BEHOLD!

Ps. 51:1-5

                                                        

Pastor Rick Jackson

 

"Behold!" What an attention-grabbing word! The dictionary tells us when behold is an intransitive verb —it is used in the imperative specially to call attention. This is how the Lord uses it in the verses we will look at in this message.

 

I. A "BEHOLD" TO TAKE AWAY PRIDE [Ps. 51:1-5]

 

David not only confesses sin in Ps. 51 he readily admits he was born a sinner as were we all! Of what do lost sinners have to be proud? Nothing. Some are proud of their heritage, but their heritage is that of being a sinner, born of sinners and condemned to producing sinners. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. A cow isn't a cow because it moos, it moos because it is a cow! All of us are born wrong and all need to be born again. Back in the late 1970s I heard the pastor of a presidential candidate saying on nation-wide TV that his church member candidate didn't need to be born again because he was born right the first time. I daresay that candidate and his pastor needed to heed the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ who said, "Ye must be born again!"

 

II. A "BEHOLD" TO TAKE AWAY SIN [John 1:29-34]

 

John gives a clear identification of Who can take sin away. it wasn't Buddha, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, science or even ourselves. It was the sacrificial, perfect, Lamb of God! In the law God had required the Jews to bring as near perfect an offering to illustrate the perfect sinless coming Saviour, God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ! Simon Peter agreed with John the Baptist's assessment as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 1 Peter 1:18-25, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.  

Here is not a partial payment. Here is not a limited atonement. Here is what John said in 1 Jn. 2:2, And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Here is God doing for man what man could not do for himself. Like the blood of the Passover lambs, it must be applied to be effective.

Paul adds his own "behold" to this point in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

III. A "BEHOLD" TO TAKE EXCUSES AWAY

 

-from the Lost [Rev. 3:20-21] Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

1 John 5:4-5 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

 

-from the Saved [Rev. 3:8] I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

God opens the door. No man can shut it. There is no excuse for not serving Him. We are not the first to say we can't (Moses, Gideon, Saul - son of Kish, Jeremiah, etc). We can do all things through Christ!

 

IV. A "BEHOLD" TO TAKE AWAY WORRY [Mt. 6:26-30]

 

What Jesus is trying to teach here is quite simple. Let me make 3 statements.

God CAN take care of you!

God WILL take care of you!

Are you in the right line? [Mt. 6:33]

 

V. A BEHOLD TO TAKE BELIEVERS AWAY [1 Corinthians 15:51-58]

 

Jesus is coming! Paul expected it in his lifetime we should expect it in ours! We are almost 2000 years closer than Paul was though he was right to expect it. The rapture of the Church. For all believers. he will not leave part of His body here and take part away. It's the rapture of the church not the rupture of the church.

Are you ready?