The world desires a savior to solve its problems without changing its sinful ways, but the true Savior, Jesus Christ, offers redemption from sin by revealing God's character through his life, death, and resurrection. While many reject Jesus, preferring a savior who aligns with their desires, history points to a future 'man of sin' who will embody humanistic philosophy and deceive many before Christ's ultimate return. The sermon contrasts the world's superficial solutions with Christ's profound work, urging listeners to place their faith in Jesus for true salvation and eternal life in the new heavens and new earth.
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This is Keith Kaiser with a special New Year's edition podcast from www.goodwordsandworks.com. Our reading today is in the Gospel of John chapter 5 and verse 43. It is the Lord Jesus speaking to those who are questioning him over doing a miracle on the Sabbath day. He says in that great discourse defending his deity and his humanity, his perfect work with his father, in John 5.43 it reads, I have come in my father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive. As we look back on 2010, there are great problems in the world.
Conflicts on multiple continents, warfare rages in far-flung parts of the globe, The body counts form depressing statistics and headlines day by day. Soaring crime rates in Western countries, debilitated economies of various nations, environmental problems, some man-made, some natural. All of these things combine to form a sense of desperation. If ever there's a time when the world wanted a savior, surely it is now, in 2010. And yet, the kind of savior the world wants, is not the kind of Savior it actually needs they want a Savior who will solve their problems and yet leave their lives intact they want a Savior who will liberate them to give in to all the base and sinful desires of their hearts this of course is not what is best for man to let man do whatever his heart desires is a terrible thing to contemplate in the days of Noah the Bible did whatever evil imaginations came into his heart and the result was chaos and destruction upon the world.
God finally had to intervene in judgment by means of a global flood. Likewise today, if man was able to give them to everything he wanted without restraint or impediment, it would quickly become hell on earth, a very difficult and hard to bear situation. Of course, the Lord has his for history and is even working through the trials and difficulties of life to bring about a much greater destiny for mankind. For there is a Savior who's been provided, one who deals with man's central problem of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. He did this by coming into the world and by dying on the cross in accordance with his father's will and wishes.
He died on the cross is shedding his life's blood. He came in the Father's name, that is, in the Father's authority, but also revealing the Father's character. So in the Lord Jesus, we see what God is truly like. Is God holy? Well, observe the Lord Jesus in the temple, casting out the hypocritical money changers. Is God loving? Look at the Lord Jesus, receiving the children, saying, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. Is God forgiving? Look at the Lord Jesus with the woman taken in adultery in John chapter 8, saying, Neither do I condemn thee.
Go and sin no more. Is he compassionate? Yes, watch him heal the lepers by touching them. Watch him raise the paralytics. Watch him even raise the dead, like the woman of Nain's son, or like the young family in Mark chapter 5, who had lost a 12-year-old daughter. we see all the wonderful, beautiful character and attributes of God the Father and God the Spirit, the triune God revealed in the person of the Son. Nonetheless, this Savior is not appealing to many people, because while many want to be rescued from hell and perhaps even want the bliss and benefit of heaven, they don't want the Lord Jesus.
They don't want that type of Savior, thank you very much, they say. They don't want to change. they don't want to forsake their sin nor do they want to devote themselves to the worship and praise of god nor live according to his will they say i don't want anyone telling me to do what to do it was the same of course in the first century and so when the lord jesus came as our words on the text tell us they didn't receive him but another will come in his own name whom they would receive what was the lord referring to i believe he's referring to that man spoken of in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 as the man of sin, the one who comes in his own name, in his own authority, the one who reveals not the character of God, but rather the character of fallen man.
For what the man of sin will be will be the very personification of humanistic philosophy. That is, he is going to be a great man as the world deems it, undoubtedly a brilliant intellectual, creative, dynamic person, and yet he is going to be given over to the worship of man, and by worshiping man, of course, the worship of Satan. And so it will seem for a time that the problems of this world will be solved. They will say, who is like the beast using another name that Revelation gives to him? But, of course, this is all to end in their spiritual destruction.
For the Lord Jesus will come and destroy him with the breath of his mouth at his second coming to earth, and he will fulfill all of the promises made to Israel. Of course, even the glories of the millennial kingdom of Christ will not totally achieve what God has in mind for the universe. That awaits the new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness, where sin and that which makes a lie will no longer have a place, and where people shall reign in glory with the Lord Jesus. Of course, these people will be redeemed people, people that have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Happy New Year, and this year, keep your eye on the clouds. The Lord Jesus is coming, coming first to take His church, and later, coming back to earth, as the Scriptures have said.