Scriptures include stories of many, many people who prayed about their sometimes-desperate needs. But Scripture still tells us, “In all things give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you and me.”

 

How might we offer such sacrifices when we’re struggling with life-issues? Perhaps try a little self-talk, as the Psalmist did. Listen to him in Psalm 42:5, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.”

 

Perhaps listen to some of the many church hymns of thanksgiving. Read aloud some of the Psalms of thanksgiving such as Psalms 8, 40, and 145, which are among dozens of others. Listen now to a part of Psalm 145: “I will extol You, my God, O King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.”

 

Again, it should not matter if we FEEL like praising God. Let our mouth speak His praise anyway – because He is worthy at all times of our praises, and THAT’S why it’s called a sacrifice of praise. And we ought to know this, God is pleased with such sacrifices. 

 

God loves you. He is desperately in love with you. He is so desperately in love with us that He did all that He could do, He did the maximum He as God could do to prove His love for you and me – and that was to give His beloved Son as a substitutionary sacrifice for your sin and for mine.

 

When we come to know in the depths of our souls God loves us – regardless how things turn out and turn up in our lives often filled with trial – when we know in our spirits, and not simply theoretically in our head, that God always stands with us, and not against us – then the sacrifice of praise will flow more easily from our hearts. And it will be immeasurably easier to give Him thanks in all things and for all things.

 

Truth

 

 

As we continue our series in the book of Hebrews, we’ll park one more week at this text in Hebrews 3:1: “Therefore holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” 

 

We’ve seen how Jesus is the matchless Apostle and High Priest of our faith. Last week we turned our attention to what is commonly called the Lord’s High Priestly prayer to uncover some of WHAT He prays for us. Today we will look one more time at some things He prays for us.

 

For the sake of time, I will read only a few of the salient points of John 17 -

(John 17:1-24): “Lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, ² even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent . . . .9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me . . . 11 Holy Father, keep them . . . that they may be one even as We are. 12 While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name . . .and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled . . . 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.  17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth . . . 20 I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. . . . 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given  Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

 

In verse 17, the Lord asks the Father to sanctify the apostles. The Greek word John uses for ‘sanctified’ means to purify, to cleanse, and to set apart for God’s work. And as we saw last week, the Lord also prays for us today who believe what the apostles wrote about Christ – that being, Jesus prays that we also will be sanctified in Truth. And let us not overlook the next clause in this verse: “Your word is truth.”

 

But some might ask, ‘What is truth?’ I think the one person in all history who made that question most popular was Governor Pilate. If you know your Bible well, you’ll remember his mocking question when the Lord Jesus told him: (John 18:37b-38) “I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” To which Pilate said, “What is truth?”

 

What is truth? Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has been seducing men and women to dismiss God’s truth. You’ll remember how he sowed doubt into her mind: (Genesis 3:1) “Has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” And just like our first mother, humanity has succumbed to his same seductions ever since.

So, what truth does our Creator want us to know AND obey to receive eternal life? That’s easy to answer. God wants us to know His truth about the faith and the morals He built into us. But since Genesis 3 we’ve been corrupted by our sin nature to such a degree that most people can stare Truth (capital T) – in the face, and still ask the question as Pilate asked.

 

Why is that? Scripture answers that question, too: (Ecclesiastes 7:29) “God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes [for evil].”

 

It is only God’s word that tells us the Truth about God’s nature: His love, His holiness, His justice, AND His wrath toward sin. God’s infallible and inerrant word tells us who we are, WHY we are what we are, where we come from, where we’re going, and even what it will be like when we get there – both for the unredeemed and for the redeemed.

 

Truth is truth – any kind of truth – regardless of a person’s opinion of truth. And to deny any kind of truth is not only irrational, but idiotic. For example, mathematical and biological truths do not bow to opinion. And I might deny the truth of gravity, but if I jump off the roof of this building, I’ll quickly discover that gravitational truth doesn’t bow to my opinion.

It’s the same thing with God’s truth regarding faith and morals. A person can argue day and night against what the Bible says about faith and morals – and he may get away with his reckless opinion for decades, even for a lifetime. But when he closes his eyes in death and immediately opens them in the next life, he’ll quickly discover to his everlasting horror that God’s truth does not bow to his opinion.

If ever there was a time you and I needed an anchor for our souls, something that has been true since Genesis chapter one, and will remain true into eternity, it is now, today, as we near the end of 2025.

 

Yes, not everyone wants to know God’s view about faith and morals. Why? Because knowing His truth makes us RESPONSIBLE to follow its direction. God’s truth forces us to take sides. No one can stay neutral in the face of Truth.

 

We looked last week at what is God’s truth about Jesus – that He is Almighty God in the flesh of a man, born of the Virgin, died a sacrificial and atoning death to save us from the Father’ wrath for our sins, His resurrection, ascension, and soon return. To deny ANY of those truths is to deem oneself unworthy of eternal life. Harsh words, yes. But sugar-coated truth to make it more palatable is to be eternally harsher still. (See Acts 13:46)

 

So, beyond what He tells us about Jesus, what is God’s truth about faith and morals? To fit within our time constraints, we will look at only three of His truths.

 

First, God requires of us a holy lifestyle. Second: Heaven and Hell are REAL places. What we do with Christ in THIS life determines where we spend our afterlife. And the third Truth we’ll talk about today: God searches for everyone and for one reason only - to bring us home to Himself.

 

So, let’s look at the first truth for today: God requires of us holiness. What does that mean? A lifestyle geared toward holiness means we strive to avoid what God calls sin. For example, listen to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [i.e. male prostitutes], nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

 

St. Peter added: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16)

 

Indeed, anyone familiar with the Scriptures knows God’s requirement of us to be holy fills virtually every page from Genesis through Revelation.

 

A lifestyle of holiness means to be separated from the culture’s view of life and acceptable lifestyles. It means to be morally AND ethically pure. And it will be woefully insufficient to try to excuse or rationalize a sinful lifestyle when we each stand at the Judgement Seat of God by saying our pastor, or our church allows such and such an action.

 

I spoke to a man not many years ago who tried to justify his acceptance of homosexual marriage, abortion, and fornication. When I told him what the Bible said about his view of those damnable sins, he told me his church does not believe those practices are sinful. He added, as if to further seal the deal, his church is pastored by ‘intellectuals’ – that was the word he used. I guess he meant by that, his church picks and chooses what they will follow when it comes to Biblical Truth about morality.

 

Please hear me: If your church teaches God’s view of morality has changed with the millennia, that He has updated His definition of Truth and of holiness, then you’d better find a different church. God was very clear when He said: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)

 

Here is some truth worthy of attention: Don’t mess with a holy God.

 

Truth number two: Heaven exists. And – contrary to what a growing number of clergy and theologians today want you to believe, Hell also exists. Listen to this dire warning in Revelation 20:11-15 – “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. ¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. ¹⁵ And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

 

I remember talking to a young atheist more than fifty years ago. What he said to me as I watched him diligently studying an open Bible on the table in front of him – what he said has stayed with me all these decades. When I asked what he was doing he turned and looked at me for only a moment before responding, “I’m studying the Bible to prove it wrong.”

 

For good reason, the Holy Spirit moved St. Paul to write to the church at Corinth: “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

 

And it doesn’t matter a whit what academic degrees or titles people have who mock or twist or pervert the plain truths of Scripture. The Pharisees and Sadducees held academic degrees from their most prestigious seminaries, but what did those degrees ultimately do for them? It got them the eternal lake of fire unless before they died, they repented of their sins and their rejection of Christ.

 

How many times have you heard people refer to God as a fable believed by an ancient and scientifically ignorant people? But how many scoffers today know that, for example, in the years between 1900 and 2000, 64% of the Nobel prizes in physics, 65% of the prizes in medicine, and 74% of Nobel prizes in Chemistry went to Christians? Would those who mock the idea of God and His absolute Truth – would those who boldly assert belief in God is a fable fit only for ignorant people – would those mockers be so arrogant as to call those scientists ignorant?

 

Well, despite the evidence to the contrary, many probably would still cling to their arrogant disbelief.

 

Why? The ONLY reason otherwise intelligent men and women reject God and His Son is because they want to avoid the light of the gospel message. They want to live their own way and according to their own version of truth. That’s not my opinion. They are the words of Truth spoken by Jesus: (John 3:19-20) “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” 

 

Rightly did St. Paul tell the Christians at Corinth, “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

 

I remember when I visited my friend, Dan Taub, as he lie dying from liver cancer, he placed his hand on mine and quoted St. Paul’s last words to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”  (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

 

Finally for today’s message, here is truth number three: Despite the sins – or even the evils you have done in your past, God searched for you – and STILL searches for you for only one reason. That reason is not to punish you, nor to condemn you. He searched and is searching to RESCUE you.

 

 Many of you are familiar with the story Jesus told of the lost sheep: (Luke 15:4-7) ⁴ “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

 

The shepherd seeking its lost sheep hears it crying in the distance. It’s frightened. Cold. Lonely. And when the shepherd hears it’s cry, he runs to rescue it.

 

Have you ever cried out to God, lonely? Lost? Frightened? Make no mistake, Jesus heard you. Jesus ran to you. He always runs to you. That’s the point of the entire 15th chapter of Luke – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

For me, the truth about the Lord’s active search for the lost is the most encouraging of all the truths of Scripture. Even to this moment, I remember being lost. I remember feeling alone. I remember the sorrow that I had for my sins – some of which were most horrible. I remember not knowing if God could ever forgive me.

 

And I still – to this day, nearly 53 years later - I still remember my joy when I discovered God loved me – ME – enough to keep seeking for me until he found me.

 

Do you know that God loves you, and that He kept seeking you until He found you?  And listen to this: Jesus didn’t stop seeking you after He found you. He STILL seeks for you and me as we drift from time to time. He still seeks us, wooing us back to himself, watching us, protecting us, chastening us, guiding us into His Truth. He is still wanting us to love him better today than we did yesterday, and better tomorrow than we do today.

 

Today we looked at only some of the Truths of Scripture: God requires of us a holy lifestyle. What we do with Christ in THIS life determines where we spend our afterlife. And God searches for everyone for one reason only - to bring us home to Himself.

 

May our God help each of us to not only believe those truths, but to put those truths into practice day after day – because doing so will change our lives for the better.