Grace Bible Church

John Pittman Hey

The newest sermons from Grace Bible Church on SermonAudio.

  1. May 10

    No Peace Until Everybody Stops Fighting

    Our world is now overcome by a war that we started with Israel, and the damage is incalculable. Just now, one billion barrels of oil are lost from the supply chain. That will soon catch up with us worldwide as petroleum reserves are exhausted. Then the price of fuel will zoom much higher. There seems to be no way for everybody to stop fighting all at once. With Israel, the United States, Iran, Hezbollah, and now the United Arab Emirates all shooting at each other, there's no way to get a real cease fire. In any event, the Israelis will not stop killing people no matter what the rest of the belligerents do. Our President also insists on maintaining a blockade and shooting at freighters in spite of the cease fire. Nobody so far has been satisfied with the terms of peace presented by the United States and Iran. Countries want the attacks against them stopped, so long as they can keep attacking the others! You cease, I keep firing! The Psalmist lamented, "my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." But God makes peace with people opposed to Him! He declares peace on a one by one basis! God does not require everybody to stop warring against Him. He makes peace with His loved ones, even while the world war against Him rages on! In other words, with God, there can be peace even while everybody else is still fighting! God's peace comes about while there is no world-wide ceasefire in place! Making peace with everybody all at once is not a hinderance for God to make peace with you and I now!

    25 min
  2. May 3

    Treachery Against the Ambassador

    Ambassadors and negotiators have a history going back to the first organized tribes, and then states. Over time, a set of rules evolved about how ambassadors must be treated in order for states to engage each other in a predictable manner. Truthfulness, security, and courtesy became the norm. The white flag of parley, for example, became a pledge of safe passage, so that discussions can take place. Negotiations take place in the context of mutual pledges of good faith and sincerity in the purposes of such talks. All of which brings up the sin of treachery, the crime of using negotiations as a cover for surprise attacks. The Japanese at Pearl Harbor are the prime historical example. In President Roosevelt's speech calling for a declaration of war, he repeatedly referred to Japan's perfidy, dishonesty, and treachery in engaging in peace talks while secretly plotting a massive surprise attack, without a prior declaration of war, or even withdrawal from peace talks. Yet now, the United States has engaged in such treachery and perfidy against the nation of Iran, by using talks twice in less than a year to conceal surprise attacks and wars of aggression against a nation at peace with us. Because of this, further negotiations are impossible, since the United States has several times now been caught lying to the Iranians and engaging in dishonest negotiations. Without truthfulness, there can be no negotiations. Scripture speaks of ambassadors in several places. Ultimately, the greatest ambassadorial outreach is the Gospel, the greatest such appeal for peace with God that will ever be seen in the world!

    42 min
  3. Apr 19

    Why the Passover Never Saves Anybody

    When Moses revealed to the people of Israel the means by which they would be redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, the people bowed their heads and worshipped. It was by means of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, and the display of the blood upon the door posts of their houses. Otherwise, the death angel would pass through all the land and kill all the firstborn, man and beast. Israel was an idolatrous and sinful people, as were the Egyptians. God's wrath against the entire land would have punished them all, but for the substitute lamb, whose blood displayed was a sign, that the sins of Israel had been paid for in the blood of an innocent victim slain in their place. This was a clear example of substitution, the death of a lamb in the place of poor sinners. It points to the Lamb of God, Who one day would die in the place of His people, and for our sins. Rather than being judged by God for our sins, God would judge His Dear Son as our surety, our savior, Who gave His life a ransom for us. All this raises the question, why did Israel so quickly rebel against God? It was right after God had made a covenant with Israel, and given it the law, that the people made a golden calf to worship at the foot of Mount Sinai! Their worship was debauched, and God's wrath was kindled against them. Why didn't the Passover sacrifice, and all the other animals slain as offerings for sin, change the hearts of the people away from rebellion against their God, Who had rescued them from slavery and oppression? Still today, the Passover is celebrated by the Jewish people, yet they are not saved, yet they are not faithful to God at all.

    41 min
  4. Apr 12

    Christ is Our Everlasting Life

    As usual during His ministry, Christ didn't explain to Martha how He would give eternal life to His people. He simply called upon them to put their trust in Him, and He would take care of their bodies and their souls. Most of them seemed not to grasp the intractable problem of granting eternal life to sinners. How can a just God forgive sins, when He promised never to clear the guilty? How can God put our sins behind Him, never to remember them against us anymore, as He promised in the New Covenant? Not understanding this, how Martha must have been crushed when Jesus was taken and put to death! She probably had not heard Christ's own promise that He would give His life to save His sheep. How can Jesus be the Resurrection and the Life if He is dead? How can a dead man save anybody? They didn't know, that it was His dying that would save us. Did Martha's faith waver when Jesus hung on the cross in agony and woe? It reminds us of the old Negro spiritual song we know well: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Oh, sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! There was one man there who believed in spite of Christ's dying, and that was the penitent thief on the cross. Others were crying out, taunting Jesus to save Himself and the thieves who were crucified with Him. But the penitent thief, by an astounding work of the power of the Holy Ghost, was convinced that the Lord would reign in His kingdom one day, and he cried out to Jesus to remember him when that kingdom came.

    34 min
  5. Apr 5

    Resurrection - It's Not Good Enough!

    Just last week, we saw a shameless exploitation of the resurrection by prominent religious leaders, comparing our President to Christ, and blasphemously assigning the resurrection image to him. The resurrection of Christ was repurposed as a political propaganda event. This called to mind something that Jesus said to Martha on the way to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus informed Martha that Lazarus would rise again, Martha replied that she knew that Lazarus would rise again at the last day, but that she believed that Jesus could ask God, and God would grant it to Him now. This statement by Martha was incomplete and insufficient, because mere resurrection is not enough. Jews mostly believed in the resurrection of the just at the last day. The Pharisees believed it dogmatically, yet most of them died and went to Hell. It is not enough to believe in the resurrection! Christ's resurrection work includes resurrection unto eternal life, and resurrection to eternal torment and wrath. Now we can see why Christ corrected Martha, that her view of the resurrection was not acceptable. Jesus' point to Martha was this: the resurrection is not enough. Her error was, that she did not recognize the true power and authority of the Person standing before her. She did not recognize the Resurrector! Christ then made it clear to Martha. It wasn't good enough to know there would be a resurrection one day. It was not even good enough to assume that God would raise up His people. What was necessary was to believe that Jesus is the Resurrection, and Jesus is the Life! Without Jesus' life-giving power, the resurrection becomes an horrible judgment.

    34 min

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The newest sermons from Grace Bible Church on SermonAudio.