FROM THE RADIO PROGRAM

CALL TO WORSHIP

As preached by Pastor Bernard (Bernie) Timmerman

 

Romans 4:23-25, "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

 

In this we see that the message of scripture does not just concern those of the past or those of whom it writes, but it speaks to us. It is a message to you and me. It is a call to repent of our sin but also a promise of forgiveness of sin and having peace with God. This does not come by our working, but by believing. The last part of verse 24 states "If we believe on him that raised up Jesus from the dead."

 

God is a God to be feared in his holiness and anger against sin but that same God gave a new and living way through Christ Jesus his Son. God delivered him unto death for our sins. We read in Acts 2:23, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:" But this is not all Jesus did. He not only died but rose again. In verse 24 we read, "whom God hat raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."

 

This is the same message all through the Bible whether we go back to the Psalms as in Psalm 16:10 or on to Revelation where as in chapter 1:18 we read, "I am alive for evermore, amen and have the keys of hell and death."

 

This is the same message Paul is telling us to believe and telling us that we can have the same righteousness as Abraham if we believe on him the raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Some of these things are so great that we might find them hard to understand but we are only called to believe in this God. This is what Abraham did, going back to Romans 4:19 we read, "and being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither the deadness of Sarah's womb." Abraham and Sarah were old and had no children, but God had promised that Sarah would have a son even when they were so very old. In verse 21 we read, "and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform". There is a great God in heaven that can do all things. One of the things he calls us to do is to believe on him. He shows us in this book the Holy Scriptures who he is but also we see his hand in nature. This is his world; he created it. We are separate from him because of our sin.

 

Many believe and teach and believe that by doing some things we will be able to satisfy or appease him. This will never do for he already owns all things. He tells us the cattle on a thousand hills are his.

 

There is only one way to come back to him and one way to live in fellowship with him and that is by faith, believing that this God who could cast us away forever, instead raised up his Son Jesus Christ, the only prophet who died for sins and was raised again for our justification.

 

Are you in that "our" justification? You are only if you truly believe that he had to die for your sins. Your life is sin not in part but the whole of it. Even our best deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of this true and eternal God. Don't come trying to bring some good things of your own for you have none. Don't be deceived as the church at Galatia was. They thought they had earned God's favor. Paul had to say to them, "who hath bewitched you O foolish Galatians." We also think God will give us peace with him by what we are and what we do. We must be rather as Paul who said, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."

 

Even the faith that we have is of Christ. The faith of the Son of God who loved me. Do you know that by the faith he has given you?