August 18, 2024 • 60 mins
We are glad you have joined us on our podcast channel. We have Pastor Rob Urban sermon on Enmity Crucified. Hope you enjoy and have a blessed week!
Logan City Christian Church is a vibrant growing church committed to serving and meeting the needs of our community and beyond through the various ministries within. We as a church welcome you to come visit this Sunday and be part of an active, excited team reaching the world one day at a time. Sunday Service | 9:30am Friday Youth Service | 6:30pm Thursday Prayer Meeting | 7pm Address | 13 Watland Street, Springwood Qld 4127 Church Website | www.logancitychristianchurch.com United World Ministries | www.unitedworldministries.com Instagram | @logancitychristianchurch Facebook | @logancitychristianchurch
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Episode Transcript
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Welcome to Logan City Christian Church Podcast, where we bring God's Word to you weekly.
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We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.
Enjoy the message.
God is just so good.
And I really appreciate the praise and worship team so much and everybody.
Yeah.
And everybody who puts their hand to the plow, does everything in this church.
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It wouldn't happen without you guys.
And we're just so grateful.
We really, really are.
I just very excited about what God is doing in our lives and the awesome testimonies that
we've been hearing and seeing what God's doing, just what He does so well.
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And He is a good God.
He is such a good God.
You know, this morning, I'm just going to get straight into it because this message
has you probably think He says this every Sunday, but this message has been, G'day,
Dale, has been stirring in my spirit for quite some time now.
And this is kind of like, if you were here with the message I did on racism, this is
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like part two of that message.
And racism doesn't have a place in the body of Christ.
Jesus, He pulled down that middle wall of division and when we come into the body of
Christ, we are all equal.
We are all the same.
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We've been washed by the same blood.
We've been saved by the same grace.
We have come into the same family as God.
And sometimes it doesn't always work out as simply as that though.
And that's where I want to pick up today as to why this can happen.
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And sometimes we can come into the family of God and still carry some sentiments, some
pains from our past.
And especially when it comes to coming out from a particular, say, religion or a culture
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and having other religions and cultures, whether there's been a religious war or a cultural
war or disagreement or just that angst between different nations, different nationalities.
And when we came into the body of Christ, that was actually dealt with.
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And so I believe this morning the message will be an awareness of what happened when
we came into the body of Christ and not only what happened but how it happened and then
our fresh outlook in life from this new life we have in Christ Jesus.
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And I'm going to pick up from Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 14.
And the Word of God reads, for He, that's Jesus, for He Himself is our peace, who has
made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.
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Now where it says that Jesus is our peace, it's not speaking of Shalom peace, it's speaking
of Iron Age peace.
I shared this a few weeks ago how the peace of God, it brings all fractured pieces together
back to an original order or back to an original condition.
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And it's only Jesus who can bring together nations that are so fractured and against
each other, it's only Him with His peace within a nation or within a person of that nation
to come together.
And you know we are so blessed in this congregation to have so many different nationalities, I
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think it's 37 at the last count, that each nationality gets along with each other.
That you know I know some of you guys are sitting here in the same room where the other
person from their nation had actually been at war with your nation.
But you came to Christ and you realized that that was what happened then, that it's different
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now.
Everyone had come out of that culture and have been placed firmly into the kingdom culture
of God where everything is different.
And so Jesus is our peace who has made both one, what's He speaking about both one?
In here it's a direct connection relating to the Jews and the Gentiles.
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How bad could they think that that could ever be done?
And it did happen.
Now I do not believe in replacement theology that the church replaced, you know the Jewish
tradition and culture on that, but I do believe in dispensational theology.
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What I'm sharing today is dispensational, dispensational means that there was a time
coming where things were going to change whether we like it or not.
And the dispensation of the New Testament, it's a time that has come that God had foreordained
right from back in Genesis chapter 3 where God had made a promise, it was prophesied
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that there would come a Savior and this Savior is going to dominate over the works of evil.
And then throughout Scripture this dispensation that we live in today of grace, the kingdom
of God, kingdom dynamics, kingdom culture was coming and we are in it today.
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And so Jesus had made one out of two.
So the key here is that we've got to see that Jesus Himself, the work that He did, no matter
what nationality we, our birth nationality is, whatever our religion has been, that if
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we truly come to Christ we step out of that entirely, everything, and then we are placed
into the new birth that we now become a new creature that never existed before.
And that is the new birth, that is the new you, that is the born again you, fully and
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wholly accepted by God and there we don't bring our cultures into the kingdom culture,
we then learn the kingdom culture.
And where it goes wrong is when I would want to bring my previous culture or beliefs into
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this new kingdom culture that we're in and then that's where things start, is that well
I'm a Christian now but we should be keeping this and we should be doing that and we should
be, no.
It's there where strife starts and can do.
And verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, and this is the word today that
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I will be focusing on and the title of this message is enmity crucified.
Enmity crucified.
This enmity is a big problem.
I'm going to explain in a minute what it is, but it is a huge problem, but that has already
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been dealt with at the cross of Calvary.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances
so as to create in himself one new man from the two.
We got this, one new from the two into one.
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Let me just find where I was.
I'll start verse 15 again.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances
so as to create in himself one new man from the two thus making peace.
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Can I mention something here?
If there are two individuals trying to be one, holding on to their old, there will not
be peace.
It's impossible.
He says here that he himself, one new man from the two thus making peace.
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That means that each person coming into the kingdom of God accepts the culture and the
kingdom dynamics and the constitution of that kingdom, the rules and its powers and the
way that we live and the way we operate.
And verse 16, and that he might reconcile them both, whose them, the them are the Jews
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and the Gentiles, that he might reconcile them both to God in one body, not individuals.
That is one body through the cross, listen to this, through the cross thereby putting
to death enmity.
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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near for
through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.
Now it's abundantly clear here that the two become one.
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It's not a melting pot.
Christianity is not a melting pot of different cultures.
Christianity is not a melting pot of all different religions.
You see, for me, when I got saved, an unsaved person therefore falling in the category of
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a Gentile, I did not bring my Gentile beliefs and ways into the kingdom of God.
That had to be left outside.
Now please hear me right here.
The same happened with the Jews.
It's one new man.
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It's one new position in God.
And this is what can go wrong is that when these things are not left outside and our
traditions and our ways want to come in and to try and help God to do what he wants to
do, there will never be peace.
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There will always be conflict because one person's opinion and the other person's opinion
or their belief will be in conflict.
And that's why God in his kingdom has one constitution.
He has one word.
He has one way.
And he only made one way for humanity to come into his kingdom and to be forgiven for all
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their sins.
And that was through his son Jesus Christ.
There is only one way to God and that is Jesus.
There's only one way.
So this enmity, what does it mean?
It means hostility, hatred, opposition, resentment.
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It also can mean racism and revenge.
Let me read them again.
Hostility, it means hostility, hatred, opposition, resentment, racism and revenge.
Now if I can put this in context with this scripture, in verse 16, and that he might
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reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death hostility
between each other, putting to death hatred between each other, to eliminating opposition,
to eliminate and put to death resentment between nations and between people, to eliminate the
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very thing of racism it has been dealt with at the cross at Calvary.
And revenge, there is no revenge in the kingdom of God.
And this is the very work of the cross that it says here that through the cross, thereby
putting to death, I don't know if you realise, but when something is dead, it's dead, finished,
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kaput, no more, it's dead.
And so in the kingdom of God, enmity that was working outside nation against nation,
against religion, and this angst against each other, the hostility and the wars and the
revenge and we're seeing this happening today, a hatred and all of these things happening
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and the Word of God is saying, however, when you come into the kingdom of God, the cross
has put a line through that.
And what happens is, is like for me, I'm sure with you as well, that when I got saved, it's
like we start to realise that there's a different way of living.
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And we see that when we experience this amazing grace of God, by the way, Reinhardt, that
communion was sensational.
It was excellent.
So all of our sins were forgiven.
We were clear that debts were paid in full and this inner knowing as a newborn Christian
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that I really have no right or no place considering all of the benefits we've just received, forgiveness
of sin, that I should now start judge another or hold, you know, wrong attitude to another
race or religion or another people movement.
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Because something changed within our hearts and that was the cross at Calvary that did
that, the work of the cross.
You know, this hostility is a horrible thing and we're seeing this hostility, you know,
in the Middle East that's happening right at this very moment.
There are, you know, it's just one, a hair, you know, between another war, some major
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scale war is right there and, you know, people try with peace talks and they try with cease
fires and all this sort of thing.
But I want to tell you that I know as well, I'm sure you know this too, that the only
way there can be an end to war is Jesus.
Because if people come out of their ways of thinking that are not working and we all come
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into one place, one kingdom, one rule, one Lord, that everybody is equal, that we suddenly
realize we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we don't fight each other.
And so, the cross of Calvary has a major effect on enmity.
The cross of Christ that if there was any hostility in our hearts toward anybody, that
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the Spirit of God would desire and will arrest that in Jesus' name and hatred and opposition
and resentment and racism and revenge, that we become a much better person when we are
freed from all of those things.
Amen?
Now, if you are a missionary, which there are quite a few here this morning, you would
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know that God had placed a nation on your heart.
I was speaking to a missionary just weeks ago and he said, I couldn't believe it that
God sent me to a nation that I did not want to go because this is what he said, I have
a problem with those people.
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I have a problem with them.
And he said, this really can't be God that's sending me there.
I said, oh no, that sounds like God to me.
Because obviously you have some hostility or some revenge or maybe there's some resentment
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there between you and the nation that God is sending you to.
And so, what he decided to do was to pray and seek God.
And God revealed to him that you have to deal with your own insecurities and fears of this
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nation and when you do, I am going to use you.
And he ended up using this guy in an amazing way and now he has such a love for these people,
he realized that they weren't the problem, he was.
And so, enmity can do this to us.
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I recall the story that I heard, I watched it on TV, an American preacher that I follow
quite a lot, he was saying that there were people in his church that some were from Russia
and some from Ukraine.
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And when this war in Ukraine started, he was keeping an eye on how this was going to flow
in the Christian church.
And he said in his church, it was fine because everyone understood, it's not my Ukrainian
brother sitting next to a Russian brother that's causing the problem, it's not them.
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They also had the revelation that we are a family now.
We had come out of that.
And yes, that's their heritage, being Russian or Ukrainian, it's their heritage where they
come from.
But we're in a new body now and it's the body of Christ.
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And enmity can cause a person to argue or to oppose a person or step away from them
because of what happens in a homeland.
And there it is a trap, for one to say the least, that they need to question where they
are really at in the body of Christ because it's not them that is doing it to you.
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And so we have heard of stories where Russian and Ukrainian Christians have had disagreements.
And in some cases, not here, in some cases, some had decided to leave to go to a different
church to avoid the problem.
And can I say that that is a problem?
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Because the realization has not yet hit home that they have come out of all of that and
into a new family, that enmity needs to be crucified.
It needs to be dealt with.
And there's only one way it can be dealt with and that is the cross of Calvary.
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It's the only way.
I remember my mum, oh my mum's here today, hi mum, I promise I won't tell any secrets
out of school today.
I got in trouble the last time I was sharing about how I used to forge my mum's signature
so I could wag school.
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That was a big mistake.
The second mistake was inviting mum and dad around the next day for lunch so it was still
fresh.
You know, we're always learning, but not fast enough.
When my mum and her family migrated from Germany to Australia, and now I speak on behalf of
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other migrants that came on the back of the Second World War, that if you came to Australia
and you had an accent, you were pushed away.
You were regarded as the enemy.
In many cases there was hostility.
But what they didn't realise was by the mercy of God, God had opened passage for these people
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to come to a peaceful country, to start life again.
They didn't start the war.
They didn't cause the trouble.
They're casualties of war.
And we thank God that they came to this nation of Australia so they could get started again.
But there were a bunch of Aussies, most of which are probably first generation Aussies,
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their parents immigrants themselves, took it upon themselves to exercise this enmity
against the new arrivals.
And instead of their being a welcoming to say, hey, our home is your home.
You are welcome here.
Let us help you.
Let us give you some of our food.
Let us, it didn't always happen.
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There was not a great big welcoming that rolled out for many.
And they had to experience the hard way, racism and hostility that to some this day still
think about.
And it can damage a person for life.
So let me take that into today.
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We see the rainbow politics.
It's going to get really quiet in here.
That there was a time when, and it still hasn't happened for a while, but when I wear my church
shirt during the week, it's got the church name on there and that.
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And in public, it's not always accepted.
And I went through a season where there were a number of people who are from the gay community
that would chip me.
They would have a go at me.
They would try and rile me up.
And at one point I was considering not wearing the shirt anymore.
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And I just thought, no, I need to keep wearing the shirt.
And you know what happened?
And if it wasn't for the Lord, I would still be in this position today.
But I started developing this resentment toward these people, toward this people group.
This resentment and this opposition.
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And it wasn't a hatred, but I do believe that if it wasn't addressed early in the part,
it could have easily led there.
And the Lord is saying to me, He says, the answer to this is not you being resentful
to them, it's loving them.
And I realized that I had to deal with this enmity that was in me that I didn't know was
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there and would never have known it was there until the button was pressed.
Is there anyone here today that knows what I'm speaking about?
And so this enmity, they are real people just like you and I.
They are real people whom God loves.
They are real people who are yet to find the saving grace of God.
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And it is us, free of that enmity and judgment toward that people group, to do our best to
be that light in the darkness, to at least pave a way for them that one day they may
follow.
Because why is it that we can judge different levels of sin or lifestyles?
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You know, we were once in darkness before we came to Christ.
And so God wants to use us to be that witness for Him.
Now I'm not saying that I agree with the lifestyle, that's a different thing altogether.
And I don't, I do not.
But what the Lord was dealing with me was this resentment inside toward that people
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group.
And as we look inside of our hearts this morning, the question needs to be asked within ourselves
do I carry some kind of resentment toward these people because if we do, we are never
ever going to be an effective witness for Christ for them.
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Now let's go a bit deeper.
Let's talk about our government of this nation of Australia.
Now it's going to get even quieter again.
There are things, let's go back a little bit more and let's go to COVID when the lockdown
was on.
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Wow.
I could tell you that there was opposition in my heart toward the government and you
know we could say it was not without reason.
But it doesn't cut the mustard with God, regardless if there's a reason or not.
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And hear me out on this, that there were many times that within my small little mind that
I would devise ways and plans and things as to how I can resist and rebel against this
for the good of the kingdom of God.
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Now I know that many of us struggled the same as I did.
How many of us struggled through that time?
It was a horrible time and it came to pass.
But the Lord was dealing with me through that as well saying, Rob I've never asked you to
criticize the government.
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I've asked you to pray for them.
And I had this revelation that if the nation of Australia, if we could weigh in the scales,
the criticism against the government and the prayer for our government, I wonder where
the scales would have tipped.
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Amnesty would have tipped the scales down in the area of criticism.
But spirit people, it would have been pray for the government.
The most powerful thing we can do is to pray and to lift our government up even though
we do not agree with what is going on.
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But resentment and criticism from our mouth is negative intercession.
It incites the wrong spirit.
I'm going to say that again, criticism is a wrong intercession and it incites the power
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of darkness when we are critical.
As Christians we are not to be critical but we are to be constructive in advancing through
whatever situation our nation may be going through.
And even though we may not know entirely what is going on, we know one thing is for sure,
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especially through the lockdown, is that God is still God.
That heaven was not locked down.
That heaven was not broke.
That God did not abdicate His throne and give it over to a government group.
God was still ruling and reigning throughout this land of Australia, throughout this world.
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Did we agree with a lot what was happening?
No.
But did we criticize?
And if there was that criticism and that sentiment to oppose and to, you know, this hostility
that we saw that was happening in Australia, that means that it's magnifying this problem
of enmity.
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And so there's enmity between two groups, between the people and the government, the
Christians and the gay community.
Are you hearing me today?
Are you still with me?
It's going to get even better.
God wants to deal with this in the Christian church, that enmity He wants crucified so
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that when we go out in the highways and byways throughout life, we're not carrying any resentment
or hatred or hostility or racism toward any people group, any government group or any
religion that we are free from or that we've stepped out of it as a born-again believer.
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And there we are embracing the kingdom of God, its culture, our mandate, everything
that Christ, and you will see that when we fit into that criteria and that condition,
it's there that the Holy Spirit finds a vessel that He can move through.
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And you will find that your level of power in evangelism will start escalating and you
begin to see that the people will be saved, that people will listen, because I tell you
now that I don't know about you, but me as an unsaved man, when people used to, you know,
drink a fair bit and people witness to me and they condemn me for the drinking and you
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know, that doesn't do a lot for a person.
And this sentiment, this resentment, you feel it.
You see, people were drawn to Jesus.
He didn't have to go looking for a congregation.
The congregation found Him.
And one of the things, if you study the life of Jesus, there was no enmity between Him
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and any single person, any single government.
Oh, what about the religious leaders?
There was no enmity there.
Oh yes, He pulled up some things.
But there was no hostility, there was no hatred.
And there was certainly no revenge.
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And when we speak about racism, we really need to understand that we as Christians certainly
do not have the right or the mandate to act in this in a racial way.
I'd just like to spare a thought for Jonah at this present time.
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Jonah and the whale, that's usually what we think of, right?
Now that is part of the story.
But why is the story of Jonah so, so important?
Jonah himself was a prophet.
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And God said to him one day, Jonah, I want you to pack up all your gear and I want you
to go to that great city Nineveh and preach a message for them to repent because judgment
is pending on those people, the Assyrians.
Now why did Jonah say, I ain't doing that?
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Nineveh, it was about 500 miles east, northeast from where he was.
So he headed to Tarshish, which is two and a half thousand miles to the west.
He couldn't get any further away from the call.
Now that tells me that there was something within Jonah that was not right.
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And when you study the story and find out what was happening, the Ninevites, the Assyrians,
they were known as the terrorists as that exist today.
They would show up unannounced in their droves and slaughter men, women, children, take all
their crops, take their livestock, take everything.
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And so the people of God year after year were being raped and pillaged, threatened, murdered
by these Assyrians.
And then God says to Jonah, Jonah, I'm sending you to these very people who are destroying
your people.
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And I have a message of repentance for them because I love them.
And Jonah's thinking, well, you can count me out.
I'm out of here.
You see, there was enmity between Jonah and the Ninevites.
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God had given Jonah an incredible message to preach.
But what Jonah did not understand, his obedience to the call was the very thing that was going
to stop the Ninevites attacking their people.
He didn't see it.
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And so God had given Jonah the message.
God saw what was happening to his own people.
And God's answer was, okay, Jonah, you, now you're going to go to the Ninevites and you're
going to proclaim judgment is coming.
You need to repent.
And Jonah is saying, well, God, you are a great and merciful God.
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And if they do repent, I'm not going to be happy about it.
You see, Jonah's attitude, he had a wrong attitude even to the last day when God dealt
with a nation of Nineveh or those people at Nineveh.
And if you were to describe his wrong attitude, it was enmity.
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Jonah had hostility toward those people and rightly so in the natural.
Did he have hatred to them?
Possibly.
Was he opposed to them?
Absolutely.
Did he have resentment toward them?
100%.
Was he racist in that regard?
Yes, he was.
And was there revenge in his heart?
Yes, there was.
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And so God picks a person and says, guess what?
You've got all of that in your heart and you're the perfect person.
Praise the Lord.
And I'm going to use you and you're going to go over there and say, Jonah goes west.
And then he gets thrown out of the boat and God prepared a big fish to swallow him up.
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I tell you what, Jonah had an interesting prayer meeting in the belly of a fish.
Is that an attitude adjustment or what?
And then he gets vomited out onto dry land and he gets out, I could just imagine seaweed
and stuff hanging over him and smelling like whatever.
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I just had this picture of him standing on the shore, all these weeds hanging off and
all this vomit from the fish and he's walking along going, repent.
No wonder they turned so quickly.
But when he was vomited out onto the land, God said, right, we're going to try this the
second time.
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I told you before, Jonah, I'm telling you again, go to Nineveh and preach this message
of repentance.
It was more than a message of repentance.
It was more a message of God's love for these people.
And he carried that enmity right through and he never enjoyed his ministry.
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It was hard for him.
Oh, it would have been so much easier for him to just surrender.
And that goes, I think, for each and every one of us.
But can you see the story of Jonah with enmity going to a people group that has been murdering
and killing his own people?
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But God's master plan was, this is my way of finishing the problem that you guys are
complaining about.
And it took one person, just one.
And so today, Nineveh is the modern day Mosul, I think that's how you say it, in Iraq.
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And that place today is still one of the headquarters of terrorism.
Thousands of years later, Nineveh repented, but it wasn't long before they got back in
their game again.
But it was long enough for a relief for the people of God.
And now I want to shift as I close to a totally different realm here that I believe that the
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foundation as it's been laid now is going to really go deep in our hearts this morning.
And I want to turn to Mark 11.
And there's a very powerful passage of Scripture here that I believe is going to minister to
the depths of our hearts this morning.
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Mark 11, I'm going to read from verse 22.
Here we go.
This is just after Jesus cursed the fig tree, it withered up from the roots.
And so Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God, because they said, Lord, that
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tree that you cursed, it's withered from the roots up.
And he says, Jesus said, for assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be
removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those
things that he says will be done and he will have whatever he says, therefore I say to
you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will
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have them.
You know, unfortunately, many times that's where this passage of teaching stops.
In the original Scriptures, there are no chapters and verses, it's one continuous writing.
But we just saw there, verse 22 to 24, let's say as a typical church life.
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People of God, people of faith, believing God and moving ahead with the things of God.
But Jesus actually says and, now and is a connecting word.
So all these wonderful things and whenever you stand praying.
So what is the position here?
What's it about?
About our prayer, when we're praying.
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If you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive
you your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Now what has enmity got to do with forgiveness, unforgiveness?
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I'm glad you asked.
It has everything to do with it.
There is so much taught on forgiveness in the Bible, in the Scriptures, so much.
So much so that it cannot be ignored.
Teaching here, Jesus speaking, that if there is unforgiveness in our hearts toward others,
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your prayer ain't going to work.
It's going to be a very dry old argument if you like.
But many have said over the years and I've said it myself, how do I know if I've forgiven?
Has anyone ever asked that question?
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I want to forgive, I don't know how to forgive.
Sometimes some people say, well you know this thing about you need to forgive yourself.
How does that work?
How does somebody forgive themselves?
And there's no biblical answer for that.
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The only biblical answer to that is that we receive forgiveness.
That if we have done something that we've regretted, we don't have the authority to
forgive ourselves, but we do have the right to stand before God and say, God I made a
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mistake, I'm asking that you would forgive me.
That is the difference.
But forgiveness, if ever we are struggling with forgiveness, the mistake that can be
made so many times is that we focus on this end result of forgiveness.
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And that's not where we start.
You see, forgiveness or unforgiveness involves enmity.
If we are struggling to forgive, that means there may be hostility between you and that
person or those people.
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There may be just a little bit of hatred there or an opposition toward them.
And if we're struggling to forgive, maybe there's a bit of resentment from me to them.
Maybe even a little bit of revenge.
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Forgiveness it's, Lord I'll forgive them when I see your judgment come upon them, and Lord
on that you strike them for what they did to me.
That's revenge.
I'll never see or speak to them ever again.
That's opposition.
It's enmity.
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I never want to see them again.
Hatred.
Why is it that we spend so much time trying to get to the end result of forgiveness when
we really need to be looking at enmity?
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And to deal with enmity, to deal with our emotions toward a person.
And if our emotions toward a person or people, that we are healed from that, then the end
result is we have forgiven.
Is that making sense this morning?
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This church, this is a big revelation on forgiveness.
See forgiveness really has little or anything to do with the person that may have offended
you or wronged you.
Forgiveness has everything to do with you and your life and your future and your freedom
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and your success in Christ.
That's what forgiveness is about.
But you know it's, but you don't know what they say about me and you don't know what
they think about me.
I remember saying that to the Lord one time and the Lord told me, He said, what people
think about you is none of your business.
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And what people say about you is none of your business.
But if you make it your business, and many of us have done that, but if you make it your
business, you'll go down a road that you'll never come back from.
But being assured to know this, it's none of your business what people say or think
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about you.
It's none of your concern and it's none of mine what they say about me.
And if we could capture this just today, just this one thing, then there'll be no more of
this fueling hostility and hatred and opposition, resentment, racism and revenge.
It just, it stops all that.
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So here, here is the deal.
How do I then deal with enmity where two parties are fractured, where there is disagreement,
discord in between two parties?
Exactly the same way that Jesus brought Jew and Gentile together and it is the cross of
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Calvary that I know for me, forgiveness was never a request from God.
It's a command.
It wasn't a suggestion.
But when we understand that forgiveness is my duty as a believer to forgive, that means
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then if I'm experiencing enmity toward another, then I'm starting to learn something about
me.
Just in the same way, when the two, the Jew and the Gentile came into one body and there
was peace, that we take that same principle and if the person that you may be, you know,
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set against is a Christian, whether they apologize or not is totally irrelevant.
They may never forgive you ever.
You may never hear the words sorry.
And if we are depending upon hearing those words to move on in life, we have got the
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wrong, we're on the wrong path.
It is so important to know that forgiveness has everything to do about you, not them.
When you forgive them and I forgive them and I realize that because of what Jesus did on
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the cross, I'm at peace with God and I am to be at peace with my brother or sister,
and that by choice, I choose as an act of my free will to release them, to no longer
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carry resentment toward them.
You see, the agape love, which was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that's Romans
chapter 5 and verse 5, that you and I, when we came into the family of God with all different
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nations and all the different people types coming in, that we all received something
that is so important and that is agape love.
Agape love holds no wrongs against others.
Agape love holds them in high esteem, regardless what they have done to you.
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The agape love that hung on the cross at Calvary for you and I forgave us of all of our sin.
And the same person Jesus, when He said, Lord forgive them, for they don't know what they
do, how valuable that is for us to echo those same words from our hearts, Lord forgive them.
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They obviously don't know what they've said or they're doing is wrong, but I forgive them
and I choose to not be resentful.
Holy Spirit would you help me to deal with this enmity that is in there somewhere that
there's a bit of a hostility raging inside of me against them, Lord that you would quell
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that in my spirit, that I yield my life entirely to you, that you would by your Spirit come
and extinguish that in my life.
As the scripture says, how that enmity was crucified, Lord let that be crucified, let
it be killed in my life.
I don't want that to change me.
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I don't want what people are doing against me to change who I am in you.
Now that's a good prayer to pray.
There are difficult times that we face with certain situations with people and there are
times that maybe you and I have to set a standard and that sort of thing, but we don't ever,
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ever allow enmity to rise up in us toward people because there I believe it hinders
God from moving.
I really do.
God is a good God.
He is a good God.
Amen.
He is so good and today we all came into the family of God through what Jesus did for us.
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On the cross of Calvary where Jesus was nailed, He willingly went to the cross for you and
for me.
It was love that nailed Him to the cross.
He gave His life as a ransom for ours.
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There are so many different religions on the face of this earth, so many.
Like my dad said to me one day, he said, well, how do you know which one's right?
It's a good question, isn't it?
I like to look at the fruit as a result of that religion as to what it does, how it treats
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people, how it treats women, how it treats children, how it treats a family unit.
Is it a religion of war or is it a religion of peace?
But it's always important to go back to the founder of that religion and find out about
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that person.
And when we look at this with Christianity, Christianity is the only religion, it's not
a religion, it's a way of life.
Christianity is the only way of life of which its founder is still alive.
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Jesus was raised from the dead around 2000 years ago and He is alive forevermore.
We are seeing all the time around the world that Christianity is the strongest growing
religion, if you like, in the entire world.
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Nothing has ever come close.
Other religions are growing by birth rate.
Christianity is growing through evangelism, you must remember that.
Some nations that are, you know, their birth rate is exploding and their religion explodes,
but it's not through evangelism, it's not personal choice that people were born into
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it.
Christianity is something that I can choose.
And I tell you, when I came to Christ, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
When the Scripture says about the peace, that Jesus is our peace, that was the first thing
that I experienced was this incredible peace that literally overwhelmed me.
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Amen.
This morning as I close, yes that was my second close.
If you have never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, what does that mean?
That simply means Jesus, I want you.
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I want you in my life.
I need you in my life.
Because if you do that today, you'll experience such a blessing.
You'll experience a peace and a knowing who the real God is.
There's good God, a graceful God, a merciful God.
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God that will always hold your needs up before Himself and honor you and love you.
Treating all people equal.
And there's only one way that we can receive this and that is through Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, Jesus said, I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life.
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That no man comes to the Father but by me.
There's no other way.
There's no other way to God.
It has always been this way and through Jesus.
And yet people in so many different religions and philosophies work so hard to please God.
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But man's efforts will never ever appease God in that way.
And no matter how good we try to be, our own righteousness will never satisfy the righteous
requirement of God.
And when we receive Christ into our life, it's His righteousness in us and that's the
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only way to appease that level of righteousness that God requires.
It's the only way.
No other way.
It cannot be done any other way.
So you're here today or you're watching online.
If you want to receive Christ into your life today, it is very simple.
It's a heart issue that we would say, Jesus, I need you.
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I want you in my life.
I accept you into my life.
Forgive me of the things that I've done and I receive you as my Lord and Savior.
And do you know at that point, Jesus will forgive you of all things you have done wrong
or possibly done wrong in your life.
And as we heard in communion, totally everything acquitted, freed, totally accepted by God.
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How good is that?
Is there anyone here this morning that you desire to receive this most precious gift
of salvation freely given to you?
What I'd like to do is to pray a short prayer.
And if you would repeat this prayer after me and follow me in this prayer, it will lead
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you in to this blessing.
But once you're in that blessing, it is so important that we be discipled and to hang
around people who can teach us more and cause us to grow in the ways of God.
But I'm going to pray this prayer and I do encourage you to pray with me this morning.
Is that okay?
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And those watching online, would you follow me in prayer?
You ready?
Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.
I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you, Jesus, are the Son of God
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and you died for me.
God, you raised him from the dead for me.
This day, I'm sorry for all the things I've done wrong and I ask you to forgive me.
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And this day, I give my life to you, Jesus.
Amen.
Amen.
Now, if you prayed that prayer this morning, I just need you to do one of three things.
First, could you just raise your hand?
Would you just raise your hand quickly?
Just let me see that hand.
I see the hand there.
I see some hands there.
Just raise your hand.
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Is there anyone else here this morning that you have made a commitment to Jesus, to follow
Jesus?
Don't be shy.
If you've prayed that prayer, would you just raise your hand?
Last time, would you just raise your hand?
I see those hands.
Praise the Lord.
Now, what I'd like to do, those of you who have raised your hand, would you like to come
forward?
We want to pray for you.
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We want to bless you and pray that the Spirit of God will just do a incredible work in your
life.
You can lower your hand.
Thank you.
Praise be to God.
Okay, can we do that this morning?
Praise God.
Now remember, enmity was crucified at the cross of Calvary.
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Has that helped you understand forgiveness a bit more now?
Our enmity and forgiveness, unforgiveness are so related to forgive.
It's very important.
Anyway.
Thank you for joining us.
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We pray God's richest blessing on your life.
If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.
See you next week.
Welcome to Logan City Christian Church Podcast, where we bring God's Word to you weekly.
(00:07):
We pray what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.
Enjoy the message.
God is just so good.
And I really appreciate the praise and worship team so much and everybody.
Yeah.
And everybody who puts their hand to the plow, does everything in this church.
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It wouldn't happen without you guys.
And we're just so grateful.
We really, really are.
I just very excited about what God is doing in our lives and the awesome testimonies that
we've been hearing and seeing what God's doing, just what He does so well.
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And He is a good God.
He is such a good God.
You know, this morning, I'm just going to get straight into it because this message
has you probably think He says this every Sunday, but this message has been, G'day,
Dale, has been stirring in my spirit for quite some time now.
And this is kind of like, if you were here with the message I did on racism, this is
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like part two of that message.
And racism doesn't have a place in the body of Christ.
Jesus, He pulled down that middle wall of division and when we come into the body of
Christ, we are all equal.
We are all the same.
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We've been washed by the same blood.
We've been saved by the same grace.
We have come into the same family as God.
And sometimes it doesn't always work out as simply as that though.
And that's where I want to pick up today as to why this can happen.
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And sometimes we can come into the family of God and still carry some sentiments, some
pains from our past.
And especially when it comes to coming out from a particular, say, religion or a culture
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and having other religions and cultures, whether there's been a religious war or a cultural
war or disagreement or just that angst between different nations, different nationalities.
And when we came into the body of Christ, that was actually dealt with.
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And so I believe this morning the message will be an awareness of what happened when
we came into the body of Christ and not only what happened but how it happened and then
our fresh outlook in life from this new life we have in Christ Jesus.
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And I'm going to pick up from Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 14.
And the Word of God reads, for He, that's Jesus, for He Himself is our peace, who has
made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.
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Now where it says that Jesus is our peace, it's not speaking of Shalom peace, it's speaking
of Iron Age peace.
I shared this a few weeks ago how the peace of God, it brings all fractured pieces together
back to an original order or back to an original condition.
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And it's only Jesus who can bring together nations that are so fractured and against
each other, it's only Him with His peace within a nation or within a person of that nation
to come together.
And you know we are so blessed in this congregation to have so many different nationalities, I
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think it's 37 at the last count, that each nationality gets along with each other.
That you know I know some of you guys are sitting here in the same room where the other
person from their nation had actually been at war with your nation.
But you came to Christ and you realized that that was what happened then, that it's different
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now.
Everyone had come out of that culture and have been placed firmly into the kingdom culture
of God where everything is different.
And so Jesus is our peace who has made both one, what's He speaking about both one?
In here it's a direct connection relating to the Jews and the Gentiles.
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How bad could they think that that could ever be done?
And it did happen.
Now I do not believe in replacement theology that the church replaced, you know the Jewish
tradition and culture on that, but I do believe in dispensational theology.
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What I'm sharing today is dispensational, dispensational means that there was a time
coming where things were going to change whether we like it or not.
And the dispensation of the New Testament, it's a time that has come that God had foreordained
right from back in Genesis chapter 3 where God had made a promise, it was prophesied
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that there would come a Savior and this Savior is going to dominate over the works of evil.
And then throughout Scripture this dispensation that we live in today of grace, the kingdom
of God, kingdom dynamics, kingdom culture was coming and we are in it today.
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And so Jesus had made one out of two.
So the key here is that we've got to see that Jesus Himself, the work that He did, no matter
what nationality we, our birth nationality is, whatever our religion has been, that if
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we truly come to Christ we step out of that entirely, everything, and then we are placed
into the new birth that we now become a new creature that never existed before.
And that is the new birth, that is the new you, that is the born again you, fully and
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wholly accepted by God and there we don't bring our cultures into the kingdom culture,
we then learn the kingdom culture.
And where it goes wrong is when I would want to bring my previous culture or beliefs into
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this new kingdom culture that we're in and then that's where things start, is that well
I'm a Christian now but we should be keeping this and we should be doing that and we should
be, no.
It's there where strife starts and can do.
And verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, and this is the word today that
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I will be focusing on and the title of this message is enmity crucified.
Enmity crucified.
This enmity is a big problem.
I'm going to explain in a minute what it is, but it is a huge problem, but that has already
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been dealt with at the cross of Calvary.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances
so as to create in himself one new man from the two.
We got this, one new from the two into one.
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Let me just find where I was.
I'll start verse 15 again.
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances
so as to create in himself one new man from the two thus making peace.
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Can I mention something here?
If there are two individuals trying to be one, holding on to their old, there will not
be peace.
It's impossible.
He says here that he himself, one new man from the two thus making peace.
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That means that each person coming into the kingdom of God accepts the culture and the
kingdom dynamics and the constitution of that kingdom, the rules and its powers and the
way that we live and the way we operate.
And verse 16, and that he might reconcile them both, whose them, the them are the Jews
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and the Gentiles, that he might reconcile them both to God in one body, not individuals.
That is one body through the cross, listen to this, through the cross thereby putting
to death enmity.
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And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near for
through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.
Now it's abundantly clear here that the two become one.
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It's not a melting pot.
Christianity is not a melting pot of different cultures.
Christianity is not a melting pot of all different religions.
You see, for me, when I got saved, an unsaved person therefore falling in the category of
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a Gentile, I did not bring my Gentile beliefs and ways into the kingdom of God.
That had to be left outside.
Now please hear me right here.
The same happened with the Jews.
It's one new man.
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It's one new position in God.
And this is what can go wrong is that when these things are not left outside and our
traditions and our ways want to come in and to try and help God to do what he wants to
do, there will never be peace.
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There will always be conflict because one person's opinion and the other person's opinion
or their belief will be in conflict.
And that's why God in his kingdom has one constitution.
He has one word.
He has one way.
And he only made one way for humanity to come into his kingdom and to be forgiven for all
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their sins.
And that was through his son Jesus Christ.
There is only one way to God and that is Jesus.
There's only one way.
So this enmity, what does it mean?
It means hostility, hatred, opposition, resentment.
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It also can mean racism and revenge.
Let me read them again.
Hostility, it means hostility, hatred, opposition, resentment, racism and revenge.
Now if I can put this in context with this scripture, in verse 16, and that he might
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reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death hostility
between each other, putting to death hatred between each other, to eliminating opposition,
to eliminate and put to death resentment between nations and between people, to eliminate the
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very thing of racism it has been dealt with at the cross at Calvary.
And revenge, there is no revenge in the kingdom of God.
And this is the very work of the cross that it says here that through the cross, thereby
putting to death, I don't know if you realise, but when something is dead, it's dead, finished,
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kaput, no more, it's dead.
And so in the kingdom of God, enmity that was working outside nation against nation,
against religion, and this angst against each other, the hostility and the wars and the
revenge and we're seeing this happening today, a hatred and all of these things happening
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and the Word of God is saying, however, when you come into the kingdom of God, the cross
has put a line through that.
And what happens is, is like for me, I'm sure with you as well, that when I got saved, it's
like we start to realise that there's a different way of living.
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And we see that when we experience this amazing grace of God, by the way, Reinhardt, that
communion was sensational.
It was excellent.
So all of our sins were forgiven.
We were clear that debts were paid in full and this inner knowing as a newborn Christian
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that I really have no right or no place considering all of the benefits we've just received, forgiveness
of sin, that I should now start judge another or hold, you know, wrong attitude to another
race or religion or another people movement.
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Because something changed within our hearts and that was the cross at Calvary that did
that, the work of the cross.
You know, this hostility is a horrible thing and we're seeing this hostility, you know,
in the Middle East that's happening right at this very moment.
There are, you know, it's just one, a hair, you know, between another war, some major
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scale war is right there and, you know, people try with peace talks and they try with cease
fires and all this sort of thing.
But I want to tell you that I know as well, I'm sure you know this too, that the only
way there can be an end to war is Jesus.
Because if people come out of their ways of thinking that are not working and we all come
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into one place, one kingdom, one rule, one Lord, that everybody is equal, that we suddenly
realize we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we don't fight each other.
And so, the cross of Calvary has a major effect on enmity.
The cross of Christ that if there was any hostility in our hearts toward anybody, that
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the Spirit of God would desire and will arrest that in Jesus' name and hatred and opposition
and resentment and racism and revenge, that we become a much better person when we are
freed from all of those things.
Amen?
Now, if you are a missionary, which there are quite a few here this morning, you would
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know that God had placed a nation on your heart.
I was speaking to a missionary just weeks ago and he said, I couldn't believe it that
God sent me to a nation that I did not want to go because this is what he said, I have
a problem with those people.
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I have a problem with them.
And he said, this really can't be God that's sending me there.
I said, oh no, that sounds like God to me.
Because obviously you have some hostility or some revenge or maybe there's some resentment
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there between you and the nation that God is sending you to.
And so, what he decided to do was to pray and seek God.
And God revealed to him that you have to deal with your own insecurities and fears of this
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nation and when you do, I am going to use you.
And he ended up using this guy in an amazing way and now he has such a love for these people,
he realized that they weren't the problem, he was.
And so, enmity can do this to us.
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I recall the story that I heard, I watched it on TV, an American preacher that I follow
quite a lot, he was saying that there were people in his church that some were from Russia
and some from Ukraine.
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And when this war in Ukraine started, he was keeping an eye on how this was going to flow
in the Christian church.
And he said in his church, it was fine because everyone understood, it's not my Ukrainian
brother sitting next to a Russian brother that's causing the problem, it's not them.
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They also had the revelation that we are a family now.
We had come out of that.
And yes, that's their heritage, being Russian or Ukrainian, it's their heritage where they
come from.
But we're in a new body now and it's the body of Christ.
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And enmity can cause a person to argue or to oppose a person or step away from them
because of what happens in a homeland.
And there it is a trap, for one to say the least, that they need to question where they
are really at in the body of Christ because it's not them that is doing it to you.
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And so we have heard of stories where Russian and Ukrainian Christians have had disagreements.
And in some cases, not here, in some cases, some had decided to leave to go to a different
church to avoid the problem.
And can I say that that is a problem?
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Because the realization has not yet hit home that they have come out of all of that and
into a new family, that enmity needs to be crucified.
It needs to be dealt with.
And there's only one way it can be dealt with and that is the cross of Calvary.
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It's the only way.
I remember my mum, oh my mum's here today, hi mum, I promise I won't tell any secrets
out of school today.
I got in trouble the last time I was sharing about how I used to forge my mum's signature
so I could wag school.
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That was a big mistake.
The second mistake was inviting mum and dad around the next day for lunch so it was still
fresh.
You know, we're always learning, but not fast enough.
When my mum and her family migrated from Germany to Australia, and now I speak on behalf of
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other migrants that came on the back of the Second World War, that if you came to Australia
and you had an accent, you were pushed away.
You were regarded as the enemy.
In many cases there was hostility.
But what they didn't realise was by the mercy of God, God had opened passage for these people
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to come to a peaceful country, to start life again.
They didn't start the war.
They didn't cause the trouble.
They're casualties of war.
And we thank God that they came to this nation of Australia so they could get started again.
But there were a bunch of Aussies, most of which are probably first generation Aussies,
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their parents immigrants themselves, took it upon themselves to exercise this enmity
against the new arrivals.
And instead of their being a welcoming to say, hey, our home is your home.
You are welcome here.
Let us help you.
Let us give you some of our food.
Let us, it didn't always happen.
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There was not a great big welcoming that rolled out for many.
And they had to experience the hard way, racism and hostility that to some this day still
think about.
And it can damage a person for life.
So let me take that into today.
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We see the rainbow politics.
It's going to get really quiet in here.
That there was a time when, and it still hasn't happened for a while, but when I wear my church
shirt during the week, it's got the church name on there and that.
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And in public, it's not always accepted.
And I went through a season where there were a number of people who are from the gay community
that would chip me.
They would have a go at me.
They would try and rile me up.
And at one point I was considering not wearing the shirt anymore.
(23:56):
And I just thought, no, I need to keep wearing the shirt.
And you know what happened?
And if it wasn't for the Lord, I would still be in this position today.
But I started developing this resentment toward these people, toward this people group.
This resentment and this opposition.
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And it wasn't a hatred, but I do believe that if it wasn't addressed early in the part,
it could have easily led there.
And the Lord is saying to me, He says, the answer to this is not you being resentful
to them, it's loving them.
And I realized that I had to deal with this enmity that was in me that I didn't know was
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there and would never have known it was there until the button was pressed.
Is there anyone here today that knows what I'm speaking about?
And so this enmity, they are real people just like you and I.
They are real people whom God loves.
They are real people who are yet to find the saving grace of God.
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And it is us, free of that enmity and judgment toward that people group, to do our best to
be that light in the darkness, to at least pave a way for them that one day they may
follow.
Because why is it that we can judge different levels of sin or lifestyles?
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You know, we were once in darkness before we came to Christ.
And so God wants to use us to be that witness for Him.
Now I'm not saying that I agree with the lifestyle, that's a different thing altogether.
And I don't, I do not.
But what the Lord was dealing with me was this resentment inside toward that people
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group.
And as we look inside of our hearts this morning, the question needs to be asked within ourselves
do I carry some kind of resentment toward these people because if we do, we are never
ever going to be an effective witness for Christ for them.
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Now let's go a bit deeper.
Let's talk about our government of this nation of Australia.
Now it's going to get even quieter again.
There are things, let's go back a little bit more and let's go to COVID when the lockdown
was on.
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Wow.
I could tell you that there was opposition in my heart toward the government and you
know we could say it was not without reason.
But it doesn't cut the mustard with God, regardless if there's a reason or not.
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And hear me out on this, that there were many times that within my small little mind that
I would devise ways and plans and things as to how I can resist and rebel against this
for the good of the kingdom of God.
(27:18):
Now I know that many of us struggled the same as I did.
How many of us struggled through that time?
It was a horrible time and it came to pass.
But the Lord was dealing with me through that as well saying, Rob I've never asked you to
criticize the government.
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I've asked you to pray for them.
And I had this revelation that if the nation of Australia, if we could weigh in the scales,
the criticism against the government and the prayer for our government, I wonder where
the scales would have tipped.
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Amnesty would have tipped the scales down in the area of criticism.
But spirit people, it would have been pray for the government.
The most powerful thing we can do is to pray and to lift our government up even though
we do not agree with what is going on.
(28:26):
But resentment and criticism from our mouth is negative intercession.
It incites the wrong spirit.
I'm going to say that again, criticism is a wrong intercession and it incites the power
(28:49):
of darkness when we are critical.
As Christians we are not to be critical but we are to be constructive in advancing through
whatever situation our nation may be going through.
And even though we may not know entirely what is going on, we know one thing is for sure,
(29:14):
especially through the lockdown, is that God is still God.
That heaven was not locked down.
That heaven was not broke.
That God did not abdicate His throne and give it over to a government group.
God was still ruling and reigning throughout this land of Australia, throughout this world.
(29:35):
Did we agree with a lot what was happening?
No.
But did we criticize?
And if there was that criticism and that sentiment to oppose and to, you know, this hostility
that we saw that was happening in Australia, that means that it's magnifying this problem
of enmity.
(29:58):
And so there's enmity between two groups, between the people and the government, the
Christians and the gay community.
Are you hearing me today?
Are you still with me?
It's going to get even better.
God wants to deal with this in the Christian church, that enmity He wants crucified so
(30:24):
that when we go out in the highways and byways throughout life, we're not carrying any resentment
or hatred or hostility or racism toward any people group, any government group or any
religion that we are free from or that we've stepped out of it as a born-again believer.
(30:48):
And there we are embracing the kingdom of God, its culture, our mandate, everything
that Christ, and you will see that when we fit into that criteria and that condition,
it's there that the Holy Spirit finds a vessel that He can move through.
(31:09):
And you will find that your level of power in evangelism will start escalating and you
begin to see that the people will be saved, that people will listen, because I tell you
now that I don't know about you, but me as an unsaved man, when people used to, you know,
drink a fair bit and people witness to me and they condemn me for the drinking and you
(31:33):
know, that doesn't do a lot for a person.
And this sentiment, this resentment, you feel it.
You see, people were drawn to Jesus.
He didn't have to go looking for a congregation.
The congregation found Him.
And one of the things, if you study the life of Jesus, there was no enmity between Him
(31:56):
and any single person, any single government.
Oh, what about the religious leaders?
There was no enmity there.
Oh yes, He pulled up some things.
But there was no hostility, there was no hatred.
And there was certainly no revenge.
(32:18):
And when we speak about racism, we really need to understand that we as Christians certainly
do not have the right or the mandate to act in this in a racial way.
I'd just like to spare a thought for Jonah at this present time.
(32:42):
Jonah and the whale, that's usually what we think of, right?
Now that is part of the story.
But why is the story of Jonah so, so important?
Jonah himself was a prophet.
(33:02):
And God said to him one day, Jonah, I want you to pack up all your gear and I want you
to go to that great city Nineveh and preach a message for them to repent because judgment
is pending on those people, the Assyrians.
Now why did Jonah say, I ain't doing that?
(33:24):
Nineveh, it was about 500 miles east, northeast from where he was.
So he headed to Tarshish, which is two and a half thousand miles to the west.
He couldn't get any further away from the call.
Now that tells me that there was something within Jonah that was not right.
(33:50):
And when you study the story and find out what was happening, the Ninevites, the Assyrians,
they were known as the terrorists as that exist today.
They would show up unannounced in their droves and slaughter men, women, children, take all
their crops, take their livestock, take everything.
(34:14):
And so the people of God year after year were being raped and pillaged, threatened, murdered
by these Assyrians.
And then God says to Jonah, Jonah, I'm sending you to these very people who are destroying
your people.
(34:36):
And I have a message of repentance for them because I love them.
And Jonah's thinking, well, you can count me out.
I'm out of here.
You see, there was enmity between Jonah and the Ninevites.
(34:59):
God had given Jonah an incredible message to preach.
But what Jonah did not understand, his obedience to the call was the very thing that was going
to stop the Ninevites attacking their people.
He didn't see it.
(35:20):
And so God had given Jonah the message.
God saw what was happening to his own people.
And God's answer was, okay, Jonah, you, now you're going to go to the Ninevites and you're
going to proclaim judgment is coming.
You need to repent.
And Jonah is saying, well, God, you are a great and merciful God.
(35:44):
And if they do repent, I'm not going to be happy about it.
You see, Jonah's attitude, he had a wrong attitude even to the last day when God dealt
with a nation of Nineveh or those people at Nineveh.
And if you were to describe his wrong attitude, it was enmity.
(36:05):
Jonah had hostility toward those people and rightly so in the natural.
Did he have hatred to them?
Possibly.
Was he opposed to them?
Absolutely.
Did he have resentment toward them?
100%.
Was he racist in that regard?
Yes, he was.
And was there revenge in his heart?
Yes, there was.
(36:26):
And so God picks a person and says, guess what?
You've got all of that in your heart and you're the perfect person.
Praise the Lord.
And I'm going to use you and you're going to go over there and say, Jonah goes west.
And then he gets thrown out of the boat and God prepared a big fish to swallow him up.
(36:47):
I tell you what, Jonah had an interesting prayer meeting in the belly of a fish.
Is that an attitude adjustment or what?
And then he gets vomited out onto dry land and he gets out, I could just imagine seaweed
and stuff hanging over him and smelling like whatever.
(37:10):
I just had this picture of him standing on the shore, all these weeds hanging off and
all this vomit from the fish and he's walking along going, repent.
No wonder they turned so quickly.
But when he was vomited out onto the land, God said, right, we're going to try this the
second time.
(37:31):
I told you before, Jonah, I'm telling you again, go to Nineveh and preach this message
of repentance.
It was more than a message of repentance.
It was more a message of God's love for these people.
And he carried that enmity right through and he never enjoyed his ministry.
(37:55):
It was hard for him.
Oh, it would have been so much easier for him to just surrender.
And that goes, I think, for each and every one of us.
But can you see the story of Jonah with enmity going to a people group that has been murdering
and killing his own people?
(38:15):
But God's master plan was, this is my way of finishing the problem that you guys are
complaining about.
And it took one person, just one.
And so today, Nineveh is the modern day Mosul, I think that's how you say it, in Iraq.
(38:39):
And that place today is still one of the headquarters of terrorism.
Thousands of years later, Nineveh repented, but it wasn't long before they got back in
their game again.
But it was long enough for a relief for the people of God.
And now I want to shift as I close to a totally different realm here that I believe that the
(39:06):
foundation as it's been laid now is going to really go deep in our hearts this morning.
And I want to turn to Mark 11.
And there's a very powerful passage of Scripture here that I believe is going to minister to
the depths of our hearts this morning.
(39:30):
Mark 11, I'm going to read from verse 22.
Here we go.
This is just after Jesus cursed the fig tree, it withered up from the roots.
And so Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God, because they said, Lord, that
(39:53):
tree that you cursed, it's withered from the roots up.
And he says, Jesus said, for assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be
removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those
things that he says will be done and he will have whatever he says, therefore I say to
you whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will
(40:16):
have them.
You know, unfortunately, many times that's where this passage of teaching stops.
In the original Scriptures, there are no chapters and verses, it's one continuous writing.
But we just saw there, verse 22 to 24, let's say as a typical church life.
(40:37):
People of God, people of faith, believing God and moving ahead with the things of God.
But Jesus actually says and, now and is a connecting word.
So all these wonderful things and whenever you stand praying.
So what is the position here?
What's it about?
About our prayer, when we're praying.
(40:59):
If you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive
you your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Now what has enmity got to do with forgiveness, unforgiveness?
(41:26):
I'm glad you asked.
It has everything to do with it.
There is so much taught on forgiveness in the Bible, in the Scriptures, so much.
So much so that it cannot be ignored.
Teaching here, Jesus speaking, that if there is unforgiveness in our hearts toward others,
(41:54):
your prayer ain't going to work.
It's going to be a very dry old argument if you like.
But many have said over the years and I've said it myself, how do I know if I've forgiven?
Has anyone ever asked that question?
(42:16):
I want to forgive, I don't know how to forgive.
Sometimes some people say, well you know this thing about you need to forgive yourself.
How does that work?
How does somebody forgive themselves?
And there's no biblical answer for that.
(42:37):
The only biblical answer to that is that we receive forgiveness.
That if we have done something that we've regretted, we don't have the authority to
forgive ourselves, but we do have the right to stand before God and say, God I made a
(42:58):
mistake, I'm asking that you would forgive me.
That is the difference.
But forgiveness, if ever we are struggling with forgiveness, the mistake that can be
made so many times is that we focus on this end result of forgiveness.
(43:22):
And that's not where we start.
You see, forgiveness or unforgiveness involves enmity.
If we are struggling to forgive, that means there may be hostility between you and that
person or those people.
(43:42):
There may be just a little bit of hatred there or an opposition toward them.
And if we're struggling to forgive, maybe there's a bit of resentment from me to them.
Maybe even a little bit of revenge.
(44:06):
Forgiveness it's, Lord I'll forgive them when I see your judgment come upon them, and Lord
on that you strike them for what they did to me.
That's revenge.
I'll never see or speak to them ever again.
That's opposition.
It's enmity.
(44:29):
I never want to see them again.
Hatred.
Why is it that we spend so much time trying to get to the end result of forgiveness when
we really need to be looking at enmity?
(44:51):
And to deal with enmity, to deal with our emotions toward a person.
And if our emotions toward a person or people, that we are healed from that, then the end
result is we have forgiven.
Is that making sense this morning?
(45:13):
This church, this is a big revelation on forgiveness.
See forgiveness really has little or anything to do with the person that may have offended
you or wronged you.
Forgiveness has everything to do with you and your life and your future and your freedom
(45:36):
and your success in Christ.
That's what forgiveness is about.
But you know it's, but you don't know what they say about me and you don't know what
they think about me.
I remember saying that to the Lord one time and the Lord told me, He said, what people
think about you is none of your business.
(45:59):
And what people say about you is none of your business.
But if you make it your business, and many of us have done that, but if you make it your
business, you'll go down a road that you'll never come back from.
But being assured to know this, it's none of your business what people say or think
(46:22):
about you.
It's none of your concern and it's none of mine what they say about me.
And if we could capture this just today, just this one thing, then there'll be no more of
this fueling hostility and hatred and opposition, resentment, racism and revenge.
It just, it stops all that.
(46:44):
So here, here is the deal.
How do I then deal with enmity where two parties are fractured, where there is disagreement,
discord in between two parties?
Exactly the same way that Jesus brought Jew and Gentile together and it is the cross of
(47:12):
Calvary that I know for me, forgiveness was never a request from God.
It's a command.
It wasn't a suggestion.
But when we understand that forgiveness is my duty as a believer to forgive, that means
(47:37):
then if I'm experiencing enmity toward another, then I'm starting to learn something about
me.
Just in the same way, when the two, the Jew and the Gentile came into one body and there
was peace, that we take that same principle and if the person that you may be, you know,
(48:04):
set against is a Christian, whether they apologize or not is totally irrelevant.
They may never forgive you ever.
You may never hear the words sorry.
And if we are depending upon hearing those words to move on in life, we have got the
(48:25):
wrong, we're on the wrong path.
It is so important to know that forgiveness has everything to do about you, not them.
When you forgive them and I forgive them and I realize that because of what Jesus did on
(48:49):
the cross, I'm at peace with God and I am to be at peace with my brother or sister,
and that by choice, I choose as an act of my free will to release them, to no longer
(49:09):
carry resentment toward them.
You see, the agape love, which was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that's Romans
chapter 5 and verse 5, that you and I, when we came into the family of God with all different
(49:30):
nations and all the different people types coming in, that we all received something
that is so important and that is agape love.
Agape love holds no wrongs against others.
Agape love holds them in high esteem, regardless what they have done to you.
(49:59):
The agape love that hung on the cross at Calvary for you and I forgave us of all of our sin.
And the same person Jesus, when He said, Lord forgive them, for they don't know what they
do, how valuable that is for us to echo those same words from our hearts, Lord forgive them.
(50:24):
They obviously don't know what they've said or they're doing is wrong, but I forgive them
and I choose to not be resentful.
Holy Spirit would you help me to deal with this enmity that is in there somewhere that
there's a bit of a hostility raging inside of me against them, Lord that you would quell
(50:48):
that in my spirit, that I yield my life entirely to you, that you would by your Spirit come
and extinguish that in my life.
As the scripture says, how that enmity was crucified, Lord let that be crucified, let
it be killed in my life.
I don't want that to change me.
(51:11):
I don't want what people are doing against me to change who I am in you.
Now that's a good prayer to pray.
There are difficult times that we face with certain situations with people and there are
times that maybe you and I have to set a standard and that sort of thing, but we don't ever,
(51:36):
ever allow enmity to rise up in us toward people because there I believe it hinders
God from moving.
I really do.
God is a good God.
He is a good God.
Amen.
He is so good and today we all came into the family of God through what Jesus did for us.
(52:05):
On the cross of Calvary where Jesus was nailed, He willingly went to the cross for you and
for me.
It was love that nailed Him to the cross.
He gave His life as a ransom for ours.
(52:32):
There are so many different religions on the face of this earth, so many.
Like my dad said to me one day, he said, well, how do you know which one's right?
It's a good question, isn't it?
I like to look at the fruit as a result of that religion as to what it does, how it treats
(52:55):
people, how it treats women, how it treats children, how it treats a family unit.
Is it a religion of war or is it a religion of peace?
But it's always important to go back to the founder of that religion and find out about
(53:17):
that person.
And when we look at this with Christianity, Christianity is the only religion, it's not
a religion, it's a way of life.
Christianity is the only way of life of which its founder is still alive.
(53:42):
Jesus was raised from the dead around 2000 years ago and He is alive forevermore.
We are seeing all the time around the world that Christianity is the strongest growing
religion, if you like, in the entire world.
(54:05):
Nothing has ever come close.
Other religions are growing by birth rate.
Christianity is growing through evangelism, you must remember that.
Some nations that are, you know, their birth rate is exploding and their religion explodes,
but it's not through evangelism, it's not personal choice that people were born into
(54:27):
it.
Christianity is something that I can choose.
And I tell you, when I came to Christ, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
When the Scripture says about the peace, that Jesus is our peace, that was the first thing
that I experienced was this incredible peace that literally overwhelmed me.
(54:51):
Amen.
This morning as I close, yes that was my second close.
If you have never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, what does that mean?
That simply means Jesus, I want you.
(55:14):
I want you in my life.
I need you in my life.
Because if you do that today, you'll experience such a blessing.
You'll experience a peace and a knowing who the real God is.
There's good God, a graceful God, a merciful God.
(55:38):
God that will always hold your needs up before Himself and honor you and love you.
Treating all people equal.
And there's only one way that we can receive this and that is through Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, Jesus said, I am the way and I am the truth and I am the life.
(56:06):
That no man comes to the Father but by me.
There's no other way.
There's no other way to God.
It has always been this way and through Jesus.
And yet people in so many different religions and philosophies work so hard to please God.
(56:28):
But man's efforts will never ever appease God in that way.
And no matter how good we try to be, our own righteousness will never satisfy the righteous
requirement of God.
And when we receive Christ into our life, it's His righteousness in us and that's the
(56:49):
only way to appease that level of righteousness that God requires.
It's the only way.
No other way.
It cannot be done any other way.
So you're here today or you're watching online.
If you want to receive Christ into your life today, it is very simple.
It's a heart issue that we would say, Jesus, I need you.
(57:14):
I want you in my life.
I accept you into my life.
Forgive me of the things that I've done and I receive you as my Lord and Savior.
And do you know at that point, Jesus will forgive you of all things you have done wrong
or possibly done wrong in your life.
And as we heard in communion, totally everything acquitted, freed, totally accepted by God.
(57:41):
How good is that?
Is there anyone here this morning that you desire to receive this most precious gift
of salvation freely given to you?
What I'd like to do is to pray a short prayer.
And if you would repeat this prayer after me and follow me in this prayer, it will lead
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you in to this blessing.
But once you're in that blessing, it is so important that we be discipled and to hang
around people who can teach us more and cause us to grow in the ways of God.
But I'm going to pray this prayer and I do encourage you to pray with me this morning.
Is that okay?
(58:24):
And those watching online, would you follow me in prayer?
You ready?
Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.
I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that you, Jesus, are the Son of God
(58:48):
and you died for me.
God, you raised him from the dead for me.
This day, I'm sorry for all the things I've done wrong and I ask you to forgive me.
(59:08):
And this day, I give my life to you, Jesus.
Amen.
Amen.
Now, if you prayed that prayer this morning, I just need you to do one of three things.
First, could you just raise your hand?
Would you just raise your hand quickly?
Just let me see that hand.
I see the hand there.
I see some hands there.
Just raise your hand.
(59:28):
Is there anyone else here this morning that you have made a commitment to Jesus, to follow
Jesus?
Don't be shy.
If you've prayed that prayer, would you just raise your hand?
Last time, would you just raise your hand?
I see those hands.
Praise the Lord.
Now, what I'd like to do, those of you who have raised your hand, would you like to come
forward?
We want to pray for you.
(59:49):
We want to bless you and pray that the Spirit of God will just do a incredible work in your
life.
You can lower your hand.
Thank you.
Praise be to God.
Okay, can we do that this morning?
Praise God.
Now remember, enmity was crucified at the cross of Calvary.
(01:00:10):
Has that helped you understand forgiveness a bit more now?
Our enmity and forgiveness, unforgiveness are so related to forgive.
It's very important.
Anyway.
Thank you for joining us.
(01:00:30):
We pray God's richest blessing on your life.
If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.
See you next week.
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