Short Answers to Common Questions 5
1. Mothers are very good at using opportunities to reinforce or teach lessons.
2. A mother mouse and a baby mouse are walking along when suddenly a cat attacks them. The mother mouse shouts “BARK!” and the cat runs away. “See?” the mother mouse says to her baby. “Now do you see why it’s important to learn a foreign language?”
3.A mother is trying to get her son to eat carrots. “Carrots are good for your eyes,” she says.
“How do you know?” the boy asks.
The mother replies, “Have you ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses?”
4. We want to wish all our moms a Happy Mother’s Day!
Main Idea: Today is Mother’s Day, so I am going to answer one question about motherhood and then take off in other directions with my other two points.
I. How highly does God value MOTHERHOOD?
A. Jesus compares his love for the people of Israel to that of a mother HEN.
Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”
B. God sent the deliverer through a MOTHER.
Genesis 3:14-15, “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock … I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
• The Virgin Birth predicted in Isaiah 7:14 fulfills this: the Redeemer comes only from the woman, not a woman and a man.
C. The nation of Israel is pictured as giving BIRTH to the Messiah (Revelation 12:16).
D. God uses the love of a mother for a child to describe his FAITHFULNESS.
Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
Application: The Bible views men and women as different and serving different roles and functions, but neither is complete without the other. And moms — like all women — are immeasurably valuable to our God.
II. Where did the BIBLE come from?
A. The Bible teaches INSPIRATION (expiration): God used men to write it in Hebrew or Greek.
• The Bible was written during a span of about 1500 years and many of its 40 or so writers never knew one another.
2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Peter 1:20-21, “…knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
B. The Old Testament is connected to God revealing Himself to ISRAEL.
C. The New Testament is about Israel’s MESSIAH providing salvation for those who believe among all nations.
D. The Jewish Bible is our OLD TESTAMENT, the same Scriptures Jesus and the Apostles used.
E. The New Testament was written either by the APOSTLES or their close associates.
Remember John 14:25-26, ““These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
III. Is belief in Jesus ENOUGH to save a person?
A. Yes, only because faith ACCESSES God’s Grace — if it is the right kind of belief.
1. James speaks of a general belief in God that is merely agreement
2. Paul talks about belief in a richer sense, meaning conviction
Romans 4:4-5 reads, “ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…”
B. The kind of faith that saves can only take root within a PREPARED heart ready to repent.
Illustration: Gas grill, igniter doesn’t work. I light match. Anywhere near the burner and it ignites, even if not exactly where igniter spark would have been…vicinity…
* God can use a Gospel presentation that is close enough…
Acts 20:20-21, “I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Repentance is simply a turning or returning to God; it is not cleaning up one’s act first, but getting to know God and seeking God’s help to clean up one’s act.
• Greek word (change of mind) tries to capture the meaning of the Hebrew word (return to God).
I Peter 2:25 “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
• Repentance is the opposite of straying from God.
C. True saving faith is the key that unlocks the door of salvation because it
APPROPRIATES the work for Christ for the individual.
D. Making the conditions for salvation more stringent does not TRANSFORM tares into wheat.
• Genuine faith produces faithfulness. It begins at a point in time, when we believe. If we have the real deal, it lasts a lifetime. It is endurance that proves its genuineness.
• Jim Z. — made a profession, lost interest, turned away from faith in the Lord
• Nick F. — palsy; made a profession, still walking with the Lord…same Gospel
• Difference between denying Jesus and backsliding…
CONCLUSION
1. Questions are good, and we should go to God’s Word for the bottom line answer.
2. Let’s keep growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord!
