LBC Sermons & Messages

II Corinthians 4:7-15

We have been entrusted with a treasure, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (v6). When an individual turn by faith and accept Christ as their Savior, God takes up residence within us (jars of clay), and given us the ministry of revealing His light to those around us.

As clay vessels, we have no intrinsic value. We cannot protect this treasure nor does the treasure protect us from illness, human afflictions, etc. We are are frail and break down physically quite easily.

It is precisely our utter frailty which lays us open to the experience of the all-sufficiency of God’s grace, so that we are able to rejoice because of our weakness – something that astonishes and baffles the world, which thinks only in terms of human ability.

In verse 8-9, we find that in God’s sovereignty He allow us to be stretches, “BUT NOT” to the point of being destroyed. He has done this so that all may see that the transforming power of the gospel is supernatural and not just human.

Paul’s commnentary on this is found in verses 10-12 where we see the term “death” used three times and the word “life or living” used three times. What we are being told is that we need to change our inward attitude and “put off” those things which are relying on human ability and in so doing let the light of Christ shine forth so othesr will see Christ thru our life. This brings “the fragrance of Christ” (ch2:14-16) and life to those who are observing God’s working in and thru us.

As we begin to allow the spirit of faith to control of our lives, we then as folllowers of Christ become more thankful, more hopeful as we see the grace of God extending to more and more people.

Each one us have some influence on the lives of others around us. May they see us as broken clay vessels letting the glorious light of the gospel of Christ shinning forth.

I Kings 17:1b

What motivated Elijah to take a stand for God. Dan 11:32, may give us a clue, “but the people of God will display strength and take action”. From the book of James, we discover that Elijah was a man of prayer. Prayer is the outflow of our relationship towards God and reveals that we believe God is greater than the problem, that God is real and alive, that He is not indifferent to what is going on, and it reveals our desire to sees God’s purposes accomplished.

As a result, Elijah appears befor king Ahab and proclaims this message to him. The message is in three parts and reveals to us what type of man Elijah was

First, Elijah was convinced of the reality of God,“as the Lord, the God of Israel lives”. Psa 33, states that “the Lord looks from heaven .. and sees all”. For some sixty years, the nation has defied and ignored God with no apparent consequences and this has resulted into some false thinking about reality of God. We today need to heed the warning given in Eccl 8:11-13

Secondly, Elijah was committed as being God’s representative, “before whom I stand”. He was fully aware of God’s presence, of His plan, and of His provisions. As such Elijah was totally loyal to God in contrast to the disloyalty of the nation nof Israel. For us today, other must see our loyalty to Christ by the way we conduct ourselves in every area of our life.

Thirdly, Elijah was confident of the authority of the scripture, “neither shall there be dew or rain … except by my word”. He did not make this up, but was quoting from Deut 11 and 28, what God had said thru Moses would happen if the nation disobeyed God’s law. For sixty years they had and now Elijah was announcing that the line was being drawn. Do our lives reflect the authority of the scriptures by the way we live. John 13:17 and Luke 11:28, states blessing on those who hear and obey the word of God.

Elijah saw the dangers, but he also saw the promises of God and did what was necessary. So must we today.

What Christ did for us

Isaiah 61:1-3

These verses are a prophesy of Christ ministry, how he viewed people, how he was concerned for us, how he miunistered to them. We need to ask ourselves: how do we care for the needs of other, how do we view those who are hurting?

Jesus had been anointed for this ministry of proclaiming the good news of himself. That He alone is able to meet our needs. His birth, his sinless life, his work, his death and resurrection, his ascension, all point to who he is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He had come to share this good news and now the task falls upon us to also share this truth about Him.

To preach this good news to the poor. To those who have needs in their life, those who have nothing to look forward too, those who have an empty feeling in their soul. Jesus will fill that emptyness, that lonliness in their soul.

To heal the broken hearted. The idea here is of a bandage around a wound, for the purpose of binding together to heal. Jesus Christ will bind together with him those who are emotionally and spirtually overtaken and at the point of being unable to cope with life any more and bring healing to our lives thru salvation.

To give liberty to the captives. Those who are held captive to sin.and its control over us. Christ has destroyed the power of Satan and given us liberty and has set us free. John 8:32, tells us that the truth of who Jesus is will set us free. We can now have victory over sin thru Christ living in us.

This good news is being proclaimed now and when we turn in repentence and in faith accept Christ as our Savour He will take away the saddness and the mourning and will replace it with beauty and gladness. We will become like a tree planted next to “living water” so that God will be glorified by our lives.

Presented their ministry of working with college students.

Isaiah 53:4-6

The meaning of vicarious is simply “substitutionary”. It is taught in the Bible, that it is neither a curse nor unjust, but if done with a motive of love it is a service to God. Parent will suffer and sacrifice, willingly for their children. Jesus said “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).

In our text we see that Christ suffering was for the purpose of punishment and it also was redemptive. In verse 4, we saw him being stricken, and smitten by God, and afflicted and thought it was for his own sins. But the first part of this verse reveals that it was for our own sins that he was on the cross, suffering the punishement that was due each one of us. Verse 5 reveals that this suffering brought about our redemption. It secured our peace with God (reconciliation) and also brought us healing (the forgiveness of our sins).

Paul asks a question in Rom 3:26 – How can God both be true to Himself and His character and at the same time able to justify the sinner? The answer is substitution. Jesus Christ, God in a human body, sinless in character and in life, was willing to go to the cross in my place and suffer the penalty of death for my sin. This satisfied the justice of God and He was now able to justify the sinner. Matt 20:28 says “the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto too, but to minister, and to give His life instead of many having to give their lives”.

So the question becomes now, will you accept God’s substitute. Jesus Christ, as your substitute to satisfy the justice of God? It is either Christ’s death on your behalf or your own eternal death.

Verse 6, is the response of the redeemed to the truth taught in verses 4 and 5. It is the confessionn of our sin and our trusting in the finished work of Christ at Calvary on our behalf.

I Kings 17:1a

Who is this man, who suddenly appears on the scene as the crisis prophet, with thunder of his brow and tempest in his voice. (J Sidlow Baxter commentary on Elijah). Judaism is being dismantled by Ahab and now stands up this man Elijah, challenging the establishment.

He appears out of obscurity. What is important with Elijah and should be with us – Is that we have a clear understanding of who God is and we are His servants. When John the Baptist was asked “who are you”, he simply replied “I’m just a voice.”

Elijah’s name means, “my God is Jehovah”, and as such it declares where his allegiance is and that he stands in contrast to those who follow the god Baal. Our lives need to reflect this same truth, that God is really our God from the standpoint of our attitudes, priorities and behavior.

His character was developed by the circumstances in which he lived. The area in which he lived was a rocky region, in which one had to be rugged and determined in order to live there. The clothing that he wore, II Kings 1:7-8, symbolized his character. Material things were not high on his priority list, he was not controllede by the life style of the world. God places us in circumstances that mold our character. We need to examine ourselves to make sure that we are committed to God rather than to the comforts of society.

Elijah is a commentary against our excuses and fears of standing up to denounce sin. Was he any different than you and me? No. According to James 5:17, he was a man of like nature. Elijah was a man who saw the difficulties but also saw the Lord’s resources and chose to make himself available to the Lord and live accordinly.
So he goes and confronts King Ahab.

May we do the same against evil in our land.

Romans 13:1-7

We are living in a society in which violence is increasing and respect for authority is decreasing. Our public service personnel are on the front line in carrying out their task on our behalf. So this service is for them to let them know of our appreciation and support for what they do.

Because of our sin nature God has given mankind three institutions to keep society under control. The home, civil government and the church. Civil government and the church has similar responsibilities but in differnet realms. The civil government operates in the temporal area of life while the church deals with issues concerning one’s eternal destiny.

In our text, we learn that the men and wonen in civil government are considered as “God’s servants” (v4) and “ministers of God” (v6) as they perform their duties and as such we are admonished to be “subject unto their authority” by showing “respect and giving them honor” (v6). These local heros are commissioned to carry out their responsibility of protecting us and punishing the wrong doer as God’s respresentatives (Gen 9:1-7) , by sertting examples of justice and righteousness, protecting us from oppressors and by keeping our courts honest and just (Jer 22:1-3).

On the other hand, we as born again believers have and additional responsibilty of being submissive and obedient to our Lord and His kingdom. It is not our task to clean up civil government but to proclaim the good new of the gospel, Christ death, burial and resurrrection, to all. In Luke 4:18-19, Christ stated His purpose of proclaiming good news to the lost, to those who are captive to sin, to those who are spiritually dead and to the hopeless. Just before His departure to heaven He gives us the command to do the same (Matt 28:20), and this we must do.

To our local authorities, police, fire and EMT personnel, we here at LBC, take this time to thank you for your service to us and for the freedom we have in proclaiming God’s message of salvation to you.

I Kings 16:29-34

Recently, there was a news report of a gentleman being attacked and while this was happening, five individuals stood around and simply watched, doing nothing to intervene. We are living in a day and age when law and order seems to be disappearing.

Psalms 11, the question is asked “when the foundations are destroyed what can the righteoud do”. It was a time of lawlessnes and David was being advised to “flee”. David’s response to this question was not to flee but to get his focus on God (v4-7).

Elijah is living in a day when YAHWEH worship was being dismantled and the worshippers were being persecuted by King Ahab. Baal worship was being endorsed and promoted by government, while Jusaism was being systematically destroyed.

J Sidlow Baxter, wrote this about Elijah: Here is the Martin Luther of old-time Israel, who singlehandedly challenged the whole priesthood of the state religion, and all the people of the realm, to the decisive test on Mount Carmel”.

We also live in a day when Christianity is being systemically dismantled by forces opposed to it’s teaching. We find that Christian are being looked upon as strange and as such are being forced into the “closet”, while deviant life styles and teachings that is anti Biblical is being accepted by society as the norm.

Elijah, we will discover, a man of prayer, was willing to step up and take a stand against the corruption of his day. Are we just as willing?
Are we willing to be like the men of Issachar (I Chron 12:22, 32), who understood the times and willing to do smething about it, by joining up with David, God’s annointed King.

We live today in dangerous times, and dangerous times demand that God’s people step up to confront the evil. Will it cost us, sure will, but we have no other choice but to OBEY God.