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8 episodes with cj mahaney
5 episodes with cj mahaney
5 episodes with cj mahaney
4 episodes with cj mahaney
2 episodes with cj mahaney
2 episodes with cj mahaney
2 episodes with cj mahaney
2 episodes with cj mahaney
2 episodes with cj mahaney
CJ Mahaney preached this sermon at Covenant Fellowship Church on September 29, 2024. Series: Non-Series Sunday Scripture: Psalm 93
Guest speaker CJ Mahaney preaches a message from Psalm 93 titled, "A Psalm for the Perfect Storm"
Guest speaker CJ Mahaney preaches a message from Psalm 93 titled, "A Psalm for the Perfect Storm"
Four veterans go a few rounds on the subject of cooperation among evangelicals & their churches. Listen to Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan and CJ Mahaney talk about where they can and cannot cooperate as church leaders. Mark writes, “This is one of my favorite conversations we've been able to record. We had already been together for several hours and the conversation just flowed.”For more articles, books, and podcasts, please visit 9marks.org
Today, we celebrate FIVE years of gathering together as a church. Guest speaker CJ Mahaney preaches from Psalm 126 & helps us to laugh at the unexpected kindness & mercy of God.
Did evangelicalism fail a generation? How do disillusioned Christians process their experiences in churches and hold on to their faith? How do families divided over Trump find common ground? In this revealing episode, I sit down with Jon Ward, journalist, author, and chief national correspondent at Yahoo! News, to discuss his latest book, Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation. Jon Ward describes his life as being divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s (more about that particular church below). Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which he believes the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic. Full disclosure: the church Jon grew up in and which he strongly critiques in his book is the same that I joined at age 22 and went on to pastor for ten years. For me, this is a very personal conversation. Our discussion offers listeners a front-row seat to the intersection of faith, politics, and the challenges of reckoning with one's past. Interview Highlights: Jon's perspective on influential figures like CJ Mahaney and Al Mohler and their roles within the evangelical movement. The ramifications of political trends and the Trump presidency, on personal relationships and faith. Whether it's possible to be open to being wrong and still hold to absolute truth Comparing the roles of church leaders and the media in accountability and the parallels Jon sees between them. Jon's vision for the future of modern American Christianity and the steps he believes are crucial for its transformation. Whether you're entrenched in the evangelical community, just curious, or somewhere in between, this episode promises a candid exploration of faith, growth, and the complexities of human experience. Learn More: Website: Jonwardwrites.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonwardwrites/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonward11 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/joshharris/message
This Sunday, we are joined by CJ Mahaney as he shares a message titled "The Rare Jewel" from Phil 4:10-13.
This Sunday, we are joined by CJ Mahaney as he shares a message titled "The Rare Jewel" from Phil 4:10-13.
CJ Mahaney teaches this week's Cornerstone U session on "Knowing God."
In this passage, Paul's waiting in Malta and arrival in Rome gives us fresh eyes to perceive and be grateful for the many expressions of God's kindness we receive each day so that we might persevere on our journey.
Guest speaker, CJ Mahaney, preaches on 1 Thessalonians 5, and helps us see that the short pointed commands from Paul are not unrealistic. Paul does not mean to discourage his readers with difficult to obey commands. Rather, he intends to encourage.
CJ Mahaney from Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville preached this sermon at Covenant Fellowship Church on March 19, 2023. Series: Non-Series Sermon Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
CJ Mahaney from Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville preached this sermon at Covenant Fellowship Church on March 19, 2023. Series: Non-Series Sermon Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
This is a main session from the 2022 Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference. To access more messages, visit our website here.
Join the conversation as Matt and John discuss the majestic Jet's win, productivity, and the San Jose Sharks. 0:00- intro 6:38-sports 21:13-productivity 41:27-today in sports 45:34- one thing Matt Perman, What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done → https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Best-Next-Gospel-Transforms/dp/0310533988/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2I6YDYRQ6FQ7Q&keywords=whats+best+next+by+matt+perman&qid=1664740314&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjU1IiwicXNhIjoiMS4yNCIsInFzcCI6IjEuNDUifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=matt+perman+%2Caps%2C988&sr=8-1 Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World → https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BZZSXF4GJAB0&keywords=Cal+Newport+deep+work&qid=1664740404&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjY3IiwicXNhIjoiMi41MiIsInFzcCI6IjIuNTIifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=cal+newport+deep+work%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1 CJ Mahaney, Biblical Productivity → chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.cjmahaney.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Biblical-Productivity.pdf Getting things done email https://klinger.io/posts/how-to-use-gmail-more-efficiently
This Sunday we are joined by CJ Mahaney, a pastor and friend of CCK, as he preaches a sermon from Acts 8.
In this passage, the scene abruptly shifts from a city-wide revival to a story of personal evangelism and the unexpected conversion of just one man.
This sermon was preached by CJ Mahaney at Covenant Fellowship Church on May 22, 2022. Scripture: 1 Peter 5:8-11
This sermon was preached by CJ Mahaney at Covenant Fellowship Church on May 22, 2022. Scripture: 1 Peter 5:8-11
T4G has been an important ongoing conference for many reformed and even non-reformed Christians. The conference started in 2006 by Mark Dever, CJ Mahaney, Al Mohler, and Ligon Duncan has come to an end with their last conference in 2022. The conference has had leaders like John MacArthur, David Platt, John Piper, And many more speak over the years. It has weather many controversies and also seen a lot of success. Now that it's over, what will T4G's legacy be? Watch Live: https://www.youtube.com/c/deanlentini ✉️NEWSLETTER✉️ Sign up for my monthly newsletter here! https://www.getrevue.co/profile/deanlentini/ ------- MY LINKS -------
This week I interview Brent Detwiler, who was a founding member of Covenant Life/SGM. We talk about this history of the church, his relationship with CJ Mahaney, the child sexual abuse cover and the roll that Joshua Harris played in it all.
This Sunday we are joined by CJ Mahaney, a pastor and friend of CCK, as he preaches a sermon titled Kind Invitations from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
This Sunday we are joined by CJ Mahaney, a pastor and friend of CCK, as he preaches a sermon titled Kind Invitations from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Series: Revelation: The Best is Yet to ComeTitle: “How to See The Future”Scripture: Revelation 18 (Commentary helps listed at the end)Introduction: Makes me think of how quickly things can change in a nation. Afghanistan fell to the Taliban this week in 1 day. We know that the foundations of the existing government were weak already so while it fell suddenly, they were vulnerable as soon as our troops left.Our nation (America) is sliding towards destruction too. And while this slide may be gradual, the crash will also likely to be sudden. Perhaps revival will delay or prevent this. Are you praying for revival in our land?What will get us through the great tribulation as the church? We'll have to figure out how to work together to live for Christ with the daily threat of dying for Christ.What will get us through is this truth:Bottom line: “The future is bright even though the day is dark.”Our need: Eyes to see that these dark days as a blip on the timeline of eternity and live accordingly; a drop in the ocean of time.Quote: “Today, the greatest challenge facing (evangelical, Bible-believing) American (Christians) is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world.” —CJ Mahaney, pastorQuote: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who goes on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are too easily pleased.” -CS Lewis, Weight of Glory, pp. 25-26Last week in Revelation 17 we saw how evil turned on evil when the Beast destroyed the Whore.In Revelation 18 we will see more of the downfall of Babylon and how those seduced by her are drug down with her into destruction. Are you in that crowd? God calls you out today! (V. 4)Context:We have seen:Jesus and his churches (1-3)The throne and judgments of God (6-16)The whore, the King, and his bride (17-22)Outline:I. God judges the whore. (1-8)II. The world laments over the whore. (9-19)III. The angels sing of the doom of the whore. (20-24)Conclusion:Reminders of Afghanistan. Christians there are dying today for their unwillingness to be seduced by Babylon. They are the martyrs spoken of in Revelation.Question: Would you be willing to die for what you believe in?Where do you see yourself right now? Living in light of today? Living in light of eternity?Where do you want to see yourself?What's keeping you from repenting and believing that the way of Jesus is the way to go?Repent of your sins today. Trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ who knows the way, the truth and the life.PrayNotes:Rome was considered Babylon (code to the Church in John's day) and he was prophesying it's destruction around AD 95. In AD 410, after a long slide into destruction, Alaric, with his northern hordes of Goths, pillaged Rome and laid it waste in one week.John wrote Rev 17-18 to (Bruce Metzger):Stimulate faithfulness in first century persecuted ChristiansTo remind them of their ultimate victory in Christ no matter whatIt's a warning to believers . Babylon is allegorical of the idolatry that any nation commits when it elevates Material abundanceMilitary prowessTechnological sophisticationImperial grandeur, andRacial pride over the Creator.This seems familiar to me as an American citizen.Revelation concerns the character and timeliness of God's judgment not only on people but also nations…and all authorities, corporations, institutions, bureaucracies, denominations and even churches. -Bruce MetzgerQuestions: Are we drawn to the spiritual “Red light districts” of our world? Or are we drawn to the kingdom of God?Other Illustrations:dad joke/Funny: “Everybody is talking about the apocalypse like there's no tomorrow…”“Keep your eyes on the clouds and the crowds.” —Greg StierLive in light of his imminent return.“Jesus didn't give the Church the book of Revelation so we'd build ourselves bigger bomb shelters, but so we'd would build longer dinner tables” - @RayOrtlundOther thoughts wrt joy and circumstances and Jane / Nightbirdie“Sow a thought, you reap an action;Sow an action, you reap a habit;Sow a habit, you reap a character;sow a character, you reap a destiny.”-E. Stanley JonesMain commentary help:Exalting Jesus in Revelation by Daniel AkinRevelation by Jim HamiltonRevelation by Paige Patterson, New American Commentary seriesBreaking the Code by Bruce Metzger2020 Sermons by Matt ChandlerESV Global Study BibleBible in One Year by Nicky GumbelBible Knowledge CommentaryThe Outline Bible, WilmingtonDiscipleship on the Edge, Darrell W. Johnson
CJ Mahaney presents the second of three sessions in our God's Empowering Presence series.
Darkness, numbness, even despair accomplished something - it drove the author to prayer. “Evil is transformed to good when it drives us to prayer.” – Charles Spurgeon James says that trials produce steadfastness (patience) and completeness. Scripture says that pain has purpose when it drives us to closer relationship with God (maturity). (James 1:1-3) Psalm 88 shows us that even devoted (mature) Christians experience suffering, despair, & darkness. It helps prepare us for seasons of suffering. Author Sinclair Ferguson has said, “The most sinister thoughts that Satan insinuates into our minds are not enticements to sin, but suspicions about God Himself.” Suffering has a way of distorting the truth about who God is. God intends to increase our faith in the dark times, as well as our love for one another. **see CJ Mahaney's sermon titled Anticipating & Already from the worshipgod conference, 2017 - https://sovereigngracemusic.org/training/resources/anticipating-already/
Darkness, numbness, even despair accomplished something - it drove the author to prayer. “Evil is transformed to good when it drives us to prayer.” – Charles Spurgeon James says that trials produce steadfastness (patience) and completeness. Scripture says that pain has purpose when it drives us to closer relationship with God (maturity). (James 1:1-3) Psalm 88 shows us that even devoted (mature) Christians experience suffering, despair, & darkness. It helps prepare us for seasons of suffering. Author Sinclair Ferguson has said, “The most sinister thoughts that Satan insinuates into our minds are not enticements to sin, but suspicions about God Himself.” Suffering has a way of distorting the truth about who God is. God intends to increase our faith in the dark times, as well as our love for one another. **see CJ Mahaney's sermon titled Anticipating & Already from the worshipgod conference, 2017 - https://sovereigngracemusic.org/training/resources/anticipating-already/
In this sermon from 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul reminds us that as members of the church we are to appreciate and love our leaders for the many ways they give themselves to shepherd us.
In this episode, part 2 of 2, Bob and David are joined again by CJ Mahaney to continue the conversation about the relationship between a pastor and their music leader. Bob and CJ have a history of serving together for over 30 years, 23 of them in the same church. We think you’ll love sitting Read More
In this episode, part 1 of 2, Bob and David are joined by CJ Mahaney, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, to talk about the relationship between a pastor and their music leader. Bob and CJ have a history of serving together for over 30 years, 23 of them in the same church. Read More
Philip has mentioned the book Humility by CJ Mahaney so many times, we thought we should talk about it! In this conversation, Seth and Philip talk about humility and pride, and how to navigate these difficult topics. As always, let us know what we got right, got wrong, or any questions you have on our IG (@madealivepodcast) or via email (madealivepodcast@gmail.com). Resources mentioned in this episode: Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney Chick-Fil-A saves COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic: https://abc11.com/chick-fil-a-coronavirus-covid-vaccine-drive-thru/10215701/ Philip's Podcast Episodes: For the episode with Payton, Search "Millennials & Money" on all podcast platforms Seeking the Centerline: https://linktr.ee/Seekingthecenterline This episode is sponsored in part by Audible Free Audible Trial at: audibletrial.com/madealive Follow us on Instagram: @madealivepodcast Email us: madealivepodcast@gmail.com We aim to bring transparency to leadership to help enable the next generation of leaders to thrive. Music used in this episode: Intro/Outro: Dorian by Andrew Langdon Transitions: Sunset Dreams by Cheel Sunday Rain by Cheel Smokey Eyes by Cheel Mission Start by The Brothers Records --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
A timely encouragement in the face of trials
Character starts at the micro level. The way you do small things is the way you do all things. Questions to consider: How would you define character? Who is a person that you respect their character and why? What are some small adjustments that you need to make that could have massive implications? What is the type of person you want to be? Scripture referenced: Matthew 12:33-34 James 3:17 Ephesians 5:15-16 Resources: Atomic Habits by James Clear Disciplines of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes Worldliness by CJ Mahaney Humility by CJ Mahaney . Podcaster: Brandon Rietz . This is a breakout session from SMC 2021 (Student Mobilization Conference)
CJ Mahaney joins us to talk Ephesians 2 and unity within the church body.
CJ Mahaney joins us to talk Ephesians 2 and unity within the church body.
In this sermon, C.J. reminds us that in Christ true satisfaction can be found for he is the one who has come down and has given us all that we need.
For more episodes of Conversations with Jeff & other podcasts hosted on The GK Podcast Network, please visit http://gatekeepersonline.com. Brent Detwiler joins this episode of Conversations with Jeff. Brent is the cofounder of Sovereign Grace Churches, where he worked closely with CJ Mahaney for many years before finally resigning due to many unbiblical actions occurring within the organization. Jeff & Brent discuss the current state of Evangelicalism, including many of the controversies surrounding Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church. They discuss Pastor MacArthur's claim regarding his whereabouts the night that Martin Luther King Jr died, with Brent sharing his in depth research to discover whether Paige Rogers article on this topic was true. This included statements from Charles Evers and John Perkins, both of whom are cited by Pastor MacArthur as eyewitnesses to his involvement that night. They also discussed Dustin Faulkner's article that exposed the claims by Pastor MacArthur's supposed football career. Brent did his own research to verify many of these claims, and he shares his findings in this podcast. Brent also shares his experience with Joshua Harris and his recent falling away from the faith. Pre-Order your copy of Social Injustice today and use the code: SAM to get a free Audio version! http://socialinjusticebook.com Register for the Stand Against Marxism Conference today! Speakers include: Jeff Dornik, Sam Jones, Janet Mefferd, JD Hall, Jon Harris, Judd Saul, Trevor Loudon and many others. http://standagainstmarxism.com Thank you for listening, and please take the time to subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when new episodes are posted. We have some exciting guests lined up for future episodes, so you won't want to miss out on those Conversations! Jeff Dornik Twitter - http://twitter.com/jeffthegk Parler - http://parler.com/jeffdornik Website - http://gatekeepersonline.com Brent Detwiler Twitter - http://twitter.com/brentdetwiler Website - http://brentdetwiler.com The GK Podcast Network Facebook - http://facebook.com/thegkonline Twitter.com - http://twitter.com/thegkonline Parler - http://parler.com/thegkonline YouTube - http://youtube.com/thegkpodcastnetwork Make sure you check out other episodes of Conversations with Jeff! The GK Podcast Network is expanding! Be sure to subscribe for the latest for our amazing lineup of Podcasts, including: Fight Night Conversations with Jeff The Jeff Dornik Podcast Battlefront: SouthGate The Shining Light Podcast WIT Podcast The GateKeepers Radio Show
For more episodes of Conversations with Jeff & other podcasts hosted on The GK Podcast Network, please visit http://gatekeepersonline.com.Brent Detwiler joins this episode of Conversations with Jeff. Brent is the cofounder of Sovereign Grace Churches, where he worked closely with CJ Mahaney for many years before finally resigning due to many unbiblical actions occurring within the organization. Jeff & Brent discuss the current state of Evangelicalism, including many of the controversies surrounding Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church. They discuss Pastor MacArthur's claim regarding his whereabouts the night that Martin Luther King Jr died, with Brent sharing his in depth research to discover whether Paige Rogers article on this topic was true. This included statements from Charles Evers and John Perkins, both of whom are cited by Pastor MacArthur as eyewitnesses to his involvement that night. They also discussed Dustin Faulkner's article that exposed the claims by Pastor MacArthur's supposed football career. Brent did his own research to verify many of these claims, and he shares his findings in this podcast. Brent also shares his experience with Joshua Harris and his recent falling away from the faith.Pre-Order your copy of Social Injustice today and use the code: SAM to get a free Audio version! http://socialinjusticebook.comRegister for the Stand Against Marxism Conference today! Speakers include: Jeff Dornik, Sam Jones, Janet Mefferd, JD Hall, Jon Harris, Judd Saul, Trevor Loudon and many others. http://standagainstmarxism.com Thank you for listening, and please take the time to subscribe to this podcast so that you are notified when new episodes are posted. We have some exciting guests lined up for future episodes, so you won't want to miss out on those Conversations!Jeff DornikTwitter - http://twitter.com/jeffthegk Parler - http://parler.com/jeffdornikWebsite - http://gatekeepersonline.comBrent DetwilerTwitter - http://twitter.com/brentdetwilerWebsite - http://brentdetwiler.comThe GK Podcast NetworkFacebook - http://facebook.com/thegkonlineTwitter.com - http://twitter.com/thegkonlineParler - http://parler.com/thegkonlineYouTube - http://youtube.com/thegkpodcastnetworkMake sure you check out other episodes of Conversations with Jeff!The GK Podcast Network is expanding! Be sure to subscribe for the latest for our amazing lineup of Podcasts, including:Fight NightConversations with JeffThe Jeff Dornik PodcastBattlefront: SouthGateThe Shining Light PodcastWIT PodcastThe GateKeepers Radio Show
In this sermon on the 10th commandment, CJ reminds us of the dangers of covetousness and how God uses the power of the Law to reveal His glory.
The oldest of seven children from a prominent evangelical Christian homeschooling family, Josh Harris became the face of the “purity culture” movement after writing the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye in 1997 when he was 22 years old. In the book, Harris advocated for “courtship”—entering into a relationship with the intention of marriage—rather than date-and-break up scenario that often includes pre-marital sex. The book sold 1.2 million copies. Harris married in 1998, fathered three children, authored several more books, led a singles conference, and became the pastor of Covenant Life Church, the Maryland church founded by well-known pastor CJ Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries...
Note: Quick to Listen now has transcripts! Scroll to the bottom of the episode description to read through our conversation with David Bailey. Last week, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News published a three-part investigation into the scope of sex abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. Among one of the seeming fruits of their report was an announcement from the head of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Al Mohler wanted to apologize for the role that he played in protecting his friend CJ Mahaney after he was accused of covering up a sex abuse scandal at his church. In an 850-word statement, Mohler acknowledged his role in supporting Mahaney, even as questions arose about his involvement. He then expressed regret for his former actions and spoke specifically about where he believed he had fallen short. “I can only speak for myself, but I wish to do so clearly, acknowledging these errors, grieving at the harm that was done, and committing to do everything I can to lead well and to serve Christ faithfully.” Like many public apologies today, Mohler’s drew a mixed reaction. Some were frustrated about the length of time it took for him to acknowledge his mistakes. Others were encouraged by the change of heart from a man who it had seemed might never change his mind. “With our leaders, any kind of leadership, people want to know, if something’s wrong, do you see it and are you going to do something about it? Are you going to do the right thing?” said David Bailey, the executive director of Arrabaon, a ministry that helps Christian leaders engage in in reconciliation. “Leadership, a lot of times, is moving on the currency of trust. I think a demand for an apology is ‘Hey, can I trust you? Are you going to do the right thing?’” Bailey joined digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss why it’s hard to offer a good public apology, why it’s significant that we “demand an apology,” and how long is long enough before the start of a “comeback” story.
If you are a Christian, the story of how salvation came to you is a most unusual story. CJ Mahaney joins us to speak on 1 Peter 1: 10-12.
Thanksgiving Connected to Relationship Well, I am so thankful to be back with you. I think I may be the only person that was both in Dallas where it was 100 degrees and Newfoundland where it was 31 degrees in the same week. I'm thinking I'm the only one, there might be others. I had the privilege of ministering in different settings, and I'm glad to be back with you today. And really, the idea of thankfulness unifies this sermon that I'm about to preach as we begin a verse-by-verse study in this challenging book in 1 Corinthians, it is challenging because Paul systematically goes through many issues that were facing that local church in almost 2000 years ago, 20 centuries ago, and we find how relevant it still is today. And we're going to see that as we begin that journey today. But we begin with the idea of thankfulness. And I feel just an overwhelming thankfulness to be a pastor in this church, an overwhelming thankfulness to be at First Baptist Durham. I love you, I love being here. There's nowhere I'd rather be than here. I am delighted with the wisdom of God in setting up local church so that we can know and be known and we're drawn together. And so the idea of Paul giving thanks for the Corinthians unifies this for me. And so, I was meditating on thankfulness even this very morning, and I was thinking about how much thankfulness is tied to relationship. Imagine that you were just walking along in your life and some valuable material object just came in your path randomly. I don't know, I'm trying to picture... (I was working on this in the pew and I didn't come up with a real good solution because of the ethical obligations where you would need to give that back to whoever it was). But set all that aside, set the ethics aside, just go with me on the illustration. Some incredibly valuable thing falls into your lap. You're walking along the beach, or you're in a city urban park, and there's no one around, and there it is. And it's now yours. But there's literally no one to thank. Imagine getting the same valuable possession from a friend who loves you and has sacrificed financially, and is thinking about you and is giving it to you, how different that is. It's the exact same thing that's come into your life, but it's come through a heart of love, it's come through relationship. And I think about all the unbelievers, the atheists that have many of the same common grace blessings that come into their life: Sunrise, sunsets, food that they eat, fun experiences, material possessions, clothes, all of that, but they have no one to thank. I wonder what they do at Thanksgiving. I've heard some of the strangest things in November where they say, "Well, Thanksgiving is a time where we thank each other." And I think we should thank each other, but that's not what the Puritans thought. The Pilgrims were thinking that we should thank God because every good and perfect gift comes from God. And one of the greatest joys of my life is to realize that there are no random blessings in my life. None. They have all passed through the hands of God and have come into my life. Every good and perfect gift was intentional. It was thoughtful. And that this goes to the very issue of the sin problem and that there's this separation between us and our Heavenly Creator. By redemption in Christ, he is our adoptive Heavenly Father, and he wants us to know that he has good gifts to give us and that it's very personal. And so, as we go through 1 Corinthians, we're going to see more and more just how divided and dysfunctional and messed up this Corinthian church really was. And yet, how richly, fully, grateful the Apostle Paul was for them, and how thankful he was for them. I. Paul’s Apostolic Greeting (verses 1-3) So, we begin at Verses 1-3 as Paul gives his usual apostolic greeting. He starts in Verse 1, "Paul called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." Paul was not an accidental apostle. He was not an accidental random Christian. He was called by God to be a Christian and to be an apostle. The will of God overruled Paul's will for his life. And you know the story is well-known how Paul was a zealous, ladder-climbing Jewish person who is seeking to advance in Judaism far beyond any of his fellow Jews in his day. And he was making that progress. And that was his desire, but suddenly on the road to Damascus he had an experience that he never forgot. Blinding light surrounded him, the light of the resurrected, glorified Christ. And Jesus called to him from heaven saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus." Those three words changed Paul's life forever. "I am Jesus, the whom you are persecuting… Now get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do." I think Paul, looking back on that time from that moment on, realized how much grace was shown him in that he wasn't struck dead at that moment. As he was in route to be persecuting Christ's precious church, and Paul himself would write later in this epistle, "If anyone destroys God's church, God will destroy him." He was making himself an enemy of God. It says in the Book of Acts, Saul began to destroy the church. Put those two together, then why didn't God destroy Saul of Tarsus breathing out murderous threats? Because of grace. Because of the sovereign, loving grace of God. And so Paul, called to be an apostle by the will of God, God's will overruled. And I say that's true of all of us who are Christians. A boy who we just heard a moment ago, God overruled his will for his life, he overruled my will when I was 19 years old. And the same thing, even if you were converted at an early age in a wonderful Christian family, your will was to sin and to rebel, but God overruled your will if you're a Christian. And so praise be to God. Paul’s apostolic authority attacked in Corinth Now Paul is establishing himself right from the beginning. And this is going to be a unifying theme in these two epistles, 1 and 2 Corinthians, how he has to defend his apostolic status. He has to defend his apostolic ministry because it was under attack by some false teachers that came in afterwards, after he had planted that church in Corinth and they disparaged Paul. They said his letters are awesome, but in presence, he is not much to listen to. And that was one of the nicer things they said about Paul. Now, Paul wasn't on some kind of an ego trip here where he's defending his apostolic ministry because he's a power hungry person, not at all. He knows that the doctrine that we get in Christianity is tied together in some very rich ways with the people that give it to us. Remember how Timothy was led to faith, through the genuine faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and how Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, "You know those from whom you learned it." And so, it's truth through relationship, through personality it flows. And so, he's got to defend himself, not because he necessarily in and of itself wants them to think well of him, but he wants them, the Corinthians, to receive the truths that God is going to be pouring into their souls through him. And if the false teachers can disparage the source, they're going to start questioning the doctrine, and that's the issue. So he has to defend himself. He also mentioned Sosthenes our brother. Now Sosthenes did not, as far as I can tell, help in any direct way writing the letter. It's not from Sosthenes because throughout the letter he's using the first person singular, "I this, I that, etcetera." Paul's speaking in his own voice. This is a letter from Paul, ultimately from God through Paul. But he mentioned Sosthenes, Sosthenes was one of their own. He's a Corinthian man, he was a Jewish man, and he pops up in the account in the Book of Acts, in Acts 18, where the Jewish people of that area made a united attack against Paul and drag them up in front of Gallio, the Roman procurator, the judge there, and Christ kept his promise to Paul, "No one's going to attack you and harm you in the city. I'm going to put a bubble around you." And so he got accused, but they threw it out of court, Gallio had no interest. So then the Jews turned and attacked Sosthenes there in front of the court, beat him up, the synagogue ruler. Now, I don't know if he was already a believer in Christ or following Christ at that point, or if Paul came later and said, "Let me tell you about Christ," and just picked them up out of that beating and led him to Christ. We don't know the order, but anyway he became a follower of Christ, and so he's Greek. And then he describes the Corinthian church and it's so beautiful, look in Verse 2, "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy." Now, those are timeless words. It's true of our church here in First Baptist Church Durham, this is true of us. "The church of God in Corinth." We belong to God, our God is a jealous God, and we are his possession, purchased at infinite price. We belong to God, the church of God, and it's in a locality. That's what local church is all about, it's the church of God in Corinth. That was going to be their sight of ministry, that was going to be their sight of temptation. You remember how in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus said, "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne." And so there's a challenge in every city. And in Corinth, their Corinth, that's where they were going to reach. those are the people they're going to reach with the gospel. We're called to the Raleigh-Durham, The Triangle area, this is our region, it's what we're called to do. Now Corinth (we've already talked some about it a few weeks ago) is a city that is 50 miles southwest of Athens. Some years ago, a good friend, church member, Allen Carlson and I, we had the opportunity of traveling after I spoke to a group of missionaries to travel in Southern Greece in the Peloponnese and then we went to Corinth. It's one of the few Bible places I've ever been. And we were there checking into our hotel and it was owned by these two brothers. And so I said to these brothers who spoke good English, I said to these brothers, "Do you realize that your city is famous all over the world?" He had no idea. So I showed him 1 and 2 Corinthians, and he'd never seen it at all. It was funny but tragic. Funny but tragic. I think they would consider themselves Orthodox Christians, but they'd never heard of 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians. Called to Be Holy But then Paul says, "sanctified in Christ Jesus." And this word, sanctified, is very important. It's a little bit different than the way I usually use the word sanctification. What it means is, "set apart unto God as his own possession," that's what it means here. It's like a religious term, and it's rooted in the Old Testament and the Old Testament animal sacrificial system. There were many aspects, physical aspects of the animal sacrificial system in the tabernacle later in the temple that were called to be holy to the Lord or set apart unto the Lord. For example, the priest had a golden plate on their turban which said, "Holy to the Lord." So the priest was set apart unto God, the priest was his. And then other aspects, like they had this incense… They had a special recipe, and it could only be used there in the sacrificial system by the Levitical priests. It was holy to the Lord, it was sanctified unto God. It could not be used for common use. Or the same thing with all of their tithes. You're to set aside a tithe, the tenth of all of your flocks or your crop, whatever. It was to be set apart and given to God, it was holy to the Lord, it belonged to him. And so here, he's extending that to the church. You are all, all of you who are Christians, you are holy to the Lord, you're sanctified unto God, once for all. So it's a once for all sanctification that he mentions here. The moment you're converted, you become holy to God. Out of all of the world, you are set apart and to be God's special possession, that's what it means here. And he says, "called to be saints." Some of the translation say saints, but one of the translation is "called to be holy." I think that's a little bit better. If you just say saints, you check out and it's like "called to be saints," and you think of it in a certain way. But the word saint means holy one. And so, I really prefer the translation, "we're sanctified and called to be holy." You're thinking, "Well, isn't that redundant?" No, it really isn't. Now we're going to get into the other use of the word sanctification. That's not really found much in the New Testament, but the idea is there. And that is that we're called upon to become more and more holy in our thoughts and in our lives. We're called little by little, more and more to put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become sexually pure, to be pure in our minds, to be pure with our money, to be pure in the way that we do everything, to be pure in our lives. We're called to that. And so there's this progressive idea of holiness. Now, all of the issues of holiness that this dysfunctional, divided, immature church was facing, it was challenging their holiness. I mean, they would have problems with factions and divisions, they had a church discipline problem, which there was egregious sexual sin. And then in the next Chapter, Chapter 6, Paul goes on to general sexual ethics and purity in terms of temple prostitutes and things like that. Then there's just the issue of marriage, divorce and marriage, single people and marriage, sexual purity in that area, and also just healthy married life. And then the problem of meat sacrifice to idols... It's a struggle for this church. And they were called to be holy in the midst of all of that. This Letter is For Us Now, this letter that we're walking through today is intended for us. We're not reading somebody else's mail. Look what it says in Verse 2, "To the church of God in Corinth, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours." Well, that is our official permission to read this letter. That's us. Not only to that church in Corinth in that location and in that time 2000 years ago, but to all Christians everywhere. We are called on to read this. Just like in Revelation 2 and 3, where Jesus spoke to each of the seven churches, and then at the end of each of those letters to the seven churches, he says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Plural. By the way, whenever the word "church" is plural, you're talking about local church. There aren't plural brides of Christ. But whenever you see churches, you're talking about local churches. And so, that was a local church in Corinth, we are to read their letter because we're going to face the same things and look how he describes who we are, "All those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours." Those are Christians. That's one way of talking about Christians. We are those who are in the process of calling on the name of the Lord. It's so important that you hear that. Yes, that's the sinner's prayer. Yes, it's true that when you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the essence of the sinner's prayer. What I would say is, any genuine sinner's prayer that was prayed by a person who's right there in the midst of the process of being converted, and you share the gospel and they say, "What do I do?" And you say, "Call on the name of the Lord. Call on him, call on Jesus to save you from your sins." And then he prays, and I never feed them the lines on the prayer. If they say "I don't know what to pray," I say, "What do you want?" If you don't know what you want, then we need to go back over the gospel, including heaven and hell. Do you want heaven and not hell? "Yes." "Alright, good, then ask for that." "Do you want forgiveness of sins?" "Yes." "Ask for that." "Alright, I got it now, I got it. I'm alright." "Good. Now pray." Alright? If you don't know what you want, then we got to talk some more. But if you are ready now to call on the name of Jesus, he will give you what you ask for in his name. But here's the thing, that's just the first of many times you're going to do that. Let me ask each one of you veteran Christians… Are you done calling on the name of the Lord? No. Oh, you need him. And you actually, the more you grow and you're growing healthy, the more you see you need Him. And so you're actually continuing to call on the name of the Lord. "Their Lord and ours." And I love that statement. There's only one Lord, there's one God and Father of all, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One. There is one work going on in this world. Only one. There's only one Lord, and He is both their Lord and ours. And you're wondering right now, "Pastor, only at Verse 2?" Are we going to get through this? I'm not worried about that. I actually forgot my iPhone, it's in my office. So I brought my watch. I'll glance at it from time to time. Let's keep going. The Riches of Grace and Peace Verse 3, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now one thing, this is a very common greeting. Any of you read the epistles? You hear it again and again. It's always the same and in the same order, it's always grace and peace to you. It's never peace and grace. Why is that? Well, you just need to understand what grace is. It is by grace that we are saved. What is grace? Grace is a determination in the heart of God. It's a disposition in God's heart towards sinners. I like to use the word "settled." It's a settled determination in the heart of God to do you good at many levels though you deserve to be condemned at every level. So that's a kind of a working definition of grace. It is a determination, a settled determination in the heart of God to do you good, you could add through Christ, it's only by his blood, to do you good who deserve wrath and condemnation. So I give a broad definition. There are big gifts of grace and little gifts of grace, but it's all grace. And so when Paul writes in all of his epistles, "Grace to you," he's saying this epistle is grace. The things you're going to learn and get from this is grace. God wants to give you more grace. So just like a moment ago, I said you're not done calling on the name of the Lord so you are not done receiving grace, you need more grace, yet more grace. Oh, God, would you give me more grace? Now, we've already have received grace if we're Christians. "For it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works so that no one could boast." So we have received the grace of full forgiveness of sins, adoption into the family of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit. These are all by grace. But here's the thing, you need more grace, you're not done fighting sin, you're not done with this dangerous journey that you're on, you need more grace, and this epistle gives it to you. And so with Romans and so with Thessalonians, all of these… "Grace to you and peace." So he adds peace. So grace first then peace. It's never peace then grace. Why? Because you have a sin problem and if that's not dealt with, you will not be at peace with God, and He will not be at peace with you. We read in Romans 5:6-8, it was up there while they were playing music. While we were still sinners, when we were still enemies, we were redeemed. At one point, we were enemies of God, but now, in Christ, you have been reconciled to God. You have been reconciled. You who are at one point alienated from him, enemies and hostile to God because of your evil behavior and evil mind now he has reconciled. And so you're in a status of peace with God. And what's the worth and value of that to you? God is not at war with you, He is at peace with you and will be for all eternity, a status of peace. Therefore, Romans 5:1, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." But now this is talking about peace to you, so there's yet more peace. And this is where I would call it peacefulness or a sense or feeling of peace, being feeling at peace with God. And what's that worth to you? That you're not anxious, you're not troubled, you have a strong assurance of your salvation, and you have a feeling of peacefulness. And so we're told, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So grace and peace flow into you as you study this epistle. II. Paul’s Thanksgiving for the Corinthian Church (verses 4-9) Alright. So now let's look at the thanksgiving, Verses 4-9. Paul gives thanksgiving for the Corinthian church. I just want to stop and just give you an application right here. The more thankful you are, the happier you'll be in your Christian life, and the more fruitful you'll be. The more thankful you are for the gifts of God's grace to you, the happier you'll be, and the more fruitful you'll be, the better your marriage will be, the better your friendships will be, the better local church life will be. So start with thankfulness. If you're having problems with someone, if you're having problems with the church or whatever, start thanking God. Start thanking God for the grace you see in them, start thanking God for the gifts. And that's what he does here. Paul's very well aware where he's going in this epistle. We have some problems to deal with. We have some mopping up to do. We have some construction work to do. But I want to just begin by thanking God for you. And it's not a minor thing, it's not a light thing. He is genuinely thankful in his heart, look what he says, Verse 4, "I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus." I'm just thankful for the grace I see in your life. This was in CJ Mahaney's Humility book. Just one of the most humble and building things you can do is think it and then say it. I just thank God for the grace I see in your life. It's a beautiful thing to do. It really joins Christians together. So he says, "I thank God always because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." Now, here's a key theological principle. If you thank someone for something, you think they are responsible for giving it to you. Are you tracking me? Alright. You don't open a Christmas gift and then thank another person in the room for that gift. That would be confusing to everybody, especially to the person giving the gift. If your wife gives you a beautiful sweater, you open it up and you thank your daughter, that's a bad moment. Don't do that, alright? And so, when Paul thanks God for the salvation of other Christians, what is he saying theologically? God is responsible. One of my favorite sermon titles that I've ever done, did it years ago. And it's theologically accurate… And if you don't think it's exegetically true, let's come and talk afterwards. It was Romans 6:17, "Thank God you obeyed." Wow! "Thank God you obeyed." To God be the glory that I obeyed. You got to believe it and the more you go on in the Christian life, you'll know exactly how true that is. If God had not worked, I would not have obeyed. And it comes right from Romans 6:17, "Thanks be to God that though you used to be slave to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of teaching to which you entrusted." Take all the words out and have "Thank God you obeyed the gospel." And so he gives credit and he's going to say it at the end. Look down at Verse 30. I know we're not quite going to get there today. We might not quite get to Verse 8 today, I'm doing my best. But look at Verse 30, you see what it says? "It is because of him, [God] that you are in Christ Jesus." Wow! That's a theologically explosive statement. It is because of God that you are a Christian. And so he's just thanking God for them. I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. I'm just so thankful that we're going to spend eternity together in heaven. I'm so thankful that all these problems I'm about to write in this epistle, some day they'll all be gone and we're going to spend eternity one in Christ, and I just thank God for that. I thank God he knit you together in your mother's womb. I thank God that at the right time he saved you by the same gospel I was saved with. I thank God that we're now brothers and sisters in Christ. You have the same indwelling Spirit I have. I thank God for the grace I see in your life. And beyond that, he thanks God for their gifts, their spiritual gifts, look at Verses 5-7, "For in him, you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge, because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift, as you eagerly await our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." So they've been richly gifted or richly blessed with spiritual gifts. Now, three whole Chapters are devoted to spiritual gifts later in this epistle. Chapters 12, 13 and 14 all deal with spiritual gifts, including the famous Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, is really about spiritual gifts. So he's going to get to that. But what are spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts, we talked about many times, it's very, very important you understand. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given to individual Christians for the purpose of building the entire body of Christ up to full maturity. Special abilities for building the church, and every single Christian has a spiritual gift package. It's the way I like to look at it. Not one gift, but an array of special abilities that enables you or should be plugged into a regular repeatable habit pattern of ministry. For me, it's preaching and teaching, there's no doubt, and I should be doing this. This is what I do. So I study commentaries, I write sermons and other things. And so I have a gift package. Every one of you Christians has a gift package. So the question you have to ask is, "Am I using it? Is there a consistent pattern of ministry in my life? Am I using my gifts?" But he's thanking God there because this is a super talented or super gifted church, the Corinthians were. And he zeroes in specifically on all their speaking and knowledge. They've been enriched in every way through speaking and knowledge. Now I want to reverse it: knowledge and speaking. Isn't it better to know first then speak? Just think about it, you'll come to the same conclusion. But anyway, I'm grateful for your deep, rich theological knowledge. You are solid doctrinally, for the most part. And you also speak out of that knowledge, that doctrinal truth. And those are gifts. And he says, "I thank God" and he's going to get in Chapter 12 into a whole array of other gifts like healing and speaking in tongues, prophesies, he's got a whole bunch of things, and we'll get to all of that. There are two separate things: To have knowledge and to be able clearly to speak it and articulate it are two different things. When I was a student at MIT, I was surrounded by some of the most brilliant professors in the world. Some of them were good teachers. I'm not trying to be unkind. They all, as far as I can tell, knew their stuff but some of them were not so gifted in speaking it. I had a hard time understanding what they were talking about, but others, it was crystal clear. They're really just two different gifts. It's like the difference between being a super basketball player and being a coach, they're just different things. But they were good at both, they had a solid doctrinal knowledge and then really gifted preachers and teachers and otherwise, they're a gifted church. Now later, Paul is going to actually be criticizing some of them for their flaunting of spiritual knowledge, that they are flaunting their freedoms with the meat sacrifice to idols and their knowledge wasn't tied to love, and they're forgetting that their knowledge should be bound together with love so that they could care for the weaker brother and sister. And so we'll get to all that in Chapters 8-10 but he's going to criticize them in this area and say, "Look, you can have supreme spiritual gifts. But if you don't have love, it's worthless." You know exactly what I'm talking about, 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and I have all these deep knowledge, but if I have not love, I gain nothing. I achieved nothing. I am nothing." So we'll get to all that. But he's saying, You're blessed, you're spiritually gifted, but there's more to talk about. And so in Verse 7, they do not lack any spiritual gift. Everything needed for that local church to flourish in whatever ministries God has for them to do, it's there. And the same is true in this church, we are called on to fulfill a specific mission here in this church. We're not called to be everything for Durham and in Raleigh and in Chapel Hill. We're not called to be everything but we're called to be something specific, and the ministries that God has for us to do many of which I would contend haven't even begun yet. Haven't even begun yet. There are ways we could bless this region that we're not blessing yet. And some of you are going to have a vision for it. You're going to have a passion, not the elders, you. And you're going to move out and we are going to support that, and others are going to join you and we're going to see fruit, we're going to see people converted. You know what I want to see in baptism? I love all of the baptisms that we have, but they come in categories and I would like to see an increase in one category, someone that says, "I was lost until I met a member of your church who spoke the gospel to me and now I'm saved." Don't you all want to see lots of those? I want to see that happen. I was lost until I met so and so, they'd share the gospel and now I'm here. Pray for that. That's what I wanted because we've got thousands of people pouring into this area, thousands of lost people. Don't we want to see them converted? So that's what we're looking for here. But everything that we need to do the job is here already. And he says, "You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." So he's talking about the second coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ, the unveiling of Jesus, it's the same Greek word. You're waiting eagerly for the unveiling of Jesus. There is no book that so clearly portrays all of that in the details as the book we just finished, the Book of Revelation. And isn't it interesting? You probably didn't notice this before but the Book of Revelation ends the exact same way 1 Corinthians ends. It says in Revelation 22:20-21, "He who testifies to these things, [Jesus], says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen." So that's the end of Book of Revelation. Listen to the end of 1 Corinthians. "Come O Lord, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Amen." It's amazing. So what it's saying? A vivid, eager expectancy to the second coming of Christ is part of a healthy church life. So foster that. God’s Faithfulness Now, in Verse 8 and 9, he talks about the faithfulness of God's sovereign grace. He, God, will keep you strong to the end so that you'll be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9, "God who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord is faithful." Our souls are under constant assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil. We're in enemy territory. We are called on to make an escape from a POW camp 20 miles behind enemy lines, and they're sending out search party searching for us to kill us and bring us back to the prison. So it is with Satan and his demons in this world system. We're in enemy territory and your soul is being assaulted everyday to turn away from Christ, to turn to sin and to turn to wickedness and idolatry, and to turn your back on your confession. How do you possibly think you're going to make it through the next number of decades if God leaves you that long and still be blameless and trusting Jesus right to the end of your life? What is your confidence? How do you think you're going to do it? Don't underestimate the enemies that are arrayed against you. But here I'm saying to you, don't underestimate the far greater power of God to keep you. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but with the temptation will make a way of escape. He's going to say that later. And so he is faithful and he's going to keep you strong to the end in Christ right to the end. And we trust in that. III. Paul’s Appeal for Unity (verse 10) Alright, now we get to the problems. We've had the greeting, Paul an apostle, grace and peace to you, I love you, praying for you. Now let's roll up our sleeves 'cause we have some problems to address and it's going to be a series of them. He's going to go from topic to topic to topic, and this is the first one. Verse 10, "I appeal to you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." So of all the many problems that he deals with, the first that he deals with here are their divisions and factions, their unity. And when you think of the laundry list of problems that are coming, why would you start with this one? But this is absolutely vital. It's essential for Christ's church to be evidently, obviously united. And he's appealing to them to stop arguing with each other. Stop arguing. There are disputes. He's going to say in Verse 11, there are disputes. There are arguments going on between you, stop it. You're like, "Well, can you just stop arguing?" Yes, you can. I've said this before, you know what I'm talking about. Two of you in the family are having some kind of discussion. There's some heat involved, and then suddenly, a neighbor comes by to borrow something or the phone rings, and you suddenly become sweetness and light. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Just like that. So at least it's true, and it's theologically true. You don't ever have to sin again. You could be in the middle of sin, and not sin the next sin because you're not a slave to sin. You can just stop, say, "What are we doing? Come to my senses. I don't need to do this. We don't need to be divided. We don't need to argue. Let's pray together." And so he's deeply concerned about their unity because when we get to heaven, we are going to be perfectly united in mind and thought in every respect, just like the Trinity is. It's based on the unity of the Trinity: The Father, the Son, the Spirit are one. Three persons in absolute unity. And so Jesus prays in John 17, "O, Holy Father, may they be brought together to display the perfect unity that I share with you and you with me." "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me." So our evangelistic success will be tied to how united we are with one another, how much we obviously love one another. Perfect unity. And look at it, Verse 10, we're not talking about a sham unity, we're not papering things over, we're not going to acting school. We really do agree. We really do agree. Look at Verse 10, "That all of you agree with one another and that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." Another translation, "Perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." So how do we do this? I would go over to Philippians 2:2. This is how you think and how you love. Your mind and your affections are totally one. That's what he's yearning for. Perfectly joined together. Like a beautiful piece of furniture where two pieces of wood come together so perfectly, like this pulpit, I can see it right now. I can see the different grains of wood, but I can't feel any two different pieces at all because the skill of the joiner, of the craftsman is so good. You know what I'm talking about? That we would have two different people or a whole group of people come together so united that there's no difference at all. Now you're saying, "How is that even possible? Can two individuals who are deep thinkers and have strong opinions actually agree about everything?" Not only is it possible, you're going to spend eternity completely agreeing with lots of strong individuals from all over the world. And we will agree about everything. The more we can be united now, the more powerful we will be evangelistically. IV. A Church Rent by Factions (verses 11-12) Now, what's going on is, somebody says, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ." The ESV translation puts an "or" in between each of them. So he says in Verse 11, "My brothers, some from Chloe's household, have informed me there are quarrels among you." You're arguing, and what I mean is one of you says, "I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, [that's Peter], or I am of Christ." Those are my favorite ones. They're like, "No, no, isn't that right?" Not like that, it's not. Because you've got factions. "I'm of the Jesus party." Those are actually maybe the most dangerous of them all. "We have Jesus. You can have Paul, you can have Apollos, Cephas," is what it said. But at any rate, the body of Christ is rent, it's ripped apart by factions and divisions. And this was common in Ancient Greece. They would follow philosophers and their schools. "I'm of Plato," "I'm of Aristotle," "I'm of Socrates," "I'm of Epicurus," "I follow that way of life." They're used to this. And the problem with it is, it's way too arrogant and prideful and man-centered. You're focusing too much on Paul or Apollos or Cephas. You're focusing too much. Let's start with the Jesus party. Is Christ divided? We all have Christ, there's one body. So, no, Christ is not divided. We are all of Jesus. But you're immature in your thinking, he's going to say in Chapter 3, "Because you don't see who Paul really is or who Apollos really is." Look at Chapter 3:5-7, he says, "What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who makes things grow." He says, "We're nothing. We are nothing. Everything is of God." So don't think too much of Paul or Apollos, whatever. A number of years ago, I went out to be in a wedding, I was the best man for a friend of mine from college. And brought me out to LA, then he and his new bride went off on their honeymoon, and I was there and I was so excited. I made a hour plus drive up to John MacArthur's church. He had been my mentor by radio and I'm going to go hear him preach Sunday morning. Drove up there, it actually took two hours to get up there, traffic and all, and even on Sunday. I got up there, I was there in plenty of time, and settled in at the church there, Grace Community Church, Panorama City. Settled in, ready to hear John MacArthur, only to be told Pastor John is going to take one week off, he'll be back next week. And I was crushed. And then I had this amazing experience through the Holy Spirit, who spoke to me and said, "I'm here." That was a convicting moment. Who are you here for? Truth be told, I was there for John MacArthur. And he wasn't there that day, but Jesus was there. And I'm not saying that God doesn't raise up some servants and make them extraordinary. Paul was extraordinary, there will never be another Paul, ever. But he's not indispensable. And when he died, the church of Christ went on and flourished. And we have some gifted teachers here. For the next five weeks, you're going to hear preaching from other gifted men, and I praise God for them. But there's going to come a time, if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, we'll all be gone. I yearn that this church still be here and healthy in this community. And so, we're yearning to see younger gifted men and women use their gifts, and younger gifted men preach and use those gifts. That's our desire. And so, don't focus overmuch on the human servant. And one thing you forget, he's going to say this in Chapter 3, if you say, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," and you put an "or" between it, it's like you get Paul, you can have Apollos. No, you misunderstand, you actually get them all. You get Paul and Apollos and Cephas and John MacArthur and any of the other teachers as long as they're teaching the truth. All of the truth comes from God, and you can get all of it. You don't have to pick and choose, you get them all because all things are yours. We'll get to that in Chapter 3. Well, I'm well aware of what time it is, and I'm also well aware how many pages I haven't covered yet. I have no idea what to do. But guess what? I've got five weeks to figure that out. So, I'm going to stop here, I'm going to just say this as we close. Factions and divisions have rent Christianity for centuries. Do you know how many Protestant denominations there are? I didn't know. 41,000. Any chance there's some sin in there somewhere? 41,000 different Protestant denominations. But when we get to heaven, it's going to be perfectly united. So, by way of application, let me just finish by urging all of you. Paul's going to say, "When I was with you, I was with you in weakness and fear, and much trembling, and I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified." If I take this whole book, I'm going to unify it under one thing. No matter how many and how severe the problems are in the local church, Christ and him crucified is sufficient for all of them. He's going to bring each of these problems to Christ, again and again. V. Applications So I appeal to each one of you. I don't know your spiritual condition. If you are here today and you know you're outside of Christ looking in, I believe God brought you here to hear that your sins can be forgiven through the death and the resurrection of Jesus, if you just have faith in Him. So trust in Him. Don't leave here unconverted. Come and talk to me. If you've got questions about Christianity. This is what I'm here for. And there are other brothers and sisters that will be happy to talk to you. So first and foremost, don't go to hell, don't be condemned. You don't know how much longer you have. Secondly, if I could just urge you also, just enrich your thankfulness. Enrich it in your marriage. Thank God for your spouse. And then your local church, thank God for this church. Thank God for the brothers and sisters here. Don't take Him for granted. Thank God for the grace you see in other people and express it to them. And don't allow your heart to become divided with other people here in the church. Take advantage. I would urge you, just go over these announcements and just look at them and look at VBS. And thank God for the spiritual gifts of Susan Fisher and others that just do this every year. I'm amazed. Do you realize how bad VBS would be if I were in charge of it? It would be awful. Not because I don't love kids, I do love kids. But specifically, the administrative things. I would not order the goldfish, I would forget to order the goldfish. And many other worse things would happen. So, I'm just praising God for that. Take advantage of the sack lunch thing. Let's draw together and love on one another. I'm going to close in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time that we've had, however brief, to study your word. Grateful for it. And Father, I just pray that you would take the word of God and pour it into our hearts, help us to know how much we need you to continue to save us. We have been justified, but you continue to make us holy. And help us to help one another. Draw us together in a remarkable, evident unity so that we can be a light shining in this dark region. As thousands of people are pouring in here to live here, help us to witness to them and show them the life that truly is life. In Jesus' name. Amen.
In this sermon, CJ helped us consider the fruit and effect that self-control can have in the lives of young men who are disciples of Jesus Christ.
In this panel, the four founders of T4G gather as they did in 2006 to review the day, laugh, and dive into various theological issues. Having just viewed God’s grace to T4G over the past 10 years in this video, Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler, CJ Mahaney, and Mark Dever review God’s past faithfulness as they trust God for future grace. May we stand faithful and together in the gospel until our Lord’s return.
Normally, when we consider the Reformers, we consider thetheological revolution they brought about; this consideration isgood and right. One aspect of the Reformers we often skip over,however, is that these men were fundamentally pastors. As such, theReformers lent great pastoral contributions that we can receivemuch encouragement from especially in the midst of our suffering.CJ Mahaney looks to the Reformation and to the book of Job for suchencouragement.
The Good Samaritan As we come to today's text, we're coming to two moral issues, issues of the virtuous life, and I've really been pondering these two issues, and thinking about my own life. And in my pondering as I'm led to consider one of Jesus' most famous parables, it's in Luke chapter 10. Don't turn there, but just listen, you're very familiar with it. It's the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus taught it to people who asked Him, adversaries really, who asked Him concerning the two great commandments, to “love God with all of our heart, and love our neighbor as ourselves,” and someone challenged Him saying, "Who is my neighbor?" And Jesus told the parable, the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan. I'll never forget a mentor of mine, a man that I worked with in the North Shore of Massachusetts, did a great ministry with orphans, with refugees, and others, tremendous ministry, Nick Granitsas, and he preached a sermon on the Good Samaritan, and I never forget how he laid it out. You know the story of the Good Samaritan, how there was a man that was traveling, just a traveler going from Jericho on the road. And suddenly, some highway robbers assaulted him, and beat him, and stripped him and took all of his possessions, and left him half-dead and half-naked, laying by the side of the road. And then a priest in turn, and a Levite come and see him and walk right on by, and do not care for his needs. But then comes a Samaritan who sees the need, goes over and cares for his wounds, binds him up, puts him on his own animal, takes him down to an innkeeper, stays with him all that crucial night, gets him through the night, then pays him money, the innkeeper, money, to care for him until he should return. And what Pastor Granitsas said, he said there's different approaches to life that you see in this parable. The robbers look on people on the highway and they say, "What's yours is mine, if I can take it from you." And the priest, and the Levite seeing this man bleeding by the side of the road, say, "What's yours is yours and what's mine is mine," and that's that. Live and let live. The innkeeper says, "What's mine is yours for a price." But then there's the Good Samaritan who is a loving neighbor who says, "What's mine is yours, if you need it." I never forgot that. But in my mind this morning, as I'm thinking about the injunction, the command to the church in Ephesus, that they should stop stealing, I'm thinking about Daniel's comments about what kind of bride Jesus is taking on here. A bride characterized by thievery. And then I think about my own life, and I think about sins that I do struggle with and don't struggle with. And as a preacher, I'm thinking about relevance, and I'm wondering how many thieves I'm going to speak to this morning. The Lord led me to consider this parable, this morning. I was just pondering it. And I was thinking I want to continue the parable. The Parable Continued The Good Samaritan, we try to find ourselves in it, we don't want to be the robber, we don't want to be the priest and the Levite. The innkeeper, he has a job to do, but we are called on to something better, to love our neighbor sacrificially, etcetera, so we want to see ourselves in there. For me, as I look at it, Jesus is the Good Samaritan, He's the one that found us by the ditch in the road, bleeding to death, and He cared for us, He loved us, and as a good neighbor, no one loved in a neighborly way as Jesus. No one fulfilled the law like Jesus. But I want to continue the story. Imagine that Jesus leaves the inn and goes back up the Jericho Road. By evening, He finds the robbers that beat this man up and they're sitting around the campfire and they're looking at today's loot, the plunder that they took, and Jesus goes and walks and stands boldly in their midst. They're startled, because for the most part, you don't want to be out at night along that stretch of road, and in comes this man boldly, and He singles out one of the thieves and says, "You need a Savior. You need a Savior and I am your Savior." The Thief on the Cross And so, fast forward 13 chapters later, in Luke's Gospel, to the most famous, perhaps the most famous convert in church history. The thief on the cross. Now, I don't say that he's the same one that was in that group, but he was a thief, he was a robber. That's what he did, and you know what happened with him. Somehow, some way, by the sovereign grace of God, as he was dying on the cross next to Jesus, looked over and saw in Jesus a Savior and a coming king. Where did that vision come from? How Christ crucified, shedding His blood on the cross, for sinners like you and me, he felt was dying for him, rebukes his fellow robber, his fellow thief, who doesn't see it, doesn't have any vision of faith at all, but he says, you know, “Don't you fear God? We're under the sentence of God. We're going to die today. We're thieves and we're getting what we deserve under the law of God, but this man has done nothing wrong." And then he looked over at Jesus and said, with an astonishing boldness, "Remember me when you come in your kingdom." On what basis is this thief going to spend eternity with God in Heaven, what does he have to offer? He has no way to make it right, no way to pay recompense to his victims, there's nothing he can do, there's nothing he has to offer. But he's got the boldness of faith to look over and see in Jesus, a Savior. And I don't know everything he understood, but he knew his own guilt, Jesus' innocence, and the fact that He was a King and He was coming in His kingdom, and the kingdom would be made up of redeemed sinners. Thieves who had repented and been saved by simple faith, not by works. And Jesus gave him that beautiful assurance, "Today, you'll be with Me in paradise." On what basis? On what basis do sinners like that find salvation? On what basis will that thief sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, on what basis? On the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, on the basis of simple faith, not by works. That's how thieves are redeemed from their thieving. The Gospel Alone Produces Godly Living A Sin We All Commit Now, you may look at that and say, you know, as we come to this passage, "I don't really steal." And as a pastor, what I could do is I could find perhaps ways that you didn't realize you were stealing and convict you of that, etcetera and I could do that, but I want you to step back and look with me in a bigger picture, okay? First of all, whether you suffer from that particular set of symptoms or another particular set of symptoms or another, remember how Jesus said, "The healthy don't need a doctor but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." For you to say, "You know, I don't have that set of symptoms, I don't struggle with stealing," well, just thank God that you've never been in an economic situation which the Book of Proverbs says we can understand in the context of adultery, says we can understand a man stealing, if he's desperately hungry, we can understand it, but we're still going to make him pay fourfold for what he took. We understand that. Well then, thank God that you were born in a wealthy country, and born to wealthy parents and got a good education, you never needed to steal. But what I've learned to do is say there is no sin pattern that exists that I couldn't commit. If the circumstances were set up, I could have been a thief. I actually was a thief for a very little while. I was in elementary school and the place was White Hen Pantry, and it was a candy bar and it was a dare. I had fallen into some bad company. Talks about it in Proverbs 1, isn't it interesting one of the very first things that Proverbs deals with is, "Don't fall in, my son, with thieves who say let's share a common purse," it's like in the 14th verse of Proverbs 1, it's like an issue right away, but I just thank God. I could have been a thief, I was delivered. My parents, knowing my financial resources, wondered where that candy bar came from, asked some questions, and I went back in and confessed in full to the shop owner, and I was delivered from that. But for us, saved by grace, we have to learn not to excuse ourselves from passages of scripture. And we also need to realize God is doing a worldwide saving work. And what's fascinating about the verses that we're looking at today is that there are some verses that you probably don't struggle with. There's one verse here that you'd say, "You know actually I'm not a thief honestly, but I know I'm a sinner," but then the next verse talks about how you use your words every day, do you ever use your words in a way that doesn't glorify God? Everyone will say based on the book of James everyone will say, "We need a transformation of our mouths." The Gospel’s Transformative Power And so this is the marvel of the Gospel, isn't it? The “Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of every sinner, every kind of sinner.” So isn't it wonderful that a band of thieves like the one that beat up that man on the Jericho road could actually find salvation in Christ, isn't it beautiful that in the 24 time zones of the Church of Jesus Christ, there actually are some people that have struggled with thieving, that made a living doing it, that were really tough individuals and the Gospel of Christ came and transformed the whole way they lived. Romans 1:16, Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." All sinners who repent and turn to Christ, in the abandonment of faith like that thief did on the cross, can find salvation through faith in Christ. We can find total forgiveness. Deliverance Only Through Christ Now, in Ephesians the implication here is if you have found Jesus a savior, if you have trusted in Him, as a savior, and you have had all of your sins forgiven by the blood of Jesus, you've come to Him, you who are weary and burdened and troubled in sin and you have trusted in Him and you have been forgiven, you are now told by the Gospel to live a different kind of life. And so he addresses that very, very directly, and it's marvelous to me, for us sitting in the comfort of this sanctuary, in the comfort of our socio-economic condition, it's a stretch for us to understand why we need to be told that we who have been stealing must steal no longer but must work. Some of you sitting here, it wouldn't surprise me, know exactly why you have to be told this. Praise God that there is a Gospel that liberates us from all the symptoms of the disease of sin and death, and that this one Gospel of Christ, crucified and resurrected, is the “panacea.” It is the healing for every disease of sin there is in the world. And there are going to be brothers and sisters up in Heaven, we're going to meet them who did make their living by thieving, and Jesus delivered them. Not Stealing, but Labor, Love and Generosity (vs. 28) Defining Stealing So let's look at this first command and then the second, the first is not stealing, but labor in love and generosity. Look at verse 28, "He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need." So when we're talking about stealing, what is it? Well, before we can even have stealing, we have to have something before that, and that's the idea of private ownership. The idea that some created items, some goods, some possessions belong to people. They are theirs, possession. So without possession, then there is no possibility of stealing. So this is the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:15, "You shall not steal," but behind that we've got the idea of mine and yours. Just like Nick Granitsas was saying in that sermon, "What's mine is mine and yours is yours," there's mine and yours. Okay? So we get this in Acts Chapter 5, Peter said to Ananias, "Didn't the field belong to you before it was sold?” Your fields? “And after you sold it, wasn't the money yours as well? You could do whatever you wanted with that money. Why did you lie?" So the issue is not private ownership or what you did, it's that you lied about it. But private ownership's clearly established not just there, but throughout scripture. So stealing then is to take someone else's property, without their permission or without legal right, without intending to return it, especially secretly or by force. Now, this is actually in our society a bigger problem than we might think. According to Forbes Magazine, I looked this up, shoplifting and worker theft cost retailers $32 billion a year. $32 billion a year. And the cost of protecting from that drives the price of everything up, we're all affected by stealing, whether we steal or not. Walmart alone loses $300 million a year to theft. So yesterday, Calvin and I were at Walmart and I did the you scan the check thing. But now they've got someone at the door, and they go through your bag. So at Walmart as at the airport, I get to a be treated temporarily like a criminal, but I understand it completely and I had no problem doing it because I know I was going to preach on stealing, and I knew about the $300 million and I was like, "Okay, I understand why Walmart is doing this now." It's kind of an irony because they've got the you scan for maximum convenience, and then they've got the lady rummaging through your bag for not so much convenience. And so, they're trying to balance that, and it's hard for the retailers, but their employees are stealing from them, their customers are stealing from them, it's a big issue. I was at Lowe's two months ago, I was buying some vacuum cleaner belts, isn't it exciting that I can bring vacuum cleaner belts into a sermon? Various ones if you give me a challenge, "I want you to say this word sometime in the next year from the pulpit," I won't do it all right? But vacuum cleaner belts. So, I wanted to buy several bags, so I wouldn't have to go back, they're not that expensive. So I grabbed two bags off of the display and as I was walking forward I took a close look, and one of the bags had two vacuum cleaner belts in it as the bag promised, the other one was completely empty with a hole in it. And I don't see anyway that Lowe's could protect themselves from that kind of theft. I mean, it's such a cheap thing, it's got no little marker on it, it just got stuffed in someone's pocket. So this is an issue, we're surrounded by it all the time and then there's with the Internet with electronics and all, there's identity theft that's going on, a number of you I know are dealing with that at the other end as victims. And so, we understand this is a huge, a huge problem. Is This Really Stealing? Now, for ourselves, it's like, "Is it a problem for our church as a member... .".Well, you just have to look at your own conscience, you look at how you're living and asking. Obviously the issue of pretty soon taxes going to come up, it's stealing to not pay to the government every dollar that they deserve. And so, cutting corners, cutting edges. I think for me not to put in a full day's work or for any employee to not put in a full day's work, and Paul's going to deal with this in Ephesians 6, with the master-slave command, but you know for you to only work when your master's eye is on you, but then cutting corners, that's a different kind of stealing. So there's that kind of thing. If you take 20 napkins from Chick-fil-A, intending to have some of them in your glove compartment, and some of them you're going to use for the actual food you're eating a Chick-fil-A, I don't know, I've done it. I'm not quite at the point of conviction yet. Subway, they don't have it available, have you noticed? They put two napkins in there, in the bag, so they've cut that off at that point. Alright, we could do that. You could say, "Alright, do I steal?" But if I could just urge you, look a little bit bigger. One of the most important verses in the Bible on the universality of sin is Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The more you meditate on that, the more you realize every sinner is a glory thief. CJ Mahaney in his book on pride said, "Basically pride is when I take God's place and steal from Him what should be going to Him." So all of us are glory thieves to some degree, even if you haven't stolen in the standard way. We need Jesus as a Savior, we need to be able to look over to Him and say, "Remember me when you come into Your kingdom because I am no better than any other sinner that's ever lived." Stop the Wrong, Start the Right Now, what Paul does here is he doesn't just say, "stop stealing", he does say that. This is very, very simple and direct. “If you have been stealing, you must stop.” It is evil, it is wicked, it is not harmonious with the Christian life. But he doesn't just stop there, he goes into a power that will drive out stealing, and that is a whole disposition of your heart where you say, "I'm going to take my mind and I'm going to take my energy and my hands, and I'm going to use them in productive labor that's going to produce a profit. And out of that profit, some of it I'm going to give to the poor and needy." It's a whole different mindset. It is the remedy. Whereas before, all you cared about was your self, as you laid in wait for some victim. Now you're going to see who's been beat up by providential circumstances in life, and you're going to love them as the Good Samaritan did. It's a whole different perspective. A good friend of mine, Vic Carpenter, who's with the FBI and we were talking about white collar crime, which he was trying to address in Florida, and he was marveling at just how inventive and creative and skilled these thieves are. And he said, "Why don't they just put all that inventiveness and creativity into productive work? They really would do very well." And in effect, that comment is exactly what Paul was saying here. Fundamentally, these folks have taken their amazing brains and their skillful hands and their creativity and their ingenuity and they're using it for corruption. Instead, what they should be doing, is that they should by the power of the Spirit, stop stealing and begin laboring, begin working with their own hands, delighting in work. Now, it seems that the thief hates honest work. They don't want to do it that way. They want a shortcut, they want some shortcut in life toward prosperity, and toward having that thing that they see. All Labor Can Glorify God But from this, the Christian should delight in work. Work is a delightful thing. The labor that God gives us is a beautiful thing, that we get to in some ways imitate God who fashioned and created worlds by the word of His power, and like Jesus said, "My Father is always at His work to this very day and I too am working," and we get to join the Father and work. And we talked earlier in Ephesian 4 about our spiritual gifts and we don't all have the same career or the same gifts or talents, but we have some. And we can take those talents and those gifts and we can develop them, and God just watches us and delights in it. Remember how He brought the animals to Adam to see what he would name them and whatever he named them, that's what was the animal's name? The idea, it's almost like God's observing, saying, "Here I'm giving you these gifts and talents, these hands, this mind, do something with it. Labor with it, do something creative with it, make something useful with your own hands. Work at your job.” For a long time in the history of the Church, there was a hierarchy of holiness, the medieval Catholic Church had established very wrongfully I think, the idea that the mystics, those that remove themselves from everyday life, the priests, the nuns. Anyway, monks and nuns, they remove themselves from everyday life, and just meditated and fasted and all that, and that was the high level of holiness, whereas your standard peasant who worked out in the field or the shopkeeper had a very low level of holiness. But, Martin Luther, with his priesthood of all believers doctrine, and then ultimately I think the Puritans more than anyone, established the beauty of a calling from God. Of having a career that you can labor with your own hands, and if you're called into the vocational ministry fine, but you may be called on to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a shopkeeper, a farmer, or a craftsman, and you can glorify God with how you develop your skills in your career. And what the Puritans found is the more they sought to do all of their work for the glory of God, the better they got at it. And the more their products were in demand and the more money flowed in, and this was the fulfillment, even of this verse, so that they would have something to share with those in need. And how beautiful is that? So, the former thief is now living for the glory of God and living for his neighbor, he's using his skill and his talents to alleviate suffering. Pray to See Your Sin and for Forgiveness So on this one, ask God to show you examples where you have been taking from others what didn't belong to you, where you have been stealing, and repent. Understand, big picture, you're no different than any other thief that's been saved by grace, even though you haven't perhaps been tempted in that area, you could have been if the economic circumstances were different, so don't be arrogant. Understand also the same Gospel works to heal thieves and bring them over and look forward to spending eternity at the table, the feasting table, with some thieves that have been saved by the same grace that saved you. I am looking forward to meeting that thief on the cross, aren't you? I'm looking forward to talking to him and saying, "You know, you have been an inspiration to so many who had no hope, at the end of their life." And is it possible for me, even at the very end of a life of wickedness to find forgiveness? Yes, all you need to do is look to Christ crucified. I'm calling on you if you're unregenerate I'm saying right now look to Christ crucified, see yourself like that the thief on that the cross and say, "I have no other savior", and Jesus will speak a word to you saying, "You will be with me in paradise." Not Corrupt Speech, but Love and Edification (vs. 29) Now, the second verse, much more applicable I think to all of us. Look at verse 29, I would say this is one of the verses in Ephesians I think about the most. It's very, very helpful to me, very practical. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths. But only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs so that it may benefit those who listen." So, I've called this verse before a “mouth filter.” Now our home, we're on a well, we're on a well, some of you folks are on city water, we're on a well. And early in our ownership, within a month or so, it became obvious we needed a whole house water filter. One of the most courageous things I've ever done in my life as a homeowner, is cut the copper pipe that fed the water to our entire house. I'll never forget that. I had one of those copper pipe cutter things, and I was like, "Here it goes," and then bang it was gone. I had shut off the water and it's like, "Okay I'm in it now. I've got to get this water filter in this line today or we have no water tonight," which is a big deal. And so I put that filter in, I'll tell you after about less than two or three weeks, the filter needed to be changed. I was like horrified, like for a month we drank unfiltered water, and I was so delighted that we had that filter in there. The Mouth Filter Now what is a filter? A filter is something that's designed to take out, or remove out of the water stream in that case, particulates and pollutants and other things that would be harmful, or would not be beneficial for you to drink. So basically then picture the stream of your words coming out of your mouth. You need a filter. You need to filter some of the things that you say and not say them anymore. And this verse is a great “mouth filter” or “word filter.” Look at it again, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths." That's 100%. Like, if there's anything unwholesome, let it never come out of your mouth; and then on the other side of the equation, but “only what is helpful for building others up that it may edify, only those things that will edify, that it might give grace to those who listen.” So Paul in effect wants the Ephesians to ask it every moment before they speak is what I'm about to say going to be helpful for building others up according to their needs. Will it benefit or give grace to those who listen, and if the answer is, "No," don't say it. Don't say it. “Unwholesome Talk”: An Amazing Gift Gone Bad So what does this mean, unwholesome talk? Well unwholesome talk, the word in the original means rotten, putrefying, or corrupted talk. It's a very strong word. The word translated unwholesome. So you could picture just leaving some chicken, uncooked chicken on your counter as you're away for a weekend in August. You know what I'm talking about? And then you come back Sunday night, and you know immediately you did something, you forgot something because the smell is horrible. So that's how some of our talk looks to God. It stinks. It's moral filth, it's evil, and we ought not to say it. So any word that hurts someone else, so verbal attacks or insults or slander or gossip, fighting words, arguments, dissensions, words like that, lies, or complaining. I mean complaining doesn't give grace to those who listen. So any time you're going to want to just put in... And complaining is anti-praise is what it is, it's exactly the opposite of praise. Praise is you're just thanking God for His goodness and you're just speaking words of joy, and all that, complaining is the exact opposite, very dissatisfied with the providence of God. So, you're complaining. And certainly harsh things like false doctrine, that doesn't benefit, that doesn't give grace. Or blasphemy, coarse words, foolish talk, joking, things that we'll get to that in Ephesians 5, but all of these corrupted ways, idle chatter, things that just don't benefit people. Just get rid of it, all of it. It's a whole mouth filter here. Out of the Fullness of the Heart the Mouth Speaks The problem with the mouth, with the words, is that there's such a strong connection between what you say and your heart, the state of your heart. Jesus said this, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.” The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," so whatever your heart's full of, you're going to speak. It's really hard not to. And on Judgment Day, we're told that we'll have to give an account for every careless word we've spoken, think about that. I was in a witnessing situation once, and I used that verse and he said, "Whoa whoa whoa, I don't... " The guy said to me, "I don't remember most of what I've said." I said, "That's alright, God's got it written down. He's got it all down." That was horrifying to that individual. They're like, everything I said. All of it. Not just our words, but our actions, inclinations of the heart, everything. That is a great verse for witnessing. "I tell you on the Day of Judgment, you will have to give an account for every careless word you have spoken, for by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned." So what that means is really actually Jesus can just boil it down to this, a full transcript of all of your words of your life, He will be able to accurately gauge the state of your soul. By the fruit of your words He will know you. So the key to transforming your speech is a transformation of the heart, transformation of the heart. You say, "Lord, I want my heart to be filled with light and not darkness. I want to be filled with love for You and love for my neighbor." And so I would commend Philippians 4:8, as the partner verse for this whole “mouth filter.” It says there, "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, or lovely or admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things." And I just in my mind, I insert the word “only.” “Think only about those things.” And what's going to happen, is you're going to start speaking what's true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable. So if you're saying corrupting things, if you're arguing, and lying, and slandering, and gossiping, and complaining, and doing things with your mouth you ought not to do, the problem is your heart. The mouth is just a slave, it's going to do what your heart tells it to do. So go into your heart with the grace of God and say, "Oh Lord, can it really be that my heart is this bad?” It is. And, “Oh God, would You by the Word of God and by the Spirit of God transform my heart and fill it with light and joy and love for neighbor, so that I use my mouth as a blessing." James 3: The Restless Evil of the Tongue Now, it's not going to be easy. James 3 talks about this. James 3 talks about how hard it is to control the mouth. He says in James 3:2, "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault, in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to keep this whole body in check." In other words, if you can get the tongue controlled you're a perfect man or woman. "The tongue is a restless evil, full of deadly poison," James says. It's really hard to control. I like Psalm 141:3. It says, "Set a guard over the door of my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips." So, every once in a while, I ride on my bike past Butner prison. It's a maximum security prison I think, it's got guard towers and lights and it's got razor wire and it's got all of these things there, and as I'm riding I just look at all of the lengths that they've gone to keep those prisoners in. Because the idea is that it's very likely, if these folks get out into the community, they will do severe damage in the community. And so the guard's job, the warden's job, is to keep them in, at least in part, that's part of the job, to keep them in so that they can't get out and do damage in society. So when I go then to Psalm 141:3 where it says, "Set a guard over my mouth O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips." The idea is that some of my words will be like those inmates. They will do damage out in society. So please, don't let them escape, please don't let my bad words get out of my mouth. Be Slow to Speak James gives us more help in James 1:19 when he says, "My dear brothers, take note of this, everyone should be quick to listen," what's the next one? "Slow to speak." So slow down. Slow to become angry, slow down. I don't know if it's the FCC or the networks where they put in some time ago a seven-second delay, you know so that if something gets said that ought not be said they can beep it out, right? So it's almost like you need a seven-second delay. Seven seconds is a long time. Now that would get a little weird in, like at a party. That's been about four seconds. But just the idea is slow down, think about what you're about to say and bring it back to Ephesians 4:29, "Is what I'm about to say unwholesome talk? Or on the other hand, is it helpful for building others up?" The focus should be, "I want to use my words to further the Kingdom of Christ. I want to use my words to edify, that's one of the words here. I'm going to build my neighbor up, so I get that image from Ephesians 2 of that beautiful spiritual temple rising with the living stones. I want to use my words to speak to a lost person, the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that they find forgiveness and become a living stone in that wall. I want to edify and build that person up, moving them from darkness to light." Okay, "If they're a Christian, I want to build them up in maturity in Christ. I want to help them in some way, I want to edify them." And the NIV says, "that it may benefit those who listen," but all the other translations I think are a little sharper. It says, "That it may give grace to those who listen." So I want my words to be a river of God's grace to you. And not just when I'm preaching, I want that to be my regular habit. Give Grace With Your Words So how do I do that? How do I make my words a river of grace? Well, I would just commend the quiet time to you. Every day get up, begin your day and store up grace in your heart by the ministry of the word of God. Feed your soul with messages of grace that you can give to people through the day. Say, "This morning I met with the Lord, I had the most encouraging time, let me share something of it with you." And so you're giving grace. I love Isaiah 50:4, I think it's talking about Jesus, but I also take it for myself too. Isaiah 50:4, "The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary," isn't that beautiful? I want to know a word today that could sustain someone that's weary, weary in this world, weary of physical afflictions, and disease, weary of struggling with sin. I want to speak a word that will give grace to that person that will sustain him. Isaiah 50:4, "He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught." So just say, "Lord fill me like a sponge with messages of grace, fill my heart with light, drive out the darkness so that I'm not complaining about my job or complaining about our finances or about my medical situation, I'm not complaining. That doesn't give grace to the people who listen to me. I want to be filled with joy, I want to set my heart on the New Jerusalem, I want to be talking about that." Speak to Your Neighbor’s Needs And it says, "According to their needs that it may give grace." So study the needs of your neighbor, find out what's going on in people's lives. Maybe they're going through trials, financially, physically, with illness, maybe the marriage is in trouble, maybe their child is rebellious or seriously ill or something. Find out, find out where they're at in the discipleship, maybe they're doctrinally immature, you can give grace to them in a discipleship relationship or at least just say some words that'll help. Perhaps there's a sin issue and God wants to use you to "restore them gently,” Galatians 6:1, and bring them back into a healthy relationship with God. There's all kinds of messages of grace that God wants to use. And pick up on the social cues, okay? I like this in Proverbs 25:11 it says, "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver," isn't that beautiful? Apples of gold in a setting of silver, but it says it's a word aptly spoken, it's the right time. So let's say you had the most awesome quiet time, and you have this intricate three-part mini message you want to give and you run into a church member at Kroger, and they are happy to see you and it's like, "Yeah, it's great. Yeah, we got a lot to do," where you know it's like, "Oh stop, I got something I want to share with you." That's not the time. If they're physically giving off cues that they're needing to roll, this is not the time. So there's a sense of social sensitivity, alright? That's where it's an apple of gold in a setting of silver, it's a word aptly spoken, the time is right. Time is right. But oh, brothers and sisters, let us use our mouths to build up the Body of Christ.Let's use our words to speak grace to the people around us. Let's get rid of arguing and complaining and gossip and lying and slander and corrupting speech, and instead speak words of edification to one another, close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, thank you for the Gospel. Thank you for Christ, thank you that you spoke that word of forgiveness to the thief saying, "Today, you'll be with Me in paradise." Thank you that you save thieves, repentant thieves, you save them. And thank you that you save other kinds of sinners too, and thank you, oh Lord, that you've given us such a rich treasure trove of messages of grace that we can speak to one another. Oh God, fill our hearts with light that we may speak words of light, that give grace to those who listen. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Well, I've been looking forward to preaching this sermon for a long time. I'm preaching effectively on one verse, Ephesians 2:7. And it's not the kind of verse that maybe many people would focus on, but for a long time I have been meditating on what will be our occupation in Heaven, what will we spend eternity in Heaven doing? Randy Alcorn recently wrote a book called "Heaven." It's an interesting book, almost 500 pages long on that one topic, and I think it's a great book. He does a lot of Heavenly speculation. I think John Calvin would have been struggling with all that speculation, but I actually enjoyed it. I think we came to the conclusion that if Randy Alcorn likes something on Earth, it's going to be in Heaven. Just go to him and find out what we're going to be doing in Heaven and he will know, but one thing he's writing against, and that is the idea of a static, boring Heaven, the kind of thing that you could kind of shrink back from. You think about floating on fluffy clouds and strumming a harp and you're like, “who wants to do that?: I don't know anyone that would be excited about looking forward to doing that. And so he just unfolds how ridiculous that is, if you understand the creativity and the power and the glory of God, it is unthinkable that we would be for even a moment, bored in Heaven. And so, for me, the idea of what will we be doing and what will be our occupation, how will we spend eternity? Like it says in Amazing Grace, “When we've been there 10,000 years…” It's hard to even imagine that span of time, “bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we’d first begun,” but then we start thinking, “Okay, 10,000 years, what will we do?” I don't think there's anything that I do on earth now that I'd want to do every day for 10,000 years. I don't think there's any food that I like here on Earth, that I'd want to eat every day for 10,000 years, even pepperoni pizza, which I love, and you never got fat and nothing bad ever happened, I still wouldn't want to do it for 10,000 years, and so we might struggle with it. But the more you meditate on the immense creativity of God displayed in this present created order. Just go to an aquarium and look at all the different species of tropical fish. You look at all the different colors, their shapes, their sizes, what they do, how they behave. Or you look at just the different types of birds there are, some different ones that fly and soar in thermals like birds of prey, like eagles and falcons and hawks. And the peregrine Falcon, that in a hunting dive can get to 250 miles an hour, all the way down to more simple sparrows that are two sparrows sold for a penny, and they're not incredibly consequential, but part of the world that God made, same thing with all the things that grow on the earth, the different range of plants and vegetation and bushes and trees and flowers. Our God is an amazingly creative God, isn't He? It's just incredible how He has woven all of this in. The Past: God’s Grace Displayed in Us And so what I'm going to say to you today is that Heaven is going to be a very exciting, thrilling place and I believe based on Ephesians 2:7, we're going to spend at least part of eternity celebrating the grace of God that He's already shown us in Christ, and that He has yet more to show to us of His grace for all eternity. Look at verses 6 and 7, it says that God, “raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the Heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, He might show or display or demonstrate the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” In other words, He has more to show us in the future and the coming ages about what He has already been doing in the church in Christ Jesus. Understanding God’s Power at Work in Our Lives Now, last week, we had a chance to hear from Walter Lee some of what God had done in his life. I shared some of the things that happened in my life. I think we are going to have unfolded before us, church history as we have never seen it or heard it before. We're going to find out, from brothers and sisters in Christ, in every era of history, all the ages of church history just what God did to save them. And I don't mean just bring them to initial saving faith, I mean to guard them and protect them from the world, the flesh, and the devil and how God used each individual brother and sister in Christ, and how He wove together their lives and their works and all that in this magnificent Tapestry of Grace. And we're going to see it and we won't for a moment be selfish or bored, but we will be delighted in everything that God has done. God’s Character in Our Salvation So, we stand here in the middle of one of the great sections of Scripture that you heard Joel read, Ephesians 2:1-10, and it comes after another incredible portion of Scripture in Ephesians 1, and so we have a chance to see the grace of God. And so what I want to do is just kind of stand here in the middle of verses 6 and 7 and say, "We're going to look back what God has already done by grace in our lives, and then look ahead for the rest of our lives here on Earth, how God has yet more grace to show us, and how we should rely on that future grace that is still going to come to us more and more, and He's going to show us how gracious He will be from now until the day we leave this Earth. But then unfolded into the eternity future, the ages yet to come, and how God is going to put His grace on display." Kyle was talking about trophies of grace. And so we're going to see them all and we're going to celebrate them all, and we're going to do it in such a selfless way. All we'll want to see is how each individual saved person glorified God, and we'll be eager for that story. So let's look at it, and let's begin looking at the past. What has God already done? How has He shown grace in us already? And this is just by way of review, Paul's goal here is that the Ephesian Christians will know God better, that God would give them, “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” And not only that, he says, but that, “the eyes of their heart would be enlightened.” And so as I was explaining that, that's your faith. By faith, based on the word of God, you would have revelation or illumination, of the grace of God shown us in Christ, so the “eyes of your heart would be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” Now, the "in the Saints" phrase is very interesting, but the idea here, at least in part, with some of the themes I'm bringing up, is that we would celebrate what God did in the saints and the other believers in Christ and we would see the greatness and the riches that are going to be in Heaven of all that God's done with our brothers and sisters, and we're going to realize that the grace He showed us is just a small portion of all the grace He showed to the family of God and we're going to realize it's every bit as much worthy of our celebration of someone else's grace as ours. It's the same God that gives all. So He wants the “eyes of our heart enlightened, so we would know the hope of our calling the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power.” Power at work in us who believe. God has grabbed hold of us by His sovereign power, by His sovereign grace, by omnipotence, and He will never let us go, until His purposes of grace are finished. And so Paul picks up on the third of those three and goes off and talks about that power, that power is like the working of His mighty strength which “He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, physically, and seated Him at His right hand in the Heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that could be given, not only in the present age, but what? In the age to come.” “And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” So in other words, just keeping it simple. Our Origins: Spiritually Dead God wants us to know that the same power of Almighty God, God the Father, that raised Jesus up from the dead, physically has already been at work in us spiritually, if we're Christians. Why is that? Chapter 2, because we were dead spiritually, like Jesus was dead, physically. That's the analogy that he is making. “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit that is now at work in those who are disobedient, all of us also lived among them at one time. Gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” Like Kyle was saying, we already have a sense from Ephesians 2:1-3 of what we were apart from Christ. Actually, we have an inadequate sense of how bad it was. We underestimate how bad it was, and I said, at that time, a couple of weeks ago, your joy and celebration, and sense of gratitude toward God in the good news will be in direct proportion to your sense of the bad news. The more you just know how bad it was apart from Christ, the more joyful you're going to be in your Christian life. And so Ephesians 2:1-3 paradoxically, though very dark and sad verses, actually is a launching pad for great joy in Christ because we were dead. And there was nothing we could have done to save ourselves. Nothing at all. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, God made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions - It is by grace you have been saved,” just can't, can't go even a moment without saying “Grace! Grace! Grace!” Next week, we're going to talk about Ephesians 2:8-9, “It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the Heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Miracles Already Worked in God’s People Now all of this, God has done in the past, it's already happened. If you're a Christian, this has already happened to you. God's already displayed incredible power in your life, if you only know what to look for. That you love Jesus right now, it's supernatural power put on display. You were dead. How did you come to love Jesus? How did you come to follow Him and believe in Him against all odds, against the world, the flesh and the devil? How came you out of that dark, cold grip of Satan, and of your sin and your rebellion? It's by the sovereign grace of God, by His power. So, we're looking back, this is something that's already happened to you, celebrate it. Be amazed at it, Never lose your sense of wonder that you're a Christian. It doesn't matter if you were raised in a good Christian home. That's fantastic, that's wonderful. God used that to protect you from corruption and wickedness. It's a good thing to grow up in a Christian home. It doesn't matter that you don't have a dramatic conversion story like Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. It doesn't make a difference. You're a miracle of God's grace, if today you love Jesus and you're following Him. But if on the other hand, you do have an amazing story like in the song, All I Have is Christ, “I was wandering in darkness and rebellion and sin, and did so many evil things, but God reached down and He drew me out of those deep waters,” celebrate God's grace. It doesn't make a difference. What matters is if you're a Christian, you're already a trophy of grace, God's already shown His power at work in your life, and He's doing it still, and He does all of this to put His own glory on display. He's putting Himself on display, He wants us to see His greatness. And so we've seen this again and again in Ephesians chapter 1. Look at verses 4-6, there, “in love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace.” In other words, He did this, He predestined us, elected us and predestined us so that we might be for the praise of His glorious grace. That's why he did it. Again, verse 12, "In order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory". In other words, that we might exist to put God on display to glorify God, that's why He did it. And then again in verses 13-14, "Having believed you, you Ephesians, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory.” By the way, in Verse 14, until the redemption of those who are God's possession, God has a whole bunch of elect people that haven't been converted yet, and so, this history is just unfolding, history of evangelism and missions and the growth of the church is unfolding. There are more glorious stories yet to be told. They're going on right now today. Today is somebody's glorious day of conversion. That's awesome, isn't it? But until all that's done, you who have already been saved in Christ, you have been “marked with a seal,” and you're held with the sovereign power of God, He is holding on to you, and He'll never lose you. So that you might be for, “the praise of His glory.” God’s Glory Rightly Displayed It is Right for God to Show Off Now, all of this is the idea of a public display. God's putting this thing on display. He wants to show Himself. He wants to display Himself. And so, that's why Ephesians 2:7, I'm zeroing in on this, this word “show” or “display,” that God has a “show” or “display” to put on in the coming ages, we'll get to that in a minute, but the idea of display that God's putting Himself on display. Well, does God do that kind of thing? Is God a showoff? Oh yes. He's a bigger showoff than we can possibly imagine, but not in any bad way. God wants us to see His greatness. He wants to give us gifts, and the greatest gift He can give us is Himself and the emanations of His creativity and power and who He is and so, oh yes, God shows off. He's done it in physical creation, hasn't He? Don't we see the glory of God in the world around us? Psalm 19:1-2, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech, and night after night, they display knowledge.” I went out last night, I was putting the cars back, they were out in the street and I had to put them away. I don't know why I was going out, it wasn't for taking out the garbage, anyway, so I was going out just looking up at the night sky. There weren't many stars out last night, I don't know what was going on, but I just looked at the silhouettes of the black trees, felt the breeze on my face, just looked around, just... I'm glad no one saw me. It would've been weird. But anyway just looking at what God's made and there wasn't much light, but it's still amazing to me. There's trees and the breeze and everything. God does that, He puts himself on display, the power and the existence of God is on display, all the time. More Glory Displayed in the Gospel But then even more in the Gospel, Amen. Even more has God shown Himself in Christ in the Gospel. He put Jesus up on a cross in order, Romans chapter 3, that He might display His justice, “because in His forbearance, He left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” David was never punished for what he did with Bathsheba, and with Uriah the Hittite. He wasn't put to death. Why not? Because God looked ahead to Christ. But He had to display His justice in saving us, to show that He was vindicating His law, and vindicating His justice. He showed His justice in the cross. Not just justice, He showed His love at the cross, didn't He? In Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He's putting His love on display. This is the kind of thing that God does, He displayed His power, didn't He, in Pharaoh? Didn't He say, "I raised you up?," this is Romans 9, "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show My power in you," what's the word "show" mean? "That I might put My power on display, that all the nations would see how powerful I am, and what I can do, And that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth as a powerful, mighty, delivering God." And so we have that great Exodus story. The Ten Plagues, the Red Sea crossing, the water walling up on the right and the left, that's an awesomely powerful display of salvation, isn't it, but God raised Pharaoh up to display His power. God does this. And He does it in conversions, He puts himself on display in converting people. Paul is a great example of this, doesn't God show His nature in converting someone like Saul of Tarsus? He wakes up that morning, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, hating the church, hating Jesus, hating everything he stood for, went to bed a Christian. How in the world do you explain that? "Oh, the psychological pressure was on Paul." No, listen. Sovereign grace! He plucked him out of Satan's dark kingdom and He transferred him into the kingdom of light, and Paul says that's what happened in 1 Timothy 1:16, he says, "But I received mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost of all sinners, Jesus Christ might... " What's the next word? "Display." “Display, show His perfect patience, as an example to those who are to believe in Him for eternal life.” God puts up with rebellious wicked, elect people for a long time and then converts them. And He just puts on display His patience. Paul's humble apparently weak preaching of the Gospel, he said, was a demonstration or display of the Spirit's power. I mean, God's doing this all the time, but He has yet more to show you. You don't even know the millionth part of what God has done to save the elect, the church, in every era of churches. He has more to show you. He's just doing this all the time, He's putting Himself on display. God Displaying Himself in Our Lives And He's doing it in your life. He says, "You are the light of the world." Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Right, but who lit you up? Who lit you like a lamp? Did you light yourself? No. God lit you and God puts you up on a lampstand and makes you give light to everyone in the house. Well, that's going on right now, but it's going to go on for eternity in Heaven, He's going to put you up on a stand and say, Look what I did in this person's life. This is My son, this is My daughter. What's the point in telling a great story if it never gets told? If God's going to craft an incredible story that goes on for decades in someone's life, hey let's tell the story, I want to hear it, don't you? It's like, “Well,” You will then, okay? God is going to transform you and you'll be so ready to hear your brothers and sisters' stories, so He doesn't light a lamp and hide it, instead He puts it out so everyone will see the work of God going on in their lives. And this is an immeasurable display. It talks about the incomparable riches of His grace, this is lavish language of how incredibly rich has been God's grace to us in Christ. He wants us to know how much He spent on us. The Cost of Gospel Glory Have you ever spent a lot of time like scraping a price tag off a gift? I don't know what it is with these price tag manufacturers, they need to study their adhesive better. They are just amazingly strong, and the paper amazingly weak. Have you ever been like, How do I get this gummy stuff off without ruining the paint? You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but you're just scraping it off. Why? You don't want the person to know how much you spent because you don't want it to be a guilt thing, or whatever, and this goes on. God's the other way, He wants you to know exactly how much He spent on you, He wants you to know how costly it all was, He wants you to know that He gave what was most precious to Him in the entire universe, His only begotten Son, dead on the cross for you. And that, “if He's going to give you that, how much more would He also along with Him, graciously give you all things.” That means Jesus, what He's already given you, is more valuable than the entire universe to God the Father, and He wants you to know that. He wants you to know how much He spent on you and is spending and will spend. It's immeasurable. To some degree, He wants us measuring the immeasurable. The immeasurable riches of His grace, just how much He has spent. He wants you to take your little three yard long piece of string and go to the base of Mount Everest and start going around the circumference of it and start measuring it, get a sense of it, of the “immeasurable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Just measure it, we got eternity friends, let's see how much He loved us in Christ and notice what it says, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ. Oh, that word has worked in my heart this week. Kindness! God has shown us kindness in Christ, immeasurable riches of His grace expressed in kindness. You could imagine a stingy person wanting you to know how much he spent on you. Somebody who's doing the guilt manipulation thing. “I hope you realize how much that cost, I mean you know that, don't you? And that's just not just any such and such. That's the best, you do know that, don't you?” “Alright, alright how much did you spend? I mean since you want to tell me, tell me.” It says in Proverbs 23:6-8, I love this, “Do not eat the food of a stingy man. Do not crave his delicacies, for he's the kind of man who's always thinking about the cost. ‘Eat and drink,’ he says, but his heart's not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.” Don't you love the Book of Proverbs? Just says it straight. But God isn't like that, God isn't stingy, He's kind. He loves saving us. I mean He really enjoys giving us a kingdom. “Fear not little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” that's Luke 12. Fear not, He enjoys lavishly blessing you with grace, He just enjoys that. You think about the father of the prodigal son, he says, "Quick, bring a ring for his finger and a robe and sandals and let's kill the fattened calf and let's celebrate!" He's just so filled with joy at saving sinners. He loves doing this. There's kindness here. God’s Kindness Toward Us in Salvation And one verse, it's been much in my heart this week, and over the last few weeks, as I'm doing some Scripture memory in the minor prophets, Micah 7:18. Listen to this verse Micah 7:18, "Who is a God like You who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy." I mean, just, wow. God delights in showing mercy, that's His kindness. He will greet you kindly, when at last you see Him, don't fear Him, He will greet you kindly. He is the father of the prodigal son, He will welcome you to Heaven, so we're so afraid of that, but He delights in showing kindness. He's so kind to us in His Son, He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls," that's the kindness of God speaking through His Son. He's so kind in saving us, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light," And so this is an immeasurable display of kindness. And it's going to go on for eternity. So that, “in the coming ages, He might show.” “In the coming ages,” so God was looking ahead to the coming ages. Grace Displayed for the Rest of Your Life Faith in Future Grace Now, I want to take that and expand it from this moment now to the end of your life, and talk about that briefly, and then I'm going to go from the end of your life on Earth on into the coming ages of eternity and say that God has something to show you in both of those ages, the age of your life here on earth this present age and then the rest of all eternity, in the future, age in Heaven. He wants to show you something in both. So let's talk first about the rest of your life. God has more grace to show you from now until the day you die. He's going to continue lavishing grace on you, He's going to continue showing you kindness. You're not done being saved, and neither am I. So we've got more grace to receive from God, yet more grace is going to come our way. James 4:6 says, "but He gives us more grace." So just think about that one expression more, grace. Do you need more grace? Yes, you do, you need a lot more grace, and it needs to just keep coming and coming. But God, having already begun this good work of grace, He will not stop showing you grace until at last you are done being saved. And so, you can count as you look to the future and you look ahead and you say, "You know, this is an uncertain future. I don't know where I'm going to be, I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't know what combination of temptations and assaults, and trials and afflictions Satan's going to bring my way, I don't know. And I could be afraid of that. How am I going to make it? How am I going to run this race with endurance, right to the end? It's a long way to go." God Stays with Us Throughout the Race I'm really impressed with those people that have the 26.2 (which is the amount of miles in a marathon race) things on the back of their cars, or the 13.1. I saw one this week, 0.0. I don't know what that's about. Have you seen that before? 0.0. Boasting about not running a marathon, but anyway. But you know, I used to be a distance runner. And there comes a point in a long race, where you wonder if you're going to make it. It's like that's right around the time they say, of hitting the wall. You got another seven, eight miles to go and you're like, "I'm done, I don't have any more to give". And it's a moment of desperation. How do you know you're going to make it, brother, sister? How do you know you're going to finish this race with endurance? So you have to lay aside every weight and run with endurance. Well, you know how you know? Faith in future grace. Confidence that God has more grace to show you and what you need you will get. That's your confidence, that's how you know you're going to make it. He who began a good work in you, He will most certainly continue to pour out grace in you and work in you until you're done being saved. You can count on that. And so you're going to have constant attacks from the world, the flesh and the devil, it's going to keep coming, that you can bank on. “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I will show you all the grace you need to get you through this world, you're going to run your race, you're going to finish it. I'm never going to let you go, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.” You know how Ananias was sent to baptize Saul of Tarsus after his conversion. “No, no, it's real. It really is real. Go baptize him.” Now, “I've heard reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.” “Go! for this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel,” and what's he say? "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." Yeah, but that's not all He was going to show Paul, “I will show him how much grace I have for him, how ‘my strength is made perfect in weakness,’ and how my grace is sufficient for you, Paul, I'm going to show you that too.” And so He's got something. I will show you how much grace I will give you, so that you will finish this race. That's going to happen. So there's your assurance, there's your security, that's how you know you're going to make it. If somebody ever asks, "How do you know you're going to finish your life still believing in Jesus?" Answer, "God's going to show me future grace, He's going to show me grace every day, the rest of my life". Grace Eternally Displayed in Heaven Gifts of Grace in Heaven Thirdly, Grace displayed for eternity in Heaven. So we've got ages to come, we're in a present age now, and then we've got an age to come. Now, I don't know for sure that that's what Paul meant when he says, "In order that in the coming ages, He might show," but maybe this age, and the age to come, or ages of church history could be. And then the age to come. But I think it must include Heaven. So God is going to give us a perpetual heavenly education. Now, for the longest time, I thought that you know how it says, "When we see Him, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is, in a flash in the twinkling of an eye we'll be transformed and we'll be changed." And so I thought at that moment, we would get a kind of an instant upload of a bunch of information and we'd be done learning, right? But then that would make us omniscient, and friends, we will never be omniscient. We'll never be God. So actually the more I started thinking about it I was like, “No, it's not that, is that we'll lose our sin nature that's what's going to happen, we'll be glorified and done sinning, and I think we'll be done forgetting too,” amen. No more forgetting. So ever expanding learning, there's always more to learn. What will we learn? Well, we learn the greatness of God in Christ in saving us at least, I think we'll also have a New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem to explore, we'll learn what He's made there. That'll be awesome. But just focusing on the grace He's shown us and kindness in Christ Jesus, that will be a study for us and so we will be forever growing, forever learning, Heaven will be a very dynamic place. You're going to study church history in Heaven. Amen, Hallelujah. You're going to study church history in Heaven, you're going to be excited about it, you really will, you'll like it, I promise. You will enjoy it. An Ever-Increasing Kingdom I remember some time ago, I was meditating on those verses, a very famous verse, Isaiah 9:6 and 7, that we focus on at Christmas time, "For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders, and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:7, "Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end." Take it literally. An eternal increase. Well, how can that be, if there's no procreation? “Neither marrying or giving in marriage like the angels in Heaven.” We're done with babies being born all that, set number of people. How will His kingdom eternally increase? We'll just keep learning. We'll just keep on magnifying the Lord, more and more than ever before, we're going to just say, "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together. Let's find out some more things about what God has done in redemptive history and in the New Heaven and New Earth," that's what we're going to do. We're just going to keep learning and learning. Like God said to Satan. "Have you considered my servant Job?" Not sufficiently. Hey, let's meet Job. Let's get to know him, you know a lot about him. Let's find out more. I want to know about that widow that put in those two copper coins. Remember her? I want to know all about her. Jesus exalted her to just about the highest place of Christian giving, she gave more than anyone else. I want to meet her, I want to know her. How did she get to that point where she was willing to give all she had to live on? Don't you want to know her? I want to know her. Have you considered my servant Job? You know how it says at the end of John's Gospel, in John 21:25, "Jesus did many other things as well, which are not recorded in this book. I suppose if every one of them were written down, even the whole world would not have room enough to contain the books that would be written." Alright, well, how about Heaven? Is Heaven a big enough container? I want all those books, well, forget the books. That's seeing through a glass darkly. I want to hear the story, I want to see it happen. I feel like we're going to be living it again. Like in a hologram or something. No, not like that, but we're going to just be there and live through it, and see it, and God will display it and we'll learn what He did in the Middle Ages, or what He did to spread the Gospel in this place or how He reached this valley of people in here. Some elect people, and some missionaries went and they suffered in some of those people came to Christ and what they did to the glory of God. I want to know, “have you considered my servant Job?” I want to find out who all his servants are and consider them all, and celebrate God's grace in all of their lives. I just want to do that. The Glory of God in Believers’ Lives I love going over the stories of people's conversions. Don't you love reading? How was Augustine converted? I love that story. How Augustine was burning with lust, and he couldn't shake his sexual immorality. But he knew the Gospel, and his mother was praying for him to become a Christian, but he's just stubbornly holding on to his sins, and he was there in a garden one day and he heard children playing, singing in Latin "Take up and read, take up and read", this little thing and it's like a little children's diddy and there happened to be a scroll of Romans or something like that, there in the garden, opened up to Romans 13, and he happened to read. You ever do that? It's like, "Alright Lord, lead me, bring me to a good verse that will help me". It's not a good way to Bible study, but that seemed appropriate then. It just happened to be open at Romans 13. And then he realized there was a command against the very sins that he was committing. I know that I know, but something happened, and he realized that the very thing God commanded He would give grace to obey. And so he said in his confessions, give what you command, and command what you will, Lord, and at once, he understood the Gospel, that's the very thing, God will give you perfection as a gift, if you just trust in Jesus, and he was saved. I love those stories, I want to know more about it. I want to know how the Gospel was spread. I want to know about how Celtic missionaries went under the tutelage of Columba, and they went across Northern Europe to all these barbarian tribes and set up these enclaves and then courageously went out and shared the Gospel and how they were persecuted and how they were successful. I want those stories, I love the story of Boniface. I was just there in the Northern part of Germany just a little while ago and where he was chopping down the Thor tree, you know, these pagans, and chopping it down. What a bold guy! Give me an axe, I'm going to chop down that sacred oak. And then suddenly a wind comes and finishes the job. People are amazed. He gets up on the stump and preaches the Gospel. Uses the wood to build a chapel for Jesus, Amen. I love a guy like that, I want to meet him. Tell me your story, I've heard that story. Are there any other good ones? I want to know more of the stories. Let's hear them all. I want to know what Thomas did apparently went to India, what Thomas did in the first century to establish the Gospel in India. I want to know the story of that. I want to know who the historians were and how they brought the Gospel early on into China and what happened there. I want to know some things that history hasn't even recorded. People getting on boats and going to South Pacific islands, and bringing the Gospel to some people who have long since died and gone to Heaven. And there's no record of it, but I want to know those stories, don't you? I want to see what God's done. I want to know the things He's doing right now, in the Muslim world. I have all these accounts in here. I don't have time to read them, they're all awesome. God Glorified Through Abouna’s Ministry Let me just tell this one, there's good stories, a wind in the house of Islam, stories of how God is working to bring Muslims to faith in Christ and there's this one guy named Abouna Zakaria Botros, he's a 79-year-old exiled Egyptian Coptic priest who infuriates Muslim fundamentalists by telling the truth about Islam. And this man courageously preaching the truth about Islam and about Christianity, is amazingly effective. Sixty million people listening to his internet webcast every day, in the Muslim world, and many, many people being converted. He said, "I don't hate Muslims, I love them, I hate Islam", and he's telling the truth. Apparently there's a $60 million price on his head. What's it like to live like that? Someone actually was joking, an Egyptian Christian was joking saying, "I think the $60 million is offered to any Muslim who can answer what he says." "If somebody could just refute him, we'd be happy with that." But he's winning people to Christ, and one of the men he led in Christ is a 64-year-old Arab man named Nassir. He'd been wooed by the Gospel all his life, finally came to Christ when he pondered this guy's attacks, gave his life to Christ, soon after that met an American missionary named Tim who was in the city who had been praying, zero fruit for two or three years, finally met Nassir, began to disciple this guy, Nassir, Nassir starts leading dozens and dozens of to other Muslims to Christ. I love those stories, don't you? I want to know him, the trophies of God's grace. One of them, one of the men he led to Christ, was another man named Sabri, he was 50 years old, influential in his village. He first led his own wife and children to Christ by showing them the falseness of Islam and the truth of Christ, and he eventually worked his way through the town and is now responsible for leading 400 to faith in Christ. Divides them into small groups to escape the attention of the police. So many stories. How many will there be? Well, listen to this, Revelation 7, "After this, I looked in there before me was a multitude greater than anyone could count." Take one of those from every tribe, language, people and nation standing around the throne, dressed in white robes, holding palm branches in their hands, and saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb". Each one of that countless multitude has a countless number of stories to tell. It's true. Of all that God did in decades of their lives to bring them to faith in Christ. And then to use them afterwards. Alright, and as a matter of fact, in the text, it asks the question, maybe you didn't notice this before. I never had. Listen to this. It continues. "Then one of the elders asked me, these in white robes, Who are they and where did they come from?" That's my whole point. Who are they? All of these people? And where did they come from? We've got stories to tell, amen. “In order that in the coming ages, He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, express in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” So, He's going to show it, and all of us, it's going to be put on display. And why is that? So that all of us may boast in the Lord as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." Application So, what applications can we take from this? Well, begin by meditating again on the richness of God's grace to you expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus, meditate on each word, “the immeasurable riches.” Say, "I am immeasurably rich." Just say that. "I, as a Christian, I'm immeasurably rich." In what? In grace, and mercy, and kindness from God. Ponder the word kindness that God has shown kindness to you. Let it melt your heart, let it just work on you and then say "Oh God, make me merciful and gracious and kind to others". It has that impact on you. It's like, as you've been kind to me, I want to be kind to others. And look forward to the displays. There are many verses that say, This is going to happen, says "Those who live in darkness, do not come into the light" John 3, "for fear that their deeds will be exposed, but everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light," why? “So that it may be seen plainly, that what He has done has been done through God.” What does that mean? We're going to come in and put on display what God did in and through us. That's what's going to happen. And we're going to celebrate. So look forward to that. And so let's do it now, what do you say? Let's talk. Say, how is God at work in your life? How can I celebrate God's grace in your life? Tell me your story, tell me your testimony, and learn to celebrate God's grace in other people's lives, you're going to spend eternity doing it. Let's do it now, it'll bind us together, it'll make us less self-focused. So, celebrate that. CJ Mahaney in his book "Humility" said, one of the best things you can do to somebody, it’s humble too. You say, I see God at work in your life, brother, sister. I see God working in you. That's very encouraging, isn't it? Meditate on salvation by grace through faith apart from works. We're going to talk more about that, God willing, next week, but just celebrate that. And finally, if I can just address you if you're here as a lost person, you came in here in darkness on the outside, I would love for your story to be consummated by faith in Christ. I would love you to come out of darkness right now into the light. You've heard the Gospel several times already today. How God sent His Son, for sinners like you and me, and all you need to do is trust in Him by faith, by grace through faith apart from works, trust in Jesus for the salvation of your souls. Close with me in prayer, please. Prayer Lord, thank you for the time we've had to celebrate your grace. I can't wait, Lord, to get to Heaven and to meet all of my brothers and sisters. “A multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation,” who have been saved by your sovereign grace, each of them individually and in special and separate in different ways. And Lord, I want to know these dressed in white. “Who are they? And where did they come from?” And I want to know how they came out of the tribulation and their robes were washed in the blood of the Lamb and how the Shepherd will forever protect them and bless them, I want to meet them, oh Lord. Help us to love the brothers and sisters now and help us to be energetically active in evangelism and missions leading other people to Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Who is John the Baptist, and why does it matter?
Greater Grace. Hosea 2:14-15 God intends all our trouble to be a door into greater grace and greater revelation of his sufficiency for us. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 We sit back and let our view of God and life be shaped by constantly shifting feelings about our ever-changing circumstances. We choose to passively listen to circumstances when we need to [start talking back]. We act like Jesus' work on the cross and God's kindness toward us have no real bearing on our lives. Of course they do. Of course they matter. They matter in every circumstance of life. Full sermon: Hosea 2:14-15 God is talking through Hosea about how he is going to restore Israel. He talks about Israel as an unfaithful wife. "into the desert"- he will take everything away so she will finally see his kindness. He simplifies life for her. He takes away all the men of her unfaithfulness and all the things they gave her. Why? Because they were false. They did not love her like he did. They confused her. He took them away so she could see her true husband's unconditional love and forgiveness to win her back. "I will give her vineyards and the valley of Achor for a door of hope" (Hos 2:14). The valley of Achor was the "valley of trouble" where the Israelites fled from the battle with Ai after they were routed because of the sin of Achan (Josh 7:26). The valley of trouble was an inlet to the promised land, the land of rest. He will make your troubles the door of your hope and an inlet to greater grace. God intends for trouble, suffering, hardship, sickness, failure, even sin, to be avenues into greater grace. The things that discourage us the most are intended by God to show us more of his grace and strength. So trouble and affliction can be for me an opening for more grace. What I see as bad, God intends for my good, for greater revelation of his sufficiency for me. When I walked through sorrow, He showed me his peace that passes understanding. When I walked through sin, He showed me his amazing grace. When I walked through fear, he showed me his concern for me and sovereignty. When I walked through disappointment, he reminded me of his unconditional love. When my world seemed out of control, he showed me he is the rock. When my pursuits came up empty, he showed me his fullness. God intends all our trouble to be a door into greater grace and greater revelation of his sufficiency for us. Our problems are very real. Illness can affect not only the body, but the soul as well. Financial problems can drive you into despair. Worry over the lives and the souls of our children when they are struggling can seem endless. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. But these are not our greatest issue. Our greatest problem is that we are fallen creatures. We are warped by sin. Our hearts have a natural bent away from our Creator and toward sin. Our minds do not comprehend what we have lost and are content with the things of this world in place of a relationship with our Heavenly Father. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Our greatest need is for healing, not of our bodies, but our souls. We need our hearts healed so we desire God over his creation. We need God to restore our souls. We need God to transform our minds to fix my misconceptions about him and about what is truly important. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. I am not saying that we should just shrug our shoulders when we go through trouble and try to act like it is no big deal. It is a big deal. But we need God to change our perspective. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. How do we fix our eyes on the eternal? Don't sit silently and let your circumstances do all the talking. When we have trouble, we let our trouble do all the talking. We can't find our keys and we say, I'm so stupid. We are late for school or work we get angry with other drivers who slow us down. We have a disagreement with our spouse and we think it is hopeless. CJ Mahaney in his book The Cross Centered Life writes, "We sit back and let our view of God and life be shaped by constantly shifting feelings about our ever-changing circumstances. We choose to passively listen to circumstances when we need to [start talking back]." "We think with our feelings," Sinclair Ferguson. We allow our feelings to guide our thinking. Emotions are a wonderful gift from God. And our relationship with God should bring to our lives strong godly affections. However, our emotions should not be vested with final authority. This should be reserved for Gods Word alone. We act like Jesus' work on the cross and God's kindness toward us have no real bearing on our lives. Of course they do. Of course they matter. They matter in every circumstance of life. Talk back to your circumstances. Your sin has been atoned for. Jesus died for that sin. He stood in your place. God has forgiven you and will help you, not because you are sinless, but because he is merciful. Expend your energies admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ. Sinclair Ferguson. Don't listen to your circumstances, talk back. Speak the truth. This matters most: you are forgiven. You have hope. Your hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus. Let this truth define your life.
from www.sovereigngraceministries.org
The Beauty of Community Commitment to Each Other I'm so eager to preach this sermon to you. I can't wait, I can't wait. I just want to see the effect of the Word of God. Not just today, but over years to come. Just have in my heart a burning vision for what this church already is and what it will be through the ministry of the word and the spirit that we would be a genuine community of believers that love one another, cherish each other's sanctification and growth in the Lord, that thinks spiritually-minded about church. So I'm eager that God would use this message. We have close relatives that live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We went and visited them. Christi's sister and her husband and children, wonderful children. What a gift they are to us, and we love to go up there to Pennsylvania. And one of the things I love when we go there is to see the Amish. I just enjoy being there. I don't intrude on them, I don't stare at them, but they live such an interesting and fascinating life and just with my interest in church history, I know a lot of the history that's led to their commitments and the things that they do, and there's a lot I don't know about them, but this Thanksgiving as we were driving, and coming near to the house, I saw a number of Amish building, a large structure, maybe a barn, I couldn't tell what it was, but they were hanging on the wood working there and working together, and I don't think it was an Amish barn raising, but there were Amish people building a structure, maybe a barn. And it got me to thinking about that. And that's just part of their heritage. When somebody's barn burns down, the whole community will come together and the men and the women, the youth and the children they'll all be together and they'll be focused on one project; working together, building something together, that only one family in their community is going to use. They're all focused on that and there's a tremendous amount of sacrifice that goes into that and it's been depicted in a number of movies and it's a powerful part of their community. And I got to thinking how much I wanted to see something like that happen in our church. Now don't misunderstand me. You're saying, "I don't really need a barn actually, I don't have any need for the church to come to my yard and build a barn." And I think we live in a different kind of situation, but the building I have in mind is of a spiritual nature more than anything. And I asked my brother in law Bill, who I just love and we're just good friends and I said, "Does that kind of thing still go on?" He said, "Yeah, frequently." As a matter of fact, he knows an Amish family and in that case, it wasn't a barn, and it was a bakery that had burned down. A young married couple’s had burned down, and the whole community came together and built the bakery again and now it's a thriving bakery in the community and the couple is doing well. So it's still going on. It's still part of their culture. And I just yearn to see that happen here spiritually, more than anything. We have a beautiful building here. We have a church that we meet together, our needs are met. I'm not saying that there couldn't be a fire in our community and the need for a house and all that, but I don't know that many of us would be qualified to do that kind of building, but I know this, that God is building a different kind of structure in our midst. He's building the church of Jesus Christ. We are members of the Church, we are living stones in that structure and we're not done being built. And so, it's really the Church that's in my mind today, the church, this local church, First Baptist Church, and then, the universal church. And I just have two questions I want to put before you, as I begin. First of all, just let me ask you personally, how important is the church to you? How important is it in your life? What is the church worth to you in your priority structure, what would you pay of yourself to see the church develop to full maturity? How much of a focus is the church in your life? That's just one question, it's different versions of the same question but that's the question, how important is the church to you? Second question, how important is the church to Jesus Christ? What was she worth to Jesus in His priority structure? He said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." That's his priority structure. That's what he's doing in the world. What was he willing to pay for the church, his own blood, shed on the cross. He shed His blood for her that she would be pure in his sight. How much of a focus is the church in his life? Well, I tell you He ever lives to intercede for her, that's what he's doing; he never forgets the church, it is in his mind all the time. Let me shift a little bit. Just speaking very sweetly positively. Do you realize what kind of riches there are for you sitting around you in this room right now? And probably you don't even know it. Brothers and sisters in Christ, a richness of fellowship, of prayer, of mutual sharing of the ministry of the Word of God, of fellow times of worship. You're rich people, and I don't think you even know it. I don't think I do either. And I just want us to plumb the riches of one another, in our fellowship together. I want you to have a sense this morning of just how much happiness awaits this church. If we can push through what I perceive to be somewhat of a ceiling, or a plateauing of our fellowship that we would push through that and see us reach a kind of a level of unity and of ministry that few churches frankly really attain. I'd like us to drink in the benefits of a healthy ministry together, a full benefit of all, of each other spiritual gifts and to enjoy fellowship with brothers and sisters. I don't want to hear any more, "I just didn't meet anyone Or I just couldn't connect or just the... The fellowship here, it's too far to drive," and all that. That one always gets me. We haven't moved. And the people that stopped coming because it was too far, they didn't move either as far as I could tell, same distance, check it on the GPS. What ends up happening is the attractive features that first drew them start to wane in their estimation, and some other problems start to rise, and so then they stop coming and they look for another place. And my goal is to kindle in your hearts a love for the church, for this church, if you're a member here that you would have a deep love for this church and I want to describe a fully healthy church for you. That's what I want to do and I want to look at these two passages that we've looked at, we already two weeks ago looked carefully at Hebrews 3:12-14. I want to add the other one that Ron read. Hebrews 10;24 and 25. Works out great that the ones he read are the same ones I'm going to preach on so that's fantastic, isn't that wonderful how that just works out. So just the Providence is wonderful, how that works. I. A Community Commitment to Holiness: Hebrews 3:12-14 But what I want to do in the first passage in Hebrews 3:12-14, is talk about the church negatively, the benefits of the church in a negative sense, by that I mean a community committed to fighting sin in each other's lives. We've got a negative battle of sin, we're all fighting it and that's why we're drawn together, for help in that battle. We are to be a community fighting that battle with sin for each other in each other's lives, positively a community, committed to full fruitfulness in each other's lives. Fruitfulness, that you, each of you would have a full harvest, a rich life of good works to show Jesus on judgment day. And all the more as you see the day approach and we're going to talk about that. These are the two things I want to simply put; negatively you need to be involved in a church, in this church, I think if you're called as a member here, to help you fight your sin battle and so you can help other people fight theirs, negatively. And then positively you need to be committed to this church. If you're a member here, you need to be committed to this church so that you can be maximally fruitful in your life for Jesus. Without the church you're going to be a victim of your own sinfulness, you're going to be left aside because of it. Satan is going to get you. I just say that with all the seriousness I can muster. If you're alone, you're going to be a victim. And positively, if you've got a church around you that cares, you're not. The Lord's going to use that church to protect you and concerning the spiritual gifts, you're going to be maximally fruitful, if you're involved in the church and you are not going to do all of those good works that God has laid out ahead of you, if you're not. Let's look first of all at the... First one, Hebrews 3, a community's commitment to holiness. Look again at the verses. "See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first." So I'm just going to review what we did two weeks ago. I did the acts of Jesus, basically, I decided then we're going to be doing two sermons on Hebrews Three. The first would be just careful acts of Jesus and then the second would be that applications that will take up most of our time today. Let me review the acts of Jesus. That there is a danger right in the word here, the danger is apostasy turns away from the living God, αποστασία is the Greek, so we get this word apostasy. The Greatest Danger: Turning Away from the Living God It's part of a series of warnings on that same theme. Hebrews 2:1. "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." Hebrews 3:12 speaks about turning away from the living God. Hebrews 6:6, which God willing, we'll get to in due time, talks about falling away, don't drift away, don't turn away, don't fall away from the living God. That implies conversely that the goal of our salvation is proximity to God, closeness to God, to be very near him, to be very close to him. And so we looked at verses that talk about that in Hebrews. Hebrews 4:16. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence." Hebrew 7:19 says the New Covenant is a better hope, "a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God." How beautiful is that? And then Hebrews 10 just immediately before the verses that Ron read, it says, "Therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the most holy place..." How could sinners like us do that? To enter into the Holy of Holies, but we have boldness to do it. "By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith." So proximity to God is the goal of our salvation. So in these verses, these warning verses here in Hebrews 3: 12-14, you have a sense, as I mentioned two weeks ago, the greatest danger that faces you individually, and that is the loss of your soul, the eternal loss of your soul. What good would it be for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. What would a man give in exchange for his soul, your soul is in jeopardy through sin, apart from Jesus, you will be lost for all eternity. So I can do no better at this moment, then to plead with you, if you have not yet trusted in Jesus that you would come to Christ, come to the cross of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you cannot survive Judgment Day without Jesus, you'll be sent to hell, you'll be condemned righteously and justly for your own sins, your transgressions of God's law, but if you'll just simply believe. If you come to the cross where Jesus shed His blood, you will be forgiven and I plead with you. At this time, Christmas time, what a great time to be saved. I tell you, any time is a great time to be saved. Amen. But why not today? If you're on the outside looking in, don't stay on the outside of the church any longer, but come in and believe and be part be saved. So the root cause of this great danger is sin's effect on the heart. And we're going to spend some time thinking about this today. Verse 12. "See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." Sinful heart of unbelief. And really, the key here in verse 13 is that the heart can be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. The deceit is the real issue. We're dealing here with sins you don't see in your own life. You've been deceived in some way by sin and you need help with that. You can't save yourself from sins about which you're deceived, you've got to have people to help you. That's the remedy here in verse 13. "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." So a healthy church will be active, daily active in protecting its own members from the deceitful-ness of sin. This is what we do for each other. And so we've got this deadly danger of indwelling sin, we talked about in Romans 7. Paul says, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do, and what I hate I do." And, "as it is, he says, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me" that does it. I think about all the revulsion you could ever muster. But those phrases should cause you to shudder, there should be a sense of revulsion. Sin is living in me. This wicked tumor, this parasite that would take my very life, is living inside me. Yes, it is, and we all have these deadly blind spots of how sin is cropping up in our lives, we can't see it. We need the insights of others to show us how sin is deceiving us. The warning of this passage is only those who finish ever really began. Look at verse 14 again, "we have come to share in Christ, [past tense] if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first." In other words, only those who finish ever really began. That's what I get out of this, you see it. So I had people come up to me two weeks ago and ask a wonderful question, good question. The Impossibility of Losing Your Salvation Now, are you saying with this whole teaching on apostasy that you can lose your salvation? Of course, you can't lose your salvation. We have been given eternal life and it's going to last for all eternity. It is absolutely true that He who begins a good work he will carry it on to completion. "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and those who come to me, I'll lose none of them, but I'll raise them up at the last day." Of course, you can't lose it. My question is, do you have it or not? And don't you think you ought to know now while there's time to do something about it? So that's what we're talking about here. So, we have this community commitment to holiness. I'm going to talk about applications, but that's how we explained the verse last time. II. A Community Commitment to Fruitfulness: Hebrews 10:24-25 Let's look at the second passage, Hebrews 10: 24-25. Now, I'm going to... God-willing, if God gives me time, if I'm still alive and we have the opportunity to do this, I will preach on Hebrews 10: 24-25 more thoroughly. So I just want to give you a thumbnail sketch of what's going on here. I'm not going to set it in context, do any of that, but full treatment later, but let's just kind of grab at it a little bit and get some things. "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." So the angle on this one is a positive one, it's a positive one. It's a community verse, it's a church verse. Look at it in verse 24, "And let us", plural, "let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together." It's a church verse. Let's encourage one another. This is definitely a church verse friends. It's a community verse, a church verse. And the goal of these two verses, is fruitfulness, maximal fruitfulness. It's toward love and good deeds that's what we're getting at here. We want the love and good deeds to happen. And so really it's each other’s full fruitfulness. I need to care about a brother or sister, that they are characterized by love and good deeds, and I'm going to do things toward them horizontally to help them do the love and good deeds that God wants them to do. So that's the goal. The idea is Judgment Day, it says all the more as you see the day approaching, the day is Judgment Day, what's going on that day? You're going to give Christ a full account for your life, you're going to stand before Jesus, He's going to ask for all of the things he committed to you back, and he's going to ask you for what came from, and he's going to ask, he said, "I gave you five talents, what did you do with them? I gave you two talents I gave you, did you do anything. Did you trade with them? Is there some interest on the investment?" "You're a vineyard. I put a wall around you. I dug out a wine press, I saturated the soil with fertilizer. I rained on you. I gave you sunshine. I gave you everything you need, where's the harvest? I want the crop. What came?" And you give Christ an account. So what this verse tells me is I should care about your account and you should care about mine, horizontally. Now don't just care about your own. I should care about the brother and the sisters account, that they're going to give to Jesus. All the more as you see the day approaching, I want you guys to be ready for that day. Positively ready. I want you to have a full treasure trove of good works to show to Jesus, so I preach toward that end. The Danger of Forsaking Church Now, the danger subverting all of this, is that some people make a habit of forsaking the assembling of themselves together. They make a habit of it friends. Let us not give up or forsake the assembling of ourselves together as some are in the habit of doing. The issue here is habitual forsaking of the assembly. The Greek word is ethos from which we get ethic. They make it an ethic, they make it an ethic of their lives to forsake the assembling of themselves. And as I've analyzed this, I see it in two senses, number one, someone who stays committed to the same local church, but is very spotty in their attendance, intermittent in their attendance. They don't come week by week by week. Now, if you think I'm preaching a legalistic thing. You've got to be every single, and you're a wicked sinner if you ever miss church, I'm not saying that. The verse talks about a habit and I'm talking about making a habit of forsaking it's a choice you make. Again, I'm not talking about home-bound people friends, they're not forsaken. They yearned to be here. That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about people that make a choice. Habitually make a choice to not go to go to the church that they're members of. There's a second sense, and this is more subtle, but it happens too. And these are people who forsake the congregation they were committed to, to go to another one for spurious reasons. Church nomads, church shopping, church hopping, church consumers. You know what happens with this category of people, they come, they like it for a while, there's certain features they like, and certain feature they didn't, but they were willing to put up with it, but then those features start to get, like on the sound board or their life started to get pushed up a higher level, the other things start to push down and then... Still living geographically in the same area, but not here anymore. They were members, they are no longer members. Now, I don't say that it's sinful for somebody to stay geographically in the same area and go from one church to another, God does do that. He calls people to do that. Again just hear me, I'm not preaching legalism here. What I'm saying is there is a category of people that left and shouldn't have. That's all I'm saying. They left and shouldn't have. They should have stayed committed to their church. What are they looking for? I think sometimes it's a selfish view of, " What's in it for me? What can I get? Do I like the music? Do I like the people? Do I like the feel here?" That kind of thing. The Need for “Spurring On” Alright, so that's the danger. But positively, speaking, we've got here in these verses, Hebrews 10:24-25, a community that there's a rich cross-pollination, fertilization going on, and we are provoking one another, the word says. Just sticking in people's craw, until they do what they need to be doing. I mean it's really almost, it's a negative word, but it needs to be done well friends. It needs to be done with gentleness, with tenderness and all that, but I'm just telling you what the word says, provoking or stimulating or I like this one spur one another on toward love and good deeds. I've got spurs, that jingle jangle jingle, that kind of thing. It's like, "Boy I need to be spurred on right now." Well, I've got just the person for you, says the Holy Spirit. And in that person comes to spur you on to love and good deeds but hey, look, there's right ways to do these things and wrong ways. But that's what we're talking about. Now central to this, we have to be together and we have to know each other. Now here I want to give you, I'm already just totally stealing the thunder of that sermon that I may preach. But you forget I forget when I come to it, in Hebrews 10, when's that going to be? In like the year 2012? I have no idea. You'll have forgotten this, and I can do it like it was fresh. Okay, fair enough. But actually, the NIV, and some other modern translations is slightly off here. Not harmfully off, but just slightly off. What does it say? "Let us consider... " What's the next word in the NIV? How. Let us consider how, implies we're studying a methodology. That's not what the Greek says. The direct object of the verb is one another. So "let us consider one another to spur toward love and good deeds" is somewhat awkward translation, but you get the idea, how does it work? It means you think about brother, A or sister B, and you think about what their gifts are, and say, "Lord what good works could they do... What do I think they'd be good at, how could I go and encourage them?" And then you start to say, "Hey look, when you do hospitality, you do it as well as anybody I've ever seen, do that even more. That's so beautiful, how you do that. I'm so blessed by the way that you teach the Word of God and Bible for life do that more and more. Listen, Sister when you pray, I am just so blessed by that, You just pray with the faith that is so deep and rich, and I'm, strengthened by that." So, you consider the people in your church, you consider them to find out, "Lord, how can I spur them on toward love and good deeds?" So translation should be, let us consider one another. That's really how it should go. I don't know that I've seen any of the translations that do that, maybe NIS does but I'm not really sure but that's what it teaches. Let's consider. Know and Be Known So therefore, key to both Hebrews 3, and Hebrews 10 is we must know and be known, we really do we have to know each other. You can't tell if a brother or sister developing a sinful heart of unbelief, unless you know them. Talked about that two weeks ago, how can you tell? You can't check their sinful heart of unbelief meter. I used to work in a company which I was exposed from time to time to x-rays, and I had to wear a little badge. And then they would look at it and read and see how the radiation levels were. Okay, it'd be so much easier we could do that. "Let me check your badge. How are you doing? Ohh sinful heart of unbelief starting to develop." It just doesn't go that way. What you have to do is develop relationships and I do not say that they will happen Person A with every other person, 400 people in the church. It will not. But I'm looking for network so no one slips through the cracks. See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart, So that God would raise up brothers and sisters, appropriately for each one in a network so that we can see if a sinful heart of unbelief is developing. See same thing on the positive side. Let us consider one another means I don't know if I can go up to this person I've never heard of, and say, "Hey, you'd be really good at such and such," If I don't know them. We've got to know and be known, bottom line. So that's why it's in the sermon title, know and be known. Let's know each other and let's be known by each other. III. Ten Steps for FBC Toward a Happier, Healthier Community Life Alright, now what I want to do is just give you some practical steps for First Baptist Church, toward a happier and healthier community life. 10 of them. And they feed on each other, they build on each other, there is a certain logical progression here, and I just think this is the key, if we can just imbibe these. 1) Desire to Grow in Salvation and Help Others to Grow Too Alright, number one, desire to grow in salvation and help others to grow too or simply put understand salvation as is taught in the Bible. I never tire of telling you that salvation is a process, justification, sanctification, glorification. So you have to realize that not a single person in this church is done being saved. Our salvation is an ongoing work and so is yours. If you don't understand salvation properly, you will not understand the local church and your need for it properly. You will think you can do it on your own and you will forget that you have not yet fully been saved, you're still working out, you should be, as the Bible says, working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation comes in stages, justification, sanctification, glorification, all truly justified people will most certainly be sanctified. There's just an indissoluble link between the two. And so we need to understand that we're not done being saved and no one else is that's here on earth. And so, as I already quoted Philippians 2:12, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." I think when I'm getting out of Hebrews 3 and 10 is work out other people's salvation with fear and trembling too. Not just your own. But care about whether other people are making progress in their salvation. So step number one is desire to grow in salvation and help others to grow too. Or perhaps another title for this would be: Understand salvation properly. You're not done being saved. 2) Understand the Grave Danger We Are All In Secondly, understand therefore the grave danger every last one of us is still in. We are in a war zone, spiritually, you don't need the full armor of God, except that you're in a war and you are in a war. So we have to see with spiritual eyes, the incredible danger we're all in from the world, the flesh, and the devil. These three ancient foes of the church are relentless and deadly. Only if we properly see their danger, will be properly committed to a local church. Every last one of us is in a vicious fight for the health of our souls. It says in 1st Peter 2:11, "Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful lusts which wage war against your soul." We're in a firefight and an analogy I had this morning, as I was thinking, we're in a firefight and the church is the fox hole. It is a dangerous world we live in, and we ought to be aware of this warfare and be intensely interested in it and concerned about it, not just for ourselves, but for our fellow soldiers. Somebody's head is up too high out of the foxhole, if a buddy loves him he's going to push his head down. The tracer bullet goes just an inch over where his head just was a moment ago. Jesus was intensely concerned about leaving his church, here in John 17, He says, "I will remain," He's praying to God the night before He's crucified He's praying, He says, "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world. And I'm coming to you. Holy Father protect them by the power of Your name, the name You gave Me. So that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe, by that name you gave me. None has been lost." Do you have a sense of the danger we're in? And that none of us would be lost? We need an active protection from the world, the flesh and the devil. The church is part of God's plan to protect you. So understand the danger all of us are in. 3) Develop an Eternal Perspective Thirdly develop an eternal perspective. Hebrews 10 talks about, "And all the more as you see the day approaching." We fail to fully invest in a local church because we think far too highly of this present age in which we live. We think too much of the world, and so we think too little of church. That's what's going on, they're head-to-head. I really think the biggest danger, the biggest threat to healthy Church life, is the American dream. That your life does in fact, consist in the abundance of your possessions or the abundance of your achievements. It's sucking time from the people of God that should be given to the church. And the only way we're going to remedy that is to say, "How is all this going to look on judgment day? How is it all going to look, when I stand before Jesus? Is this commitment to do this or to do that, or to do the other going to look good on judgment day? Or should I be pulling back in and do what God told me to do?" He told me, "Focus on Christ personally, stay abiding in the vine, and commit myself to the local church and build in each other's lives." That's what He told me to do. And so we need to see everything in light of eternity. This brother, this sister that we're standing near, someday he or she is going to stand before Jesus. Does that matter to you? Can you do like CS Lewis said, "Bear the weight of their glory?" Can you carry that weight for them and say, "I want you to be glorious and radiant, fully obedient to the Lord. I don't want you to be a casualty in this war and I want you to be fully fruit, I want you to be, I want you to be rich on Judgment Day. Rich in good works, I really want that for you." And you should want it for each other. So ask a simple question about your church involvement. What will the Lord say on Judgement Day concerning your level of involvement in your local church? Can developing an eternal perspective help you focus more on what Christ is doing in the world? And what is Christ doing in the world? I already told you, I will build my church. That's what he's doing in the world, so therefore to love the church is to love what Christ is doing in the world. To hate the church is to hate what Christ is doing in the world. And to be indifferent to the church is to be indifferent to what Christ is doing in the world. This is what He's doing. 4) Weed Your Life of Distractions Fourthly, Weed your Life of distractions. Worldly distractions. The world is full of alluring alternatives to healthy church involvement. Enticing alternatives to healthy church involvement. Jesus in the parable of the seed and the soil called them weeds, they are depleting the soil of nutrients and resources that should be going into spiritual growth in His children. And they're weeds, they're idols. And so, therefore we're going to hit a plateau. We are going to hit a plateau, is a glass ceiling or something like that of healthy church life. Unless we are willing to make hard choices about the way we spend our time. And weed our life of distraction. So do an inventory. How much time do you spend in good but not Christian activities? We are a busy people, and not only that, we pride ourself on our busyness. I see it, I see it, a glint of pride. Oh we're doing this, we're doing that, we're committed. Well, we're running in 40 different directions. I just sense Satan in all that. Don't you? Growing families, who want experiences for their kids, they want their kids involved in different things; music, sports, scouting, community involvements, other things like that. Now let me tell you something, I'm always skating right on the edge of legalism. These things may be exactly what God's calling your family to do. This is exactly how you are called as a family to interact with unbelievers. This is your missionary endeavor. Do it to the... I'm just asking you through the Spirit, and through the Word of God to do an analysis of it, to do an assessment of it. Look at your time. It could be that you're too busy with good activities you have no time to develop your church commitments and relationship. And then there's the other side. How much time do you spend on just personal recreation, hobbies, electronic entertainment? We talk about it all the time, cable TV, internet, MP3 players, Wii Or X-box or whatever? I don't even know what's hot this Christmas, there's something every Christmas, they stand in line at three in the morning to get it. So I don't know what it is this year, but you know what I'm talking about, or... And please don't come and yell at me about this: golf. God may be calling on you to golf. Again I'm always... I'm not saying thou shalt not golf. But maybe there's too much of a good thing. Honey is sweet, just eat a little and then go on and be committed to the church. Hunting, I don't know. Shopping, I don't know what it is for you, but just do that inventory. 5) Love Your Brothers and Sisters in Christ With Sacrificial Love Fifth, love your brothers and sisters, with a sacrificial love. Simply put we will not make any changes in this area without sacrifice. You're just not going to. You have to love the brothers and sisters from the heart and care enough about their spiritual health, negatively and positively, to be involved in their lives and it takes sacrifice to do it. A fundamental discipline, Christian discipline is hospitality. It says in 1 Peter to offer it without grumbling. Well, the reason that we're tempted to grumble is that it is a sacrifice to open your home. And so it just takes sacrifice, to get to know the brothers and sisters, without the sacrifice your connection to the church will be limited. And I worry, when I do exit interviews with people who stay in the same geographical region but go to a different good church. I hear so often, nobody ever reached out, nobody ever connected. Can I just turn that around. And I'm not... I tend to be meek as a lamb at times like that. Maybe I should be more like a lion. I don't know people have different ministries, different personalities, but did you sacrifice yourself for somebody else here in this church? I find the people that do that, they never complain about they don't have enough friends. They don't have any... They just don't, they're just deluged with friends and connections. But it doesn't happen without sacrifice and yet part of it could be material. We have some needy people in the church that are struggling economically and 1st John 3 says, "If you have the world's goods, and see your brother in need, and don't do anything to help it how can you say the love of God is in you?" So some of our fellowship is going to be almost a literal kind of... Well, not exactly a barn raising, but sometimes there's going to be a time that we're going to be there with resources to help each other. But I'm talking, especially spiritually that we would sacrificial love each other, spiritually enough to listen, "What's going on in your life?" And then when they start to unload some mess on you, you're like, "I don't really want to get involved to that level." Sacrifice and love. 6) Humble Yourself Number six, humble yourself. This may be the hardest of all. Know and be known takes humility, it really does. What do I mean? Well, we have a tendency to present a spiritual facade to our brother and sisters and say, "Hey look, everything's going great." Or, and I'm going to tread on some toes here, including my own, but to have a category of, I guess one book calls it, "Acceptable sins that you can share." You know what I'm talking about? I'm really struggling with, I'm only praying an hour a day, and really God's been leading me to..." It's like come on. Is that really where your flesh is at work right now? Yeah, well I'm not sharing that. That would make me look like a horrible sinner that struggles with the flesh. Well, you've got to be humble, you've got to be willing to open up and be genuinely humble. Now, CJ Mahaney has done us all a good work by writing a book on this topic, Humility: True greatness. And he has a chapter entitled, inviting and pursuing correction. How's that sound to you? Does that sound good? I would like you to correct me, I invite you to correct me and to help me with my sin problems. It takes humility to do it. Now you know the story he told, it's very famous about a wealthy-looking guy, a business man who's at a breakfast shop, and he's eating a bagel, and he's got an Armani suit and he's got a well groomed moustache, he's got a Rolex watch, and he keeps glancing at his Rolex watch, because he's late to a meeting, and as he gets up to leave, he's got a big blob of cream cheese on his mustache. And CJ Mahaney is wondering "Should I say something?" Think about, would you say something? Total stranger, "You have a big blob of cream cheese on your face. I'm not sure you're wanting to bring that to whatever meeting you're going to." Listen to this, now, I want to read this direct quote because this is powerful and as you listen, I want you to hear. I'd like this kind of fellowship go on in our church. This is a clear description of what I'm asking God to do here in this church. Listen, let me tell you says CJ Mahaney about a cream cheese moment in my life. "One of many such experiences that have helped convince me that there is no sin more deceptive than pride. I am in an accountability group, with men who care for and watch over my soul." Do you hear that? I'm urging that kind of thing for men and women in the church. "In a meeting with these brothers, I was telling them of a certain pattern of sin, a specific pattern of sin I'd noticed in my life in the past week, I'd become aware of this sin and been convicted about it, and I'd confessed it to God, and I'd received His forgiveness. Now, I wanted to inform these men about it as well, and move on, because there was another particular issue that I was more concerned about and wanted to discuss with them. But as I described in detail my sin from the previous week, my friend started to ask caring and insightful questions about the root issue behind the sin." In effect, not so fast CJ, let's hang out here for a minute. "I assured them that the root issue was obvious: It was pride. I even transitioned into a brief teaching on pride. And then let the guys know I wanted to move on to something else, that I thought was more important and more serious. There was almost certainly a tone of mild irritation, in my voice. But the men had more questions. They had observations. And they began to challenge me to look deeper at the pattern of sin I had shown in the previous week. Again, I felt irritation. I assumed I understood that particular sin completely. Why were we spending so much time on something I had already figured out. In essence there was cream cheese all over my face and I didn't know it. My underlying sin had deceived me, I was blind, I didn't see it, I couldn't see it. But they saw it clearly. And in my pride, I thought no one understood my heart as well as I did, but Scripture doesn't support such a conclusion. Actually God's word tells me, "No, CJ, sin is subtle, sin is deceitful and sin blinds you, and you need feedback from others in order to understand your own heart." That's the church friends. He writes, "By God's grace because the men seated around me in that room are true friends who care for me and aren't afraid of me they persevered. Though I was arrogant not only in assuming I fully understood my sin and it's root issue, but also my reluctance to explore it more deeply, these men still persevered in kindness. And only by their kindness, and perseverance and only by God's grace did I finally begin to perceive how much my sin had indeed been deceiving me. I saw that my confidence about fully knowing my soul in the situation and in assuming I needed no one else’s eyes upon it was actually the height of arrogance. They were guarding my heart, they were helping me to see the true extent of my sin. I thought I'd already wiped the cream cheese from my face, and it was gone and they were faithfully telling me, 'it's not gone we're staring at it! And we're telling you this because we love you.'" Do you really want something like that in your life? And if the answer is no, aren't you already in spiritual danger? Now, there's more to say about all this. There are right ways to do it and wrong ways to do it they're right people to do it, and ones that probably aren't going to be as effective for you. May God match you up like a heavenly matchmaker to the right ones. There's a gentleness and a reciprocity that's so beautiful, but I want this done in my life, and I want you to want it done in your lives, so that no one slips through the cracks here. 7) Know and be Known So therefore, number seven is no one be known. Be willing to open up. I've already made this point. Hebrews 3, you've got to know and be known, for the sinful unbelieving heart and Hebrews 10 know and be known for your spiritual gifts. So be willing to invest in relationships. Pull down the facade, tell the truth. 8) Encourage by the Gospel Number eight, encourage by the Gospel. In verse 3:13it says, "Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness." Hebrews 10:25, "Let us encourage one another." So, encouragement means fill your conversations with the Gospel. Fill your conversations with Christ crucified and risen, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and future in heaven and judgement day and the seriousness of that. Just fill, saturate these relationships with the gospel. I'm not just talking about friendships, drinking tea partners or something like that, I'm not talking about that friends. That's just, that's the matrix of it. What I'm talking about is the actual sharing of the Word of God in these relationships. Men get together with other men one-on-one small groups share the Gospel with each other. Share scripture with each other. Women get together with in accountability relationships, prayer partners, do it. Youth share the Gospel with each other, challenge each other, by the gospel, help each other grow. Senior adults in your social times together, your outings and you're just eating a meal together, share the Gospel with each other. Encourage one another daily. 9) Pray Consistently for the Spiritual Health of Church Members Ninth, pray consistently for the spiritual health of church members. Now here I get very practical, and I'm going to share with you a commitment that the elders have made. This is like one of the center pieces of our ministry to the church. In 2011 we would like each of you to have a Church's membership directory, see this is a little one that fits inside your Bible, right in there. You can get bigger ones too. And what I'd like you to do, I'd like you to pray through this thing every month. I'd like you to take the day that it is, like today is December 12th, open at page 12 and pray for the people on that page. And then put it back in your Bible, and the next day pray for those on page 13. And by the way, there's a... What do we have now? 24 pages, pray that in two years we'll need 30 pages. Amen? Right now, you get six free days at the end of the month or seven, pray for anyone you want in those seven days. On the back inside, there are spiritual things to pray for. We're not just praying for medical issues or things like that. Financial, pray for spiritual growth and development things. Right on the back page, it's right in there. Every single day, the elders are going to do it. We are... Been doing it, but we're going to do it all the more, And we're urging you as well to do this. They're at the exits. Pick one up as you go. And if you get on that page and you're like, " I don't know anyone on this page." Well invite somebody over to lunch. Say," I was praying for you today, and I don't know you. And I want to get to know you." Have lunch with them. 10) Be Committed to Public Worship and Home Fellowships And then finally, 10th. And this is simple and obvious and straightforward, be committed to public worship and home fellowships. Don't be a church hopper. Don't come to me six months and tell me it's just not a great fellowship here and we... Don't do that, don't. Make it great. Reach out, connect with people. And if you're saying the distance is too far, that's what home fellowships are for. Be committed to your home fellowship, and what I mean be committed means when you sign up in August, still be coming in November and December. I don't mean to sting or whatever... I'm just saying, please if your commitment means yes, I'm going to be there then be there, again not legalistic. I know occasionally we need to miss, but what is the habit? Is your habit to keep coming to home fellowship, or is your habit to miss? And then in the context of that you can do so many things. Look use lunchtime after worship for getting to know people. Let's do some practical things. One final word, and I'll be done. This Wednesday in Acts class, we've been studying John Calvin. We're not going to do that this Wednesday, we're going to talk about these 10 points. And I'd like you to come. I'd like you to come and share your ideas and thoughts. There's going to be some give and take and some prayer. And I think it'd be a good time for us as a church to gather together and say, "Hey how can we make FBC a more Hebrews 3, Hebrews 10 kind of church? How can we do that? And I think it's going to be a fruitful time. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had in the word today, and thank you for just opening up this opportunity for us to listen and learn. And so Father, I pray in Jesus name, that you would take these truths and press them into our hearts, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Introduction So this week the staff had an opportunity, privilege, of going to a conference up in Minneapolis, evangelism conference at John Piper's organization. He organized it. Why it had to be in Minneapolis in February, I don't know, but there it was. Some people get to go to Southern California, some people to Hawaii, some to the Grand Caymans, we go to Minneapolis in February. But it was an incredible conference. And on the way as we were on the plane, providentially I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a young woman, a woman in her mihttp://www.thefieldschurch.org/mediafiles/uploaded/0/0e1840389_050904.mp3s, her name was Jennifer. And the Lord just providentially put that together. She was across the aisle from me and we talked for two hours on that flight. Before you pity her, realize that she could have slid over and sat, there were no seats next to her, she wanted to talk. And we had the opportunity to talk about the most precious and the most important things there are in this world, about the gospel, about her walk with Christ, about her eternal soul. She had a very traumatic childhood, very traumatic. And it's led to an even more traumatic adulthood now. She's had a couple of children out of wedlock, she was flying to see them from - she was down in the South, she was flying up to Minneapolis to see her children. In recent years, however, the biggest problem in her life was her addiction to crystal meth. Methamphetamine, a devastating drug that absolutely enslaves people and ruins their lives. And what amazed me about her statement to me, is that she felt, she said she'd been clean now for two years, but she said she felt no less attraction to it now than she did two years ago, when she first quit. Still has that much hold on her. And as we talked, at one point, she pulled out a combination scrapbook and journal which had all kinds of things in it, and she showed it to me, I thought that was incredible that she was opening up her life to me, and she opened up to a particular page, and there was a poem that her sister had sent, concerning the danger of crystal meth and its addictive power. The poem is entitled “I Am Meth.” And I read it, and as I read it, literally tears came to my eyes, and I felt a dark kind of chill come over me. And I'd like you to bear with me as I read that poem, I found it on the Internet and I'd like to read it to you. It's entitled “I Am Meth.” “I destroy homes. I tear families apart. I take your children and that's just the start. I'm more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold. The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold. If you need me, remember, I'm easily found. I live all around you - in schools and in town. I live with the rich, I live with the poor. I live down the street, maybe next door. I'm made in a lab, but it's not like you think. I can be made under the kitchen sink, in your child's closet, even in the woods. If this scares you to death, well, it certainly should. I have many names, but there's one you know best. I'm sure you've heard of me. My name is crystal meth. My power is awesome. Try me, you'll see. But if you do, you may never break free. Just try me once. And I might let you go. But try me twice and I'll own your soul. When I possess you, you'll steal and you'll lie. You'll do what you have to, just to get high. The crimes you'll commit for my narcotic dreams will be worth the pleasure you'll feel in your arms, your lungs, your nose. You'll lie to your mother, you'll steal from your dad. When you see their tears, you should feel sad. But you'll forget your morals and how you were raised. I'll be your conscience, I'll teach you my ways. I take kids from parents and parents from kids, I turn people from God and separate friends. I'll take everything from you. Your looks and your pride. I'll be with you always, right by your side. You'll give up everything, your family, your home, your friends, your money, then you'll be alone. I'll take and take till you have nothing more to give. When I'm finished with you, you'll be lucky to live. If you try me, be warned, this is no game. If given the chance, I'll drive you insane. I'll ravish your body, I'll control your mind. I'll own you completely. Your soul will be mine. The nightmares I'll give you while lying in bed, the voices you'll hear from inside your head, the sweats, the shakes, the visions you'll see, I want you to know these are all gifts from me. But then it's too late, and you'll know in your heart that you are mine and we shall never part. You'll regret that you tried me, they always do. But you came to me, not I to you. You knew this would happen, many times you were told, but you challenged my power, you chose to be bold. You could have said no and just walked away. If you could live that day over, now what would you say? I'll be your master, you will be my slave. I'll even go with you when you go to your grave. Now that you have met me, what will you do? Will you try me or not? It's all up to you. I can bring you more misery than words can tell. Come take my hand, let me lead you to hell.” Absolutely chilling, as I read that. There was a blank page facing this poem in her journal. I asked permission if I could write a response. She happily agreed, and handed me the journal and a choice of pens, she's very artistic. I chose just a regular pen, that's me, I'm not very artistic. And I wrote this: “Yes, this is all true; but Jesus said this, ‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin, but if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’ John 8:34 and 36.” Why am I sharing this with you today? Do I think that crystal meth addiction is a big problem here at FBC? No, I do not. Do I think it's likely soon to become a big problem here at FBC? Probably not. If you asked me whether I thought I could become addicted to crystal meth, I have been trained by the gospel to say, absolutely, yes. Because there's really no sin I'm finding that I don't have some connection with, in some way. And that if the Lord withdrew his gracious protection of me, and let Satan and his demons have at me, I could be a crystal meth addict within the week, if not sooner. But that's not really why I read that poem to you. Rather the “I Am Meth” poem personifies the drug as a taunting power that communicates with its victims and has enslaved them. It speaks as an intelligent force, and so it reminds me, generally, of the power of indwelling sin. If we could only see it now. The spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm, Satan and his demons arrayed against us. If we could only see that magnetic alluring power of the world, if we could see it with our own eyes, even worse, if we could see somehow as though it were a living thing, sin living in us, what would we think then of the battle that all of us are in for our souls, in sanctification? As we grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, we battle every step of the way with the power of indwelling sin. Romans 7:15, Paul says, “I do not understand what I do. What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:17, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Sin living in me. With Paul, we can cry out, “What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.” That is reality, friends, and I need to hear just as much as Jennifer, “If the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed.” I need to know that, I need to know that Jesus can free me from this indwelling sin, don't you? And if you don't think you have a problem with it, you don't know yourself, you don't know the power of indwelling sin. Friends, we need all the help we can get, we need all of the avenues of grace that God has lavished toward us, we need them all and we need a good healthy local church that knows that. We need to be for one another what God intended that we be for one another. We need to watch over one another in brotherly love, we need to care about what each other's going through. How sin is making an assault. Review Matthew 18 Now for two weeks, we've talked about church discipline, I've called it “Dealing with Sin in the Church.” We looked at Matthew 18. I'm not gonna go into detail in these at all. Urge you to look at the text, but there it says, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault. If he listens to you, you've won your brother over. If he doesn't listen then go, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses, and if he doesn't listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he will not listen to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” It's a process of dealing with sin, all the way to the final step of what we generally know as church discipline. 1 Corinthians 5 Last week, we looked at 1 Corinthians 5 and supported the same point where Paul says three times something like this, “You should have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this.” Or he says, “Hand this man over to Satan so that his sinful nature may be destroyed, and his spirit saved in the Day of the Lord.” Or he says at the end, 1 Corinthians 5:13, “Expel the wicked man from among you.” Says it three times, he's utterly clear about it. If this unrepentant sinner, he will not turn, he will not yield, he is a cancer in the church. He is a virus, he must be put out for the benefit of the whole church. I gave you five motives, the glory of God above all. The possible salvation of the sinner, that they might come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. The protection of the church from the encroaching power of sin, the preservation of the reputation of the church and of the Lord in that community, so that the church can be salt and light and continue to do its gospel work in the community. And then, fifthly, the restoration and reconciliation of relationships in the church. For all of those reasons, we have to do church discipline. A Third Key Passage: Hebrews 3 Now I wanna give you a third key passage, and then I wanna talk for the rest of the time today on practicalities of this issue. Practicalities of dealing with sin in the church, and more specifically the final step of church discipline. I wanna talk about that today, but look with me at Hebrews 3:12-14, which you heard Jim read. Hebrews 3 is a letter of warning, written to some Jewish people who had made professions of faith in Christ, but now under the wilting pressure of persecution from the Jewish community, they were now shrinking back from their commitment to Christ, they weren't going to church anymore, they didn't wanna be named as Christians, they were pulling back. And so the author of this epistle writes this letter of warning to them concerning this. A Clear Command for Us to “Watch Over One Another in Brotherly Love” It says there in Hebrews 3:12-14, “See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first.” It's the second of a series of three warnings that come in progression that the author gives us. Hebrews 2:1 says, “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” This one here talks about the danger of turning away from the living God through a sinful unbelieving heart. Then in Hebrew 6 it says there, “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age; if they fall away, to be brought back again to repentance, because to their own loss they're crucifying the Son of God all over again.” So he gives us some steps to apostasy: Drift away, turn away, fall away. And this is, like that poem, crystal meth, this is the enslavement of sin, as it grabs hold and starts to move people away from a profession of faith in Christ. Remedy: A Loving Church Filled with Spiritual Guardians And the remedy here is, at least in Hebrews 3:12-14, an active, loving church filled with brothers and sisters who care enough to step in and not let it happen. It's a matter of love. And so, look at verse 12, “See to it brothers,” it says, “that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart.” So that he's talking about the context of the church, this is a church issue, and it's a call to spiritual vigilance within the Christian church. “See to it,” literally watch, be vigilant. Look. See. Have your eyes open, please. Pay attention to each other. See to it, brothers. So this is something we do for other Christians, “that none of you,” it says. We are to care about the whole church. We're to care. Now, we may not be actively involved in every case or whatever, but we should be caring about whether the whole church is walking well with Jesus. We're to be concerned about that, and that people would finish their salvation journey, that they wouldn't just begin, but that they would actually finish. That we would share Christ's zeal that none would be lost of all that God gave him. Jesus said, “Of all that the Father has given me, I will lose none but raise them up at the last day.” I don't believe that any true Christian truly justified by faith can ever fall away from Christ. I don't believe that, but I believe that these warnings are essential to our ongoing salvation. We need these warnings, like you need the reflectors along a dangerous curve, and you need the guardrail, it helps you make the curve. We need the warning to keep us going the way we need to. And so, we need to care. Remember the Good Shepherd leaves the 99 on the hills and goes to look for the one that's wandering off. We need to care about whether an individual Christian is wandering away from Jesus, it should matter to us. We should be aware. “See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” The issue here is that power of indwelling sin. It's the attack, the assault of sin, and it has a work on the human heart. And it causes the human heart to become hardened toward God, to turn away from God, to be unattracted to Jesus. He's not appealing anymore, he's not enticing anymore, we don't love him anymore. And so there's a general gradual hardening of the heart and a turning away, it says, from the living God. He's not a dead idol, he is the living God, he's the only God there is. And now something's happened to make a created being, someone who began the Christian walk, it seems at least, now turn away. They're no longer interested. See to it that that doesn't happen, that that doesn't happen with anybody in this church. “But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today.” There's the remedy. Encourage. It's a strong word in the Greek. It shows up in that teaching in John's gospel about the Comforter, or the Counselor, the Paraclete is actually almost a literalistic translation. The work of the Holy Spirit then is to be energetically active in our lives, encouraging and consoling and instructing and warning us. He's just there, and he is our guarantee that we're gonna make it through this world. But here now, it's addressed to us, we are to take the Holy Spirit's part, we are to be filled with the Spirit and do this kind of encouragement in each other's lives. “Encourage one another, daily,” it says. Now I don't read in here any kind of future for FBC to be meeting seven days a week. Phew, I'm glad that's not happening. Seven days a week. But I think we can encourage one another seven days a week. We can be active in each other's lives. This is a daily issue. We fight a daily battle, don't we, with sin? Every day, we fight. Encourage one another daily. And why? So that no one would be hardened by sin's deceptiveness, or deceitfulness, like crystal meth. Like any sin, it doesn't come to you honestly. It doesn't come and say, “Hello, my name is sin. I am here to destroy your world. I'm gonna take you on a journey, and we're going to go hand-by hand. I'm gonna take you down a dark path. And when you're done, your marriage will be ruined. Your parenting will be ruined. Your job, you'll be out of a job, you'll have no respect or esteem left of any of your acquaintances. You'll have no life left. And I would like to continue, I'd like to take you right to the grave and beyond. I'd like to take you to hell.” It doesn't do that. It says, “Hi. I'm sin. I'd like to show you a good time. I'd like to entice you a little bit.” It's deceitful and it's a power to harden us. The Exhortation: Keep Running this Race So the exhortation said is that we should run this race with endurance, right to the end. “We have,” look at verse 14, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” A bit of a mysterious verse, friends. It speaks of a past event. We have come to share in Christ. But then it puts a condition on it. Now that's odd. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, if. Well, if he was. If I got it right on the test. Did it happen or not? Well, that's a big question. Did you come to Christ, or not? Did you? Did you really come to Christ? Is there a doubt in your mind? Well there can be, when you start to live a certain way, you start to sin, you start to get into certain patterns, there starts to be some doubts. Am I really a Christian? We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at first. Genuine Christians do. You know who these warnings are for? They're for the elect of God. They're for the genuine Christians, they heed them. The others, they don't, they blow them off. You know who takes these things seriously? I do. And if you're a child of God, you do too. And we listen, and we will stand firm to the end, won't we? Because we know that there's a danger of apostasy. And so that's the function here. Alright, so what are we to do? Well, we're to obey those verses. Encourage one another, get involved in each other's lives, love one another, care, know and be known, get involved, pray, listen, talk about real things, spiritual things, develop intimacy with one another, so that you can help each other. Practical Issues of Church Discipline Now, I wanna talk about some practical issues of church discipline. Now church discipline, you generally think of only that final step, getting voted out, excommunicated, those kind of things. Well, first of all, I think, I hope I've established in Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 that that is biblical, it is right, it is a good thing to do if need be, but what I wanna do with you now is to show that the church has been given an array of tools or instruments in each other's lives to deal with sin at a deep level all the way, comprehensively, before you get to that final step, the ultimate step of church discipline. And I wanna talk about that. Two Kinds of Church Discipline There are two different kinds of church discipline, there's formative church discipline and there's punitive church discipline. Formative happens beforehand, early on in the sin process, so that the sin gets nipped in the bud early. So that sin can be dealt with early on before it gets to have a deep root system. So formative is going on all the time, and it's all part of church discipline or, if you prefer, discipleship, church discipleship, they're related. And so it's going on all the time. And then punitive is that final step, dealing with an unrepentant sinner, you get to that final stage. Punitive. Daily Ongoing Ministry is a Form of Discipline Now, what I wanna give you here is a sense of a toolbox of dealing with sin that the Lord has given. What I did was I looked at different verbs that there are in the New Testament of what we are to do and be for each other. And so I studied all of these different verbs and all that, and I started to see different tools. Now, that's me, I'm a guy. I think like tools, okay, you got a job to fix, it's something to fix, you gotta fix the washing machine, like I did when I got back from my conference this week. “I get to fix the washing machine. Oh joy!” And so I got out my tools, “I get to use my tools!” I wish I could tell you that was my attitude, but at any rate, I had tools, and you pull out the right tool for the right thing, the socket wrench for this and the screwdriver for that, etcetera. Or, if you prefer, we have some medical people. You have your surgical instruments out on the tray and you know what each of those instruments is for. You're skillful, you're trained, you understand, and you pick up the right instrument, maybe you're a dentist, you know the right instrument, and you know what it's going to address. Or perhaps you like to cook, and so your kitchen is arrayed with all kinds of kitchen utensils, and you know what you use in order to cook. You know what to use to peel the potatoes, what to use to cut them up, what saucepan to use, I'm out of my depth here, so I'm gonna move on. You know, you get the point. So different things you use for different tasks. And so here it is also, God has given us different things we are to do for each other depending on the sin situation, or the threatening sin. So this is all long before you get to that final stage of church discipline. Do you see what I'm saying? It's a whole life together that we have. There's a hint of this in 1 Thessalonians 5:14. Listen to the verse, it says, “And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.” So here you've got different categories of people and you're given a different task to do with each one, right? You're told to warn those who are idle, you're told to encourage those that are timid, and you're told to help those that are weak. So you have to be discerning to know who is idle, who is weak, who is needy in various ways, and you can pick up the tool and use it properly. Alright, so let's start with these different conditions. Let's say a person just needs information about the spiritual life, they just don't know. They are ignorant in some way of God's will. It's not a moral issue, they just have never learned. The Bible tells us to teach or instruct or inform that person. So we'll start there. The sin then would be that they would over that long period of time continue in an ignorant state of things they should know by now. And so therefore, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers. I do not want you to be ignorant.” So how does he remedy their possible ignorance? He teaches them many things about spiritual gifts over three chapters, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 are all about spiritual gifts in the church. He teaches them. Alright, so it says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.” So, that's the first step. You discern that somebody just doesn't know something, and they need some help. That's what Priscilla and Aquila did with Apollos, he just didn't know some things about Jesus. And so they instructed him. Secondly, suppose a person is doing well in their Christian life, they're being fruitful, things are going well. Should we do anything? Well, is there any possible sin? Yeah, they might stop doing well. Or they might just plateau, when they could really be doing even better. And so therefore, the Scripture tells us to encourage such a person or even praise them, “Honor such a man as this,” Philippians 2, Epaphroditus. He almost died for the work of Christ, so honor him. So there's a sense of encouragement that happens. We should be praising and encouraging one another at the human level, not ultimate worship, but we're just saying, “Well done, you're doing well, thank you. That's a good ministry you're doing.” So we have this, 1 Thessalonians 4:1, “Finally brothers. We instructed you how to live.” That's the instruction, we already told you how to live in order to please God, instruction, “as in fact you are living.” So there he encourages them. You're doing it, good job. Well done. “As in fact you are living. Now, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more,” keep it going, keep it going, keep it going. Alright, second. So we deal with the person who's doing well and they're being fruitful. How about thirdly, a person who just needs to get going in the Christian life? They know what to do, but they really haven't been doing it, They haven't gotten off the dime. They need to get going in the Christian life and so, they're delaying obedience in some area. The New Testament then would use language like “exhort” or “urge” or “spur on.” I love that one, spur one another on toward love and good deeds. What a picture. I got spurs, that jingle jangle jingle, I got some spurs here, I'm gonna spur you on to love and good deeds, alright. Hey, look there's good ways of doing that spurring in bad ways. I've been spurred in some ways I thought were bad, but they were effective any way, they did get me going. Alright, but it's a matter of exhortation. Alright, think about Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.” He's urging them, he's exhorting them to move on so that they won't continue in spiritual laziness. So again, there's that urging, like a coach saying, “Come on now, you know what to do, do it, let's get going.” Alright, fourthly, suppose a person is going through a great trial in their lives, suffering a great trial. They cry a lot, they're having a hard time. The New Testament tells us to comfort or to console such a person so that they won't become discouraged or depressed and be susceptible to Satan's attacks. Comfort them, console them, okay, so that they can be encouraged. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our trouble so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” In other words, God brings us into trials, makes us hurt for a while, brings some kind of comfort and consolation. We remember that, and then we are now equipped to go and do that for somebody else. Now do you see why it's important to pick up the right tool for the right job? Woe to us if we misdiagnose. If we use spurring on or exhortation when somebody could use a word of comfort and consolation, an arm around them, some weeping and some prayer. Rejoice with those who rejoice, yes. But mourn with those who mourn. We've got to be wise here, let's know each other enough to know what the situation calls for. But there is a great danger when somebody's going through a tough trial that they'll become discouraged and depressed and be vulnerable to Satan's attacks, and we need to help them not be. Let them know that there's a body around them to help them. Fifthly, if a person is starting to go wrong in a new habit that is just beginning to form, beginning to nibble a bit at the bait of a potentially serious sin pattern that may lead to sin. The New Testament tells us to warn or correct or admonish. Those are stronger words. This I think is the beginning of that Matthew 18 process. If your brother sins against you, now go deal with him. “Reprove him” is the word there, show him his fault, deal with him, please. Because this is a dangerous thing. Warn him. So he says in 1 Corinthians 4:14, “I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.” Sixth, suppose a person is determined to go wrong. I mean, you've been through all of these other stages with them, you have worked with them, you have done Matthew 18 with them, and you're trying, they're willfully progressing deeper. The Lord then would pull out the word “rebuke.” Alright? Rebuke. It's not something you use quickly, it's something that you've been through other steps and they're just not listening. And so it's like a verbal slap, a warning, okay. Titus 1, as Titus was there ministering in Crete, Paul writes him about the Cretans. He said “even one of their own prophets has said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.’” Wow. “This testimony is true,” said Paul, “therefore, rebuke them sharply so that they will be sound in the faith.” You see the motive again, the motive is to bring health, but you're at that level where you've gotta rebuke them sharply, okay? And then finally, sadly, if the person after all of this is unrepentant, then they must be removed from the church. Do you see where it fits then, guys? That there's this whole array of things we're to do for each other, and church discipline the final step. But the church must have this tool, it must. And if it doesn't, it actually changes everything. We need to have the right, the power, the authority to expel sinful people from among us after all the work has been done. And so we do. Now in terms of formative discipline, the greatest ministry is the ministry of the Word, the ongoing ministry of the Word is the greatest power for formative discipline in the life of the church. So good, clear preaching, good work in your Bible for Life classes, home fellowships, your occasional Bible studies, men's Bible studies, women's Bible studies, all of that. The ministry of the Word, just in the halls as you teach and admonish one another, that work is the most important of all in this area of formative discipline. So also is the ministry, the ongoing ministry of spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts has a power for dealing with sin. It just does, it's just formative discipline all the time. Let me give you an example. Suppose somebody just has a sweet gift of hospitality, they just have a wonderful gift of hospitality. I'm convicted by that, I am. I'll go to their home, the meal is phenomenal, the warmth, there's a sense of welcome, a magnetism there. People just have that gift, you know what I'm talking about? They just have that gift. And even though I may not have the gift of hospitality, it makes me wanna do better, you know what I'm saying? I just wanna be more hospitable when I'm around that. Somebody has the gift of encouragement. I may not have that gift, but it makes me wanna encourage more. You know what I'm saying. So the ministry of spiritual gifts in the life of the church helps us deal with sin, all the time, it's powerful. So also do intentional discipleship relationships. Alright, I think that just the regular ongoing life of the church is important that we know each other in Bible for Life classes, that's important. Let's get to know each other, but there's not a lot of time. And it's not a great forum for intimacy there. Alright, regular church attendance is essential, very important, but again it's tough for intimacy. Home fellowships are really important in this. Do you see that? Build relationships in your home fellowships, share your requests with one another. Help each other. And I also believe in intentional discipleship and accountability relationships. Men with men, and women with women, never crossgender, never. I mean not counting husband and wife. That goes without saying, and I will say that even in the husband-wife relationship, there can be a deepening and enriching spiritually, where you can hold each other accountable more, in a sweet way. Don't forget to be kind, please, alright, but just that loving relationship. But others, outside that marriage relationship, men with men, women with women, you're developing those deep relationships, know and be known, and develop intimacy over the years so that you can hold each other accountable. CJ Mahaney in his book on humility, talks about the close accountability relationships that he's developed with his staff. And these men are really serious about holding one another accountable. It's very serious. And they deal with all kinds of stuff. And one time, it's a very humorous story, he tells that he was struggling with something, and he told about some incident and shared how he was sorry for his sin and just wanted them to pray and kind of hold him accountable. But they're like, they were just getting started at that point, they were intrigued, like, “Tell me more.” “Well, I've told you what you need to know” “No, no, no, no. Tell me more. Now what happened, what were you feeling?” They were digging in, alright. And he started to get a little offended, a little prideful, and there was just more work that needed to be done, and they were rooting around and they found something deeper and pulled it out. Not a pleasant process. Very humorous, the way he tells it, you have to get the book to read it. But the thing is there was that kind of intimacy and a willingness not to just accept the surface answer “Hey, I'm doing great.” Or the sacrificial sin, it's like, “I'm really struggling with such and such,” but what you're really doing with is this. But you’re giving this one up. Know and be known. Common Questions Now, I wanna deal with some common questions concerning church discipline and then apply this three-week topic to people of different categories in the church and we'll be done. First of all, in Matthew 18, it says we should go if our brother sins. Does this refer to any sin at all or only to serious sins? Well, again, as I said in that sermon, you need to be discerning, you need to ask for wisdom. We can't have the metal detector set to go off at a gum wrapper, as I said. So you've got to know what kinds of things are starting to root in and form a habit in somebody's life that you can help with or is there something you just need to bear with and put up with? So ask God to give you wisdom, don't go for everything. What kind of relationship should the church have with somebody who's been disciplined, somebody who has been evicted from membership? Well, again, I mentioned at that time but we should carry on a normal human relationship with them in this sense, if they need medical attention we should give it to them. We shouldn't be unkind or rude to them. We should hold the door for them as they walk in, etcetera. We're not trying to be rude, unkind people, but there should be a constant abiding sense that there's a barrier between us. There's an issue. Because I love Jesus, and you don't, it seems. You're not willing to repent of sin. Oh, how I wish you'd come back. I want you to come back. But there's a problem between us. Another question is, can a disciplined person attend church? Absolutely, they can attend. Jesus said treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Pagans and tax collectors are welcome here at First Baptist Church. Bring them in, bring them in, alright? Our central ministry isn't directly to that kind, but I think at all times, we're gonna seek to preach the gospel and seek to bring people to faith in Christ, and they can come. Yes, they can come, but they can't take the Lord's Supper. They can't vote at member's meetings. They are not members of the church anymore. And we can't really say to them, “Oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.” There's a definite problem there, but yeah, they can be in the building. Can a disciplined person be restored to full church membership? Absolutely, friends, that's the hope, that's the prayer that they will be liberated from sin and come back. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 5, this guy is disciplined, it seems he repented and came back in 2 Corinthians 2. Paul urges them to welcome him back. So we're desiring to see that. What about lawsuits? Could the church be sued? Yes, the church could be sued. I could give a long answer to this. I won't right now, but it is an issue, and ever more so. But let me ask you a question, is it legal in some of these closed countries, for those Christians to assemble on Sunday morning and sing praise songs and worship? The answer: clearly no, that's why they're closed countries. They could get arrested for worshipping. Should they worship anyway? Yes, they should. Alright, so let's not be bound by fear, but we should be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Let's try to find out what the laws are and let's try to be careful, alright? We are very clear in our new member classes that if you join us, you might have to be disciplined, and we try to be clear about that so that people know ahead of time. Important Discipline Issues Now, I wanna cover some important discipline cases. The number one case of church discipline in this church up to this point, and it will continue to be so, the number one thing we discipline or vote people out for is failure to attend church. And it will continue to be so. They are forsaking the assembling of themselves together. I am not talking about homebound people or people with medical issues, neither am I talking about people who have excused absences for a long time because of business or other issues. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about able-bodied people who are not attending church, either in this community or wherever they are. They are not attending church. So basic exhortation, attend church. Keep coming to church, friends, keep coming. I believe that failure to attend church is a masking sin for a deeper heart issue. They don't wanna come because they don't wanna come, and they don't wanna come because the hardness of sin has already started to take root. Secondly, there's the issue of non-attending members of this church who are adult children of regularly attending members. So we've got regular attending members and they've got grown kids who are still on the roll here at this church, but they're not attending church anywhere, and the adults are regularly attending here, and it's a sensitive and touchy issue. They want to keep the names on the rolls, but they're not attending anywhere. And all I'm saying is the real issue is, are they converted? Have they been born again? Yes, they were baptized maybe when they were 12, some things happened, all that, but they're not going to church at all, they're not walking clearly with the Lord. They should be dealt with as anyone else. And I guess what I'm asking is, if you're in that condition and you have an adult child who's not attending anywhere, please don't make it difficult for the elders in the church to do what they need to do. Actually, you should be active and involved in that same thing, saying, “You need to be involved in church, and if you're not, we need to vote you out.” You should lead the way in that and not hinder it. So look after your grown children. I know there comes a point where all you can do is pray, you can have some influence, but the church does have responsibility. There's no reason we should carry those names on our roll if they're not regularly attending here. And if they are attending somewhere else, that's fine, we need to clarify those records, and we need to get that information done, okay? What kinds of sins do we do public church discipline for? Well, entrenched patterns of unrepentance, Matthew 18. Sins of divisiveness. Titus 3 says, “Warn a divisive person once, warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them.” Okay, so sins of divisiveness that rip or rupture at the unity of the church. Sins of elders are dealt with in a special case. “Don't entertain,” it says in 1 Timothy 5, “an accusation against an elder, unless it's corroborated by the testimony of two or three witnesses, but those that have sinned are to be rebuked publicly,” it says, “so that others may take warning.” 1 Timothy 5. And then the spreading of false doctrine. Very serious and deadly for the church. Acts 20, Paul says, “Be on your guard, men will rise up from your own number to draw away disciples after themselves.” Watch out. Specific Applications for Various People To the Unbeliever Alright, finally, I want to just apply these things to various folks. First I wanna speak to the unbeliever. I wanna speak to somebody here who has never trusted in Christ. You may say, “Well what is all this? Why would you even do this? It seems kind of unfriendly, unloving.” The reason is, I go back to the crystal meth thing at the very beginning, because sin is deadly. Sin is deadly, it wants to have your very soul, it wants to bring you to hell, it is dangerous. And it says, “Whoever has not received Christ is under the wrath of God already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God,” John 3:36. You're in great danger. I just urge you to repent, look to Christ, he shed his blood, his blood is sufficient. The Son of God shed his blood for sinners like you and me. Trust in him, apart from works, you can just trust in him and he will bring you to heaven, He will give you eternal life. Look to him. And just realize if this church deals so seriously with sin, then how much more someone like yourself who the Bible says is dead in transgressions and sins. To Every Individual Christian Secondly, to address individual Christians who are here, you may be visiting, you're a Christian, not a member of this church. I would urge you, first and foremost, and this is for all of us, seek personal holiness above all things. Yearn for it, be hungry and thirsty for righteousness in your own life, fight sin. This is an incredibly important issue. Be willing to do whatever it takes to address sin. Jesus said, “If your right hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” And be humble. Humility is essential. Don't say I don't really need this, I'm doing fine. It says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” so be humble and he'll give you what you need. And then concerning membership, I would say, be a member of a good church. If you're not a member of any church, I'd urge you to seek membership. If you live locally here, become a member here at this church. A number of people, I think, that regularly attend for a long time, but they don't commit in membership, I would urge you to commit in membership. So that you can be watched over, and that you can watch over one another and we can have that covenant relationship together. So be part of a church. We've got the new members weekend coming up. Be part of that. To FBC Members To FBC members I wanna say a couple of things. First of all, please accept your responsibility for the holiness and the ongoing sanctification of other members of this church. Accept your responsibility for that, care about it, obey Hebrews 3:12-14, “Watch over one another in brotherly love, carry each other's burdens.” Secondly, just very practically, if I could urge you to get a copy of the church's phone directory and pray through it daily. Just pray through it daily. That's what the elders are doing. There's 28 pages, I think it is, that works out well with the month, a page a day for the month, and then cycle around again. Pray for everyone in the church 12 times a year, at least. You know what that's gonna do to you? You're gonna start noticing other people more. You're going to start caring about what's going on in their lives. Do it, not just the elders. We're doing it, you do it too. Get a phone list and start praying every day for the members of this church. And if you see sin in a brother or sister's life, begin immediately by praying for them. God will give you wisdom whether you're to go, but begin praying for that sin issue. And when you pray for that sin issue, I had urged you to do what Jonathan Edwards did in resolution number eight, of all of his 70 resolutions. He said, “Resolved, whenever I see a sin pattern in someone else's life to think first and foremost that no one is as vile and wicked as I am, and that I myself struggle with the exact same kinds of sins.” Well that's gonna work that kind of humility in you. But please pray, and if you go, then go with that humility and go with that kind of brokenness. And accept your responsibility in corporate church discipline, understand that mushy sentimental love that sees a damaging sin pattern in a brother's life but says, “Live and let live, it wouldn't be loving ...” it's no love at all, my friends. It is self-serving cowardice. Be courageous enough to go if the Lord is leading you to go. Go in love, go gently, but please go. To the Elders To the elders, of whom I am one, the greatest call in all of this to me is that I need to be holy, and the greatest thing that I can give to the church in this area is my own personal holiness, that I would fight the good fight. Pray for me that I would fight the good fight, and don't just pray for me, but pray for the other elders. But to the elders here, I say to you fight that good fight, walk in holiness, in newness of life, and shepherd the flock that's entrusted to your care in this area. To Other Congregations To other congregations who may be listening to this message online, if I could just say one thing, please don't, without any kind of inquiry or without any kind of investigation, accept disciplined members from other sister churches. You do not help the cause of Christ when you do that. Ask a person who's presenting themselves for membership, “Are there any outstanding discipline cases between you and your present church?” Ask that question. And if there are, send them back to that first church to deal with it. Now there are specific issues on my mind with that, with even some local churches here, and I'm just saying that ought not to be. If You Are Ever Disciplined And finally, if you are ever disciplined, if this ever happens to you, if this church or any church should vote that you be excommunicated, I would urge you to stop everything you're doing in your life and seek God with everything you have. And keep in mind this Scripture, 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith: test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless of course, you fail the test.” Test yourself to see if you're actually in the faith, and repent quickly and come back. We want you back. Close with me in prayer.
Two Great Drives in the Universe I have learned, over the last five years especially, of the poignancy of this statement, that there are two great forces in the Universe, the drives of the Universe. The drive of God to be glorified in His creation and the drive that each human being has to be happy, to experience pleasure, to be joyful. These are things that are incontrovertible, we can't deny them, we become sick if we try to, and one of the key issues in your life is where are you going to meet your drive for pleasure? Are you going to find it in the person, in the presence, in the power of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, or are you going to find it in other things, created things. I think that's one of the key issues of your soul and mine. God created us for pleasure. He made us for that, and he created both in the soul and in the body something you could call pleasure receptors. The body has the ability to sense physical things by sight and sound and taste and smell and feel. We can experience the world around us. And in a set of those experiences, we find pleasure, sensory pleasure, and God made it that way, it's not an evil thing. The soul also has the ability to experience spiritual pleasure, and God made it that way. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. Both of those things are created by God. Look at the tongue, for example. Actually, don't look at it, but just metaphorically look at it, or shall I say, consider the tongue. Your tongue has over 10,000 taste buds and different ones are assigned with different tasks for sensing the countless flavors that God has made in this physical creation. Some of them you count pleasing to you, and some of them don't. But God created them all and He created the whole interchange between the taste and the tongue. And it's fascinating, and all of the practical advice given in the Book of Proverbs, it's amazing that He actually commands that we should eat honey. Isn't that an interesting thing? You find this in Proverbs 24:13, "Eat honey, my son, for it is good." I mean, that's a sweet command, isn't it? Now, I think we have a sense that honey in that verse represents more than just honey. And even if we don't personally have a taste for honey, we can still obey the verse, right? The Book of Proverbs gives us representational, practical wisdom, that we, through the wisdom of God, through the Holy Spirit, we can apply to different areas of life, so even if you don't like honey, you still can "Eat honey, my son, for it is good". I think it has to do with experiencing pleasure in the physical world that God has made, that you can taste and see that the world that God has made is good. And that you ought to do it. You ought to eat, you ought to taste and see that it's good. But it's not the only advice that the Book of Proverbs gives concerning honey, you actually have to read on and get the full picture. In Proverbs 25:16, it says, "If you find honey, eat just enough. Too much of it, and you will vomit." That's again very good, practical advice. And herein, we find a challenge in dealing with physical pleasure in the world. We're supposed to eat honey, apparently, because it tastes good, but we're supposed not to eat so much that we vomit, for that is clearly not good, and so this urges balance. It urges self control in the area of physical pleasure. And so as you're driving along the road in the physical world, as you have a physical experience with your physical body, you're going to find two ditches on the opposite side of the road, one on the left and one on the right. And on one side, there is asceticism, what I would call a hard asceticism, which teaches that we must deny these physical pleasures and not partake in them for they will do damage to us and that salvation consists in getting away from physical, sensory pleasure. That was the lie that the Colossian heretics were teaching to the people in that area. And Paul was specifically warning against it in this text, but on the other side is another ditch called gluttony. And I don't just mean overeating, but I just mean overindulging in physical pleasure in this world in a way that will damage your soul. Those are ditches on each side. Now, in the same way, the soul has pleasure receptors. And we have the ability to receive spiritual sensations of pleasure by spiritual truths and realities. And God made the soul that way. And frankly, I think the one is to help teach the other. "Taste and see that the Lord is good," says the Scripture. Well, we can't taste God literally, but we know that by eating things that are delicious to us, that God, in a similar way, in a spiritual way, is delicious to the soul. And so often, there's that analogy of eating or drinking with God, Jesus even said to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And so there's this sense of really partaking in the goodness and sweetness of God spiritually, and that's a good thing. This ability of the soul to experience spiritual pleasure and to delight in it is a good thing created by God. But it's got its dangers too, because not every spiritual influence is a good one, and there are some damaging, dangerous, spiritual influences. Satan is a spiritual influence, and sometimes he disguises himself like an angel of light. And people seeking for spiritual pleasure through meditation, and through self-denial, and through other things, seeking the spiritual pleasures may actually be opening themselves up to Satan's influences, as he presents himself as an angel of light and they expose themselves to great danger. This is what I would call bad mysticism. And we see both of these things in the text today. Paul is warning about both asceticism and mysticism, because he's concerned about spiritual health. And the connectings, I've meditated on these two, the connection has to do with pleasure. And the right way to experience it, and the wrong way to experience it, both physically and spiritually, that's what the text is about. And we find wisdom for all of these things in Christ. Amen? And in Christ, we will avoid the ditches. In Christ, we will avoid the danger. And there are ditches on both sides of the spiritual pleasure as well. There is the ditch of not knowing that Satan comes as an angel of light and you get into bad spiritual experiences that leads you in great danger. But on the other side, there is spiritual deadness, a deadness and dryness of soul in which you really don't expect to feel any spiritual pleasure at all, haven't felt it for years. Oh, that we might be delivered from these extremes in the Christian life. And I think it's only by the ministry of the Word of God, by the application of the word through the spirit, by heeding the warnings that the Apostle Paul gives that we will be kept safe, and we'll be able to continue to grow as a community in our sanctification. Complete in Christ Review: The Supremacy of Christ So let's look more carefully at the rest of this Colossians 2. But I want to do it, as usual, with, I think, a good sense of the context of the passages that we're looking at today, the verses we're looking at. First, in Colossians 1, by way of review, Paul goes through and goes, I think, right to the theological center of what these Colossian heretics, these false teachers were teaching in that region. We don't know for sure that they had come to the church at Colossae, but maybe Epaphras had come there and was saying they're coming, "Paul what do I do and how can I get ready?" Etcetera. And so, they were teaching that the physical world is evil, that the body itself is part of the problem spiritually. And that salvation comes from denying bodily drives, denying physical pleasures, and you do this by means of a mixture of legalism, of Jewish laws, rules and regulations, and a harsh treatment of the body. And spiritually, you are on a journey in which these spiritual emanations, these spirit guides could help you by giving you inside and specialized knowledge. And so you sought to open yourself up to these spiritual influences and Christ is one of those emanations, so they taught. Well, that's heresy, and so in order to get it, he says, "Let's focus on Jesus Christ, all heresies go wrong on Christ." So let's go right on Christ, let's find out who Christ is, and then we will find healing and that, it's healing through doctrine. And so he says now, "Who is Christ?" Well, “Christ is the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation, for by Him, all things were made, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” You see, both the physical world that we're dealing with in this text was made by Christ, so it's not evil. And the spiritual world was made by Christ and He rules over it, “he's the head over every dominion and power.” So all things are found in Christ. And then in chapter two, as he moves over into chapter two, he says, "God was pleased, God the Father, was pleased to have all of His fullness, His deity, to dwell in Jesus in bodily form,” the doctrine of the incarnation. Christ is Complete, We Are Complete in Him The “Word became flesh,” Jesus took on a human body, and “God was pleased to have all of His fullness, the infinitude of the immortal God, the invisible God made flesh, made man. And you have been given fullness in Christ.” Oh, how sweet is that truth, and we spent some wonderful time meditating on that. And so much healing comes from that, and strength comes from meditating on how complete am I in Christ, how full am I in Jesus now that I have become a Christian. Tell me how complete and how full I am, and Colossians 2 will do it. It will tell you right there that you have been given fullness in Christ. And then it unfolds in the middle of Colossians 2, saying we have been fully circumcised, spiritually. The old nature was cut away. We are new people. We are new men and women. We are new creations. “The old is gone, the new has come,” He says in 2 Corinthians 5. We are also fully alive. We're brought from death to life and we can never die. Death has no mastery over us. We will live forever and we are fully forgiven. He forgave us all our sins. He nailed them to the cross, not partially forgiven, friends, but completely forgiven. And we are fully free from the law. We're not under the law's dominion any longer. We don't have a bunch of rules and regulations that we have to keep in order to be right with God. We're free from that. And we are fully triumphant over Satan. The powers and principalities and their authority to condemn us, really, on judgment day was nailed to the cross, and it will trouble us no longer. How sweet is that? That's your fullness in Christ and from that solid ground of doctrine, from that solid ground of biblical truth, you are able to fight any heresy. But this was a unique heresy and along comes Satan's intimidating voice, saying, "It's not true, you're actually incomplete. Maybe halfway there but we need to supplement the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not enough. What Jesus did on the cross is not enough for you, you have to have more. You need philosophy. You need to have new insights coming from human wisdom and you need legalism. You need to be made right before God by your own or be kept right by your own efforts and your own law-keeping, really.” And in this text, we're going to see you need to add mysticism, the worship of angels. You know, the secret encounters with spiritual beings that will lead you to the ever-ascending realms of insight and illumination, you need that, and you need to add asceticism, you're not going to fly spiritually if you're nailed down by your body. So let's deny the bodily drives, let's eat as little as possible. Let's deny any kind of sensory things and let's focus on the spirit, that's what they taught. And it sounded right. It sounded good. It seemed to establish Christ as having died on the cross and all these things, it seemed right but it was wrong. And the essence of it is you need more than Jesus. Jesus is not enough for you. Satan’s Intimidating Voice: “You Are Incomplete!” Well, that's Satan's intimidating voice and the bullies come along with philosophy and Paul warns in verse 8, look at it, “see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition, the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ.” And then last week, we saw the intimidation of legalism. Verses 16 and 17: "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day, these are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality however is found in Christ." Remember the definition of legalism from CJ Mahaney, we looked at it last time. “Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through your obedience to God.” But I tell you that forgiveness and acceptance are freely given to you by God through Christ. They are gifts of grace. They're already yours, you can't earn them, you never could, and they're just given to you as a free gift. Okay, that was last week. The review is over. Context is over. The Intimidation of Mysticism Now, let's talk specifically about the issues that are in front of us in the text and the first is this intimidation of mysticism. Look at verses 18 and 19. “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility,” other translations there have asceticism, we'll get to that later, but “false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” “He's lost connection with the head from whom the whole body is supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow.” The Threat to the Colossian Church What was the threat to the Colossian church? What were these teachers teaching? Well, they taught a kind of a higher knowledge, spiritual, higher knowledge. The region was rife with what we would call mystery religions. And the essence of a mystery religion is that there were an enlightened few that knew all of the things and that they would guide you up through circles of knowledge and you would get to know more and more about the mystery religion, very enticing, very appealing. And for the enlightened special believer, these keys of knowledge will help you make continued progress. You're ascending higher and higher in a mystical, spiritual plane, and the angels or emanations, whatever you want to call them, are there as spirit guides to help guide you through this journey, to give you insight you wouldn't have in any other way. They would give you knowledge, special knowledge. They would help you make the journey. This sounds New Age-ish, doesn't it? “There's nothing new under the sun.” God is the creative being. Satan takes what God creates and perverts it, twists it and rearranges it. So he just pulls things out of the freezer and just heats it up, leftovers, microwaves it and serves it as though it's something new. But here, it's been all along the same idea of spirit guides and emanations and all that, the worship of angels, really, they're worshipping these emanations, these spirit beings, of whom Christ was one, so they taught. And they went into great detail about what they'd seen. They were experiencing some kinds of visions and ecstatic spiritual experiences. They went into great detail with the uninitiated, perhaps because they wanted to do them a favor and help them, but perhaps it was a form of arrogant boasting, basically saying, this is what I've experienced and now I am better than you. They might not say it directly because there's a false humility side here that we can talk about, but there was an essential arrogance and pride here to the ascended ones, the ones who had received this special spiritual knowledge. And it said that their sensuous minds, speaks to their sensuous mind, they actually were not being led by the Spirit of God, it was rather sensory experiences they were having inside their minds and they were leading them astray. These experiences were rooted in the flesh, in sensations rather than in doctrinal truth. They weren't rooted in the truth of the Gospel. They had lost connection with Christ, the head, who is the head of the body. That was their problem. Definition of Mysticism And what these folks were doing is traditionally called mysticism. You're not going to find the word mysticism in this text. And so therefore, you have to be careful by what you mean. What is mysticism? It's actually not an easy thing to define. So, when something's not easy to define, you go to the dictionary and find out what it says. And so, I went to a number of dictionaries, and the theological dictionary that I went to, the evangelical theological dictionary gave about two paragraphs saying how difficult it was to define before they started to define it. So, I figured I'd go to Webster since they didn't have as much trouble, they just gave me a definition. And it said, "The experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality." I'll read it again, "The experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality." That sounds bad, doesn't it? Scary and dangerous, New Ages, like you need to get a crystal and kind of sit in the lotus position and chant, "Ommm... " And you can be connected in a higher consciousness with ultimate reality. Well, that's Webster's. It does sound bad, but friends, not so fast, not so fast. What is the ultimate reality? Now, that's the key question. And if you are somehow connecting with ultimate reality apart from Christ, as He is revealed in Scripture, you have significant problems. It's extremely dangerous. But if you're defining the God who created heaven and earth through His Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit as ultimate reality, why wouldn't you want intimate communion with him? So, you have to define your terms here carefully. And if mysticism is a problem for you, the terminology, if it causes you to stumble, then dispense with it. But don't judge other people who haven't dispensed with the term yet. Try to find out what they mean. Just like philosophy. The word philosophy is neither good nor bad. I want to know what you're teaching and what your source of information is. There's good philosophy and there's bad philosophy, and so, there's good mysticism, if we want to retain the term, and there is bad mysticism. And I tell you that a mystical experience is at the heart of your conversion to begin with. If that's what you want to call it. For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6. That is a mystical experience, if you want to use that term, of the greatness of God in Jesus Christ. And it's so vividly applied to your soul that it's as though a light is shining where there was darkness before. And that, my friends, is an experience. It's called being born again, and it's based on doctrinal truth, that's called the Gospel. And when you hear and believe the Gospel, then this light shines in your heart. Now, during that Great Awakening in the 18th Century, a great scholar and pastor, Jonathan Edwards, had to sift through all of the religious experiences that people were having as the Holy Spirit of God was being poured out, and people were doing things that they hadn't been seen doing before. And it was threatening and scary, and it was mixed and it wasn't all good or all bad, and Edwards very carefully starts to sort through it, and defends the Awakening from different extremes, from the old lights there in Boston, staunch, conservative theological regime that saw all of it as bad, and he said, "There is deadness in the center of your theology there. These are good experiences." And he preached a sermon saying that it is reasonable for there to be an immediate direct light imparted to the soul. It's a reasonable doctrine. It's called conversion. And it can go beyond that, much beyond it, but he's defending it also against the extremists, who thought, just because you threw yourself on the ground and rolled around and jumped up and screamed "hallelujah" and all that, you were saved. "I never experienced anything like that in all my life. I must be saved." Not so fast. And so, he was careful and he sifted through it all. Now, he himself was one who had many experiences that many would call "mystical." If you don't like that term, then just say they were powerful experiences in his prayer life, in which God revealed himself to him in an incredible way. In his own conversion experience and testimony in January 12th, 1723, he said this, "I made a solemn dedication of myself to God. The sweetest joys and delights I've experienced," listen to this, "have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the Gospel." In other words, he kind of forgot himself and saw how glorious were the things of the Gospel itself. How glorious is God, how glorious is his Son Jesus Christ, how glorious that he died on the cross for our sins, how sweet and glorious it is that our sins could be transferred from us and put on our substitute, and he stricken and smitten by God for our sake. His blood shed on the cross. How glorious it is that we can find freedom in that? These truths are rich and glorious. And he said, "Just the things of the Gospel themselves in a self-forgetful way became... ", "I had a direct view of them," he said, "I have many times had a sense of the glory of the third person in the Trinity," that's the Holy Spirit, "In his office of sanctifier, in his holy operations," listen, "Communicating divine light and life to the soul." "Many times," He says, "I've had that experience, not just a conversion, many times, as an infinite fountain of divine glory like the sun in its glory, sweetly and pleasantly diffusing light and life." Oh, that's a sweet and rich experience, isn't it? Now, if you want to call that mysticism, then call it that. And maybe that some will stumble over that title, and so therefore, maybe you need to dispense with it. But you can't dispense with the experience, and you ought to be seeking it if you're not experiencing it now. Because a certain coldness and deadness may have settled down over your souls, and it's been a long time since she felt anything like that. And you've forgotten just how sweet it is to be close to God and to be richly welcomed by Him and have a sense of assurance in your soul that God loves you through Jesus. It's been a long time for you. So, forget the term then and ask what is going on here in my experience? Am I really loving Jesus? Am I really following Him? Do I really know Him? Or am I dead? Bad Mysticism’s Long History Well, mysticism, bad mysticism has a long history. Lots of attacks on the church through this. Worship of angels itself continued in the Lycos Valley, where the Colossian church was for centuries after this. It's recorded in the church fathers. They continued to struggle with worship of angels. Other forms of mysticism have always been part of pagan religions. Buddhism started when Siddhartha Gautama had some kind of a vision of something and enlightenment came to him under a tree. And so, there are actually a lot of Buddhist mystics, Hinduism, similar kinds of spiritual experiences, transcendental meditation, all that, astral projection and out of body experiences, part of that Eastern mystic religion. Islam, Muhammad said that he had visions of Gabriel who gave him the Quran, and he had that mystical experience. Mormonism is based on a vision Joseph Smith had of the Angel Moroni who gave him the golden plates from which came the Book of Mormon. And that false religious system came out of that angelic visitation. So, it plagued the church on the outside of the walls of the church. But also, what I would consider bad mysticism has plagued the church within as well and the churches had to struggle and work through these spiritual experiences and some have gone too far, much too far. Third century Gnostics, they were attacking the basic idea that the Gospel is sufficient and they were always teaching the keys of knowledge, you had to have this ascended experience and there have been many others as well, all the way down to the 17th century mystic Madame Guyon who advocated Quietism. I think it's good, as we heard in the choir piece to be quiet, calm your heart in the presence of God, but she went too far. She basically said the essence of Christianity is passivity, and you ought to just simply receive whatever is pouring into your soul and you must not fight anything, even sin. And it led them into immorality and excesses. Strange. So, we have to be very careful what we're talking about. But there's been good mysticism as well. I love reading this quote from Blaise Pascal, which I've read a few times on this pulpit, but I just love it. I love it. I want to read it again here, because I think it shows the key to good unusual experiences with God, if you want to call them mysticism. This is what he wrote. And this is what happened. Blaise Pascal was 17th Century French philosopher and mathematician who, after he died, they found sewed in his coat, a piece of paper on which these words were written. And why would you take the time to write something and sew it into your shirt or coat, except that it'd been one of the most incredible experiences of your life. And this is what he wrote. This man was a genius and he loved Christ and this is what he wrote. “This day of grace, 1654, from about half past 10 at night to about half past midnight, fire. The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the wise, security, security, feeling, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. Thy God shall be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and of all except God. He can be found only in ways taught in the Gospel.” Did you hear that? He can be found only in ways taught by the Gospel. That's the Bible. So, this man is having a deep, powerful spiritual experience based on ways taught in the scriptures. You see, same thing as Edwards. He can be found in ways only taught in the Gospel. “Greatness of the human soul, oh, righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. I have separated myself from Him. My God, why has thou forsaken me that I be not separated from thee eternally?” “This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God and Him whom thou has sent,” Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. I've separated myself from Him. I have fled, renounced, crucified Him. May I never be separated from Him. He maintains Himself in me only in ways taught in the Gospel. He says it twice. Renunciation, total and sweet. Wow, what is that? And do you get the sense he was actually writing while it was going on? And so, he knew he was still in the body, still in the physical experience, they would want to remember after it was over. He's being a historian. He was writing it down. They'll come a day we don't need to write it down. We'll just live it all the time. We'll be in the presence of God forever and ever and we'll know what he's talking about here. And you'll be able to stand it, because there's only so much of this that a body can stand. DL Moody had an experience. He said, “I couldn't mention it for years later in which God so poured Himself out of me. I had to ask Him to stop, to stay His hand, he said. I couldn't take anymore. But He was good. He was good. I just couldn't take anymore.” Mysticism’s Great Danger Well, mysticism has some dangers traditionally. Worship of angels, obviously, directly contrary to scripture. The Apostle John almost did it, you know that, in the Book of Revelation, falls down in front of the angel and starts to worship. “Don't do it. Don't do it. I'm just a servant. Get up. Worship God.” So, angels are glorious beings and Satan, knowing that, he himself being an angel, though a corrupt one, can present himself as an angel of light. There's great danger there. But learn from Blaise Pascal and say, "I can find this only in ways taught in the Bible, only in ways taught according to the scriptures." Also, danger is seeking us. A spiritual experience is apart from God's revelation in the scripture, opens us up to demonic influences, because not every supernatural experience is from God. And even good spiritual, supernatural experiences can make you arrogant, make you prideful, as though you're somehow better than the next person. And so, the Apostle Paul, he says now, "I know a man in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows." Was caught up to the third heaven,” caught up to paradise. “He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to talk about. But to keep me from becoming conceited, because of these surpassingly great revelations, it was giving me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan.” Okay? So, you could say, "Well, do I really want something like that if I also have to have the thorn in the flesh to keep me from being arrogant?" All I'm saying is, note the danger, pride, and arrogance, and boasting over your brothers and sisters in Christ. BUT the Danger of Deadness But there's also a danger, friends, of deadness, isn't there? And maybe that that's more your danger. Not that you've flown too high or you've flown apart from the scriptures, but you haven't flown at all. There's been no elevation in your spirit at all. You just go through the motions. You just go to church. You bow your heads and pray out of habit before the meal, or maybe sometimes you forget. I've done that, to my shame. I'd be halfway through this morning, I was halfway through my bowl of Wheaties and I realize I hadn't prayed yet. Lord, forgive me that I just rolled right in and forgot that this gift of a bowl of Wheaties, with all of its delicious flavor and it must be eaten quickly with very cold milk. My children will tell you I freeze the bowl ahead of time. Make the milk cold. That's weird, isn't it? I shouldn't expose myself to these private comments because you're going to come and talk to me later about them. But this is a taste treat from God and thank you, God, for it. But the deadness, friends, the deadness. When was the last time you felt moved to tears by something spiritual in the Gospel? That's a danger too. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Where is Psalm 63 in your life? "Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory, and because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live and in your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods. With singing lips, my mouth will praise you." Where is that in your life? Balance Found in Christ Well, balance is found in Christ. We have been given fullness in Christ. In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” That's where our experience is. It's so important to be submissive to the leading of the Spirit. I haven't even talked about asceticism yet, and it's almost 12:10. Next time, friends. Let me just stop. I wasn't going to do this, but let me just stop and focus on this one issue now. What's going on in your heart? What is God saying to you today? Where is Psalm 63 in your life and your experience? Are you moved frequently by the greatness of God's love for you in Christ? Do you have a sense of it, an experience of it or not? Are you just going through the motions? Daily quiet time? I have all kinds of patterns and habits, but when was the last time that the kindling and all that was ignited by fire from heaven? When did that happen to you? Could be that you're dead in your transgressions and sins. You've never come to Christ. Could be that God sovereignly brought you here today to hear the Gospel. You've already heard everything you need to know, but let me be clear about it. God sent his Son into the world to be your substitute, that your sins might be taken off of you and transferred on to him and that he might strike his only begotten Son with his wrath, with hell in a concentrated, kind of laser-like way that Jesus absorbed the wrath of God, that we might be free from it forever. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, how sweet is that? But through simple faith that exchange occurs, your sins taken off of you and the beautiful, perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to you or given to your account in which you will stand on judgement day. Has it happened to you? Is it happening now as I speak? Is there an eyesight of your soul opening up and you can see beauty in Christ where you never saw it before? Then trust in him. Call on the name of the Lord and he will save you. But you could say, "Pastor, I know I did all that. I know it. I don't doubt that, but I have to be honest, it has been years since anything spiritual moved me to tears or to shouts of joy. Doesn't always have to be tears. I feel dead, what can I do? What can I do?" I think you need to begin by getting alone with God and falling on your face and repenting of your sin. It's not an accident. It's not something that happened to you. It's because you forsook your first love, you made choices in your life to turn away from Jesus. He wasn't sweet enough for you anymore. And so, that pleasure that you were seeking, and I talked about it the beginning, you didn't find it in Jesus anymore, and so, you turned to creative things. You turned to hobbies, you turned to pleasures, perhaps, you even turned to sin, to lust, and you filled your pleasure tank with things, and guess what? It's leaving you empty, it's leaving you dead. And the time has come for you to turn and to repent, and say, "Lord, bring me back, warm me up." He will welcome you back. He will welcome you back richly, if you'll simply take the time to acknowledge how distant you've become from him, and stay there until He moves inside you. Isn't it worth the time? Or you can listen to what I've said and just move on, and the deadness will get even worse, if you can imagine that, and it'll get even harder for you to hear the voice of God. But I consider better things for you. I think God providentially brought you here today, if you're a Christian, to ignite your soul in Him again. Let him do it. Close with me in prayer.
Introduction Well, I remember when I was growing up. I used to love to watch on Saturday afternoons Wide World of Sports, because they had all different kind of weird sports and different things, not the regular ones you watch, but they had different ones. And one time they had this Chinese juggling troupe that did the most incredible things with their bodies that I'd ever seen, like making inverted pyramids on the stage and all kinds of stuff of strength and flexibility. But there's one guy in particular I remembered and just being amazed, and it was the plate spinner. This man had the ability to take a flexible rod and spin a plate up on the rod and it would just balance there. And then he would pick up the next rod and spin the next plate and the next one and the next one. Five, six, seven, eight plates spinning. By the time he got to 10, plates number one and two we're starting to wobble. And so you're kind of freaking out a little bit as you watch this whole thing and you're urging, as though he could hear you, that somehow he could spin this plate a little faster. But he knew what he was doing. 12, 14 plates, 16, 18, 20, and he seemed to know which ones needed help without even looking. It'd behind him and he was setting up a new plate and he'd turn and give it a little spin and then do some other things. It was incredible. It was just amazing. Now, CJ Mahaney had a similar experience on the Ed Sullivan Show. He watched a plate spinner doing that. I bet you're wondering what that picture had to do with Colossians 2. I'm trying to explain that. Here is a plate spinner who's got two phones, one he's talking on and something else going on and there's this franticness to life. Now, this sermon is not about the busyness of modern life and how we need to slow down and smell the roses. That's not what it's about. This sermon is about the lethal danger of legalism. And CJ Mahaney likens the legalistic lifestyle of the Christian to the plate spinner. What happens is you hear some good themes from the Bible, some things that we ought to be doing with our Christian lives and in effect at that moment you can set up a plate and start it spinning. And then another plate gets spinning as well. And this whole concoction in your mind sets up a paradigm that's very dangerous concerning your relationship with God. The more plates I have spinning and keep spinning, the more God is pleased with me, the more fruitful my life is, the more pleasing I am to Him. If I should let any of those plates fall and crash to the ground, there may be serious doubt as to whether I'm a Christian at all. And that's the legalistic mentality that I think Paul is fighting against in Colossians 2. You know how it is, the themes, a daily quiet time, prayer life, intercessory prayer for others, concern for evangelism, concern for cross-cultural missions, unreached people groups, financial faithfulness, stewardship, the tithes and offerings, faithful attendance at church, using your spiritual gifts to minister to others. All of these themes, ministry to the poor and the needy, concern for them. And more and more and more. I struggled with this this Summer on my sabbatical as I was looking carefully at the Christian life and all the elements that are involved in what it is to be a faithful, sanctified, mature Christian. And it's so easy to get under the pile, and for a subtle or perhaps not even so subtle shift to happen in how I see myself before God. That I've got to keep these plates going or else God will not be pleased with me and if enough of them fall to the ground I may not actually have been saved at all. This is an incredible bondage. And Paul here in Colossians 2, as he does in Galatians and in Romans and other places, seeks to liberate us from this bondage of legalism. That we would be free from it, that we would serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. That we would see ourselves as adopted sons and daughters of the living God and not as slaves on a plantation. "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free," Galatians 5. "Stand firm then and do not let yourself be yoked again with a bondage of servitude," Galatians 5. And I think that's exactly what Paul was seeking to do. Now, let's get a little context here. Colossians 1 has established beautifully the supremacy of Christ over all things. The Colossian heresy that Paul is writing to combat, denied the supremacy of Christ, He was a created being, a spirit emanation in the world, and that God, being pure spirit, really didn't desire or want a physical universe to be created, for physical matter is evil and wicked and salvation is to somehow get away from the physical lifestyle into a purely spiritual relationship with the true Spirit God that there was. Christ being an emanation, a created being like other spiritual emanations, can help us through specialized knowledge and through a special religious pattern to be liberated from the physical life and brought into Heaven in that way. It's a heresy. Complete in Christ Review: The Supremacy of Christ And in order to combat it, the Apostle Paul focuses first and foremost on the deity of Christ, on the perfection of Christ, the supremacy of Christ over all things. Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation for by Him all things were created. Things in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together and He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the firstborn from among the dead and by His blood which He shed He reconciled all things to the Father, so that Christ would have supremacy in all things." This is the greatness of Christ, the supremacy of Christ. Christ is Complete, We are Complete in Him And then in chapter 2 he's arguing that, "Christ is complete and therefore we are complete in Him." We don't lack anything. We are fully circumcised spiritually. We are fully alive in Christ. We were dead, but now we're fully alive. We are fully forgiven. He forgave us all our sins, not half of them or three quarters or 99%. He forgave all our sins. We are fully free from the law and we're going to focus on that today. Fully free from the law and we are fully triumphant over Satan and his accusations, specifically his ability to use the written code to accuse us of sin. We are fully free, triumphant because of the cross of Christ. So we're fully complete in Him, but along comes Satan, the intimidating bully that I mentioned last time, and what a bully he is, and through false teachers, through false teaching, he seeks to intimidate us and to tell us we are not complete. Oh, there's something missing. Yes, Christ is good. Yes, Christ is beneficial and helpful, but He is insufficient. I can scarcely say the words. How could the infinite God dying on the cross for us be insufficient for anything? We are full in Christ. But that's what the false teachers were saying. You needed something more. You needed human philosophy. You needed human obedience to the laws of Moses, Jewish legalism. You needed mysticism, some worship of angels and mystical experiences and you needed asceticism. These things will help complete the beginnings of the work of Christ in your life. If you don't have them, then you're really not saved. You're inadequate. You are insufficient. Satan bullying us, trying to show us that we are incomplete. The Intimidation of Philosophy Philosophy Defined Now, last week, we looked at the intimidation of philosophy. Remember what we said in verse 8? "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." We took time to define philosophy. The word literally means love of wisdom. But generally the way we use it, it's just the human attempt to make sense of the world we live in, to answer life's deepest questions, ultimate questions of meaning. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What happens after death? What is right? What is wrong? And why should I do the right and avoid the wrong? These questions are the purview of philosophy. There's nothing wrong with answering these questions. The problem, though, is the kind of philosophy that Paul was refuting. Hollow and deceptive philosophy which is based on human traditions and not on Christ. This is simply human philosophy that is not based on Christ. Christless, man-centered philosophy. Now, that is an enemy of the Gospel and he says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through it." Don't become a slave to that. Philosophy has a long and assorted history which we talked about last time. I won't go into it this time, but there's been literally millennia of the attacks of philosophy on the Gospel and on the church. The great danger of philosophy is that it starts with man, with man's knowledge, man's perspectives, man's issues and it does not go to the Word of God for its answers, but through our own abilities, it reasons out. But philosophy is defeated in Christ. Christ has become for us the wisdom of God, though He looks foolish. Jewish carpenter, bloody, dead on the cross. Where is the wisdom in that? But it is pure wisdom from God and all of the right answers to those questions, they flow from the cross of Jesus Christ. All of them do. He is our philosophy, Christ. But then He takes on the second bully. The Intimidation of Legalism And that bully is the bully of legalism and we're going to spend all our time on it today; I shifted the message a bit. I was going to do legalism, asceticism and mysticism in one Sunday and the folly of that became clear to me the more I looked at it. Can't do it. And so, instead, we're going to look at this issue of legalism. And the issue of legalism is a yoke of bondage, the law of Moses, the rules and regulations, circumcision becomes a portal, a doorway into a whole way of thinking about your relationship with God. A whole way of seeing yourself before the holy God. A way of anticipating how it's going to go for you on Judgment Day, legalism. And it's intimidating, it really is, because along with legalism comes the thought police, the religious police that come and tell you how to observe a Sabbath day, for example. They'll tell you what you're doing wrong, and there's danger to the church here. Look what it says in verses 16 and 17. "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon, a celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ." Legalism Defined What is legalism? How do we understand it? Well, I love CJ Mahaney's definition of legalism in his wonderful book, the Cross-Centered Life. By the way, that is a great book. I've already alluded to it this morning. It's great for a number of reasons, mostly because it's great to be centered on the cross of Jesus Christ. It's also great to be able to finish a book. So, 82 pages, small, big print, you can get through this, you can do it and what a good feeling to read that final page. If you're kind of a starter and not a finisher, it puts it in succinct language, but he does an excellent job. Maybe one of the best things he does in the whole book is defining legalism. He gives us that image of the plate spinning, but then he gives us a good definition. "Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God." That is one of the best. It's just so clear. Let me read it again. CJ Mahaney: "Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God." It's really any attempt to rely on self effort either to attain or maintain our justification before God through self effort. Either to get it at the beginning or to keep it going once you have it. And it's a subtle change that comes over the brain and you start thinking, "I got it and it's been so good but I have to hold onto it now. I have to hold onto it to make progress. I've got to hold on to Jesus." And Paul, writing in the Book of Galatians, he says, "After beginning with the Spirit are you now completed through the flesh?" After you started by the power of the spirit through simple faith in Christ, are you going to finish your journey through your own efforts? It's so pernicious, so dangerous. John Piper advances the definition a little bit and I think his distinctions are helpful too. He speaks of two different kinds of legalism in the Christian life. One is individual, personal legalism that infects the brain of an individual Christian and hinders their ability to see their relationship with their Father properly. And the second is a more of a community legalism that comes over a group in which man-made rules are brought in to discern who should be a member of that group and if they're in good standing. The first individual, Piper writes this, "First, legalism means treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God's favor," those are key elements. "A law kept by your own power to earn God's favor." That's legalism. In other words, legalism will be present wherever a person is trying to be ethical, to be good in their own strength, that is without relying on the merciful help of God in Christ. Simply put, moral behavior that is not from faith in Christ is legalism. Anything that does not come from faith is sin. Here we're labeling this kind of effort as legalism. That's individual. Then there's that community or corporate legalism. Piper said the second meaning of legalism is this, "The erecting of specific requirements of conduct beyond the teaching of scripture and making adherence to them the means by which a person is qualified for full participation in the local family of God, the church." This is where an unbiblical exclusivism arises. In other words, the community agrees that this is what we're going to do and be, and you are not a Christian, frankly, if you don't keep these standards and the standards that are erected aren't coming from scripture. But they're man-made. So those are two different kinds of legalism, both of them deadly in the life of the church and the individual Christian. It crushes the joy of the Christian life, crushes it. As a matter of fact, Paul uses joy like I talked about a few weeks ago, as the canary in the coal mine. He is looking at joy and saying it's a fragile thing and when joy goes, one of the things that can kill it is legalism. "What has happened to all your joy?", he says in Galatians, "Where did it go? Don't you remember how it used to be? How sweet it was to know that He forgave us all our sins? To feel like a child of God, adopted and safe and secure." It crushes joy and it leads to a constant effort to earn God's favor. Over and over and what a yoke of bondage that is, how crushing it is. You know the story of Martin Luther, how he tried to earn his forgiveness through Roman Catholic legalism during the Middle Ages, at the end of the Middle Ages. For him, it was a matter of being a monk and fasting, and praying and spending long nights on the floor and all of these things, and thinking that by obeying to the nth degree all of God's laws, he could do enough to cover his sins and not spend eternity in Hell or hundreds of thousands of years in purgatory. That's legalism and it was awful for him. It was awful because you know why? There's never any enough. There is never any enough. What's enough for the eternal, infinite God, perfectly holy? What's enough for him? And so, as he confessed sin after sin to Staupitz, his father confessor, and just kept coming back to confess more. Sacramental system, you had to confess your sins, or if you died with unconfessed sin that was X number of years in purgatory. It was a terrible bondage for him. And he kept going back. "Oh, I forgot something." The man couldn't get any work done, Staupitz, and he's like, "Look, go do something real and come back and tell me about it." It was just inclinations and issues of the heart. And he said, "You're making it too complicated. You just need to love God." He said, "Love God? I hate Him!" Well, that's blasphemy. There's no doubt about that. But that's what it leads to. It kills joy in the Christian life. It makes you insecure, and you can begin well, understanding the Gospel, but soon you're oozing over into this whole way of living. Think about the story of Anne of Green Gables. And Anne Shirley, she was an orphan girl who was taken into a family on probation. How would you like that? "We'll decide whether we'll adopt you or not by how you behave." That's tough. It's not right. It creates a works relationship that is not like a parent-child relationship. Brothers and sisters, we have been adopted. It's done. We are in the family. "A slave has no permanent place in the family," Jesus said, "But a son lives there forever and if the son makes you free, you'll be truly free. Free from the bondage of sin." And Jesus has that kind of power to free us from sin and to bring us as full members into the family of God, sons and daughters of the living God. Now, that's the joy out of which I want to serve God. I don't want to be wondering whether I'm on good standing with Him, and maybe if I do a few more good things I'm in better standing. That is legalism. It is bondage. Legalism’s Long Sordid History Now, legalism has a long and sordid history. It's been around forever, from the Old Testament right on through the New Testament. The Judaizers, the Pharisees, that some of them perhaps became Christians or at least outwardly professed to be Christians, they dogged Paul’s steps on this. They were sent to spy out freedom of the Gentiles, trying to make them obey a bunch of rules and regulations. And finally, they were openly teaching false doctrine. In Acts 15:1 it says, "Some brothers came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." Well, that's a wonderful example of legalism. You have to have Christ plus circumcision. Christ's accomplishment on the cross is not enough. And circumcision, I told you, is a doorway into a whole way of living. A whole way of living before God. It has to do with dietary regulations. What you eat, and what you drink, and religious festivals, and how you dealt with the Sabbath, and all the things he mentions here in Colossians 2. Well, the Apostle Peter stands up at that council, just gives a stirring speech, beautiful speech on this. He said, "Brothers, you know that some time ago, God made a choice among the Gentiles, that God, that they would hear, the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the Gospel and believe, hear, and believe, and be saved, that's all. God who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them for He purified the hearts by faith. Our hearts are purified by faith," and so it continues. "He made no distinction between us and them," said Peter, "For He purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke, that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are." Why would you want to be slaves on that plantation again? Earning God's favor by doing His laws, keeping His laws, bondage, and the council rightly decided against it. Paul wrote the whole Book of Galatians to combat this error as they were teaching the same thing there to the Gentiles. And he says this, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law rather, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘the man who does these things will live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hung on a tree.'" So there it is, that's bondage. He's saying Christ has freed us from that. He became a curse for us. We're serving in a new way now, of the Spirit, and not the old way of the written code. Well, it wasn't just during biblical times, but after that, in the Roman Catholic era and in the Middle Ages, little by little, more and more laws, and man-made regulations, and canon law, and traditions started coming on one after the other, and you had to do all these things in order to be saved. They would teach outside the church, there's no salvation, and then they would define what it meant to be in or outside the church. And it meant the sacramental system, it meant having your infants baptized, and then the sacraments all the way through, including confession and taking the communion and all of those things. It was legalism. And after Luther's insight concerning justification by faith alone, that we are made righteous in God's sight by simple faith. You just look to Jesus. You just trust that He is the Son of God, and He shed His blood on the cross. You just look to Christ and you'll be forgiven. Luther discovered that that is the Gospel. It could be that that's why God brought you here today to hear that simple message. How can I stand before a Holy God on Judgment Day and be forgiven? The answer is not through legalism. It's not through good works. It's through simple faith in Christ. That's the discovery of the Gospel, rediscovery. And Luther found it and the other reformers, the Catholic Church rejected it. And at the Council of Trent they re-established this statement, "Justification: If anyone says that we are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, let him be anathema, let him be accursed." So, there you go, right back into legalism again. It's there all the time. But you know, it's not just the Protestants, I mean, the Catholics, the Protestants have had it as well. Baptists have it. There are some groups, Anabaptistic groups, that became schismatic and broke off, and they were free church movements under no authority of the state or any other group. And they practiced extreme separation from the world. And they were very concerned about worldliness. And they made up rules and regulations about what worldliness was. And a fight against worldliness is one of the most subtle in the life of a church. It is a real threat. But you don't fight it by setting up rules and regulations. And so, groups like the Amish and others, they define worldliness in terms of buttons, and use of modern equipment, technology, and other things like that, these rules are not found anywhere in the Bible. We are four or five steps removed from any passage of scripture. But if you are not involved, if you don't assent to it and you act differently, you are shunned, disciplined from that group, you're not part of the group. That's the second definition of legalism that Piper gave us. It's a community coming up with man-made rules and regulations by which they discern who's in and who's out. And other baptistic groups have done that as well. We were trying to do ministry in Haiti, and there was a group that wouldn't formally do any ministry with us, because we were part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and we do not practice enough separation from the world for their group. So, we are the liberals in their eyes and we are the ones not strict enough, etcetera. To other people, we're exactly the opposite. Isn't it interesting on that? And that's the whole thing. Legalism’s Great Danger When you're setting up your life in front of a bunch of human judges, you're always going to find people to your right and people to your left. I would say, if there's no one to your right or no one to your left, you're probably not a Christian. You are the extremist of all the extremists, either in legalism or license, but you're always going to be able to find somebody who can judge you. And so, Paul says very, very plainly here, "Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or by religious festivals, new moon festivals or even what you do on a Sabbath day. It's freedom. Don't let anyone judge you." Now, what does he mean by that? Well, legalism leads you to look away from the cross. You're looking first inwardly to yourself, right? You try to save yourself. You're given a bunch of rules and regulations. You're looking inwardly to yourself and either, friends, you're doing well or you're doing poorly. If you look inwardly and you're doing well, you are going to become arrogant and insufferable and pretty soon you will be one of the judges. You'll be probably appointed by the church to be one of the Sabbath judges or whatever, because you're looking inward and doing well. You will become arrogant. You've lost the sense of grace. If you look inward with the law and you do not find that you do well, you will despair. You'll become discouraged. You will fall away from any efforts to continue growing in the Christian life, because you think it's too hard. That's the danger, is looking inward. The next thing you do is you start looking at other people to try to see how you're doing, and that's very dangerous. Don't let anyone judge you. Now, it's interesting a command. I really can't obey it and literally. How can I stop you from judging me? “Don't let anyone judge you.” You're judging me now, stop it. I wasn't, I really wasn't. Yes you are. I really don't know how you literally obey it, but I think what Paul is saying is, at least this much, don't take their judgmentalism to heart and don't let their judgmentalism take root in the church. So individually, you are not standing or falling before them. They are not your judge, and don't let their rules and regulations take over the life of the church. I think that's what he means, when he says, "Don't let anyone judge you." Legalism Defeated in Christ Legalism is defeated in Christ. It says in Verse 17, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come.” The reality, however, is found in Christ. Christ's blood shed on the cross is the only way to wash away our sins. Christ's righteousness imputed to us by simple faith is the only thing that's going to survive the scrutiny of Judgment Day, perfect righteousness. Ceremonial laws like the sacrificial system, the eating laws, temple worship, annual pilgrimage and I believe the Sabbath were meant to point us to Christ. They were the shadow. The reality is Christ. The Difficult Case of the Sabbath Now, I want to take a few minutes and talk about the difficult case of the Sabbath, alright? This is a challenging issue, very challenging. Paul is talking here about what you eat or drink. We know that Jesus declared all foods clean. I don't know many people that struggle with this, with the issue of meat sacrifice to idols and all that. Some struggle with the issue of drinking, and I'm not going to address that today. There's plenty of things to be said about that, many things, and I don't want to do a half-hearted job on it, so we have to do it more thoroughly another time. But here he's saying at least don't let anyone judge you based on these things, or on what you do on a Sabbath day. Now, you've heard the story of Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire, years ago, that movie came out. He was a Scottish missionary, his parents were missionaries in China and he eventually became one. Served to great effect in China and died of a tumor toward the end of World War II. Just a great man of God. He also happened to be a great runner, in 1920 he won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris in the 400 meters. Now, usually he was a sprinter, but he had to change, because it turned out that some of the heats for the sprints were on Sunday and it was against his Scottish Presbyterian convictions to run on the Lord's Day. He based it on the 10 Commandments and many people who are Sabbatarians, strict Sabbatarians, will say, "Look at you folks, what you're saying is in effect you believe in all nine of the 10 Commandments." We don't have to do that one, okay, but the other nine are still good. And they will point to Genesis 1 and 2, the creation ordinance. God created the universe in six days and He rested on the seventh and He set the seventh day aside and made it holy and sacred. And they will even point to the language of the 10 Commandments, the fourth of the 10 Commandments. This is what it literally says. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, your manservant or maidservant, your animals nor the alien within your gates, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day and therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." That's what the Commandment says. Now, the ultimate legalism on Sabbatarianism is coming from the Seventh Day Adventists, who in a pure form say this, that the Lord's day worship that we're doing today is the Mark of the Beast, that if you worship on the first day of the week and not on the seventh day of the week, you have received the mark of the beast. Well, I don't know if you've read the Book of Revelation, but the Mark of Beast leads straight to hell and there's no escape. There is no rest, day or night. The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for any who receives the Mark of the Beast. Well, that's a very good example of legalism. If we don't agree with them about the seventh day Sabbath, then we are going to Hell. That's what they teach. The question is, is this commandment still binding on the conscience of Christians today and what should we do about it? Well, there's different ways to look at it. Legalism has one extreme, license says the other. Legalism is you got to keep it, got to keep it, got to keep it, and you've got Sabbath police and we'll have to start a new committee here in this church to judge what you do on the Lord's day, etcetera. That's legalism, okay? License is, this matter doesn't mean anything. We're totally free. We could worship on Tuesday if we wanted. We could worship every other week. We could do all kinds of things. We're just totally free in the matter. It has no impact on my life whatsoever. There's nothing here for me at all. That's license in this matter. And then in the middle there's another error, and that is the Malachi 1:13 error, in which you do what you think is right but you sniff at it and say, "What a burden," and you grumble under it the whole time. That's an error too. How shall we come at this issue of the Sabbath? Well, first of all, let's understand the Sabbath is clearly called a shadow here in Colossians 2. The reality is what? The reality is Christ. Hebrews 4 is the extended treatise on that issue of reality and shadow. And it says, "If you have come to faith in Christ you have entered your Sabbath rest. You have ceased from your work just as God has ceased from His." And that's an incredible thing. That's Hebrews 4:3. "Now we who have believed enter our rest." So, when you come to faith in Christ, the Sabbath, friends, for you is fulfilled. And therefore, we are free from careful restrictions concerning what we do on a Sabbath day. Now, is the Sabbath a perpetual regulation? Well, I don't think that we can understand it that way. I think the Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic Covenant. There's no clear example in the Old Testament of anyone observing the Sabbath before Mount Sinai. We know that it's recorded that on the seventh day the Lord rested in Genesis 1 and 2. And I know it's an argument from silence. But I think it's significant that it is openly and clearly called in Exodus 31, "It is a sign of the covenant I am making with you today." And so, therefore, it is a sign of the Mosaic Covenant. We are not saved in the Mosaic Covenant and, therefore, the sign is not binding on us today. Christian practice almost universally has been to move from the seventh day to the first. The scriptural basis for this is this is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead. And Jesus showed Himself on the first day of the week to His disciples. The first Sunday evening service, friends, was when Jesus showed Himself that evening to His disciples. So you don't want to miss home fellowship, friends. You want to be involved in whatever the church is doing on Sunday evening. Some of the best things happen Sunday evenings. And Thomas missed it, to his great regret, but the Lord did show Himself on the first day of the next week. And so, you see a regular pattern there. First day of the week. First day of the week. Friends, I think there's a theological principle here. The seventh day Sabbath looks backward at physical creation, for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. The first day observance looks ahead to the new creation. And Jesus' resurrection body is the first new creation stuff there is in the universe. It will never die. It will never perish, spoil or fade. All the other stuff is obsolete. It's aging. It's going away. So, we are forward-looking by worshipping on the first day of the week. So, what? Well, I want to ask a strict Sabbatarian a key question. If I do not agree with you, what does that mean for me? They must answer that question. I respect Truett Cathy who won't open a Chick-fil-A on Sunday. I respect it. I just want to know what the reasoning is. And some of it could be delightfully wonderful and spirit-led and some of it could be terribly legalistic. I just want to know the motive, the reason. And if their answer is, "It's the Mark of the Beast and if you don't do it our way you go to Hell," I think that's pure legalism right there. If the answer is, "This is what we have chosen do with our time so that we can give ourselves to holy endeavors, to reading the Word of God, that just takes time, and if I'm going to watch a football game or if I'm going to go to Golden Corral, Heaven forbid... Well, I'm sorry, other restaurant, wonderful restaurant... " Is this being taped? I always forget that. But if I go to this place or that place and you're thinking, "Is this wrong, I'm making somebody work on the Sabbath, or on the Lord's day, I'm sinning, I'm making them sin and there's a whole bondage there," I need to know about that. Romans 14 deals with this in the matter of freedom. It says, “one man considers one day more sacred than the rest and another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” At the end of that same chapter, Romans 14:23, it says, "Everything that does not come from faith is sin." So practically, I want to ask you this. How do you spend your Sunday and why? Why? We need a practical day we get together. We can't have a rotating schedule. You guys would be and so would I be hopelessly confused. You'd definitely have to look on the website to find out what day of the week and time we're meeting. I think it's best to set a time, don't you? And to follow the pattern of the resurrection of Christ, let's do it on the first day of the week. If we don't, are we going to Hell? No. That's done. That was nailed to the cross. That whole way of thinking is gone. But there are practical sides here. We need to have a time when we can assemble ourselves together and worship together and it's the first day of the week. The Sabbath was set up, also Jesus said, for us. Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for us. Well, in what sense? We can't go on endlessly working, friends. I was reading Bill Gates. He said he doesn't have time for church on Sunday. I don't know what he works on, I wouldn't say 24/7, but lots of hours on Microsoft things. It's what he does. We can't do that endlessly. You're going to break down. You need some time to get away and to be refreshed spiritually, and that's what the day is for. Call the Sabbath a Delight Furthermore, I do have questions. If somebody is working 24/7, isn't there a danger that there's some idolatry, some covetousness that's come in there? That's what's motivating them, and that is dangerous. If there's an idol in the heart, if there's covetousness in the heart, it may be that Christ isn't there, but not because they're not following the rules, it's because there's covetousness in their heart. And Christ drives that away. Who is the Lord of your heart? And practically speaking, don't you need time to read the Bible? Don't you need time to be with your family to have family worship? These things take time. We have bodies. We can't deny it. So we need to rest, we need to be recuperating ourselves, we need to be refreshed, and this is a good way to do it. And so, what could you do? Well, I would urge you, like in the language of Isaiah 58, "Call the Sabbath a delight." Call it a delight, not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be, quoting from another place. 1 Peter 5, talking about elders. “Not because you must, but because you want to.” And so the question, the practical questions, you start to answer in that way, "Can I watch the Super Bowl on a Sunday? Super Bowl Sunday, can I?" I don't want to say yes or no. I want to say, "Can you watch by faith?" If you can watch the Super Bowl by faith then do it. Frankly, I think you could sin by not running on the Sabbath, on the Lord's day, etcetera, in that you're not understanding the cross rightly, and somebody else could be feeling God's pleasure and glorifying Him by running on a Sunday. I want to know what's going on in the person's heart and I never really can. But you can know better than anyone else what's going on in your own heart. Why would you choose to watch the Super Bowl instead of doing X, Y, and Z? That's all. You have to answer that. You be convinced in your own mind. And then some other practical things can come in to help you. Like some suggest that people do their cooking on Saturdays, not because you must, but because you're willing. And not every week. Some Sundays you can cook. But just try it sometimes. Try getting all your meals ready, all your clothes ready, everything ready, and then just resting on the Lord's day. But not just having a nap. There's nothing wrong with a nap, friends. Nothing wrong with a nap. We need to sleep, okay? There's nothing wrong with that. But instead of doing that, why don't you go pursue the Lord? Psalm 73, "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And Earth has nothing I desire besides you." Use it as a time to renew your love relationship with Christ. Pick your favorite Psalms, a good Christian book, gather your family together if you have one, if you're married and you have children, focus on Christ. But again, not because you must, but because you're willing. Because you want to get closer to Christ. So you're saying, "Pastor, I'm confused." Well, come talk to me afterwards. We're almost done with our time here. I can't go through all the case studies. I say this, we are freed forever from the legalistic requirement to keep the Sabbath. We will not go to Hell based on what we do or don't do with the Sabbath day. And we are not going to set up Sabbath requirements in this church that if you don't meet those requirements you are not a member in full standing or could be disciplined from this group. Instead, what I'm going to do is do something even harder, I'm going to challenge you to say, "What's going on in your heart?" Are you loving Jesus with every thought in your heart, every moment of the day? Are you doing the best things? Are you choosing the excellent things? And if part of that is enjoying watching a football game or playing Ultimate Frisbee or doing something like that, I'm not going to judge you, it's not my place. I don't want to to be on the other side of Colossians 2:16, doing the judging. I'm not going to not do that. But instead, I want to challenge all of us to call the Sabbath a delight, because if you look at that Verse, in the end, it's Isaiah 58:13 and 14, read it later. It says, "Then you will find your joy in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." Close with me in prayer.
Romans in Church History Some time ago, I received a tape, which I really enjoyed, from John MacArthur’s ministry called "Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation." And he took the hearers through 22 chapters of Revelation in one hour. You're going to get a jet tour of the Book of Romans today. And I don't know how in the world I'm going to do it, but I've asked God for help and grace. The thing that's amazing is the Book of Romans is itself a synopsis of Paul's doctrine; that synopsis has unfolded now into this, the 120th sermon that I've preached on Romans. Far more could have been preached, have been preached in church history on Romans. It's rich, and now we're taking a synopsis and folding it back down into one sermon. But there's incredible value for all of us that our hearts would be kindled a fresh in the cross of Jesus Christ, that we would see the lavish promises that are ours in Christ, that we would be filled with joy and thankfulness at what God has done, that we would look again into the mirror of God's word and find out what we really were apart from Christ, just how bad it was. And having been reminded, we're not left to languish in there in despair, but rather are lifted up to the very heights, into the very presence of God by His promises and by His provision in Christ. That's what's in front of us today. Augustine and Romans John McArthur said that Romans has the ability to strip you bare and then clothe you in the finest robe. And so it's a very powerful book. Throughout Church history, this book, this letter, has transformed more lives than any other piece of writing in history. You think about Augustine who 16 centuries ago came to Carthage and to North Africa, burning with lust, struggling with sin, sexual sin, a conscience raging against him, afraid to die and go to hell, unable to free himself from it, threw himself down under a fig tree desperately crying out to God for something, hearing a children's rhyme, a bunch of children playing, and they're singing, "Tolle lege, Tolle lege." Take up and read, take up and read. And there was a copy of the book of Romans right near him, and it was open to Romans 13 where it says, "Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh." And at that moment, he understood that the very thing that God was commanding him, he was willing to give Him freely, namely righteousness, and at that moment, he was saved simply from reading a couple of verses in Romans 13. Luther and Romans Twelve centuries later, another desperate man a German monk named Martin Luther was trying to calm his terror of hell, a terror that had been kindled in him very powerfully by a lightning storm, and he threw himself down in the mud and bargained with God saying, "I'll become a monk if you just won't kill me." And that whole bargaining system of medieval Catholicism brought him no peace. He tried through monkery, through being the greatest monk in history, to calm his raging conscience, but he couldn't do it. A pilgrimage to Rome only made it worse. Going up the Holy Staircase on his knees and praying a paternoster on every stair, it did not calm his fears. What freed Martin Luther? A single verse from the Book of Romans, Romans 1-17: "For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed that is from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous or the just will live by faith." And he said, "When I read that, then the doors of paradise were flung open and at last I realized this righteousness of God is not that righteousness by which God sends us to hell, but he's talking here in context about a power of God for salvation, about living, about life itself. And it was just a gift." And he realized at last, God was willing to justify him by faith alone apart from works of the law. Wesley and Romans A couple of centuries later, a man named John Wesley, again a raging conscience, no piece before God, no sense of His salvation, been in a near shipwreck with a bunch of Moravians. They were at peace, ready to die, could take it either way, like Paul in Philippians 1. Wesley wasn't ready to die. And He went unwillingly, he said, to a meeting at Aldersgate Street, and May 24th, 1738, and he says at about a quarter to nine he heard someone reading from Luther's preface to the Book of Romans; hearing about the changes that God works in the heart through simple faith in Christ. And he said, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for my salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." He marked his salvation from that point forward. An anonymous poem captures the spirit and the message of the Book of Romans. This is what the poem says, "Along in dark the stairs I trod with trembling feet to find my God, gaining a foothold bit-by-bit, then slipping back and losing it. Never progressing, striving still with weakening grasp and faltering will, bleeding to climb to God while He serenely smiled not noting me. Then came a certain time when I loosened my hold and fell there by down to the lowest step my fall as if I had not climbed it all. Now when I lay despairing there, listen, a footfall on the stair. On that same stair where I, afraid, faltered and fell and lay dismayed, and low when hope had ceased to be, My God came down the stair to me." That's the Book of Romans. It's God bringing us a righteousness and giving it to us as a gift, which we could never have earned through our own labors of climbing the staircase to Heaven. I. The Message of Romans: God’s Gift of Righteousness by the Gospel The message of Romans is summed up in verses 16-17 of Chapter 1, and by the way, I urge you to follow along in Romans as we go through, see these words on the page. This will not be the last time you look at Romans. Maybe the last time I preach it from this pulpit, but it will not be the last time you read it, so let your eyes look at the words. Verses 16-17: "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith." The Primary Problem of the Human Race The primary problem of the human race is summed up in one statement, in Job 25 Verse 4: "How then can a man be righteous before God?" How can a man be righteous before God? Linked with that is an earlier verse in Job, "If a man dies will he live again?" That's what's facing us: Our unrighteousness and the death penalty that comes as a result; that's the problem for us. The Primary Problem of Almighty God As I read Romans, the primary problem for God was this: How could he be both just and the one who justifies wicked sinners and lets people like us into Heaven; that was the problem for God. If God allows sinful man into Heaven, what will that say about His perfect righteousness? What will it say about the laws that he gave and we flouted? Will he then be a just judge, or would he not rather be an unjust and weak judge? How is He going to let David into Heaven, that murder and adultery whose hands are stained with Uriah's blood? How is He going to let him into Heaven? What about the thief on the cross? How is Jesus going to pay for the statement, "Today you'll be with me in paradise"? What has that man done? He was an insurrectionist, a murder and a robber. What has He done? "Today you'll be with me in paradise." How can God be both just and the justifier of sinners like us? The Theme of Romans: Sinners Made Righteous by God That is the theme of Romans; it is sinners like you and me made righteous before the holy eyes of God. The Gospel is power, real power from God. Power to change a person's eternal destiny from hell to Heaven, power to change a person's heart from sin-loving and God-hating to sin-hating and God-loving. Power to change a person's body from a corrupted mass of decaying flesh to a resurrected body of eternal perfection. Power to even change our universe, which groans under the effect of our sin until it's liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into an eternal perfection that we can't even describe. That's the power of these words. The words of Romans, the words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just words. But they're not just words; they're God's words. He's speaking to us today. He's speaking to you today. He's spoken for 20 centuries through this book. He's speaking to you today. He's already spoken to me today, and He's telling us that we are righteous simply by faith in Christ. That's the message of Romans. But that's not all Roman says. Actually, Romans gets quite specific. It starts to talk to us about righteousness, and I want to follow that idea of righteousness right through the book. I want to start by talking about our own righteousness. It's rejected entirely. We have none. And that's the message of Romans 1-3. Then I want to talk about God's righteousness imputed or credited to our account simply by faith. That's Romans 3, 4 and 5. And then I want to talk about a righteousness that's actually imparted to us through sanctification by the power of the Spirit, worked out day-by-day, Romans 6, 7, and 8. Then I want to talk about how God's righteousness is vindicated in the case of the Jews who are almost universally rejecting the Gospel, how that does not impugn his righteousness. It does not make him a promise breaker. But rather His word is still upheld, so we have to see God's righteousness vindicated concerning the Jews; Romans 9-11. And then we're going to see God's righteousness applied to various aspects of daily life, Romans 12-16. That's the theme of Romans. It has to do with how the righteousness from God comes to us as sinners. II. The Universality of Sin: Man’s Righteousness Rejected (Romans 1-3) The Universal Sinfulness of Humanity (Romans 1:18-32) Let's start by talking painfully about our own righteousness. In one sense, you could call it a very short topic. We have none, naturally, but Paul is specific. He says in verse 18 of Chapter 1, "The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth in righteousness." That's true of all of us, the whole human race. Romans 1, some commentator say, speaks to the Gentile and Pagan world, but I really think it speaks to all of us. We suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, hold it down, don't want to hear it. We "exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship created things more than the Creator who's forever praised. Amen." We exchange natural sexual relations with unnatural homosexual relations. We show the perversion of our minds and hearts by doing that. We are wicked as a race. Not righteous. And so the end of Chapter 1 culminates in the worst sin list in the entire Bible. Look at it, verse 28 and following: "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree, that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them." That's us; that's the race we belong to. That's our kith and kin. That's me and you. The Universal Sinfulness of Jews (Romans 2:1-29) And then in Chapter 2, he talks about the righteous self-righteous person, the religious person, the one who thinks that by following the law of God or by some moral standard or system, they can pull up out of that muck and be better than other people. And so these are the righteous ones, these are the virtuous ones, the religious ones who look around and compare themselves to others, and he deals with them right away in verse 1 of Chapter 2: "You therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else. For at the very point you judge others, you're condemning yourself because you who pass judgement, you do the very same things." He addresses the Jews very plainly in the second part of the Chapter in which he says, 2:23, "You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" He's very plain in Chapter 2 and 3 that no one keeps the law. No one keeps it. It just stands over us and condemns us completely. And so, you can't earn your way to Heaven by obeying God's laws. What they do is they show you your sin. And so, there's a summary statement of all of this in Romans 3, 9-18, "What then shall we conclude? Are we any better?" That's a good question to ask yourself. I'm I any better? Am I any better than the homosexual? Am I any better than the abortionist? Am I any better than the terrorist? Am I any better than any of the wicked people that we think are so... Am I any better? No. "We've already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one." Find yourself there, or don't find yourself. You're not there. You're not righteous; neither am I. "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Ruin and misery. Mark their ways, and the way of peace, they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." That is our race, brothers and sisters; that is us. It could just stop there. It could have. This could be God reading our sentence, "And therefore I hereby send you to hell." And that would be it, and what could we say? What could we say? God is not unjust in condemning us for these things. We've done them, but there's a second part. III. Justification by Faith: God’s Righteousness Imputed (Romans 3-5) "But now," it says, "a righteousness from God has been revealed." Oh, praise God for that "but now." We could have been sent to hell at that moment, but instead, God wants to save us. And so He says, "But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." Like David's: Unpunished. "He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time. So as to be just. And the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." The Glowing Heart of the Gospel: Romans 3:21-26) Here's where God solves His problem. He solves it at the cross. This is how he can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This, my friends, is the glowing heart of Christianity. Romans 3, 21-26, this is the heart of it all; this is my only hope on Judgment Day. All the rest of the book is an out-working of the truths that are here. First of all, a righteousness from God, this is a simple gift of righteousness imputed or credited to our account. Christ's perfect righteousness draped about us like an asbestos robe, pure and white, that will survive the fire of Judgment Day, and nothing else will. Your threadbare robes of self-righteousness will not survive the scrutiny of God's judgment. But Christ's righteousness will. It's perfect. And he was born of a virgin, protected from original sin; he walked moment by moment perfectly through this world, never stepped on a landmine of sin, never yielded to a single temptation, walked perfectly through this world, did the most difficult ministry in history perfectly, did everything his father wanted him to do right to dying on a cross. That righteousness, God is willing to drape about you from this point and forever, simply by faith. Oh, how sweet is that? Oh, how sweet is that perfect righteousness that he's offering to give you as a gift? And it's apart from law; you're not going to earn it, you can't weave it together with threads through your own fingers, you'll never be able to make a garment so fine. Apart from law. Now, the law and the prophets, they testify to it, it's not a whole new thing, like a new religion out of nowhere. God had set the table for it by making promises and having shadows and prophecies in the Old Testament, but Christ is the reality. He's the fulfillment. The law and the prophets, they testify to it, but Jesus fulfilled it. It is a righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Not by works; by faith. But not just any faith. Oh, some Muslims have faith; they'll strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up for Allah. They have faith. Some Hindus have faith; they're willing to bow down before idols. I've seen them do it. And make long pilgrimages into all kinds of little acts of Pooja, of worship, to earn their way up through to their view of Heaven. Oh, they have faith. The Buddhist, they'll be willing to sit there trying to gain enlightenment, meditating conundrums that can't be figured out, trying to come on the seven-fold path of enlightenment; oh, they have faith. None of those faiths saves anybody, and a thousand other pseudo-faiths. It is faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross that justifies. That's what justifies. And it says we're justified freely by His grace. It's a free gift. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, and will not give his justification to you. He gives it away freely. Old Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the merchants selling their wares by auction; so Rowland said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there,” said he “find a great difficulty to get you up to their price, my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought by you one gold piece each, who would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be pilgrims to-morrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. What! Am I to have it for nothing at all, without doing anything?” Yes, Sir, you are to have it for nothing, or else not at all; it is “freely.” It is freely given through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Oh, don't imagine, though, that it was absolutely free; it wasn't. It was extremely expensive, you just didn't pay the price. Somebody else paid it for you. The immensely valuable, immeasurably valuable, price of the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He paid the price, that's what redemption means. We were bought out of slavery at the payment of a price, whom God presented as a propitiation. Some translations say, "sacrifice of atonement," that's fine, but I like to keep propitiation in there so you stub your toe on it. So you stop and say, "What's that?" And so that somebody who knows can tell you that it's the turning away of the wrath of God by the payment of a blood sacrifice; that's what the whole animal sacrificial system was there to teach us what it was. Propitiation. Jesus is our propitiation, he turned away the wrath of God, and don't imagine for a moment that God has no wrath against sin. He is energetically, passionately wrath-filled about every sin, and there are two great expressions of that wrath. One of them is eternal hell, eternal burnings and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. That is the display of God's wrath against those who do not believe; those who will not repent. The second great display of His wrath is at the cross of Jesus Christ, where He tortured his only begotten son instead of us. And so we are free forever from condemnation. Free forever from the wrath of God. Free. Romans 8, 1: "There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." How sweet is that? Jesus is our lightning rod. He attracts the lightning strike and takes it safely away from us down to the very ground. Oh, praise God for that. God did it as a demonstration of His justice so that we couldn't stand or Satan couldn't accuse him of injustice in getting people like David and the thief on the cross, and you and me, into Heaven. He is just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus; that's the center of the Gospel. Now let me tell you something: If I went through every passage with that level of detail, we'd be here for the next two weeks. Amen, alright. Some of you say that; others are like, "I have a lunch date to make," or something like that. We're not going to do it, but I had to slow down because this was the heart of it all. If you don't understand this, you don't understand Christianity. This is it; this is the Gospel. Justification by Faith: The Law and the Prophets Testify (Romans 4) Now, he said, to which the law and the prophets testify, Romans 4 shows us that. What did we discover that Abraham found in this matter? What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham was justified by faith apart from works of the law. God took him out on a starry night, had him look up at the stars, made him a promise, words; it's just words, just words. He made him a promise. "So shall your offspring be." But they weren't just words to Abraham. He considered the source; he said, "This is God speaking it. It's going to happen." And that's the way we are with the Gospel, isn't it? If we're believers. Like God said it, then it's true. It's going to happen. I believe it, and God credits it to us, to our accounts, as righteousness. What did David discover? Well, we know all about David's nasty sin and how wretched it was. Psalm 32 talks about it, and David celebrates something. He celebrates that he's not going to hell, which he deserves. And he says, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Oh, how significant is that word 'covered'? David tried to cover up his own sin, just like Adam and Eve tried to cover it up. That's what we always try to do. God said, "Don't cover it up. Bring it to me, I'll cover it. I'll cover it with the blood of Christ. I'll cover it with an ocean of grace. Bring it to me and let me do it." And so David discovered the same thing. Romans 5 talks about assurance. How can I know? I don't get anything, do I, like a certificate? Like in Pilgrim's Progress, something I can hold in my hand. It's just words, isn't it? Is it true or not? I don't know, I've never seen Jesus. I don't know, am I justified? Do I get something? I mean, how do I know? Steps to Assurance: Romans 5:1-11 And so Romans 5, 1-11 are steps to assurance: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Already we're starting to rejoice in some things. And not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings because we see the transformed character that the suffering brings. We're reacting differently than we would have before. Things have changed for us. It's different now because God has come to us. And we can reason it out. If when we were wretched and awful, evil sinners, God gave his highest and greatest gift, his only begotten son, how much more now that we're adopted sons and daughters of the living God and Jesus isn't dead on the cross, he's alive at the right hand of God and interceding for us, how much more will this salvation journey definitely be finished? It's a done deal, friends. It just hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen, though. Absolute assurance; it's an unbreakable chain of assurance. Romans 5, 1-11. It's right there on the page. If you're struggling with am I a Christian, am I assured, whatever, look right there. It's assurance that's reasoned out in the mind by faith; it's assurance that's worked out in the life as you see changes happening in your life. It's an assurance that's poured out directly into the heart by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. That's assurance. Original Sin He also reasons with us based on deep theology. Second half of chapter five, it's the doctrine of original sin. We learn just as the whole human race died in Adam, so also all of God's people, the righteous, all of us, the many will be saved through one man. It's the many and the one, the many and the one, God's done it twice now. He did it with Adam, and now he's doing it in Christ. The doctrine of original sin. IV. Sanctification by the Spirit: God’s Righteousness Imparted (Romans 6-8) The second major section in Romans is sanctification by the Spirit, God's righteousness imparted. So you mean I can sin as much as I want it, like I'm totally forgiven, right? Totally forgiven. I can sin, I can just do whatever I want? Romans 5 ends "where sins abounds, grace abounds all the more." Grace is an ocean, it'll extinguish any sin we put in it, right? Well, let's throw a bonfire in there. May it never be. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that you have been united with Christ? When he died, you died. When he rose, now you have risen with Him into a whole new life. And it's that new life that Paul talks about in Romans 6-8. Righteousness actually imparted to you so you become, practically speaking, righteous day-by-day. How does it happen? Well, step-by-step, moment by moment, growing into Christ's likeness. Yearning to be righteous, wanting to follow Christ, moment by moment, becoming more and more like Jesus. But the foundation of it is a fact, a spiritual fact that's true of you. It's based on our justification, that we have been moved from one country, in effect, to another. We have been moved from sin and law and death into the blessed kingdom of the son that He loves. We've been transferred. And that old regime has no power over us whatsoever. Oh, praise God for that, that means every temptation that will ever come to you the rest of your life has no authority whatsoever. You can tell it all, no, all of them, you never need to sin again, ever, the rest of your life. The Insanity of a Christian Who Persists in Sin Imagine... Here's an analogy. Imagine languishing in a communist country in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Imagine being arrested for agitating against the government; you're interrogated daily by the brutal secret police. Imagine being beaten everyday; you have open wounds that are untreated, rats in the cell that'll come after your wounds if you go to sleep, rancid food to eat, that makes you sick, screams of other prisoners being tortured. Imagine the smell of raw sewage, and the dark, wet dungeon feel of your cell. This represents life in slavery to sin; though you don't see it, that's what it is. Sin is a brutal master beating up its prisoners daily. Now, imagine a commando raid being sent by the government of a free country. They break in in the middle of the night and they rescue you. They run you through a hail of bullets to a waiting helicopter and fly you away to safety. Imagine you seek political asylum from the rescuing country, and it is granted. That free country has now become your new home and you are a citizen of that country. The old communist regime no longer has any power over you whatsoever. This represents the rescue of Christ and the transfer into his kingdom; the old domain of sin no longer has any power to command you. Now, imagine getting a summons from the old communist government; you're being drafted into their army. Why in the world would I want to go back there and serve that regime? I hated that regime. Why serve in their army? You look at it, laugh, and you rip it up. A week later, you get an invitation, like from a travel agency, to an all-expenses tour of your old prison, and you can tour the prison and meet the old guards, they'll even beat you up a little for old times' sake, and you get to eat that old food again. Two weeks, all expenses paid. Imagine going to your wife or husband and saying, "You know, I think I'm going to go just to feel what it feels like to be back in that prison again." That is what the sin of a Christian is like right there. Though you don't see it, that's what it is. Why in the world would you want to go back and do that when God is offering you immeasurable joy in obedience? And yet we do. It's insanity, but we do, and why do we? The Vicious Battle with the Flesh: Romans 7 Well, Romans 7 tells us why; it tells us that we have sin living in us, and as it is, a separation has been made between us and the sin. It's no longer I who do it, but it's sin living in me that does it. Some day it will be gone forever. Oh, I look forward to that, when this body of sin and death has been done away with. This body is trained and expert in sin. The mind, the body, this thing, it knows how to sin. Been doing it for years. And when new temptations and stuff come to me, it just knee-jerk reaction. That's what it does. The body of sin. And we want to be free from it, don't you? Who wants to be free from the body of sin and death? I want to be free. Oh, how I want to be free, but I'm not. And so, day after day, Romans 7, I have to face this indwelling monster, which actually responds to filth around me. It's unbelievable. I'm shocked by it. The very thing I hate, I do. And the very thing that I love and want to do, I somehow can't do. Romans 7; but even there, it ends in triumph. "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then in Romans 8, the Spirit filled life, the power of the indwelling Spirit. We don't just have sin living in us, we have the Holy Spirit of God. How strange is that? The Holy Spirit of God and indwelling sin in us. Oh, how strange. How strange is the sin of a Christian, how bizarre is it. But what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit basically dresses you for battle every day. It says, "Come on my child, get up, back at it again. Put on your armor, put on your helmet, put on your breast plate, pick up your sword, pick up your shield, and go fight." Romans 8, 13 and 14, it says it very plainly, "It says If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live because those who are," look at that, 8, 14, "led by the spirit of God, those are the sons of God." You want to be a child of God, then follow the Holy Spirit. Where is he leading? Into battle every day. So no, I'm not a perfectionist. I know you never need to sin again, but I think because of the power of sin, we are going to face temptations and struggles everyday. And God has come to give us the Holy Spirit, to give us power, and He leads us every day into battle, every single day, and we won't be free of it until we are done with this world. But you know it's not going to go on forever. Thank God, thank God. It's not going to go on forever. We are going to be glorified, and frankly our present sufferings of which the worst is this battle against sin, the present sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. And not just in us, but in the physical creation, which is groaning to be released, yearning to be made more beautiful. It wants to; it yearns for it, to be the new earth and the new Heaven where we will dwell forever, and so we hope for it and wait for it patiently. And so what can we do but celebrate God's sovereignty and his great promise? What shall we say in response to this? "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified, He also glorified." No one gets lost; everyone that's foreknown is predestined. They're justified and they will, all of them, be glorified. He doesn't lose anybody. And so all of the stuff that happens to us, it's all part of His divine plan to get us there. A we have final confidence in the sovereign plan of God, at the end of Romans 8, in the total victory of God. "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us in the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Oh, what a triumph for the sovereignty of God over our wretched sinful selves. V. Israel and the Gospel: God’s Righteousness Vindicated (Romans 9-11) But Romans 9-11 brings up a problem. What about the Jews? They are almost universally rejecting the Gospel. Doesn't that prove that God's word fails? It's a great tragedy. Paul says, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish." So they're going to hell apart from Christ, the ones that are not believing in Christ like the rest, children of wrath. So it's a great sorrow, but even worse, does it mean that God is a promise breaker? If God's a promise breaker than we have wasted the whole first part of all that I've said. We wasted it. You understand that? Because God's made us all these promises, and He's not going to keep them. And so Paul has to vindicate the righteousness of God concerning the Jews. He says, "It is not as though God's word has failed." And he gives three answers concerning the problem: Answer #1: God’s Sovereign Election (Romans 9) First is that not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. There's an elect group within the larger group of the nation of Israel. And those people are the ones Paul was referring to in Romans 8, that none of them will be lost; they'll all be glorified. Basically, if you get saved, you get saved by God's mercy, and He gives it freely as he wills, as He chooses. It's His sovereign choice. He has that power, and so it says right there in Romans 9, 15 and 16, He says to Moses. "I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort but on God's mercy. Verse 18, "God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." That's the first answer; God's word hasn't failed because God didn't promise that to every single, solitary, physical descendant of Abraham. Answer #2: The Need for Repentance and Faith (Romans 10) The second answer is in Romans 10. It's not like God's asking us to go to the moon, okay? It's not like he's asking us to go to the other side of the ocean or up to the heights or down to the depths. He's done it all. All you have to do is believe the word that is very near you. The very word that they have heard preached; all they have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. That's it. And they are not. "That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." That's it. "For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with the mouth that you confess and are saved." As it is written, 'anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.' There is no difference between Jew and Gentile; the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses anyone who calls on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Stop just a moment. Just a moment. I can't believe that everyone who's sitting and listening to me here today has been regenerated. I have to believe there at least some people that are brought by the sovereign hand of God here today who have not yet trusted in Christ. Come to Christ now. All you have to do is trust in Him, give your life to Him, look to the cross of Jesus and not to your own righteousness, trust in Him, repent, and turn from sin. I'm calling to you. I'm asking. It's a simple way of salvation, all you have to do is repent and believe the Gospel. And like Augustine, like Luther, like Wesley, you will find your soul satisfied with the richest of fair. You'll find forgiveness in Christ as a free gift. Oh, please do it. Don't walk out of this place unjustified. Call on the name of the Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Be saved. Answer #3: God’s Future Mystery: Israel Will be Saved (Romans 11) The third answer that Paul gives concerning this terrible, difficult problem with the Jews is that the story isn't over yet; there's still more to come. In the future, he says, "I tell you a mystery. Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn Godless-ness away from Jacob." Do you see the sovereignty of God there? He turns it away. "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins." God has absolute power, and in the future there'll be a mass revival in one generation of physical descendants of Abraham who will turn to their Messiah, and they will cry and mourn for Him as for an only son, and they will believe in him. They will look on the one that they have pierced, and they will love him and trust in him. And Paul finishes this doctrinal section of Romans with this incredible praise, "Oh the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." Thus ends the theology. VI. Living Daily as a Sacrifice: God’s Righteousness Applied (Romans 12-16) How then shall we live? How are you going to live your life? Sunday's going to be over pretty soon. Even this sermon will be over pretty soon, I promise. But then you're going to go into your everyday life; how are you going to live? How are you going to live your life? Well, you understand how closely we're connected, Chapter 12-16, to all we've just said. Justified by faith, totally forgiven, indwelt by the Spirit, a battle against sin, but you got to present your body, the parts of your body as said in Romans 6, "present your hands, your face, your eyes, your feet, every part of you. Present your body to God as one who has been brought from death to life. The instruments of your body as instruments of righteousness." He just says that same thing again here in Romans 12, 1 and 2. This is the most important practical application of any Christian sermon. Romans 12, 1 and 2 answers the question, how then shall we live? "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and to prove what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will." Get up in the morning and get down on your knees and say, "God, I'm yours. I'm yours. You bought me with the price, my body is yours, I want to serve you today. I want to put sin to death, I want to serve your people, I just want to serve you." That's the most important thing you can do; that's worship, that's true worship. Do that. But then immediately after that, he talks about spiritual gifts. And each one of you, if you're Christian, have been given spiritual gifts. You heard me earlier in the new member thing. Those folks are counting on us to give them our spiritual gifts that they might grow up in their salvation. Keep growing. We're counting on them to give their spiritual gifts; that we're banding together, and some teach, some pray, some give, some lead, some serve. There's all kinds of gifts. We need to do that; that's what we're going to do. Spiritual gift ministry. And then he talks about loving people inside the body of Christ. We're not always easy to love. I know you're always easy to love, but I'm not always easy to love. So we have to find a way to love each other deeply from the heart; be zealous for Christ, that's inside the body. Outside of the body, there's a bunch of enemies out there. Government, for example; submit to government, Romans 13. Do what it says. Even if your neighbor is a persecutor, don't seek revenge against him or her. Pray for them. Do good to them. Leave revenge to God. Some of them might end up being converted. And we live in a filthy, nasty, sick world filled with temptation. Just like Augustine found, don't get involved in that river of debauchery, but rather clothe yourself with Jesus Christ. Don't think about how to ratify the desires of the flesh, but be clothed with Jesus. Dealing with Disputable Matters in the Church (Romans 14-15) Romans 14 and 15, he talks about unity in the body, talking about debatable issues, well, we could spend the rest of the day on them. Let's debate about things. I'll roll out the top six most controversial topics. Let's debate them. Oh my goodness, Paul has three concerns in Romans 14 and 15: Gospel purity, Gospel love, unity and Gospel freedom. Those three. Freedom from legalism, but that shouldn't lead to sin, so Gospel purity, nor should it lead to judgmentalism. We should stay together and help each other. Don't judge each other, don't condemn each other. Let's stay together. Romans 14 and 15. Paul’s Example as a Missionary (Romans 15) Second half of Romans 15, Paul talks about his own life as a church planting, trail blazing apostle to the Gentiles. He's saying, "I wish I could stay with you, I love you guys, but I've got to go on through to Spain. Wouldn't mind, though, if you'd help me in my mission there because there's some unreached people there." "It's always been my ambition," Romans 15, 20 and 21, "to preach the Gospel where Christ was not named so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as is written, those who were not told will see, and those who have not heard, they will understand." So he's going as a frontier, trail blazing missionary, and so we as a local church, we should hold the rope for those that are going, or we should go ourselves to see the advance of the Gospel. Final Greetings and Encouragements (Romans 16) Romans 16 ends with a bunch of greetings to people you have never heard of in your life. That's alright. They hadn't heard of you either, but you know what? In the end, we're all going to be brought together. People from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. Don't think Romans 16 is insignificant. God knows your name, and some day we'll know each other's names. Now you know what you'll be doing for eternity, okay? Learning names, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, a multitude greater than anyone could count, from all over the world. You've got a lot of learning to do. Lots of brothers and sisters. And we are together, and God has made us so. And he finishes the entire book with this doxology: "Now to him who is able to establish you by my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God so that all nations might believe and obey Him, to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen." VII. Final Applications Most important application, I gave you about five minutes ago: If you're not a Christian, come to Christ; that's it, come to Christ. Second most important, I got from CJ Mahaney's book "The Cross-Centered Life." Just ripped it right off. I spent with a group of young men studying that book, CJ Mahaney's "The Cross-Centered Life." He said the Cross-Centered Life is made up of a series of cross-centered days. Quoting John Stott he said, "The cross of Christ is like a bonfire that kindles our love for God, but you got to stand near enough so that the sparks fall on you." So how are you going to stand close to these truths? He gave five applications that I'll go through very quickly; get his book. It's very short, you can read it easily in an afternoon. First, memorize the Gospel. Choose some key passages from Romans and memorize them. William Tyndale said you should memorize all 432 verses. You think it's impossible, but it can be done. But start with this, just go through and choose some of the key passages and memorize them. Secondly, pray the Gospel. I would urge you in your Thanksgiving celebration, just take the truths of Romans and pray them up to God. Just go through, "Thank you, God, that though I was wicked and unrighteous, now you have accepted me with Christ's righteousness. Thank you, God, that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Thank you, God, that having been justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that there's no condemnation waiting for me on Judgment Day. Thank you that I have a spiritual gift ministry. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." And then you can thank Him for the food. It'll be cold by then, but then you can thank him for the food. But rich thanks in prayer. Sing the Gospel. We're going to sing "How Deep The Father's Love For Us" in a moment. It's one of my favorite songs. Think about the words; sing them. Now, the young men that were there weren't thrilled about that idea. And I understand; when I was a young man, I wasn't much for singing. You don't have to sing, though, in front of other people. Some of you may be ought not to accept in large groups like this. That's me, okay? But sing because you're happy. Worship God. Make music in your hearts to God. Fourth, review your own history. I gave you Augustine's history. I gave you Luther's history. I gave you Wesley's history. What's your history with Romans or with the Gospel itself? What has God done in your life? Thank Him for it, but review it. Write your testimony. And then finally, study it. Don't stumble on words like propitiation or redemption or reconciliation, learn what they mean. Learn what they mean and enrich your heart and your soul. Close with me in prayer.
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