There is No Discharge in that War
Ecclesiastes 8:4
In the passage for this sermon we are looking at what Solomon said regarding the battle called life. Whether we realize it or not the every person once they are born are fighting for survival. We are born into a war and as Solomon puts it there is no discharge in this war. The only way out is death.
In this sermon we are going to see how God solved the problem of man’s sin, won the battle that they could not win and makes it possible for us to win this war called life.
For this sermon we will compare the American Flag with the Christian Flag to see a visual of God solving man’s problem.
Similarities Between the Flags:
- The colors of the flags are the same (Red, White, and Blue)
- Both flags stand for freedom even though the freedom represented by the Christian flag is a little different.
- Both have blue in the top left corner.
Differences Between the Flags:
- What is missing from the Christian Flag? Stars in the corners and stripes.
- What is in place of the stars? A Red Cross
If the Blue represents Heaven the how can we get into the heaven shown on the Christian Flag? It takes a veteran to win the war that we could not win and that Veteran is Jesus Christ. Let us explore this thought by looking at 3 questions below.
1) How did we get into this war? (Romans 5:12)
- We are born into this war. We are born sinners because of what Adam did and the penalty is death (Romans 3:23 ; 6:23)
2) What was God’s solution for man’s problem? (John 3:16)
- God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son.
- To do this God had to become man (John 1:1 ; 1:14). This is seen in the stripes 7(God’s number) + 6 (man’s number) = 13.
- 13 is a number connected with a curse because when Jesus got on the cross he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21 ; 1 Peter 2:24) and cursed is he that hangs on a tree (Galatians 3:10-13).
- We are healed from our sin through his stripes (Isaiah 53:5). Note that on the Christian flag there are no stripes.
- Last of all it is the blood that Jesus applied to the mercy seat in heaven that buys us eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12). This is why we see the Red Cross in the blue on the Christian Flag.
3) How can we win this war and enter into heaven? (Romans 10:9-10)
- Salvation is the free gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9), all we must to is to receive this gift and we are automatically enlisted in the Army of God and the war called life is won.
- Through Jesus Christ we will one day have the victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:57).