THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S
X-RAYS
2 Cor. 5:10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Today I got a call by a man who was angry about our street signs. I asked him how HE was trying to get the Gospel out, and he said he wasn’t. “I like how I’m doing it better than how you’re NOT doing it!”
2. Reminds me of the 2 guys standing by the side of the road holding up signs. One said, "The End is Near!" The other’s sign read, "Turn back before it’s too late!"
3. The driver of a passing car yelled, "Get a job!" A second, immediately behind the first, yelled, "Leave us alone you religious freaks"!
4. Shortly afterward they heard screeching tires and a splash followed by more screeching tires and another splash.
5. One guy said to the other, "Do you think it would be better if we just said, ’The Bridge is Out’?”
B. NEED FOR X-RAY
1. One of the least favorite places for anyone to go is to the doctor. One major reason is because no one likes to get shots! Yet, doctors are there to help us in times when we are sick and need attention physically.
2. Most of our physical problems are easy for a doctor to diagnose: a scrapped knee, a bump on our head, a sprained ankle, a big cut that needs stitches.
3. But there are some injuries a doctor can’t see -- inside of us -- that causes him to use a special tool. It’s called an x-ray machine. X-Ray’s are used to take a picture of problems that are inside of us.
4. Tonight we’re going to take a quick look at the marvel of the X-ray and also notice that God invented it first! Before we get to heaven, we must go through 3 heavenly X-Rays. Title of tonight’s message is “The Purpose of God’s X-Ray.”
I. DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN X-RAYS
A. INVENTION OF X-RAYS
1. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845 – 1923) was a German physicist, who, on November 8, 1895, produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays.
2. This achievement earned him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. During 1895 Röntgen was investigating the external effects from the various types of vacuum tube equipment when an electrical discharge is passed through them.
3. Röntgen observed that the invisible cathode rays caused a fluorescent effect on a small cardboard screen painted with barium platinocyanide. Once he backed this up with a sheet of lead, it formed an image.
4. The very first picture he took using X-rays was of his wife Anna Bertha's hand. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!"
B. WHAT X-RAYS CAN SEE
1. Your bones.
2. Your inner organs
3. Help eliminate possibilities
4. At Airports:
a. Can see inside your luggage.
b. Can even see unusual items, like this Chihuahua!
II. 3 ASPECTS OF GOD’S X-RAY
A. HIS OMNISCIENCE
1. God says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
2. You see, God sees inside us with His own form of X-ray. Here’s 3 things that only God can see in our x-ray that doctors can’t.
1. He sees what you think.
a. about others
b. about telling lies
c. about yourself
2. He sees what you feel.
a. happy
b. scared
c. angry
3. He sees and knows if you really love Him.
a. enough to serve Him.
b. enough to obey.
c. enough to obey your dad and mom.
B. HIS WORD
1. Heb. 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
2. Paul says that the Word of God is alive, with power to transform and change things.
3. The Word of God is like an X-ray; it exposes and diagnoses things in our lives.
4. The Holy Spirit uses the things Jesus has said to us to convict us of the things we’re doing wrong and to point us to the way out.
C. 3RD AREA OF X-RAY = AT JUDGMENT
1. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5:10.
2. HUMOR.
a. One old Grandma sat on her couch with her Bible in her lap, reading and praying.
b. Her grandchild walked into the room. “Grandma, after all these years, what are you doing still reading
the Bible?”
c. “I’m Cramming for my finals!” the old woman quipped.
3. The Greek word for "judge" is anakrino an-ak-ree'-no, which means to “investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinize, sift, question; determine the excellence or defects of any person or thing.”
4. SCRIPTURES
a. “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.” Luke 8:17.
b. “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Rom. 2:16.
5. The hacking of Adultery website “Ashley Madison” has publicly exposed many high-ranking people, BUT NONE OF THEIR BEHAVIOR WAS EVER HIDDEN BY GOD!
6. PROSPECT FOR THE LOST. Rev. 6:16-17,
“Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” NKJV
7. EVEN THE PROSPECT FOR THE SAVED. Even Paul said, “Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” 2 Cor. 5:11.
8. HUMOR. Some think they can redirect their wrongs to someone else.
a. Like the elementary boy doing poorly in school. One day he gravely approached his teacher’s desk and said, "I don’t want to scare you, but my daddy says if I don’t get better grades.... somebody is going to get a spanking."
b. We all tend to think that somebody might get a spanking, but nobody expects it to be them.
9. If that weren’t enough, “and the BOOKS WERE OPENED…and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Rev. 20:12.
III. THE NEED TO READ THE X-RAY NOW
A. TAKE PREVENTATIVE ACTION
1. Just like X-rays can penetrate many substances: wood, metal, flesh and even bone, and reveal things within, so does God’s Spirit and Word penetrate to expose the hidden things right now.
2. The power of the Gospel has been tried on the petrified hearts of alcoholics, iron-hearted criminals, and fiendish gang members, and it not only penetrated them, but melted them, and changed them into hearts of fire for God.
3. God said, “I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
4. X-rays may penetrate the cranium and look on the brain, but they can’t read the thoughts of that brain or the emotions and intents of the heart, but the Bible can.
5. “Piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” Heb. 4:12.
6. God can see through our hypocrisy, our evasions, and He can read easily the sincerity or insincerity, the right and wrong of own thoughts.
7. So wisdom dictates that we submit ourselves NOW to the Divine X-Ray. It will reveal what is foreign and hurtful in our hearts - sinful thoughts, evil intents, deceptions – which must be removed for your soul's health and safety.
B. TAKE YOUR MEDICINE!
1. If by faith and repentance we allow the Holy Spirit to make the needed changes in us, then we can let our hearts and minds be purified and become like Jesus!
2. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Then at the Judgment, there won’t be anything to expose, for all our defects will already be dealt with and we’ll be fit to live with God in the perfection of heaven forever!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: What is Repentance?
1. A minister was once speaking to a group of children. In opening his talk he asked the question,
"What is meant by the word repentance?"
2. A little boy raised his hand. "Well," the minister said, "what is it, my lad?" "Being sorry for your sins," was the answer.
3. A little girl on the back seat raised her hand.
"Well, my little girl, what do you think?"
4. "I think," said the child, "it's being sorry enough to quit."
5. Let’s not just be sorry for our unforgiveness, our language, etc., let’s stop doing it.
B. THE CALL
1. PRAYER
2. Someone dialed a wrong number and got the following recording: "I am not available right now, but I thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes."
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:10
