What Advantage in Being a Jew or a Christian?
Is there advantage in being a Jew or Christian?
Advantages are many
NCBC, 10/19/03
Where do we really stand in our walk with Christ and with God?
I was thinking of things that might show our superficial or religionist beliefs:
YOU MAY BE A SUPERFICIAL CHRISTIAN OR RELIGIONIST IF...
10. You show up to church only for you to be blessed...
9. You only come to church on Sunday...
8. You only talk like a Christian on Sunday...
7. You only act like a Christian on Sunday...
6. You only come to Church on Special Days, (Christmas, Easter)...
5. You are last into Church and first out...
4. You figure your plenty good enough not to be in Church this week...
3. You figure whatever your walk may be, it has got to be better than _____...
2. You look at the offering plate and think of what you would rather be buying...
1. You seek after the greatest blessing and growth in God, yet you put forth little are no effort in growing in a relationship with HIM, then wonder why HE isn’t blessing you...
Let’s see if and what advantages are there in our being “set apart”.
What advantage of being a Jew or Christian or of being circumcised?
Romans 3:1 (KJV) What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
We live such busy lives today, we do so many things, we have so many advantages our forefathers never knew, yet Paul’s question is as important in my life today as the day he posed it to the new Christian community in Rome.
What are the advantages of being “Set apart” unto God? Is there advantage? Is there profit?
So, What is the profit in being a Jew or a religionist—in being circumcised or baptized...of being a church member?
What do you do with the Jew who is Abraham’s seed?
The promise of God to Abraham was that his seed (the Jewish nation) would be the children of God..
If some Jews do not believe God’s promises and God condemns them, isn’t He breaking
His promise to Abraham and his seed?
Isn’t He voiding His Word and Covenant and making Himself a liar?
God’s Word could not be based on heart religion and on moral character alone. Man seeks for there to be something else, something outward—a rite (circumcision, baptism, church membership)—this shows we are religious like the (Jews).
If we go through the rite or ritual, then God is bound to accept us. He has promised to so
accept us. He is not going to break His Word.”
The application of this question concerns every religionist.
The thinking religionist poses the same objection and question:
“If you say some religionists do not believe and are condemned, doesn’t that void God’s Word and make God a liar?”
God’s Word promises the religious person special privileges and the hope of eternal life.
His Word tells us to believe Christ and to possess His Word, be baptized and join the fellowship of the church.
If we do that and God still condemns us, is He not voiding His Word and becoming a liar?”
God forbid (meô genoito ).
God will be faithful. His Word and promise of salvation will stand even if
every man lies about believing and lies about giving his heart to serve Jesus.
God will prove His Word: He will be justified and proven faithful in what He
has said. He will still save any person who gives his heart to Jesus and obeys
Jesus.
In fact, God will overcome; He will prove His Word another way. He will
judge all who make a false profession and who judge Him and His Word, who
accuse Him of being unfaithful and voiding His Word. David himself said that
God would judge the unfaithful or disobedient man (Psalm 51:4). David had
sinned greatly, not keeping the commandments of God, so God judged David
and charged him with sin. David did the right thing: he confessed his sin and
repented and began to live righteously. But David did something else: he declared that God’s charge and judgment against him were just, that God was
perfectly justified. And God was, for God is always just, and He is always
justified in what He says and does.
The point is twofold.
1.God is Faithful...HE is not unfaithful. God never breaks or voids His Word when He rejects the religionist.
The religionist who possesses God’s Word and belongs to a church but does
not obey God’s Word is not acceptable to God.
Why?
Because it is righteousness that God is after, not religion.
God is not after an outward showing of religion, but an inward process of righteousness which overflows to show HIS light and love.
God wants a heart that will not only possess the Bible, but will keep His commandments. God is after a spiritual rebirth, a new creation, a man who has been “truly” born again.
God wants a heart and life that are focused upon Christ and that keep the commandments of Christ.
The only man who is acceptable to God is the man who has given his heart and life to
Christ and who lives righteously, trusting God to accept His faith in Christ.
Romans 2:28-29 (KJV) For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: [29] But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
2.God never voids His Word or promises; He never has and never will be a liar.
God has promised salvation and eternal life to men who have “truly” called upon Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Even if there should never be a single person who believed God’s promise, His promise would still stand. He would still save any person who did what He said.
The problem is in doing what God says, in coming to God as He dictates.
God demands that men give their hearts and lives to His Son, Jesus Christ. God demands that
men live for Christ, worship and obey Him. But this is too hard for men.
They want and seek after an easier salvation.
They want to be able to do something, get it over with, and then be free to live as they wish, giving God some attention here and there.
This was much like life was under the law, it really didn’t matter if you sinned as long as you had the offering, yet that was never God’s intent in the law.
Therefore, men prefer to be saved by being religious: being baptized, joining a church, buying a Bible, and then being free to go about their own lives.
But this is not enough for God; it is not doing everything that God says; it is not giving one’s heart and life to live for Jesus Christ by
obeying,
worshipping,
and serving Him.
Therefore, God...
charges the religionist with sin.
judges and condemns the religionist.
You might be asking now am I one of these?
What does this look like?
Do you only attend church and fellowship only on Sunday?
How much of your time do you spend doing the will of God?
A tithe of 10 percent of your time each week would be 2.4 hours a day X 7 or 16.8 hours a week minimum.
Do you give the minimum???
Now note another fact. God fulfills His Word by judging the religionists.
God has told men how to live and what would happen if they failed.
Therefore, He is “justified in His sayings” by following through and by judging the religionists.
God will not void and break His Word. He will fulfill it all.
God is justified in fulfilling His Word by doing exactly what He said, that is,
in accepting men only as He said and in judging men if they do not come to
Him as He commands.
Advantages are many
Romans 3:2 (KJV) Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
Jesus Christ came to the Jewish nation and came to earth as a Jew?
Very simply stated, the Jews were God’s special people.
They had been born by a special act of God. It all started long, long ago.
God had wanted four things.
1. He wanted a people who would love Him supremely and give Him their first loyalty.
Genesis 17:7 (KJV) And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Isaiah 43:10 (KJV) Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
2. He wanted a people who would witness to all other nations that He and He alone was the one true and living God
Genesis 12:3 (KJV) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 22:18 (KJV) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Acts 13:26 (KJV) Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
Acts 13:47 (KJV) For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
3. He wanted a people through whom He could send the promised Seed, the Savior and Messiah, Jesus Christ, to all men everywhere.
Genesis 3:15 (KJV) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 17:7 (KJV) And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Genesis 22:18 (KJV) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
John 4:22 (KJV) Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Galatians 3:16 (KJV) Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
4. He wanted a people through whom He could send His written Word, the Holy Bible, and preserve it for all generations.
Romans 9:4-5 (KJV) Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; [5] Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
1 Peter 2:10-12 (KJV) Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
[11] Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; [12] Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
1. God found and chose Abraham and through him established the Jewish nation.
2. God chose the family of David to be the lineage of the Messiah but because of misinterpretation of God’s word they believed the coming Messiah would be to the Jewish nation only.
3. God had no choice but to make a third move. This He did by sending His own Son into the world through the Jewish nation. God sent Him so that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-19 (KJV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
[18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [19] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
We are a blessed people because of our ties to the nation of Israel, we who have “truly” called upon the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior are part of the circumcision of the heart.
Are you a part of the circumcision of the heart?
Do you yearn to become part of those “truly” set apart unto that “good and perfect” will of God?
How do you get HIM into your life you ask?
This process God has directed also. God says you must first admit to HIM that you are a sinner. God word says, “All have sinned and fallen short of HIS glory and deserve death.”
We are all, apart from the grace and mercy of God, deserving of death and an eternity in Hell.
But God made a provision for all “In that while we were yet sinners, God sent HIS only
begotten son to die for us so that all who call upon HIS name, the name of Jesus Christ, could have salvation and eternal life through the grace of God.
How do you do this?
Simply pray the following prayer: Dearest Father in Heaven, I humbly come before you today. I admit that I am a sinner and I know that I deserve death, yet I ask you Jesus Christ to come into my heart and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I renounce my past practices and commit my life to YOU. Lord may I daily strive to be more like YOU. I ask these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
If you prayed this prayer let us or someone in your church or church leadership know so that we can help you in your new life, just as we sought and seek daily the things of Christ.
If you have any prayer needs are concerns please let us know. You can tell us, e-mail us, are phone us with your request and testimonies.
ranger1401@hotmail.com
Nome Community Baptist Church
PO Box 934
Nome, AK 99762
(907)443-5448
