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Sermon from October 18, 2009
Brother Joseph Barr

Acts 2:46-47 “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

I want to tell you a story. The story starts with God. God Himself – in the beginning, God created heaven and earth and all things therein. And then God said one day, speaking in the plural form, “Let us make man in our image.” He made Adam first, and when he saw Adam was alone, he fashioned woman. He presented the woman to Adam. Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” From the mention of the verse, Adam set in motion something to be perpetuated after him forever. God told Adam and Eve about the tree in the garden, “Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” They broke that law and brought sin to men. The Bible says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So not only does sin come on all of us but now death has come on us, too.

Jesus was at all points tempted like we are, ye he didn’t sin. He was a perfect example of the covenant. There was nothing He had done to deserve the cross. He died so you and I could be set free to worship Jesus.

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Either Jesus is telling the truth, or He’s a great liar. I believe if a man or woman would see God, they must go through Jesus Christ. There is no mention of the pardon sin in Hinduism or Islam. You have to surrender yourself to Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 16:12-17, “Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Jesus is the son of God. No one else makes that claim. Jesus is THE Word of God. He IS God and everything that was made is made by Him. Mohammed doesn’t make that claim.

When it comes to your Bible truths, you ought to only believe the things that have been revealed to you by Jesus Christ. We rely too much on what other people think. We should say, “God, what is your will?” When I consult the scriptures, I’m consulting God Almighty Himself. Peter was in the company of Jesus and God revealed that this Jesus was not an ordinary man.

When Martha came, after Lazarus had been dead r days, Jesus said, “Come out!” And out he came in his grave clothes, after 4 days! Look at Matthew 16:18-20, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 In other words, Jesus said, “the church that I build will stand.” And the church is still alive today.

Acts 2:36-38, 41, 46-47 says, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Which denomination was it? You want to know? None of them! Why? Because none of them existed yet. But by following what the book tells us: That I should hear, that I should repent, that I should believe, confess His name and be baptized for the remission of sins – I will be added to HIS church!

The same word that Peter preached is the same word we got. We can be added to the same church.

Sermon from Sept. 6, 2009
Brother Joseph Barr

Colossians 3:25: “But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.”

From this text, I want to lift the subject: Right is right and wrong is wrong. We live in a time in history that seems like a political climate where we are obscuring the lines between right and wrong. We as a nation have removed many of the ancient landmarks of our ancestors. In Proverbs 22:28, the Bible says, “28Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” In Proverbs 11:1, the Bible says, “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.” Then my second point would be that we’ve gotten things backwards. We call good evil and evil good. And finally, we think there are no consequences for our behavior.
You know, a false balance is a false standard. Imagine if we had no standard of money or standard of measurement. When we don’t know what’s right or wrong we’ve removed the standard, then we don’t know. We talk about basic human rights (BHR.) Like now, we have the health care proposal. Democrats say, “Health care is a B.H.R.” But we use humans as a standard, and humans can’t be used as a standard.
In Psalms 48:14, the Bible says, “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” In Psalms 19:8, it says, “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
You see my friends, God is our standard. God determines what’s right and what’s wrong. When we, as a nation, come to that conclusion, we’ll be much better off. A lot of the things we argue about, we sometimes say we don’t know what’s right. For example, “It’s a woman’s BHR to have an abortion. Same sex marriage is a BHR.” We’ve grown so corrupt! We’re calling evil good and good evil.
Man becomes the measure of himself. Everything is based on how he sees it in himself. And we’ll get together in a large group and say, “Because this group believes something is right, it’s right.” Well, let me tell you, groups don’t make it right.
I know I’m preaching to the choir and we’ve got to take the message out. We’ve got to love people and teach people, but I want everbody to know that homosexuality is wrong. If little Johnny has 2 daddys, then I want Johnny to know they’re living in sin. If little Mary has 2 mammas, then I want Mary to know that her mammas are living in sin. Oprah thinks it’s good but it’s sin! God gave the definition of marriage.
We have millions of abortions in this county every year. And now we have a government that’s willing to pay for it. You may say, “women have a right” but I’m telling you it’s wrong. In Proverbs 6:16-19, the Bible says, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”
I ask you, is an unborn baby innocent? I would say they are. They didn’t ask to be conceived.
There are a lot of reasons why people get abortions. But I’m here to say, if you get pregnant under unfortunate circumstances, don’t add murder to it. God hates the shedding of innocent blood.
Finally, we think there are no consequences to our actions, especially if we hide and do it. Listen church, there’s no wrong that you and I can do that won’t be met with a consequence. In Romans 6:23, the Bible says, “23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That means if you die in sin, you’ll be cast in to hell for all eternity. Every wrong has a consequence. Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Friend, God is not moved. Whatsoever we do, we WILL reap from it. It doesn’t matter if somebody didn’t see us. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Do not call good evil and evil good. Every wrong will exact a consequence.