​     Who is greater than God?  Sounds like a simple question.  However, a simple search using that very question and one stumbles onto a whole slew of ideas and opinions.  It's really kind of staggering and mind boggling.  Should anyone be willing to waste the best part of several hours, it's your right and privilege to do so.  As for this person who was only repeating a question that had been read, I will pass.
     First John 4:4 goes something like "Ye are of God...because greater is he that is in you..."  Now, there are a few things that need to be understood.  One, mankind lives in a physical world.  See, hear, feel; it's all tangible.  But man is more than just a physical being.  Two, he possesses a spirit and, because of that, he must realize there is a whole universe that is just beyond the tangible.  
     God is the Creator of both the physical and the spiritual.  Genesis Chapter One says that.  Drop down to verse 26 and God creates mankind in his image.  Go back to verse 2 and we find that "the spirit of God moved".  Genesis 2:7 goes one step further and says that God breathed life into man so he would be a living soul.  There it is, man is both physical and spiritual.
     When Adam sinned and lost his right to Paradise, it was man's first clue that there was something really sinister out there that wanted to see us destroyed.  He appeared as a serpent that first time.  Lucifer is the first of the many names that the devil is called.  Others that are familiar are Beezlebub, Old Serpent, Satan, Tempter, and Son of Perdition.  The devil is our adversary and like Pastor Josh has said more than once, "If the devil had his way, he would've killed you and taken you to hell with him long before you could ever hear the message that could save your soul."
     Pastor Josh treated us to a little ditty that is from a gospel chorus.  It goes like this, "The devil is a sly old fox, if I could catch him I'd put him in a box.  Lock the lid and throw away the key for all the tricks he's played on me."  It catches the attention and the realization is that there truly is a devil that "roams the earth seeking whom he may devour." (I Peter 5:8)
     Yes, there is an adversary.  But, there is also a Champion for all believers.  He is our Creator and our God who sent his Son to redeem us from sin.  And there is a verse that should give all who believe comfort.  It says, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)  And, John 10:29 says, "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand."

     There's a disease worse than coronavirus--it's called sin and it will confine you to hell for eternity.  John 3:19 sets the stage for man's condition.  It says that light has come into the world but men love darkness because their deeds are evil.
     Since the time of Adam and Eve, God has not been willing for anyone to perish.  So He devised a plan.  A plan, a grand design, to make a way for any who want to escape the punishment for sin.  But, first, it's necessary to believe the Bible.  Believe what it says, believe it to the core of your being.  Then, according to II Corinthians 5:17, believers become new.  The verse says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
     There it is, the opening of the sermon.  Pastor Josh referred to it as the pre-sermon.  Probably because it lasted for upwards of ten minutes.  It's fair to say that he was setting the stage for those of us within earshot.  He talked about the coronavirus, those who are stranded, the sick and dying, the ones confined to their rooms on cruise ships and what people are willing to do to keep it contained.  Then, the question: "Wouldn't you be willing to do whatever you needed to live?"
     Religion is not a fad.  It's not something that is done on Sunday and then tossed aside.  It's not something to run to when times are bad and then pushed aside once the trauma has passed.  It's not something to please your family, neighbors, boss or anyone else.  There has to be a change.  If there is no change, no real change, you are lost.  You're not in Christ.
     Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh.  He took off for the far reaches of the known world.  God had no desire to let Jonah die in that whale.  Jonah had a change of heart. It's in Jonah chapter 2.  He said, "Salvation is of the Lord." and the Lord spoke to the fish and Jonah was spit out on dry land.
     The Prodigal Son wound up wallowing with the pigs.  He realized his sorry state and changed.  Luke 15 tells us the story of both sons.  The prodigal son changed direction and went home.  The faithful son who remained at home grew angry and bitter.  God, in his mercy, restored both to salvation.
     Change has to happen.  It happened to Matthew, the tax collector, who got up from his job and followed Jesus.  It happened to Zacchaeus, the crooked tax collector, who climbed a tree to see Jesus.  Jesus called him  down and went to his home.  Zacchaeus changed.  He wanted to make things right with the people he had swindled.  It happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.  His encounter with the Christ turned him from persecuting the Church to being persecuted for the Church.  
     There's got to be a difference. If you're living the same way, you're lost.  Read II Corinthians 5:17 again.  Believe the Bible.  Become a new person.  Be in Christ.  Pray for the Spirit to draw you.  Pray, pray, pray.  God isn't willing to lose you either.    ​

     "God calls the preacher so the lost can call on God."  A one-liner spoken by Pastor Josh right in the middle of the sermon.  It just pretty much summed up the sermon.  But, first, let's digress.  This was not the usual four or five verses for reference and then the message.  The pastor blessed us with opening verses from Isaiah 53 and then, and then he covered chapter ten of Romans.
     This was to be an important message.  "Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed" (Isaiah 53:1)  This is the question down through the centuries.  Isaiah, the prophet spoke it over seven hundred years before the appearance of Jesus on the world stage.  Paul, an apostle, takes it further and adds, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14)
     In Isaiah, the prophet is testifying to the coming savior of the world.  Yes, centuries before Jesus ever appeared on this earth, the message that he was coming was carried to any who would listen.  When Jesus did come, the Jews rejected him.  Then, after his death and resurrection, Christ turned to the gentiles.
     Paul enters the scene and becomes the apostle to the gentiles.  Like Pastor Josh said, "Thank God, the gentiles believed."  Still there are many who have not believed the report.  Buildings are filled for all kinds of events and occasions.  And, yet, the churches around the country have plenty of room for those who need to come and listen to God's chosen proclaim the message of salvation.
     Isaiah spoke, Paul spoke, and many, many more down though the centuries have spoken.  Still, God calls those to be preachers to tell the world about salvation.  He hasn't given up on the human race.  Go to the church just around the corner.  Attend it.  And listen for God calling all who will listen.  Called preachers calling the lost to call on God to receive the message of salvation.          ​

     Peter, one of the members of the inner circle of Jesus, is the subject of Sunday's sermon.  The past two weeks covered Barabbas and Thomas.  One is a terrorist, the other a doubting apostle.  Now we come to an apostle who denied Jesus not once but three times.
     A brief history of Peter follows:  Brother of Andrew who was a follower of John the Baptist, actual name was Simon, from Bethsaida, and he was married.  He was a fisherman and one of the first to be called to follow Jesus.  He's not well-educated, in fact it is supposed that he neither read not wrote.  So here we have a hard-working, married man who lives by the sweat of his brow.  All of a sudden he's catapulted into the arena of the spiritual and divine.  What's to become of him?
     Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter.  This was the result of Peter being the first to recognize that Jesus was the Son of the living God. (Matthew 16:16).  Peter is there at the Transfiguration. (Matthew 17)  And he is the one who steps out onto the water and cries for Jesus to save him  when he begins to sink. (Matthew 14)  Even at this event Jesus says to him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (verse 31)
     When the apostles were gathered with Jesus at the Last Supper, Jesus told Peter that He prayed for him because Satan had desired to "sift him like wheat". (Luke 22:32)  He went on to say "When thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren."  Peter responded by saying that he was ready to die with Jesus.  This is when Jesus warns him that he will deny him three times on that very day.
     Peter is there when Judas leads a band of men from the chief priests to arrest Jesus.  In the heat of the moment Peter lops off the ear of one of the high priest's servants.  Jesus restores the man's ear. (Luke 22:51)  It is at this point that Peter follows afar off.  Peter has been shaken to his core.  Here is the man, Jesus, he has followed for three years.  He's being led away.  The devil has caught Peter at his weakest moment in life.
     The story is related in John 18:15-27.  Jesus is led into the palace of the high priest.  One disciple goes in with him, the other one falls back.  Peter won't go in.  Not even when the other disciple, probably John, comes to fetch him.  Still he won't go in.  He's there but he hanging outside with the officers keeping himself warm by the fire.  Twice by now he's denied that he's a follower.  The third time he was asked if he was here with Jesus was when the servant who lost his ear identified him.  His denial came readily and, just then, the cock crowed.
     The chicken came home to roost.  At that moment Jesus turned and looked at Peter who was standing outside.  (Luke 22:61)  Peter came to himself and the next verse tells us that he went out and wept bitterly.  Peter's story is one of human nature.  Were it not for the presence of Jesus in this world and the grace he bestows so generously, all of us would be doomed to a devil's hell.