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Pastor Randy Skeete Sermon Library

Look Up and Live

Randy Skeete

Look Again

And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

6 days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the Sabbath day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.

In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.

For in 6 days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the Sabbath day.

Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

It really is a privilege and I thank him for it.

And my commitment to him during this presentation is to present the word of God as clearly, as simply as I can, so that even a child may understand.

I ask God to bless all the countries represented, to bless the leaders, to guide their minds that the decisions they make, maybe decisions that allow the gospel to go forward in their territories.

Before I proceed any further, I will politely ask if you're not using a phone or if you're using 1 as your Bible, please make sure it does not ring because worshipping God requires reverence whether you are in a church building, under a tree, or in the middle of the desert.

If we're worshiping God, reverence is required.

Favour number 2, while I'm speaking, I want you to pray for me, literally want you to pray for me, not out loud, just say in your heart, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

That request is based on Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 9, which says, then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

And the Lord said unto me, behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

Now the Bible says in 1 John 5, verse 14, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

Asking God to put his words in my mouth is his will.

And the assurance of the Bible is God answers prayers that are offered according to his will.

So ask him from time to time to put his words in my mouth because the carnal nature will strive to say its own words.

But the words of the carnal nature cannot save anyone, only the words of God.

And favor number 3 may seem unnecessary, but I make it nonetheless.

Think, Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

God calls upon us to reason because he is a reasonable God.

You know, sometimes at work we serve unreasonable bosses.

There may be some unreasonable people in various positions of authority.

And so he invites us, come now, let us reason together.

And so do that as favor number 3, let's pray now.

Holy father in heaven, we thank you for your love, your undying love.

We thank you father for your long suffering nature.

We thank you father for the conviction of your holy spirit.

And for the fellowship of fellow believers.

If we have sinned against you, we ask you, dear God, forgive us.

That's why Christ died and rose, that our sins may be washed away.

We need the Spirit of God, Father, in order that we might understand spiritual things.

Jesus said in John 16, 13, I'll be it when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth.

Grant us your spirit, dear God, to guide our minds into truth.

Father, extend your goodness to every country represented by the listening audience.

I particularly ask you to bless the visitors, anyone who is not a son of the Adventist, who is watching this program or listening, Bless that person, Father, in an extra special way.

And if they have children, put a sweet blessing on the children.

Use me as an instrument to declare the truth, because it is the truth alone that sanctifies and sets people free.

Look up and live is our theme for the next 2 weeks and our subject for today is look again.

Sometimes a hasty glance does not give us the information we need.

And so our subject is look again, or we could have said look closely.

When I look up, let The Bible tell you what you should look at when you look up.

The Bible says, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.

Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.

Salvation is through this person who tells us, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God.

Simply put, there is no other way to be saved, but by looking to this person in Isaiah 45, 22, he says, look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.

Who is this person who says to us, look unto me and be saved?

We know from John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

To believe in Jesus is the same thing as to look unto Jesus because we're looking not so much with our eyes, we cannot see him physically.

The Bible says, we walk not by sight but by faith.

He is the author and the finisher of our faith.

There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and that name is Jesus Christ.

So when Isaiah 45 22 tells you and me, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth, that me speaking is Jesus Christ.

Yes, The God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ.

The God who led the Israelites through the wilderness, who parted the Red Sea, who sent the plagues upon Egypt, who sent the flood, who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain by fire.

The God of all the miraculous expressions for the Israelites in the Old Testament is the same person who walked the dusty streets of Galilee.

Yes, he represents the father, but he is the 1 who is figured centrally in the Old Testament as he is in the new.

The superstar, The central figure of the Bible is Jesus Christ.

The question I must ask when we look to Jesus, what do we see?

What is Sin?

Very words that are life and spirit to those who receive them serve as a condemnation to those who reject them.

So my prayer is that as you listen to the words of God, that God will give you the spirit of reception and acceptance that the word of truth may find a welcome in your heart.

I greet all those from every country, wherever you are.

I heard again, South Africa, the surrounding countries, United States, where I am, wherever you are.

Thank you very much for your ongoing interest in truth.

And may the Lord super abundantly bless your lives, pour out a special blessing on your children.

I particularly welcome those of you who are not Seventh-day Adventists.

I am personally pleased, and I'm sure the organizers of this program are also delighted you've chosen to join us.

You could have elected to spend your time elsewhere doing something else.

You have given it to us by being a part of this program and we thank you in the name of Jesus.

And we hope and pray that you will be blessed as you listen to the words of life from God himself.

Do 3 little favors for me before I begin.

Favor number 1, Please make sure your phones don't ring as you use them as Bibles or any other device that may make a sound We are worshiping God.

Let's show him some reference Fever number 2 while I'm speaking pray for me and say Lord put your words in that man's mouth That favor is based on Jeremiah 1, verse 9, which says this, Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

Put his words very simply and plainly in my mouth.

And favor number 3, I want you to think as you listen.

As you listen and think, the Spirit of God will bless your thinking.

Isaiah 118, the Bible says, "'Come now, let us reason together, ' saith the Lord." As I said yesterday, and I will always say, we serve a God who is reasonable.

When was the last time your president invited you to reason with him, or your prime minister, or your king, or your chief?

God, the possessor of heaven and earth, invites us, puny sinners, to reason with him.

Father in heaven, we thank you very much for life.

Despite the struggles we have, dear God, we're grateful to be alive, and we thank you for your word, which says in him we live and move and have our being, and so we acknowledge you as our source of life.

We ask you very quickly, Father, if we have sinned against you, forgive us.

Cleanse us, dear God, using the blood of Christ.

He died to make it possible and just for you to forgive.

Now, dear God, I humble myself before you and I ask you to Speak through me literally, dear God, so that the words your sons and daughters hear may be words from the throne.

So speak through me, dear God, as I humble myself in your presence as your servant.

Bless every country, Father, every single country represented by this audience.

A very special blessing on the leaders that God, remind them, Father, that righteousness exaltation.

The opposite of that is sin brings down the nation.

Let them seek righteousness in all their decisions and deliberations.

Bless the citizens of those countries, Father.

Some of them are suffering because of COVID-19.

Intervene in their circumstances, Father, and be merciful whether they believe you or not, because the Bible says, he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good.

Remember your words, Father, and be merciful even to those who have not yet accepted you.

Now, dear God, bless our visitors in a very special way.

Father, touch them and put within them a desire to come back tomorrow and fellowship with us.

Thank you for freedom of worship that still exists.

Now, dear God, I commit myself to you and this program.

We've committed it ourselves over and over.

We need to understand what is sin in order to understand the plan of salvation, in order to understand what Jesus did on the cross and how that applies to our individual lives.

And I will try to make this presentation as simple as possible.

And you will get insights into how merciful God is as we study the subject, What is sin?

Let's begin at the beginning in my favorite book, the book of Genesis chapter 2, read a read from verse 16.

And I read from the King James version of the Bible.

Genesis 2, Reading from verse 16, our subject, what is sin?

The Bible says, And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

The Bible tells us in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death.

The only reason there is death in the world is because of sin.

Death exists in this world because of sin.

If sin is eradicated, death cannot exist.

And so God told Adam, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.

Because God attached death as a punishment for Adam's action if he consumed that fruit, we can correctly conclude that consuming the fruit would have been sin, because the punishment for sin is death.

This way, God could have said, let's read 16, 17 this way.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day thou sinnest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

In other words, in the day you disobey my command, in the day you sin, thou shalt surely die, because death is the punishment for sin.

But let us look at the mercies of God in this little scenario, little but profound and far reaching in its consequences.

God could have withheld from Adam the information that eating of that tree was sin.

God could have withheld that information, but you need to understand something about God.

Let's go to John 14, reading from verse 1, to understand a beautiful aspect of the character of God.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I repeat, God tells us what we need to know.

Jesus Christ says, if it were not so, I would have told you we serve a God and I'm calling you to give your life to a God who tells you what you need.

He tells me God does not believe in having people live in ignorance.

Killing the Life Giver

The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely because he's required to do so will never enter into the joy of obedience.

When the requirements of God are accounted a burden, because they cut across human inclination, we may know that the life is not a Christian life.

True obedience is the outworking of a principle within.

It springs from the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God.

The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer.

This will lead us to do right because it is right.

Christ's object lessons, page 97, paragraph 3.

I'm grateful to God again, and I will always be, for this special privilege of representing him as his spokesperson, as his mouthpiece for this presentation.

It is a high, high honor to speak for God.

They would love to be the ones charged with the responsibility of preaching the gospel.

But that high honor is given to people made of dirt such as I, and so I thank God for the honor of speaking for him.

And I thank him for the sweet privilege of fellowshiping with you this way, those of you who love the word of God and who love truth.

Our subject for today is killing the life giver.

A very simple and straightforward message that I have for you today.

Before I get into it, let me ask you, as I always do, to do 3 little favors for me.

Favor number 1, make sure that your phone does not ring during this presentation.

Make sure all disturbances are silenced so that God is worshiped in spirit, in truth, and in an atmosphere of reverence.

Favor number 2, while I'm speaking, pray for me.

All I want you to say is, Lord, put your words in that man's mouth.

That request is based on Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 9, which says, Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

Pray for that and God will answer you and the words I speak will bless your life because in answer to your prayers, the words will be the words of God.

Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Father in heaven, thank you for this glorious privilege of speaking for you, representing you in the presentation of the word of truth.

I ask you immediately, dear God, if I've offended you, forgive me, cleanse me as I humble myself in your sacred presence.

Let me be simply a loudspeaker through which you speak to your sons and daughters who are connected to this presentation.

And Father, may everyone listening be touched, blessed, and convicted by this message.

I offer this prayer from my heart in Jesus' name, amen.

The Bible says, and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw 2 ships by the lake, and the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.

And he entered into a ship which was Simon's and prayed him that he would fuss out a little from the land.

And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

Now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch up into the deep and let down your nets for a draft.

And Simon answering said unto him, master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing.

Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and the net break.

And they beckoned to their companions, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them.

And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, notice these words, when Simon Peter saw it, he witnessed the power, the glory of God in this miracle.

He fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Something about Christ, the divinity of Christ must have flashed, become evident to Peter as he saw this miracle work by Jesus Christ.

And the Bible said, when Simon Peter saw it, he saw something about Christ.

He fell down at Jesus's knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh Lord.

The revelation, the reflection of Jesus Christ's righteousness, his power, led Peter to confess that he was a sinful man.

The Bible says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.

With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And 1 cried unto the other and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, woe is me for I'm undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah said, my eyes have seen, I have seen something of the glory and the righteousness of God.

Having seen it, Isaiah said, woe is me, for I am undone.

When Peter saw something of the glory, the character, the power of Christ, he said, I'm a sinful man.

Well, Isaiah caught a glimpse, and it can only be a glimpse, anything more would destroy a sinner.

He caught a glimpse of the glory and the majesty and the perfection of God.

In the book of Job, Job says, Job 42, 5 and 6, I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see of thee.

Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Job said, now that I've gotten a brighter glimpse of, I have heard of you, but having seen something of who you are, I see what a terrible person I am.

I abhor myself, I hate myself, and I repent for the kind of person I am in dust and ashes.

Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Isaiah, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips.

The Healer and Restorer

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

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Look Up and Live

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